 No one likes dry, chewy chicken. When it comes to chicken breasts, I want a nice, juicy, moist chicken breast. I’m pretty sure I just lost several potential readers based on my decision to use the word “moist”. Below is my go-to way to bake chicken breasts so that they come out nice and ….. moist. Your cook time will always depend on how thick your chicken breast is; the thicker the breast, the longer the cook time.  The proper food safety guideline is to ensure your chicken is cooked to an internal temperature of 165 degrees. Also, be sure to avoid cross-contamination of your raw chicken with other foods or drinks that will not be brought up to that same temperature. To begin, season your chicken however you choose. My current favorite is this seasoning which does not require any additional seasoning. Not even salt or pepper:  Other favorites include Cavender’s Greek Seasoning and Jamaican Jerk seasoning blends. If you choose to go with a marinade, be sure to let your chicken swim in those juices for at least 30 minutes to allow it to soak up those flavors. Depending upon your chicken breast thickness, it could take anywhere from 20 - 45 minutes to ensure your chicken is cooked all the way through.  Below are various oven temperatures and suggested baking times, but whichever option you choose- be sure to use a thermometer to check the internal chicken temperature and test the chicken in the thickest part of the breast. 350 degrees: 25-30 minutes 375 degrees: 23-28 minutes 400 degrees: 22-25 minutes 425 degrees: 18-22 minutes My preference is to cook my chicken breasts at 400 degrees for 22-25 minutes.  Be sure to save all of those yummy chicken juices to use in another recipe!  Good luck with your chicken! May it come out nice and… moist. :) -Jamie
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Last year, I challenged myself to change my "Funny Halloween Letter Board" sayings each day throughout October. I made it 26 days. SO close. Each day I posted them on Facebook for my friends and family to see. This post is a long collection of those photos. Enjoy!                           I hope you enjoyed reading these funny Halloween letter boards! Check out my other blog posts for other fun and helpful ideas. Thank you!  It's time to get frugal up in here. This post shows three meals I like to make for my family of 4 using ONE rotisserie chicken. Please be sure to use proper chicken handling while you are using and saving your chicken for later use. As a general rule in my home, we try to use cooked chicken that is kept in the refrigerator within 3 days. Maybe 4 days MAX. What you will not find: In this post you will not find exact measurements. In this house, I eyeball everything. What you will find: Three delicious, cheap, family friendly meals GROCERY LIST For these three meals you will need the following: 1 rotisserie chicken, shredded - the star of our show today. 1 box of pasta - the kids prefer rotini. 1 jar of alfredo 1 box of Stove Top stuffing mix 1 can of chicken broth 1 can of cream of chicken Frozen broccoli Frozen peas Matchstick or grated carrots 1 large red onion 1 can of black beans 1 large tomato Tortillas Cheddar cheese Salt & Pepper Optional: Salsa, sour cream, pickled jalapeños, taco seasoning If you purchase these items at Walmart, you are looking at a cost of around $20-$25 (excluding optional items) to feed a family of 4 three meals. That comes out to about $2 per meal per person AND we had leftovers from some meals. Being cheap is my favorite way to be. Make sure to get every little piece of chicken off those bones! Let's get this party started. MEAL NUMBER ONE : CHICKEN AND PEA ALFREDO The kids usually go nuts over this one.  Needed: Box of pasta Bag of frozen peas Jar of alfredo Chicken Pepper Cook the pasta and peas in boiling water until the pasta is done. Strain out the water and put the hot pasta back in the pot. Immediately pour the alfredo over the pasta and peas and stir. The hot pasta will heat the alfredo. If your chicken is already hot, throw it in! If not, microwave it until it is hot and add it in. If you like black pepper, add the desired amount to the pot. Voila!  MEAL NUMBER TWO : CHICKEN STUFFING This one is soooooooooooooooooooooo good!  Needed: Half of the red onion, diced Carrots Box of Stovetop stuffing Cream of chicken Chicken broth Broccoli Chicken Salt & Pepper In a large bowl, mix the box of Stove Top stuffing, carrots (I use half the bag), onion, chicken, and broccoli (I use half the bag). In a separate bowl, mix the chicken broth, cream of chicken, and desired amount of salt and pepper. In a large baking dish - sprayed with nonstick spray - spread out the stuffing mixture. Pour the broth mixture evenly over the top. Cover with foil and bake at 400 degrees for 45 minutes. If you like (and we like!), take the pan out at 30 minutes, sprinkle with some cheddar cheese, and pop it back in uncovered for the additional 15 minutes. YUM.  