Pinterest Schminterest

Read up as we blog our way through Pinterest. Armed with a muffin pan, one old shoe box of sewing supplies and a lot of wine.

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Movin' On Up

WE HAVE MOVED!

This tumblr account is a secondary account so we have found that we are unable to follow you all back and return the love.

To rectify this we created a NEW tumblr that is the primary account so we can interact with everyone who likes and reblogs our posts.

Come follow us at:

www.PinterestSchminterest.tumblr.com

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Menu Boards. Husband Friendly!

Now that I've been cooking on a more regular basis I have been trying to plan my week so that I know what we are having when.  My husband is usually in charge of getting whatever meat we need out of the freezer and putting it out to thaw that day.  So rather than him always asking what needs to be taken out, this is the perfect solution.  All he needs to do is check the menu board.  It also then lets him know what nights I or he won't be here so that he can plan ahead and isn't surprised when he finds out I won't be here to cook him dinner that particular day.

Whatcha Need:

1 picture frame.  Any size specific to your space needs.  I used an 11x14.

Scrap booking paper, trimmed down to size

Scrap book letter stickers

Dry erase marker

So  here's what I used.  Its a little hard to see because the frame is black and my desk is black.  But its basically a picture frame that's all glass (no cardboard backing behind the picture), a white piece of scrap book paper, and silver letters in various fonts.

                    So I trimmed down the scrap paper so it would fit in the frame, but not take up the whole frame.  To give it that float look.  And then I added my letters.  I did measure the letters out first so that they were evenly spaced for the most part but I did leave room at the bottom for any "notes" I may need to make.  I applied the letters and put the paper into the frame.

                     Then all you have to do is use a dry erase marker to write down what dinner will be each night.  I've been concentrating on a lot of 500 calorie and less meals.  So this is perfect.  I decide what to have, and then do one big grocery trip on Sunday to make sure I have everything I need.

Rather than hanging mine in my kitchen because I have very little wall space, I just propped mine up in the corner.

              It's only Tuesday, but so far so good. 

Shout out to all my Little FFFer's.  Fat Kid Fridayyyyy!

                                                 ~Brandie~

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Why are you so wonderful with your delicious recipes and cute/sassy/perfect decoration/organization diys and your makeup reviews? :( marry me, please

Thank you for the compliments.  We love that people read our blogs.  However, I am already married. Thank you for the offer.  Its never bad to have a back up! :-) Keep reading!

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Lasagna Without the Carbs. Delicioso.

I'm sure you are all super tired of me blogging all these Skinnytaste recipes.  But I can't help it.  I find them on Pinterest and they look sooooo goooooood.

I'm a pasta LOVER.  Lasagna, ravioli, shells, manicotti..... basically anything stuffed with cheese.  But I'm cutting the carbs, so its been a long time since I've gotten to have any kind of wonderful pasta or bread.  So I saw this zucchini lasagna and figured it was worth a shot.

So here's the Pin:

                        Whatcha Need

1 lb 93% lean beef

3 cloves garlic

1/2 onion

1 tsp olive oil

salt and pepper

28 oz can crushed tomatoes

2 tbsp chopped fresh basil

3 medium zucchini, sliced 1/8" thick

15 oz fat free ricotta

16 oz reduced fat mozzarella cheese, shredded (Weight Watchers)

1/4 cup Parmigiano Reggiano

1 large egg

You cook the meat just like you would for regular meat sauce. Toss the meat in the pan and brown it.  Strain it to remove the grease.  In the same pan put in the olive oil and saute the garlic and onions.  The recipe calls for 3 gloves of garlic but I only used one.  I thought 3 sounded like alot.

                        Once they are brown add the meat back in along with the tomatoes, basil, salt and pepper.  Let that simmer on low for about a half an hour.

                        In the mean time either on a gas grill or in the broiler, broil your zucchinis.  Just 1 or 2 minutes on each side is fine.  You just want to soften them up a bit.

Remove them from heat and slice them about 1/8 inch thick give or take.  Lay them all out and sprinkle with salt.  They are very moist so the salt will suck up some of the moisture.  After about 10 minutes blot them with a paper towel.

                        Now you have to prep your cheese mix.  Add ricotta, egg and Parmesan cheese.  Mix together well.

                        The layering of it works just like regular lasagna.  Put down a small layer of meat sauce at the bottom of your pan.  On top of that use strips of zucchini.

                        On top of the zucchini add a layer of your cheese.  Then on top of that I put chunks of mozzarella cheese.  I prefer fresh mozzarella rather than pre-shredded, but pre-shredded will work just fine.

                        Repeat layers until your ingredients are gone or the pan is full to the top.

