Better than KFC potato bowl recipe

This morning I woke up with a migraine. I forgot to lay out meat for dinner tonight so I had to throw something together before my husband got home from work.

I was pleasantly surprised when these bowls turned out better than the bowls we buy from KFC.
Not to mention it was super easy and only took maybe 20 minutes from start to finish.

You’ll need:

A bag of corn
A bag of popcorn chicken
Potatoes (you can use instant, I made my own)
Gravy
Cheddar cheese

That’s it!!
Make everything according to the directions on the package.
Layer!

Potatoes
Corn
Chicken
Gravy
Cheese

Voila! You’re done!

You can thank me later! 🖤🦸‍♀️

Our Favorite Books

The weekend is almost here! We have had a pretty laid back week, thankfully.
We’ve gotten tons of rain and low temperatures so we’ve been digging into our books!
As much as we love going to the library, Ella has a little library of her own. Today I’m going to show you guys her favorites!

 Every night before she goes to bed her daddy ready to her. It’s their time together since he’s gone all day through out the week. These are the books they read most.  They are all so different! 

Let’s start with “Hop to it!” I got this book at Walmart last year around Easter. It includes Peter Rabbit, Clifford, Peter Cottontail just to name a few. It is a great book to read around Easter (or anytime according to Ella.) 🌸🐣

“Goodnight little moon” by Margaret Wise Brown (author of goodnight moon) 

Is a shorter book compared to the rest. That features many different animals, and It is a rhyming book! Which is my personal favorite. 🌙

Who remembers the librarian from the black lagoon? If you were born in the 90s im sure you do. I loved this book as a kid, and love reading it to Ella. It is a quirky story about tall tales and not judging someone by what another person says. 🙂

“If you take a mouse to the movies”. Y’all this book cracks me up. It reminds me of my four year old in so many ways. We read it probably three times in a row when she chooses it. 

It is a Christmas book, but it’s one that we read year round. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Fancy Nancy by Jane O’Conner 

I picked this book up at a yard sale for a quarter when Ella was a baby. We didn’t read it up until maybe two months ago. Since then, we have been obsessed with this author. Fancy Nancy is a little girl who uses big words! Once she uses a big word she explains in detail what that word means. So, it’s broadening your child’s vocabulary. She has a spunky little sister that she talks about often as well. 👛👒

“All Gods Critters.” By Bill Staines

This book is a type of singing book.  It rhymes, and it’s about “all Gods critters in a choir.” And how we all have a part to play/sing! 🎤 

What are your favorite books to read? Let us know below! 

My Minimal Closet

Welcome back!!!!
Today I’m going to break down my minimalist closet!

I wish I knew how many pieces of clothing I had before I started decluttering. I had a full closet, two dressers and a hangy thing full of clothes! Here’s a picture of a AFTER decluttering from about two years ago.

Say it with me. YIKES. I didn’t wear 90% of this stuff. 

Half of it didn’t fit. Some of it wasn’t in good shape. Then there’s some stuff I just didn’t want to get rid of yet. It took me forever to get dressed because I didn’t know what fit, and if it did I had no idea what I could wear with it... and if I did I didn’t know where it was! 

Now that I am completely finished with my closet I want to show you how I got my closet to where it is now. 

Step one: make two piles 

One donate, one throw away 

Step two: start pulling items out, if it doesn’t fit put it in the donate pile

If it has stains put it in the trash pile.

(If either of these things apply to a item it has to go)

Step three: do you love it? No? Then donate it. 

You aren’t going to wear it. 

Step four : decide how many of certain pieces that you need 

( I have less than 40)

Ex: I own 4 skirts. One black, two denim, one printed 

Tops: I have 3. Yes. 3. They are solid colors so I can wear them with any of my skirts. 

I have A few solid dresses that I switch kimonos out with. ( i have about 10 of those but I justify it because they are what makes my outfits in the summer!)

I prefer quality over quantity. These pieces are more expensive but since I paid more for them I know I’m going to wear them.  This is why you’ve seen me get a few new packages the last few weeks.

