What Happened To The Pinterest Critic?!!!

You might be asking yourself!

Well, I have still been testing Pins off Pinterest however, my blog is having technical difficulties and isn't allowing me to upload photos!! BOOO! 

BUT, stay tuned because started Sunday We will be up and going again on a different site!! Wahoo!! 

I will keep you posted!! 

:)

Thankful for Thanksgiving

Man, I'm learning a lot about myself with this Pinterest journal of mine. I'm a HUGE slacker around fun holidays!! :) Which makes absolutely no sense to me because every time I'm cruising around Pinterest I can't wait for the next holiday because all the fun things I find!!

Anyway, I figured it would only be fitting to document a few things I'm thankful for:

PINTEREST!!!

(among other things)

Actually, let me re-word this...

Here are a few PINS I'm thankful for (and use ALL the time):

Herb Preservation

BYU Mint Brownies

Sweet Potato Fries

Using Conditioner to Shave

Chocolate Chip Pudding Cookies

Olive Garden Breadsticks 

Flat Iron Cover

Crispy Southwest Chicken Wrap

Coconut Oil

Fun idea's to entertain the kiddo

Freeze Chopped Green Onions

Slow Cooker Salsa Chicken

Twice Baked Sweet Potatoes

Yoga

Quinoa Pudding

Giant Cookies

Poppy Seed Chicken

So, I know I have a pretty hefty list here, but let's be honest, Pinterest rocks and it's changed all our lives for the better. 

PINTEREST for PRESIDENT 2016!

Anyway, that's my rant. This list isn't all the pins that I've tried and found successful. This is a list of things that  have locked in my brain and found themselves in my every day life and for that I'm thankful for Pinterest. :)

Happy Thanksgiving all!!

Thankful Tree Finger Painting

Obviously this was a hit at our house with a 2 year old and finger paints!!

I sat my daughter down this afternoon and we had a discussion about Thanksgiving and things we are thankful for. 

Then she dressed up our naked tree with lots of cute finger print leaves!! 

I got this idea HERE

Giant Cookie

These are my favorite!!!

 I absolutely LOVE giant chocolate chip cookies with frosting! I have attempted making giant cookies in the past with my regular choc. chip cookie recipes and they have failed.

I've never made a giant cookie where the middle is cooked just as evenly as the edges. This cookie rocked!

I am more than happy to announce that this was a huge success! 

We had to go a step further and throw some frosting on there. I asked my 2 year old what we should put on it and she said a snowman. So, here we have our giant snowman cookie!

(I know, totally lame with just one color on such a fantastic cookie but I had it left over from something else.)

HERE is where you'll find the deliciousness!

**  I don't have a metal pizza pan so I cooked mine on my pizza stone. I'm not sure if that would make a difference cooking wise but mine had to cook about 12-15 minutes longer than what the recipe calls for.

**I personally felt there was a little bit to much chocolate (and I'm a big chocolate person!!) so next time I'll probably cut down on the chocolate chips by a 1/2 cup.

Oh, Toilet Paper Rolls...

It's that time of year again when we're all digging out our Christmas paper and finding that part of it has unraveled and needs to be trimmed so we can wrap with beautiful, crisp paper. 

Well, waste no more!! Actually, in more ways than one!! 

Save those old toilet paper rolls and just cut a slit down the side and slip on your open wrapping paper!!

Genius!!

When I tried to click on the link where this idea originated it wasn't existent anymore. I obviously didn't have to follow step by step instructions for this one! :)

Happy Wrapping!

Sweet Potato Burger

I always read those blogs about budgeting and it seems something they all have in common is throwing a couple vegetarian meals in your weekly menu. Cut down on how much meat you buy. I always wondered what meals WE would like that didn't have meat. Even salad sucks without meat.

Well, I found a meal!! We LOVED this!! Well, actually a friend of ours found a meal and told me she discovered it on Pinterest. So, naturally I had to try it!! 

 These have so much flavor! I didn't plan well enough and totally forgot to plan any side dish for dinner tonight but we were happy just piling these down our throats, ha!! 

HERE is the recipe!!

**So, for the sauce it says you can use either sour cream or greek yogurt. We used the greek yogurt and it was delicious!!

**I had no clue what cannellini beans are and almost tried the recipe without them since I didn't know what they were. Good thing I changed my mind because you NEED the beans. Mmmm!!! Also, I walked around the store searching on my phone what they were and where I'd find them. They are just white kidney beans and found in cans (just so you don't find yourself in my position!)    :)

**This recipe says it makes 4 burgers. I used 2 large sweet potatoes and ours made 9!

ENJOY!!

