Recipe: Delicious Whipped Cinnamon Honey Butter

This past weekend Ellie and I got our holiday baking on! We baked and mixed into the night on Saturday and I love having her as my little helper in the kitchen. She even has her own reindeer apron that is just the cutest thing I've ever seen on her.

Recipe: Candied Nuts

Today I have one of my favorite recipes to share with you, I'm so excited! My grandmother was a wonderful baker and two things I learned from her is there's always room for treats and that treats have a season. I loved everything she baked and always looked forward to holidays and celebrations to have our special treats. Divinity for weddings, strawberry cake with coconut frosting for Valentines, raisin cake for birthdays, rice balls for Halloween, and sugar cookies for Christmas. It was a fun tradition and made each celebration even more special.

I don't have a lot of treats under my belt yet (I'm going to try her pecan crunch this year!), but I make some amazing candied nuts! I make them every Christmas and they're so easy! I love any recipe that has items I have on hand and is simple to make. Matt asks for these every year earlier and earlier, they're great for camping, snacks, crushed up in salads, and treats for neighbors, friends, and coworkers.

Quick & Easy Toddler Snacks

Eleanor has always been a great eater, and I’m so thankful for that. Of course, she’s gone through spurts of being picky or eating a plain peanut butter sandwich for weeks at a time, but having her eat healthy has never been a challenge. Thinking of different meals and options for her has sometimes been tough, but I thought I’d share our favorites and go-to snacks, on the go treats, and what I pack for trips and playdates.

-Veggies
Ellie loves frozen sweet peas and they were perfect for her when she was teething too. She also loves carrots, broccoli, and cucumbers.

-Fruit
Her favorites are grapes and strawberries, but she also loves figs, blueberries, watermelon, plum, and apples.

-Savory Snacks
We love to have something else with our lunches or snacks that add a different texture than fruits or veggies. I make sure to always give her an extra item like veggie straws, string cheese, popcorn puffs, graham crackers, pretzels, or our new favorite Larabar Bars and Bites.

We don’t eat totally healthy all the time, there’s plenty of drive-thru chicken nuggets in our diets, but I really try to have healthy food available for ingredients and snacks for our family. It’s really important to me to teach my girls to eat healthy and pay attention to what they’re putting in their bodies. We can see a difference in how we feel and even our behavior (hello sugar crash) when we focus on eating good, natural foods that isn’t high in sugar, sodium, or has been heavily processed. That’s one reason why I’m so happy to have found Larabar at Sam’s Club. They’re delicious, easy to grab for a quick bite, and have simple natural ingredients (that I can read and pronounce). We enjoy both their bars (the apple pie is my favorite!) and the bites, and because they’re food made from real food, I never feel guilty about having them or giving them to our family. Larabar is gluten free, vegan friendly, and dairy free which makes for a great snack to have on hand in case any of our guests have allergies. My nephew is on a gluten free diet and we make sure to always have items on hand for him to eat when he comes by, and these are perfect for him! We just have a hard time keeping them on the shelves since we love them!

What are your favorite toddler snacks?

Easy and Delicious Pot Roast Stew

Ingredients:
- 2 lbs roast beef
- 2-3 potatoes, cut
- 1 onion cut in large pieces
- 1/2 of a small bag of baby carrots
- 3-4 celery stalks, cut
- 1 box beef broth
- Red pepper flakes (adds some extra taste, don't add to much!)
- 1 Knorr vegetable soup mix (in the soup aisle, on the top shelf)
- Seasons of preference (we use Trader Joe's 21 seasonings and a bit of garlic salt)

Directions:
Place roast beef in crock pot and cover in veggies. Add beef broth and make sure all the meat and veggies are covered, you can add water if needed. I have a 5 quart Crock Pot and don't have to add any water, but you might depending on your cut of meat and the size of your slow cooker. Then add all your seasonings and mix it up. Let cook on high 3-4 hours, or low 4-6 hours. Once meat is fully cooked, we take it out and shred it and put it back in the pot.

