Free Stuff? Yes please!

Who doesn't love getting something for free?

As promised, I wanted to fill you in on a few great birthday freebies! There are definitely more than three offers out there but I decided I would share my top 3 with you. All three of these offers are painless AKA you don't have to sign up for anything. So easy, it almost feels like stealing. 100% legal though I promise. :)

1. Mojo Frozen Yogurt!
Deal: Bring in your ID on your birthday and receive a free yogurt. Simple as that. I don't know if there are any limitations, but they seem super laid back. I got a full cup that was almost $8 worth of yogurt (didn't eat it alone, stop judging me) for free!


This is one of my favorite spots to hang out in general. I have spent many summer nights, okay winter too, hanging at Mojo with my family and friends. I love that their yogurt tastes so real, unlike many artificial tasting yogurts out there. Although, I have to say, lately I have not been enjoying the Tempe Market place location. It just tastes funky and kinda fake. However the one on Mill does not disappoint. This picture makes me happy. This is one of my new favorite flavors. Skinny Blueberry! Its actually made with agave nectar instead of sugar or artificial sweetener! Yum, so refreshing!
2. Joe's Farm Grill
Deal: Bring in your ID on your birthday for a free meal up to $10. If your meal is over $10 they will take $10 off whatever you order. Nice!!

If you haven't been here...GO!!! It is really tasty. Everything is made from scratch and a lot of the produce is even grown on the premises! Just look at this food. Are you drooling yet?

A few of my favorite things to order here are the fried zucchini, farm burger, garlic fries and the buffalo chicken sandwich.Even there sweet pickles are homemade! Really everything is awesome. I love to dip the zucchini in their homemade blue cheese dressing. It comes with marinara, but I always swap it out for the blue cheese dressing.

Also they have a free burger day once per year when they give out free burgers all day long. Google it for the date, I'm not sure when it is. Last year it was in November.

3. Krispy Kreme

Deal: Bring in your ID on your birthday for 1 dozen free donuts!

Who doesn't love a donut that adds 5lbs to your waistline by merely glancing in its general direction as it floats down the river of oil and then bathes itself in a sugary waterfall? I think that once a year on your birthday you can justify diving into a box of these warm, melt in your mouth donuts. Why not? They are on the house! Oh and if the donuts alone aren't indulgent enough, you can always make yourself a Krispy Kreme burger!

This is not part of any deal, but I couldn't resist ending on this note. I have never seen anything like this! Can you imagine the calorie content? As disgusting as it may be, I kinda think it would be good.

Stop drooling...goodnight!

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So you say its your birthday?

So you say its your birthday? Well happy birthday to you!" Who sings that anyway??

Today was my sweet little, yet not so little, boys birthday. He turned 11 today! I can hardly believe it Look at that face!
I love his little mole to the right of his nose, the way his eyes light up when he smiles, the loud belly laugh that you can hear from across the house when he's highly amused. I love the way he is tender, yet rough and tumble. I love that he has a sweet spirit that cares deeply for people and loves much.This kid has a sense of humor that will make ya snort. His impeccable sense of style comes naturally and is not to impress, yet it always does.

Happy Birthday Buddy, you Were the best birthday present ever!

Jake was born the day before my birthday, which means...you guessed it! Mine is tomorrow. Or today depending where you live! I love having our birthdays a day apart. We usually end up kind of celebrating together. Its fun!

Today for Jakes birthday,I woke him up singing Happy Birthday with a maple long john and a cup of coffee in hand. That's right this kid loves coffee! I wouldn't usually wake him up with sugar and a cup of jo, but today was special. I on the other hand can not live with out that morning cup of dark steamy aromatic goodness! Must have coffee, trust me it ain't pretty when I go without. Love that feeling of stumbling across the floor half asleep and pushing the button on my Keurig, and 30 seconds later gripping my warm cup of heaven...Oh wait this was about Birthday stuff. I got a little distracted by coffee talk!

So after school we went on a mission to cash in on some birthday freebies around town. It was fun, I haven't really done that before. Sure I've had the average free dessert with an embarrassing song sung buy non enthusiastic waiters. But today!!! I actually did a little research! We were able to score about $40 or more in free goodies!

Hate to leave you in suspense but my pillow is calling, and I cant have bags under my eyes tomorrow for my birthday, right? So I will post again tomorrow and fill you in on our birthday finds so you too can cash in on all the freebies around town for your birthday!

Adios for now....

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Ode to the Bundt!

Wow! Can't believe its been so long since I blogged last, didn't mean for that to happen! After my friend Peggy asked me today when I was going to get back to blogging I felt like my excuses for not blogging were lame and I needed to just make time to do it. Not like its a pain, I love to blog, its just making the time.

So life has taken a big turn and new things are on the horizon. I have gone from homeschooling my three kiddos and working miscellaneous jobs as a make-up artist to having three kids in school and working regularly! Big changes, but they are good!

