Baked Butternut Squash Fries

I was excited when I saw these on Pinterest the other day because I had just brought home a fresh butternut squash that afternoon!! I had planned on cutting it into cubes and baking it with a little olive oil and salt but cutting them in french fry shapes and calling them fries just sounded WAY more fun! PLUS having them look like french fries is a WAY easier way to get my 2 year old to eat them!! 

We loved these, however we are big squash people! They don't taste like fries at all and I think they would taste gross dipped in ketchup or anything. They were pretty soft and would snap in half easily when eating so they are easier to eat with a fork. But like I said, my 2 year old ate them without a fight because they were 'fries' and for that reason alone, this will be the only way we bake our squash from now on!! :)

HERE are the instructions.

Cleaning The Ole' Dishwasher With Kool-Aid

I have been wanting to try this trick out for a while but let's be serious, I never have an empty dishwasher without dirty dishes to put inside. 

Well, the day finally came that I only had a few dirty bowls so I decided to bust out the lemonade Kool-Aid that's been waiting patiently in the cupboard.

When I opened my dishwasher after the whole cleaning cycle it smelled all nice and lemon-y and seemed to be cleaner! What a weird trick!! 

Here is the link

Crock Pot Chicken Fajitas

Oh crock pot, how I love you!!

Seriously, I can't think of many things better than coming home and having dinner prepared!! 

These fajitas were pretty good. I feel like when I saute the vegetables they have a little stronger taste and a little more crunch to them. Cooking it all in the crock pot made everything very moist! The chicken basically shredded itself and the peppers/onion were very soft ( I think I like a little more crunch in mine).

Let's get to the point, shall we?! Being a crock pot meal definitely gives this dish bonus points. Because of the simplicity of it all (plus, my family loved them) I will probably convert to these fajitas which means they get 2 thumbs up! :)

HERE is the recipe

**We served ours with fresh tomatoes, guacamole and lettuce. MMmmmm :)

Keeping Banana's Fresh

Booooo!! 

The idea is if you wrap plastic wrap around the top of the banana's they should stay fresh longer. I even bought a bigger (green/non-ripe) bundle to try this one out and my banana's are taking a turn for the worst and it's only been 3 days!!  

Looks like the Hubby is getting some of his favorite banana bread this week! :)

Click HERE to check out the link

The Magic That is Coconut Oil!

I have officially put this to the test. I bought my very first jar of coconut oil about a month ago. I came straight home to put 1/4 of the jar in a small container to keep in my bathroom and the original jar to keep in the kitchen. Sometimes I find myself opening the jar just to stand there and smell it, Mmmmm!!

Since then I've used it for:

-Face moisturizer every night 

(I was quite nervous to try this at first because, HELLO, I was putting OIL on my face!!) 

-Brush my teeth

 (Don't worry, I brush with tooth paste right after as well!!) :)

-Leg moisturizer

 (after shaving... sooooo nice!!)

-On sunburns

(worked wonderfully!! Plus, I feel like my nasty, burnt skin didn't peel near as much as I usually does!)

-Of course, cooking

LOVE this stuff!!

This stuff is seriously awesome!! Let me explain a few things I've noticed... 

**When I put this on my skin for the first time I was afraid I was going to walk around shining but it absorbs in like 15 minutes and makes your skin feel so soft!!

**Coconut oil is supposed to be great for your teeth and gums. It's supposed to help create/maintain healthy gums and works as an anti-inflammatory. I haven't noticed a huge difference with this one but I like to think I have a pretty healthy mouth, ha. I'm sure it's working it's magic in there somewhere!!

**When I cook with this I can taste a difference. Especially when I'm sauteing with it. It definitely has a distinct taste so I would play around with it and see what you want to use it for. I use it for some things where I prefer using olive oil for others....

THIS is the link from Pinterest :)

Cookie Cutter Matching

 Well, I dug out every cookie cutter I own. I could have sworn I had more but I suppose I was thinking about the massive bag my mother always had growing up filled with tons of shapes for EVERY holiday! 

My child is less fortunate because this is it... 

(I know, I know, how do I not have any Christmas ones?!!!! I'm just as shocked as you are!!)

I am in love with new ideas to keep this busy body still for even 10 minutes!! 

I took all my cookie cutters, traced their shape and walked away to grab my camera and when I returned she had already placed the cutters on their corresponding shapes. :)

I wasn't sure how long this would entertain her since there was only 6 shapes but she did it over and over and over again! Next time we're at my parents house and I need something to keep her busy I'm busting out the big bag!! 

Click HERE to see where this idea came from!! 

Guacamole

Oh yum!! 

We love us some good guacamole and this recipe rocked!

