Detox

Since having my IUD removed a few months ago, that time of the month has been AWFUL! Well not really that time but the 2 weeks before hand, the bloating is the worst. I have never had any period issues in the past and it's strange since my IUD was hormone free. I found this detox on Pinterest & another pinner said she uses it every month the week before her period so hopefully it works for me too.

60oz. of H2O

2 TBSP of lemon juice

1 TBSP of "sugar free" cranberry juice (this really doesn't exist but the organic has only natural sugar from the cranberries)

1 dandelion root tea bag

Drink this everyday for 7 days. I mixed mine when I got to work and stuck it in the fridge so I could drink it through out my work day. To me it tastes just like lemon water :)

Other pinners talked about losing around 5 pounds during the 7 days also, I'm not so worried about that but hoping it helps my 2 week sausage fingers.

Update..

Story of my life, I'm behind on everything ... blogging, instagrams monthly challenge, what I'm thankful for today's, blah blah blah! I've been busy. I have really have been bad at taking pictures lately, which I'm bummed about!

I have made some yummy new recipes & will blog about eventually. I'm really looking forward to trying some new Christmas goodies... thank you Pinterest. Speaking of Christmas I am SOOOO ready!! Hard to believe I will be able to start decorating this time next week :eeek: and our elf friend Buddy will be back destroying my house. I decided to be a little bit more organized with his shenanigans this year, so I printed a calendar for December and wrote what would happen each day. Last year I just kinda winged it. Do you have any favorite traditions? We do a few different things...

• Thanksgiving morning we eat stuffing for breakfast while we watch the parade ... I make good stuffing with sausage and everything in it. This tradition started with my step mom and will continue forever!
• Buddy of course, will show up in the mail next week & stay until Christmas.
• We bake cookies and give them to well, anyone I can, I just love making them. This year I'm going to make cinnamon sugar almonds in the crock pot too.
• Christmas Eve buddy will bring PJ's for the entire family and a Christmas movie to watch, this year I'm thinking Arthur Christmas. I also ordered The Pajama Elves Book this year!

I saw this cute little elf door that you put up against your base board buuut I'm pretty sure I can make a cuter one, so that will come next year.

Enough about Christmas ..... I haven't hosted a HouseParty in a LONG time but I signed up and ACTUALLY got picked to host one for SodaStream. I'm not at all a soda drinker {maybe 1 soda a month but that's pushing it} but I'm excited about this little machine! It gives you recipes for sparkling tea and grown up drinks too!

I also just signed up for BzzAgent & I'm so addicted to filling out all the surveys! How did I not know about this??

Family update.... we are all doing great!! I start a part-time bartending job tonight & I'm really looking forward to it, I miss the bar atmosphere a lot. C is doing great in school and learning so much, amazes me everyday. M just brought home straight A's AGAIN, the kid has never brought home anything else. J is doing well too- he is in the process of job hunting, he has done auto body work his entire life and I think it's really wearing on him.

Menu 7/27-7/30

Key West Grilled Chicken, Grilled Mushrooms & Broccoli

Pesto Chicken Stuffed Shells

Baked Parmesan Garlic Chicken with Spaghetti Squash

Stuffed Turkey Burgers

Chicken Taco Chili

This was yummy & perfect for the rainy Sunday! It wasn't as spicy as I would have hoped but perfect for C, I just added hot sauce to mine. I of course used low sodium on anything I could, the original pinterest recipe I saw used canned corn but I switched to frozen to cut down also.

Ingredients...

• 1lb boneless, skinless chicken
• 1 chopped onion
• 1 can of black beans
• 1 can of kidney beans
• 1 can of diced tomatoes with chopped chilis
• 1 small can of tomato sauce
• 10oz of frozen corn
• 1 packet of taco seasoning
• 1 tbsp cumin
• 1 tbsp chili powder

Directions...

• Combine all ingredients into the crock pot and cook on low 6-8 hours. Shred Chicken about an hour before serving. {GEEZ I LOVE CROCK POT COOKING}

Buffalo Chicken Lasagna ... nom!

I realized after I cooked all if it that I didn't take any pictures! I saw this recipe on Pinterest made a few different ways so I printed 2 and then personalized it a little bit ... the ranch powder was my doing ;)


Ingredients...

• Whole wheat lasagna noodles {uncooked}
• 1lb boneless skinless chicken breast, cubed... I used my PC chopper to chop small
• 1 jar of spaghetti sauce
• 1 cup of franks buffalo sauce
• 1 packet of hidden valley ranch dip mix
• 15oz non fat ricotta cheese
• 1/2 cup of egg beaters
• cheese, the recipe called for pepper jack slices I didn't have any so used reduced fat mozzarella
• 1.5 cups of water

Directions...

• Preheat the oven to 350 & spray 9x13 pan with non-stick cooking spray.
• Cube chicken, toss with ranch powder & cook in a skillet. You could also shred it & then mix it with the powder, I thought the cubes were too big so I chopped it super tiny with my chopper after it was cooked.
• Combine chicken, water, buffalo sauce & spaghetti sauce in a large bowl.
• Combine ricotta & egg beaters in a small bowl.
• Spread 1 cup of sauce on the bottom of the pan, cover with noodles, spread more sauce, then layer with ricotta. Repeat this process until you are out of ingredients {you should finish with a layer of sauce}.
• Cover with foil & bake 70 minutes.
• Uncover, top with cheese and bake 15 minutes uncovered.

Crayon Art

Thank you Pinterest for giving us something fun to do while C was home sick last week! She absolutely loved it & wants to make one for everyone {beware if you have an upcoming birthday}!!

Flubber

Me and the girls made flubber this weekend & it was so easy!! M is 10 and wasn't so interested but did say it was cool, C thought it was awesome & it kept her busy for hours. We saved it in a Ziploc so she has played with it daily.

I used this recipe that I found on Pinterest.

• 1 teaspoon borax powder
• 1 1/2 C water, divided
• 4 oz (1/2 C)  Elmer’s glue, clear or white
• food coloring

1. Add borax powder to 1 cup of water and stir to dissolve.  Set aside. 
2. Pour glue into a medium mixing bowl and add 1/2 C water.
3. Add a few drops of food coloring until desired color is reached and then stir to mix glue solution until smooth. 
4. Pour the borax mixture into the glue mixture and watch the solids start to form. 
5. Stir for a few moments and then use your hands to gather the mass.  The mixture will be very soft and wet.  Keep kneading until it firms up and feels dry.  Discard excess liquid in bowl. The more you knead and play with the slime the firmer it will become.  Store in a ziplock bag or air tight container and the slime will keep indefinitely

Week-End Recap

I swear someone slipped me a Xanex this weekend! Between laundry, the normal mess, and my house still being a disaster from my 2 bathroom floods within 3 days, I had a lot to do BUT didn't care at all. Which just isn't normal for me, the typical Ashley would have needed all of this done in time for my Sunday night shows. Instead, I relaxed, enjoyed my girls and we did some fun things. Saturday the girls made some crafts for Deeka (my dad) since we were going to be celebrating his birthday Sunday, C made him a hand/foot print ocean & M made him a tie dye shirt, which is not at all him but I guarantee he will wear it all the time. We also made Flubber (blog to follow), english muffin pizza's, J took M to see Spiderman while me and C got to spend some time with our friends! Sunday we slept in, made pop-tarts (blog to follow) & spent the afternoon by the pool enjoying some of our amazing family. Now it's back to Monday & my house is still a crazy messy disaster, there is always next weekend :)

C's artwork ... go figure I got no pictures of the tie dye

C and some of her girlfriends

... Our Pizza's ...