Beautiful Temple Art and an Amazing Promo Code

I received one of the best e-mails a blogger could ever receive the other day: "Can we send you......?"  Well in this case it was a beautiful LDS Temple print from LDS Wall Art. LDS Wall Art produces these beautiful Temple art photos printed on high quality museum canvas with beautifully modern frames.  Each temple canvas can be personalized with 2 lines of writing.  They come in two sizes: 12X18 and 20X30.  Right now they offer 17 different temples with new ones on the way.  They sent me a matte print of one of their temples for review and I must say that it is gorgeous.  I love the colors-kind of sepia (and some of the prints have more pops of color).  They really make the Temple stand out and all the intricate details of the Temple are the focal point.  I think they look so heavenly in these prints and are a beautiful way to display the Temple in your home.  I chose mine to say, "I love to see the Temple" so that I could display it in my girls room.  

Here are some of my other favorites from the website.

Well the best part about LDS Wll Art is that they are offering a special promo code from now until the end of the year on their Fine Art Temple collection giving buyers 50% off any of their beautiful Temple canvases. That is an amazing deal for such a beautiful piece of art.  The promo code is: TEMPLESFAC50 (LDS Wall Art currently only ships within the US). These would make such wonderful gifts for newlyweds, grandparents or parents.  What a beautiful way to display the House of the Lord in your home.  If you want to know more about LDS Wall Art check out their website (they have lots of other beautiful LDS art work as well) or find them on Facebook.

New Favorite Summer Recipes

I have been stuck in a mac & cheese, hot dogs and pickles and tacos and beans slump for a while.  I have just not had any new recipe inspiration and cooking has become a dreaded chore (I partly blame the heat and humidity which is something unusual for the desert where we live).  But thanks to my hubby ordering the wrong cookbook for me for my birthday and Deseret Book for not having the one I really wanted I ended up exchanging for this:

I have been eyeing this cookbook for a while and I must say it is so worth every penny I spent on it.  I am like a whole new cooking woman.  What I love most: the recipes are realistic and practical for moms.  Everything looks so good and I haven't made anything I haven't liked yet.  If you don't have the cookbook the website has tons of great recipes too.  The thing is the website doesn't have all the recipes the book has and visa versa so pretty much you need to talk yourself into getting this (especially if you need recipe inspiration).

Here is a link to the website:

Our Best Bites Website

A couple of favorite recipes from the website are:

Brazilian Lemonade -this stuff is super delicious.  Make it when you are having company because it doesn't last.  We made a double batch and guzzled it.
Glazed Bacon Wrapped Meatloaf -I have meatloaf.  Pretty much I don't think the two words should ever be used together.  I partly blame a guest speaker we had in one of my college cooking classes that was a microwave expert and showed us how to make meatloaf in the microwave and then "disguise" the awful grey color of the meat with a red sauce.  BARF!!!!!  But I was kinda craving a meatloafish creation a while back and I searched their site and found this recipe and it is fantastic.  I used all ground beef and found it was just fine.  The glazed bacon is scrumptious and pretty much I might find myself just making it from time to time.

Recipes from the cookbook:
Oven Roasted Broccoli which basically you take your broccoli florets, drizzle them with olive oil and some salt and pepper, spread them on a foil lined baking sheet and bake at 425 for 15-20 minutes.  The ladies say it takes broccoli to a whole new level and I have to agree.  Good thing I just picked 3 gigantic heads of broccoli from my garden yesterday. 
Grilled Stuffed Zucchini (but you will have to wait until this Friday's Project Zucchini for that one).

One other recipe I am lovin right now:
Sesame Almond Romaine Salad  I needed a recipe for a pot luck and this was perfect.  I love the combination of flavors.  One of my new favorites.
Recipe (with my changes in red)
1/2 cup butter cubed (salad with butter-Paula Dean would be proud)
1 tbsp sugar
2 packages Ramen noodles crushed (flavor packet saved for another time)
1/3 cup sesame seeds
1/4 cup slivered almonds (I used raw sunflower seeds instead)
2 heads of romaine torn (I chopped mine and it worked just fine)
4 green onions thinly sliced
1 can mandarin oranges (drained)
Dressing:
3/4 cup olive oil (didn't have any so I used canola)
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup read wine vinegar (didn't have any so I used regular vinegar)
1 tbsp soy sauce

In large skillet melt butter and sugar over med head.  Add ramen noodles, almonds and sesame seeds.  Cook and stir for 6-8 minutes until golden brown.  Remove from heat and cool.  In a large bowl combine lettuce, onions and oranges.  Mix dressing in a separate container (I used the above recipe but only needed half the dressing so i was able to make another salad later and use the rest).  Add cooled noodle mixture to salad.  Dress and toss gently just prior to serving. 

