Pinterest Tested Recipe: Banana Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Muffin with no flour or oil

Original recipe pin here

This recipe is interesting for two reasons.  First,  its pretty healthy. Made with greek yogurt and oatmeal flour and no oil and little sugar. Second, its made in a blender and not with a mixer.

I liked to throw everything in the blender, so easy! But next time, I would put the liquid at the bottom and the oats at the top, because it took a long time to blend up those oats.  Next time, I'm going to use honey instead of brown sugar and  put a little vanilla and salt as well.

Would I make this again?  definitely.

It was so moist and so tasty and so filling and hard to believe it was pretty healthy, eating oats, bananas and greek yogurt. I really liked them.

Scipture Sunday

 

Payday Pretty

The idea: Take $20 out on payday and spend it on something that makes you feel pretty. Here is mine:

NYC City Proof 24 hour eyeshadow stick in Brooklyn Mocha $2.77
Wet 'n Wild Megalast lipstick in 902C Bare it All $1.93
Rimmel Exaggerate Lip Liner in 63 East End Snob $4.76
Palmer's Cocoa Butter Formula $3.97

Total for my Payday Pretty:  $13.43 (under budget!!)

How to: throw a ladies lunch when you dont have time to throw a ladies lunch (an if table)

After being invited to several if tables, I knew I wanted to have my own, inviting a different set of women, and introducing the concept to a new circle and thus, the if table grows.  The concept is, once your inviting, you are suppose to have your own table with other women. We have an active if gathering in my area and I had been invited to three already,  but the time never seemed quite right for me to have my own.

After someone held me accountable, I  finally just chose a date that was three weeks in the future, but as it approached my life suddenly got crowded with events and I didn't have as much energy to put a fancy something together as I had hoped....  

But even with minimal planning, it was still a big hit. And women sat around the table and shared and left feeling more connected and energized. And that was the whole point. 

At least minimal planning is needed for that to happen and this is how I did mine:

First Step:
Pick a lunch day, select a general theme, start a loose countdown and pick a helper.

You can go with the pre-selected monthly theme, download the table questions (here), look through past months themes, or make your own.   I told my helper my theme (Christian friendship/women supporting one another) and assigned her the table questions.

Tip 1: Make a list of those you invite, because as much as you think you'll remember, you wont. You'll forget.

Tip 2: Plan a simple meal and start your grocery list early. Have two choices for dessert, one glutten free.


My simple meal was a  help yourself salad bar with grilled chicken and dessert was fruit, chocolate cake (that I baked from a box) or cheesecake (from the grocery store bakery) or fruit.

Scheduling:
Wednesday evening:

If you have more than one grocery store to stop at, work it into your schedule for today. I like to get all my meat from the small family owned store that has an in house butcher department. I stopped and got chicken breasts.

Tip 3: Right before bed, send out a text with a little note reminding ladies of the lunch.

Thursday evening

This is the time to do the rest of the grocery shopping. I made a list during the day at work, and quickly got all the things I needed and stashed them in the fridge.


Tip 4: When someone asks you if they can bring something have an answer ready. I decided I would assign drinks and paper products to anyone who asked. Both were covered.

Friday evening:

I was tired after working all week, but I forced myself to put the chicken breast in the oven with some salt and pepper, and let them cook while I did minimal sweeping, dusting and picking up the first floor of the house.  I also made sure the dishwasher was empty and kitchen was clean before going to bed. It sounds like a lot, but it was really quick.

Saturday morning:

I got up  pretty early to throw my cake mix together and get it in the oven. I then made sure the kitchen was clean and everything ready to be put out quickly.  When the first few guests arrived, while waiting on everyone else, I assigned them to put all the ingredients out in bowls with utensils and so forth.  The little buffet line we set up was perfect. I put a variety of salt and pepper on the table along with the utensils.





Tip 4: turn down the air conditioner and light a candle or two first thing in the morning of the lunch. That guarantees the house will be cool and smelling good by lunchtime.

Tip 5: Although it is fun to use good china, sometimes paper plates and cups are just fine and make it a lot easier on yourself. Same goes for centerpieces, nameplates, and little gifts for each attendant. These are certainly a nice touch to have, but in a pinch, I didn't have any of it and the lunch was still successful.

Tip 6: Set the desserts on the dining room table with extra plates and napkins. This makes it easy to linger around the table after the meal, and everyone will end up sampling all the desserts.

Tip 7: Music. Put on music from another room. Nothing too loud so you can't easily talk over it, but nothing so low its irritating because it can't be heard.





