Roasted Corn, Black Bean, and Mango Salad

I found this recipe on MyRecipes.com.
It is awesome as a side, as a salsa, or served over greens as a salad.
I highly recommend it!!
I never thought I was a mango lover, but it tastes so delicious in this recipe . . . so fresh!!
(this recipe makes a TON . . . so you may want to make half a recipe or be prepared to have lots of leftovers, which is not a bad thing!)

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Roasted Corn, Black Bean, and Mango Salad

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

2 garlic cloves, minced

3 cups fresh corn kernels (about 6 ears)

** or you could take the easier route and buy Trader Joe's already roasted corn!!  just a thought**

2 cups diced peeled ripe mango (about 2 pounds)

1 cup chopped red onion

1 cup chopped red bell pepper

1/3 cup fresh lime juice

3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

1 drained canned chipotle chile in adobo sauce, chopped

2 (15-ounce) cans black beans, rinsed and drained

Preparation:

Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add garlic; cook 30 seconds. Stir in corn; cook 8 minutes or until browned, stirring occasionally. Place corn mixture in a large bowl. Add mango and remaining ingredients; stir well.

Enjoy!!

Reusing Pretty Bottles - a kids craft idea

My Sweet Caroline likes to be "green". She doesn't like to throw anything away that could be used for something else.
Lately, she has been noticing how pretty bottles are.
They all have such unique shapes.

She decided to get out her acrylics and make them even prettier.

She used her Gesso first to prime the bottles.

Then she and Luke just painted away . .. so fun.

They turned out pretty cute, right??

Super Easy Toffee Bars

This recipe is so easy and you will be amazed at how good it is!
I was first introduced to it by my friend, Julie, at Joy's Hope.  I tweaked it a little (added a stick of butter).  She calls it "toffee crack" because it is so addicting. 
Make it at your own risk . . .

Here's what you do . . .
Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.

Put a layer of saltine crackers on the parchment paper.
(I like to put them salted side down so you can taste the salt)

Melt two sticks of butter with one cup of brown sugar (dark or light)over medium heat.

As soon as it starts to boil, turn a timer on for three minutes.

Pour over saltines.

Put in 400 degree oven for 5 minutes.

Remove from oven and pour bag of chocolate chips on top. Let the chips sit and melt for about five minutes.

Spread and then put in refrigerator to cool and harden.

Break up into pieces.

Enjoy.  Try to eat just one.

Let me know how that goes. :)

SUPER EASY TOFFEE BARS

saltine crackers

1 cup butter

1 cup light or dark brown sugar
1 bag semisweet chocolate chips



1.Preheat oven to 400 degrees F  

2.Line cookie sheet with saltine crackers in single layer.(I put parchment paper down first) 

3.In a saucepan combine the sugar and the butter. Bring to a boil and boil for 3 minutes. Immediately pour over saltines and spread it over crackers completely.
4.Bake at 400 degrees F for 5 minutes. Remove from oven and sprinkle chocolate chips over the top. Let sit for 5 minutes. Spread melted chocolate. Cool completely and break into pieces.

$40 Mudroom Makeover

My word for the year is "intentional".
I am trying to make every area of our house purposeful and lovely at the same time.

One area in our house that desperately needed a little makeover was our mudroom/laundry room.
I never really knew exactly what its purpose was.
Well, besides to hold our washer and dryer and to serve as a hallway into our garage.

We had dry erase boards and cork boards hanging up all over that made us think we were organized, but they really didn't hold much and it just looked sloppy.

Soooo . . . I called in my sweet dad to help.
We took down all the cork boards and dry erase boards and any other boards that were hanging on the wall and we put up other kinds of boards . . . like this one. 

(My dad bought the boards for less than $2.00 a piece because they were not perfect, which is fine with me.)

He sanded them and nailed two parallel to each other (horizontally)and then he put some vertical ones in between. 

You can use any measurements you want here.  We decided to create 19 inch squares (except for the area behind the door . . . that is a little wider)

*IMPORTANT* Make sure to put the nails into the studs on the bottom board because that will be where the hooks are going to go.  (lots of heavy backpacks need studs!)

It is kind of like a little section of board and batten. (I liked it in our family room so much . . . I just had to throw it in somewhere else!)