This is one of my favorite meals, it's so perfect in cold weather. It's warm and yummy, and is a good hearty meal. It's perfect to put on Sunday morning and have it ready after church and football. We always pair is with buttered bread. It's so simple and makes me feel all cozy and nostalgic for childhood on the inside. I've had lots of pot roast in my day, but the combination of using broth and the Knorr seasonings makes such a huge difference in flavor. This recipe has a ton of flavor and is one of the easiest things I've ever made in my life. We've made it a ton these last few months, even using pork roasts instead of beef- which was also yummy! 

Savannah Bee Company Review

My husband and father in law are huge honey fans. They’re always talking about different honeys, we’ve visited honey stores and taste-tested all the flavors, on camping trips we buy honey sticks, and at street fairs and such we always come home with a jar of local honey. When I was contacted by Savannah Bee Co. to review their product, I had to jump at the chance! It would make a great and special gift, especially for Valentine’s day.

For my review, I chose The Honey Caramel Delight Valentine’s Day Gift Set. The set came in a fun box with bee facts on each side, and included their Savannah Bee Tupelo Honey, Winter White Honey, Adam Turoni’s Honey Caramel Sauce, and Adam Turoni’s Sourwood Caramen Chocolate. The honey came in adorable glass jars (that I’m keeping on display in our kitchen), and the chocolates were wrapped in a cute wrapper in a clear case. Obviously, my husband and I scarfed those down first thing- they were absolutely delicious!

The weekend the honey was delivered we had a BBQ with the family and it was the perfect opportunity to do a test taste! We passed out toothpicks and everyone had a taste. It was fun to try different honeys and see which they preferred. The Adam Turoni’s Honey Caramel Sauce was a big hit and is delicious drizzled over apple slices.

We've been enjoying the honey all week for breakfast over toast and fruit, lunch with peanut butter and honey sandwiches, and enjoying spoonfuls here and there for something sweet. I would definitely recommend them for any  honey lover in your life, the honey is delicious!

Thank you Savannah Bee Company for the opportunity to review your products, our family is loving the sweetness!

Recipe Review: Tomato Salad

My co-worker often makes this salad and it smells amazing so I asked her for the recipe because I had to have it. This is a really common salad, I've had this same salad at lots of parties/showers, but I've never made it myself. It's really simple, delicious, healthy and we've been loving it at our house!

Here's what you need:
- Cucumber (one whole one, or half of a large one)
- Tomatoes (you can use whole or baby)
- Bell Peppers
- Cilantro
- Onion
- Vinegar (2 Tablespoons)
- Olive Oil (1 Tablespoon)
- Salt and Pepper

Optional Ingredients:
- Dash Seasoning
- Basil
- Garlic
- Mozzarella
- Infused Vinegar (we use mango infused vinegar and it's delicious)

There's no perfect amount of vegetables to use, you can make it with more or less depending on your tastes. If you choose to include mozzarella, I wouldn't mix that in until it's served or slice it into medallions and put the salad mix on top.

Chop up all your vegetables to bite size portions and mince the cilantro

I'm craving some right now...

Add your vinegar and olive oil. Since we use a mango infused one, I do one tablespoon of regular and one tablespoon of the infused.

Mix it all together and let chill in the fridge for at least 15 minutes!

Serve and enjoy!

The salad lasts for about 2 days in the fridge, but the tomatoes and possibly the cucumbers will get soggy by that last day. When using half of a large cucumber and two whole tomatoes, I get about 4-5 servings for Matt and I. There's always extra dressing with those portions so I could definitely add more veggies without having to increase the olive oil/vinegar ratio. We also use a lot of cilantro and about two slices off of an onion for our own preferences.

This is one of my favorite and easiest recipes I've tried. It's so good and is a great side dish. 

What are some of your favorite recipes? 

Recipe Review: Biscuit Chicken Pot Pie

In no way am I a chef of any kind. Yes, I cook/bake, but it's rare. Matt gets home before me and loves to cook (just like his dad!) so he usually cooks around these parts. On days I'm off work or am off before him, I'll cook a few of my tried and true recipes. When on Pinterest, I saw this pin and had to try it for myself. We love chicken pot pie and this sounded easy and delicious!

(Their picture is so much prettier than mine!)

