Nail stickers

I found these nail stickers at the 99 Cent Only Store. I have purchased several of the Sally Hansen nail strips, but have never used them (yet).   I figured, how could I go wrong? I love black (one of my favorite colors) and they were only $0.99!  

So on August 28th, I put the stickers on. Now, they give you several different sizes, so you can figure out which ones fit your fingernails.  The gold triangle end is actually meant for your toenails, as it is shaped a little bit differently, more square vs. the other end being more round, but I wanted that end on the bottom. By a little trial and error, I figured out which ones fit which nails and proceeded to put them on. By like the 7th finger, I learned that if you trim the sides just a smidge, they fit better on my nail.

All done! 

Here's what they looked like in the sun! 

I loved them! I just peeled them off tonight and I am already missing them! I got several compliments on them! It was a fun, frilly and girly thing to do!   I think that I will be putting some more on soon! 

And I don't know, but I was telling my friend this morning that there was something about black nails that made me feel like, I am woman, hear me roar! So sexy and fun! LOL!

2nd Grade!

Good gosh, where has the time gone? Seriously, it just seems like yesterday that Eric and I found out we were pregnant.... Now, advance 7 years, and our little girl, Shianne, is starting 2nd grade! 

She has her first male teacher this year! She is loving being back in school, homework and all! I am so proud of our girl and how much she has grown! Looking forward to what the new school year will bring!

Cheese tortellini and sausage

I found this recipe on Pinterest the other day. Both the hubby and I thought it looked yummy, so I decided to try it! It was so simple to make and it had great flavor. My kids liked it too, so that was a plus!

Ingredients

1 (19 ounce) bag frozen cheese tortellini 

1 pound sausage (Italian)  I used chicken sausage

1 bag of fresh spinach (I didn't use the whole bag, but wished that I had, because it was yummy in the dish)

2 cans Italian style diced tomatoes

2 cans low-fat chicken broth

1 (8 ounce) cream cheese block, cut into cubes

 

Directions 

1. Brown the sausage in a skillet until cooked and crumbled. Drain.

2. Add the sausage and remaining ingredients to a crock pot. Stir to combine.

3.Cook, on LOW for 5 hours, stirring twice during cooking.

 

 I squeezed the sausage out of their casings and browned it in the skillet

I added everything to the crock pot and mixed it around. 

My daughter added the spinach in.

This is what it looked like after about 4 and a half hours or so.

This was super yummy! I really liked this recipe and how simple and tasty it is!

Pizza in a crock pot

This is by far, one of our family's favorite crock pot recipes! I am so glad that I stumbled across Budget Savvy Diva on Pinterest and found this! Yummy!

Here is the link for the actual recipe
http://www.budgetsavvydiva.com/2012/02/pizza-crock-pot/

Ingredients

1 Pound of Ground Beef. 

I have always used ground turkey, since we don't eat much beef.

1 Green Pepper Chopped

1 Onion Chopped

1 teaspoon Onion Powder

1 teaspoon of Garlic Powder

1 Clove of Garlic Minced

1 Teaspoon of Pepper

1/2 Teaspoon Salt

24 Ounces of Sauce ( pizza or pasta sauce)

2 Tablespoon Tomato Paste. I use the whole can of tomato paste

3 Cups of Cooked Pasta

6 ounce of Pepperoni. I use turkey pepperoni

3 Cups of Mozzarella

1 Tablespoon of Olive Oil

Instructions

1. In a pan heat oil then add onions and pepper and cook ( 10 min) add garlic and cook for one minute. Add ground beef and cook till browned – make sure to drain.

2. Stir in sauce, tomato past, salt, pepper, garlic powder; onion powder. 

3. In your crock pot place cooked pasta on the bottom.

4. Then add beef mixture.

5. Then Pepperoni 

6. Then add 2 cups of cheese

7. Set the crock pot to low and cook for 3 hours. Mix then add last cup of cheese and cook for 30 more minutes.

8. Enjoy

I chopped up the bell pepper and the onion (I used half a red and half a white onion).

Added the onions and bell pepper to the ground turkey and browned it.

All ready to add all the other ingredients

Everything else added and ready to mix it up

After coking the noodles, I added them to the crock pot

Added the meat mixture on top of the noodles, then I chopped up the turkey pepperoni and added that on the top of everything.

Then I added the cheese... you can never have too much cheese!  

Set the crock pot on low for 3 hours and let it cook.

When the 3 hours was up, I added some more cheese and let it get warm.  It was ready to eat.

Yummy!!!!

Guacamole!

A #FabFriday must

I was taught a really easy recipe for guacamole from my friend! 

I bought these beauts at Sam's Club and they were a bit hard. I put them in a brown paper bag for a few days and voila, they were perfectly soft! That trick really works! 

Recipe: 5 large or 10 small avocados, salt, pepper, some lemon juice, half a seeded Serrano pepper, half a red onion and Frank's Red Hot sauce! 

Serrano and red onion

Cut your avocados up, add the onion, Serrano pepper, some salt and pepper, lemon juice and a few dashes of RedHot sauce, to your liking.  Mash it all up... I use a potato masher and it works perfectly!

And there you go, delish guac!!!

Now I want some! ;)

Coffeeeeee!!!!!!!

