Day

Up until last week I had never tried sloppy joes. Crazy huh?

The name never appealed to me. I thought of a mess or leftover food or just yuckiness. It seemed so strange that people would like a mess of a meal inside of a bun and enjoy it. “Why?” I asked myself. Well, I found out why. Turns out a messy meal is not only good, but fun to eat as well.

Last week I was at a classic BBQ joint in our area called Shorty’s. They have so many good food options, but I usually always stick with brisket sandwiches. I usually always choose one meal I like on a menu and stay hooked onto it until I get bored or they eliminate it off the menu. Well, one day I ordered my classic brisket sandwich and they informed me they were out. WHAT?

I asked what they had that was similar and they said sloppy joes. I was in an adventurous mood so I ordered it. Turns out, it was just awesome! The sloppiness is just half the fun! I wanted to try them at home with my whole family so I pulled out my trusted crock pot and made them and boy are they finger lickin’ good!

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Quick Tip: Use any flavor of BBQ sauce to switch it up.

Have you ever eaten at IKEA? If you do not have one in your town, IKEA is a European store where everything is very economic.

It has everything for your home from furniture to kitchen bowls. There are so many options and the store is immense. It can easily take over three hours to peruse everything in the store. It is actually a fun experience, too, because as you walk through, you can visually put together your new home. They give you a nice little paper measuring tape and a booklet that allows you to mark what you want throughout the whole store. It really is pretty cool.

After you walk through the whole store, there is a restaurant with cafeteria style food. It has everything from pasta to mashed potatoes and mac and cheese. But what they are absolutely known for is their Swedish meatballs. They give you a plate of mashed potatoes with veggies and then topped with over twelve meatballs. They are small, about bite sized. But my gosh, these are so good. You have to get the cranberry sauce with it as well. The sweetness of it adds the perfect touch to this meatball flavor. You might even want to add that to the meatballs you make at home!

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Quick Tip: Serve with a side of cranberry sauce.

Last month, my husband and I traveled to Orlando, Florida.

He had a conference to attend at our church and I did not have to go until the evening. So I dropped him off at the church and then headed out to the outlets where I figured I would be productive for Christmas. I gathered all my gift cards and cash and headed out to explore the stores. There were so many options to buy and at such good prices as well. My family was going to love these gifts!

After a long day of shopping, I met my husband at the church where he was and we both stayed for the evening. We played the music for the church and headed back to our hotel that was one hour away and from there. When we got home near midnight, we were oh so hungry! We wanted something to eat but that it would come to our room.

We found a flyer for a sub shop and decided to give it a try. We ended up going with a meatball sub. It was so full of tomato sauce and covered in gooey cheese. My gosh, was it good! We knew we were going to make this at home so I got straight to searching for a good recipe and came across this one. Boy, was it good!

Photo courtesy of Snapguides.

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 Quick Tip: Add a layer of cooked pasta on the bottom for a full meal.

I remember the very first time I tried cheddar bacon soup.

I had spent the day at a fun little place called Wannado City.  It was a fun stop for kids where you would spend the day going to different locations (it was set up like a city) learning about different careers and trying out being a doctor, or employee at a supermarket, or a model or a baker.  The options were endless and it was so much fun to head over there and spend the day pretending I was a grown up with my own career.

After an eventful day in Wannado City where I had decided I wanted to become a dentist (haha, yeah right!) I was starved.  Right outside of the area where this kids place was, there was an Applebee’s. We had not been there in ages and it was a chilly day so my grandma suggested go inside and order soup.

The only option on the menu that day was cheddar bacon.  I thought it was weird to have a soup that was only cheese (what was I thinking? That’s awesome!) but boy was I surprised when I received it.  To this day it is still my favorite soup.

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Quick Tip: Skip the ranch part altogether for a totally different soup if you’d like.

Recently, my husband and I bought our first home.

We married a year and a half ago and we moved into a townhome.  It was a wonderful experience and we lived in a really cute place that was nice.  We thankfully had great neighbors and really enjoyed our time there.  It was truly memorable.

Now we have our new home which is just as exciting. We bought it about six months ago, but moved in three months ago because there were tenants.  It has been a fun few months of redecorating, painting, buying necessities and enjoying the ride.  We decided after signing the paper to head to a restaurant to celebrate.

We went into our neighborhood because we wanted to try a restaurant there.  We found one and it was amazing.  It was an Italian restaurant with lots of yummy pastas and foods.  We really enjoyed our meal.  As usual, I ordered pasta alfredo.  That is my favorite pasta dish ever because of the flavors and delicious taste it has.

Photo courtesy of Repeat Crafter Me.

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Quick Tip: Chop up any fresh veggies you have to add to this dish.

Do NOT Tell Anyone I Had Three Slices…

I was looking for something special to make for my daughter’s birthday, and I knew “your ordinary cake” wasn’t going to cut it. She is a picky little princess and there are only so many flavors and dishes she likes. She’s a big fan of cookies and cream ice cream, though, and at first I thought of just serving ice cream instead of a cake.

But I was worried about the weather – her birthday is in the middle of the hottest summer and I didn’t think it would take long until the ice cream turned into a melted mess. Fortunately, I came across this awesome recipe over at Gourmandize and I knew this was it!

I still can’t believe I hadn’t thought of making a cookies’n’cream layered cake myself. This was very easy to make, and I didn’t tell my birthday girl about this until I actually brought the cake to the table. She was so excited! She loved the cake and so did everyone else at the party. I will definitely make this cake again!

Recipe and image courtesy of Gourmandize.

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Quick Tip: Use any kind of chocolate sandwich cookies for this.

These Little Pockets Of Heavenly Flavor Will Make You Do Backflips

If I had to choose between my husband and Nutella, I would choose — well, let’s just say I’m happy I don’t have to. Haha! I know I’m not the only person in the world who could have this silky smooth paste for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I’m not saying I have, but I definitely could! I recently discovered a new way of enjoying this favorite ingredient of mine. Puff pastry pockets!

These are so simple you could probably make them with your eyes closed, and one arm tied behind your back! I had my kids help me out in the kitchen when I was making these, and we ended up making a double batch. Sorry, not sorry.

Basically I ended up having them make these while I was scooping the remaining Nutella from the jar, right into my mouth. They didn’t even seem to notice; they were having way too much fun making these little triangles of yumminess!

You could drizzle these with melted chocolate but we just ended up adding a little extra almond on top. They turned out super scrumptious!

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Quick Tip: In a hurry? These puff pastry pockets taste amazing even without the chocolate drizzle on top.