MEAL NUMBER THREE : CHICKEN QUESADILLAS Who doesn't love a good quesadilla, am I right? I like my salsa how I like my thighs: Thick & Chunky.  Needed: Tortillas Chicken Tomato, diced The other half of the red onion, diced Black beans, rinsed Cheddar cheese Optional: Salsa, sour cream, pickled or fresh jalapeños, hot sauce, really anything you want to dip your yummy quesadilla into. On one half of your tortilla, sprinkle cheese and then layer with onion, tomato, chicken, and beans. I like to sprinkle a little taco seasoning on top too for extra flavor.   Top with more cheese, fold, and bake at 350 degrees until you reach your desired level of crispiness. Serve with any desired toppings you like and BOOM. Done.  *Mic drop* There you have it. Three meals, one chicken, all for under $25. AND THEY ARE EASY, KID FRIENDLY MEALS! Please leave comments below of what you think and if you have tried this post! Thanks for reading. Today’s good mood is sponsored by: Coffee! If you are looking for your Starbucks fix, but want to watch your calorie intake - I can help you! This is not one of those posts where the creator has come up with crazy (although awesome) concoctions that require you to be the barista's worst nightmare with 50 million coffee edits. These are current menu items that are simple to order. Recently I have been trying to stick to a 1200 calorie diet to drop some residual baby weight (… my “baby” is 2 years old…) to get closer to my goal weight. I’ll be going through my day, minding my own business, dieting like a boss, and then that damn green mermaid lady stares me down… and I blackout. After I come to, I realize I’m holding a Venti White Mocha Frappuccino in my hand with no idea how it got there! FYI- that drink is 500 calories, which means I get to have ice for dinner. This post is to help all of the many Starbucks lovers like myself trying to stay on track with their diet while getting to enjoy that Starbucks flavor we love so much. Let’s get into it. Hot Coffees: 1. Any black coffee from Starbucks is about 5 calories. If you are a black coffee drinker (I am NOT), then you are in luck! If you go without dairy or a dairy alternative, but still need a bit of sweetness, you can add pumps of their Sugar Free Vanilla Syrup. Each pump is 0 calories. One Splenda packet is around 5 calories and each sugar packet is usually around 10 calories. A “splash” of 2% milk is about 40 calories (cup size depending) and a “splash” of almond milk is about 60 calories. This means you can get a Grande Caffe Americano, Blonde Roast, or Pike Place Roast, add as many pumps of the sugar free vanilla syrup as your heart can handle, and get a splash of 2% milk all for less than 50 calories. You can also get this iced! 2. Where are my espresso lovers at? You can get a shot of espresso for 10 calories. There is also a yummy drink called the Espresso Con Panna which is a double shot of espresso topped with whipped cream which weighs in at a whopping 35 calories. Cold Coffees: Cold brews are extremely popular right now (especially here in Florida) and Starbucks does cold brew right. They even have nitro cold brew which is nitrogen infused cold brew coffee which gives the drink a sweet taste without the sugar. 3. A Grande Nitro Cold Brew with 4 pumps of sugar free vanilla syrup is 5 calories! If you would like to add a splash of almond milk, it brings you up to 65 calories. The drink is delicious either way, and that’s coming from a girl who doesn’t usually do coffee without dairy.  4. A Grande Vanilla Sweet Cream Nitro Cold Brew is 70 calories and topped with that lovely sweet cream. (Photo is of a Tall with 2 Splenda)  5. The Tall Vanilla Sweet Cream Cold Brew is a personal favorite of mine. This drink is 90 calories and is the perfect sweet treat for an after lunch pick me up. (Photo is of a Grande)  6. & 7. The Grande Honey Almond Cold Brew and the Grande Honey Almond Nitro Cold Brew are both killer and are only 50 calories!  8. Grande Cold Brew Coffee with milk (2%) is 35 calories. If you would like to add two sugar packets to that, it brings it to 65 calories or add 2 Splenda like the one in this photo (45 cals).  9. If you like the classics, a Tall Iced Coffee with 2% milk and 3 pumps of the classic syrup is 80 calories. 