I sprinkled some more Parmesan on top.

Bake at 350 covered for 45 minutes.  Remove foil and continue cooking for an additional 15 minutes.

                         Tasted great!  I didn't even miss the noodles!

Here are the specs directly from Skinnytaste:

Servings: 6 • Serving Size: 1/6th • Old Points: 8.5 pts • Points+: 10 pts

Calories: 418.8 • Fat: 17.6 g • Protein: 39.2 g • Carb: 20.9 g • Fiber: 3.1 g 

                                                ~Brandie~

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Even Bathrooms Should Look Pretty

We're back to some home projects. This was one of the first things I saw on Pinterest.  Styrofoam squares covered in scrapbooking paper. 

                           Cute, cheap.  What's not to love.  I already had plenty of scrapbooking paper so I just needed some styrofoam squares.

What I Used:

4 Styrofoam Squares

Whatever scrapbooking pages you want to use, 4 for the "face of the squares and 2 that will be cut into strips for the sides (you could also use a wide ribbon on the side, which is what the original blog showed, but I didn't have any)

Tape

Mod Podge

                                                                                 First things first.  I picked the WRONG kind of styrofoam.  It was the real flaky kind, not the thick kind like styrofoam coffee cups are made out. So I ended up with this:

                          My vacuum crevice tool was used alot throughout this project.

Anyways, so I took tape and lined the edges of the square because I knew glue would seep right into the styrofoam and not hold the paper.  If I laid tape down first, that would give me a flat surface to work with.

                          Next I just painted on my mod podge with a sponge (just on the tape) and laid my paper on top of it.

                          To cover the edges I used more scrap paper eventhough as I mentioned above you can also use a thick piece of ribbon.

Use the same technique as above.  Place tape all around the edges, add mod podge and then the paper. You will have to do just a touch of trimming here and there at the edges to make sure everything flushes together well.  But that's simple and easy and its used on an "as needed" basis.

                         After they have been given a good amount of time to dry they are ready to be hung.

You can get wall mounts for them, but I wasn't sure how I was going to like them yet and didn't want to spend extra money.  So I just pushed a nail into the styrofoam and used scissors to "cut" upwards so I could drag the nail upwards to make it sturdy.  Worked wonders.  Make sure you measure though so you do this exactly in the middle or else the square will hang to one side or the other when you put them on the wall. I used a ruler and just marked it with a sharpie.

                                                    Now I no longer have blank space behind my toilet and I didn't have to spend alot for wall decor.  Sorry for the bad lighting.  Its a bathroom.

                                                                              ~Brandie~

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To Make-Up? Or Not To Make-Up? My Face That Is

There is SO much make-up out there, amiright?  I've been a make-up girl since I was a toddler.  I used to love my mom's closet, jewelry box, make-up tin.  Basically everything.  Once I got to elementary school I used to sit around with my Barbies and the Barbie life-size head and learn to do hair.  A bit past that I used to drag my Caboodle out and sit in front of the TV doing my hair and make-up for hours.  Eventhough I had no where to go.  I've tried all kinds of make-up.  The cheap stuff, the expensive stuff, the middle of the road stuff.  All of it.  I went through a Clinique phase in high school.  They have an "almost lipstick" in black honey that was my all time favorite.  I believe they still make that shade, too.  However, I digress.

So in past years I was an exclusive Dior girl.  I was finding that the drug store brands where making me break out.  I tried stepping up a bit to MAC.... same problem.  So someone told me to give Dior a shot.  I did and bye-bye breakouts.  From that point on I was just scared to try anything else.  However, in the past year or so I have been doing some branching out so I just wanted to talk about my favorite products a little. There is SO much out there that its hard to know what to choose or where to start.  By way of samples, I've tried quite a bit and only step up to the full purchase if I liked the sample or if it comes very highly recommended by someone I trust.  So let's get right into it.  Its kind of long.  Bear with me.  If I knew how to do this in video form I would.  But I don't.  So deal with it.  Ya'll know how to read.

Primer/Foundation/Concealer

Unless you really get into the whole make-up thing primer is something that alot of people don't even know exists.  I used to never use it.  Now, I can't put make-up on without it.  I've tried a few and my by far favorite is Too Faced Primed and Poreless.       

                                       It's super light and creamy.  It goes on easy and just evens out your skin tone.  If I were going to something in the summer like an outdoor picnic and didn't want full foundation, I would wear this as is.  I love it.

For foundation I have always been die-hard Dior.  Again because of the break-outs.  But I really wanted to try the Make-Up Forever HD foundation because I heard so much about it.  So I tired it.  I wore it for a few weeks. But ultimately I went back to Dior.

