Monday, July 25, 2016

Recipe Round Up: July

I'm excited to share my favorite recipes from this month with you.  We've been working hard to eat colorful meals, eat real food and to enjoy healthier options.  I would say we did a pretty good job all month long.  We ate out more than usual because we moved last week, but what do you do?  I still cooked a fair amount before things got boxed up.
Here are our favorite recipes:

// 1 //
These are a family favorite that we often have for dinner when we're in the mood for breakfast for dinner.

// 2 //
HAWAIIAN FRIED HAM
I purchased the small precooked/presliced hams at the grocery store.  I just sprinkled a little brown sugar on the slices as they cooked and added in some pineapple chunks.  The sugar caramelized and we ate the warm pineapple as a side.  It was such an easy meal and was so delicious.  We had enough ingredients to eat this 2-3 times.

// 3 //
TACO PIZZA
I've mentioned before that my family loves any type of Mexican food.  We eat it regularly and so I'm always looking for new ways to prepare our favorite ingredients.  You'll just need
soft taco shells
taco meat
beans
cheese
and all of your favorite fixings

// 4 //
SALADS
I have been stocking my fridge with lettuce and tons of salad fixins each week.  I usually eat each salad 1-3 times and make sure to switch it up so I don't get bored of eating the exact same salad every day.  
Grilled Chicken Pesto Salad was a hit.  I just added pesto to grilled chicken and cooked pasta a mixed it until it was evenly spread out.  Then I chopped veggies, lettuce and topped it with my pesto mixture.  It ended up being a little dry so I drizzled some Italian dressing on and it was perfect.


Chicken Summer Salad


Favorite Dessert of the month:

Salted Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookies



What have you been cooking this month??
Any yummy recipes you'd like to share with me??


I'm linking up with three of my favorite cooking ladies today
and we're all sharing our best recipes from the month.

Whitney @ Come Home for Comfort
Julys New Recipes
Katie @ Cup of Tea
and Stephanie @ Wife, Mommy, Me

Head over to their blogs to see what delicious meals they are sharing this month!
 We've also started a Pinterest Board called
New Recipes We've Tried and Loved!
Be sure to check it out and get some great ideas for meals at your house.
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Tuesday, July 19, 2016

Tuesday Talk: Salted Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookies

I have a DELICIOUS recipe to share with you today.  I originally found the recipe from Andrea at Momfessionals and made a few changes based on what I had in my pantry.  I made these Salted Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookies for a friend's going away party and shared them with friends.  They were a huge hit and were an easy treat to whip up.  I'm not usually a big caramel fan, but these were amazing.

I'm sharing this recipe and then going to take the rest of the week off from blogging.  We moved into our new house over the weekend and there are a million boxes to unpack.  My kitchen is unpacked, our family room is cozy and everything else looks like a bomb went off in it.  Wish me luck and keep up with our new house adventures over on instagram @polkadottyplace.  See you back here on Monday with some delicious dinner ideas for August!

Salted Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:
3 cups flour
1 1/2 t baking powder
1 t baking soda
1 t sea salt (plus more sea salt for sprinkling on top)
1/2 c room temp butter
1/2 c crisco
1 1/2 c brown sugar
1/2 c granulated sugar
2 room temp eggs
1 t vanilla
1 1/2 c crushed pretzels (plus a few to poke in the tops of the cookies)
1 1/2 c chocolate chips
about 20 square caramels to cut in half

Directions:
 Cream together the butter and sugar.  Add in eggs, vanilla and dry ingredients leaving the pretzels and chocolate chips for last.  Unwrap the caramels and cut them in half.

Unwrap caramels and cut in half.  Kid friendly part: I had my toddler help with unwrapping caramels and crunch up pretzels in a ziploc.  It took her a long time, but she was happy to help.

Scoop about 2T of cookie dough out and push a caramel in the center.  Roll the cookie dough into a ball around it and make sure the caramel is completely covered by dough.  Place cookies on a greased cookie sheet and then sprinkle sea salt on top and poke in a pretzel or two.

