Day 4: Hot Chocolate Bar

 

Our advent activity on Tuesday was a hot chocolate bar!  Yummy nummy nummy!  

It doesn't take a lot to get my kids excited, so our mix-ins were pretty simple.  Besides, I knew they would want to have EVERY SINGLE ONE in their chocolate and I didn't want the flavor combinations to turn nasty!

Extra points for you if you can tell me where the quote on my mug comes from!  Here's a view of the back so you can see the whole quote:

Aw.  My sweet Mr. Darcy husband had this made for me after I showed him a similar one on Pinterest.  Ladies, if you share my love of Pride and Prejudice, might I suggest some subtle (or not-so-subtle) hints?   Print it out and put it on your wall...e-mail the picture to your honey...create one yourself and tell him that you've got his Christmas present to you covered... (does anyone else ever buy their own presents?)

Wait.  We were talking about chocolate, right?  It's hard to stay focused on two of my favorite topics at the same time!  What else would you stir into hot chocolate?  Do you have a favorite schmancy kind?  I'm in the market for a "Mommy only" variety!

Great Minds Think Alike!

I was in the process of writing this post when Adriane's latest post popped up, with wonderfully detailed instructions on how to make an adorable Christmas Advent Calendar... AH! She beat me to it! I honestly debated whether or not to post this because let's be honest- Adriane's advent calendar is awesome... and mine is sort of the slacker version of hers. But then I decided that I'm going to embrace my inner slacker, and that perhaps there are other slackers like me out there who want to make something cute and festive to help their family count down the days until Christmas but lack patience and creativity to do much. So here we go!

This year it was time to retire our old advent calendar- a darling mini-stocking garland that hung in our bay window- simply because it no longer matched anything in our home. I was on the look-out for something that was bright and cheery, and wouldn't take up a lot of space. After a bit of research I landed on this:

Christmas Advent

I hope that everyone had a fantastic Thanksgiving!  Now it's time to get busy getting ready for the next holiday!  If you are like me, trying to get traditions started and set the tone for Christmases to come, that preparation can be a little intimidating.  (And if you aren't--please comment: What has been your favorite Christmas tradition?!?)

I am excited about this tradition which we will be starting this year--our Christmas Advent Calendar!  This will be the third year I've been tweaking this project (sorry to those of my friends who have seen this already).  I would love to share some tips and warnings so that if you decide to try this out it might go more smoothly.

Oh Christmas Tree Oh Christmas Tree!

We're jumping from incredible Halloween costumes to Christmas decorations here at One Lucky Pickle today! Christmas is my absolute favorite time of the year. In fact, I'm pretty much giddy from the week before Thanksgiving clear until New Year's Day. What can I say? I LIVE for this time of year! 

As I was putting away the Halloween decorations last week I started going through the scary towers of boxes in our attic and I soon realized that I was in a serious pickle! None of my Christmas stuff matches our newly remodeled home! In fact it all CLASHES... like bad. Like wearing socks with sandals bad. I presented this pickle to my husband who quickly insisted that it wasn't much of a pickle. After a long conversation about whether or not my pregnancy insanity has completely taken over we finally came up with a compromise- I could sell some of our old decorations, and whatever money I end up  making is how much I have to spend on giving our Christmas decorations a little make-over. 

DEAL! 

I love to set up my Christmas decorations the day after Thanksgiving, so the clock is ticking! I was able to sell a few of our older Christmas items and now I get to spend my evenings crafting. Some of my old things were easily updated with a new coat of paint and new vinyl letters, others needed some modge podge and hefty dose of my husband's worst nightmare- GLITTER! (Living in a house full of girly girls has got to be rough... poor guy. I promise to buy him something manly for being such a good sport.) My favorite new addition has got to be these darling little Christmas trees.

I was trying my best to be thrifty and crafty, so instead of buying styrofoam cones to cover I decided to make my own out of recycled cereal boxes. No joke! I  keep looking at the finished product thinking, wow... you used to be filled with cheerios. Amazing. And it's so easy! 

1- Unfold your box and roll it into a cone. 

2- Staple or tape it in to place and cut it to be the height you want.

3- Bust out some trimmings and your hot glue gun and start decorating!

That's it! I did end up covering mine with felt before I added any decorations just because I didn't want to risk any cardboard showing through, but that's probably an optional step. 

I have big plans for making a whole little Christmas tree forest for our mantle, and some of them are turning out way cuter than these ones did... but I know that if I wait to do this post until they are all done it won't happen. So let me introduce you to the trees I have finished.

The "Muppet" Tree

Seriously, doesn't this remind you of everyone's favorite little red monster from Sesame Street? It's just some fuzzy yarn I picked up on sale at Hobby Lobby for about $2. I only used about half of it. 

The Tinsel Tree

I just used some tinsel I had in my attic for this one. My girls love this one because it "Parkles". (Sparkles)

And The Ruffle Tree

For this one I just used a little ruffle trim I found at Walmart for $2.50. I should have made this one a smaller tree because I actually ended up running out of ribbon and having to go get more. bummer. Oh well- we love ruffles at our house, even more than we we love glitter! 

The possibilities are truly endless here! I honestly laid in bed last night dreaming of cute trimmings I could use to make more trees. I'm thinking feathers, buttons, felt, little silk flowers, and of course... glitter. :)  I love that this project is totally adaptable. You can make your trees to match your style and your decor. I think a whole forest of trees in shades of ivory, white, and gold would be gorgeous. 

