Halloween Treats

Hard to believe that we are only 6 days out from Halloween. I know that some of y'all are going to be going to parties on Saturday to celebrate the holiday. I'm probably going to watch television (more than likely football since Georgia plays Florida on Saturday), eat some snack, and watch bad Halloween movies. Below are some of the snacks that I have been thinking about making for next weekend:

Halloween Popcorn Treats

Pumpkin Cheese Ball

Halloween Chocolate Chip Cookies

Cheesy Pumpkin Appetizer Puffs

Red Velvet Vampire Cupcakes

Burrito Skulls

Some of these are going to be easier to make then others like the pumpkin cheeseball. I did a mixture of  desserts and a few food items. I'm not having a party or anything, just wanted to make some festive snack. Until next time, Peace & Blessings, all!!!

Fall Soups

      And just like that, it's officially Fall. Oh, and life happened, as usual. Anywho, with it finally being Fall, I can start wearing some of my Fall clothes. I might wait on that one since it's still in the low 80s in the South. I have worn some cardigans and low boots. Fall weather in the South is weird one day it was 69/70 and the next it's 79 degrees out.

Other than way cooler temps, I'm excited about the foods and drinks that are mainly had in cooler/some of the Fall months. Right now, I'm trying to find the Green Mountain Apple Cider K cup. The last 2 years when I've gotten them, I've had to drive to across town to find them since they are sold out at the stores near me.

 Also, since I gave up coffee at the beginning of this year (haven't had a cup since January 1st of this year), I have been drinking green and black tea as well a new drink that I've been getting at Starbuck. It's a Pumpkin Spice Creme. It's pretty much like the Pumpkin Spice coffees but replace the coffee with warm or hot milk. It's a good sub for the coffee (just watch for the sugar amount in it). The other thing that I love about Fall is all the soups I can make. Not sure why soup and chilis remind me of Fall but they do. Here a few recipes from The Pioneer Woman that I want to try making this Fall:

Slow Cooker Potato Soup

Veggie Chili

Butternut Squash Soup With Bacon

Instant Pot Creamy Chicken and Wild Rice Soup

Broccoli-Cheese Soup

Slow Cooker Turkey Chili

These are just a few of the ones I found on The Pioneer Woman's website. There are a bunch of desert recipes from there I plan on sharing soon. Some of them I've already made and they are pretty tasty. Until then, Peace & Blessings!

July 4th food suggestions

      Heard to believe that today is the last day of June. The year is officially half way over. So, I'm one of those people that like holidays for one reason: the food. Given, there are some holidays that I like for reason besides food, but food is a common denominator with most of them. With July 4th this weekend, I thought I would share some different side and desserts. I mean, who doesn't love sides or desserts:

Red, White, and Blue Rice Crispy Treats

Potato Salad

Stars and Stripes

Spicy Coleslaw

Chocolate-Covered Frozen Bananas

Loaded Baked Potato Salad

Star Confetti Cookies

I have a small love potatoes if you didn't figure that out from two of the sided. I might make one or two of the items this week. We'll see though. Until next time, Peace & Blessings all!!!

Summer Strawberry Treats

 With the official start of summer a few days away, I've been wanting to make something with strawberries for some reason. In all honesty, it probably has to do with the big bag of strawberries I've got in my freezer as I write this. I went to Food Network to try to see what they had & here were a few of my favorite ones:

Berry Trifle

Strawberry-Cucumber Water

Frozen Strawberry Lemonade Pie

Strawberry Prosecco Floats

Strawberry Cake

Strawberry Bellini

Strawberry Oatmeal Bars

Now, some of these require no cooking at all (the infused water) & some you do have to cook. I think it was a fair mix of drink & desserts. All of theses would be great for any of the summer holidays or entertaining during the warm season. A recipe of something I made will be up soon so be on the lookout for that.

Until then, Peace & Blessings all!!