The original recipe is from Six Sisters' Stuff and I'm so glad they shared it because it was a big hit in our house! Here is their recipe, straight from their site:

Easy Biscuit Chicken Pot Pie
Prep time: 15 mins Cook time: 15 mins Total time: 30 mins
Serves: 8

Ingredients
2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
1 onion, chopped fine
½ cup of chopped carrots
½ cup of chopped broccoli
½ cup of chopped cauliflower
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
½ cup of all-purpose flour
1½ cups milk
2 cups of low-sodium chicken broth
1 regular size can of cream of chicken soup
½ teaspoon dried thyme
2 cups (about 1 pound) of cooked, shredded chicken
¾ cup frozen peas, thawed
1 refrigerated package of Pilsbury Grands Biscuits (8 biscuits)

Instructions
-Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
-In a large pan heat your oil on medium-high heat. Once the oil is hot, saute the onions, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, and peas until tender, about 5-7 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Transfer cooked vegetables to a bowl with the chicken; set aside.
-Reduce the heat to medium and add the butter to the same pot. When melted, stir in the flour and cook, stirring constantly for 1 minute. Whisk in the milk, chicken broth, cream of chicken soup and thyme. Allow the sauce to come to a simmer and let it simmer for 1 minute to thicken. Season with salt and pepper.
-Turn off the heat and transfer the vegetables and chicken to the pot, stirring until the filling is well-combined. -If the filling is too thick, stir in some extra chicken broth milk.
-Pour the filling into a 13x9-inch baking dish and bake for 18 minutes. Remove the dish from the oven (keeping the oven on and door closed) and top the filling with 8 biscuits (yes, raw biscuits). Return the baking dish to the oven and bake for an additional 10-12 minutes, until the biscuits are golden brown and the filling is bubbly. Cool for 5 minutes before serving.

Here are the changes/suggestion I made to the recipe:
- For the chicken, I put two frozen chicken breasts in a crock pot on low and covered it with 16 ounces of chicken broth. Since I used a large crock pot, I also had to add some water to make sure the chicken was entirely covered. A rotisserie chicken would be perfect to use as well!
- I skipped the cauliflower and plan on trying celery and corn with the next round
- For my recipe, I only used half of an onion and I sauteed the onion and carrots (I chopped them in to small pieces) first and longer before adding the other vegetables to make sure they were soft
-I'll definitely use more broccoli and carrots in the next batch. I didn't think there was enough to my liking with only 1/2 cup
- In the comments on their post, someone commented about making the biscuits separately and putting a biscuit in a bowl and pouring the mixture on top. I think it would all turn out the same, but wanted to share that idea too.
- The recipe says it takes 15 minutes to prep and 15 minutes to cook and that is entirely not true. I think it took me about 45 minutes from start to finish (once the chicken was already cooked).
- There is no way it serves 8 people, more like 4-5

Mmmmmm this was such a delicious dinner, I can't wait to have it for my lunch! I'll definitely be making it again and again. Matt said it was one of the best things I've ever made and he had 3 helpings! Ellie liked it too and it was really simple to make. It was a lot of fun to make and I liked that it was from "scratch" (minus the biscuits of course!). It makes me so happy when I try something and it turns out just as I imagined and Matt enjoys it. Maybe I'll do more in the kitchen!

....Let's not hold our breath on that one........

What are some of your favorite cold weather recipes?

Snapshots of the Weekend

Today I'm home sick with Ellie. She came home on Friday with a runny nose and has had a fever on and off all weekend. We planned on taking her to daycare today because she's been in a great mood all weekend, but she had a really tough night so we decided she should stay home where she'll be the most comfortable. We're pretty sure it's just teething, she has four molars that have cut through and I can feel another four coming in.

Sunglasses // Notebook (sold out, love this one) // Gloss

I've been keeping the journal I write for Ellie at work so I can look back at old entries and write new ones. I have a full hour lunch and it's hard to fill up that time with no shopping. I need to get a good book to read to keep me from walking into Target during that hour. I like to take some time each break to go outside and enjoy the sun, but our temps lately are record breaking and it's miserable to be outside more than 10 minutes.

