Spring Decorations

If you've been reading my blog for awhile, you probably know by now that I love to decorate!

I really get into the seasons and am always looking forward to the next holiday.

You can read about some of my past decorations here, here and here!!

Now, let's talk about my Spring Decorations!

For me - Spring and Easter have always gone hand in hand.

In fact, most of my decorations are Easter related!

And this year, I added a NEW Spring Wreath to the mix.

You can read about all about that here.

Take a look below at the fun Spring decorations around my place!

I know it's probably a little late to use any of these ideas at your place this year,
but keep them in mind for NEXT year and get started on your DIY projects now!!!

No Bake Treats: Scotcharoos Revisited!

Awhile ago, I posted about Scotcharoos.

Because they are THAT good, I decided I'd post about them 

ONE.MORE.TIME.

Who's going to complain about a super easy and tasty treat???

Take a look below at how easy these Scotcharoos really are!

The Goods:

Crispy Rice Cereal

Corn Syrup

Sugar

Peanut Butter

Butterscotch Chips

Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips

Cook syrup and sugar together over medium heat until sugar is dissolved.

Bring to a boil and remove from heat.

Add the peanut butter and mix well.

Add the rice cereal and mix to combine.

Put into 9x13 baking dish and spread out.

Melt both kinds of chips and spread out evenly over crispy rice.

Let harden, remove from pan and cut into squares.

And devour!!!

Pinterest!

I did it.

I bit the bullet.

I FINALLY joined Pinterest!

You can find me here.

Follow me and keep your eye out for fun new things featured on my blog!

Oh and if you aren't already - you should follow me on bloglovin here.

And on Instagram here!

Copycat Spring Wreath

In the last year, I started making wreaths for the different holidays and seasons.
You can see a few here, here and here.
Since Spring and Easter were coming up, I knew it was time to make something festive!

 I turned to the internet and found a few options.
After getting opinions from a few people I settled on this one!

I made my shopping list and after a quick trip to Michaels I was ready to go!
Take a look and how easy it was to make this beauty!!

The Goods:

Wreath

Fake Tulips

Burlap Ribbon - Two Kinds!

Floral Wire

Hot Glue Gun and Glue

Wire Cutters

Make the bow and the main bouquet.

Decide where to place and hot glue it to the wreath.

Hot glue the rest of the flowers to the wreath.

Wrap in the larger burlap ribbon.

(Not pictured)

Hang on front door for all to enjoy!!!

Banana Bread Brownies

With a Browned Butter Frosting!

YUMMMMMMMM

I made these scrumptious treats a few weeks ago,
and there is NO doubt that I will be making them again!
And probably soon!!!

I saw the recipe for these here and thought they sounded so good.
I love banana bread, so how could these be bad?

SPOILER: They weren't!
They were AMAZING!!!

And the best part is that they are so incredibly simple to make.
Take a look at the process below:

The Goods:

Yellow Cake Mix

Vegetable Oil

Eggs

Sour Cream

Bananas

Cinnamon

Pecans

Butter

Powdered Sugar

Vanilla

Milk

Mix up the first part of the batter.

Add the bananas, cinnamon and pecans.

Pour into greased 9x13 pan and cook for about 25 minutes.

While baking, make the brown butter frosting!

 Done baking and before and after frosting is added.

The finished product.

Like I said before, these were amazing!

My favorite part by far has to be the incredibly tasty brown butter frosting! 

Yum, yum, yum!!!

400th and Instagram!

Let me first star off by saying...

HAPPY 400th BLOG POST!!!

Wow! Wow! Wow!

Can you believe this is the 400th post on this blog!?!

I'll be the first to say I didn't see myself keeping this blog up,

but I'm SO happy I did.

I don't have tons of readers, 

and that's completely fine.

I do this blog for ME and I'm very thankful for the readers I do have!

Keep coming back and reading.

Let me know what you like and what don't.

What you want to see MORE of.

And for those of you that don't know yet...

I have an INSTAGRAM that's mostly for the blog.

I sometimes give previews to what I'll be posting about soon!

Follow me here if you aren't already!!

Homemade Soup: Taco Soup

I saw this soup recipe on a blog I read and it sounded amazing!

I couldn't wait to make it and give it a try.

I did so not too long after spotting the recipe.

And I haven't blogged about a homemade soup in awhile,

so I thought it was time I shared another yummy soup on my blog.

This recipe is so easy to make and gives you quite a few servings. 

I made enough to eat for a few meals and then freeze some for later.
(Note: I've found that it's easier to freeze soup in individual servings.)

Take a look below at the process and then give it a try.

I'm pretty sure you'll like the outcome - I sure did!

The Goods:

 Ground Turkey (or Beef)

Taco Seasoning - Packet or Homemade

Onion

Bell Pepper

Black Beans

Kidney Beans

Pinto Beans

Corn

Rotel Tomatoes

Diced Tomatoes

Ranch Packet

Brown the meat, add the onions and bell pepper and sauté.

