DIY Key Caps

September 27, 2012January 5, 2017Leave a comment

Sometimes things can be easy. Sometimes they can take 5 minutes and solve problems and be so easy. Sometimes we complicate things. Sometimes we add too many ingredients to a recipe. Sometimes we don’t wash our clothes for far too long so that the folding is so overwhelming we avoid it until clothes piles become clothes mountains when we could have made life easier by washing more often and folding little piles. Sometimes easy things are just nice.

Do you have a bunch of keys that all look the same and always have fumbly moments trying to open doors? Maybe you don’t have as many keys as I do, the Key-Keeper of Latimer-Webb, but I bet you have a couple at least! Stores sale these overpriced key caps to distinguish your keys. Well you know what else works? FREE! Tell me you don’t have a couple bottles of nail polish tucked away somewhere? Or 32, no judgement.

Pinterest taught us (my RAs and I) this trick. So clever! Clip your key bottoms with clothes pens to hold and for easy drying. Paint your key tops with different colors of nail polish. Add a glitter coat if you want for extra sparkle. Let them dry for an hour or so and they you have cute keys! Everything deserves a chance to be cute right? Even keys. Even better news… Removal and clean up is even easier! Nail polish remover and it’s totally gone, in case you have keys that don’t belong to you forever. Dipping them in one of the nail polish remover dippers works like a charm.

Originally I didn’t intend to do DIY posts for my blog, Kasia’s Kitchen. However, it just so happens that I love DIYing and most of my DIY projects happen in the kitchen. That stone marble behind the keys? That’s my new counter tops in my newly remodeled kitchen.

Chai Banana Bread Muffins

September 26, 2012January 5, 2017Leave a comment

I love chai. I love it so so much. I call it Christmas in a cup. I love it hot. I love it iced. I love it blended. I love it mixed with pumpkin spice. I LOVE IT! When I saw a Chai Banana Bread recipe, I instantly added it to my list of things to make. However… I’m calling mine Chai Inspired. The original recipe calls for cardamom, which is a chai ingredient, but dang it that stuff is expensive! My bananas were getting too brown before I could justify buying cardamon, so I improvised and they still taste spicy and yummy! I pretty much used her recipe but did a few healthy substitutes using yogurt butter, applesauce and whole wheat flour. I also made have jumbo muffins to break in my jumbo tin I hadn’t used yet and half regular sized. I enjoyed these for breakfast, snack and dessert all week. Or for three days because I ate them too quickly.

Chai Inspired Banana Bread Muffins

Original Recipe from Cinnamon Spice and Everything Nice.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups mashed ripe banana, 3-4
1/3 cup fat free Greek yogurt – I used vanilla but you could use plain too, or regular nonfat yogurt
3 tablespoons of applesauce
2 tablespoons Brummel and Brown yogurt butter
1/2 cup egg beaters (or 2 eggs)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
2 1/4 cups whole wheat flour (or whole wheat white flour or all purpose flour, I like whole wheat because of the nuttiness it adds and it’s a power food on WW)
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon vanilla

Cream Cheese Frosting (optional)

4 ounces cream cheese, softened
2 tablespoons butter, softened
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups powdered sugar

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Add banana, yogurt, apple sauce, butter and egg beaters to a mixing bowl and beat until blended. I used, as always, my stand mixer. Add brown sugar and white sugar and beat on medium until just blended. In a separate bowl mix flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, pumpkin pie spice, and nutmeg together. Add dry mixture a little bit at a time to the banana mixture and beat until just combined. Don’t over mix! Pour into lined muffin tins and bake for 45-60 minutes, checking often to see if a toothpick comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack in pan for 10 minutes. Remove from pan and cool completely before frosting.

For icing, beat butter and cream cheese together with a mixer until smooth. Add vanilla extract and beat. With mixer on low add the powdered sugar a little at a time until thick enough to spread. Top muffins with icing and enjoy! I also froze a few of mine because I was going out of town and they defrosted well too!

