Overnight French Toast Casserole

For all my peeps that have a huge sweet tooth like me...this breakfast is for you! It was the perfect mixture of gooeyness and toastyness. I found the recipe over at Pearls, Handcuffs & Happy Hour (click here to view pictures of each step)

What you need:

1 stick of melted butter
1 cup brown sugar (I packed mine)
1 1/2 round loaves of sweet Italian bread (my mom found it at Kroger)
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups of milk (I actually used real milk, but I'm sure almond milk would have worked as well)
1 tsp. vanilla
1 T of powdered sugar (plus extra for dusting)
White sugar (no more than a cup)
Cinnamon

What to do:

Melt your butter and stir in brown sugar. You will want a very gooey consistency. Pour this mixture into the bottom of a 9x13 dish. (I used a glass dish.) In a bowl whisk your eggs and then add in the milk, vanilla and powdered sugar and whisk a little more then set aside. Cut your bread into whatever size pieces you want and place on top of the brown sugar and butter in your dish. Try and fill in any holes between your bread slices with small pieces of bread. Pour half of your egg mixture over the bread. Sprinkle however much you would like of brown sugar and cinnamon on top of this layer. Add one more layer of bread and pour the rest of the egg mixture over it. Top this layer with cinnamon and white sugar. Cover your dish with cling wrap and set in the fridge overnight. Bake it at 350 the next morning for 45 minutes. Sprinkle with powdered sugar if you so desire. I was almost finished with my piece when I realized I didn't top it off with powdered sugar.

This is very sweet so you won't need syrup...unless you absolutely love syrup then pour some of that on as well. If you have any leftovers, it re-heats pretty well in the microwave and only take 30-45 seconds. Enjoy!

p.s. sorry about the picture with a Styrofoam plate I ate it too fast the morning I made it so that's a shot from my desk at work...perfect way to start a Tuesday...ha  ha

Couldn't Have Said It Better Myself

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It may not be my actual b-day, but I'm not at work today so it still works :)

I have awesome friends...

who take me out for an early birthday lunch and feed me things like this...


 A slice of pink velvet cake and a spinach salad that I didn't get a picture of because it was already in my belly.

I have awesome friends who bake me double chocolate chocolate chip cookies...

I have awesome friends who indulge my sweet tooth with even more sweets...

I have awesome friends who decorate my cube and leave me messages from Edward Cullen and Christian Grey...haha

Overall my friends are awesome :) I couldn't have asked for a better pre-birthday celebration! Thank you all so much!!

Enemy Of The State

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So what if this movie was made in 1998, I had never seen it before therefore I think it deserves a review...don't you?!?!

This was gooooood. It had conspiracy theories, suspense, back stabbing, explosions...you name it, it had it! I've probably said it before (if not shame on me), but I think Will Smith is a great actor. He can do the funny stuff as well as the serious stuff (The Pursuit of Happiness, Seven Pounds).

This movie wasn't so much the government spying/going after/framing someone as much as it was just one greedy S.O.B wanting his bill to be passed and killing to do so. Then he goes crazy trying to make sure no one finds out what really happened. But the movie does make you think about how much/when and where the government is really spying on us.

Think about that next time you web chat, face time, play with your kinect. Kind of creepy.

If you haven't seen this movie or don't remember it, I would suggest renting it. If nothing else you will get a kick out the old school movie intros. Oh how times have changed.

S'more Cookies

A friend at work sent me this link one morning to Pillsbury.com and I knew right away I had to make these cookies! I absolutely love s'mores! Maybe it's because I was in a father daughter camping group when I was younger, but s'mores just remind me of good times. These s'more cookies were a lot less messy than regular s'mores which was a nice change of pace and saved me from having to change shirts (what can I say...sometimes I can be a mess).

