Santa Left Us Some Coal

I wanted to make these coal looking rice krispies since when i first saw them. also because i had some black food dye i wanted to use again. I did this one as a mix of two pins i wanted to do.
Coal idea: http://www.bigredkitchen.com/2010/12/advent-day-1-christmas-coal/
Recipe i followed: http://www.cookingwithbooks.net/2014/10/coconut-oil-rice-krispies-treats.html

I didn't do the recipe exactly, mostly used it for the use of coconut oil. My brother isn't sure exactly to if he's lactose intolerant or not but i've been looking into dairy free stuff to try. Thought this would be easy to make since all it switched out was the butter for coconut oil. Still had some trouble with it though, but that was user error, nothing to do with the recipes.

I ended up burning the first batch of melting marshmallows, was turned away a few seconds too long. Once that was good, making a new batch, i added the black dye. I just happened to have the actual dye they said to use. I first planned to use the black food coloring dye i have, but went with the one they said because needed to use it at some point anyways. Only had it because of when we did my daughter's birthday cake before. I think i ended up using alittle too much dye but i wanted it actual black and not looking purple.

Downfall of this....It colors your teeth and for the tmi, colors your stool lol.

I didn't get around to eating much of it, partly from the coloring and partly from that i am getting more tired of sweets as i'm getting older. Little bit of sweets keeps me good for a while. But depends on the sweets i guess, i don't get tired of cotton candy. What i did try, it was good. The coconut oil didn't make it drift away from the usual in taste.

Wouldn't go as far as to claim it's healthy just because it's using coconut oil, Though nothing is claiming that. It does seem to maybe make it a little less greasy feeling like butter makes it. I don't make or have rice krispies very often, less than once a year, maybe some every other year and then that's mostly having the store bought kind.

I am tempted to make these again, without the black coloring, but also add coconut flavoring. that sounds like it would taste pretty good.

Walmart Deli Sammich

Completely serious with this one, well done Walmart. Keep doing these.

Don't shop at walmart all too often, mostly just from that we have shopped mostly safeway so it's our go to instead of walmart though there's one across the street from it now. So was completely by chance that i came across this. I fell in love with this whole thing when i saw it. It was $2.50 and so much more food than lunchables.

This more of a lunch than any of the lunchables. Don't get me wrong, i still like lunchables and just loved them growing up. Just when thinking something 'healthy' or more filling, this looks like it.

As much as i love this...it's slightly disappointing :(

The sandwich is a little depressing. And would of been nice if the boxes include little packets of mayo and mustard. Being home when i ate it, i was able to add those and made it really nice to eat. I couldn't finish the cookies because i got tired of the taste, but they aren't horrible, guess i'm just use to overly sweet treats. The apple was good, just i prefer a different type of apple. The juice was alright, but i'm not big on fruit punch.

Over all it's good, just wasn't perfect for me. There wasn't a choice in types of sandwiches or anything like that, which maybe these are fairly new or if they only do the one types then they can get more out. Hopefully they do more and give more choices.

Snow Cocoa

White chocolate cocoa made in a crock pot?! I say bring it on!
Followed this recipe: Snow Cocoa

I completely forgot to take a picture of the after, but i was distracted that i had only made half a batch instead. Was still amazing though. Super simple to make and half batch is perfect if making it for yourself and plan on having more than one cup.

I decided to try making it because i wanted to make something out of my list of what to do and this was the easiest at the time. But as i went to start it, i realized that we didn't have much milk left...I about wanted to cry because i didn't want to wait. I still ended up measuring out what milk we had and thought it was crazy that we had exactly 3 cups left...Should of pictured it. With 3 cups left, i made half a batch so that i could still make it. Because of it being half a batch, i cooked it for an hour on low instead of the 2. If anything just so i could stir it and check.

It was on warm for alittle while before me and my mom got to it to actually try, it left it at a perfect temperature to drink. Hot but not scolding. Didn't even need to try and cool it down. I ended up drinking most of it because no one else was really there to drink it lol. Was great to drink but is a little annoying when it starts cooling down since it's made with the chocolate chips, it separates and gets a cooled layer of chocolate on top. That's worth it for how tasty this is. Part of that could of been the type of white chocolate you use since that is the main flavor to it.