It took time to build this. 

so now when I get dressed  it’s easy for me to decide what I want to wear. 

 This is my entire wardrobe. I have several boutique brands, Anthropologie, spell and free people. They give me all my “boho vibes”.

I try to find items I can throw a sweater over and wear in the fall/winter or wear by itself in the   warmer months! 

My closet got the way that it was because of my shopping habits. I wasn’t spending  a ton of money on every item. I was shopping at thrift stores and yard sales. If I liked it just a little bit I would grab it and throw it in my closet. You 👏🏻 Dont👏🏻Need👏🏻That👏🏻Stuff👏🏻 Save your money. Buy something you love. If you do enjoy bargain shopping make sure you love it. Are you willing to get rid of one of your pieces for it? Try the one in-one out technique. If you don’t love it enough to get rid of something at home, don’t get it. This helped me a lot!

Happy Wednesday Friends! 🦋🌈

Organizing and Decluttering your Home

Happy Thursday!

On today’s blog we’ll be digging into organization and how decluttering is so important to keeping your home organized.

Acouple years ago I was a working mom. I was gone literally all day, and when I got home I still had housework to do, food to cook and a family to spend time with. I couldn’t juggle it all. I was exhausted constantly. So I done what every other woman does. I went to Pinterest. I read about organizing, meal planning, cleaning routines and decluttering.  Now I’m going to share with you what worked best for me!

•start with one room and work your way through your entire house

•fill at least a bag per room. (I had countless throw away bags and at least one donate bag)

•you will not declutter your entire house the first time. You will do this over and over again until YOU are happy!

•find a system that works for you and your family.
Ex: I do all my major cleaning on Mondays and my laundry on Tuesday. Because we are a family of three and I have minimalized our wardrobes I only have 2 loads a week. (It is a dream that I can wash, fold and put away the same day)

• have a reset day. (Because let’s be real, it won’t stay organized)

•buy bins/products to help you stay organized.
AMAZON,Ross and TJ Maxx Are the best

•the key to organization is to have what you need.That part is different for every family.
As a family of three we have 5 plates. 4 bowls and 6 glass cups. That won’t work for a family that is bigger than ours. We have 6 towels accessible in our bathroom. (We do have 4 extras in our linen basket for visitors)

•get rid of your junk drawers. Dollar tree has little baskets to organize those little random things.

•give everything a place. Make sure it gets back there after it’s being used.

This is my bathroom cabinet. It is the  only cabinet in the room. I  don’t have a linen closet, so I had to down size majorly.I only have what we actually use. So all the unused face masks, old shampoos,Half used gels and lotions were thrown away. The bins make    

 keeping everything organized so much easier.        

                  

This is a before and after of our games.   My four year old loves games, so that’s something I don’t keep minimal. Instead I minimalized the packaging. I took all the games that would fit in a ziplock and put in a small purple bin. Even the boards fit in the bin. As you can see it looks much better, and it’s just as easy to get her games.           

                 

All of our daily dishes are on our counter. We don’t have a mass supply of dishes to keep us from using them all and creating a huge mess that I won’t want to clean. 

We keep all of our hand towels (takes place of paper products) under our sink in a basket. 

We put all of our cleaning supplies under our sink as well. I try to keep our cleaners minimal (multi purpose cleaners) and there again, bins. 

In our bedroom we have this weird shelf. They obviously made it because we have two small closets in our entire house. I picked these baskets up at goodwill years ago. 

I put our linen (a extra set for both beds) and our guest towels in them. 

These bins go in our daughters drawer. They hold panties, socks and bows. My four year old puts  her stuff up on laundry day and knows exactly where her stuff is at bath time. 

Since we moved out of our 2300 square foot house into a 1400 square foot house with no storage I’ve really had to work to get everything organized. But it is doable in any case.
 Since I have ZERO signal or WiFi I am going to show you one more picture of how we store my daughters toys. It has been a lifesaver!

 This is the Trofast from ikea

These are all of her toys aside from a hamper with her “babies”in it. It takes no time for clean up!

