Tuesday, August 14, 2012

2 New Popcorn Treats!


I love trying new popcorn dessert recipes!  A year or two ago I tried a Cookies and Cream popcorn recipe and it was so good!  Ever since then I've loved trying other popcorn recipes.  I have two new ones for you today.  One is from the blog, The Domestic Rebel and the other one I created myself.


First, start by making home made popcorn on your stove.  (I'll post the best way to make homemade popcorn at the end of this post.)  Since I knew I was making two separate recipes I made a really big batch of popcorn and then separated it into two bowls.


The first recipe is for "Biscoff Cookie" popcorn.  YUM!  Melt about 1 cup of white chocolate in the microwave, stopping to stir it every 30 seconds.  Once it's melted, add 1/4 cup Biscoff Cookie Butter and stir together.


Then, crush up 1 cup of Biscoff Cookies.


Mix everything together!


Yum!  So good!  Me and my sisters thought it tasted kind of similar to Golden Graham cereal. :)


And now it's time for my creation! My sister's birthday is coming up soon but she will be away at school so I needed to go ahead and make her birthday treat before she left.  She loves coffee and anything coffee flavored.  A couple months ago I stared seeing commercials for Duncan Hines Frosting Creations Flavor Mixes and I noticed they had a Mocha flavor.  I knew I wanted to make something using the Mocha mix but I wasn't sure how yet.  I decided to make mocha flavored popcorn!


Melt about 1 cup of white chocolate chips in the microwave and stir in the mocha mix.  Drizzle it all over the popcorn and then sprinkle mini dark chocolate chips all over the popcorn and stir well.


Yummy!


All ready for our Sister Sleepover!  Since my sister was leaving for school soon we decided to have a little sleepover before she left.  We ate popcorn and cake and watched one of our favorite childhood movies: Watcher In The Woods!  Has anyone else seen that movie?!  We LOVED that movie!  That's the movie we would watch anytime we had friends over when we were young.  It was SO scary!  We have all the lines memorized!  Good times!  :)


*To make homemade popcorn: In a large pot over the stove top pour in coconut oil (or whichever oil you choose), enough to cover the bottom of the pot.  Put a few kernels in the pot and cover with the lid.   Turn the temp to high.  Once the 3 kernels pop, you know the temperature is high enough so now you can add the rest of the kernels.  I find that usually 1/4 cup of kernels is enough for about two people.  Dump in the kernels and let them pop!  While their popping, cut of a tablespoon of butter and melt it in the microwave.  Once the popcorn is finished popping, drizzle it with butter and some salt!  Enjoy!

Southwestern Salad


I've got a new yummy recipe for you!  Dave and I ate this all last week!  The directions are going to be kind of hard to explain because I don't like my salads "pre-mixed".  If I'm packing a salad for lunch I like to bring everything in separate containers and then put it all together once I'm at work.  Since I knew that's how I liked my lunch I made this meal accordingly.


First, make the dressing.  You will need:
1/2 cup mayo
2/3 cup greek yogurt
1/2 tbsp ranch seasoning
2 tbsp taco seasoning
The original recipe (which can be found here: Pearls, Handcuffs, and Happyhour ) called for equal parts ranch seasoning and taco seasoning but I'm not a fan of ranch.  You can alter it however you want.
Next, mix the following ingredients:
1-2 green peppers, chopped
1 can (15oz) black beans, rinsed
1 can sweet corn
4 green onions, chopped


Here's where I get picky.  If you're normal and you don't mind everything being mixed together, here is where you would add the tomato to the mix.  I thought the tomato might make everything else turn really water and therefore soggy so I kept the tomato separate.  (the pic above is from one time when I was eating it so the tomato was in the mix)  So, if you're normal, now you would add in:
2 roma tomatoes, diced
1/4 cup cilantro


Next add:
2 avacados
Once again, I didn't want to add all of the avocado to the mix because I knew this meal was going to make a lot of servings (I think it ended up making about 6 servings) and I didn't want to be eating brown avocados for my left over salad lunches.


Add your veggie mix to a bowl of mixed greens.


Add some chopped/shredded chicken.  I like to use a rotisserie chicken.


Then drizzle on your dressing!  Viola!


And here's another fun workout for ya!  Again, I found this on Pinterest but I modified it to fit my physical needs/time allotment.  First, I changed it from a timed (30 seconds) workout to a rep (20-25 reps) workout.  I'm not sure what a donkey kick is or a flutter kick so I just kind of picked out the ones I wanted to do.  This is how my workout turned out:

- 25 Squat Jumps
-25 Lunge Jumps (forward) (alternating)
-25 Deadlifts (hlding 12.5 pounds in each hand)
-25 Froggy Glute Lifts
-25 Lunge Jumps (lateral) (alternating)

I usual repeat this routine twice after I've already done my lifting for my legs.  You can just do this once or maybe try 3 rounds.  It's up to you!

Have fun!  :)

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

My Week In Photos!

Hey there!
 How was everyone's week?  Mine was busy as usual!  Here are some highlights. . . 


I spent a lot of time working on my friends going away gift.  That was a plain white box that I added glitter to!  It was time consuming and messy!


And here is the actual gift - nail polishes that spell out "Ill Miss Ya!"


Dave and I discovered this little Froyo place when went to Ikea to buy a new bed for our Guest Room. A Cherry On Top is by far my favorite froyo place!  They work with a Bakery so they have things like funfetti cake (above), brownies, apple pie, etc. that you can add to your froyo!  It was SO good!


Me and my sisters took my nephews to the pool, finally!  We've been trying to go all Summer but something would always come up!  So glad we finally got to go!  They LOVED it!


I ended the weekend with my good friends Ryan and Becky's wedding!  So much fun!




How could I forget - Sunday was my dad's birthday so I baked him this chocolate and clementine cake!  I will post the recipe soon!



Hope you all have a great week ahead!  :)

Sunday, August 5, 2012

Fun Workout!


Hey all! 
 I wanted to share some workouts with you guys that I've been liking for while now.  I was going to put all three workouts in this one post but it got too long.  I'll just post one for today and then I post the other two in some future posts.  This first workout is a "ladder" meaning they Count up and/or down. (You'll see below) I first saw this workout on Pinterest but then I modified them to fit my needs.  

Here's how I changed it:

- Instead of just squats I do squat jumps.
- Instead of just lunges I do alternating lunge jumps.
- Instead of just toe touches I do dead lifts holding 12.5 lb. dumbbells.
- I didn't change anything about the wall sit.
- And for the jumping jacks I pretty much changed everything.  Instead of 100 I went with 60.  And instead of jumping jacks I did "starbursts".  Standing with feet together, bend down in a low squat and touch the outside heels with your hands and then jump up and make an X with your arms and legs.  It's pretty much the same position as a jumping jack but in the air instead of on the ground.  These are WAY harder than a normal jumping jack.  Normally when I do this routine I can only do 30 starbursts and then the other 30 have to be jumping jacks.

This whole routine usually takes about 25 minutes.  I usually do some weightlifting too to complete the workout.  You can alter this workout however you like.


In other news . . . our "Summer" pictures for the 4 Seasons collage I was telling you about are finished!  Here are a few . . .










Pretty sure this last one had to have been when I saw the dead fish floating by!  Haha!


I think they turned out great!  I'm so excited to do our Fall pictures!  And I'm so excited to put the first picture up in our house for our collage!  If any of you are in the tri-state area and are in need of a photographer definitely check out Sarah Anne Photography.  She does such a great job! :)