Bake at 350 for 12 minutes
or until just slightly browned.
Let them cool for about 5 minutes on the cookie sheet.

These cookies were delicious right out of the oven and for several days after.
I hope you love them as much as I do!!


It's time to link up with some of my favorite ladies this week for Tuesday Talk.
Join us with your favorite post from the week.


Polka-Dotty Place

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Monday, July 18, 2016

July $10 Target Haul

I found some really great things at Target this month.  I had no problem at all spending my $10 on back to school things for Olive in the Dollar Spot.  I walked in the door and had the majority of my budget spent in just a few minutes.  #targetproblems

Back to School Items - $1 each = $6
4 board books
2 puzzle pairs
fruit ropes $3




I figured both would be perfect for my three year old to do some preschool activities at home this year.  The board books will be a fun vocabulary builder for her and the counting, matching, color and shape puzzles will be more of a challenge.  She'll not only have to identify the matches, she will have to follow that up with putting together the puzzle.  I'm exciting for her to work on that challenge.  The quality is great for all of these and I would have expected to pay much more for them at a teacher supply store.  Hurry in to check out their back to school items!!

 We also picked up a box of our very favorite fruit ropes.  They're always on a cartwheel deal and they are so good.  Olive and I both enjoy eating them for a snack.  All flavors are delish.

I came in $1 under budget which is great!!  I'm excited about my finds this month and am really looking forward to seeing what these sweet ladies found for their Target Hauls.  I was TEMPTED to buy 4th of July clearance, toddler clearance clothes and some fingernail polish this month.

Be sure to link up with us this month!
Becky at bybmg // Instagram // Facebook // Pinterest
Beth at Our Pretty Little Girls // Instagram // Facebook // Pinterest
Courtney at Sweet Turtle Soup // Instagram // Facebook // Pinterest
Elizabeth at Chasin' Mason // Instagram // Facebook // Pinterest
Rachel at Garay Treasures // Instagram // Facebook // Pinterest
Stephanie at Wife Mommy Me // Instagram // Facebook // Pinterest
Tif at Bright on a Budget // Instagram // Facebook // Pinterest
Whitney at Polka Dotty Place // Instagram // Facebook // Pinterest


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Friday, July 15, 2016

The Best Parts


I'm finally starting to feel back to normal and we had a nice week.  We celebrated Kevin's birthday, made a quick road trip to see family, headed to the county fair and made some final decisions on house things.  We accomplished a lot and start moving into our house this weekend!!  Hip hip hooray!!

The best parts of our week were:

// 1 //
SALADS
I didn't make a ton of salads this week, but this one was our favorite.  Chicken Summer Salad - strawberries, mandarins, shredded chicken, almonds, poppyseed dressing on mixed greens.  It's such a yummy salad that my hubby even requests it for dinner in the summers.

// 2 //
COUNTY FAIR
I wrote all about the county fair yesterday, but here are my favorite pictures.  It's a fun tradition that we try to do every summer.  Olive begged to ride rides and then realized she didn't really love riding them.  Fletcher enjoyed the animals and was happy to be strolled around most of the time.  Do you ever go to your county fair or state fair??  I usually have to get a funnel cake, but it was too hot this year and I settled for a soft serve cone.

 
// 3 //
 MOVING
We are starting to get things in order to move.  Packing has sort of begun and some things never got unpacked from moving in last July.  We knew we'd only be here a year so it was only a partial unpack.  It made for a tricky year of only having part of our stuff, but I'm hoping that it'll mean moving won't be too terrible. 

 // 4 //
Happy Birthday Kev!!
 We celebrated with a delicious lunch and dinner on his birthday and were surrounded by family.  Everyone enjoyed seeing the kids and it was great!  I appreciated not having to cook since we traveled in town and loved having other people to celebrate with.  He has always celebrated his special day with fireworks since his birthday is so close to the 4th.  Olive was thrilled to help and had a blast enjoying the fireworks.  Fletcher wasn't as sure about all the loud noises - happy birthday song startled him to tears, he snoozed through dinner and then he watched the fireworks from a safe distance.