What it comes down  to is we need spaces that have everything we need and love and nothing in between. It will take work to get your space the way you want it but eventually your home will be a  place that you look forward to coming home to. A place that when someone calls and says they’ll be over in twenty you won’t be running around trying to clean a destroyed house. Ultimately you’ll have more time to spend with those babies and your husband. 

I hope this post helped and encouraged you in some way,

Taylor 

Homemade Lunchables

I came across these little dippers the other week at the grocery store. When I seen them I knew exactly what I was going to do with them! When I was a kid I LOVED lunchables. Ella has fallen into my footsteps. But I refuse to spend 2.00 on a lunchables that barely has anything in it.
The Naan dippers come in a pack of 20. Ella eats 4 at a time. So this takes the place of 5 lunches!
4 (healthier) ingredients at a fraction of the price of buying 5 lunchables!

This quick recipe takes 2 minutes from start to finish!

Lay your dippers out.
Add sauce
Add cheese add pepperonis

Preheat oven to 400 degrees
Cook for one minute

Ella really enjoyed helping me put these together!
Let me know if you make these and how your kiddos liked them!

Meal Planning and Budget Tips

You asked for it, so here it is! This is how my family budgets and plans our meals. At first there is a lot of trial and error (and habit breaking). I never ate leftovers. When I didn’t feel like cooking takeout was our go-to! Busy day out? We’d hit the drive-thru. But when we started paying off debt and putting money into savings we realized how much money we had been wasting. Go look at your bank statement. You’ll see how much money you waste. I hope these tips and tricks give you a better idea on how to cut back on food costs!

1. Cut out sodas!
This is a hard one for me. I’m a soda drinker. But we were spending $25 a week on canned drinks.
We do buy a pack of soda a week, but I don’t drink them 24/7. Instead, we keep water and tea available! This has helped me start losing weight (and that bloat) too, so it’s a win win!

2. Cut out processed snacks!
I know, I know. We all love our chips. And cookies, and ice cream. But the amount of money you’re spending is ridiculous. Now, a bag of chips is one thing. But you need to learn how to not fill your buggy up with junk. With a four year old is wasn’t easy. But we found things for her to eat that didn’t cost us a arm and a leg. And let’s be real, kids (just like adults) don’t need snacks all day.
Instead, make sure you and your kiddos are eating more filling foods.

3. Meal Plan. And stick to it.
I highly recommend doing it a week at a time. I used to make a two week plan, and it was very difficult to stick to. We may not want spaghetti two weeks from now.
Write down breakfast foods that you have, lunch, and dinner. That way you have a picture of what is in there and you can make sure you are using what it is your kitchen and not just throwing things together (and using ingredients for meals you planned for)

4. Mix cheap meals with more expensive meals
Have you ever heard of meatless Monday? This is how you can save on meat costs.
Here’s a few meal ideas that don’t include meat:

Broccoli soup 🍲
Beans (any kind) corn bread, boiled cabbage 😛
Ravioli/ tortellini
Salad, bread, Ziti and pasta sauce
Potato soup 🥣

Most soups are low cost as well. We try to have two a week.

5. Portion control/Leftovers
I have found that with meal planning and budgeting it has helped our household with overeating.
I used to make waaaaaaay too much food. With some trial and error I know (pretty much) how much our family eats at a time. You can’t do this everytime. That’s when you can either freeze, or use as leftovers. We like to eat the next day for lunch usually. Whatever you do, make sure it’s eaten.

6. Find alternatives
Remember when I talked about snacks? One way we have saved on sweets is baking. Instead of buying cakes we will buy a box cake and icing ($2)Muffins? They’re usually a dollar a pack to make yourself. And if you ask me, they taste much better.

7, fruits and veggies
The cool thing about fruit and vegetables is you can add these to any meal.
They are a much healthier solution and to me, cost less. We buy spinach and lettuce weekly and eat several salads with our dinners. If you break the cost down it comes out to be pennies!

Weekly produce:
Oranges
Strawberry’s
Lettuce
Spinach
Cucumbers
(We will splurge on others if they look good too 😻)

12. Cut down on paper products. I’m not talking toilet paper. I mean paper towels. Flour sacks and hand towels have a special spot in my kitchen. I was spending $10 every two weeks before I started using washable rags. Now I just throw them in the wash 🧼  and never have to worry about running out.