Pumpkiny Overnight Oats

September 26, 2012January 5, 2017Leave a comment

According to the dictionary, pumpkiny is not a word. However, for the glorious return of the awaited Pumpkin Spice Latte, also know as PSL, Starbucks used this word to describe the glorious goodness of the beverage. It was right there on my local Starbucks door in cute sticker art form. I trust Starbucks and their ability to make something a trend. Therefore, I shall adopt pumpkiny as a legit word despite the red squiggly line that tells me it isn’t (and dictionary.com). What does that red squiggly line know anyway?! It always underlines my name. (No offense red squiggly line, I do love and appreciate how you correct my typos.)

Moving on… I don’t have to tell you again how much I love pumpkin things. I probably also don’t have to tell you again how much I love Overnight Oats. We’ve definitely discussed the heck out of pumpkin, and I know I’ve discussed Overnight Oats a bit too. BUT… PUMPKIN OVERNIGHT OATS?! Yep. I’m even more in love. I went a little crazy and came up with four pumpkin versions of this easy make ahead breakfast.

I used my base recipe for each of these concoctions. 1/2 cup oats (non quick cooking), 1/2 cup skim milk, 1/2 cup nonfat vanilla yogurt (greek or regular). I bought the 32 ounce container of Dannon Light and Fit from Sam’s this time. It was super cheap for the big container, and I think I liked it a little better than the vanilla greek non fat yogurt.

Base Recipe:

1/2 cup old fashioned oats (NOT the instant kind)
1/2 cup skim milk
1/2 cup non fat vanilla yogurt

Directions:

Pour yogurt, oats and milk in a pint sized mason jar. Shake it until all ingredients are combined. At this point your jar will be about 3/4ths full.

Add pumpkin combo ingredients (listed below) of choice and stir until combined. Refrigerate overnight. They keep for 4 days.

Each base recipe is 7 points on Weight Watchers. Account for extra points for the different pumpkiny combinations.

Pumpkin Pie Oats

1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons of Skinny Pumpkin Fluff (1 package sugar free vanilla pudding, 2 – 8 oz containters of fat free coolwhip, 1 can of pumpkin puree, 1 teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice – I make this OFTEN to dip apples in. You won’t regret making this to have on hand for healthy snacks.)

Pumpkin Coconut Oats

1/4 cup pumpkin puree
3 tablespoons Homemade Marshmallow Cream (I had homemade on hand that I used for S’mores Dip last week. I never have and probably wouldn’t use normal jarred marshmallow fluff, but I just really liked the idea of marshmallow cream (egg whites, corn syrup, powdered sugar) and coconut, like a coconut cake! But you could also sub 2 tablespoons of sugar or Splenda.)
2 – 3 tablespoons sweetened coconut flakes

Pumpkin Pecan Oats

1/4 cup pumpkin puree
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1/4 cup chopped pecans

Chocolate Pumpkin Oats

1/4 cup pumpkin puree
1 1/2 tablespoons Nutella
1 teaspoon unsweetened cocoa powder

Meal Planning 101: Week 16-ish

September 25, 2012January 5, 2017Leave a comment

A day late! But, I was holding a baby for an hour and a half when I would have been typing/posting this last night. It was totally worth it and I don’t apologize! I mean look at him. His name is Kaiden and he’s two weeks old today. His mom is my friend, neighbor, and coworker. She is an RD with me and we both work in the same office. I saw her literally almost every day of her pregnancy. We all watched him grow in her belly and it’s so beautiful to be part of his and their lives. Last night I cooked them dinner and while they ate I held him!

Some vitally important updates totally relevant to the meal plan at the end of this post.

I FINALLY finished moving in to my apartment completely. It’s all organized and put together and beautiful. I even decorated for fall.

It was a simple thing, but this simple thing made me feel so much better about life! I meal planned and grocery shopped and even did Meal Prep Monday! You know all is right in my world when Meal Prep Monday happens. In addition to cooking for Kaiden’s Mommy & Daddy on Meal Prep Monday, I also created a whole pumpkin collection of Overnight Oats! Kaiden’s Mommy loves pumpkin as much as I do, so I made extras for her to have for breakfast this week. Recipes coming (by many requests) this afternoon!

Also, I think I’m going to always grocery shop at night now for a two reasons: less people AND baby carts! They never have the mini carts when I go in the day time. Totally worth the night Kroger visits.