Not sure to whether it will be this cocoa or another cocoa, but because of how simple it is with the crock pot, we will probably be doing crock pot cocoa on christmas morning.

Beyond Meat Chicken-Free Strips

I've talked before about how i like to try vegetarian and vegan foods to see how close they come to what they claim to be like, or just to see if they taste good, kind of a way to see if i'd miss meat if i went meatless. I had been seeing this and a "beef" crumble in my Ibotta app for a long time but too forever to find them, had never thought to look in the frozen section until i just happened upon them. Haven't tried the crumble yet but i tried this one. I wasn't impressed with it.

To me, this was a bit of a lie. It didn't taste much like chicken and didn't really shred like it either. But For those who are use to these type of it's not that bad, i'd say worth trying if you haven't.

Here's the nutrition facts in case people were curious.

So being frozen, here's how it looked straight from the bag. Not really yummy looking. It also didn't help that the directions was so vague to that if someone doesn't know how to cook, they would be so clueless. I went with the directions, which basically just says heat until cooked. No temp to cook at, no offer of some sort of oil to keep it from sticking and burning, not even a simple 'spray the pan'. Having no idea on what temp and such, i actually ended up burning some of the smaller pieces and took it off the heat and turned out that some of them was still cold. There was microwave directions, should of just done that instead. I did pan because i usually prefer food cooked stovetop or oven.

I decided to put teriyaki sauce over it and have it over some noodles.....i was able to eat some of the 'chicken' but couldn't finish it. Wasn't that good to me, the rice was good though lol.

doesn't look very good, but that is this salad dressing we get from Joy Teriyaki that is on the sweet side. I was able to eat this just fine, but that dressing is just AMAZING! Even if it looks like something children shouldn't look at.

Over all, i won't be buying this again. I'll stick with my chicken.

Mann's Snap Pea Sensations Asian Sesame

I like snap peas so i thought i'd try this...But i'm also a sucker for things that say "new".

Seemed simple enough to cook and make. I love kits because it should mostly have everything you need.

First thing i did was take out the ones that just didn't look good. Cut off a few ends that i wouldn't want to eat. Next step was mix the peas with the sauce then cook it. i seemed to of had a bit of trouble with it since my heat might of been too high. I use one of those nuwave stove top things(too lazy to find what it is right now lol) and so when things say "medium heat" it might actually be more or less than what the programmed medium heat is. Anyways, The sauce got pretty reduced fairly fast to where i was worried to lose all sauce and start burning it. I thought it was cooked enough but once i went to eat it, the peas weren't as cooked as much as i'd like.

I liked the idea of this, cooking the peas in some sort of sauce and have it over some rice or quinoa....just this kit didn't turn out well for me. I like these peas when cooked, when more on the raw side, i don't care for the taste, these ended up under cooked. And with so little sauce, just over all was sad for me.

I think i'll try the idea again, get some peas and cook them in some teriyaki sauce then put over some stuff to have that has a meal.

9 things I believe

1. I believe one day i'll have my 'click'. That click that people have that just seems to change people's lives.
2. I believe no matter what the future holds, me and my daughter will be just fine.
3. I believe i will find my motivation
4. I believe i will find my routine
5. I believe i'm good at photography and photo editing
6. I believe that my daughter will do something great with her life
7. I believe one day i'll move out
8. I believe some day i'll have the friends i want to have
9. I believe i'm not good at figuring out what i really believe in

My favorite present I’ve ever received…

Small intro: I want to try and get back to writing something every day but i don't always do something new every day so i found a really large idea list (here) that i'll just be writing from those when i have nothing else to write about. There's a lot on the list so i might double up on days if i end up with something else to write.


Best present i've gotten? Tough decision, though that is partly from bad memory. One of my electronics could be one of them, most have, if not all, have been gifts. A nice tv, a laptop(though not exactly mine, just my mom's old one), a desktop computer, a 3ds, kindle fire hd, my cell phone, other things too. Currently the laptop and phone are the most used. My bed is a good contender in this. My mom paid for my mattress since i could only afford the frame at the time, has been amazing sleeping on a bed again.