 Normally I'll just throw in what ever happens to be laying around my fridge but today our guacamole was fully loaded and it lasted about 10 minutes before it was totally devoured! 

HERE is the recipe :)

I followed this recipe exactly and it was wonderful!! 

** For easier avocado smooshing throw the cut up avocado in a baggie and smoosh it all by hand that way. Then cut a hole in a corner and squirt into a bowl! So much easier!! :)

Refinished Fan

Well. I went away for a weekend of R&R and left the world of Pinterest and Blogger at home. 

It was just what the Dr. ordered but now I'm back!! :)

Upon my return home I took this dusty, old bronze colored fan, took it all apart and spray painted it black. Not a dramatic difference but enough that it looks TONS better in my daughter's pink and zebra print room plus it looks brand new! :)

This is the old (very dusty) fan. 

The work in progress.

Wa-lah!! 

Oh, hello nice, clean, black fan! :)

Why have I never really spray painted before?!!! This seriously took me NINETY MINUTES from getting my screw drivers out to putting them away!! Oh, dear... all the possibilities!!  :)

HERE is the link!! 

Banana Pancakes

So, I should have known better when I clicked on the link from Pinterest and tried to track down the actual page that had this recipe on it and it was no where to be found! However, I pinned it, I wanted to try them and the instructions were written right on the caption on Pinterest so I gave it a shot...

The instructions were:

1 ripe banana + 2 eggs = pancakes! Whole batch = about 250 cals. Add a dash of cinnamon and a tsp. of vanilla! Top with fresh berries

(Sounds interesting, huh?!!) 

This is what I was hoping for...

 (I couldn't even find where this picture was found... Just copied it right off the pin from Pinterest)

This is what I got... 

(This was the best looking one too! Ha!)

So, like I said I don't have a link for this, just copied the caption right off Pinterest...

**I wouldn't recommend making these, obviously, They weren't even close to pancake consistency and basically turned into Banana eggs (You're shocked, I know! especially after seeing how they were made!) 

I took a bite to see how they tasted and they were weird... My 2 year old insisted on eating them so I let her and she actually loved them. Ha! But, let's keep in mind she also enjoys shoving dirty rocks in her mouth... so there ya go.

'Counting Corns'

I LOVED this idea from Pinterest!! 

I'm such a sucker for candy corns and unfortunately I've passed that on to my 2 yr old but today we LEARNED while we ate our treats... How perfect is that?! 

I just found some scrap paper and cut out corn stock shape and the green husks for the bottom. Glued that all down and then my daughter and I practiced our counting and gluing skills together while enjoying a few candy corns along the way! 

Seriously, how fun is that!!?

THIS is where that idea came from 

Staples Engineer Print Project

The second I came across the tip on Pinterest that you can order black and white enlarged photos from Staples for a couple dollars I opened a second window, googled engineer prints at Staples and ordered mine right then!! I received an email about an hour later saying it was ready for pick up. So exciting!! 

 I then went to Lowes and got a piece of wood cut down to 18X24" and came home and got to work!

HERE is the link

** When I ordered my print I had the option of a few different sizes. I ordered the smallest which was 18x24". I went straight from Staples to Lowes to get my wood. I WISH I'd come home and cut around the edges of the picture (there was a white border) and measured that because in the end my wood was about an inch to wide on both sides (you can see in the above picture). 

** I used a glue stick for my adhesive which is what I've always used in the past for projects like these but  I feel like with this project (the picture was printed on printer paper consistency, not photo paper) the paper was so thin that the glue made it ripple and I couldn't get it to lay flat. You can kind of see in the picture that there is unintended texture... Next time I'm going to try the spray adhesive! 

** In the post where I got this idea she cut her wood into a design to act like a frame which I think is really cute!! I wanted mine to be totally flesh with my wood (which isn't how it turned out) to have more of a canvas look.

Cornstarch Goop

Water + Cornstarch = lots of family fun! 

I only  have a few pics of the kiddo enjoying this stuff. However, my husband and I may or may not have enjoyed it (a lot) more than her. Don't get me wrong, she played with this forever! (Almost as long as it took me to clean up the kitchen floor afterwards. Ha!) But, it was definitely just as entertaining for us parents! 

Perfect family activity!! 

We all sat in a circle on the kitchen floor and played catch until it would finally melt down on one of us. 

So fun! 

HERE is the link

** This stuff cleans up soooo easy! Definitely worth the mess!

Halloween Banner

So, this is the banner I found on Pinterest and I thought it was really cute however, I like things a little more simple so I took the candy corn and ran with it. :)

(Above picture courtesy of  Organizeyourstuffnow.com)

So, here is the banner I've made for the opening between our kitchen and dining room. 