We ran a quick errand this weekend and there was a farmers market in the lot that we checked out. We've been wanting to go to a market since we moved in and my cousins in the area have a few great ones they want us to check out with them. It was fun to check out all the fresh produce and try the samples. The dragonfruit was delish! I'll definitely be picking some up our next trip. While we were there we picked up some mango infused balsamic vinegar and I can't wait to make some salmon and salad with it. We tried infused vinegar at my sister's house on roasted veggies and it was so delicious! We've been wanting to pick up some of our own and went with mango. I think next time we'll pick up blood orange or a spicy one.

Bench (sold out, similar here)  // Love Sign

This love sign is haunting and teasing me. I bought months ago and haven't put it up yet. We had a small leak in an upstairs bathroom shortly after moving in, so that put a wrench in our decorating plan as we had to get it fixed, then textured, and then painted. I wanted to do it last week and I couldn't find the dang nails and hooks I wanted to use for it. So it's just been sitting there on our kitchen bench laughing at me as I pass by it.

This weekend I finally had the chance to clean out my makeup bag (which sparked a fun post for tomorrow and some more coming up!) and found the September issue of People StyleWatch! I love my subscription and look forward to the fall and spring issues most so I was so disappointed that my September one never came. I filed a claim and they're going to extend my subscription, but I was on the hunt to find it somewhere. Can't wait to dig in for all the fall trends.

How was your weekend? What fall trends are you looking forward to?
Have a happy Monday everyone

Get in my Belly!

Since I eat breakfast every morning and pack a lunch each night for work I've been asked a few times what a typical day is like. I've always been a breakfast gal since childhood and I've packed a lunch since high school so I'm used to the routine. I love to eat out, but it can really add up during the week buying lunch each day. I prefer to see my money spent on Ellie or in my closet and not on my waistline, but to each their own.

Here's a typical food day during the week:

Breakfast:
-Overnight oats
I just started doing this and love it! Oatmeal helps breast milk production and I have seen a spike in what I'm able to pump each day (although each day still varies between 8-11.5 oz while at work pumping 3x). I use a mix of 1 cup oats, a full yogurt container, and 1/2 cup milk. So far my favorites have been raspberry and blueberry yogurt.
-Cereal
This ranges from Frosted Flakes, Lucky Charms, Cheerios, Frosted Mini-Wheats whatever has a good sugar intake. I can't help my sweet tooth!

Lunch:
-Fruit/Veggies
I like to pack several fruits and veggies ranging from nectarines, peaches, raspberries, bananas, apples, kiwi, carrots, grapes, or cucumbers. They're nice healthy snacks that are also refreshing and I don't have to worry about how much of them I eat.
-Cheese
I'm a total cheese freak and have string cheese on the daily. I'm not kidding. I think the only meal it's missing from is my breakfast. I love Colby-Jack sticks- they're so delicious!
-Snacks
I'll add granola bars, gummy bears, cookies, pretzels, and chips to each lunch. It's nice having something crunchy and sweet each day. 
-Sandwich
Each night I pack all of my snacks and make a sandwich fresh each morning. Turkey is my favorite meat and I don't really venture outside of that although I do like other sandwich meats. Eating a turkey sandwich can get boring on a daily basis so I switch it up by using spicy/brown mustards, banana peppers, adding salt/pepper, and using different cheeses. Right now my favorite is Sargento's Colby-Pepper Jack. 

What does your day look like? Do you eat breakfast and pack a lunch too? 

FTC: I received my choice of Sargento cheese complimentary for review from Influenster. All opinions are my own and based off my own experience. The cheese is bomb.

3 Things

Just a random post I put together with some of my favorite goodies. A few of these I've been wanting to blog about (like the beauty items and the TV shows) and figured I'd throw all my favorites together in one post. Sometimes posts like these are the best to read because you get some great suggestions (trust me on the TV shows and the food combos). Feel free to leave some of your favorites and things you've been loving down below (especially if it's a Netflix series)!