10. This new drink is the talk of the office. A Tall Brown Sugar Oatmilk Shaken Espresso (say that 5 times fast. Yeeesh.) is 90 calories and is oooooh so good. (Photo is Grande)  11. If you are looking for some good, sweet chocolate in your life, the Tall Iced Chocolate Almond Milk Shaken Espresso is the way to go. It is only 80 calories and will curb that chocolate craving without being too much. (Photo is Grande)  12. The Grande Iced Shaken Espresso as it comes (2% milk and 4 pumps of classic syrup) is exactly 100 calories. 13. A Tall Iced Honey Almond Milk Flat White is 100 calories of pure yumminess. I LOVE honey. 14. A good classic drink is the Iced Caffe Latte and in a Tall is 100 calories. Hot Teas: 15. Great news tea lovers! All of the hot teas (without add-ins) are ZERO calories! One of my go to moves is to buy a Grande Peach Tranquility Tea and put the whole thing over a very large glass of ice. It’s zero calories and I can spend the entire day sipping on it. You can even leave the tea bags in the white Starbucks cup and add more hot water for more tea later on! 16. When I need a pick me up or are starting to feel sick, the Honey Citrus Mint Tea is perfect. Sipping on this sweet, hot tea always makes me feel better and a Grande is only 80 calories. Iced Teas: 17. The Iced (unsweetened) Black and Green Teas are zero calories in any size. If you want to sweeten it, Splenda, Equal, and regular sugar packets are a good low calories options. Honey is a bit higher in calories, but is totally worth it. *Tip - If you like your iced tea to pack a bit more of a punch, you can ask for light water or even no water to be added to your drink. (Trenta size shown below)  18. A Tall Iced Royal English Breakfast Tea Latte is 100 calories and is a great breakfast drink. Black teas usually have about half the caffeine as a regular cup of coffee so for those with caffeine tolerance issues, like myself, this is a good option. 19. A Tall London Fog Tea Latte is 100 calories like the royal English breakfast tea latte. Both are equally good. 20. The Grande Iced Guava Black Tea is 70 calories. Mmmmmm… guava… You can also get the same drink but add lemonade for 20 additional calories. 21. Starbucks has an Arnold Palmer option which is very refreshing. A Venti Iced Black Tea Lemonade only contains 70 calories. 22. As a lover of peaches and peach flavored anything, the Grande Iced Peach Green Tea is one of my favorites and it’s only 60 calories! 23. This one is delicious AND pretty. The Iced Passion Tango Tea is ZERO calories all the way up to a size Trenta!  Cold Drinks: These are pretty delicious, 100 calories or less, and are lightly caffeinated with green tea extract to give you a little boost. 24. The Grande Kiwi Star Fruit Refresher is 90 calories. 25. A Tall Star Drink is 100 calories. This is the Kiwi Star Fruit Refresher with coconut milk added to it.  26. The Grande Mango Dragonfruit Refresher is 90 calories and it’s Tall counterpart, the Dragon Drink, is 100 calories. 27. A Venti Very Berry Hibiscus Refresher is 90 calories and it’s Tall counterpart, the Violet Drink, is 90 calories. I hope you will enjoy these low calorie drink options. Please comment below to share any drinks you have concocted that are under 100 calories! Remember: A yawn is just a silent scream for caffeine.   “Hocus Pocus” is one of those traditionally watched Halloween movies and is one of my absolute favorites! So with me being a crazy party planner at heart, I knew a Ghouls Night was in order. Hocus Pocus is centered around Sarah, Winifred, and Mary Sanderson who were sister witches that fed off of the life forces of children to stay young and magically strong. Sounds terrible, I know. But it really is a great movie! And I am not going to give any more information than that in case you have not seen the movie, which if you haven’t, what have you been living under a rock?? First we have the ever-popular Sanderson Sister costumes which were worn by my two friends and I.  I know, I know. We totally rocked it. . The movie was playing in the background of the party and the kids sat around and watched it as they snacked off of the movie inspired food table. FOOD First on the table is Sarah Sanderson’s “Lucky Rat Tails” which were in a mason jar.  Next were Billy Butcherson’s “gravestones” which were pudding packs, crumbled Oreos, cookie headstones, and icing with eyeballs. The kids LOVED those. I might have had a few myself...  We had “Boooooooooooooook!”, Winifred’s spell book which were delicious chocolate brownies decorated with frosting to look like the book in the movie.  Spooky pizzas helped even out the sweets-to-regular-food ratio which had green peppers cut and arranged to look like a jack-o-lantern and pepperoni pizza with little black olive spiders. I usually make these pizzas several times throughout the Halloween season because they are cheap, frozen pizzas made to look spooky and are delicious!  