Though actually thinking, the best one i've gotten is my graduation gift. Originally it was a datsun truck that my dad was going to fix up for me. Well, years kept going by and nothing was done with it. I got to the point of that i just don't care anymore, do whatever with it. Also with me having my daughter, the truck wouldn't be the safest thing to drive. So my parents ended up talking and so that i wasn't out a present by not keeping the truck, they decided instead to help me pay off my credit card bill that i had been struggling with. That probably was the best/favorite because it took away a lot of stress....though helped feed my want to shop lol.

Can't believe I'm 25

A 25 year old obsessed with giraffes lol.
So my birthday was yesterday (the 19th) and thankfully the weather was actually good so i was able to take my daughter to the zoo. Was my first time taking my daughter to the zoo alone.

Was actually really nice, was able to go the pace that i wanted to go, though some parts were a little faster than i wanted because my daughter didn't want to stay at one point too long. Over all was a good pace. Got through almost all the animals in a good amount of time and got done around when my mom got there to pick us up. Still had the gift shop to do when we met up but my mom was able to help with my daughter while in there so i could look around for things. got my daughter some things and got myself some stuff since the whole zoo thing was suppose to be a birthday thing for me.

Didn't get to take many pictures while there because since it was just me and my daughter, i didn't want to accidentally lose track of her while focusing on taking a picture. i got some nice pictures of her having fun, so that was the whole point of going, having fun.

Of course had to get pictures of the giraffes. would of maybe tried to do more pictures but my daughter didn't want to stand there too long, she wanted to move to the next thing. There are a few other pictures of the animals, but nothing that is really needed to be shared because of being an amazing shot.

Here's what i gifts i got.

Lantern that my brother got me. It makes it look like a candle flickering. Haven't tested it yet but has a timer of that instead of being on for 5 hours than turning off, it would be on for the 5 hours then off for the 19 hours then turns back on for the 5 hours. which is interesting for being a cheapish halloween decoration.

I wasn't actually asking for this. We were at Kohl's and i saw them, was interested until i saw them being $25. I told my mom there was 2 pounds of jelly beans (go to phrasing instead of jelly belly) for $25. She asked if i was interested and i said sorta then she grabbed the bag. Even the cashier was a bit shocked we were buying them.

little giraffe figure ontop of a stick of cheap candy. I wanted it because of being a giraffe. Gave the candy to my daughter.

This is going to be one of my favorite mugs. I love mugs and i love giraffes :). 

This blanket is amazing! so soft and warm. would be a little better if it was a little bigger. I'm short so it's not bad but i can't cuddle up with the top and keep my feet covered. I can deal with it since it's so soft and warm. I get cold easily. It's also giraffe print so yay.

Shirt i got at zoo. i saw two that i wanted, the other was a yellow one. i wanted both but after really looking at them, i went with just this one because i'm not really comfortable in crew neck type shirts. This one is more of a scoop neck so i went with just this one.

Got myself a large bright pink giraffe :) i love it.

Lastly is a fitbit zip. This was the biggest thing i was hoping for. I was going to get one anyways but i asked my mom if she maybe would be okay with getting me it for my birthday. Haven't been super on track with eating better, but is at least nice to see how active i'm being. I'll maybe do another post about this little thing once i get to using it more. Maybe once i start to actually getting to where i can lose some weight lol. Have had it for less than a week, so still getting myself on track, just a little slow.

Birthday wasn't as bad as i thought it would be. Still wish i could have like an actual party, but i have no one to invite that i'd want to celebrate with. Also just not happy that i'm at my highest weight for my birthday. so hopefully by my next one i can finally be lighter. even if not at my goal weight, being a good bit less than i am now would be good. maybe at least my before getting pregnant weight. Don't want to go way off topic since this is about my birthday.

I'll end this with that I am at the age my parents had me, so i'm currently half my parents age. And as my mom likes to point out, i'm 1/4 a century.

