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!  :)

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!  :)

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! :)

Olympics! And other fun shenanigans!

Hi there!

So, I'm currently watching the London Olympics Opening Ceremony while I type this.  This is the first time I've ever watched an opening ceremony and I must say it's pretty cool!  I would have loved to be a volunteer!  How fun would it be to be a part of that?  All that fun music and dancing?!  So fun!

I have no new recipes for you today :(  So sorry!  I didn't make or try anything new this week.  But don't worry, I should have at least four new recipes in August for sure because I have four family members or friends with birthdays in August!  So there will probably be at least 4 new dessert recipes!  :)  I don't like letting so much time go by in between posts so I thought I post something brief (mainly pictures) of what I've been up to recently. . . 

Dave and I ran in the Color Me Rad 5k!

My hair got the worst of it!  Haha!

Throughout the 3 mile race, there were 5 stations where colored corn starch would be thrown on you!

Dave got it good!  Haha!

YUM!  We went to my cousins wedding this week and it was such a great time! It was country and southern and just fun!  Not to mention, the food was amazing!!  Some of the best wedding food I've ever had!

The pulled pork was out of this world!  I didn't even put any sauce on it because it didn't need it!

And how cute is their cake!?  It was equally as tasty too!

Me and my sisters . . .

And me and Dave!

I also watched the Bachelorette Finale this week and was so excited that Emily picked Jef!  He was one of my favorites from the very beginning!  He reminded me a lot Dave in that he was kind of quiet and had his own sense of style.  Plus he was really gentle and sweet! <3

Of course I have to mention my sweet nephews!  I can't get enough of them!

It's been yet another busy (but fun!) week!  I'll catch you all on the flipside!  Have a great weekend!

2 New Recipes! Dinner and Dessert!

Hi there!  I have two delicious recipes for you today!  That's what happens when I have two days off from work in a row!  Monday morning I got a text from my boss that I didn't need to come in that day - sweet!!!!  I will ALWAYS welcome an unexpected day off!  I knew right away that I was going to spend some of my free time in the kitchen!  I saw these cake batter pretzel bites on The Domestic Rebel

blog and have been wanting to make them ever since!  I see SO many cake batter recipes on Pinterest but not many of them really draw me in but these sure did!  I think it's because of their sweet and salty combo!  I love that!

Start with one box of Funfetti Cake Mix and 1 stick of softened butter.  I just used my hands to mix it all together.

Once the batter is mixed well, take little handfuls and roll them into a ball.

Start making little pretzel sandwiches by squishing the dough balls in between two pretzels.

Place all your pretzel sandwiches on a baking sheet lined with wax paper and freeze for at least an hour.

Melt some white chocolate morsels in the microwave.  Dip the pretzel-wiches in the chocolate and then into the sprinkles.  Place them on the wax paper lined baking sheet and put them back in the freezer to harden.  It's super hot out here in KY so I've been keeping mind in the freezer or refrigerator. They are SO good!  This made 56, no 58 (I forgot I ate 2 in the process of making them) little sandwiches.  I think it all depends how big your batter balls are though!

Next up: Ravioli with Summer Vegetables!  Yum!  This was tonight's dinner!  It was very easy to make!  (I apologize for only taking 3 pictures.  Whenever I make a recipe for the first time I seem to get really involved and forget to take pics)  Anyway, start by boiling 20 oz of refrigerated cheese ravioli according to directions on package.  Meanwhile chop up 2 yellow squash and 4 tomatoes off the vine.

As the ravioli is cooking heat two teaspoons of olive oil in a skillet along with 2 cloves of minced garlic.  Drain and rinse a 15 oz can of chickpeas then add them to the skillet along with the squash and tomatoes.  Add 1/2 teaspoon Thyme and 1/4 teaspoons black pepper.  Cook on medium - high heat for about 7 - 8 minutes or until the vegetables are heated through.

While the veggies are cooking shred 4 cups of spinach.  Once ravioli is finished drain it and return it to the pot.  Add the cooked veggies and the spinach to the pot and mix everything together.  This picture doesn't show it but we also added a handful of parm cheese!  The parm cheese really made this dish!  It was very good, very quick and easy, and pretty healthy!  Dave and I will be making this again soon!  Oh, and it made about 5 or 6 servings.

Enjoy!