Add remaining ingredients and stir to combine.

Simmer at least 30 minutes - if not longer.

Garnish with Sour Cream, Cheese and Green Onions!

Dig in and ENJOY!!!!

Have you signed up for Ebates yet???

If not, you need to!!!

Go here RIGHT NOW and sign up. 

You won't regret it! In fact, I think you'll thank me eventually!

In this post, I told you how I had just received my first check from Ebates and a few of you signed yourself up to start earning money too. 

My first check wasn't huge - in fact, it probably wouldn't even buy a meal at too many places.

But my second check was almost 10 times more! 

My Ebates check was partly from my own online shopping, but partly from referring people too. 

Yes, you read that right - you get money just for refereeing people once they make their first qualifying purchase.
So basally, it's FREE money! And who doesn't like free money? 

If you didn't sign up the first time I posted, you're just missing out on a little extra money in your wallet (or bank account really). Don't make that mistake again, so sign up here NOW!

Elina and Robyn Make...Gnocchi

It's been quite awhile since I posted about something delicious Elina and I made.
I'm sorry it's been so long, but I hope this amazing food makes up for it!

A few weeks ago, Elina and I were watching a show on the Food Network and they were making homemade Gnocchi. As soon as we saw this, we both looked at each other and had the same thought -
WE HAVE TO MAKE THIS SOON!

After doing a little research, we figured making gnocchi wouldn't be much more difficult than making homemade pasta and we've both done that numerous times before. The more difficult part was deciding what type of sauce to make with the gnocchi.

After each of us threw our a few ideas, we decided on ...

A Cheesy Garlic Cream Sauce!!!

Homemade Gnocchi with anything sounds great, but with a cheesy garlic cream sauce is sounds even better!
(Note: We didn't toss our broccoli with the gnocchi as this recipe indicates.)

The Goods - Part 1:

Flour

Eggs

Potatoes

Parmesan

Cream

Garlic

Salt

Pepper

Lemon

The Goods - Part 2 (AKA Things we forgot in Part 1...):

Milk

Chicken Broth

Butter

Fresh Parsley

Peel, cut up, cook, drain, cool off and finally rice your potatoes.

Arrange your potatoes in a dome and create a well in the middle.
Add your egg mixture and start combining with your hands.
Gradually mix in cheese and flour until dough is slightly sticky.

Divide dough in sixths, roll out into 1/2 inch thick, then slice in 1/2 inch pieces.

Create indentations on each piece using fork tines.

We put our gnocchi on cookies sheets, then stored them in the fridge while we made the delicious sauce!

Now time, to make the sauce!!!

Melt butter and cook the garlic.

Stir in Chicken Broth and combine.

Whisk in Cream and Milk until incorporated. 

Add the parmesan right before combining with the gnocchi.

Bring water to a slow boil, add gnocchi and cook until they rise to the surface.

Drain the gnocchi and combine with the sauce.

Finish off with Fresh Parsley.

Plate, add more fresh parm and serve with a crisp green salad!

The gnocchi and sauce were absolutely amazing!

After taking a few bites, we decided that the gnocchi were like little pillows of deliciousness.

And then we scarfed the rest down without saying another word to each other.

It was THAT good!

We were both very happy with the end result and knew we'd both be making this again.

In fact, we even had some uncooked gnocchi leftover that we were able to freeze for a later date.

Well HELLO Garden!

A few posts ago, I said I may blog about the garden soon, but that I wouldn't hold your breath.

Well - for those of you who did hold your breath, the time is FINALLY here!

It's nothing big, it's nothing too exciting, but I thought it was about time I gave you a little look into what's going on in my balcony garden!

The poor little lime tree.

It's doing well, but looks so bare since it's lost all it's leave and I went crazy pruning it!

And holy wow - look at the Christmas tree!

This thing just keeps growing and growing and growingggggggg.

Oh and lookie there - the raspberry plant may very well come back this year!

I'd love to get some actual raspberries this year though...

My fresh herbs are doing SO well.

I can't believe it either because I sorta neglected them the last few months

I know I've said it before, and I'll say it a million more times, 

but I LOVE having fresh herbs to cook with.

The newest additions - two hanging planters with ranunculus.

Keep your eye out for updates on these AND hopefully more new additions to the garden soon! 

The geranium that just keeps growing. 

I neglect this baby like crazy over the last year or so, but I still haven't killed it!

And my poinsettia from Christmas time is doing great too!

I don't know if I've ever had one this long and I'm excited to see how long I am able to keep it living. 

While this isn't a very exciting update, I have hopes for the future!

My parents got me all new window box liners and I cannot wait to put them in and get some flowers growing. I could easily buy some flowers because the weather is already nice enough, but I am actually attempting to grow my own using a seedling kit my brother gave me a few years back. So far, I have a few sprouts but nothing worth photographing just yet. Stay tuned though!!