I have been on a coffee kick for a while now. I make a fresh pot of coffee and then make iced coffee from that. I am not a huge hot coffee drinker, but I love iced coffee!  I haven't had made any in a while.  Today, while I was digging through my deep freeze looking for something else, I came across this and thought I would try it. It is pretty hot today, and I figured it would be nice and refreshing. I had bought this at Vons on clearance a while ago and forgot about it, because it was buried in my deep freeze! LOL!

This was so easy to make!

Open the package and put the frozen bits in the blender... add 1 cup of milk and blend away! 

And out comes this yumminess in a glass! 

So delish and totally refreshing! 

I am going to have to see if the grocery store still carries this! ;)

Chicken bruschetta pasta

I take pictures of what I make for dinner with the full intention of blogging them... and then I forget! LOL! So, I made this dinner on August 6th.  This is something fairly new by Kraft and I found it on clearance at Albertsons for $2.  I figured it look kind of good, so why not?!?

I had some chicken that I needed to use, so I decided to make this for dinner.  I cut the chicken up and put it into the pan to brown some.

 

The recipe called for you to cube the chicken and cook it that way, but the chicken I had shredded when I tried to cut it, so I just did that.  I added half the basil garlic simmer sauce to the chicken. It smelled so good!

The recipe called for 3 cups of bow tie pasta, and me being the genius that I am, decided to make the whole box of pasta. Bad idea! For some reason, I thought that 3 cups wouldn't be enough and the whole box would be plenty. Well, it was more than plenty. Lesson learned, follow the directions, Heidi! 

I added the pasta to the chicken and then added the rest of the basil garlic sauce to the mix.

Then I added the chunky bruschetta finishing sauce on top of that.  Because there was so much pasta, there wasn't enough sauce, so it was a bit dry.

Then you add parmesan cheese to the top of it all... and let it warm up!

We usually eat corn with our pasta, so I made some corn to go on the side.

 

I really like the flavors, and besides it being too dry, it turned out pretty good! 

I will definitely follow the directions next time, though! ;)

A change will do you good!

All it takes is a $0.14 (I used a $2 off coupon when I bought this) box of hair dye and I feel like a new woman!    

I hadn't colored my hair in months!  I was getting bored with my lack luster hair and needed a change. Yes, my hair was red the last time too, but since it had been so long, it was now back to brown! So yes, it is a change!

As you can see, my roots were about 3-4 inches long. 

I don't have any greys yet and just color my hair for the fun of it, but my natural color was pretty dull!

With Eric's help, I got my whole head covered.

I highly recommend using foam hair dye, because it has the easiest coverage when you are trying to apply it!  

We even put some on Eric's goatee!

Presto chango, light intense auburn!!!!! ;)

 

Once again, I am loving it! Once again, I am a sassy ginger!

That's all for now, folks! Till next time!

21 years old with 15 years experience

July 8th was my birthday... I turned 36 and am officially in my late 30s! LOL!  Or as my adorable husband would say, I am 21 years old with 15 years experience!   

My age has never mattered to me...but for a little over two months, I will be two years older than Eric.  I truly am his old lady! ;)

As an adult, birthdays are not as a big to-do as they are when you are kids!  I wasn't expecting much this year... a card or two and that's all.  

I woke up and my mother-in-law and my daughter had made me cards and they were waiting for me on the computer desk.

Well, my husband truly surprised me!  He bought me a dozen gorgeous red roses and gave me a very sweet birthday card that made me bawl my eyes out!  I love that man so much!  He never ceases to amaze me! 

my pretty roses

Eric and I

Birthday date!

Kisses for the birthday girl!

My mother-in-law, who had been staying with us since May, was going to be headed home to Arizona this week. She stayed one more day, for my birthday, so my hubby could take me out!!!   Plus, we weren't ready for her to leave yet either! We miss you, GrandMama!

 

I picked Red Lobster for lunch! Eric has been wanting to go since they opened, but we haven't had a chance yet. I took advantage of that! ;)

We both ordered a 4 course meal special that they had. It came with never ending cheddar bay biscuits (and they are just as good as people rave), soup, salad, entree and dessert for $14.99 or upgrade for $4 more (which is what we did)!   Pretty good deal!  I had ceasar salad and clam chowder.  Eric opted for creamy potato bacon soup.  I took one bite of his and wished I had ordered that one instead. It was so creamy and yummy! I love clam chowder, but this totally topped it! 

I was teasing Eric, because he was eating a salad! He is not a big veggie person!

For my entree, I ordered Maui Luau Shrimp & Salmon.  It came with wild rice pilaf, steamed broccoli and pineapple pico de gallo! It was so good that I forgot to take a picture of it when it first came out!

Here it is, after I had already dug into it! So so good! I ate every last bite!

Eric ordered Honey BBQ Shrimp & Chicken, that came with steamed broccoli and garlic mashed potatoes. His was pretty tasty too! 

 

Overall, we were pretty impressed with Red Lobster. Our server was super nice.  He brought my brownie dessert and said that his birthday present to me was for him not to sing! LOL!  We must have gone at a great time of the day, because we were only like one of seven or so tables!   It's not an everyday restaurant, but I highly recommend it for special occasions!

 

           

Then, we came home and I got tons of birthday hugs from these two munchkins! I love my kids!

 

I had a super blessed birthday!