The pumpkin charcuterie board used black and orange colors to give it a good, Halloweenie (ha!... I said weenie...) look and was shaped to look like the jack-o-lantern face. This is a great staple party item for any Halloween gathering! It's just too cute to be spooky.  Lastly, the table had two pumpkins decorated by my little ghouls at a local farm festival and bat shaped brownies.  We saved the costumes to make sure we have a repeat party again this year because we had so much fun. Honestly, I think it was better that there were fewer people because we got to sit around, watch a movie and enjoy each other’s company. I hope you plan your Hocus Pocus party this Halloween. Give 'em pumpkin to talk about! KIDS ARE CHAOS. Having one child can turn your world upside-down, but then you bring multiples into the equation and yeeeesh. My kids are 4 and 2 years old and trying to maintain a certain level or organization in our house is key for me. I am pretty cool under pressure with the inevitable chaos that my littles throw at me, but I have my own organizational secrets that help to keep me sane. In the kitchen: We have a medium sized kitchen in our house. It’s not small, but it’s definitely not big. I chose to dedicate one of the upper cabinets to the kids' dishes. Cups, popsicles making stuff, mats, bibs, cookie cutters for sandwiches, etc. It helped keep the insane amount of cups these children need contained and away from our cups that can stay nicely organized in their own cabinet.  And those aren’t even close to all the cups. My 2 year old’s favorite cups were all sitting on a drying rack next to the sink when I took that cabinet photo. Who needs this many cups?! Snacks: MY GOD THE SNACKS. My children’s lives revolve around snacks. Especially my two year old who will probably be six feet tall based on how much she needs to eat. To keep their snacks from completely taking over our pantry (which is also medium sized), I made two small sections for them. The first is an easily accessible plastic container that holds some of their everyday “at home” snacks.  The other section is on the top shelf which holds their “in the car” snacks.  We have a 30 minute commute to and from work/school during the week so I make sure to have snacks for them in the car. This is mainly for after school when they are ravenous little monsters that would probably eat my car tires if I came empty handed. I even have a small section in the fridge for their cold snacks.  For me, organizing their snack foods like this allows me to see when I am getting low on something and can add it to the grocery list. Which is the perfect segue into my next topic. Generally household organization: On our fridge we keep two magnetic “organizers” that help us maintain the façade of being perfectly sane members of society. The first is a grocery list. When something gets low, it goes on the list and I grab it on the next grocery pick up.  The second is a calendar which allows us to keep a full 6 week view of what is coming up in our lives. Both of these are dry erase magnetic boards so you reuse them over and over again.  I swear by these! We have another small dry erase board for "things to do/get around the house" and also use it to write down which kid has had what medicine and when so we don't accidently give them anything twice. The Bathroom: I found this wonderful shower caddy at Walmart ages ago and it holds the soaps, wash cloths, and other miscellaneous bath time items.  This next little gem was found recently at Target and holds their bath toys, but the best part…. It has holes in the bottom so the water can actually run out!   The Car: Toys, books, shoes, OH MY! The inside of my car certainly isn’t in Kansas anymore. I have the most wonderful organizer in the car that sits in between both car seats and holds toys, books, more toys and books, and honestly God only knows what else because who knows what they throw in there. It is within reach for both of them and once a month I will “refresh” the books that are in there to keep it interesting.  On the floorboard in the backseat sits another glorious Dollar Tree plastic bin that holds all of their shoes. We don’t wear shoes in the house and this keeps their primarily used shoes in the car and away from our carpet.  Hopefully you will find some of these helpful in your day to day routine. Please feel free to comment below with other organizing tips you like to use at home and help parents everywhere fight the battle against children's clutter!  