Ever feel like you are spending a lot of money on yogurt? Do you know how easy it is to make? I’m sharing my super simple recipe over at Nap time Is My Time today.
If you are new to the blog, take a moment and go check it out. Let me know if you have any questions.
On Tuesday night I attended the Drool Baby Expo organized by Magic Beans. All of the best in baby gear came together to show off the latest gear, clothes, toys and everything in between. I went in to the experience to check out the latest eco-friendly gear to share with my readers here, and also to visit with some of the local business.
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Did you know seaweed is good for your garden? We found this great big piece this weekend walking the beach and got so excited to bring it home for the garden. Yes, silly. However, the seaweed provides lots of vitamins and minerals for the soil, plus phosphates. It improves soil fertility, aeration and moisture retention. Generally lots of good stuff to help your veggies grow.
When you use fresh seaweed, you can wash it in fresh water before putting it in the soil or compost. This reduces some of the salt on it. (Some say it’s not necessary so make your own call.) Please don’t take the seaweed still attached to rocks, that is home to lots of little ocean creatures who will be upset you have taken their home away. Head to the beach after a good storm and you can find lots of homeless seaweed.
When we turned over the compost this season and added it to some of the raised beds, we laughed when we unearthed some old lobster claws still slightly intact. Did you know you can add your seafood shells to a compost pile? One less thing in the trash and they tend to break down quickly.
Don’t live near a beach? You can get seaweed fertilizer online to help give your garden a natural kick. We used Neptune’s Harvest growing up since we need one of the owners. It’s still around and a great product for doing some fertilizing once your veggies are growing. We used Organic Neptune’s Harvest Fish & Seaweed Fertilizer
Anyone else have a random gardening tip to share?
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Happy Mother’s Day! I hope all the many Moms reading this had a lovely weekend, cooking or not. We went away to Gloucester to our favorite bed and breakfast. We spent a lot of time just walking around, eating ice cream and visiting family. A perfect weekend, plus it was a nice break from the computer.
Why is it that May is always so busy? It must be that end of school year rush that gets everyone in a tizzy. Somehow we have lots of evening events the next few weeks so meal planning was a bit trickier than usual. Groceries will be delivered to our door tomorrow afternoon so we should be ready to go for the rest of the week.
Monday~ homemade teriyaki marinade for Natural Sirloin Steak, steamed spinach and rice.
Tuesday~ I’m headed to Magic Beans Drool Baby Expo, then dinner out with Daddy!
Wednesday~ White Chicken Chili from my favorite Not Your Mother’s Slow Cooker Cookbook
Thursday~ Panko Crusted Fish (pollock) and sweet potato fries.
Friday~ Chicken Pizza. May have to add some fiddleheads again like last week.
Have a great week!
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Do you ever flip through cookbooks for relaxation? If yes, have I got one for you. The new Joy the Baker Cookbook
The recipes in the book are easy and use a lot of basic pantry ingredients. I went a little healthier and used the white whole wheat flour for this recipe in place of all purpose and it came out great. Well, not just great but amazing. The bourbon gave the bread just a little kick and a unique sweetness.
I won the cookbook from Simple Mom during Project Simplify in March. The book is signed by Joy and I was just a little bit giddy when it finally arrived. I have listened to Joy the Baker’s podcast weekly for some time now and if you haven’t heard it, you can find it at Homefries.com. She chats with Tracy B. from Shutterbean (amazing font land/photography/recipes.) These podcasts are a treat to listen to while cleaning up the kitchen, they are random and always silly.
Next up to make…Carrot Cake Pancakes with cream cheese spread. Oh Joy.
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Happy Monday! Did you celebrate Cinquo de Mayo or the Kentucky Derby this weekend? We are doing a delayed celebration with our Wednesday feast of Black Bean/Avocado/Corn salad. The stores have lots of “mexican” inspired ingredients on sale so it’s a good time to tweak your menu to add in some spicy bean dishes.
Monday~ Seafood Pasta from the Pioneer Woman. I sat down with Pinterest this week to make my meal plan. This one just looked easy and delicious with both scallops and shrimp included.
Tuesday~ Boston event for Mom and Dad so kids will get Wheels Up Pasta, a mix of wagon wheel pasta, apples and cucumbers courtesy of Parents magazine.
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Have you ever bought kids clothes from a consignment shop or special sale? If you haven’t, this is a wonderful way to give perfectly good clothes a longer life. Plus save some cash in the process.
Twice a year I volunteer and shop the Parent Talk sale in Needham. The Used Clothing, Toy and Equipment sale is a massive event. Two floors of a church are filled with special outfits, hardly worn jackets and too many toys to count. It can be overwhelming, but always worth it.
I like to volunteer for a shift the day before the sale so I can get a sneak peek at some of the good stuff. Go in with a list of what you want to buy so you don’t get sidetracked by all the cute things that pass by. We were busy this Friday night gabbing away while tagging bags of clothes that have been donated by so many generous families. It made for a fast two hours, and plenty of time for shopping at the end.
My kids are now in good shape for warm weather, if it ever decides to make an appearance again. At least I got the little guy a great new rain jacket so something can get used right away! The rest of the clothes were in great shape, including a great stash of Gap pj’s, fishy ones! I have a slight weakness for all things nautical so at least half of JJ’s outfits have a lobster, crab or fish on them.