Two more totally relevant (okay not really) factors to my meal planning success. I mean.. who doesn’t feel better about life and more organized when you achieve perfect curls (I got a body wave) and create a nail polish station/drawer?!

Now that I’ve done that thing where I push my life on you while talking about food, I’ll move on to the meal plan! And by the way, I only do this updatey push my life on you thing because as I type, I imagine sitting at my little back yard table, feeling the fall breeze, watching the leaves fall, wearing sweatshirts, eating something pumpkiny, and drinking coffee with you as we chat. You don’t mind right?

Sunday:

Leftover Crockpot Cranberry Chicken, Crock Pot Sweet Potato Casserole (washed & peeled potatoes, cut in half, cooked on low for 6 hours, mashed in crockpot with potato masher, added homemade marshmallow fluff, brown sugar, and pecans and cooked for another hour), and French Green Beans (green beans sauteed in French dressing)

Monday:

Crock Pot Chicken Taco Chili (with green onions, sour cream, and shredded cheddar for toppings), Perfect Brown Rice and Mexican Cornbread Muffins

Tuesday:

Leftover Chicken Chili

Wednesday:

Mushroom Stroganoff, Chopped Salad and Garlic Toast

Thursday:

Leftover Stroganoff

Friday:

Mango Salsa Tilpia, Wild Rice Pilaf and Butter Beans

Saturday:

Leftover Tilapia

Sunday:

Baked Corn Dog Muffins (inspired by this, but I’m going to use Jiffy and Turkey hotdogs), Broccoli and Balsamic Crash Potatoes (First I found this recipe then I saw this one and I couldn’t shake the idea of having corn dogs – basic kid food – and balsamic potatoes – classy grown up food – together! So I’m going to attempt to combine the two recipes.)

Extras:

I made the new baby family a Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Pizookie with Pumpkin Spice Cool Whip (mix a little pumpkin and some pumpkin pie seasoning into a container of fat free Cool Whip) and Homemade Chocolate Sauce.

Made another batch of skinny Pumpkin Fluff to eat with apples.

The aforementioned Pumpkin Overnight Oats for breakfast all week.

I’m feeling bakey, so other things are sure to come from this!

Real Life – Take 327

September 19, 2012January 5, 2017Leave a comment

Can I be real? Like super honest, spill all, embarrassingly real? I keep saying I’m going to post and then I avoid it because I’m ashamed to admit that there hasn’t be a meal plan in two weeks! And there isn’t one this week yet either. My meal plan looks like this…

Sunday:

Eat a cheapo brand lean microwaveable frozen meal that cost 88 cents at 9:30 pm because I forgot to eat while making 150 cake truffles until 3:00 am.

Monday:

Snack on leftover Chick-Fil-A nuggets (from a free meal coupon) and lots and lots of cookies from KT (former tribe aka a sorority if you aren’t from MC world).

Tuesday:

Eat at Chick-Fil-A (from a free meal coupon) again because I forgot to do something with that frozen chicken and was on call and handled an hour and a half long incident.

Wednesday:

Eat more food not cooked by me at a campus restaurant on an RA one on one biweekly date.

Thursday:

Do something with that frozen chicken.

Friday:

PAY DAY! BUY FOOD! PLAN MEALS! Or really… eat out because I won’t actually be able to buy groceries until Saturday.

Saturday:

Groceries! Cook something with newly acquired groceries.

Why the lack of creativity, motivation and mass amounts of Chick-Fil-A you ask? Well a few things.

A. I’m totally out of money. I accidentally got carried away buying cookie cutters and forgot I needed that money for gas to go out of town this past weekend and to buy massive amounts of supplies to make 150 cake balls (and other aforementioned baked goods) then had to dip into grocery money to purchase outrageously expensive gas to travel. I also got a little carried away buying things for my way over the top picnic to celebrate fall-like weather.

B. My life feels totally disorderly! I moved into my apartment at the end of July and life has been so hectic that I’m still not totally settled! Never fear, all the kitchen stuff was settled right away, but my room, hang up clothes, shoes, wall hangings, desk, and closet things are a disorderly mess. I know it’s just one thing, but this one thing makes me feel like nothing in my life is in control or balanced! Remember you agreed to read my embarrassingly real post, this is real! I’m a little OC (as in OCD without the D). When something is off balance, I feel a little crazy and overwhelmed and under-motivated.