3 Foods I Love
1. Pom Juice and Simply Lemonade combined
2. Pretzel Crisps in Garlic Parmesan and Brie
3. Pineapple Juice

3 Beauty Items I Love
1.Nyx Cosmetics Illuminator in Magnetic
2.Nyx Cosmetics Cream Blush in Boho Chic
3.China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasy

3 Clothing Items I love
1. Kiki La'Rue Lenore Infinity Scarf in Mint
2. Mossimo Supply Co. Juniors V Neck Tee
3. Forever 21 Essential Pleated Peplum Top

3 TV Shows I Love
1. Orange is the New Black
2. House of Cards
3. The Closer

Spice Up Your Life- Delish Recipe!

So we all know around here that I'm a one trick pony when it comes to cooking good food. Salmon is my specialty! Now I can cook other things that are edible and good, but fish is my dish. If you come over for dinner that's what I'll make you. It's quick, easy, and I always get compliments on it. However, once you've had my fish I can't invite you over for dinner anymore because it's kind of embarrassing to always serve the same thing. I mean, I cook fish all different kinds of ways, but still, salmon EVERY TIME? So I took to Pinterest to find a good chicken dish for the hubs and any future dinner guests. I found this pin for Honey-Lime Chicken Skewers from Kitchen Meets Girl and tried it right away.

Here's what you need, directly from her site:

• 3 tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• juice of one lime
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1-2 teaspoon Siracha
• red pepper flakes, to taste (I left this out of my dish only because we didn't have any)
• 2 tablespoon cilantro
• 1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breasts (I used two frozen chicken breasts)

This is with fish- more on that below

Now, Ashley made hers into kabobs that look amazing in the picture, but I hate kabobs. I feel like the meat always gets dried out. So I mixed together the ingredients into a square dish and plopped my thawed chicken breasts in. Then I cut up some red, yellow, and orange peppers for fun and added that to it. I let the food marinade on each side for one hour. The above ingredients did not make enough for my chicken to be completely covered in my dish so that's why I had to flip them. I did an hour marinade on each side because I had the time, but I think 30 minutes would also work.

Then I put the entire mixture into a pan with the lid on the stovetop set to Medium. The chicken cooked really fast and I flipped them over at around 7 minutes. With the lid on, all the moisture was held inside and the meat was so juicy! Matt and I absolutely loved this dish! He even asked me to make the marinade for his hunting trip next week. It was delicious and so tasty, the peppers were an amazing addition! I'm not a big chicken person so to have a good marinade under my belt will help spice up plain boring chicken.

Since we loved the marinade so much, I had to try it on salmon right (first pic above)? Well, it was okay. It's so dang good on chicken I thought it would be good on everything. Salmon has enough flavor by itself, the marinade didn't compliment it very well. Hey, I tried it right? Now you know too.

So if you're bored with chicken, I couldn't recommend this enough- it is so dang good! I've made it each week since I first tried the recipe. Yummmmmy!

What are some of your favorite Pinterest recipes? Isn't is the best when they turn out well?

Lactation Cookies

Breastfeeding is really important to me and I hope to b/f Eleanor for the first year and then start to wean. B/f is not easy though, it's hard work! I drink 2 cups of Mother's Milk a day, take fenugreek, and I made these lactation cookies that I'm going to be sharing with you guys. I've had a hard time increasing my supply and am meeting with a Lactation Consultant this week to help me build it up and ensure that our little Ellie is getting enough. I know there's only so much I can do and if we go to just formula or have to supplement that I didn't fail, it just didn't work out as awesomely as I had envisioned.

Anyways, from all the talk amongst my mommy friends and in my Mommy and Me group (which is so awesome, if you have the opportunity to join one do it! Meeting women with babies close in age to your own and having somewhere to go to vent, celebrate and learn has been an incredible experience to me. Check out your local Healthy Beginnings to see what's available in your area) lactation cookies is one way to help build your supply and they are delicious! My father-in-law couldn't stop eating them, and not he didn't lactate as a result. They're super easy too!