                                 The MUFE foundation was nice.  Lightweight, provided good coverage.  I won't say it's a bad foundation.  I would use it again.  But its not better than Dior.  Dior is lighter (therefore less visible while providing good coverage) and it smells better.  I may still wear the MUFE when I have weddings and run the risk of being caught in pictures, but unless you get photographed alot where you need the extra coverage, the HD part of it is kind of silly.  If you like MUFE, their regular foundation would be just fine.

I also love, love, love Dior's Bronzer.  I don't use it all over.  Just for some contouring so it lasts forever.  The one I use is in Amber Tan.  It looks nice whether its winter and I'm pale or in the summer when I have some color.

                                                          I only really use concealer under my eyes and its a two part process.  I use a regular concealer to first even out the color and then I use a highlighter to brighten the skin up a bit.  Both my favorites are Dior.  I know, I know.  SO much Dior, but honestly, in everything I've tried very few things exceed it.

This is the Dior Sculpt that I use to conceal.

                              And the Skinflash highlighter.

                              Blushes/Eyes

EYES!  I love eye make-up.  I usually play up my eyes and lot and go real simple on lips so this is my favorite area to play around with.  

First and foremost the Urban Decay eye primer.  It's amazing.  It makes the colors long lasting and just more vibrant all around.  Eye shadows just look better with it underneath.  More matte, more rich.  They just show up better.  Get it.

                               Of course I have to mention the Urban Decay Naked Palettes.  I use them both ALL the time.  More than anything else.  There's so much you can do.  Bronzy looks. Grey looks. Dark looks. Light looks. I tend to not wear much color on my eyes anyways (as in blues, greens, etc.  I stick to neutral tones), so these are perfect for me.

                      Naked colors from left to right: virgin, sin, naked, sidecar, buck, half baked, smog, darkhorse, toasted, hustle, creep and gunmetal.  I love to wear the half baked, smog, darkhorse trio as a smokey broze but I also love hustle and gunmetal.

       Naked 2 colors from left to right: foxy, half baked, bootycall, chopper, tease, snakebite, suspect, pistol, verve, ydk, busted and blackout. 

Yes, there is a half baked in both palettes, but the color is not exactly the same.  The one in the Naked palette is a little darker than in Naked 2.  I don't know why they did that.  My favorite colors in 2 are snakebite, suspect, busted and blackouot.  I find that these colors are so amazing that I have been using them as eyeliners as well rather than a traditional eyeliner.

        For mascara I am usually all Dior but occasionally will use "They're Real" by benefit.  I ALWAYS use Dior's white primer.  It's amazing.  My favorite then is Extase.  I will use Dior Show when I want a more toned down look and Black Out when I want the dramatic black look.  Extase falls right in the middle.  They're Real and Exaste are just about equal to me in effects so I switch back and forth often.

                   Blush I have two favorites.  The first is a Dior shaker blush.  However, I don't use the shaker part.  I actually unscrew the top and apply it with a brush.  I use catwalk pink.

                                                            Just recently I bought a Tarte blush and love it.  I have it in glisten.  It gives a great color and stays put. I bought a color that was a little more peachy than my normal Dior catwalk Pink so when I go peachy, this is my jam.

                              Lastly, as I said I tend to go pretty neutral on my lips and recently I've really been loving this Stila lip pen in Starfruit:

                          Skin & Application

Urban Decay All Nighter setting spray.  It does what it says.  End of story.  I almost never leave home without a quick spritz or two.

                                      Self tanner.  I LOVE towels.  They are just so easy how can I not.  I've never had a problem with streaking and stuff with towels the way I do with a spray or a foam.  I recently bought Kate Sommerville towels and I LOVE them.  The color is perfect.  The below picture shows the difference after just one towel (so about an 8 hour difference).  Its subtle and natural.  No orange here.  I like this better than St Tropez.  I like that the change is not drastic.  So its not like one day you go to work pale and then next bam, you're tan.  I work with a guy that used to call me HT (for Hollywood Tan) because I'd go from pale to 60 in 1 day.  Its noticeable, ladies, even if people don't comment on it. Sorry about the scratch.  I was playing with one of my kitties a few days earlier. 

                      Now for skin care, I'm back to Dior.  I use a foaming cleanser to wash my face, the eye make-up remover to take of my eye make-up and the One Essential as a daily mousterizer/skin boosting serum.  I LOVE One Essential.  The rest is just part of my routine and its nice, but the One Essential I will be using for a long time.  After just a few uses my skin just felt uber soft and wonderful.  It looks better, it feels better.  I love it.  When I go a few days without using it, which sometimes I do, I notice a difference, but as soon as I start using it again it bounces right back into super soft glowy mode.

