Our window broke

My mom was weed whacking in the backyard and ended up shooting a rock and breaking our glass on our window. Luckily, we had double doors so that meant two windows on the side that wasn't the doors. The second window was still in tacked.

You could actually hear it still cracking when you would go by it. I suggested to my mom to move the screen door over so that if the glass decided to fall then it would be trapped between the window and the screen door. Which was a good thing i said that because it decided to.

The next day or day after that, my dad cleaned it up so that we could open the backdoor again. Makes a huge difference on hot days when we can't open it. It also turned out that after he cleaned it up that he took the second door off too and put the screen door on the tracks for the second door. Screen door was never truly on any tracks to make easy moving. But i guess he just figured that without the second window that the second door was pointless. He had been wanting only a single door for a long time...though we still pretty much have 2 doors because before it was 3 with having the screen door there.

Goya Coconut Soda

I have gotten to a part of myself of that i like to just try new things, some of my favorite things to try are the not your normal things. I've seen coconut water and milk, but i hadn't seen a soda version before. I just had to try it.

It did take me a few days to finally get around to trying it, was scared it would taste bad lol. Turns out it wasn't bad, just very different, a good different but still different. It basically reminded me of the coconut flavoring you can buy. I used some before in some fondant i tried to make and this soda reminded me of that coconut flavor. That flavoring was good, so i liked this soda, just like i said, it was different so that was weird.

Sadly i didn't finish mine because i started to drink it close to bed time and didn't try to keep it. I will probably try and buy this again if i remember to when i see it again. I got this one at fred myers, can probably get it else where.

Marie Callender's Southwestern Corn Bread Mix

What caught my eye about this in the first place was that you can make it in the microwave. So i figured if it was good then it would be nice to have cornbread still on hot days without having to use the oven. I'm not big on spicy things, so wasn't sure if i'd really like it.

Making it was very simple, just add the water and mix. Then just pop it in the microwave. It's not a great picture, but here's mine in the microwave.

Those stickers are from my daughter. Just never bothered to take them off.

It didn't look very good after taking it out of the microwave.

That center part was the most off putting part for me.

I still ate it anyways, just had some chili with it.

Taste wise, it was actually good, texture was a bit weird, but taste was good. It wasn't too spicy and was good with the chili. Small note, i used canned chili and add sour cream to my chili so makes it a different color than what people might think it would be.

Apple Cider Vinegar Fruit Fly Trap

If you are lazy like me(and my family) is about the deep cleaning of the kitchen/house, then you probably have dealt with fruit flies at one point or another. One of the times we had some, i looked up ways to get rid of them because using the fly strips just take so long. One of the ways i found was using apple cider vinegar.

In a bottle you aren't using, put just a little bit of dish soap in it then add some of the ACV. I don't think there's really any measurements needed, i've just put whatever amounts in and seems to be fine. Just don't fill it too much, the main picture in about half full but doesn't need to be that high up, you can put less in. Once that is in, tape a little paper funnel into it. From what i've read, fruit flies don't realize that an entrance can be an exit, so they shouldn't really just fly right back out.

I didn't get a picture to show how well that first one worked but we kept getting more from the bananas we kept getting so i had to make another one. here's a picture to show some of the ones we caught.

might need to click the picture to see it better.

I don't think there's a real quick way to get rid of them, but once you stop them from making more, i find that the ACV trap works really well if you are patient enough to play the waiting game.

If you don't have a bottle, other ways i've seen it done is putting the same mixture into a glass or bowl and using a rubber band to keep some plastic wrap around the top and just poke some holes into the plastic. I've never tried it that way, but people seem to say it works.

Veggie Flowers

I was trying to make these http://pinterest.com/pin/464152305316504081/

My carrots weren't as big, but was still close enough lol. Mine aren't super amazingly cute, oh well. I made these for my mom's lunch and she thought they were adorable. I had some more under the ranch i included to it.

Pork Chop Meal in the Crock Pot

Followed this recipe: http://hickeryhollerfarm.blogspot.com/2012/03/crock-pot-cooking.html

My mom liked the idea of it because it was something we've never tried to do with our crock pot. And for me, I've been in love with trying all sorts of different things from pinterest lol.

Because it took 6 hours to cook, it would of been done way too early if my mom did it before work. So i had to set an alarm to get up and get it started, then i went back to bed.

Had to cook the pork chops just alittle before putting them in.