More on all that jazz later. I wanted to make this short and snappy tonight because no longer can I wake at 8:30am or 9:00 and lounge in my PJ's, coffee in hand, taking my sweet time. Nope! This girl is up and at um every morning at 6:30am. So this once night owl is learning to re-set her inner clock!

Okay so.... I am working at Nothing Bunt Cakes! Clever play on words indicating that we sell nothing but bunt cakes. :) Let me just say this was the biggest God send/blessing ever. It is so my cup of tea and the store is cute as a button. Not to mention that the hours are perfect. Closed on Sundays and I work the hours my kids are at school. Praise the Lord!

This store has the cutest logo and some seriously tasty cake. You can tell Nothing Bunt Cakes is the product of two very clever and creative women's dreams come to life! OK I think I am gushing a bit. But seriously, I really do admire the amount of thought, detail, and creativity that has gone into this franchise. OK enough, short and sweet right? That's what I said. You can read more if you would like at http://www.nothingbundtcakes.com/.

I stumbled across some celebrities that think these cakes are pretty sweet too...

Adam Lampert

Alice Cooper

Team Jacob ( Don't even know this kids real name, sorry)

Are you craving a Chocolate Chocolate Chip bundt cake yet drizzled with butter cream cheese frosting?? Or maybe a White Chocolate Raspberry??? Yum!
If you know me, you know I am OB-SESSED with cupcakes! So these little cuties,Buntinis, are Nothing Bundt Cakes version of the beloved cupcake. They come in a box of 1 dozen and the are assorted with the top four flavors. You can also call ahead to make your own assortment. Apparently during a TV interview the news anchor slipped and said, " So they are bundt holes?" Oh my, not good. I guess he covered his slip up well by comparing to donut holes or something. Haha, I find that quite amusing.

Okay, well there you have it, more than you ever wanted to know about my new job most likely. As you can tell I am quite smitten with it and its nice to like going to work each day!

Hope you have nothing bundt sweet dreams. DORKY, I KNOW!

Good Night...I will be back soon I promise.

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I'M BACK!!

I'm Back!!!! After 6 wonderful weeks in California I was greeted by a wall of scorching dry heat and a bunch or friendly faces. We missed all you Arizonans but not the heat so much. It has taken me a little over a week to shift gears out of Vacation mode and back into real life.

If you are wondering where I have been and what I've been up to. I will try to bring you up to speed. It was my intention to blog while in California but for whatever reason I wasn't feeling it. Maybe because I was in a different environment. Who knows? But I'm back and I'm feelin the love.

Our adventure began June 6th. My whole family headed to to Pine Valley California for a wild and crazy week of youth camp. This was my third time going as a leader. I am always blessed by the experience. All those tribal wars keep me young, or remind me that I'm not! I met a lot of new students and had a great time. Go team Banshee! ( Me on far left at the pool tribal wars)


The ozone layer is different there or something. A lot of kids ended up severely sunburned. Including my oldest. Here is a picture of us at camp-- beach day!

You cant really tell that she is burnt in this picture but she was and it continued to get worse as the day went on. I can see in her eyes and in the bridge of her nose the swelling had already begun. She would never let me post the pictures of her face full blown swollen so let me just paint a picture for you. Her forehead looked like leather, she had so much fluid in her face it was almost squishy. Her eyes and the bridge of her nose were so swollen she looked like a lion! As the swelling worsened her eyes were different sizes and her face was lopsided. I was freakin out! We determined it was sun poisoning and prayed like crazy for a quick recovery. It lasted 2 days. She was terrified she was going to stay like that forever.

After camp hubby had to head home to get back to work. The kids and I along with our awesome friend Elisa packed up and hit the road. Destination: Redding California!

This is Elisa, leader of tribe Ninja. Even though tribe Banshee took first place this year she is still #1 in my heart. ( Sorry we kicked your booty ninjas)

We stoped in Del Mar for a little lunchy poo. Wow what a cute place!

We made the long, boring, not so pretty drive all the way up to Redding California. To entertain ourselves and dull our boredom of the long mundane drive we made up and recorded ourselves rapping. Who knows, maybe there will be a debut of my skilz, right here, on this blog. Or not. I think I will leave the rapping to Little Wayne and his friends.

Ahhhh yes our destination! The ever so lovely Redding California!

I haven't even mentioned why we were destine for Redding! My oldest daughter Cadence went to a worship arts school at Bethel church. It was an incredible experience. More on that later. For now I will leave you with a couple photos of Redding's beauty...more to come.

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Comfort Food Is so...Comforting

I haven't blogged in a few days. I came down with some crazy flu bug outta nowhere! I am feeling better and have my appetite back. I really hate feeling sick.

Side note: I'm having some weird problems with spacing on my blog. I am working on solving the problem but until I do, hang in there with me.

I was looking in my refrigerator tonight for inspiration and saw a bottle of New Castle beer. It has been sitting there lonely for sometime now because we don't really drink. Once in a great while I will have a drink for a special occasion but that's about it.