                  And brushes.  I love Sephora brushes.  I know Sigma brushes are kind of the thing.  And they are fine, but Sephora has never given me any reason to switch.  The bristles stay in.  They clean well, although I need to clean them more than I do. And I like the pretty orange ones.  They just spice things up a bit.

                         So whew.  I think that's it.  Of course keep in mind I do use other products.  These are just my absolute favorites. 

Congratulations if you made it all the way through that.  You deserve a prize. If I had more readers I'd probably really award one too.  To a random reader that actually got to this point.  Because I'd know you got to this point.  Because if you didn't you wouldn't know there was a prize.  See how that works?

                                                ~Brandie~

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What's Between Your Pages?

I love to read! Hardly anything of substance. Currently I can't stop reading trashy teen vampire fiction. (There is way more entertaining stuff out there then Twilight and I had to do something drastic to get my mind out of the Hunger Games.) I grew up in a house filled with every genre of books imaginable piled in corners when the book shelves got full and every National Geographic published since 1945. So these little guys really grabbed my attention. Plus I get to play with my x-acto knife! I've attached the original step by step here.

The gal at tallystreasury.com is incredibly creative and I enjoyed going through her blog for well over an hour one evening. That's a long time for me to spend on any one thing. My son gets his ADD from me :)

Thanks to my Kindle I haven't actually used one of these yet. Come to think of it everyone I've gifted them to also has a Kindle I think. Regardless they are a hit and easy to make.

A few tips: use the heaviest card stock you can find. I have some really great patterned stuff I thought would work perfect for these, but was just too thin. They got crinkled quickly. Glue to paper ratio is important. Remember these are going between pages. Extra stickiness is not appreciated. Be very precise when measuring out your squares. I was distracted the first time I made these and even being off the tiniest bit made the end result sloppy looking. I hope you enjoy!

:) Kelly

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Nail Art, Talent Necessary

I have a nail Pin for you guys today.  I've just recently started wearing nail polish again.  For years I didn't bother because I was playing the guitar alot and it just tore my hands up.  Well, that doesn't happen anymore nearly as much as it should, so I have a bit more to work with these days.  So I decided why not.

I still haven't completely found a way to keep my nails from chipping quickly so if you have any techniques I'd love to hear them.  I tired this stuff called Harder Nails or something. This: 

                                    (pic found on google, not mine)

So basically you are supposed to use this stuff as a base and top coat and it makes your nails super tough just like gel nails.  Well, first of all, hell no.  And second of all, hell no.  My nails felt exactly the same.  Now did it hold the polish?  Hell no.  I still had chipped polish by the 2nd-ish day.  Small chips.  By day 3 I had my normal flakes.  My nails just don't hold polish well and this stuff made no difference.  The base and top coats by OPI are MUCH better at keeping chips at bay. 

So anyways. I digress.  I found this on Pinterest:

                         I'm not usually a pink person but god I love this look.  So I tried it. The one downfall is that the pin is just a picture.  Not a tutorial.  So I had to kind of wing it and just guess as the best way to pull this off.

I couldn't find a chunky gold glitter polish so I went with silver.  Here's what I planned on using initially:

                         From left to right:

Sephora by OPI - Base Coat

OPI - Sweetheart

Essie - Set In Stones

Sephora by OPI - Matte Top Coat

So I slatered on my base coat, let it dry and applied the Sweetheart color.  Since it is such a pale pink I had to apply several coats so that it was opaque and not streaky.

                 Now for the hard part.  The glitter.  The tough part is that the glitter is in a clear polish so the glitter goes on in a sporadic way.  Its not thick and dense like the pin shows.  So as an afterthought I decided to add another layer.

                                        Sally Henson's Gem Crush in Big Money

So I put Big Money on the bottom part of my nails because it is a denser glitter polish, just not big chunks of glitter.  But I figured that would at least be a good base for the silver so that in between the chunky silver pieces there was a smaller glitter underneath.  Once that dried I went over it with the Set In Stones.  I made sure I had the big glitter pieces on the brush and kind of dabbed them on instead of swiping like you would a solid color.

Once dry I added my top coat and sprayed them all down the Envi Nail Enamel dryer.  I always use some kind of setting spray.  If I don't I screw my nails up. Every. Single. Time. 

So here's the finished result.  One pic with a flash and one without.  The flash makes the Sweetheart color look white.  It's not.  It is a nice pale pink.  So I did one without the flash too.