Quaker Warm & Crunchy Granola, Apple Cinnamon

We don't eat a lot of oatmeal in this house. For me, it's mostly that it doesn't really sound like a good meal for breakfast....though sadly i will consider cereal as it because it's easy to put together and well i'm lazy sometimes. Anyways, since we hardly eat it, we got rid of our last batch because it was so old and just had so many boxes of different ones. Not long after getting rid of what we had, oatmeal started to sound good. With the weather hopefully finally cooling down warm food like oatmeal would probably be good to have.

Well, as you can see, this isn't exactly oatmeal. Was something new so i had to try it. Didn't actually get any oatmeal so was hoping this would fit into that feeling for oatmeal i was having.

Mmmm, crunchy oatmeal.
The box makes it look so yummy, doesn't it? Hopefully the people who design boxes for food get paid nicely. Though there is still always that slight "why doesn't mine look like the box?" feeling when i eat basically from boxes. Which makes me want to say it's like false advertising.....i still eat it anyways lol.

Like most boxed oatmeals, they aren't as healthy as if you made them yourself. 12g of sugar, seems a bit high. It's also 190 calories without any milk added, which mine would be high than the info on the right side of the facts because we use 2% milk. Though felt a little better thinking about it because i still keep thinking we are using whole milk. Had whole milk for so long that it's confusing to see the switch still lol.

Perks of this, it's easy to make.

I followed the suggested 1/4 cup of milk used. First time making it, didn't want to go crazy and ruin it. Was nice to see that milk alternatives can be used. I sometimes get other stuff to drink but don't get turned off from this from it's advertising using milk if you can't use milk. A coconut milk might be a good flavor add to this!

Didn't really see like a lot of food. Not that i should really be eating a lot anyways. Portion control type stuff like this can be nice for trying to eat less....if you can keep yourself away from opening another one.

So there's one packet with 1/4 milk. I stirred it slightly before heating it up.

Cooked it for the 25 seconds. And our My Little Pony microwave that my daughter gave us...looked better before the stickers got ripped.

Taadaa!
You can see here that whole "doesn't look like the box". Oh well.
So after heating it up, 2 things i liked. 1. It looks like the amount of milk you add is what you get in the end, so if you like a certain thickness/thinness, you can base it on how it looks before cooking. 2. the 25 seconds was perfect for our microwave! it was heated up but wasn't too hot. I got to eat it right away without needing to add more milk or letting it cool down.
I think we have a 1200 watt microwave, so it would vary for people with lower watt ones.

It tasted pretty good. I think i'l try less milk next time because i mostly got a milky flavor than an apple cinnamon one. The apples are the part i enjoy most, so of course i want more apples than what is in there. The crunch of the granola was pretty nice. Seems a little more filling than just normal oatmeal. If you like bigger portions, might be a nice texture to mix this with one of the instant oatmeals to get both textures in it.

It's basically just granola and warm milk....i should try it with other granola! And to make it more fun, make my own granola and then try this! Weather better start cooling down and staying cool so that i can start cooking again.

Other Parents

I wish this was a good experience post...but sadly it's not.

Parents all parent differently. Some may or may not agree with other parents and the way they handle their children. If you disagree, simply keep your comments to yourself. You don't know what the other parent is going through to know if your comments would actually be helpful or not.

So why i'm bringing this up is because of something that happened to me today. I wish it didn't bother me so much but this lady just made me want to rip her head out and the events won't just be forgotten, just how i am.

The lead up of the story is that while shopping, my daughter told me and my mom she had to go potty, so i go take her to the bathroom. My daughter doesn't like public bathrooms, never has, so it was a fight to get her in there. I tried to get her to go and she wouldn't. After fighting a bit, i said fine, lets just go. Then half way back to my mom, my daughter tells me she still has to go and starts running off to the bathroom. I'm already frustrated by the first attempt and the fact that my daughter is just running off. We get into the bathroom and i'm fighting with her again to get into the stall to try. This time, i at least got her on the toilet. She doesn't like the sound of the toilets, but wasn't like i could ask everyone to not flush just because my daughter needs to pee. The world doesn't revolve around my daughter. So she's yelling, i'm needing to talk loud to try and get her to hear me over her yelling, i'm just getting more frustrated at the fact that she isn't listening.

