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Nam sodales mi vitae dolor ullamcorper et vulputate enim accumsan. Morbi orci magna,tincidunt vitae molestie nec,molestie at mi. Nulla nulla lorem,suscipit in posuere in,interdum non magna.
I know it’s looking a bit strange around here as my ENTIRE blog is out of sorts and looks nothing like it normally does. So the story is…I’m in the process of changing hosts. In that process,I managed to have a little uh-oh and lost everything. Luckily,I had an old .xml file that still had all of my posts (but none of my pics,theme,or formatting). So here is what is left of things before I can get it sorted out. I’m so sorry that all the pics are gone,especially for the tutorials! My hubby is working on getting everything back to how it was in the next few days. All of the posts are still here (including the pillowcase bag!) but they just aren’t looking so pretty.
In other news…I’m not only changing hosts but I’m changing my entire blog! In a few weeks I will be launching justplainkayla.com which will be a super exciting upgrade from TBM! I’ll be mostly starting new,but also migrating some stuff from here that I’ve grown attached to,and then we’ll be saying adios to This Beautiful Mess. So,thanks for bearing with me through the awkward process and my big fat uh-ohs while this all gets sorted!
A few days ago my neighbor gave us some extra avocados that she wasn’t able to use. They were pretty ripe and needed to be used fairly quickly. You probably don’t know this,but I love avocados. I’ve always got an idea of something to do with them. This time,we decided to make sandwiches.
They were so fantastically amazing that my husband,who rarely makes dinner requests,requested to have it two more times within just a few days. That’s right. We’ve had this sandwich for dinner three times within the last seven days. It’s just that good. And it’s so simple,I don’t mind making it over and over again.
I wouldn’t normally think to to post a recipe for such a simple sandwich but it was just so good,it’s totally worth it. It’s a great dinner and takes less than 20 minutes to toss together when you cook the bacon in the microwave. Quick and delicious. That’s my kind of meal.
Bacon Veggie Sandwich (makes 2 sandwiches)
Ingredients:
4 slices of bread
4 slices of cooked bacon,cut in half
1 avocado
1 medium tomato (cut in 8 slices)
Fresh spinach
Ranch salad dressing
Directions:
1. Spread ranch salad dressing on both two slices of bread.
2. Lay spinach leaves across one slice of bread,on top of dressing.
3. Layer with avocados slices.
4. Then add the bacon.
5. Top with 4 tomato slices.
6. Add the other piece of bread.
Two words:AMAZINGLY GOOD.
I’m especially excited for when I can pull the spinach and tomatoes from our garden and make this.
I’ve been absent for a bit. Not because I wanted to be. These last three weeks have been kinda weird. And highlighted with a two-week,surprise attack sinus infection that went away and sneakily came back four days later. So I’m dealing with that now and this is first day that I haven’t been super light-headed. After a long night coughing and not sleeping,I decided that I would get out of bed and try to live like a normal person. At least for a few hours. So I got up and put some music on and took a long,relaxing shower. Good medicine. (Well,that and how well my wonderful Joel has been taking care of me.) So here I am,pondering where to start. I must first apologize to my dear giveaway winners for having not yet received their beans. Trust me,they’re coming. I packaged them up after got out the shower and they are ready to go. Between being sick and….well,being sick,I’ve been a bit of a slacker. Next,I want to tell you what I’ve been into lately.
Garden stuff–everything but my tomatoes are producing now. I’ve been cutting back herbs and giving them away as well as gleefully spying on my lovely cucumbers,peas,etc…By the way,if anyone has a great pesto (but not too complicated) recipe for yummy pesto…please send it my way! We’ve got so much basil and with no tomatoes yet I haven’t figured out what to do with them.
Pinterest–if you haven’t been on this site,you are missing out! It is fabulous. It’s a hotbed for ideas and cravings. If you need an invite,e-mail me through the “contact me”page and I’ll send you one! It will get you in a lot quicker than being placed on the site’s waiting list.
Foodgawker–also fabulous. As well as its dwellinggawer,craftgawker,and weddinggawker counterparts. Tastespotting–this one is great too!