                                                  So my final verdict?  Meh.  But it could easily be that I just don't have the artful talent for it yet.  Or at all. I also don't have longer nails so I'm not working with much here.  I'll wear it until it chips off. And I think I'd try it again to see if I could perfect it so it looks nice.  Maybe with a not so pale base color.  More of a peach instead of pink.  Overall though I'd say if you're into this kind of thing it's worth a shot. 

                                              ~Brandie~

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Beachy Waves Without the Beach

After my failed upon failed attempts at the sock bun curls found on Pinterest (and blogged about here) I saw another easy looking technique.  Figured I'd try it.  Why not. 

So here is the beachy waves pin:

                   I start with washed and dried hair.  I've been using the Frederic Fekkai glossing system. So far so good with that. I used it once before and wasn't a fan but it was just a little sample that I won at Lord and Taylor during a sale.  I figured I needed some repeat business in order for it to work so I gave it another shot.  It was on sale.  Shut up.

                      So, my clean blown out hair.

                                For reference I use a Rusk straightener.

                         I take my first piece of hair and wind it around my finger.

                        And clamp it into my straightener.  This is not that easy.  You have to be careful and I did suffer a couple minor burns.  If you have a protective glove wear it.  I do not.  No biggie though.  You don't have to have ALL the hair in the straightener because its the kinks that are the important part.  This style is all about random summer waves so you aren't going for perfection.

                               You only need to hold it there briefly. You are then left with a kinky, choppy kind of curl.

                                  Here's what my head looked like when the entire one side was done before I fluffed it up.

                                So once its all done I sprayed in some Bumble and Bumble Surf Spray.

                                      Now I just comb it out with my fingers and style as usual.

Final result front:

                         Final result back:

                         And about 10 hours later before bed:

                         All in all its a decent technique but it didn't take me any shorter than if I curled it all with a curling iron.  I liked it more later in the day when it started to fall out a bit.

                                                ~Brandie~

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Cauliflower Pizza Crust, Uhm What?

Who doesn't love pizza?  But SO MANY CALORIES!!!!

So a good friend of mine, Jessie down in Texas (you can find her here or here or @xoxojessicaxoxo on twitter), told me about the cauliflower pizza crust.  Of course, I had to try it.

Whatcha Need

1/2 large head cauliflower (or 2+ cups shredded cauliflower) 1 large egg 1 cup finely shredded mozzarella cheese 1 teaspoon dried oregano 1/2 teaspoon dried minced garlic (or fresh garlic) 1/2 teaspoon onion salt

I used fresh mozzarella and shredded it myself because I LOVE fresh mozzarella.  But you can absolutely use the pre-shredded kind.

                          So I shredded my cauliflower with a cheese grater.  The recipe calls for 1/2 of the head of cauliflower but Jessie warned me that I may want to use more or else the crust comes out super thin.  So I used the whole head.

                          Microwave it for 8 minutes to soften it up.  Let it cool a bit and then add all the other ingredients.  I added a little asiago cheese to the mozzarella simply because its delicious.

                          Mix it all up and form it into a circle on your pizza tray.  I put foil down because my pizza tray has holes it it and I didn't want anything to drip through and make a mess.  I did spray the foil with no-stick spray. 

                                                    Bake the crust at 450 for 15 minutes until golden brown.

                          Now add whatever toppings you want.

                          Turn your oven to broil and broil it for 3 or 4 minutes until the top looks done.

                         The crust yields about 115 calories for 1/4 of the pizza.  If you add the calories from the toppings you will be at about 150 to 200 calories per 1/4 of the pizza.  Far below what your local pizza shop or frozen pizza will clock in at.  Plus its low carb.  Win/win.

I will say when I was shredding the cauliflower I thought there was no way I was going to like this.  Just the smell of the cauliflower was not attractive to me. So don't let that fool you.

Once all said and done it was really good. And its super easy to make.  I'll definitely make this again.

                                                ~Brandie~

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Skinnytaste Wins at Life, Yet Again

Ok, so I promise I'll get back into doing some neat little home projects soon.  I have an AC Moore gift card I need to burn and I cannot WAIT to figure out what I want to do with it.  So many choices.

But for now I have yet another delightful Skinnytaste recipe for you: Pork chops in a dijon sauce

Whatcha Need

1 tsp butter

4 pork chops (I used bone out because I have the hardest time with bone in meat for some reason)

1/2 tsp salt

fresh ground pepper

3 tbsp chopped onion

3/4 cup fat free chicken stock

1 tbsp dijon mustard

2 tbsp chopped, fresh herbs like parsley, chives, tarragon

                          First melt the butter in a pan on the stove and then add the pork chops. Throw some salt and pepper on top and let them cook on each side for about 7 minutes so they are cooked but not overdone.