Turkey Hair Bow

Let me just start by saying this took WAAAAY longer then it looks like it would. I thought I would fly through this in like 5 minutes and I think it took closer to 45. Ha. 

As I was going through my massive container of ribbon I realized I didn't have the thicker brown ribbon I wanted to use for the body so I tried making the body out of a thinner brown ribbon.... As you can see below it looks more like a dying penguin. 

So, my turkey is a dark green color... ANYWAY, I was sort of depressed as I was making this because it looked dumb to me the whole way threw until I put the beak on and stepped back. Then I loved it! So, if you decide to make one just keep going because it will turn out cute!!  :)

Oh, the eyes? Yeah, I can't believe my stash of googly eyes has diminished! I know, I have a 2 year old, I should ALWAYS have googly eyes on hand! So, tonight, my turkey is blind but tomorrow he shall see!!

HERE is where this idea came from. 

This link is a shopping site, not a DIY site so I made mine by looking at the picture and using my famous 'famous trial and error' method.

**Obviously by looking at the top picture I would use only the thicker (I call it scrapbooking) ribbon...

** for my beak and red dangly I just cut off pieces of orange and red ribbon

** I just hot glued this bad boy on a simple alligator clip and it's ready to wear!

Filling A Frosting Bag EASIER

This may seem small and dumb to some people but whenever I try to fill my frosting bags by holding a floppy bag open with one hand and trying to scoop frosting and getting it in the bag cleanly with the other hand it just makes a mess!! 

When preparing to fill my frosting bag I remembered this little tip found on Pinterest.... place the bag in a cup and drape it over the edge. 

What a genius idea!! Soooo much easier!!

THIS is where I find this genius idea!

Puffed Rice Balls

I am a sucker for any treat with puffed rice and this was no different!! 

Their green because we used a green gelatin. I saw another cute idea on Pinterest to make these and shape it like a big wreath and put red hots for the berries at Christmas time. I'm sure I'll be doing that. :)

HERE  is the recipe!!

This was soooo easy and an inexpensive treat to make!!

Poppy Seed Chicken

This is going on my list of regulars!! Sooooo good!!

I thought it sounded weird at first because of the Ritz but I was also intrigued by the same thing...

 The Ritz keep a little crunchiness so there is perfect texture and deliciousness!

HERE is the recipe.

Seriously, make this!

Cleaning The Old Flat Iron

Well, I was trying to decide what to experiment with today when my sister said her flat iron was in need of a good cleaning. 

UNDERSTATEMENT! 

Her flat iron has seen a lot of days and I'm pretty sure it's on it's last leg but I gave it a go anyway.

This is what it looked like BEFORE....and AFTER. Ha.

 

Yeah, baking soda and hydrogen peroxide aren't strong enough for this bad boy.

I'm not a believer of the "awesomeness" of baking soda and peroxide considering everything I've tried with it hasn't worked. (like when I tried to clean my cookie sheets: fail)

Anyway THIS is where I got the idea :)

Pumpkin Snickerdoodles

 I love hybrid foods!! Who ever thought to combine pumpkin with snicker doodles was a genius!! 

These are yummy!

I felt like there wasn't enough cinnamon so next time I would add more but other than that these were fun to make because of the PUMPKIN and delicious to eat!

HERE is the goodness :)

Microwave Caramel Popcorn

 Easy, quick, delicious popcorn.

 Perfect for a late night craving.... guess what I had tonight??!! Yeah, a late night craving. Ha. 

Anyway, the recipe calls for 2-3 quarts popcorn. We popped 3 quarts and I felt like there was a little bit to much popcorn compared to caramel so next time I would do 2-2.5 ish.

Who knew there were so many easy, fun recipes in the world?! 

Love it!

HERE is the goodness :)

Kneader's Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread

 I wish I could blame my absence here on hurricane Sandy hitting our beloved New Jersey but the truth is I've been in the warmth and beautiful weather that is Utah for the past week and a half enjoying family, friends and Halloween and haven't had much extra Pinterest time.

I know. I'm ashamed.

Good news though.... I'm baaaaaaaaaack!!

Well, here at our house we are enjoying not one loaf of delicious pumpkin bread but THREE loafs. Yes, I'm really excited about the amount of chocolate and pumpkin I've inhaled!

This is probably the best homemade pumpkin bread I've ever tasted. It's moist and addicting!!

I may or may not have had it for breakfast, lunch and a snack today...

Trust me, you'll want to click HERE for the recipe!

** We sprayed our bread pans with cooking spray and waited about 15-20 minutes before I tried to take our bread out of the pans and they stuck!  I would spray, coat with flour (possibly even use parchment paper) and remove after about 5 minutes next time! 

Yay for pumpkin season!!