// 5 //
Favorite Kid Pics of the week
Olive has been so sweet to Fletcher lately.  She's asking to hold him and wanted to rock him before bed the other night.  I have to be right next to her because she BOLTS when she's done and Fletcher could easily go flying.  I loved seeing them snuggle together.


Best posts of the week:

 

I hope you have a really great weekend!!
Do you have any fun plans in the works?
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Thursday, July 14, 2016

County Fair 2016 - Animals, Airplanes and Angry Toddlers

The county fair is going on in our town this week and we were excited to go again this year.  It's one of the first things we did when we moved to town last year.  It is CRAZY to think how quickly this year has flown by for us and all that's happened for us.  Kevin scoped out the weather and we made plans to go on the coolest day of the week.  It was still HOT, but not terrible.

We started with the animal barns first since they were a favorite last year.  We've learned that when you go to an event with kids you've got to start with your favorite activities because you never know when you'll have to cut things short.  We planned to do the animals, register me to vote, get a snack and end with rides in under 2 hours.

 The Bunny Barn is always a crowd pleaser.
 Olive squealed, shrieked, ooooohhhh and aaaahhhhed through the whole thing.  She was in bunny heaven.



 She was thrilled to find a bunny that looked just like her beloved Bun Bun.

Time to see the pigs.  This year they were taking their pigs for walks and giving them baths while we were there.  It was pretty funny.  Then one started peeing in front of us and Olive nearly died.  She's been talking non-stop about the peeing pig all week long.  Lovely.



This pig was oinking and snorting like crazy and Fletcher couldn't figure out what was going on.  Then he decided to show the pig his piggies.


Man the goats were entertaining.  They were all really friendly and this goat was dying for a close up.  They wanted us to pet them and then would nibble on our things when we got close.  hahahaha
 



 The cows were hot and kept to themselves.  The horses were friendly as were the turtles, the chickens and the snakes.  Olive even wanted to touch one. 

 Next we headed towards the food and rides.  Olive was BEGGING to ride a ride.  She has never ridden a ride before so I'm not for sure where she got the idea of needing to ride one.  It was $1 ride night so we bought a few tickets.  She headed straight for the planes and that was that.  She was tall enough to ride and so Kevin got her all situated.  Then the ride began and she was no longer so excited about it.  It just spun in a slow circle, but she was grumpy about being stuck on that ride.  All the parents were giggling at her reaction and she could not be convinced to wave or crack a smile for her adoring family.  These pictures are hilarious to me because she was totally fine and totally MAD to be on the ride.  Luckily, it was short and Kevin hurried out to rescue when it stopped.  She told us later that she did not like that ride that made her belly hurt.  Point taken.






She'd been asking to ride the ferris wheel when we parked by it, but after her airplane ride of doom she no longer brought it up.

She saw the swings and thought they looked like fun.  Kevin asked if he could ride them with her and he was allowed to so off they went.  It took a while to load all of the kids.  Then when it started Olive looked mad.  It started swinging and going up and down a little bit.  She was unsure, but eventually ended up smiling and waving at me.  I guess having Daddy by your side makes all the difference.







 Rides are not my thing so I was thrilled to wait with Fletcher and snap pictures of these two.

 Olive and I shared an ice cream cone and we learned that we LOVE sprinkles on everything BUT our soft serve.  Ewwwww!  We took a few licks and then I scraped all the sprinkles off to enjoy a plain twist cone.  Lesson learned.

 We squeezed in one game, gave our last ride ticket to a cute kid waiting in line and then headed home.

Our sweaty little man was thrilled to be indoors.  I think the freezer cool down was the highlight of his 2016 County Fair trip.  hahahahaha  Sweet sweaty boy :)


Do you go to the county or state fairs in your state?  We try to go to both when we can and look forward to going every year.


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