Little frozen treats for my sweets...

Happy Monday all. We had a low key weekend. I actually relaxed this weekend and watched a lot of soccer. Have you been watching the World Cup? Gosh it really makes me miss playing soccer. The last time I played on a team was when I was 28. I actually quit because we were trying to conceive again and I didn't want to do anything that was too strenuous. Here we are years later with 4 girls. Crazy how life works.

It's been so hot already that we couldn't pass up buying some freezer ice pop molds recently. My girl's have a sweet tooth just like me so I try to find healthy alternatives. We're a big fan of making homemade limeade so we made some the other day and froze it in molds for popsicles. I'm not a fan of store bought popsicles for them.

Here's what you need to make limeade:

7-8 limes

About half a cup of sugar

Juicer

Cut your limes in half

Squeeze them in your pitcher

Once you've squeezed your limes, then add water to fill and finally sugar. 

Just pour in the molds, top, and freeze for a few hours. Enjoy the leftover limeade with dinner. 

Freezer Ice pops: {Walmart}

When I bought these, they were only 96 cents, but they are now advertised for $5.98. My one complaint would be that they are a little hard to pull out once frozen, but I saw on one review that you can run them under warm water before you pull them out. 

Here a a few other yummy recipes for freezer ice pops:

Melon ice pops: https://www.asweetpeachef.com

Blueberry yogurt ice pops: https://sallysbakingaddiction.com

Strawberry yogurt ice pops: https://www.tastesoflizzyt.com

Strawberry cheescake yogurt pops: https://cupcakesandkalechips.com

The most simple baked brie en croute ever!

My 4 year old is currently throwing a tantrum and my 2 year old is looking at her wondering what is up. I figured now is a good time as any to finish sharing a delicious and simple appetizer with you all. I need to mentally detach myself for a minute. 

Two weekends ago I made a simple baked brie with raspberry preserves for a gathering and it was delicious. All you need is a few ingredients and it rates low on the difficulty scale and high on the delivery scale. I fell in love with baked brie when my neighbor made it for one of our gatherings last year.

Ingredients

* Wheel of brie cheese (7-8 ounce size)
* 1 sheet of thawed puff pastry
* Whatever you might want to add such as orange marmalade, raspberry preserves, honey, jelly, or nuts
* 1 egg for brushing the pastry before baking.
* A little bit of flour (about 2 tbs)

Instructions

Step 1: Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Lay out a piece of parchment paper on your work surface and dust it a little with flour.

Step 2: Lay your thawed puff pastry sheet on the parchment paper and just stretch it out a little bit with your rolling pin. The idea here is to just make it a little thinner and wider.

Step 3: Place brie right in the center and slather your jelly, marmalde, or what have you all over the cheese wheel. I used smuckers raspberry preserve. 

Step 4: Wrap your brie with the puff pastry. All I did was fold each corner over the cheese. It's hard to make it perfect so at the end just close it as best as you can. It will come out looking great however you do it. 

Step 4: Brush the pastry all over with egg, transfer brie on parchment paper over to baking sheet  and pop it in the oven for 35-40 minutes. You want it to be golden brown. 

Step 5: Let the baked brie cool for about 5 minutes and transfer to serving platter. 

There you have it. Easy peasy. I find baked brie is best served with water crackers. You can also add grapes and nuts. Some people even drizzle honey over the puff pastry. With thanksgiving and Christmas around the corner it's a fantastic appetizer to bring to your gatherings.

Have a great Thursday!

Love'illy, the easiest gourmet pies you'll ever have!

I haven't really had many cravings this pregnancy, but for the past few weeks, I've had a craving for apple pie. I recently came across the company Love'illy and was very intrigued by their gourmet pie mixes. Just add fruit and pie crust. Heck yes! For a busy mom like me convenience is key, and if I can save time like cutting out the time it takes to make a pie sauce then I'm all for it.

Sydney the owner was kind enough to send over a few samples and we've only tried the apple spice so far, but let me tell you right off the bat what I thought. Delish! 

All the ingredients I used besides the pie mix were 9 granny smith apples and a pillsbury refrigerated pie crust. I simply peeled and cut my apples, put them in a bowl mixed the Love'illy apple spice pie mix in and viola! Ready to bake. At first I wondered how it would all come together since no water is to be added but upon mixing it a bit, I saw that it liquefies. So cool and I may have eaten a few apples with just the mix before it was baked. 

I used a ceramic pie pan covered the edges with foil before I put it in the oven. I baked it at 425 degrees for 15 minutes, took the foil off the edges and then brought the temperature down to 350 and baked for another 35 minutes. 

The pie smelled so good while it was cooking and once it was done and it came out perfect! It was soooo good. My mom is currently visiting us from Texas and she raved about it as well and had seconds. My whole family devoured it and I would have had more than 2 slices but I wanted to save a little for the next day. 

You can find Love'illy gourmet pie mixes here. 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LoveillyGourmet

Instagram: Loveillygourmet

Have a great weekend!

Weekend in Austin

This weekend H and I finally got a little getaway in without the kids. We went with two other couples (our closest friends) and had a blast! We left Friday around noon and got back yesterday. It was sooo nice to get a break from daily life. October has been an extremely stressful month with my father being sick and waiting on his diagnosis and dealing with a lawyer on a situation from years and years ago. On top of all that, the business had been extremely busy with wholesale orders, working with a flash sale site and the new collection. My stress level was through the roof. I literally cried off and on several times last week. 

