Coconut Oil

A little while ago I was looking around on Pinterest and I saw a bunch of pins about Coconut Oil and all of the health benefits. I had never used it before so I thought I should try it. I ordered some off of Amazon: here. I must say that I love it! I use it mostly as a moisturizer and hair conditioner. I use it on my arms and legs and love how smooth it makes my skin feel, without feeling oily. To use it as a hair conditioner I just put some in my hair (a little goes a long way) and let it sit there for 30 minutes or so then shampoo my hair as usual. The nice thing is that you can buy it in a two pack on Amazon, one for the bathroom and one for the kitchen!

I have also cooked with it and love how it melts clear and has a cleaner feel and taste than butter. I have read some articles that say that olive oil is still healthier, but that coconut oil is a better option than butter. I haven't tried baking with it yet, but I've found some recipes I'm excited to try. The Food Network recently put a video on their website about coconut oil that can be found: here. I haven't noticed much of a coconut flavor to the food when I cook with it. I will say though that because it smells like coconut when you are cooking, it makes you feel like it tastes that way. Does that make sense?

I also have a friend who does oil pulling for her teeth and uses coconut oil. I haven't tried it yet, but if you do let me know what you think!

I found this chart on Pinterest. Who knows if it's entirely accurate, but I've seen these claims in several articles. 

You can buy it in regular grocery stores, too. I just found the two pack for $17 to be a pretty good deal!

Chicken Cordon Bleu Casserole

My husband doesn't like casseroles, so I very rarely make them. A couple of weekends ago I went out of town and I wanted to make something he could just throw in the oven. I figured he could just deal with having a casserole. Well, much to my surprise, he liked it! So, I figured I had to make it again so I could try it. I got the recipe from Six Sisters Stuff. The recipe can be found: here. It turned out to be the perfect meal, because I already had leftover ham from Easter (my kids refuse to eat split pea soup) and leftover broccoli. It was simple to make.

You just mix up the chicken, ham, broccoli, mustard and cream of chicken soup.

 Then you layer on some swiss cheese. Is it weird that mine only had holes on the edges?

 Then a layer of chicken flavored stuffing.

And bake it!

I thought it was a good weekday meal, pretty easy! My only critique is that it was a little salty for me. Next time I think I will use low sodium cream of chicken soup or maybe unsalted butter. Other than that, I thought it was great and my husband and kids like it, which is always a plus!

Try it and let me know what you think!

Bose MIE2i Headphones

A year or so ago I bought these headphones for my husband: Bose MIE2i Mobile Headsets. He is a runner and is always going through new headphones to find some that he likes. (This is also the case for running shoes, sunglasses, and watches.) Anyway, he discovered these Bose Headphones and seemed to like them so I ordered him some for Father's Day.

I hadn't really thought of them much until the other day when I was pulling laundry out of the washing machine to transfer them to the dryer. Then to my surprise I pulled these headphones out of the washer. Needless to say, I was slightly annoyed.  These aren't the cheapest headphones. I set right out to make my husband feel guilty about it, because it's what I do. Then just for fun I thought I'd check to see if they still work...and what do you know?! They do! So, I am recommending them to all of you, just in case you are looking for good headphones to run with, that have a microphone and will survive a run through the washing machine! Now I must go apologize to my husband for the guilt trip. Darn.

Excellent Read!

I just love being curled up in a comfortable chair with a good book. It seems like lately because I have four very busy kids, I don't have much time to read.  However, a 12 hour plane ride presented me with an opportunity to read an excellent book (sans comfortable chair). 

This was an excellent book, written by Jojo Moyes. It was about Lousia Clark who grew up in a small town, having not experienced much, but living a fairly normal life. She is hired to be the care giver of Will Traynor who is a quadriplegic and both her life and Will's are changed. 

It was truly an amazing book!  I sobbed through the last few chapters (which is awkward on a plane). Definitely a must read!

Sherlock

I realize I'm a few years late to the party, but I thought I would write this post just in case you are too!

Sister #1 recently suggested that my husband and I start watching Sherlock.  It's a BBC production that also aired on PBS.