                         Once done remove them from the pan but keep nearby in a warm place.

In the same pan throw in the onion and let cook for a few minutes until soft.

                          Now add the chicken broth.  Bring it to a boil and let cook until its reduced to about a half a cup.

                          Now add the mustard and herbs.

                         Since you have to guess as to when the right amount of broth has cooked off, if you find there's not enough left when you add the mustard and herbs you can add a touch of water to cut the thickness. Just mix it all up so you have a nice dijon sauce.

                         Now just spoon the sauce over the pork and you're all done!

                          Here are the specs directly from Skinnytaste: 

Servings: 4 • Serving Size: 1 chop • Old Points: 4 pts • Points+: 4 pts Calories: 166.5 • Fat: 9.2 g • Carb: 2.6 g • Fiber: 0.2 g • Protein: 16.4 g

Husband tested, wife approved.

                                                    ~Brandie~

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Millions of Peaches, Peaches for Me

Yeah, my husband made me sing the Peaches song while I made this.  I think he secretly didn't think I'd know the lyrics.  But I totally did.

This is a great, healthy, low carb but sweet dessert. 

Whatcha Need

4 medium ripe peaches, cut in half (pit removed)

1/2 cup honey flavored fat free Greek yogurt

4 tbsp honey

cinnamon (to taste)

                                       First half the peaches and scoop out the pits.  I actually cut them down a little too so they were flat.

Then you toss them on the grill.  We weren't grilling so I did it inside on the stove on low heat.  You just are aiming for a bit of heat to soften the peach up some. Make sure to flip them and cook both sides a bit.

Once they are browned/burnt a bit on the bottom remove them from the heat.

Add your cinnamon to the yogurt and mix together so you have a cinnamon honey yogurt.

Add a spoon of the yogurt on top of each peach half.  Drizzle honey on top of that and that's it!

You could also use low fat ice cream instead of the yogurt but I liked the yogurt alot.

                           Here are the specs directly from Skinnytaste:

Grilled Peaches With Honey and Yogurt Servings: 4 • Serving Size: 1 peach • Old Points: 2 pts • Points+: 4 pts Calories: 131.5 • Fat: 0.1 g • Protein: 3.4 g • Carb: 31.7 g • Fiber: 2.2 g  

                                                           ~Brandie~

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Tortilla-less Turkey Tacos

Yea. That happened.  Skinnytaste to the rescue again tonight.  For dinner and dessert.

Ok so a few weeks ago I did the breadless BLT's that you wrap in lettuce.  So this is basically the same thing but as a turkey taco and with homemade spices instead of the sodium packed pre-mixed seasoning.  It had a bit of bite to it, but it was good.

                               Whatcha Need

1.3 lbs 99% lean ground turkey

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp salt

1 tsp chili powder

1 tsp paprika

1/2 tsp oregano

1/2 small onion, minced

2 tbsp bell pepper, minced

3/4 cup water

4 oz can tomato sauce

8 large lettuce leaves from Iceberg lettuce

Two notes.  I used cayenne pepper instead of cumin because its what I had.  And I omitted the bell pepper just because we don't really like pepper in our tacos.

So first brown the turkey.

                    Then toss in all the spices, water, tomato sauce and onion and mix it all up.

                           Now just cover it and let it simmer for 20 minutes.

In the meantime wash and peel leaves off a head of lettuce to use as the wrap.

                             Now just load it up with some of the turkey and whatever toppings you like. (toppings are extra calories/points)

The specs copied directly from Skinnytaste are as follows:

Servings: 4 • Serving Size: 2 taco wraps • Old Points: 3 pts • Points+: 4 pts Calories: 134.1 • Fat: 1.7 g • Carb: 9.7 g • Fiber: 2.4 g • Protein: 21.3 g • Sugar: 4.3

All in all this one was a success.  I liked it.  Hubby liked it.  I will definitely make this again.

I'm going to make a separate post for my peaches dessert. 

                                                 ~Brandie~

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Steak, Blue Cheese, Healthy? It Can't Be!

I tried two more recipes from Skinnytaste tonight.  Once again.  YUM!

On the menu?  Skillet steak with onions and mushrooms and a lettuce wedge with homemade blue cheese dressing.

I need to preface this by saying blue cheese is my absolute favorite dressing.  I've been eating it on salads since I was a young child.  But it has SO many damn calories.  So when I saw this recipe I had to try it.  And I was so doubtful that I would enjoy it. 

So first the steak.  This is so easy and quick its great for a quick week night meal.