What you need:

1 pkg break and bake chocolate chip cookies (I guess you could make your own but this is faster)
1 bag normal sized marshmallows
1 pkg of chocolate candy melts (I used the Kroger brand)

What you do:

Bake cookies 2 minutes less than the instructions say. While they are baking cut the appropriate amount of marshmallows in half. When your timer goes off, take cookies out and place your cut marshmallows on top of the cookies cut side down. Place cookies back in over for 2 minutes. Take cookies out and let cool a few minutes while you heat your chocolate candy melts. Drizzle one spoonful of you melted chocolate over each cookie. If you want the chocolate to run down the sides, move your spoon back and forth and side to side as the chocolate runs off. Once chocolate has cooled...enjoy. Of course you can eat these while the chocolate is still wet, but it gets messy...trust me...ha ha.

The Hunger Games Trilogy

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I loved this trilogy! I knew I would like the first book since I had already seen the movie, but I hadn't expected to become so engrossed in the other two to the point where I never wanted to put them down. I honestly don't think I can pick a favorite. There were things in all of them that I really liked. Overall, I'm really happy I jumped on the bandwagon and read these. Can't wait for the other movies!

Ted

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Do you like Family Guy? Well then you'll like Ted. Sadly, I did not know this before seeing the movie and I can't stand Family Guy. The movie did have its funny parts, but overall I could not wait for it to be over. I seriously can't believe Marky Mark decided to make this movie...I can see why Mila Kunis did since she is the voice of one of the characters on Family Guy...but Marky Mark should just stick to his "I'm gonna kick your butt" roles.

So if you like Family Guy, horny teddy bears and movies about guys who can't get their life together then this movie is for you. Otherwise, I would suggest skipping it. But then again I may be the odd ball out on this one since so many other people have loved it and thought it was hilarious. 

July Meal - Chicken Pillows with Creamy Parmesan Sauce

These looked too good not to make! I mean creamy chicken inside a biscuit covered in a parmesan sauce is pretty hard not to drool over. I found this recipe over at Baking with Blondie (Click here for the recipe from Baking with Blondie.)

I tried to follow this recipe to a T but since I didn't have minced garlic I had to use garlic powder instead.

While this was a good dish fresh, I actually preferred it left over...I know call me crazy but I love left overs. I will probably make this again, but not for a while. I have a feeling it wasn't exactly low cal...ha ha. Plus I had a lot of dishes to clean up afterwards too. Ah the life of a wanna-be chef...ha ha

Do you smell Band-Aids?

I’ve been wanting yellow flats for months and finally had an excuse to buy some (thank you free trial of Amazon Prime).  When they came in, I couldn’t wait to open them but when I did I almost passed out! Did I pass out from the sheer beauty of them you might ask? Nope. It was from the smell that was escaping the box!!!

Ok so maybe I didn’t almost pass out, but the smell definitely shocked my system to say the least. I tried airing them out outside for 3 days….3 days people and they still stunk. Febreze didn’t help the situation either. However, I wanted to wear them sooooo bad that I figured if I wore them to work with some baby powder in them that they wouldn’t smell anymore. Sadly I was mistaken…

I had to warn people that they might start to smell something strange upon entering my cube, such as Band-Aids, which is what I thought they smelled like. A few other people thought they smelled like hospitals, Discount Tire and nasty re-heated seafood (that last one was a joke though). They, however, did not smell like bananas like you would think by looking at them. I may or may not have even belted out the banana boat song “Get on the boat, the banana boat…” There was a ton a laughter around the cubes Tuesday at the expense of my shoes, but it sure did make it a fun work day.

Good things did come from wearing the weird smelling shoes. 1. I got several compliments on how cute they were and 2. I found out that if you get black scuff marks on your shoes that a white eraser will take them off…thank goodness!

I would love to know if this has happened to other people! Especially if you finally got rid of the smell! Please, please let me know. My shoes are currently sitting out side again (well hopefully they are still there and the storms didn't blow them away).