The next step was to prime the boards and then just paint everything (wall and all) under the top board white.
I just used trim paint that we already had.

Then I repainted the top section blue and hung some awesome hooks I found at Hobby Lobby.  (I couldn't find the "perfect" ones sold separately so I bought some that were attached to a board and then just unattached them) The hooks were $9.99 for each set of three.

Then we hung two hooks per 19 inch square (two for each of our three kids) and hung a black and white photo of each child over their hooks and . . . . voila!!!

Here is the UNpurposeful and UNlovely BEFORE.

And here is the purposeful and lovely AFTER.

COST:

Irregular boards  . . .about $10

Paint . . . . . . . . .leftovers

Picture Frames . . . . already had

Hooks . . . . . . . . .$20

8x10 photos . . . . . .about $10 total (from Walmart)

TOTAL . . . only $40!!!! for results that I am so happy with.

Thanks for stopping by . . .

I'm linking up with:

Meet Pepper

After our last hamster died a year ago . . . I promised myself we would not get another one.

But then I noticed that something was missing in my sweet Caroline's life. 

She is so happy when she has an animal to care for.

I thought a hamster would probably be less of a commitment than a dog.

It is kinda cute.

Favorites on Fridays

Favorite Lip Gloss:  C.O. Bigelow Apothecaries

Well, as many of you know . . . I turned the big 4-0 recently.

I received several fun gifts from my sweet friends.

One gift was a set of three lip glosses from Bath and Body Works.

I had no idea that I was going to like them so much.

They are very, very minty, which I love.



I keep one in my junk drawer in the kitchen.

Mentha Lip Shine

100% Natural Mint

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I keep one in my makeup case.  I like to put the lip gloss on several minutes before my lipstick.

Mentha Organics Sheer Lip Tint

Just Blushed

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And I keep one in my purse.

Mentha Lip Shine

Vanilla Mint

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I didn't have chapped lips at all this winter because I was always putting on the lip gloss! 

I just love how they smell and feel.

It's the little things, right??

:) 

Spring is in the Air

What a wonderful day it was!

It has been such a long winter, hasn't it??

Today's warm weather was so very needed.

We've been cooped up way too long.

I'm so excited that Spring is actually on its way.

I was beginning to wonder if it would ever come.

My outlook on life seems to be so much brighter when the weather is nice . . . is that how you are, too?

We are dogsitting for our neighbor's sweet dog, Josie.  Luke says he doesn't like dogs . . . do you think he means it?

Blessed

What has happened in Japan is devastating.
Beyond words.
It's hard to sit here and not know what to do to help.

Simple things we have are such blessings.
I almost started to complain about the cold this morning and then I stopped.
We have a warm home.
A bed to crawl into at night.
A cozy kitchen to bake in.
A piano to practice on.

Beki at The Rusted Chain is doing something to help the people in Japan.
She is selling these "Blessed" necklaces and for every one she sells, she is donating $10 to World Vision.

I'm going to order mine right now. 

It will be a good reminder to me of how blessed we really are.  Order yours today, too!!

(Go here to order!)

Favorites on Fridays

I decided to start doing Favorites on Fridays again!!

Favorite Kid Shampoo : Circle of Friends

One day as I was giving one of my babies a bath, I was reading all of the ingredients listed on the bottle of baby shampoo.
Sodium Lauryl Sulfate and Sodium Laureth Sulfate just didn't sound good to me and I found out I was right.  (If you are interested in reading about the dangers of these two ingredients, look here.)I know that some of you will think I am a little crazy being worried about stuff like this . . .
you're right. :) 
I am. 
And that's OK. 
We all have our "issues".


All of Circle of Friends' shampoos are tearless, made with natural botanicals, and are FREE of Sodium Lauryl Sulfate and Sodium Laureth Sulfate.
They are a little pricy, but they last a long time and I think it is worth it. 
And they come in really cool fragrances.  Our favorite is raspberry, but they come in chocolate, pineapple, banana, mandarin orange, blueberry, and even root beer!

 

In the summer, we use their swimmers' shampoo to help with the chlorine damage.

The little boy on the bottle even looks like Luke. :)

We get our shampoo at Kidsnips, a fun place for kids to get their hair cut.  But you can also get them here.

p.s.... I am not getting paid for this endorsement. (but maybe I should be??)