When my husband and I bought our house, we also inherited a dishwasher and we could not have been happier. The rental we lived in for many years before finally buying did not have one and it was a constant dishwashing battle in our house. To say that we hate hand washing dishes is a dramatic understatement. So we were officially homeowning adults with adult things like appliances and yard maintenance. We knew we had to clean and maintain everything, but cleaning the thing that cleans your dishes? Seriously? It wasn’t until we started seeing black spots and mildew when I realized that it made sense. I mean, I clean my shower and it cleans me, so why would a dishwasher be any different? There are all natural ways to keep your dishwasher clean as well as the heavy duty “get this mess out of my dishwasher” cleaning method. Before you start with either method, you will want to remove the food trap in the bottom of the washer and scrub it clean with a dish brush. Remove any debris you may find down in there too. My trap simply twists and pulls out. If yours does not come out that easily, consult your manual.  Did you know your spray arms can come off and get cleaned too? Some spray arms actually open and can be cleaned inside. Others may need their little spray holes cleaned out from time to time.   Getting Started The All Natural Method:
The method I used in these blog photos The “Get-This-Mess-Out-Of-My-Dishwasher-Now” Method:
   If you want to use a brush to scrub off any remaining residue after the first wash cycle, go for it! I did not for these photos so you could see what just the cleaning method itself would do. The all natural method is great for regular maintenance and upkeep. With a house of two adults and two kids, it is very rare that I see an empty dishwasher. The bleach method is usually my go-to cleaning cycle whenever that legendary “empty dishwasher” comes around, which is usually as often as Bigfoot is spotted.   Hello fellow parent! Your little girl loves dinosaurs too? Awesome! I have the perfect tips for you to throw her an amazing birthday party. First things first: The Invitations. For this theme I opted to use gold, pinks, greens, and white. Below is a portion of the digital invitation template I purchased off of Etsy:  There are many play on words you can use for the invitations and décor. For my little one who was turning two, she was a “Two-Rex” and my coworker Ilen, who has a Cricut machine made her shirt for me. Other play on words could be “Three-Rex” and “She’s Four-ocious”. I knew that I wanted pink and gold dinosaurs, which you can probably buy offline from somewhere OR you can do what I did. Dollar Tree has dinosaurs most of the time. I bought about 10, grabbed some cheap paints from Michaels, and painted them myself. I also painted a few miniature dinosaurs to put on top of her birthday cake.  Just because, I also made them little party hats because HOW FREAKIN’ CUTE IS THAT?!  We had her party at a local pool where you can rent a room that has AC. We are in Florida and let me tell you - birthday parties in July are brutal. This room happens to have two giant bulletin boards that always have pool activities from classes they teach there. Knowing I would want to cover those up, my mother and I drew a backdrop large enough to cover the boards. I purchased brown wrapping paper (Dollar Tree again!) and taped it together to create a large enough blank space to draw on. You can do this in your home or at whatever venue you may be having your party at to create a very inexpensive, eye-catching wall mural.  Both the dinosaurs and backdrops were created well in advance of the party which helped alleviate additional work closer to the party date. Other decorations included: Adorable little wonky dinosaur cut outs from another friend’s Cricut machine (Who needs a Cricut when you have friends with Cricuts??) A picture of greenery as a backdrop for the main food table Assorted tropical leaves that I ordered off of Amazon My letterboard (that I use for EVERYTHING and another blog will be coming showing all the ways I use it) with a funny phrase A basket with the extra dinosaurs and a sign saying to “Adopt a Dinosaur” A white and pink Happy Birthday banner from Amazon White, green, and pink plastic table clothes I bought from Dollar Tree  The night before the party I made her a small cake and cupcakes. I crushed up Oreo cookies to make “dirt” on top of the cupcakes and put (cleaned) miniature dinos on top. Do as much food prep the night before as possible so you have less work to do the day of.   For the food, we had a “Carnivore” station, an “Herbivore” station, a “Watering Hole”, and a “Sweetivore” station. The “Watering Hole” was just a cooler with drinks inside with a cute sign. We had bottled water, Honest juice boxes, and some cans of soda. The “Carnivore” section had meats, cheeses, and Chick-fil-A chicken nuggets with little buns to make tiny chicken sandwiches. BOMB.  