Mexican Rainbow Salad

Happy FRIDAY! :) Got big plans for the weekend? Whirlwind. That's what life is - how can it be he last Friday of February 2014 already?!?!

SO. This is a Mexican Rainbow Salad from What2Cook.

There IS lettuce underneath all those toppings. :) This was a huge hit with our family; we have such different dietary needs and tastes! With this salad, though, we could choose which rainbow stripes we wanted more or less of. Kenn's a HUGE salad fan, period - he loves anything that tastes fresh. :) And he loves corn. :D The dressing is good, too - we left it on the side, because none of us are huge dressing lovers. I highly recommend this salad - leftovers are easy to get rid of, too! (Make fajitas! Eat more salad! :D )

OK, I'm outta here. Have a WONDERFUL weekend! Be blessed - and thank you for reading my blog. :)

Bacon and Spinach Quiche

Welcome to yet another Wednesday! Brrrrrrr. Will this be the last dip into freezing weather for Middle Tennessee? I don't know - but it's been a long, sustained winter for many people. Everywhere I go, people are talking about how ready they are for spring. And they mean it - they usually only have about a few days, people say it as soon as it drops below 40, and then it's warm again and many people love it. YUCK. :D

ANYWAY. :D

There's nothing like a good breakfast. Although I hate eating early in the morning. And by the time I'm hungry, it's usually too late for me to cook anything. :D I planned, this time, and had everything I needed. When I asked Kenn if he'd like breakfast, he eagerly agreed. So, I made this Bacon and Spinach Quiche from Mr. Breakfast.com.

This definitely gets a YES, PLEASE. I used a store-bought crust. If I had to make the crust and roll it out for breakfast, I'm not sure I'd ever do it!!! :D I'm not sure I used heavy cream; I think I used half-and-half. (I did this one about a month ago, and my memory's not what it used to be! :D ) Other than that, I did exactly what the recipe said to.

YUM. Healthy, for the most part - especially since I didn't use heavy cream :D - with fresh spinach. Warm, and Kenn LOVED it. So did another family member who came to visit! :)

OK. I'm outta here. It's an incredibly busy week - but such a great one! I'm getting to spend time with friends this week. I'm gonna be all tired out, but it will be a GOOD tired. :D

Have a wonderful day, friends! Be BLESSED!

Manicure Monday - ombre

Welcome to the last Monday in February! The older I get, the faster time flies. :)

Today's manicure is brought to you by my dear husband, who bought me a mini ombre set for Christmas. This is my first time using it, and I think it's really fun! :)

"Ombre" is simply gradients of the same color. So one nail gets painted one shade, etc., etc. It's usually lightest to darkest - but I didn't know how dark the glitter would be, so it's kind of out of place. :) It's a fun manicure to wear because of the different colors being in the same family. When they're all different colors, it's called a "skittle" manicure. :) I'm looking forward to doing one of those, probably closer to summer. Although it MIGHT have to happen with pastels in the spring... :D

OK, I'm outta here!! Have a wonderful day! Be BLESSED! :)

Brownie Bundt with Coconut Cream Cheese Filling

HAPPY FRIDAY! I hope you've had a good week - but I'm betting you're ready for the weekend. :D

Today's review is this recipe for brownie bundt cake with coconut cream cheese filling from Vanilla Sugar Blog.

I won't make you wait on this. This recipe would need to much tweaking for me to give it anything but a NO, THANK YOU. :( I was SO disappointed! I mean, it's three of my favorite things: brownies, coconut, AND cream cheese! I sprayed and sprayed the bundt pan, but the brownie STILL stuck horribly. The coconut and cream cheese mixture had very little taste, and added nothing but contrast and texture. I hate throwing food out, but I did toss most of this cake - after taking it to a pitch-in (or pot luck, depending on where you're from! :) )

SO. If you tweak it enough and really love it, let me know! Or if you decide to try it and love it, tell me - maybe I just did something wrong. :D

Have a WONDERFUL weekend! BE BLESSED!!!

Jo Mama's World Famous Spaghetti

Good Wednesday morning! :) I hope you're having a great week. It's been a rough week around here; lots of loss of loved ones of people I deeply care about. Please pray for the King family and for the Ingram family. Thank you!

Today's review is for Jo Mama's World Famous Spaghetti from Food.com; we just used the sauce recipe. :)

We're trying to control more of what we eat, where we can do so fiscally-responsibly. And we decided to try making our own sauce; we even froze it in useable portions, so we could use it whenever we needed.

It was a very pretty sauce. We let it simmer in the slow cooker longer than the recipe said; I think our onion was bigger than necessary, and I really felt like it needed to cook into the sauce a bit more. Besides, a good sauce is nice and thick, right? :D

We also didn't add the meat. I wanted to be able to use it for anyone, even vegans or vegetarians. And it freezes flatter without meat. :D

It was a really good recipe. My dad thought it was too "spicy", but I thought it was really good! Of course, season it to your taste. :)

OK, I'm outta here! Have a wonderful day! Be BLESSED!

Manicure Monday! :)

Happy Monday! :) Did you have a good weekend?

