Dallas Arboretum

Mr. Lovely, my momma, and I went to the Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Garden today. It was absolutely beautiful. This was our first time ever visiting since living in Dallas and I am so sad that we have never been before. Luckily we had Groupon tickets because the price was a little steep...$15 per person. Our tickets were $6. The theme was Alice in Wonderland so there were a lot of themed flowered houses. Here are some pics....ENJOY.....

Hydrangeas, my mothers favorite flower

The tea party

The Arboretum is off of White Rock Lake....Where I def. need to run one weekend...it's beautiful!

Me and my beautiful mom

I love this picture. I taught my students about bees and I would have loved for them to see this up close. We need more bees so please don't kill them.

We had a really great time but of course it started getting really hot. I suggest if you go to definitely take a picnic blanket and some food. I saw one couple with cheese and red wine in their picnic basket.....I totally wanted to ask them if I could join but that would have been odd ;-)

There are summer concerts at the Arboretum and they serve food and beverages. You can also bring in your own food and beverage and chillax while listening to some good music. This is definitely THE place to go on a date night with the hubby or with some friends to listen to music and enjoy scenery.

Side note: Looking at these pics of myself.....I need to learn a different pose. It's becoming redundant!

Stuffed Peppers

I had about 4 days left at work and I really needed to make some food for the week. I decided to make stuffed peppers an Sunday. They were really good but next time I think I will make them more of a rellenos style and char off the skin. It was a little annoying and as I got to the last one I ended up only eating the filling. :-(

Here is how I made them:

Four fresh orange bell peppers. Washed and ready to cook

Saute 1/2 red onion and 1/2 yellow onion with two sprigs of fresh rosemary and oregano. I sauteed with 2 tbsp. of olive oil and 1 tbsp. of butter. 'Cause butter makes everything better.

Doesn't this look amazing as a starter....This makes me happy

I added field greens and 3 shaved carrots.

Added kalamata olives to give it a little salty flavor. These were diced and added to the mixture.

The peppers were cut on top, cleaned out and washed again. I am such a germ freak.

I browned some organic ground chicken.

This is my new friend when I am really needing some carbs (which is usually when I run over 5 miles) . You just heat it up and then add it to the mixture.

I added everything together and stirred to combine.

Then I placed the filling inside of the peppers.

This is a little weird but I was always taught to add tomatoes and water to the pan of peppers. I added about 1/2 cup salsa and 1/2 cup of water and mixed it in a bowl.

Once you get the peppers all stuffed add some cheese to the top. I added feta cheese.

Here is the finished product.

I don't have a lot of natural light in my kitchen in the later evening when I made this so a few of the pics came out a little less beautiful, but you get the point. Trust me these things are amazing but please take off the skin before stuffing. You can put them under the broiler for 2-3 minutes and rotate them 2-3 times. Once they are charred you wrap them in foil and let them steam themselves. The skin will peal off and be ready to stuff.

Almost the End (Hallelujah)

Next week is the last week of school. When I tell you that I am DONE! I really mean it. I love, love, love teaching 1st grade but this year has been a real doosy. I have had 15-16 students all year and lost and gained over 11 students. Our school is really transient so many of the students come and go throughout the year. Imagine having to get stuff ready and prep for new students all year long.

I will stay in 1st grade next year and continue to lead my team but I really hope that things will go smoother. I want to make sure that I prep for the new year school year now that I know what to expect. First on my list is to have new student packets prepped and ready to hand out. I also want to make sure I buy a few more supplies so I will definitely be hitting up the local stores during back to school sales. Pinterest and The First Grade Parade have really gotten me through the school year.


Now that summer is starting I can start experimenting with different recipes and do a deep clean in my house. This school year was so busy that I didn't get a chance to do much. Of course pinterest will be assisting me with recommendations of both. Gotta love it!

Cleaning Out My Closet

I recently cleaned out my closet with the help of my sister-in-law. She loves fashion as much as me so we spent around 2-3 hours trying on clothes and deciding what to toss or keep. I ended up with 2 bags full of crap clothes to be tossed.

 

I had no idea I accumulated so much stuff.  Now that I got rid of a bunch of things I have been shopping like crazy. Since it is Memorial Day weekend I have been taking full advantage of sales. First on my list was a bic band and a sports bra. 