The recipe I used is from Belly Belly:

INGREDIENTS:
1 cup butter or margarine
1 & 1/2 cups brown sugar
4 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons flaxseed meal
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
3 cups oats, thick cut if you can get them
1 cup or more chocolate chips/sultanas/almonds/macadamia nuts
2-4 tablespoons of brewers yeast

DIRECTIONS:
Preparation time is around 15 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 356F.
Mix together 2 tablespoons of flaxseed meal and water, set aside for 3-5 minutes.
Cream (beat well) margarine and sugar. Add eggs one at a time, mix well.
Stir flaxseed mixture and add with vanilla to the margarine mix. Beat until blended.
Sift together dry ingredients, except oats and chips. I actually used a freaking sifter and it took forever, next time I'm just going to mix it!
Add to margarine mixture. Stir in oats then chips.
Scoop or drop onto a greased or lined baking tray. Because the dough is a little crumbly, it might be easier if you use a scoop.

Bake for 8-12 minutes. I used a cookie scoop and it made about 30 cookies and I ate the rest of the dough.

On their site they have a ton of ideas for variations (I used white chocolate chips for mine), ways to make it healthier and some more tips/tricks. So be sure to check out their recipe!

I found the flaxseed and brewer's yeast at my local Sprout's shop, but any health food store should work. The brewer's yeast is the magic ingredient that helps your supply and it's a huge freaking tub that I had to buy because I couldn't find anything smaller, but I plan on putting it into my smoothies and other food. I mean why not right? If you know another pregger, I would suggest splitting those ingredients because there's just so much of it! I know I'll be giving mine away or sharing it with whoever is interested!

Hope you're all having a great week, I have an awesome giveaway later this week for you ladies!

My Go-To Recipes + Must-Reads

So we all know that I'm not a big cook, anything I do cook I try to always document and post about it because I consider it a small miracle. Here, I share 3 of my favorite recipes, ones I've made over and over again and have shared the recipes with guests- that's my sign that they're just as delicious to others as they are to me!

Here are some of my favorite recipes and links to past posts about them.

Dessert/Breakfast: Sopapilla Cheesecake 

(post and recipe here)

I got this recipe from a friend and made it the following weekend, where I shared the recipe with three people at the party. So in one week, the recipe was shared a total of 4 times! That's a winner in any book. It's so delicious, easy to make, and is great like I said for breakfast (with berries) or dessert (berries and ice cream).

Drinks: Starbucks Passion Iced Tea

Regardless of the time of year, I'm a sucker for a good lemonade. This drink is one of my favorites and I make it at home and at work all the time.
Ingredients: 
Tazo Passion Tea bags (you can buy the individual bags for a single glass or the pitcher bags for home)
Simply Lemonade (I'm sure any lemonade would work, but this one is my favorite)

Optional: 
Sweetener (the hubs and I bought the sweetener straight from Starbucks, but I usually make it without)

Directions:
 Depending on whether or not you're making the individual/pitcher size, bring half of the amount water needed to boil and let tea bag seep. The longer you let it sit, the stronger the flavor.
(I also use all cold water and let it seep when I'm being lazy, still tastes great)
Once the tea is ready, add the remaining half of water to it cold.
Mix in lemonade- I usually add a 1/3 of lemonade to whatever size my drink holder is.
Ex: 12 oz glass = 8 oz tea and 4 oz of lemonade.
Sweeten to taste.
There's no real science behind it, although I'm sure Starbucks has one, I just kind of mix it to my liking. You make enjoy it with more/less lemonade. I think the Simply Lemonade is sweet enough on its own too that no sweetener is needed.

Dinner: Spicy Mustard Salmon

If I'm being honest, when it comes to a really good dinner, I'm a one trick pony. Yes I can make a few things, but the one thing I can make that's delicious is salmon. Any seafood really, but salmon especially. 

Ingredients:

Thawed salmon

Spicy Mustard

Honey

Lemon

Soy Sauce

Directions: 

For each salmon steak, I drizzle the above ingredients and let it marinade for at least 30 minutes. You can put all the salmon together in a cake pan to marinade or marinade them in a zip lock depending on how many you're making. There's no science to the amounts I use, just make sure that both sides of the fish get doused in everything. 

Put salmon in cold oven, set temperature to 350 and bake 20 minutes. Keep the lemon wedges/halves and cook them along side of the salmon for extra flavor.