So there's the lead up, here's the part that has me so pissed about the events. There's other people in the bathroom, no surprise, it's a public bathroom. This lady, i'm assuming another mother because it's a sale for kids stuff, had the nerve to try and butt in. Like i can see her point, she's just trying to help but she really had no place to do so. At first all she said was that sometimes when kids are upset that they sometimes won't go.....no shit, i must be the only person in the world who doesn't know that. I at first tried to ignore her but she tried again. Like what am i suppose to do? My daughter said she had to pee but i should just chance her pissing herself because some lady thinks she's an all mighty know it all? Sure, she doesn't know it was my second try, or at least don't think she knew since i don't know who it was or who was in the bathroom the first time. Anyways, she didn't know what was going on, so she had no right to try and "correct" my parenting. It was also hot in the stall, heat and frustration never goes well together. I can't really remember what i ended up saying to her but i did snap at her to try and get her to stop talking to me. I did end up giving my daughter a light smack on the butt to get her to listen, oh my god, arrest me now i'm a horrible parent because i'm not some free spirit parent. After that, the lady was like "i heard you hit her" or something like that and i snapped back that i have my parenting, they have theirs and they need to keep theirs out of mine.

They ended up leaving me alone after that and i managed to keep my daughter on the toilet until my mom could come and help me. My mom was able to be more calm with my daughter because she didn't have to deal with the previous frustrations i was dealing with. Sure i could of handled it different, sure the lady was probably just trying to help, sure a lot of things could of been different.... But they weren't.

I think the only time that someone should step in someone else's parenting is when the child is clearing being abused. Other than that, you can have your opinions and ways you would do things, but back off the other parents. No one will never not judge other people on anything, but just keep comments to yourself. What if she was doing something i didn't agree on, or that i thought i knew better about, would she of liked me coming into her parenting and telling her what to do and clearly have a judging tone? I bet she wouldn't. I'm not even going to say sorry that my kid isn't a perfect angel and super well behaved/trained. I'm doing my best with my kid and sometimes me and my kid has clashing personalities...that is NORMAL.

All that lady really managed to do for me was turn my good day into a slightly worse day because i can't get the event out of my head with the different ways it could of gone and the ways i wish i could of handled it without getting in trouble. Hoping that writing this will help get it off my mind for a bit. not sure if i completely covered what i wanted to talk about because being home now and calmer, i don't remember every detail of what happened and with my daughter needing me to come away from the computer, it breaks my concentration to what i was writing.

long story short...Unless there is a real reason to step in, something like police or child protection needs to be called in, keep your parenting to yourself unless someone asks for help. Keep comments to yourself too. I'd rather be bad mouthed behind my back than to my face. People will judge, i just don't want to hear what negative things people have to say about me.

Hot Lips Real Fruit Soda Pear

I managed to get another shopping trip to Natural Grocers in. It's not somewhere we shop often because my family isn't exactly the most health conscious. The store isn't very cheap either. I still love to go and see things i haven't seen before and try new things.

This item was one thing i came across. Pear was the only flavor that looked remotely good to me. There was also like raspberry, another berry type, and one other i don't remember off the top of my head.

Looking at the bottle, i noticed that this is a locally made item (Portland, Oregon). Not too surprised as the store likes to get locally made/grown food. Noticing also that it also says it's "lightly sparkling" that that it wouldn't be like grabbing a Coke and drinking it. One thing i liked was this:

Just was nice for it to tell you how to open it instead of guessing. Though even twist tops can be pry offs lol.

I did try this, probably didn't have it cool enough first (been way too hot here) so i don't think it was as good as it could of been. My daughter wanted to try it though because it being soda. She must of liked it more than i did because she drank practically all of this. It did have a pear taste to it. It's like 97% fruit juice? i think that's the number but don't remember, didn't picture it and don't have the bottle anymore.

Well, i don't think i will buying this again, but was nice that my daughter liked it and was a change in pace of everything else she drinks.

Fixing Toy's Hair

I always am just eh about wanting to get my daughter toys with hair because of the hair getting all tangled and a mess. Yeah you can just fight and fight with it to get it combed through, but then it usually just ends up some puffy mess. Recently had got my daughter some toy horses that the hairs weren't the best, picture above was probably the worst of them though.