My Dad is a big fan of Sherlock Holmes, both the books and older shows. So, we watched quite a few of them growing up. I really enjoy this series. It's really interesting and captivating. It's kind of interesting to see the modern twist they take on some of the classic stories. Benedict Cumberbatch does an excellent job as Sherlock and the effects they use to show his train of thought are really cool.

The thing I like about finding out about series a few years after it has started is that I can then have a couple of seasons to catch up before waiting for new episodes to come out. You can get seasons 1 and 2 on Netflix. Season 3 aired on PBS in January, unfortunately it isn't available yet on Netflix. I'm sure they'll get it soon, but we are impatient and Season 2 had such a crazy finale that we went ahead and ordered Season 3 off of Amazon. I read a review there saying that PBS often edits the BBC shows, so you don't get everything that the original show had. That's how I justified spending $24 for 3 episodes. Yes, that is the one complaint I have about the series. Each season has 3 episodes, which I'm told is typical for BBC shows, but still frustrating for me!

Anyway, check it out! I'm sure you'll love it! 

Star Wars Birthday!

This past weekend we had a Star Wars Birthday Party! I was pretty excited that my son had picked Star Wars, because there are so many great ideas out there! I looked all over Pinterest and Amazon (my two weaknesses) and found some really great ideas. The fun thing about a Star Wars party is that a lot of times the parents are into it even more than the kids!

Here are some of the products and ideas we used:

First of all, a big thank you to homemadebyjill.blogspot.com! She was awesome.  I loved all of her ideas for the Star Wars party she threw for her son. She was kind enough to email me some of the Silhouette files she created, which made life much easier for me!

I loved her idea for this R2D2 Water dispenser and she was gracious enough to send me the file. I think it turned out really fun:

My other favorite from the party were these Millenium Falcons. To make these I ordered this silicone mold from Amazon and filled them with melting candy from Michaels. I love the detail!

I've seen these cookie cutters from Williams Sonoma and have loved them and was just looking for an excuse to buy them! They come with Boba Fett, a Storm Trooper, Darth Vader and Yoda. We used them to make chocolate sugar cookies and regular sugar cookies and for the Star Wars "hot pockets". This is another idea that homemadebyjill listed on her blog. They are little pockets of ham and cheese inside pie crust dough.

 

We also did Obi-Wan Kebabies...hehehe..I feel like such a nerd.

My son was a huge fan of the Darth Vader cake. My husband and I are starting to worry that his favorite character is Darth Vader. He turns out ok in the end, right? So, we shouldn't be too worried! This cake pan is made by Wilton and comes with really easy to follow directions. Black frosting can be hard to get just right without adding way too much food coloring, so I went with the "black frosting in a tube" route.

We also had candy dipped pretzel lightsabers, thermal detonators (aka whoppers), Qui-Gon Jin-ger snaps, Leia's Buns (cinnamon rolls), Bow-ba Fett Pasta, Wookie Cookies (Teddy Grahams) and Korean food for the adults!

The activities were not as organized as I would have liked.  It was raining which kind of threw me off my game, because we were planning on doing most of the activities outside, but I think it all turned out ok. I kept taking deep breaths and telling myself that it was a 4 year old's birthday party.

For the death star pinata, I ordered a beach ball pinata, spray painted it black with some leftover paint, and then painted on silver squares.  I also painted a death star on a poster board and the kids had to "stay on target" by flying paper airplanes through the hole.

For the train with Yoda game, I ordered a stuffed Yoda and the kids had to wear him on their backs in a backpack and balance across a board and go through a tunnel, like they were training on Dagobah with Yoda.

Homemadebyjill had an awesome idea of having a "Tattoo-ine Parlor" using temporary tattoos.

We had a little photo session with the kids using this mural and these masks I ordered off of etsy.

Once again I did not get a picture of the favor boxes! I was lucky enough to find a bunch of star wars things on sale at Target and Michaels, including small markers with stamps and notebooks. We also had little bags of "Han's Rolos" and "Ewok Gummies".

It was a lot of fun. I love throwing birthday parties and seeing my kids get excited about the details. I especially love finding fun products and blogs that make my life so much easier!

I'm really excited about the fact that I get to use my new Star Wars cookie cutters for May the Fourth.