So, Kenn and I don't make a big fuss out of Valentine's. Seriously. My roses? Already dying - which he's not too happy about, because of how expensive they are. He bought them the night before Valentine's. Anyone see the connection? :D

ANYWAY. For church on Sunday, I wanted to do something fun. So I did a light pink gradient - the darkest pink is down by my cuticles, fading to light pink at the tips. Then, I put fun little heart rhinestones - which I got from Amazon.com with the gift certificate my sister and BIL gave me for Christmas :) - on them. Having a little extra bling is a lot of fun. :D

OK, I'm outta here. :) Have a wonderful day! Be BLESSED!!!

Happy Valentine's Day!

This is what I made for Kenn for Valentine's Day! :)

You know that English toffee I posted earlier this year? Well, Kenn really likes it. So I decided to use the new silicone mold I got for Christmas to make it extra-special for him; I put almonds on top of some, and just left the almond bark coating on top plain on the other half.

I used these little mini loaf liners to stack them in, four to a cup. Then, I stacked THOSE into a gusseted cello bag and used a piece of retired Stampin' Up! ribbon to tie it together. :)

I made him a card, too; you can go to Lori's Stamping Spot to see it!

I hope you've had a good day. I really don't like Valentine's Day - I never have - but we celebrate any chance we get. :D Kenn had to work tonight, so I worked on food for tomorrow's jewelry party! If you are in the area, it's at 2 at my house - and if you want to place an order, LMK before then so I don't close out my party. I'd love to get two more outside orders!!! :) Anyway. I have lots of things now to photo for you tomorrow; hopefully I'll be able to post a little more on-time. We're still having equipment problems. :/

Have a wonderful weekend!!!!! Be BLESSED!

Chocolate Cake Donuts

HAPPY FRIDAY! Have you had a good week? Have you got plans for your weekend? Or are you going to REST? :)

Today's recipe review is of these Chocolate Cake Donuts from Mandy's Recipe Box. :) The one I won the organic coconut sugar from, remember?

This recipe was a definite YES, PLEASE! I loved the fact it was healthier than most recipes, using the organic coconut sugar, being baked, and so little fat in the whole thing!

I received a donut pan for Christmas, which was such a great thing! (It was on my Amazon.com wish list. :D ) These were the first donuts I'd made in it.

I don't keep much frosting around in the house; I really don't like most premade frostings anymore. They taste all chemically to me. But for this one, I did have a can of coconut pecan frosting in the closet - and German chocolate cake is one of Kenn's favorites. So I put about half a tablespoon of frosting on half of them, and spread it thinly. The donuts were a tiny bit dry without anything, and that amount of frosting was perfect for us!

Kenn said they were "VERY TASTY!!!" :D I love it when he actually says something like that; he's not too descriptive when it comes to food. :D

I hope you'll get a chance to try these. I think you'll enjoy how easy they are, how quickly they come together, and how tasty they are without causing too much guilt. :D

Have a WONDERFUL weekend! Be BLESSED!

Review: Organic Coconut Sugar

Happy Wednesday! :D

Sorry I'm really late in getting this to you; I procrastinated for a while, and then had computer issues. But I'm here now! :D

Today's post is for Madhava Organic Coconut Sugar, which I won in a giveaway from Mandy's Recipe Box!

If you've never gone to visit Mandy's blog when I've reviewed her recipes before, you're missing out. Seriously. Her recipes are usually not too complicated, which I love - there are blogs from some people with recipes I'll likely never try. They have too many steps, and too much work for something I shouldn't eat anyway. :D (Friday, I'll review the recipe she posted that made me WANT to try this sugar!)

I really liked this product. It's NOT regular ol' table sugar, but it doesn't taste green to me, which stevia does. I've used it in several recipes, and I can't tell the difference in texture or flavor, which is a HUGE plus! My brother-in-law and two of my nieces were here last week; they have a LOT of food allergies, and do as much clean eating in general as they can. I wasn't here for breakfast, but I heard they happily used it on their oatmeal - and had several helpings. :D

I haven't priced it yet; I keep forgetting while I'm at the grocery. But I think I will definitely be keeping some in the pantry. If all of its claims about sourcing and glycemic index are true, I'll gladly use this whenever I can! Good for me AND good for the planet? Thank you! :D

OK, I'm outta here! Have a WONDERFUL day. Be BLESSED!

Manicure Monday - Zoya Stripes

Welcome to another Monday - but the FIRST Monday in February! Are you ready!??! :)

Today's manicure is one I came up with all by myself. :D After looking at so many pictures, I wanted to do something simple but different; Zoya had a fantastic sale on their website a couple of weeks ago. I got six polishes for the (rather high) cost of shipping only, so we jumped on the bandwagon. Kenn "ordered" three, and I ordered three. :D What you see are two of them; the lighter color is Dove, and the dark sparkly one is Cassedy.

I used striping tape to make designs on three of my nails; I painted over four of the nails on each hand with the Cassedy, then removed the striping tape to reveal my designs. :)

Yes, that IS Kenn and his big ol' lens you see in the reflection. :D

OK, I'm outta here! Have a wonderful day!! Be BLESSED - and try something new! :)