Whatcha Need:

1/2 lb thin cut beef round sandwich steaks

1/2 large onion, sliced into rings

1/2 tsp olive oil

8 oz sliced mushrooms

4 seconds cooking spray (I like Smart Balance)

garlic powder to taste

salt and fresh cracked pepper to taste

We just bought steak already in strips to make it even easier.

                     First toss the steak into a bowl and add salt, pepper and garlic powder.  I used garlic salt because its what I had.

                        Mix it on up and toss into a pre-sprayed skillet and cook until done.

                          Take the steak off the skillet and onto a plate. 

Now spray down the skillet again and add the onion rings.  Add salt and pepper and let cook until mostly brown.

                            Add the onions to the plate of cooked steak.  Once again spray down the skillet and add your mushrooms with the olive oil.  Add some more salt and pepper.  Cook until brown.

                         Add the mushrooms to your plate of steak and onions and you are all done!  The stats for this copied directly from Skinnytaste are as follows:

Servings: 4 • Serving Size: 1/4th (about 4 oz) • Old Points: 2 pts • Points+: 2 pts   Calories: 95.4 • Fat: 4.1 g • Protein: 12.5 g • Carb: 3.5 g • Fiber: 1.0 g • Sugar: 1.1 g Sodium: 26.8 mg (without salt)

Now for the wedge.

Whatcha Need:

1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese

6 oz fat free yogurt

1 tbsp light mayonnaise

1 tbsp lemon juice

1 tbsp white wine vinegar

1/8 teaspoon garlic powder

salt and freshly ground black pepper

                             Combine the crumbled blue cheese and yogurt in a bowl and crush/mix up.  I didn't crush too much because I like my blue cheese dressing to have lumps of blue cheese.  Then add the remaining ingredients and stir together.

                             That's it!  Cut a wedge of lettuce and pour on top.  The specs of this directly from Skinnytaste are as follows:

Servings: 8  • Serving Size: 2 tablespoons • Old Points: 1 pt • Points+: 1 pt Calories: 46.8 • Fat: 3.0 g • Protein: 2.8 g • Carb: 2.2 g • Fiber: 0.3 g

I have to add some calories to this count because I use Canola Oil Mayo instead of Light. The Canola oil has about 10 more calories per serving though so its not a huge addition.  It's still much better than the full flavored mayo and my husband refuses to eat Light or Fat Free.  He insists it tastes different. 

So all in all, if you have a serving of the steak, a wedge of lettuce and the dressing your are looking at a 200 calorie dinner.  I feel like that has to be wrong right? But its not!  So even if you are REALLY hungry, you can have a bit more steak, maybe a larger wedge with some added dressing and you can still come in under 400 calories.  That's pretty awesome in my book!  Definitely will be adding this to my "repeat" list.

The picture below is my husbands plate.  Not a fan of mushrooms so those are not pictured on the steak.  I also gave him more dressing than one serving shows.  But regardless, the plate pictured below is still under 500 calories.  Which was my main goal.

                                                  ~Brandie~

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4 Bottles of Yarn on the Wall

Ok guys.  Enough of the food for riiiiiight now.  I've been working on this project for a week or so.  I get so sidetracked and this one took some time to get right.  So not only will I show you what to do, I will show you what NOT to do.

Here's the originating Pinterest picture:

                     So cute, right?

So I say to my husband "Feel like drinking tonight?".  He says "I don't know, maybe, why?" and I say "Because I need 4 empty beer bottles stat".  And of course he was more than happy to oblige.

So I gather my empty bottles (I didn't bother taking the labels off. I'm covering them, who cares), yarn, double sided tape and some superglue because I wasn't sure how the double sided tape was really gonna hold up.

                                                                                    As an afterthought I decided I wanted different sized bottles, so in my later pictures the bottles will change to a blue moon bottle.

                                      I thought having two shorter and two taller bottles would look nice. 

SO, I take one of my bottles and wrap some double sided tape around the entire bottle, take one of my yarns, stick it on and start wrapping.

                               Now, lets just say that the double sided tape is not a sticky as it needs to be to really work how I thought it would.  Plus it gets really hard to wrap it around the bottle once you get to the neck.  But if you don't use the tape the yarn slides right up the neck.  Solution, start at the top!  I also at this point decided to switch to the glue.  I didn't want to use a hot glue gun because that glue is so thick and chunky. So I stuck with super glue.  Pros and cons with this one.  Pros, thin, dries quickly.  Con I'll get to later on.

So glue the top of the bottle, add yarn.

                                   Make sure you glue the ENTIRE way around the top of the bottle to make sure it stays.  You don't have to do this for the whole bottle, but at the top its essential. Then of course cut off the loose end.