Give it a try and let me know what you think! In fact I'd love to see pictures of what you come up with because I'm sure they'll be cuter than what I did! Post them on our Facebook page so we can all admire your work!

Angry Fowl-O-Ween!

It was in a moment of genius that I decided, "We will be Angry Birds for Halloween this year."  They boys LOVE LOVE LOVE Angry Birds, and there are enough that they could choose their favorites and we could all be something different.  Don't forget the catchy theme song that we could play with us as we walked around!

It was in a moment of insanity that I decided, "I can totally make all of the costumes."

"Without any patterns..."

"IT WILL BE FUN!"

The Fruit Fly Trap Experiment

Pinterest is a fabulous thing. So much inspiration. 

But there's a heckuvalot of hooh hah, too. Lots of tips for how to do things faster, easier, cleaner... some are fabulously brilliant, and others just plain don't work. 

Which brings me to my experiment.

The fruit fly trap experiment. 

Yesterday I made the mistake of leaving half of a very ripe banana out on our counter. It's other half met his untimely end (or rather--quite timely. He was rather brown after all...) in my lunchtime oatmeal smoothie. Lunchtime is not the most relaxing time in our house, and one thing led to another, and... well... that other half was completely forgotten. 

Needless to say, we had a rather large colony of fruit flies in no time, and my husband was a wee bit irritated with me. 

"Don't worry!" I said. "I pinned a fruit fly trap with apple cider vinegar!"

"Do we have apple cider vinegar?"

"Um... no. But I'll get some! PROMISE!"

And I did. 

I was worried the trap wouldn't work because I had heard good and bad things about this method. Maybe those who didn't have any luck with it did it differently. Or maybe they have some super genetically advanced species of fruit fly lurking in their homes. Who knows. 

My point is--this worked for me and I'm going to give some specifics on how I did it, because the "recipe" I found didn't include some steps that made a difference for me. 

  

Place some apple cider vinegar in a small bowl or cup.

Pour in some of dish soap. 

I didn't measure mine. I just drizzled it in. The soap is what actually traps them.

If you find that the fruit flies aren't heading towards your trap, you may have added too much. It's the smell of the apple cider vinegar that attracts them--if you add too much it smells too much like soap.

STIR.

This wasn't specified in my "recipe". The soap will just sink to the bottom if you don't mix it together, and your trap's trapping skills will plummet to a big fat ZERO. Your fly cocktail should look murky like this:

Place your trap right next to whatever fresh fruit you have out on the counter.

TRAP FRUIT FLIES. 

We had a LOT of flies, thanks to my boo boo with the banana. So I was able to watch them get drawn to the trap almost immediately. Okay--once I figured out I needed to stir the dang thing. Laugh all you want--it wasn't explicitly stated in my "recipe," and I always follow recipes exactly the first time.

Within 10-15 minutes we had caught at least 10! It was fun (and a little bit addicting) to go back and count all the flies sitting in the bottom of the bowl!

Healthier No-Bake Macaroni and Cheese

I have a confession that I am hesitant to reveal.

I don't like mac n' cheese.

That's not 100% accurate--I love mac n' cheese, but only the real from scratch kind.  So I didn't used to eat it a lot.  I didn't like having to use my oven to bake it--it takes forever, and it heats up my house in the summer.

My kids and husband, however, seem to have a penchant for cardboard noodles and plastic cheese (a.k.a. Kraft).  Whenever I would try to make homemade macaroni and cheese, I would get a lot of negative feedback.  "These noodles taste too delicious."  "This cheese doesn't make me feel sick to my stomach." "My dinner doesn't glow neon orange the way I like it too."

When I found this recipe, it was no exception.  But I liked it because it cooks in a skillet.  It's almost as fast as pulling out the blue box!  And it's YUMMY!  So I ignored my kids' whining and kept making it.  But one day, I thought of a way to add some extra orange color in addition to some extra deliciousness: I added some canned yams.  It was good, but a little too sweet.  I tried pumpkin.  Also yummy.  My favorite secret ingredient turned out to be carrots!  They are bright orange, and the flavor blends pretty well.  Baby carrots are so easy to throw into the steamer and have cooked in no time.  Full sized carrots have more nutrition, brighter color, and a stronger flavor (and are cheaper...), so experiment. With a little extra enthusiasm from their parents, my kids were more than willing to pronounce the meal "SUPER DELICIOUS!"

Skillet Macaroni and Cheese

1 3/4 c. uncooked macaroni noodles
1/2 tsp. onion powder
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/4 tsp. Italian Seasoning
1/8 tsp. dry mustard powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. pepper
2 1/4 c. water
1 T. flour
1 can (12 oz.) evaporated milk
2 c. cheese
Up to 1 cup of orange vegetables, cooked and pureed

In a large skillet, combine noodles, spices, and water.  Cover and bring to a simmer.  Simmer for 20 minutes (Gluten free noodles take about 10, and I don't know about regular wheat ones) until macaroni is tender.  Sprinkle flour over mixture (I use rice flour to keep it GF); blend well.  Stir in evaporated milk and cheese. Simmer until mixture thickens and cheese melts; stir constantly. Mix in cooked & mashed veggies.  Serves 6.


It's a little heavy on sauce, and we like it that way.  But you can try some extra noodles and water and experiment with the noodles to sauce ratio. Either way, it's mmmmmm yummy!