A Year of Prayer and Fasting–yes,I’m still doing it. Update is coming soon. Some cool stuff has come from this and I’m itching to let you in on it!
Some Blog Changes--this is seems like an ongoing thing for two reasons:I’m never really satisfied with how the blog looks and my knowledge of webdesign=what can easily be looked up on Google. Nevertheless,I’m trying to make it a bit cozier and more like me around here. However,don’t expect for it to be any less messy
Okay,so there’s more than that going on but I don’t want to bore you with a long list.
In other news,I’m pondering having a “blueberry week”here at This Beautiful Mess where I would like to have you share some of your favorite blueberry recipes. What do you think? They just might be my favorite fruit this summer and it’s getting close to picking time! If you’d like to do a guest post for this little mini-series,let me know!
All this typing is making me thirsty. So I’ve gotta go now. You can catch me over at Everyday is Bliss a little later today with my next installment of Marriage Tool Monday. Peace.
Warm weather is FINALLY here! The time of popsicles,ice cream,and frozen grapes!
I was at the pet store last month and I couldn’t help but wander over to the freezer and buy some frozen puppy treats (basically frozen yogurt for dogs) and of course paid an arm and a leg for it. After I brought it home and discovered that Cupcake loved it,I decided that I would simply have to make my own in the future,rather than spending the money for it again. I made some last week and Cupcake definitely approved. It’s really easy and there’s so much flexibility with the flavors you can try. We did peanut butter and banana this time,but next time I’ll try sweet potato and molasses (which is the original flavor I bought at the store). I’ll put the recipe up for that when I make it,but for now,here’s the peanut butter and banana version. Enjoy!
Ingredients:
16oz plain,fat-free yogurt
1 banana,mashed
1/4 cup creamy peanut butter
small paper cups
Directions:
1. Spoon all ingredients in the blender and blend until completely smooth.
2. Let very adorable dog lick the spoon.
3. Pour/divide mixture equally among the cups. I filled my cups a little less than halfway for smaller servings. Next time I’ll do even less than that.
4. Put them in the freezer until they are thoroughly frozen. For storage,just put plastic wrap over the cups. (Is anyone else’s freezer this out of control? I was lucky to get one cup in,let alone six!)
To serve,microwave the cup for about 10 seconds to soften it up a little bit,then empty into a larger dish. Let your furry friend enjoy and stay cool!
Try it! Let me know how it goes! I can’t wait to do a bunch of different flavors!
Hello friends! It’s Friday,which means…time for the announcement of our giveaway winners! I wish I had enough vanilla beans to give to everyone who entered but unfortunately that’s just not possible! However,I was able to choose three winners instead of just two.
After getting all of your entries together,I used Random.org,which generated the three vanilla bean winners. Here are the lucky ladies:
Lindsey
BeckyL
Jessica
I will be sending you three lovely ladies an e-mail requesting your information so that I can drop them in the mail on Monday!
Thanks so much to everyone who entered. I’ve now got a huge craving for everything vanilla after reading about all of your favorite recipes! I can’t wait for the next giveaway!
Hello there! If you read my last post,you saw that I mentioned an upcoming vanilla bean giveaway. Well folks,here it is!
In anticipation of some recipes that I’ve been wanting to try out,I bought myself a 1/4lb of Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla beans,which just happens to be a whole lot of beans. So….I’m going to share the wealth with my readers. If you’ve ever bought vanilla beans,you know they can be kind of pricey,BUT ,the TWO LUCKY WINNERS of this giveaway will receive 3 beans for FREE! This is enough to make all the vanilla extract you need, or any other recipe you may be thinking of!
Here’s how it works:
To earn an entry,all you have to do is leave a comment on this post telling me your favorite recipe that uses vanilla beans/extract. You don’t have to actually give the recipe,just tell me what it is!
To earn two more entries (that’s right,two more!),subscribe to my posts by e-mail,via the feedburner link on the left sidebar. Then,leave another comment here to let me know that you did it.
Please make sure to leave your e-mail address when you post a comment. No one will see it but me. This way I can confirm your feedburner subscription as well as have the ability to get in touch with you if you are a winner.
