Low Calorie Wrap

I LOVE this wrap. It's super yummy and quick to make. AND it's only around 200 calories! Yes, 200 calories people.
Ingredients:
Flour Tortilla
Lite Ranch Dressing
Feta
Turkey
Lettuce


Starting with a flour tortilla (120 calories) add some lite ranch dressing (half a serving is 40 calories and plenty of dressing). Spread that around.

In the center of the tortilla, add some feta. A full serving is 80 calories and is a tablespoon; I halved that since feta is a strong flavor and it was just enough.

Next, layer on some turkey (30 calories) or other lunch meat like roast beef or ham which are both yummy in this wrap, too.

On top of that, add some lettuce (2 calories...if that!)

Now roll it up and enjoy your delicious wrap!

Just Jaime's Guest Posting!

Hi guys! Today I'm guest posting at Blissful Bucket List! I am excited to have been invited by Sarah, a fun lady I met when were teens. Now, I get to guest post on her blog.  Check out my post and see what the heck this is:

 

Seriously, what is it? 

Ready for Fall Fun Decor

Last year I shared my fall decor on a budget:

 

This year I changed it up, adding a few things I snagged at the end of the season last year and incorporating a few items I already had.




From Left to Right:

-BOMA Owl from Canada. A souvenir from the many trips my dad took there when he worked for a Canadian based company when I was a kid.

-Glitter Vase by me, filled with some clippings care of my apartment complex's dying bushes (free!)

-Candle from Hobby Lobby, purchased at the end of the season for 90% off

-Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince from my personal library. Thought it went well with the theme and loved the pop of color.

-Metal gourd from Hobby Lobby, 90% off

-Frame from last year's display (Goodwill), still got Kristen Duke's freebie in it
-Candle from HL, same sale
-Candle from Dollar Tree
-Beautiful quilted Fall Table Runner, by my mom, Diana. I love it!

How have you started decorating yet?

A month of Pinterest menu planning Monday

This year I've been working on my menu planning. I've done pretty well, usually using a couple of my favorite cookbooks. But this month, I decided to use a different recipe source: Pinterest!

Let's be honest: most of the recipes I pin only get that far. It was time to change that. I turned to my Savory Recipe board . . . which didn't have quite as many recipes as I thought. But I did have a couple collections of recipes pinned, so I managed to find enough to fill up my calendar.

In the last week, we've enjoyed:

Chicken curry (scroll down on the page)
To make this fresh, I added coconut milk and chicken broth to make the sauce (about 10 oz a piece). I omitted the mango because . . . weird, and the mangoes at my grocery store weren't looking so happy, and skipped the zucchini because my husband doesn't like zucchini, and again, weird.

I also adapted this for the pressure cooker using these basic instructions.

It was my first time using my pressure cooker. I don't know why it is that when I try to take a picture of soup, all I can see is steam, but when I try to take a picture of steam, I get nothing. Sigh.

And I froze half of raw the meal to use for a slow cooker meal later.

[Sorry, no picture]

Spinach salad with cranberries, candied almonds, red onions and chicken (a leftover from another meal)

Black bean & corn salsa + chicken quesadillas (tortillas, cheese & chopped chicken [again, leftover])

We round out our weeks with homemade pizza on Fridays (crust recipe from Fast Easy Bread), breakfast for dinner on Saturdays and leftovers!

Upcoming meals:

• Martha Stewart's Baked Penne with Chicken & Sundried Tomatoes (recipe makes 2 dinners, so you get a freezer meal, too) via Six Sisters' Stuff
• Goulash (note to sisters: okay, but maybe if I make it, it won't be like hers)
• Baked ziti (Mom's specialty, but you can also find a recipe here)
• Maple apple chicken
• Naan with feta and tomato chicken salad
• Curried cranberry chicken + couscous

This menu plan is tasty and will give us at least 3 "free" meals for the freezer! Better still, I have dinner planned from Sept 10 through October 6, with lots of ideas for the next four weeks (prime soup season!).

Do you make what you pin on Pinterest? Are you ready for a challenge?

Update on the room redo

We got the chair rail in our dining room. I think it really classed up the joint! Thanks to Jasmine for taking down the wallpaper and helping paint and Ben for putting in the chair rail. The whole thing was about $120 with lots of paint left over. Now for pictures on the wall!

 

Bubble Marble Card Stock

This is a fun, easy craft that even the kids will enjoy. Take a small amount of soap (preferably uncolored; scented doesn't matter) and add a small amount of water into a bowl. Size changes the pattern so it's up to you as to how large of a bowl you would like to use. I used a regular sized disposable bowl.
Add a few drops of food coloring and mix the color in.

With a straw, blow bubbles in the soapy mixture to fill the bowl a little over the rim. I stirred the bubbles to make them smaller so the color and pattern would look differently.

Taking card stock, lightly press the paper face down onto the bubbles not getting the paper in the water and lift up. You can repeat this as many times as you want adding different layers of bubbles.

Don't overdo it though, then it'll just look like a mess. Some bubbles may stay on the paper. You can let them pop on their own or blow them off.

Set aside to dry. Dry time is short and varies as to how many times you dipped it in the bubbles.

Young Toddler Distraction- from the Dollar Store

Thanks for all of your great input last week! I loved reading all the comments! I have the perfect old purse for PB to use and I'm gathering up old keys and credit cards. That is still a work in progress. I think that would be great to take to church. She has started to try to go through other people's bags when she is thwarted by the zipper on mine.

I did finish up a basket of things that I collected. Your comments really inspired me to look at her daily activities and what she loves to do which are:

1. Make a mess
2. Pretend (or for real) write. She carries anything pen-like around the house with books or pads of paper and pretends to write. I call her my little reporter.
3. Shake and throw things
4. Take lids off of containers

So I made the activities accordingly. So I got all of the things at the Dollar Store. I spent $9 and I used a bunch of stuff from around the house- especially the recycling bin. Here is what I bought:

• Balloons
• Cheap Playdough
• Puff balls
• Counting foam cubes 
• a coloring book
• A "glow slate" (see picture)
• Cheap crayons
• Colorful mini popsicle sticks
• A bin to put it all in 

Here is what I made with them:

For her mess making spirit. I cut up scrap fabric into "wipies" and put the puffs and squares in there too. One of her favorite things is to pull all the wipies out of the container.

For my little reporter. I cut the top off of the glow slate and hot glued a ribbon with the pen attached. I got the cheap crayons because they are less likely to write on things that are not the coloring book.

I took the cheap playdough and stuffed two of the little containers worth into a balloon. I put another balloon over that and tied them off. The can stack the containers or take the lids off and throw the playdough 

My grandma gave me the container for the popsicle sticks. It is a Crystal Light packet container. She kept one at her house filled with old fashion clothes pins. I used a small water bottle and filled it with glitter, beads, and rhinestones. I hot glued the top on. It took a lot of hot glue because I didn't get it on right.

Tonight PB gets to play with her basket for the first time. I am in charge of an activity tonight where I need her very occupied. I'll let you know how it goes! Thanks again for all of your comments last week!