13. Play with your budget. My budget may not work for your family just like yours may not work for mine.

14. Cheap items that can be used in (almost) every meal
Rice
Potatoes
Eggs
Bread
Pasta
Beans

I hope this helps you in some way! Talk to you soon.

Warm Weather Hairstyles

Spring is upon us! Soon enough this cold weather will be behind us. When it is, we’ll be headed out to enjoy all the nice weather! When it’s warm outside we keep our hair up. Especially my four year old. She has very long and thick hair! Since we love her hair so much we do everything we can to keep it healthy, and pretty. The other day I was watching some hair tutorials and I stumbled across this awesome conair tool! I ordered it around midnight, and received it the very next day before lunch! (Thanks amazon!)  I’ve been doing these hairstyles for as long as I can remember but this tool makes it so much easier and faster! I bought the two pack for $10 but I did find a link that has three for $10! Below I will be posting some super easy (and product free) quick styles that you can do!
If you like hairstyles similar to these I encourage you to give this tool a try!

             

Bedroom Tour

It is finally Friday!!
As promised, this is my first post on our new home! We are going to start with my daughters room.
We went with a “boho eclectic” look. We both love lots of colors, and textures. Especially since the rest of our house has a lot of gray I tried to make sure her bedroom was bright and quirky just like she is. The best part about her room is how easy it was to find things to go in it. From bright pinks and blues to browns and black! I tried to make sure everything wasn’t to “matchy matchy” as well.
I still feel like it looks alittle empty. So I will be adding to it as time goes on, and when I do I will let you guys know!

First off: furniture!

White wrought iron bed: wayfair $96.75
This bed does not need a box spring, so that’s a win in my book.

Toy box:  Pine Trofast from IKEA

Easel: IKEA

Book Shelf: kidskraft

Area Rug: Wayfair

Comforter: Target

Sheets: TJ Maxx

Printed Canvas’ and other hanging decor is from Ross

Personal canvas of Ella and I, EasyCanvas

Frames: Hobby Lobby

All of these items are in store and in stock 🖤

I hope you love her room as much as we do!

If you like this style check out Pinterest! So many great ideas

 💡

New year resolution check-in

And just like that January 2019 is over! This was by far one of the longest months of my life! 

Even though we have been extremely busy, my heart was set on putting these new year resolutions into action! 

I made a lot of resolutions.

If you didn’t see my post on them let me refresh you.

*less time on social media

*read one book a month 

*take time for myself 

*stick to my new blog

*let God use me 

*host dinners at new house

*spend time with family 

*get fit 

*stick to meal planning 

*volunteer 

*love people 

*learn how to make bread 

That is a lot of stuff. And I’ll admit some days I haven’t been as motivated. On top of all the things we’ve had going on we all got sick.. but I found myself picking up the little things on my list and still push through. I didn’t do all these things 💯 but one thing is for sure I have pushed myself this month. I got out of my comfort zone and made myself uncomfortable. 

Overall, I feel like January was a great month. But I am looking forward to seeing how these life changes look on me this time next year. In fact, I’m excited to see where I am this time February.

If you made resolutions for yourself I encourage you to keep going. You may not feel like doing it today but looking back you won’t regret it! Even if you haven’t started.....get started. It’s it’s never too late to start over or make new plans or new routines! You’ve got this! 

Minimal(ist) Kids Closet

Happy Monday!
I hope your weekend was filled with all kinds of love and laughter!
We spent ours hosting a benefit for a precious family that we have known for years, we ate too many carbs and watch the new movie “Glass”.

Since this morning I have been deep cleaning (Monday’s are our cleaning day)
We’ve pretty much got our office unpacked and set up.
We’ve played some board games and got our play-doh out! Ell is having a blast making me all kinds of goodies!  Check out this picture she took below!

Today I’m going to be breaking down ellas wardrobe! To me, it was by far the easiest room/wardrobe that I minimalized.This is her winter wardrobe! 