I cut out a 'pattern triangle' to trace all my orange slices. Then I cut the top part off of the pattern and traced the middle, yellow color and then repeated again for the white tip. Then glued them all together!.

I, of course, had to add some black tulle!

Once I made all the candy corns and strung it all together I decided to add the 'trick or treat' using my cricut. 

I'm pretty happy about how it turned out. 

HERE is the link :)

Pumpkin Spice Rice Krispies

Have I mentioned how much I LOVE this time of year?!! 

Seriously, there are so many fun things to make and yummy things to eat and the weather is perfect outside, aaaaahhh! I just love it!!

My husband will tease me about how sucked in I get with whatever season/holiday is approaching and let's just say, now that September is here whatever is offered in pumpkin variety is definitely going to be coming home with me. :) In fact, just last night I enjoyed a delicious pumpkin water ice. Mmmmm!! 

Anyway, I know you're all waiting to here how tasty these bad boys were... If you are a sucker for pumpkin, (like I am) you will love them!! 

HERE is your recipe.

** I was antsy and didn't let the marshmallow mixture cool long enough (she is very clear that that's important) and they did get a little soft and chewy but still yummy! 

Freeze Green Onions

This afternoon as I was cleaning through my fridge I remembered I'd bought a ton of green onions on sale the other day and they were just about to make a turn for the worst. 

Right then I remembered on Pinterest I saw the idea of chopping them so they are ready to use and throwing them in the freezer for future dinners.

I am in love with all the food preserving Ideas I wish I'd started doing a long time ago!! 

This one's great too because I HATE cutting onions of any kind. I swear my eyes are so sensitive! So this way I only have to suffer through burning, tearing eyes once for months worth of onions. :)

This idea originated HERE

Cornstarch Cookies

Cornstarch, where have you been my whole life? I saw this a few times on Pinterest and looked over it for a while because it sounds weird but I decided to put it to the test tonight. 

Cornstarch is supposed to help create soft, chewy cookies. 

*Spoiler Alert* it does!! 

I could barely get any pictures without an uninvited hand model chiming in...

I love when my food looks as yummy as it tastes :)

Click HERE to try these out!

Ruffle Skirt

LOVE this skirt and it seriously took me about an hour and a half from start to finish... I probably could have gotten it done a little quicker too if I wasn't getting sucked into Modern Family re-runs in the back ground... I got 1/2 yard fabric and 1 yard elastic from HERE . 

I sewed the two short sides together...

Bunch stitched along the top...

I measured the elastic around my waist and trimmed it down, sewed it into a circle, pinned the elastic around the bunched side and sewed it all together using a *double needle (shown below).

Click HERE for the link off Pinterest :)

*The double needle sews 2 straight parallel lines on the front side and zig zag between one another on the back side to allow the elastic to stretch.

** On the inside where I sewed the elastic and fabric together it doesn't look pretty but no one sees that, right?! So, I'm over it :)

Soooo easy and soooo cute!!

2x4 Pumpkin Blocks

I have FALL FEVER!!

 I'm getting really anxious for fall/Halloween festivities to begin so in my house, they have!! I whipped out my fall decorations today and made replica's of these bad boys...

As you can see, I copied this picture courtesy of www.todaysfabulousfinds.blogspot.com

I didn't get the words written on them yet. I can't decide if I want to do fabric letters with modge podge or vinyl... Oh, the decisions...

 Anyway, I had just a scrap piece of wood cut into 4" tall pieces, painted them orange, distressed them a bit, and I just used a dowel I cut into little pieces for the stems (painted brown, hot glued on). The picture I was going off of above looks like she used sticks ( which is really cute) for her stems. 

To check out the original link click HERE

**Get ready for lots of fall Pinterest ideas!! :) YAY!

Caramel Apple Bites

Tonight we were craving something sweet and we didn't have anything to make our cravings happy! Ha. So, as I was looking around Pinterest I came across this idea and remembered I had some delicious caramel waiting for us in the back of a cupboard for a 'rainy day'.

Today was a humid 80 degrees but as far as I was concerned it was definitely a 'rainy day' :) So, I headed to the kitchen and started chopping up some apples!! I've been waiting anxiously for the crisp autumn weather to find us here in New Jersey and what's more autumn-esque then CARAMEL APPLES! (I feel like maybe it will come a little quicker if I do things like this:)  )

We obviously knew these would taste delicious and I wanted to try the Pinterest bite size version as I felt it would cater well to my 2 yr old. It was PERFECT for the kiddo!! However, I had a hard time getting caramel to stick to anything besides the skin of the apple so they weren't the most beautiful... I'm pretty sure nobody in my family even noticed though, they were basically inhaled. Mmmmmm!!