Then added one can of cream of mushroom and some sliced mushrooms.

Wrapped the corn and potatoes and placed those on top and started the crock pot. Once done, it looked like this...

A few things that didn't work for us:
- the potatoes weren't actually cooked. My mom had to finish them in the microwave.
- Our crock pot almost wasn't big enough for this. Not sure what size ours is though.

Best part of this....The pork chops. They were AMAZING! So moist and tender. Was easy to cut. Makes me want to try it again just for the pork chops. Or at least just do the pork chop part of this.

Cauliflower Crust Pizza Again

The picture is actually of the one my mom made up for my dad. I made the crust and she did the toppings.

After the first time i made it, my mom kept talking about it and wanted me to make them again. She's not even a big pizza person. Followed this recipe again: http://www.eat-drink-smile.com/2011/04/cauliflower-crust-pizza.html

Talking to my mom about it, i was thinking about how that since you have to cook the cauliflower before making the crust anyways, that it should be fine to use frozen...then i read again about how to make it and saw that it was get them into the pieces and then cook. Not so easy to do that when they are frozen. Made it work though, just cooked them enough to thaw them and then used the slap chop to get them into the pieces then heat them up again.
Here's my set up of that. Ignore the mess, i tend to forget to clean before i cook lol.

After that was done, it came to mixing the stuff before cooking. Realized we forgot to get mozzarella. My mom got the cheese for the topping though. It was a mixed blend that had mozzarella in it, and well really it was the only cheese we had to attempt to use to actually make this. So i used the pizza blend cheese for the crust. Worked just fine.

Here's how it looked after cooking it.

Pretty sure you just do the same thing to make the cauliflower "breadsticks", but that's not the point of this lol.

My mom and dad both loved their pizzas. I didn't make myself one, but i ate a slice of my mom's, it was good.

Nice to know it also works with frozen cauliflower and pizza blend cheese for the crust.

The Ice Cream Truck

Was hoping i'd get a chance to take a picture of the truck but never did and now i'm pretty much out of money so haven't been getting any lately. But i have been taking pictures of what we had been getting. This is pretty much just a bunch of pictures of what i've bought.

Jamba Juice Green Fusion fruit and veggie "at-home" smoothie kit

I keep wanting to try frozen smoothie things because they sound good but i typically don't get around to trying them. Finally tried some, this was one i tried. It looks tastier on the package lol.

I'm not the healthiest eater so was thinking of trying this because if it was good then i could feel alittle healthy lol

Anyways, as i said, it looks better on the package. All nice and bright green. I'd prefer a bright green than that olive like color.  I still drank it though. It wasn't bad, wasn't great either. Like it tasted the way it should, i just don't think i like green smoothies that much.

Checking out the points, if you are doing weight watchers, it was just 2 points plus without the added juice. I used a 100% apple juice with no added sweetener or anything so my juice was pretty much 0 points i added.

Here's some other pictures

Crockpot Zuppa Toscana Copycat

This is a bit more of a "look what i made" type post.

Followed this recipe: http://www.keyingredient.com/recipes/176206245/crockpot-zuppa-toscana/

I've never had the olive garden's zuppa, so i couldn't really compare the taste to see how close the copycat comes. Rest of my family has had it so they were able to tell me how close it came.

I thought it was alright for just as a soup. I'm not big on spicy so we used a mild sausage. My mom said that it probably would been pretty dead on in we used the normal kind.

I've found a few other copycat recipes for this soup. At some point i will be wanting to compare the recipes to see how they differ if at all. But this one was nice because of being for the crockpot.

Seattle's Best Coffee: Frozen Coffee Blends Coffee Chiller

So happy i actually tried this. 1. it was yummy, 2. i buy frozen drink things but rarely actually make them :(

Seeing how it looked outside of the bad pretty much reminded me of the posts i've seen on pinterest about just freezing left over coffee in an ice cube tray to make your own frappes.

There's a picture of it with the milk that is needed for it.

I don't have a pretty after picture but here's how it looked after blending it.

I always get alittle worried on coffee drinks because i don't like it too strong. This was Delicious though! I want to go get more of these to have on hot days, or even cold lol. There were at least 2 other flavors i think, off hand don't remember what they were, but i might go try those since i liked this one. It might of been a little smoother if i actually used blender, but i liked using a spoon to eat it until it got to melty for the spoon.