I had already started preparing a whole Chicken with olive oil, kosher salt, fresh garlic, and red pepper. I looked at the beer and thought why not? I poured 1/2 the beer over the chicken. Then I had this idea to use the rest of the beer to make a BBQ sauce. Mmmhmm good!

Normally when I make BBQ sauce I just add this and that until it tastes good. Tonight I thought I would measure what I put into the sauce. So I actually have a recipe to share. It was good!

Honey Brown BBQ Sauce

1 cup ketchup

2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce 3/4 cup Honey Brown Beer
1 tablespoon yellow mustard
2 tablespoons molasses
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes

Combine all ingredient and simmer 20 minutes on stove top stirring occasionally. Let it cool and set up for about 5 minutes before serving.

I had a few veggies from the farmers market I need to use up so for side dishes I made Sauteed Green Beans with Fennel and Bruleed Mashed Sweet Potatoes. The chicken was so moist it was falling off the bone. Juicy and full of flavor.
I think this is my favorite sweet potato recipe but that's hard because I really love sweet potatoes a lot.

Bruleed Mashed Sweet Potatoes~ The Best Of Cooking Light

6 cups of hot mashed sweet potatoes

3/4 cup whole milk

3 tablespoons of butter softened

1/2 teaspoon of salt

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg

cooking spray

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

Directions:

1.preheat broiler

2. Combine first 6 ingredients into a bowl Spoon the potato mixture into a 11x7 inch baking dish coated with cooking spray.Sprinkle 1/2 cup brown sugar evenly over the top. Broil mixture 2 minutes or until sugar melts. Let stand until sugar hardens about 2 minutes. ( I used less sugar)

That's all for now. I will leave you with a few pictures of some cupcakes I made for my daughter and her friends the other day. Edible glitter and all. :)

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How could it be so bad if it tastes so good?

Have you ever felt really proud of yourself for choosing a healthy entree at a restaurant just to have your dreams dashed by its nutritional values? What a disappointment to find that your soup or salad contains more fat than the bacon cheeseburger you were drooling over.

Prime example I LOVE Nordstrom Tomato Basil soup. I love it so much that I threw a fit over it on cold snowy day in Michigan, because Nordstrom Cafe had the nerve to run out of my favorite soup! I admit it was a low point that my husband will never let me live down. Moving on.... To my surprise I found out this soup has a lot of heavy cream in it.

Friday I saw a butternut squash sitting on my counter and thought a bowl of soup sounded tasty. I knew in my efforts to be healthier I shouldn't go for my typical recipe which like the Nordstrom Tomato basil contains whipping cream. So I played in the kitchen and came up with a healthier option.

I made a simple green leaf salad with heirloom tomatoes and carrots from the market. The veggies were so good I felt like I didn't need dressing! I really like these little tomatoes they are bursting with flavor! It was a light yet filling lunch. My girls liked it a lot.My son on the other hand was not a fan.

I like how the coconut milk design turned out. It inspired me to learn how to do latte art! I will post the recipe tomorrow, I'm off to bed.

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New Years Resolutions In May...

Its never too late for resolutions right? I'm trying to avoid some things that aren't the best for me, like sugar, dairy, white flour ect. I have this love/hate relationship with sugar. It makes everything taste so good, but I know too much is bad for my health. So I decided I would try to eliminate some of the white evils from my diet for awhile in an effort to be healthier.

Tonight I was sitting out on the back porch eating my dinner and saw that there were apples on my tree. They started talking to me and telling me they wanted to be made into a pie or an apple crisp. I told them no, that's not your destiny, I cant eat sugar! Still they just wouldn't give up, going on and on about how they wanted to swim in ooey gooey fountains of brown sugar and butter and lay beneath a crispy sugary topping. NO! I refuse to be sabotaged by a little apple.

So we both won, I decided to whip up a sugar free apple crisp containing no white flour or artificial sweeteners. How can this be done you ask? Dun dun dada...maple syrup and whole wheat flour. I was going to go for a straight apple crisp but then realized I only had a few small apples.

I remembered I had some blackberries in the fridge that I picked up on sale at Sprouts! I have never mixed the two together but I thought it might work and so began the experiment.

The apples and blackberries became a happy couple. I combined them with pure maple syrup and a little flour. I decided to bake them in these cute apple green mini loaf pans I picked them up on clearance last fall at Michaels. The color of the apples inspired me to pull them out of the cupboard.

I mixed some Quaker quick oats with whole wheat flour, maple syrup and olive oil!!! Yes I even omitted the butter. These are crazy days, let me tell you! Most shocking of all, it was really good. I don't know if its just because I'm sugar deprived but I don't think so. The kids devoured, so I'd say it was a success.

This picture doesn't do it justice, the lighting is really weird in my kitchen and it was too dark to take a picture outside. You get the idea. Moral of the story, you can bake without white sugar and butter, who new?

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