Memorial Days Treats

      Usually around Memorial Day (or any other holiday that is known for food), I post some recipes. Most of the time, I post desserts but this time I'm going to post a mixture of different foods. Also, I usually post the Monday before Memorial Day but since I've been in sloth mode lately, I'm going to post them today. Here are a few recipes if you are still looking for something to make:

Lemon Curd Trifle with Fresh Berries

Lemon & Garlic New Potatoes 

Focaccia Sandwich

Oreo Cookie Pie

Antipasto Skewers

Orzo Vegetable Salad

Strawberry Cheesecake Galette

There were a lot more recipes that I found that I would love to try making but I'll share those another time. Until then, Peace & Blessing all!!!

Recent Influenster Beauty Product Review

    Happy Hump Day!!! Today, I'm sharing some of the items that I received from Influenster. From time to time, they send me surveys based off my interest. I received these a while ago but, was waiting for a time to post about them with everything going on. Here are the items & my brief review of each:

Lancome Idole Le Parfum

The perfume has hints of Rose, Jasmine, Musk, & Vanilla. I didn't like how strong the Rose was. The Jasmine & Vanilla were not a strong which I liked. Personally, I feel like rose scent can go either one of two ways: smelling like you are wearing your grandmother's perfume or like a garden. With this, one spritz will work best, anymore than that & you'll up in the grandmother's perfume territory.

COVERGIRL Simply Ageless

      The three of these items were sent as set. The way I use them is usually putting the eye creams, then the blurring serum, & lastly the pressed powder after I put on the rest of my make-up.

Blurring Serum & Eye Lift Serum

The Blurring Serum 

It is supposed to minimizes & blur pores to create a smooth, soft-focus effect on the face. Also, it helps with the appearance of fine lines & wrinkles. This goes on really smooth. I used a small amount to cover my whole face before I apply my sunblock. It has a texture that is light & non-sticky.

Eye Lift Serum

Helps with reduced lines, wrinkles, & puffy under-eye bags. I use a pea-size drop on my fingertip. You are supposed to start at the corner of the eye, sweeping out & upward. It's supposed to give the eye area a little lift. The one thing that I don't like about it is that on darker skin it dries where you can see it when it finishes drying. 

Instant Wrinkle Blurring Pressed Powder

Contains Vitamin C & Hyaluronic Acid in it. Reduces fine lines, wrinkles, & the look of pores. For me, this powder left my face feeling smooth & soft. It also did make my pores look less visible.

Anti-Aging Skincare Rejuveness Advanced Hydrating Night Cream

Pond’s Advanced Hydrating Night Cream is to be used for reducing the look of wrinkles, hydrating the skin, & to help slow down new signs of aging. The main things that I didn't like about this was the smell & how heavy it was. The night cream was oily also. It did keep my skin moisturized once I applied it to my face & neck. Since, it was in the Winter months when I received this, I was fine with the oily factor (I have combination skin where it is drier in the Winter).

This was just a brief overview of the products that I tried. If I were to buy any of these, I would probably by the powder or the blurring serum. Those two products did exactly at the description of them said they would. Others probably will like different ones of these products but that maybe is due to it their needs being different from mine. Anywho, Peace & Blessings, all.

                            I received this product for reviewing purposes. This is my own personal opinion of the product.

Spring Lemon Recipes

     Via

Happy Monday. I hope everyone slept well since we lost that hour. Yay for that spring forward. I know that Spring technically starts on Saturday, the 20th but it's starting to feel like it now. One thing that I love about Spring besides the weather is that I get to eat some foods more. I know that we use Lemons & Limes year-round but, I feel like those fruits are more Spring & Summer appropriate (they kind of the same way I feel about berries). 