The giveaway ends on Thursday,May 19th and the winner will be announced the next day,Friday,May 20th.
When it comes to baking,it seems like everyone has their own “secret ingredient”. But let’s be honest,one of the best ingredients that I know of is not so secret.
It goes into practically everything. And if you’re anything like me,you always put in a little extra. That’s right,I’m talking about good old vanilla extract. The problem is,it’s just so expensive these days. Not only that but store bought vanilla extract tends to have stuff added to it,like sugar and flavoring. So,I decided to make my own. It’s so easy,there’s no reason not to. And once you make it,you’ll never run out. Interested? Read on!
What you’ll need:
—Vodka
—Vanilla beans
—Airtight container
(See below for more specific measurements)
Here’s what you do:
1. Split the vanilla beans long ways
2. Put them in them in your container
3. Fill the container with vodka,leaving a bit of space at the top.
Store it in a cool,dark place and shake it up every once in a while.
The longer you let the beans soak,the richer the flavor will be. I recommend using 1 bean per 4oz of liquid. I used 3 beans for about 13oz of vodka.I plan to let mine steep until the end of the summer before I start using it (if I can wait that long) because I want it to be super rich. Once you do start using it,all you have to do is top it off with vodka every once in a while and give it a good shake. You can actually keep this up for a long time. And when I say a long time…I mean YEARS. You’ll never have to buy vanilla extract again (but you should rotate new beans in every few years or so).
I’ve already decided that I will be making smaller versions of these as Christmas gifts this year.
She’s 12 weeks old now. We’ve had her since she was 8 weeks old. We’ve recently discovered that she loves sweet potatoes. So I made her sweet potato treats. And she loves them too. Now,you can make them for your pup! And if you don’t have a pup,I recommend that you get one! This treat is easy peasy and cheaper than the store version. Plus,they smell fantastic!
Sweet Potato Chews
1 large sweet potato (preferably organic),washed and peeled
1. Preheat oven to 250 degrees.
2. Slice up the sweet potato. (Seen below)
(I cut mine in half to make them more manageable for Cupcake. Keep in mind that they shrink as they dehydrate so don’t cut them too small if you decide you want to cut yours as well.)
3. Put in oven and let them cook/dehydrate for at least three and half hours. Make sure to turn them over at some point to make sure they cook evenly. If you want them more crunchy than chewy,then just leave them in longer.
4. Pull them out and…voila!
If you have a dehydrator,you can do it that way too! Let me know how they work out!
These keep my little Cupcake occupied indefinitely. Love them!
I’ve been in the mood for peanut butter lately. This is really Joel’s fault because he’s been coming home asking for pb&j sandwhiches. The craving started to catch on. So you can imagine how pleased I was last week when Martha Stewart’s comfort food section on the website featured 51 recipes all centered around peanut butter. You know what’s coming next,right? I came across this delicious look peanut butter pretzel candy recipe that I thought would be fun to do while I was babysitting for some of my favorite kiddos two weeks ago. Even though they pooped out on me about halfway through the process (to go play outside in that lovely spring weather we were having for a day or two last week),we all got to enjoy the end result of these little delights. Here they are:
Peanut Butter Pretzel Candy adapted from this recipe
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter 1/4 cup confectioners’sugar 1 tablespoon unsalted butter,room-temperature 1 cup crushed whole wheat pretzels 5 ounces dark chocolate,melted
3 super-cute kids (if you don’t have any you can borrow some,like I did)
1. Crush the pretzels
2. Mix the butter,sugar,and peanut butter together.
3. Mix it into the pretzels.
4. Put the mixture into the freezer for about 15 minutes,or until it is sturdy enough to work with by hand.
5. Roll mixture into one inch(ish) balls then stick them back into the freezer.
6. Melt the chocolate while the balls are chilling in the freezer.
7. Dip the balls into the chocolate,then place them in the fridge to let the chocolate set.
Enjoy! (They’re yummy!)
The next time I make these I’ll probably dip them into some crushed pretzels (once the chocolate starts to set a bit) to get a nice outside covering for them. All in all,they were fabulous,which says a lot since I’m not a big chocolate fan at all.