                                   Now you can start wrapping.  I did intermittently put glue on the bottle because at the top where the mouth is, its not all smooth, so in order to get the yarn to stay put there, you have to.  Once you get down to the neck you can stop gluing as much because the layers above where you are wrapping help keep it in place.  i.e it can't slide upwards because there's yarn there.  But you do want to use some glue here and there to stay on track. 

Once you get to the bottom of the bottle you will need to glue more often so the yarn doesnt slide off the bottom.  Then once you get to the end just cut the loose end and you are done.  It DOES take awhile and you have to be patient.

Now the con I referenced earlier about the glue?  Some yarn colors apparently are affected by it and some places where I used the glue turned white.  It only happened with the orange.

                          No big deal though.  I just did a second layer in some parts to cover that and that took care of it.  As you can see the two middle bottles look much better than the two small ones on the end where I used the tape instead of glue.

                         I got some fake flowers (yes, I know huge fake flower person!) from AC Moore.

                            I just cut them down to size and split up the curly wood and added them to the bottles.

                Here's the final product in the place they will live.  At least for now.

                                                             ~Brandie~

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Breadless BLTs. Yup.

Who likes bacon raise your hand! Oh wait, that's EVERYBODY!!

One my favorite dinners as a kid was BLT sandwiches.  My brother and I would love to edit the name to specify exactly how we liked them.  For me it was BBLM: bread, bacon, lettuce and mayo.  I don't LOVE tomatoes, but I've grown to like the more as an adult.  So I saw this recipe on Pinterest that originated on www.skinnytaste.com

                               OMG I had to try it.  Its quick and easy and completely delicious.

WHATCHA NEED

1/2 tomato (the original recipe calls for an entire tomato, but that seemed like too much for me)

leaves of lettuce

light mayo (we use the Canola oil mayo, only 10 more calories than light, so I let my husband win that battle.  He insists light tastes horrible)

bacon

pepper

So first you dice your tomato and put it it a bowl.  Add some mayo to taste.  The recipe calls for 1 tablespoon, but I used less especially since I used less tomato. Then add some pepper.

                          Take your lettuce and carefully (and I do mean CAREFULLY) pull of leaves of lettuce.  I double layered because they don't peal very cleanly.

                      Add your tomato mixture.

                        Fry up your bacon (and you can use any kind you want.  If you prefer turkey bacon go for it!) and then crush it into small pieces.  I used a paper towel to do this because it also soaks up the extra grease. (and yes I am totally THAT guy who blots their greasy pizza, I hate grease)

                              Now add your bacon on top of your tomato.

                        Just wrap it up and eat it just like a taco!!  Its low-carb.  It's not bland.  I loved it!!  I will definitely be making this again.  My husband doesn't like tomato so instead he added some canned chicken in place of the tomato (still with a bit of mayo) and he liked it too.

The exact specs of my version is as follows copied directly from www.skinnytaste.com :

Servings: 1 • Serving Size: 2 lettuce wraps •  Old Points: 4 pts • Points+: 4 Calories: 160.7 • Fat: 10 g • Protein: 10.8 g • Carb: 8.1 g • Fiber: 1.9 g • Sugar: 0.8 g Sodium 505.8 mg  

                                               ~Brandie~

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You Don't Need Green Beer to Celebrate St. Patrick's Day

I used to drink beer.  A lot.  But I find myself prefering wine or a mixed drink these days.  So when St. Patty's day rolled around I decided to try something new and make a green drink.

I have a cocktail book that was published by Cosmo magazine.  It is called Cosmo's Official Cocktail Book.  Its fabulous.  It has so many great recipes complete with pictures.  No matter what your liquor of choice is you can easily find something in there that appeals to you.  So I zeroed in on the green drinks and came across one called Green with Envy. 

Whatcha Need

1 oz. Midori Melon Liqueur

1 1/4 oz Simple syrup (I made my own)

1 1/4 oz Sour mix

2 oz Champagne

Maraschino cherries for garnish

                   To make the simple syrup you just take equal parts water and sugar.  Boil the water in a small sauce pan.  Add sugar and let boil for a bit until all the sugar is dissolved.  That's it.  You can of course buy pre-made simple syrup, but its just one less thing to have to buy if you make your own since most people have sugar already stocked in their kitchen.

I quadrupled the recipe to make a batch of it, rather than one drink at a time.  Plus quadrupling it rounded all the amounts to whole ounces to make it easier.  So I added them all to a shaker.  Shook it up.  And poured.  I then put two cherries in the glass.

It was good, but really sweet.  If I were to make it again I think I would use a little less sour mix and a little more champagne.  Regardless, I recommend it.