Magic Mike

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I'm a week late but oh well...How did you spend your 4th of July? I spent mine (well the first part of it at least) watching Magic Mike. Overall it was pretty much what I expected, but I'm sure there were parts edited out to keep it at a R rating... There were some odd endings to scenes where the screen would just go black with the month written on it...weird. This might burst your bubble, but there was actually a story behind it all and it wasn't just about the after dark activities or how they got those abs...ha ha.

Let's talk about who all was in the audience of the theater. I was expecting there to be a bunch of girls my age. Well if you add about 20 years to my age then you will get the average age of the women in that theater. I was a little shocked to tell you the truth.

Other than that, I don't have much to else to say about the movie. The movie poster above pretty much sums it up. Oh and in case you didn't know...Channing Tatum is an awesome dancer. Go rent Step Up to watch or I guess you could you tube too...ha ha.

More Baby Girl Burp Cloths

Did you guess right?!?! Did you know I would have more burp cloths made?? These things are probably the best gifts and Elizabeth's mom never disappoints! I absolutely love the way these burp cloths turned out!!

I honestly can't pick a favorite! I adore the giraffe, love the curly Z and who doesn't want to be a princess!!

I had bought a cupcake box to put the onesie cupcakes in, but instead I put the burp cloths in it and they fit perfectly!

Also, I thought the dots on the box matched the invitation and went along with the "pop" theme!

Pink Ready to "Pop" Baby Shower

My cousin's wife is having another baby which usually doesn't call for another baby shower, but when the baby will be a girl in a family full of boys there had to be another shower and since I was in charge of it it was going to be PINK!!!

I should also say I had exactly a month to plan this. I knew right away that I wanted to throw her a Ready to "Pop" shower. I had seen the theme here and there and always thought it looked  so cute. First things first though, I had to create an invitation...

I created this invitation using Microsoft Publisher. I made it as a 4 x 5.5 card, but looking back I should have made it the full 4 x 6 so that I could have made the font a little bigger and so that the envelope wouldn't have swallowed the card. Oh well, I still loved it and how pink it was!

Next, I had to think of what kind of food I wanted. All I could think about were desserts so I let my Mom and Aunts decide on the real food.  Ha ha. Here is my spread...

Pink, pink and more pink!

I made my chocolate popcorn again and put it inside cute little pink zebra popcorn boxes. I switched the white candy coating chips out for pink ones. Unfortunately, I couldn't get a hold of all pink or pastel M&Ms. Then I used my new Babycakes Cake Pop Maker to make the cake pops. I dipped the cake pops in white candy melts and then used pink sanding sugar to coat. Finally, I made white cake cupcakes with whipped butter cream icing (new from Duncan Hines) and added the pearls for an extra touch. The cupcake wrappers had pink leopard spots on them that you couldn't see after they were baked, but they were still so cute! I also made a marshmallow cream cheese fruit dip dyed pink that everyone thought was really good strawberry yogurt. Ha ha.

Finally, the decor. I didn't really spend a lot of time thinking of what I wanted to decorate with since I was so excited about all the "pop" food I was making. I had bought cute onesies with the hopes of turning them into onesie cupcakes but instead I hung them on garland my aunt already had hanging around her house. And as it turns out she had the same idea and had bought hats, socks and bibs to hang too!

I thought it turned out cute!

Bonus picture...

I was playing around in a new picture editing program called ipiccy.com and saw this feature and loved it!! Also, the collage above was created using ribbet.com. Both are free...woo hoo!

p.s. Tomorrow I'll post the gift! Can you guess what it'll be??

Mr. Popper's Penguins

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I heart penguins and I only like Jim Carrey...ha ha...so that's why I didn't go see this in theaters or even rent it. It just happened to be on tv one night and I was like, why not? This was actually a really cute movie. Maybe not as cute as Happy Feet, but still cute. And Jim Carrey wasn't annoying (or at least not to me). The movie had a few good heartfelt moments along with some silly penguin antics. Overall, it was a pretty decent movie.