Cupcakes & Coffee Breaks

 I have a love/hate relationship with meal kit delivery services. On one hand, it's nice to get a bit of variety in the weekly rotation. On the other, I have often found that the prep time, delivery delays, or more-than-occasional rotten vegetable made the experience more frustrating and less reliable than I would like, especially because, after the initial promo period, they are not exactly cheap. On a neighborhood Facebook page, I scrolled past a request for meal delivery recommendations and saw that a neighbor had recommended Freshly pre-made meals. I had never heard of, let alone tried, a meal service that did not require any prep work on my part, and this sounded like a great alternative to take out for those busier weekdays.  Freshly touts fresh, nutritious, and chef-prepared meals that are ready in 3 minutes or less. This means that you'll need to use a microwave to truly have it ready in that short amount of time. There are oven instructions (which require a separate t...

This post may contain affiliate links, which means that I may make a small portion based on your purchase through it. No worries-- I'll never recommend anything that I don't truly believe in, and I appreciate your readership! There is a saying that, "blondes have more fun," and that might be true! But any natural blonde or light-haired beauty knows that fair hair means light eyelashes. In my case, this led to a love of eyeliner. Starting in ninth grade, I was all about the mascara and the lined waterlines. Some purple eyeshadow would make my blue-green eyes pop, and I was good to go! But I am into the natural look, at heart, and my current lifestyle, which is a mix of constant momming, virtual schooling, and a full-time job, means that I want to wake up refreshed and beautiful, and ready to go. Enter Lashify. First, it needs to be known that I am not a false lash goddess. In fact, once I could get false lashes to fit, they had the "special occasion, only" lo...

Poop. There, I said it. It's the single thing that I've heard people say when we talk about cloth diapering, as the ultimate, omega, challenging, "no way I can deal with that" reason to not use cloth diapers. Because somehow we perceive it as easier to bundle up poop and two-finger carry it to the trash can, where it sits in our kitchens, rather than to keep it confined to the bathroom. Let me tell you, I did the googling when I was putting together our baby registry, and I was sure that even if I wanted to use cloth diapers, it was something that was going to take up so much time , but I was ready for the trade-off. I'm here to assure you that this couldn't be further from the truth. In fact, cloth diapering has made life with one in diapers easier than I could have imagined-- and I say this as someone who had one in traditional disposable diapers so I feel like I'm a safe judge of cloth diapering in general. The main difference that I've experienced ...

 It's been a while since I've blogged, and so much has changed in the past year-- not just for me, but for everyone! We've obviously been dealing with a pandemic situation, and whether you're in an area that is still under lockdown, recovering, or somewhere in between, there has certainly been an adjustment over the past several months. I've always been a bit of an introvert, so I've actually embraced the opportunity to be a bit more focused at home. We've completely revamped our life, but I think it's for the better, and I'm looking forward to the opportunity to grow; while at first, it seemed like the coronavirus pandemic would be a quick disruption, I've shifted to a home office, long-term, abandoned daycare for a mix of in-home care and virtual schooling, and finally (finally!) started to organize this "new" house. We bought our first home because it had "potential", and while I don't regret living there, I don't t...

I love sheet pan recipes. Sure, you could spend 30 minutes standing and sautéeing, but why do that when you can throw everything on a sheet pan (or two), spend those 30 minutes scrolling through Instagram , and then come back to a finished meal? I initially made this for dinner, but you know how the old saying goes: tonight's leftovers are tomorrow's meal prep! People say that. Honest. So let me get straight to the recipe-- but first, in the interest of full disclosure, this is pretty close to a  sheet pan meal BUT, I had a lot of chicken once it was cut, so I used two sheet pans, plus I needed to boil the rice. If you have rice already made, you're all set, but otherwise, toss that pot of water on the stove and then we can move to the sheet pan portion. Sweet and Spicy Sheet Pan Stir Fry Ingredients: 2 lbs of frozen stir fry veggies 2 lbs of chicken breast, sliced olive oil soy sauce basmati rice, cooked salt and pepper Sauce (similar to a ...

It's been a while, but I have a new kitchen, so I'm back and better than ever with these stuffed french toast rollups! I saw this recipe on Tasty's Facebook feed this week, and knew it would be a great weekend breakfast. Original video can be found here . On this Sunday morning, I only attempted the strawberry cream cheese and the banana peanut butter version, but I'm a big fan of sweet and savory combined, so the sausage roll ups are on my "must try" list for the future. My verdict? The actual process of rolling and assembling these was super easy. I didn't drizzle these with syrup as shown in the video, but instead served them with a dipping cup of maple syrup on the side, AND, as you can see in the photo above, I left the crusts on, which made no difference in the taste or texture whatsoever. If I make these again, I think I'd mix in a little powdered sugar with the cream cheese to make it a little more "cheesecakey". It would b...

I did not invent the crunchwrap, do not lay any claim to the product, and am in no way sponsored by any company or inventor that has anything to do with them. Anyone who needs to eat gluten free already knows this won't necessarily be even close to the real thing, so I'd heavily encourage Taco Bell to make any effort to have any gluten free options whatsoever. Everyone's favorite Tex-Mex fast food restaurant is the expert at arranging the same handful of ingredients into a multitude of products that bring the masses in for tiny packets of hot sauce , cheese, and tortillas. The Holy Grail of the Taco Bell menu is arguably the Crunchwrap Supreme, known for it's portability, crunchiness, cheesiness, and overall deliciousness. Unfortunately, the gluten free "menu" is limited to mainly soft drinks and hot sauce packets, and the chain does not guarantee that anything is gluten free or recommend their own products to those who cannot eat gluten. Even the ground...