C. I forget that I’m a grown up, you know I’m 29, almost 30. And sometimes I do crazy things like stay up all night with 19-21 year olds to win free Chick-Fil-A coupons for a year. Thus the massive amounts of Chick-Fil-A splurges and a really BAD (read unhealthy) back up plan when I don’t have meals planned!

Here’s the good news. Besides the fact that I have a wonderful job and the best RAs who love me and each other. I mean look… Even when we’re being silly and holding flowers for a pointless picture, our hands form an unknowing heart! But, God has blessed me with a really good friend that I can be way more real than I even am in this silly dramatic post. She understands me, life, our common life stage, and God pretty well. She reminds me that it’s okay that I’m a little crazy and don’t have it all together. She gets that my brain works in an overwhelmed all or nothing way and helps me see the big picture instead of all the little details that freak me out. She helps me plan baby steps that I need to make to get orderly in one thing so I can feel good about the rest and remember that I’m a lot better at life than I let Satan coax me into believe I am. So we made baby step plans! Saturday we FINISH settling my apartment so I can feel in order and be balanced! I know it sounds crazy, but this one thing will remotivate me to eat healthy, meal plan, exercise and spend time doing things that make me healthier, like spending time with Jesus and making time for myself. It’s officially on Google Calendar! That’s pretty solid.

Now that we got that out of the way, I feel better about posting other things that aren’t meal plans until next Sunday (or Monday morning) when a meal plan WILL appear!

The Week Baking Took Over

September 17, 2012January 5, 2017Leave a comment

I promise I haven’t forgotten my vow to come back! I have the pictures taken and in folders ready to be edited for so many things! Crock Pot Apple BBQ Chicken, Make Ahead Breakfast Sandwiches, Peach Cobbler Trifle, Fake Fried Okra, Single Serving Blueberry Cobbler, Pumpkin Blondies, Pumpkin Fluff, THE BEST Chocolate Chip Cookies in the world, Pumpkin Bread Pudding & Homemade Caramel Sauce, and Philly Cheese steak Sloppy Joes. I even have some DIY project pictures and how to posts lined up (magnetic chalkboard memo boards with DIY chalkboard paint). I promise! I haven’t forgotten. August 1st until about mid to late September is the busiest, most hectic, craziest time of my job/life EVER. In addition to nearly 4 weeks of training, school starting, students moving in, training and working out the kinks with RAs, and more, the non profit women’s ministry team I am on has our big two day event in September every year.

Okay, okay. You get it. I’ve been busy. But I always make time for a meal plan even in the midst of business right? So why not last week. Well… in the name of baking, I boycotted cooking. I only ate frozen things. From last Sunday to this Sunday I baked Pumpkin Butterscotch Blondies, Cinnamon Roll Cupcakes, Mamaw’s Strawberry Cake, Strawberry Cupcakes filled with White Chocolate Strawberry Ganache topped with Strawberry Cream Cheese Icing and adorned with candy pearls, AND 150 Strawberry White Chocolate Cake Truffles. Seriously.

The cake was devoured before I could take a picture, but it existed too! And though I’m not eating quite as healthy as I should, don’t think I made all of these things for myself! The blondies were for a fall picnic with friends. The cinnamon roll cupcakes were part of a cheer up gift for an RA. The cake was for an RA’s birthday. The strawberry cupcakes were part of teaching my best friend to make fancy cupcake, per her request. Let me interject to say, they were my most favorite cupcake ever! They had a vintage antique look. She iced them all! I was quite impressed with her first time icing skills which are already better than mine. I adorned them with pearls and it was fun! The never ending cake truffles are for my former social tribe (for non-MC folk – think sorority. Their big rush part (aka KT Coke Party) is tonight. Their colors are pink and silver so I made strawberry cake, white chocolate coating, pink drizzle, and silver gem sprinkles. Later today I will post a meal plan and then hopefully a few recipes posts this week!

Adding this picture just for fun and because seeing my Macy, her little sister Ellie, their parents, the ladies who I get to serve on Total Woman U with, and my Slidell church family was the highlight of my month and so good for my soul!