And for a couple of random but hopefully useful cooking tips:
1. I don't cook with potato flakes (except in my bread recipe).  I don't think they make very good potatoes on their own.  However if I want to stretch my regular good old mashed potatoes a little further, just prior to mashing them I add some potato flakes (depends on how many potatoes I have to mash -could be as much as a cup of flakes) in with my milk and butter and mash them all together.  You can't even tell they are there but suddenly you have more potatoes.  This is also good if you are mashing potatoes and add a bit too much milk-just add some potato flakes (then you won't have runny potatoes).

2. Don't waste your money on store bought, premade hamburger patties (unless they are cheaper than actual ground beef-then do waste your money on them if they are 100% ground beef).  Instead buy ground beef when it is on sale and make your own patties.  I use the lid from a cottage cheese container (which happens to be practically an official measurement term in Canada-that and ice cream pail...but I digress) and use it to form my patties.

 Flip the lid over so you can have a perfect sized burger (I saw this on the Food Network)

 Then you can place the patties on a cookie sheet and freeze them until firm and bag em up for later use.

 Like making gigantic burgers like this:

 He's lovin' it.

Happy Cooking and Eating!!!!

Product Review-Sew Stylish Boutique

Rose and Heather from Sew Stylish Boutique e-mailed me asking if they could send me one of their unique headbands for free to try and review on my blog.  HELLO-if anyone wants to send me anything for free I will take it.  Rose and Heather have a big selection of unique and glamorous accessories in their etsy shop as well as a blog with lots of fun and stylish ideas.  Check out their etsy shop sewstylishboutique and their blog sewstylishboutique to see their stuff.

This is what came in the mail for me. (Ya I know these aren't my kids-mine would have nothing put on their heads so I borrowed my neighbors kids).

The headband is totally unique.  It is made with wire that wraps around your head (see their etsy shop for all the details).  I have not seen anything else like it.  The only thing that was a bit of a problem was that the ends of the wire got caught in the girls hair and tangled as you tried to take it off.  I think that it would probably be really great for babies (because it is very light weight and most of them don't have tons of hair to tangle) and for older kids and adults because they can manage it better and can get it off their own head.  I really like the light weight nature of it and that the headband part is practically invisible.  I am not a fan of big headbands.
Go check out their stuff.  They have what you need to glamor up your girls.

Getting Bountiful in my Town

My friend and I decided to take the plunge and start a Bountiful Baskets site here in our town.

I am excited to be a part of something that will help make more fruits and vegetables accessible to our small community year round for an affordable price. Heaven knows I would like to have something more than apples to choose from in the winter.

Baby swimming pool product review

I saw this pool when we were at Wal-Mart in Canada. It looked perfect for small fry to use in our backyard. We have a kiddie pool but it is not something she can explore in by herself with out holding onto someones hand all the time. This however is designed for 18 month olds and looked perfect for her. I haven't looked at Wal-Mart here (the USA) to see if they have the same thing. But if they do or if you are in Canada and can find this I highly recommend it. This pool is perfect for beginner water exploration. It only holds about 3 inches of water; just enough to splash in but not so much that she has to hold onto my hand the whole time. Small fry can get in and out by herself and she loves to drink from the spraying water. It has too be attached to a hose and have water running but really for little kids they want to play in it for about 10 minutes maybe so I figure running the water for that long is worth it. Plus she doesn't like it to spray hard so you hardly have to turn the water on. The box shows 4 kids in it at once but I can't conceivably see more than 2 playing together in it. Mom or dad can be there to help with the whale slide and watch and otherwise it is very conducive for independent exploration. I am really impressed and highly recommend this pool to other parents of 15 -18 month olds.