Click HERE for the original link

**I don't think I would ever make caramel apples this way for anybody else besides just my family. Because, like I said before, they aren't that pretty. Obviously quite delicious though :)

"Miracle Cleaner"

I noticed the other day how gross my cookie sheets were looking and decided to finally do something about it! So, I found a "miracle cleaner" on Pinterest and put it to the test.

Here is my 'BEFORE' picture

Scrub-a-dub-dub!

My 'AFTER' picture

You can see that there is a difference. But, I wouldn't go as far as calling it a 'miracle cleaner' difference... Plus, on the link where I found this they made me think that I just had to gently rub this stuff (peroxide and baking soda) on my cookie sheet but I had to scrub fairly hard to get any kind of reaction. My arm and fingers are quite tired right now. Ha. 

Anyway, let's just say I din't start digging all my sheets and pans out to clean (which I probably would have done if this stuff was as awesome as they made it sound...) .

HERE is the original link if you want to check it out...

Crock Pot Black Bean and Corn Salsa Chicken

So good!! 

I have mentioned my love for crock pot dinners in the past. However, I feel a lot of my crock pot recipes are similar so I was happy to find this one! 

Black beans

Corn

Taco Season

Chicken 

Salsa

That's it! 

It was unexpectedly quite spicy and very delicious served over a bed of blue chips! :)

You can find the whole recipe HERE

I was originally going to serve it over lettuce but when I went to grab it I realized I'd had one to many turkey sandwich's this week and we were running low on the greens. Soooo we adapted and had a delicious nacho type dinner. We also cut up fresh tomato and avocado to throw on top. Mmmmm! 

Sandpaper Printed T-Shirt

As you can see, I'm REALLY excited about our upcoming trip to Disney World so we had to throw the Minnie ears on this project! :) 

I happened to have a little piece of unused sandpaper laying around and I got out my best crayons (Oh, crayola- you just have it figured out!) and drew our fancy picture, as you can see shown below...

I made sure to have a piece of card board inside the shirt to make sure it didn't bleed through or anything. (I really wanted this to work, so I did everything exactly how they said). Below is how it looked after ironing it on...

The final step: throw in the dryer for 20 minutes.

 You can see below what happened.... Nothing a little bleach stick can't fix. However, I'm not impressed with this project. I think it will continue to bleed and I will be using my bleach stick more than it's worth..

 Soooooo, moral of the story: Don't try this at home :)

To check out the original link just click HERE

Crockpot BBQ Chicken

We tried this tonight for dinner and it was wonderful! I intended it to be for a BBQ salad but we changed our minds last minute and made BBQ chicken sandwich's, YUM! In the past I've always just put BBQ sauce in the crockpot with my chicken but after trying this I don't think I'll go back.. It was YUMMY!!

To find the link with the recipe just click HERE

ALSO- to add onto my project from yesterday... I WAS DECEIVED! I thought it was awesome when it came out of the oven and I tried to wash off the artwork just with soap and water in my sink and it didn't come off. But when I ran it threw the dishwasher this happened.....

LAME!!! So, save you $1 and DO NOT DO THIS PROJECT!! IT DOESN'T WORK!! :)

$1 Store Plate Craft

This was so fun! 

I was quite nervous to try this because I was afraid the plate was going to explode in my oven or something. Ha. As you can see the plate made it out safe and sound and I love it!! My daughter was really excited to eat off of it too! 

Seriously, what a fun project to do with your kids and then they have their own personalized plates!!

All you need is:

Sharpies

$1 plate

30 minutes in oven at 150 degrees

WAH-LA!

To check out the link simply click HERE

** The lowest my oven will go is 170 degrees (Which added to my anxiety that the plate was going to explode. Ha) But, it turned out perfectly!! 

Homemade Powdered Sugar

Well, my husband and I decided we NEEDED brownies, so I got to work. As I was pulling everything out that I needed for the frosting I realized I didn't have enough powdered sugar. As you can guess, Pinterest came to the rescue! 

All it said to do was pour sugar in your blender and press GO.

 (If you aren't going to use it right away they recommend adding a little cornstarch). 

It tasted right and seemed to be exactly what I needed so I proceeded to make my frosting....

So, making powdered sugar this way, it doesn't come out quite as fine. So, as a result my frosting had a grainy texture that I didn't care for. My husband didn't mind and said they tasted great. Soooo, if you are a 'texture' person, like I am, then this probably isn't for you. But, it was a nice back up for our chocolate craving emergency. :)

To check out the website click HERE

Toddler Science!

My 2 year old LOVED this!! 

We put baking soda on a plate and vinegar (colored green per her choice) in a bowl, gave her a dropper and she went to town! 

She loved watching it fizz especially because she knew SHE was controlling it! 

Click HERE for the link :)