With that said, I'm going to share some Lemon & Lime recipes to get us all ready for the new season:

Cilantro Lime Chicken Tacos

Lemon Yogurt Cake

Frozen Key Lime Pie

Lemon Drop Cocktail

Cilantro Lime Salmon

Lemon Capellini

Raspberry-Lime Gin & Tonic

These are just a few recipes I'm going to try making in the next month or so. If you haven't noticed, a lot of the recipes are from Ian Garten (who I like) but that was just a random thing that happened when I was picking the recipes. Until next time, Peace & Blessings, all!!!

Recipe: Oatmeal Sea Salt Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookies

     Hello all.  So, I was going to post the recipe in October but, life happened.  This year has flown & month have flown by. At this point, my sense of time is super crazy. Anywho, I have been wanting/trying to find an essay oatmeal cookie recipe that is not super hard. This recipe that I'm sharing is from Preppy Kitchen's Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies. I did added some sea salt caramel to the cookies along with the chocolate chips.

Ingredients

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
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  1/2 tsp baking soda 
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  1/2 tsp salt 
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  1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
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  1/3 cup granulated sugar 
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  2/3 cup light-brown sugar 
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  2 tsp pure vanilla extract 
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  1 large egg
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  1 1/2 cups rolled oats 
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  1 cup dark chocolate chips 
• 1 cup sea salt caramel pieces

I pre-heated the oven to 375. While the oven was pre-heating, I put the oats in my mini food processor. I did this so that the oats would have more of a flour texture.

Mix flour & baking soda together in bowl. Sit aside.

Add soften butter, brown sugar, & granulated sugar in mixer. Mix until blended together.

 

Add egg, vanilla, & salt to butter/sugar mixture. 

Mix ingredients together until smooth/blended well.

To the sugar. butter mixture, fold in the chocolate chips, oatmeal, & sea salt caramel pieces. Place dough in fridge for 1-2 hours. Doing this will make the dough easier to form into balls.

After I formed them into balls, I baked them at 375 for 8 to 10 minutes. Once done, I did let them cool for about 5 minutes. One suggestion to make sure that they don't end up over-cooked is to literally bake them for the 8 to 10 minutes. If you even cook them a minute or two over, they potentially will be hard. 

Well, that's all for today. Peace & Blessings, all!!

Recipe: Chicken Cauliflower Rice Bowl

     For some reason lately, I've been craving cauliflower rice bowls. I usually go get one at Zoe's but everytime I got ready to go get one, something happens. So, I decided to make one at home. I did a mixture of quinoa & cauliflower rice instead of just the rice by itself. I've been trying to eat better again since I can go to the gym some again. Here is how I made my Chicken Cauliflower Rice Bowl:

For the base, I used this Success quinoa & a bag of frozen savory garlic cauliflower rice. I boiled the quinoa on the stove for 10 minutes. I cooked the cauliflower rice for 6 minutes in the microwave.

This is what it looked like after I mixed the two together. I did add some brown rice that I had left over too on this day when I made it for lunch & black chia seeds. Other than that, every other time I made it without the brown. 

For the chicken, I used the seasoning that I've been using on all my chicken lately. I bought this at Wal-Mart. They have other flavors as well like Lemon & Oregano.

I usually brine my chicken for 15 minutes but I didn't have time on this day. Before I sprinkle the seasoning on the chicken, I used butter (unsalted, of course but you can use olive also) to cover both sides of the chicken tenders. Once the seasoning was added, I cooked the chicken at 375 degrees for 25 minutes. 

While the chicken was cooking, I diced a small tomato & added to the rice/quinoa mixture.

I diced up a few slices of cucumber, adding them to one side of the bowl.

I then added 1/2  cup of feta cheese to the rice. 

In the middle of the bowl, I added some tzatziki dip I bought at the store.

Once the chicken was done & cooled for 5-6 minutes, I cut up 3 tenders & added that to the last open spot on the bowl. The above is the end result. You can also make this vegetarian by substituting some of the above items. That is it for this week. I think, I finally have gotten down a posting schedule that I like so we'll see how that turns out.

Peace & Blessings. Have a great weekend, all!!