This getaway was much much needed and you know what? I feel so much better. I've mentioned before that I'm terrible about having some time away from the kids, and just kicking back and relaxing even at home. It takes a lot to keep a household of 5 running smoothly. I keep saying I need to take some more time to myself, but then I don't, and when I do, I'm kicking myself for not doing it sooner. 

We stayed at the Omni resort and spa at Barton Creek in Austin and I loved the hotel. The bed was super comfortable, the anemities superb and the scenery was gorgeous. I would definitely stay there again and I don't say that about a lot of hotels. I think we did a lot for a weekend. Friday we stopped in a local brewery and then headed to Duchman winery. 

Afterwards we checked in the hotel and then had dinner at Jack Allen's Kitchen. Saturday we slept in and had breakfast at the hotel then headed to the grocery store for snacks and then rented a pontoon for 3 hours. So relaxing!

Sorry for the blurry cell phone pics, sometimes it's just easier to whip out my phone than my camera. 

After the pontoon on Lake Travis, we stopped to change somewhere and then headed to The house of torment. It felt like high school again and I hadn't been to one since high school in fact. Prices have really gone up since I was younger. We paid $84 for the 2 of us. I mean there was 3 different areas, but wow! The first one was really the only good one, but I felt like the actors kept zoning in and scaring me more than the rest of our group. Maybe I looked like the one who would be most scared and they'd get a good scream. Ha! I guess it was an experience and I think I'm good on haunted houses for the rest of my life. After that, we headed to Home slice pizza for some awesome pizza. Highly recommend this place! We stuffed our faces, walked around a little bit and then headed back to the hotel. Sunday we had breakfast at the hotel again and then headed to downtown Austin for some sightseeing. 

I feel so much more relaxed now. Laughter and friends is a great remedy for stress. Have a great Monday!

Let them eat cake..

 So not sure what's gotten into me lately, but I have been on a gourmet food kick lately.

 

You'd be amazed at how a little bit of parsley transforms your dish from looking dull to something whipped up at an upscale restaurant. Btw, that salmon I made last week was sooo delicious! You must try this recipe for a sweet and salty salmon rub. Usually I have a love/hate relationship with cooking. I mean I do it all the time about 5-6 days a week, but most of the time it's a chore. I love food, but let's just say if I had a personal chef to meal plan and cook for me, I would be in heaven. I think part of the hate part comes from lack of confidence when it comes to cooking, but I'm getting over it slowly.

Things change. I've changed, and I've gotten more relaxed on what my girls eat. I always strive to feed them balanced and healthy meals but I also let them indulge in sweets here and there. I mean how could I not? I have a huge sweet tooth and I can only hide in the corner munching on a Hershey's almond bar for so long before they find me. A little bit of sweets are ok and I am diligent about incorporating organic foods in their diet and brushing their teeth. I wasn't always this way. I was more strict with sweets than I should have been with Serena. I still remember that time we went to the zoo with my best friend and her kids when Serena was 5. My friend stopped in the ice cream shop and bought her kids ice cream and I wouldn't let Serena have any because she hadn't had dinner yet. It was also the principle that I had said no and she was insisting. So yes she had to sit at the table while the other kids had ice cream and she didn't. I don't know why I said no. I guess I remembered how my parents were. They hardly ever had sweets in the house and I couldn't really remember them ever indulging us much with surprise ice cream shop trips. I mean no ice cream because it wasn't after dinner? Ugh. I still feel horrible about that day and it's definitely on my list of one of my worst parenting moments. Thankfully, Serena doesn't remember and I'm always humbled by the amazing forgiveness that children are capable of. So yes I am pretty relaxed now when it comes to sweets. I do like to surprise them with trips to our local cupcakery, or a quick drive to Sonic's.

Have a great Monday!




Lunch with me

Do you have a go-to lunch or dinner that you usually make when you have friends over? Apparently I do. I mean I don't make the same lunch each time the same friend comes over, but I've noticed if it's a new friend, this menu is usually what I serve. 

* Chicken salad on crossaints

* Tri colored rotini in italian dressing

*Fruit 

*Salad

*Iced tea

*chocolate chip cookies

Nothing wrong with sticking with what works right? I like that it's all easy to put together and just takes the stress out of the lunch date, especially since the day of I'm wrangling the kids all while trying to get myself dressed and the house picked up.

White Chicken Enchiladas

(image from joyful mommas kitchen)


I wanted to share one of the best chicken enchilada recipes I have tasted in a long time. I found the recipe on pinterest and it's so easy and delicious. What I like about making this recipe is that I usually boil a whole chicken and I use half the meat to make a different meal the next day. It's a great way to make your grocery shopping dollars stretch.

10 corn tortillas

2 cups cooked, shredded chicken

2 cups shredded Monterey Jack cheese

3 Tbsp. butter

3 Tbsp. flour

2 cups chicken broth

1 cup sour cream

1 (4 oz) can diced green chillies

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9x13 pan

2. Mix chicken and 1 cup cheese. Roll up in tortillas and place in pan.

3. In a sauce pan, melt butter, stir in flour and cook 1 minute. Add broth and whisk until smooth. Heat over medium heat until thick and bubbly.

4. Stir in sour cream and chilies. Do not bring to boil, you don't want curdled sour cream.

5. Pour over enchiladas and top with remaining cheese.

6. Bake 22 min and then under high broil for 3 min to brown the cheese.

Here is a picture of how mine turned out. I had less tortillas to use.

Enjoy.