Undies: 7 pairs 

Socks: 10 pairs 

T-shirts: Zero

Bottoms: 2 pairs 

Dresses: 4 

Long sleeve tops: 5 

Jackets: 1 light, 1 heavy 

Shoes: 3 pairs 

We also have one bow per color!

I wash two loads of laundry a week! 

This is more than enough for a four year old (we could actually have less items and be totally fine).

We have found that having less has helped us so much! We don’t spend nearly as much money, it doesn’t take us as long to get dressed , and putting laundry away is a breeze! I used to be that mom who over bought and was consumed with the latest styles.. Now we’re focusing on what really matters. 

Spending time with our family, learning and growing! 🖤 

Much love, Taylor. 

Meal of the week!
Lucky for you,  there will be TWO this week!
This post is featuring.... drum roll please......

A easy lasagna recipe!

This recipe fed 8 with leftovers

What you’ll need:

3 lbs of ground beef
16 oz mozzarella cheese
1 lb of lasagna noodles
2 jars of pasta sauce
1 pack of pepperonis
Medium size ricotta cheese

Cook meat and mix in pasta sauce
Boil noodles

Start layering!
Lasagna noodles -Meat- Ricotta Cheese -Mozzarella-REPEAT
On the very last layer put the pepperonis on top!

Bake on 425 until cheese has melted!
We ate with garlic bread and salad!
Super easy, and was around $20$ to feed everyone (or have leftovers for the next day! 👏🏻

Meal Planning

Happy Monday!

We have had a CRAZY week! Between sickness and moving we have been busy!
Now that we are finally getting settled in and feeling better we’re going to scratch the surface of meal planning!

To me, planning and budgeting go hand in hand.

First off you need to write down what meals you and your family enjoy.

Search on Pinterest!
Do you like cooking with a crockpot? Instant pot? Baking?
Pin Pin Pin!

Personally I like to switch it up that way I don’t get bored with cooking.

Get a recipe box! Instead of finding new recipes and putting them in there, cook them first! Did you love it? That’s when you write it down and put it in your box! The box is what you will go back to and help you build your meal plan.

Make a budget. We spend $50.00 a week.
That includes all meals, snacks, fruit and veggies.

I would recommend testing your budget and figure out what works best for your family.

Buy a planner! I bought a planner on amazon for about $10.

Consider what you can cut. There’s a lot of name brands we buy, but we also shop at Aldi and Lidls.
We drink water and tea so we don’t have to spend as much on sodas. Look for sale items.

I cook breakfast, lunch and dinner. We eat leftovers one day a week.
Buy bulk meat and separate.
Buy frozen veggies.
Go through your Refrigerator and pantry before going shopping.

We have “meatless Monday” where we will eat soup and salad.

There’s so many ways that you can save money and make dinner plans easier.

I will be digging deeper on planning and budgeting soon! 

I hope you found these tips helpful.
Talk to you soon! 

Today I tried a new recipe in my Instant Pot! I was very sceptical at first but I am committed to using my new gadget at least once a week! I have a 6 and a 8 quart pot. Whichever you have, you can make this recipe!

 Look out for a new recipe every week, I will be sharing my meal plans and my grocery runs to help give you get an idea of what to do to stretch a dollar and have good meals! 

 Instant Pot Cheeseburgers

What you’ll need:

1 lb ground beef 

1 tsp salt 

1/2 tsp pepper 

1 tsp garlic powder 

2 tsp worcestshire sauce 

ADD TO MEAT (mix) Then Patty 

Once pattied you will need to individually wrap the patties in aluminum foil

You will need 2 1/2 cups of water IN pot

Place your trivet at the bottom and put the wrapped patties on the trivet 

PRESS manual 

11 minutes for 4 oz Patties 

13 minutes for 5 oz Patties 

15 minutes for 8 oz Patties 

Quick Release until your pin pops up! 

Once you have let the patties cool down be careful taking them out of the aluminum 

There will be grease 

Add your favorite topping and dinner is done! 

Try it out and let me know how you liked it!