The “Herbivore” section had fruits, chips, olives, and vegetables. There are some themed food items throughout the party like the “Dinosaur Eggs” (grapes) and "Dinosaur Claws" (Bugles). I cut the watermelon to look like Stegosaurus spikes. The “Sweetivore” section had the cakes along with “Dinosaur Bones” and a fruit tray my mom made that looked like a dinosaur.  The party favor bags had a “dig out a dinosaur” dino egg inside along with snacks for the car ride home and cute dinosaur temporary tattoos. The bags were found on Amazon.  The party was really great! Ella had a wonderful birthday. There were zero meltdowns between her or her sister and they crashed in the car on the way home. I call that a success. Thanks for stomping by!   One of the fastest growing party food trends that I wholeheartedly support is The Charcuterie Board There are endless variations of what can represent a charcuterie board. I have even put together a breakfast board which included hard-boiled eggs, pancakes, bananas, and other breakfast accoutrement.  Perhaps it’s because I am a product of the "Lunchables" generation, but charcuterie boards are my "jam" and are always my go-to for any gathering - large or small. Key components of a charcuterie board: Meat Cheese Fruit Crackers Additional items that can be added: Chocolate Nuts Jams Spreads Dips Honey Cookies Olives Pickles Vegetables Breads Really, just about anything! In this post I will show you basic boards I have thrown together for small gatherings as well as a massive charcuterie feasting board that I made for my best friend’s baby shower. Before we begin, many people like to know where I got my serving platters and trays. Nearly all of mine came from Pier 1. You can also find them on Amazon for a decent price. First, let's start with a small, basic board.  This board has one softer cheese (Havarti, ooo na na), a basic sharp cheddar cheese, as well as two firmer, bolder flavored cheeses - a coffee rubbed cheddar and a pepper jack. The kids were snacking on this tray too so I added some fun butterfly shaped crackers which they loved! There are a few very nutty crackers on this plate which is a personal favorite for me. *Important to note that you may want to keep the kids away from any spicy cheeses! Salami and pepperoni were the meat choices I had on hand for this plate and are usually a big hit with kids and adults alike. Green and black olives, blackberries, and grapes finished off the board to give it a nice sweet and salty component. *Cracker Tip* I always find the most unique cracker choices at unusual stores like Marshalls and TJ Maxx. When I am out and see something unique or interesting, I always grab it and save it for another day. Other great options can be found at Publix and Aldi. This second board was for a gathering of five adults and two children.  Everything on this tray was gone by the end of the party, mainly because someone could not walk away. It was me... I was "someone". The board contained all of the usual suspects, but also had more interesting elements: Black pepper salami Cherry tomatoes Mini mozzarella balls Apple slices Strawberries Sweet peppers Firmer mozzarella wrapped in pepperoni (store bought) It also had regular ol' turkey lunch meat that I rolled up to make it look nicer. All finished off with a yummy spinach dip (store bought) and baguette slices. I love, love LOVE putting together themed boards for the holidays. Below are two examples of holiday trays I made for Valentine's Day and Halloween.  The Valentine's Day board had heart shaped cranberry white cheddar cheese, salami rolled up like roses, chocolate covered blueberries and cookies, as well as the usual meats, cheeses, and other accoutrement. For various projects with the kids, I have several small cookie cutters on hand. One of those happens to be heart shaped which I used to form the cheddar cheese bites.  The Halloween board was made for an AMAZING party (which I will blog about soon under my "party" category) which was shaped to look like a jack-o-lantern using black and orange elements to make the face. Finally we come to the most EPIC charcuterie board I have ever created. I feel like Tom Hanks in Castaway when he finally made fire.  I dubbed this "The Feasting Board" because it was exactly that, A FEAST.  For my best friend’s baby shower, I put together this beast of a feast which fed 40 people easily. Goodie bags were handed out at the end of the party for people to make a “To-Go” bag for themselves as well. All of these ingredients were found at Walmart, Publix, and Aldi, but the key is to find unusual statement food items. I shopped at three different stores after pricing out various items at each location. As a general rule, I try to be a cheap ass while making things look fancy.  