I'm linked here

Pinterest Tested Recipe: Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

Original Pin here

My thoughts....

Don't get me wrong. Late at night when there is no other cookie in sight, I'm awful happy to have these, but generally....  don't like them and probably wont be making it again.

This isn't a chocolate chip cookie, but its not an oatmeal cookie either. Its some weird combination.

I love oatmeal cookies, and I missed the raisins and  was irritated to find chocolate in my oatmeal cookie.

And I love chocolate chip cookies, and missed the buttery cookie and was irritated to find oatmeal where the buttery cookie was suppose to be.

Its just not a good combination for me.

More make-up decluttering: concealors

I am not a concealer girl. Concealers are not my thing  (highlighters are my thing) and I have yet to find one I am over the moon about. In fact, I have yet to find one I even love. I admit. Its not a large stash or anything to get excited over.

In fact, after this picture, the collection is even less exciting as I threw away the two not favorites (physician's formula and ybb) and also the Revlon Photoready.

So... not much de-clutter here.

The few I like:
It Cosmetics Bye-Bye undereye and hello light liquid brightener: Here is a really good You Tube video reviewing it. My thoughts. Its thick and really good coverage but you have to be careful not to use too much at once. But, a little bit covers well and looks natural.

Tarte BB under eye corrector:
Here is a Youtube video. The Tarte BB cream is possibly my favorite BB cream and I almost always use this concealer with it.

Im linked here with Makeup Monday

Scripture Sunday

things i regret buying in June 2015

The Crescent rolls with Hershey chocolate taste like a butter Crescent rolls with a melted Hershey bar in the middle. Imagine that. They taste nothing like a chocolate croissant. I was very disappointed.

Turkey Jerky. Yuck. Thats all I have to say about it.

A few things I love in June 2015

We did a lot of snacking on the Tennessee trip. My friend brought the Belvita, and I forgot how much I love these cookies. I kept the extra and brought them back home. I don't eat them for breakfast but I think they are the perfect snack for me. I can easily trick myself into thinking I am eating a cookie, and not something healthy.

The Palmer's Cocoa Butter came in my latest Walmart Beauty Subscription Box.  I've seen it on the shelves forever, but always passed it by. I am a moisturizing addict (I think it really keeps wrinkles away) and I am so glad I got this large sample, because I probably would not have picked it up. It is so thick and so moisturizing and has an old fashioned scent like nothing I've smelled. I think it must be real cocoa butter smell. Its suprisingly cheap. A bottle is about $5.50. The larger bottle is on my list.

CSA weekly box

Still getting my Community Supported Agriculture box (introduction to it here), although I am considering sitting out for the fall season.

This has been a typical summer box. I have weekly peaches and tomatoes and cucumbers in every box. And eggplant in almost every box. 

Eggplant is not my favorite, I don't dislike it. I'm just neutral on eggplant. The peaches are the best I have ever tasted, so fresh. And almost each week, I've had the problem of what to do with all these fresh veggies, and had to share with a friend at work, because I am honestly running out of ways to use green bell peppers and other assorted peppers that are in almost every single box.

I still think its one of the best $15 a week investments I've made. You can get different size boxes, but this little one has been perfect for me.

Scripture Sunday

Walmart Beauty Box Summer 2015 edition

 

 

 

My second beauty box from Walmart arrived (my first one here), and my feelings are mixed. I'm not as impressive as I was with the first box.

 

On one hand, I love love love that Palmer's Cocoa Butter was included. I had never used it before and now it is one of my favorites and I am going to buy a full one. I also like the Jerkins BB cream, and already had it in a full size. 

 

 

The rest of the samples, perfume, two different kinds of sample, a face lotion, were just small and not much variety and I wasn't interested in them.

 

There was several coupons included, one for Palmers,  and a full size free deodorant that I was excited about..... but.... the coupon was expired.

 

So.... mixed feelings about the box.

 

It was still only $5, that's a big plus. It looks like others had a full size mascara in their box. I would have enjoyed that. 

 

Try it out here. 

 



Pinterest tested recipe: Chocolate peanut Butter banana quesadillas

Original pin  here






Slather some Peanut butter, sprinkle some chocolate chips and slice a banana on top of a tortilla and grill.

I don't have anything great to say about this, or anything terrible to say about it.  It was an OK little snack, but not my favorite thing... peanut butter and chocolate is good on anything.

Will I make it again? Probably not.