Overnight Oats

August 28, 2012January 5, 20173 Comments

You know how I have all those weird seasonal food aversions? No soup, grilled cheese sandwiches, or hot coffee unless it’s cold out. No watermelon, or any melons for that matter, unless it’s hot out. I also kind of feel this way about oatmeal. I LOVE a bowl of warm cozy oatmeal in the fall and winter, but I’m not a huge fan in the summer.

I kept seeing cold overnight oatmeal on Pinterest. I didn’t buy into it at first because I thought the texture might be weird and most recipes called for chia seeds, which freaked me out a little. Chia pets. Chair seeds. They are the same things. I’m not a picky eater, but that made me hesitant. Since then I’ve discovered it’s normal and okay to eat chia seeds. I’m not scared of them, but still haven’t tried them. Apparently they are really good for pregnant women. One day when/if I get pregnant, I’ll add chia seeds to my oats. For now I’ll save my self a trip to a health food store.

All that to say, try these! You don’t have to have the fancy chia seeds. My pregnant friend made them first (with chia seeds) and highly recommended them to me. We have similar food likes, so I trusted her recommendation. I’m in love! I got obsessed and game up with EIGHT flavor combinations. I’m gonna work on a pumpkin version next week. This is one thing that will not be a seasonal food. I love them for summer to take the place of hot oatmeal, but I love them so much I will definitely eat them year round.

Base Recipe:

1/2 cup old fashioned oats (NOT the instant kind)
1/2 cup skim milk
1/2 cup non fat Greek vanilla yogurt

Directions:

Pour yogurt, oats and milk in a pint sized mason jar. Shake it until all ingredients are combined. At this point your jar will be about 3/4ths full.

Add your toppings of choice, and shake until mixed. You may have to shake a little extra for some toppings. If it’s not combining well, stir in the toppings to combine all ingredients.

Refrigerate overnight. I made four at once and they were good up to 4 days. I don’t think I’d go more than 4 or 5 days because fruit and non-fat yogurt can produce excess water.

For pretty presentation you can save out tiny bits of your toppings to garnish the tops.

Each base recipe is 7 points on Weight Watchers. Extra points for different topping combinations are listed below.

Peach Melba

2 small nectarines (or peaches) diced
2 tablespoons raspberry jam

Add 2 points for jam.

Peaches and Cream

2 small nectarines (or peaches) diced
dash of cinnamon
drizzle of honey

Add 1 point for honey.

Strawberry Banana

1 medium banana, diced (I sliced it, halved the slices, then quartered the slices)
2 tablespoons strawberry jam

Add 2 points for jam.

Banana Nutella

1 medium banana, diced (I sliced it, halved the sliced, then quartered the slices)
1 tablespoon Nutella (one really is enough, Nutella is SWEET)

Add 3 points for Nutella.

Banana Peanut Butter

1 medium banana, diced (I sliced it, halved the sliced, then quartered the slices)
1 tablespoon reduced calorie peanut butter (2 if you like more)
drizzle of honey

Add 2 points for 1 tablespoon of peanut butter + 1/2 teaspoon of honey.

Banana Chocolate (for those who like chocolate, but not Nutella)

1 medium banana, diced (I sliced it, halved the sliced, then quartered the slices)
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
1 packet of Splenda

No extra points! 1 tablespoon of cocoa powder is zero. According to recipe builder you’d count the points for bananas in recipes, but I say if they’re free as a snack they are free as a topping!

Banana Nut

1 medium banana, diced (I sliced it, halved the sliced, then quartered the slices)
1 tablespoon honey
1/4 cup chopped nuts

Add 2 points for honey and how every many points for the nuts you choose.

Apple and Cinnamon

1 apple, diced
1/2 tablespoon brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Parkay spray butter

Saute diced apple with a little Parkay spray butter, cinnamon, and brown sugar until they loose a tiny bit of their crispness. Add 1 point for brown sugar.

Stir into base recipe. Shake to combine completely.