First I lined the table with brown butchers paper so I could lay everything out right on top. It made for a very cool, rustic look. In the photos you will see a long wooden tray that I used to create a second layer adding more height to the table. I propped it up with two cheap baskets I found at Goodwill (which were cleaned before placing them near food).  Leafy greens were used to give an earthy appearance and to help fill in the gaps. I also put a bunch of fake (cleaned!) greenery underneath the long board so it wouldn't look empty underneath and people would not have to maneuver around to try to get food out from beneath it. My ol’ reliable wooden trays came out and were used for more height elements and to help separate out star components like the Brie and other fancy cheeses and meats. The crunchy breadsticks were placed vertically in mason jars to give more of a visually appealing look. With a board this size, it is important to have different heights and angles to make the board look larger and also to give you more room to lay out the foods.  Here is the full list of every food item on this board: Cucumber slices Cherry tomatoes Sweet peppers Green olives Pickles Black olives Italian pickled vegetables Banana chips Cashews Almonds Green grapes Purple grapes Strawberries Blueberries Blackberries Dried cranberries Garlic Baguette slices Crunchy breadsticks in rosemary and sesame flavors Small and large pretzels MANY different types of crackers (at least 9 that I can remember) Whisps (which is a regular everyday snack for me!) Cookies Chocolate covered almonds Salami Pepperoni Prosciutto Pepperoni and prosciutto wrapped mozzarella sticks Kraft block cheeses I cut into cubes such as mild cheddar, sharp cheddar, pepper jack, mozzarella, and Swiss Then a few show stopper cheeses like apricot cheese, sage cheese (which was a HUGE hit), habanero cheese, and purple beer infused cheese. Brie was placed on it’s own tier with honey and honeycomb placed on top More honey was placed in separate jars Fig jam Regular and grainy mustards Everything was garnished off with the leafy greens and rosemary from my garden. Be sure to have plenty of forks, tongs, and spoons for serving.  Talk about a statement piece for the party! Everyone loved it and it fit in perfectly with her elegant greenery theme. I still have dreams about that sage cheese… YUM. If you are planning a shower, anniversary, or large party I would highly recommend laying out a spread like this one. The best part: NO COOKING WAS INVOLVED IN THE MAKING OF THIS BOARD! Feel free to drop any comments or questions below! Thanks for reading!  A few years back, two close friends and I all got married within a 9-month timespan. The best part – we were all in each other’s weddings. That was one hell of an expensive year! As we were all sitting around wedding planning, I said, “We’re spending all this money on our beautiful dresses, we should do something with them together afterward.” Hence, the Bridal Tea Party idea was born. We decided we should get back into our dresses, get all dolled up, and sit around in our dresses sipping tea and enjoying our dresses one last time. That is when my obsessive-creative brain kicked into hyperdrive. I spent months reading up about tea party etiquette and proper accoutrement for us to have a beautiful party. Thrift stores were my best friend. I found nearly every decoration and serving piece from some sort of thrift store; teacups, serving platters, plates. Most places even had full fine china tea sets you could purchase.  The tea party day rolls around, and I am beyond excited. I woke up early and started preparing. Ice cubes were made with edible flowers frozen inside. Tea sandwiches were crafted; egg salad, cucumber, and roast beef Mini cakes were baked. Tip: I cut the tops off the cupcakes, flipped one upside down, and glued them together with icing, topped with an edible flower. This gave the appearance of tiny cakes as well as that wonderful “naked cake” look. We also set out meringue bites (store bought, because I am the world’s WORST baker), olives, scones, cookies, along with various tea-party-tidbits such as honey, sugar, milk, lemon, etc.   For a photo backdrop, I hung teacups with ribbon from trees in the backyard.  The entire experience was fantastic, and the photos made for a wonderful keepsake. Not only did we get to enjoy wearing our dresses one last time, but we got to hang around in them without worrying about the hustle and bustle of wedding requirements! I would highly recommend getting your girlfriends together to share in an experience like this one!  |
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