Anytime we've had people over for dinner this is what I serve and it's always been a big hit. It's super simple and the flavors mix together giving it an awesome flavor. I like to serve it with a salad and veggies (usually asparagus and peppers).

What are some of your favorite recipes? 

 

Question of the month from Kristen: "What's your go-to recipe? Drink, dinner, dessert, whatever..."

• Alison*Elle - Alison is giving white denim another go this season
• Beautygirl24 - Target did it again - Noelle found the perfect Summer wedges from the Sam & Libby collection.
• Ella Pretty - Ella's got a brand new bag!
• Love, Lipstick & Pearls - Kristen is all ready for baby's arrival and shared her nursery with us.
• Schnelle Couture - Danielle talks makeup and highlights where to save and where to splurge.
• Sequins and Stilettos - Skylette has finally found her perfect striped skirt!
• The Currently Obsessed - Mehreen organized Makeup drawers.

Pinterest Recipe: Sopapilla Cheesecake

Ok, so this post is kind of a cheat because I wasn't the first to make it, but I had to share it! The hubs and I had my carpool buddy and his wife over (they are amazing and we can't wait to hang out again!) for dinner and asked them to bring a dessert. They brought the most amazing, mouth watering dish EVER. I could have eaten the entire pan as a meal. I couldn't let them go without getting the recipe and it was actually the first time she had tried tried it herself and said it was super easy. Ummm, I'm totally going to make this all the dang time.

Here's the recipe from this Pinterest Pin:

2 cans pillsbury butter crescent rolls
2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese (softened)
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup melted butter
Cinnamon & sugar

Unroll and spread 1 can crescent rolls on bottom of un-greased 9x13 pan. If you half this recipe, it fits in an 8x8 pan. Combine softened cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla. Spread mixture over crescent rolls.

Unroll and spread remaining crescent rolls over mixture. Spread melted butter over the top and sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes.

They served it with vanilla ice cream and strawberries and I nearly had a heart attack. Delicious! It's also great as a breakfast item as well (but skip the ice cream). They were sweet enough to leave us the extra so the hubs and I had it for dessert another night and it was perfect reheated, tasted just as good as it was fresh. Gotta love food that works that tastes just as good when reheated.

This weekend we celebrated Mother's Day with my husband's side of the family on Saturday with a brunch at our home. Matt and I made this dish and it was gone in seconds. The cream cheese/sugar/vanilla mix is tasty and so melty and creamy right out of the oven. I ended up giving the recipe to all three of my sister in laws! Here's how ours looked on Saturday:

Thank you again guys for the delicious treat and recipe! It's my new go-to.

InstaLately Link Up 20

Best.Mail.Day.Ever. I LOVE Image Skincare products (see my reviews here) and am so happy to try their Body Spa Cell.U.Lift Firming Body Lotion and Prevention+ Daily Tinted Moisturizer SPF 30. Image Skincare has the most amazing products and I can't wait to review these two for you guys!

I posted this for Throwback Thursday #tbt of some of my best girlfriends on a Vegas trip a few years back. Oh how I miss my blond hair and extensions!

The hubs loves SPAM, but I just can't get on bored. I just don't trust canned meats and he made me try it- my verdict: it's ok. I would never want it again or buy it, but he picked some more up when he went to the grocery store -__-

The hubs and I go to the stores the day after every holiday to pick up our favorite sweets, this is the last of our Reese's PB Eggs and they were delicious. The holiday shapes have such a better taste than regular cups, they have a better PB to chocolate ratio I think.

I saw this beauty blender at Target and had to share. So many beauty gurus swear by these sponges and you can find it for a great price now! I didn't buy it myself because I use a brush for my foundation. Have you try this sponge before?

My sister found the perfect pink from Sally Hansen! It's Sweet Talker and for the life of me I haven't be able to find it anywhere. I'll just use hers until I see her next, he he he. This is three coats- the first coat is pretty sheer, but it builds to a pretty shade.

My new F21 top from this post, my lollysheep chain necklace, and day 2 hair/curls. 

I saw this quote on Pinterest, and it's exactly how I've been feeling about the changes about to happen in our lives.