Meal Planning 101: Week Oops (14)

August 27, 2012January 5, 20171 Comment

Oh Julie (my blog’s name)… I know. You’re right. I know. It’s been too long. Over a month. Okay, almost two months. I know I should be ashamed. I -am- ashamed. Can you find it in your heart to forgive me? What if I told you that since July 4th (my last post) I’ve been in a wedding, packed up an apartment, moved back into my new/old apartment, unpacked an entire apartment worth of stuff accumulated over the last at least six years, visited family out of town, went through two weeks of RD training eating frozen things, went through ten days of RA training that lasted from 8:00 am until at least midnight, usually later every day while eating provided things, made so many burlap and cloth flowers my hands almost fell off, got a massage because the stress knots on my back were so bad they made my hands go numb, had two panic attacks, a couple of emotional break downs, a dad frequently in the hospital and a mom in the hospital twice, and went at least a whole month with no more than six hours of sleep a night? Could you maybe forgive me then?? What if I also added that my lack of meal planning and healthy cooking and posting hurt me as much as it hurt you?! It’s true. Girl to girl I knew that one would get you. No girl would ever wish weight gain on another girl!

My apologies that you had to experience that conversation between Julie and I. She was mad. She had a right to be. We had it out and now we’re good. It’s just real. Flaws, weight gain, lost motivation, busyness, crazy panic attack/emotional break down moments. It’s real.

Other things are real too. Found motivation! It’s real. Knowing yourself well enough to know that meal planning, OCD grocery shopping, blog post organizing, and cans of pumpkin actually do bring you motivation and make you happy, that’s real too. I’m so happy to be typing right now! I don’t even care that that huge paragraph written to my inanimate blog that I affectionately named Julie was ridiculous and cheesy and over the top, because it feels good to be typing in this white and orange box. I missed you blog, typing, readers, recipes, cooking, prep work, meal plans. I missed you a bunch! This reunion is sweet.

You know what else is sweet? Hot tea. Literally and figuratively because I like mine with two spoons of sugar. In our absence I discovered I like it. I do believe the reason I never liked it before was because I hadn’t had England’s best tea, PG Tips. We’re pretty close now and I’m happy about that.

Now that I got all my excessive typing and words out of the way, let’s get to business shall we? A meal plan! I missed many things about cooking and meal planning, but one thing in particular. Meal prep! I was so happy to cut up my bundles of green onions and find the new perfect bottle to store them in. (Remember my favorite trick to never let green onions go bad?)

Sunday:

Crock Pot Apple BBQ Chicken, Perfect Brown Rice, and Not So Fried Okra with Spicy Scallion Dipping Sauce

Monday:

Leftover Apple BBQ Chicken

Tuesday:

Leftover something because I’m making a somewhat time consuming dessert for a premature fall party/birthday celebration the next morning.

Wednesday:

Philly Cheesesteak Sloppy Joes and Crock Pot Roasted Veggies

Thursday:

Leftover Sloppy Joes & Veggies

Friday:

Lazy Spaghetti, Tomato Bread, and a tomato heavy salad that will resemble this one but with some lettuce mixed in.

Saturday:

Leftover Pasta

Extras:

Make Ahead Healthy Breakfast Sandwiches – I used ham and bacon. Can’t wait to eat these all week! Post coming soon.

Pumpkin Fluff Dip – To dip apples and grapes in. Back on the healthy food way of life! This means healthy snacks. I also made fat free ranch dips to dip cucumbers, celery, baby tomatoes, and carrot chips in. I’ll probably blog this pumpkin dip too since it was my first can of pumpkin for the season!

Pumpkin Bread Pudding – Minus the raisins. Making this for my friend’s birthday and premature fall celebration party along with Caramel Sauce and Pumpkin Whipped Cream.

Proof! This was Sunday night’s planned meal made on Sunday night. The Not So Fried Okra was a disappointment! I really want to be able to like okra in other ways that aren’t fried or fake fried and coated in cornmeal. These were broiled and I hoped that meant no slime, but it didn’t. The sauce was yummy though!

DIY Surf Spray

July 5, 2012January 5, 2017Leave a comment

I’m interrupting the flow of food posts, to bring you a far more rare kind of post, but just as fun. DIY! I usually get DIY inspired in the fall and winter months, but this summer DIY project totally rekindled my love for all things DIY. I was so DIY inspired that I had to draw a pretty chalk sketch to go with my creation.

Once upon a time on a beach trip in some year I don’t remember, I recall thinking that I loved the way my hair got wavy after some combination of ocean water, sand, and too much sun that surely burned my freckled skin.