I had seen before how to fix doll hair and i wanted to really try it, finally got around to getting some fabric softener to try it out. After getting started, realized that a brush is easier but would be better if i maybe had a wig brush, looks like it would have sturdier bristles. I also had to use my brush, so i think i might need a new brush for myself lol.

Starting with the horse in the above picture, my daughter calls her "Twilight" after Twilight Sparkle from My Little Pony, she's named all her toy horses after the ponies...Need like 2 more of them let her have all 6 of them lol. I asked my daughter what she wanted me to do with the hair and she told me she wanted her hair to be straight like Twilight's hair. Which wasn't too hard to get it straighter(after a few days seems to be getting slightly wavier), just from using the spray and brushing it will take away at least some of the curls.

Here's how she looked afterwards. I get amazed at the difference! I didn't really care for the horse before because of the hair, but now i actually like this one. I did also clean up markings on the bodies of the horses since i bought them used so they weren't in the best condition. I didn't really like how long the tail was so i gave it a little trim. here's how it looked when i was done.

Here's another horse i did the hair for.

This horse is "applejack". This was the first of her horses i actually had done. The hair wasn't horrible, but did need some work. Here's my after.

Gave her some braids because the braids make me think "applejack".

This one is "Rainbow Dash" which i find hilarious as it's the horse with the least amount of color. The hair on this one was the easiest.

Didn't do anything special with this one's hair. i did put a small chunk over her face, but my daughter doesn't seem to like it that much because of my mom always telling her that she doesn't like when hair is in people's faces.

And then there's "Pinkie Pie"

This one was the one with the most work put into it. Pinkie Pie on My Little Pony has curly hair, so my daughter wanted her hair curly. Took me awhile to figure out the best way to make it curly. I didn't want it too wild, though wild would be fine because it's Pinkie Pie. I wish i just had little doll hair curlers. I did figure out something to do.

After brushing and rinsing the hair, i just twirled the hair with my finger and put it in these and used little rubber bands to hold them. Then let them sit over night or longer. They need to be completely dry before taking out to help it better hold the curls. Here's how it looked after i first took them out.

So it's curly, but just didn't look really right to me. My daughter did say she wanted "bouncy hair" but i wasn't about to leave it like this, so i took a comb and loosened the curls.

So there's Pinkie Pie. Because of making the hair curly, it is going to make it easier to knot and tangle again, but just keep up on the combing and it should be fine and not have to use the spray again and recurl it.

So those were her horses i did with the spray, i also tried it on her Rainbow Dash from build a bear. That one was actually my first one i tried the mixture on. I hadn't realized before how tangled the hair had gotten before, it was like little dread locks.

There's how it looked before i started. Here's the close up of the tail and mane.

The tail was just getting to be a mix of colors and not as pretty.

 Took awhile to get it all brushed through, but this is how it turned out when i was done. The ends were so poofy from the damage to them. I gave her a little trim and she turned out like this.

She looked cute, but i didn't cut off all the poofy parts after a few days, it had gotten pretty bad again. Just from simple playing too. My mom doesn't like that i gave her another hair cut, she's worried that i'll end up cutting off too much or something. The hair was all different lengths too, that bothered me. The top was so much shorter than the rest. After the second cut, she looks like this

 Looks a little more like Rainbow Dash should look. But now with getting the ends cut and if we keep up on combing(and washing, she's a little dirty) then i shouldn't have to cut off anymore. Over all this looks better than the dread lock look she had going.

I still have a Twilight and Pinkie Pie from build a bear to do the hair of, i'm excited but also dreading Pinkie Pie, it's hair is worse than what this one was. But other than those, i will have to go through my daughter's toys to see if there's anymore toys to fix their hair. I'm wanting to go thrift stores and yard sales to look for dolls/toys with bad hair for me to fix up lol.

One of the many good things about being able to do this is that if you do plan on selling a toy with hair that is a tangled mess, give it a brush over and you can probably sell it for a little more than what you'd get if it was messy hair.

I'll write again after i do the other pony's hair and any other ones i find. I get amazed with seeing the difference so i want to share them :)