I encourage you to check out your local consignment options. Kids wear their clothes for such a short stretch this is such a great way to give them more life. Give them a good wash when you get home and you are good to go.
Happy Shopping!
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Have you ever taken a cooking class with your child? How about a three year old? Let me tell you it’s a pretty funny experience and totally worthwhile. We recently went to a Chobani for Champions event where we learned how to incorporate yogurt into our recipes. I’m used to doing it for baking, but in a main dish I was at a loss.
Introducing, Very Berry Yogurt Chicken! It’s a sweet dish that is family friendly. I knew it would be a winner when it included two of the kids favorite snacks~ cucumbers and avocado. Plus yogurt is involved which is Madison’s favorite food lately…she couldn’t get enough of it!
Here are the instructions for the Very Berry Yogurt. Don’t miss your chance to win an amazing package of yogurts from Chobani at the bottom of this post!
Ingredients
2 chicken breasts
2 cups of Very Berry Chobani Greek Yogurt
1 English cucumber
1 avocado
8 leaves of basil
1/2 cup raspberries
1 tablespoon canola oil
Heat oil in a large skillet on medium heat. Add chicken to pan once hot. Cook until nearly cooked through.
Add cucumber to skillet, cook for 4 minutes. Add raspberries (which sadly I didn’t have on hand at home.)
Add avocado at the end so it doesn’t turn brown, then the basil. Lastly, add in the second cup of yogurt so it’s slightly creamy.
Final product! Very Berry Yogurt served in a cute avocado boat!
Now the fun part! One winner will get 2 boxes of Chobani Greek Yogurt delivered to your door. That 48 cups of yogurt! Just think how easy it will be to pack for a picnic lunch with these little cups! Did you know Chobani yogurt is hormone free? I was pleasantly surprised to learn this and it made me very happy. Enjoy some Very Berry, Honey Banana, Chocolate Chunk and Orange Vanilla…which is like a creamsicle in a cup!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Contest is open until midnight, May 12th. US Residents only.
Good luck!
I love to hear your feedback and comments. Stop by and visit Facebook, Pinterest or Twitter for more conversation! Or get posts delivered via Email or RSS Feed. Thanks! Disclosure: I attended the Choban
i event and received complimentary products for review. The opinions expressed here are my own, and my 3 year olds. This post is shared with Make It Yourself Monday.
When you first start blogging, everything is neatly contained within the digital world of your computer, iPhone and your head. Eventually, you realize there are paper lists of ideas accumulating, product press releases multiplying and cheat sheets of codes piling up around you. Time to step back and get your blogging work organized and create a Blogging Binder.
I am using a Naked Binder, which I love because it’s eco-friendly and is a nice reminder of why I’m blogging in the first place. The binder has tab dividers and pocket folders, all of which specific purposes. Here is a list of the possible sections you may want to create, depending on how you run your blog:
I am using planning sheets created by Infarrantly Creative. These sheets are awesome and you can pop over to her site and print out a few to see if they work for you. Watch her video and get inspired to start planning your editorial calendar for the blog.
Post Ideas are magazine swipes, sticky notes, etc that all inspire me to keep on writing.
PR/Brand section is for the press releases that arrive with samples. I feel it is important to read those if you are doing a product review so you can potentially answer questions your reader has. Not mandatory, but a great piece to save for contact info as well.
Stats can be a fun place. I’m a bit of a computer geek so I tend to check numbers a little too often. However, it also affords me an opportunity to quickly print out the details for a banner day. Generally it is a good spot for me to print out Google Analytic reports on a monthly basis so I have them handy for any PR inquiries if needed.
Conferences is new this year! I attended the new Blog Better Boston event and up next, BlogHer! I’ll be the newbie there and I already have lots of questions. This section is my place to keep track of schedules, travel plans, future conferences and the like.
For the Code section, I am using an overall recap designed by Life Your Way. This will be invaluable if I ever have a system issue. Also in this section is some easy code to use in your posts. Yes, code can be easy once you see it in action.
Local is my section for correspondences with Boston Parent Bloggers and other local bloggers and events.
The last section is an open folder for collecting info that needs to be filed, random inspiration or business cards that do not fit neatly into my handy business card pocket.
Personalize this to make it work for you and your blog. You may need advertising sections, WordPress notes, or have more community connections to maintain. An organizing system only works if it works for you.
I hope this helps you reach your blogging goals in the coming months!
I love to hear your feedback and comments. Stop by and visit Facebook, Pinterest or Twitter for more conversation! Or get posts delivered via Email or RSS Feed. Thanks! This post is shared with Today’s Creative Blog, We Did It Wed., Make It Yourself Monday, Somewhat Simple, Metamorphosis Monday,
filter at Bed, Bath and Beyond, which is comparable to Amazon pricing. Watch for the correct size pot in addition to brand.
I love to hear your feedback and comments. Stop by and visit Facebook, Pinterest or Twitter for more conversation! Or get posts delivered via Email or RSS Feed. Thanks! Disclosure: Affiliate links are included in this post. It’s shared with Sustainable Ways.