ACV Update

I tried the ACV (apple cider vinegar) drink testing. I did it for about a week with maybe just alittle less amount of the ACV that i planned to do.

First off, the taste. It was hard to drink at first, i tried it in just water first, then tried it as sort of like a tea. Those were okay, just a force chugging it to get through it. I then remembered reading that that a lot of people had it in apple juice. so i got some of that and made it a lot easier to drink.

I think i did notice that the drink helped with my allergies some and i didn't get heartburn the days i drank it.
Didn't really see much change in the acne or weight. I did only try it for a week, so maybe longer would of helped. But as for the weight, people were saying that they lost like 10 pounds after starting to drink it, they never say what else they changed. So leaves you wondering is it only from the ACV or did they actually start exercising and eating better? They never say. Well i kept my laziness and eating the same during my test week and i lost nothing. So i am left to believe that ACV only helps you if you eat better and exercise....though really, you can lose weight without the ACV if you do those.

I'm not going to completely put ACV off from the weight lose factor, but until i like do a test week of eating better and exercising without drinking it and then with to see if there's a difference.

I might still drink it sometimes to use up what i bought for the testing, but don't think i'll drink it a bunch every day like my test week was suppose to be.

I'm a bit bored of this topic because my findings aren't as exciting as i hoped lol. But i was wondering...

What is your experience with drinking ACV? what pros and cons do you find from drinking it?

Baked Egg in Avocado

First off, i'd like to say that i managed to make this without making a mess!!! (it helps to read comments about things before trying them lol)

I'll go first in how i made it then how it tasted.

Scoop out some of the avocado first, this is to make room for the egg.

my halves weren't very even and i ended up scooping out a little more after this picture. Though should of done just a tiny bit more on the bigger half.

Add the egg.

I used a muffin tin to keep them steady because many people complained that when trying to put it in the oven that they would rock and make a mess of the egg.

and then cook.

I didn't exactly follow the recipe. i started off at a too low of temperature and i probably cooked alittle too long because i wanted to make sure the egg was cooked.

So i cooked it and didn't make a mess....That's about the only good thing about this lol.
The egg was rubbery from my funky cooking it. Biggest thing i learned from this is that i don't like baked avocado. I managed to eat the eggs fairly fine, but i just couldn't eat the avocado.

I won't say don't try it, but just cook it right and make sure you scoop some of it out before putting the egg in.

I'd link to what recipe i looked at before trying this, but i can't find it. :(

Sweet Lemonade Peeps and Bubble Gum Peeps

I love peeps. I can't really eat more than just a few at a time before i get sick of them, but i still love them. I loved it when they started to come out with the other seasonal ones so that they weren't just an easter candy. The hearts, the snowmen(with a badly placed cane), the pumpkins, just all of them. They all taste the same, but i'm a sucker for the novelty stuff. When i saw this one, it caught my eye. Well was actually the bubble gum one that did and then i saw this one while waiting in line for something. Either way, i noticed that they weren't just shaped different, they were different flavored. Only other one i remember currently that i've tried of a different flavor was the peppermint one, but that was a christmasy one, these two are like summer based ones.

I don't remember what i paid for them, wasn't like horribly expensive but i'm also cheap lol. I found them at Fred Myers. I do think if you happen upon them then you should try them.

Lemonade Peep:

I was a little disappointed on this one. I like lemony type candies, but wasn't a fan of this one. Was kinda hoping for an over all lemon taste, but just those little yellow spots were the lemon. and wasn't a very good lemon. A little hard to explain what i'm thinking it is. It's just really strong, like the sour crystals strong but the yellow pieces remind me of those old mouthwash strips that melt in your mouth lol. I still say worth trying if you like peeps, but i won't get again.

Bubble Gum Peeps:

I liked this one. I like most things flavored bubble gum(cotton candy is my most loved though). Took the third picture to show that the marshmallow part was pink too. The flavor wasn't over powering, a nice extra flavor to give you something more than just a peep. I'd buy these ones again if i come across them again, though after eating these, i'm kinda peeped out.

Anyone know of other fun new peeps that i might not of seen before?

Fun side bits:
I once kept a pack of peeps for a long time, probably at least over a year. It got so hard. No idea really why i kept them. I finally threw them away after they sat on my electric blanket while it was on and they got soft again lol.

I have this weird thing that i like to try and eat the eyes first then eat the sugar off the bottom of them.