I have been hearing a lot of great things about Bic Bands. They are supposed to really stay in place and that is just what I need for all of the hair I have. I bought the skinny sparkle silver. They are currently offering a 10% discount on purchases over $24.

The sports bra I got was from Moving Comfort. I hear that these sports bras are amazing for us girls with a little extra. I'm a 36D so I need all of the help I can get when working out. I got the same size in the sports bra that I wear in a regular bra. This particular bra is currently on sale. It is called the Fiona. I hope it all works out. 

JCrew Factory and Banana Republic Factory were having 50% off of their entire store. I bought a really cute dress from BR and some colored toothpick pants from JCrew. 

JCrew

• These companies are not paying me for this. I am just letting everyone know what I like.

New Food Finds

 

This was an instagram pic that I did the other day. The Yoplait is mine and the Haagen Daz is for the hubby.

I really like this new Yoplait Greek Frozen Yogurt. It has little swirls of honey in it that are a special little treat.

These Popchips are amazing! I really love kettle corn popcorn and these Popchips really hit the spot. I especially like the packaging!! Great job Katy Perry and Popchips!!

I am trying a new BBQ sauce this weekend for Memorial Day. It is a local vendor that offered it to my husband and I to try. Look for the post!

Plateaus

I feel like I have hit a plateau in my weight loss journey. I have tried to incorporate more carbs in my diet and switch things up but that is not working. I stopped drinking coffee and tea but that's not working either.

Now I have to admit with all of the weddings, birthday parties, get togethers, and such lately I've been lazy and eating whatever I want. I like to go by how my clothes fit rather than the actual number on the scale. Don't get me wrong the scale gets put to use but it depresses me so I try not to weigh myself that much.

I've been doing 30 Day Shred by Jillian Michaels but unfortunately my DVD has a huge imperfection in it so I can only do the first workout. I've been reading a lot of blogs lately that suggest Taebo by Billy Blanks for loosing that extra puff around the arms and tummy. I'm thinking about incorporating that plus the 30 Day Shred....once I get it fixed or traded out.
I've also gone back to straight Paleo in the hope that all of this combined will help me lose a few extra pounds and tone up.

This may seem vain to some but this is how I feel about my body and lifestyle. I want to be healthy and not have jiggle.....nobodies trying to get a Beyonce bod here! Although that would be great....

Making A Birthday Cake Tiff Style

I decided to make a cake!!

I have no idea where my sister-in-law found this cake...I think she found it on pinterest???

My sister-in-law Brenda wanted a cake for my niece Kylie's "2" birthday party. Kylie loves Dora and since I love cooking I decided to make one for her. My first impression was to just pay someone to make it so I decided to ask a good friend at my work that makes cakes part time. She knows that I have been wanting to learn to make cakes like this so she invited me to come to her house on our off day, which happened to be the day before the birthday, and make the cake for the party.  I had no prep time and did not practice. This was the first time I ever made a cake to this extreme. It took us 6 hours total....and the cakes were already baked and ready to get icing. Yes it took us 6 hours to icing and decorate a cake. It was soooo worth it!

First you have to trim the sides of the rough edges and cut off the top to make it flat.

Next you prep your icing. We used gels to color the buttercream icing. You can buy buttercream by the gallons from Sam's Club.

Next  you pipe the colored icing onto the sides of the cake.

Icing the top as well

Then center it out with a scraper.

Use a roller to smooth the edges and sides while getting all the bubbles out. It gives it a much more smooth and polished look. Once this is done you have to let the cake and icing set for a few minutes. I started coloring the second icing, green. I also started prepping my fondant for the cut outs on the cake. My battery started going dead on my camera and I forgot my charger so the pics get a little scarce after this.

Place the layers and icing them the same way with the blush pink.

Here is yours truly trying to icing the top layers.

Once the cake is all rolled, icinged??,  and ready you have to let it set. This is when we got busy with the fondant.

Each of these fondants had to be mixed to get the exact pastel colors. I bought premade fondant from Michael's in neon colors and then added white fondant and color gels to get the colors we needed. I bought the Dora figurine from Target bakery. They sell them for $7. 

Here is the final product before I left to put it in my trunk. I was a nervous wreck. I kept thinking that it would fall apart or fall over but it traveled well. It did shift a little on the top but I was able to smooth it out.

Here is the final product. I added some stars in the background using fondant, icing, and some wires.