Years passed, and post college (when I stopped cutting my hair way shorter than I ever should have cut it) I discovered surf spray. Herbal Essence used to make it. It was in a blue bottle and you had to shake it before every use. I stocked up on two bottles every time I ran out. I remember when my Walmart stopped selling it. I panicked and then discovered Herbal Essence had a section of their website that told you what stores sold the products you wanted. I found it at Walgreens! I stocked up and then they discontinued it. I tried other products, but nothing was ever the same. My hair hasn’t seen beach waves since. Until today!

I pinned this DIY recipe for surf spray long ago, not having super high hopes. I got a hair cut Tuesday and then saw this adorable hair style on Pinterest. I knew I could do it with my hair as is, but couldn’t help think of how much cuter it would be with beach waves. Then I began to long for beach waves. Which then lead me to add Epsom salt and hair gel to my shopping list.

I doubled my recipe and altered it a bit from the Pinterest one. What I’m posting are the products and amounts I used. If you don’t plan on using it as often as I do, you might want to do less like the Pinterest one did. Also, you’ll notice I slightly decreased the amount of hair gel (she says four squirts for the smaller batch, but in the comments when someone asks how much each squirt was she says tablespoons) and added the Surf Hair stuff. I LOVE this stuff. It’s my go to product. I like it better than any gel or hairspray. When I curl my hair, I run Surf Hair through it and it holds way better than any hairspray AND with a soft bouncy hold. It also helps keep my bangs in place. Knowing how great that product was, I wanted to add it to my concoction.

Ingredients:

6 teaspoons Epsom salt ($2.98 for a HUGE bag at Walmart)
7 tablespoons water-based hair gel (one that smells good!)
1 tablespoon Garnier Fructis Surf Hair Texture Paste (optional)
8 ounces of water

Directions:

You can add all the ingredients to the bottle you want to use and shake, but I feel like I have more shaking power and control with a Mason jar and also less spills. I added all ingredients to the jar. I added slightly warm water to help the mixing process. Shake shake shake. If you use Surf Hair, it doesn’t like to mix quite as well. I had to whisk it in and break it up, then shake more. I used a funnel to fill my bottle.

Look! Perfect, messy beachy wavy curls! I am certain I’ll have to make another batch of this next week. Use it on damp hair for best results. You can also spray it on your roots for some lift and use it for touch ups on dry hair. Be sure to shake before each use.

Crockpot Buffalo Chicken

July 4, 2012January 5, 2017Leave a comment

I know I’m a posting maniac in the last two days, BUT I know most of you have the day off today for the holiday! So either you’re cooking and ideas are helpful or your relaxing and have some spare time. What better to do in your spare time than catch up on blog reading and meal plan? Thus you need reading material, ideas, and inspiration. Also… I’m trying to get to my 100th post! On the post I’ll announce changes to the blog and other fun things. This is the 95th in case you were wondering. 🙂

This recipe has quickly become one of my favorites. You know I don’t repeat recipes often. I usually wait at least 3 months to cycle things back around, unless I absolutely LOVE them. Well this one has been repeated! It’s so stinking easy and soooo good if you like spicy things. Three ingredients! AND you don’t have to thaw anything.

Ingredients:

3 lb bag of frozen chicken breasts
1 bottle of buffalo sauce (I usually use Frank’s but I got this Texas Pete one for free from an RA and loved it just as much)
1 packet of dry ranch mix

Directions:

Add chicken to a large crock pot. Sprinkle with ranch seasoning. Pour over hot sauce. Cook on low for 6 – 7 hours. Remove chicken from crock pot, leaving sauce in. Shred chicken with a fork and add back to crock pot. Cook on low for 30 minutes to an hour.

That’s it! I like to serve mine on some nice rolls or buns. I used onion rolls this time and they were YUMMY! I made a batch of healthy ranch dressing using 1 packet of dry ranch, 1 cup of non fat Greek yogurt, and 1/2 cup of skim milk (1/3 a cup is 2 points and I used much less than that) to spread on the buns. I topped each sandwich with julienned celery, matchstick carrots, and some reduced calorie blue cheese crumbles.

This makes 8 good sized servings at 4 points per serving, not including bread or toppings.