Let me be perfectly clear.

Oooo, am I excited for this yummy monday!  This is the first time in a while I'm sharing an actual meal.  PLUS it's one I really, really, REALLY like.  I mean, I don't usually share recipes I don't like with you, but sometimes there's food that stands out miles beyond the rest, you know?

This meal is one of those.

And, to totally shake things up like crazypants, it's a ground beef recipe, which is fairly uncommon for me. 

You guys.  You will never need another meatball recipe again.  I'm serious.  If I could marry a recipe, this would be it.  It should actually be called

But that didn't seem pin worthy, so I fancied it up.  Would you like to know how good this recipe is?  My kids eat it.
I know - mind blown.

I adapted this recipe from one I found here.
So, here's the printable recipe card for your cookbook:

Would you like to hear a little story about the first time I made these meatballs?  Once upon a time there was a lady who made some delicious meatballs to serve over a bed of rice and then realized she had no rice.  So she had to make plain noodles instead and was convinced her dinner would be ruined.

But it wasn't.  It was scrumptious.  The end.

I have since made this recipe two more times (which is when you know you have a real winner) and I DID use rice.  I like it both ways - truly I'm not sure I could pick which I prefer. 

This one's a new family favorite that's already in the regular rotation. But don't just take my word for it.  Really.  Seriously.  In case I've been too cryptic with this post, imagine bright neon lights with starbursts erupting and fancy arrows blinking all pointing to MAKE THIS ONE.

Also, how is it that when I need rice for a special meal I have none, but just now I was looking for a can of tomato soup and noticed I had two GIANT boxes of rice?  Apparently I stocked up without realizing it so the aforementioned travesty would never happen again.

*Be sure to check below for all the fun parties I link to!*

a very encouraging gift.

I was looking for something personal and kind of sentimental for my mom's birthday this year, and morphed an idea I found on pinterest into this:

So your gift it/yummy monday idea is full of chocolate and mint.  If you know of someone who loves Andes chocolates, this may be just right for them!  It's super easy and comes together fast, as long as you've got the rest of the family's cooperation!

You'll need:
1-2 bags of Andes mints (how many you need depends on the age of your recipient)
pint or quart sized mason jar
washi tape
printable topper
double sided tape
twine
computer/printer

The first step is the most difficult - ha!  Email or call your whole family (whoever you want to include) and ask them to provide a list of the reasons they love your... whoever you're giving the gift to.  It may take a while to get a response!
The trick is to include as many responses as your recipient is old.  My mom was turning 62 so I needed 62 responses.
For my jar, I included my brothers and sister, their spouses and all the grandkids.  (Even my 10 month old provided an answer.)  I just had them each include as many as they wanted to and I made up the difference.
Once you've collected them all, type them up in a fun font leaving space between each one and print them out on normal paper.

Cut them apart so there is one response on each strip of paper.

Take a strip and wrap it around one mint, then secure with washi tape - make sure to put the tape not only on the strip of paper, but also on the mint itself to make sure the strip of paper doesn't slide off.

Then fill up your jar.  
One strip of paper and one piece of washi tape per mint.  

Once you're finished, punch out the circle tag and cut some twine.

Use double sided tape to secure the circle tag to the top of the lid.  Screw the ring around the jar and tie the twine in a knot around it.

Voila!

Now, when your mom (or whoever you're giving this to) has a hard day, they can pull out a mint and read why they are so very awesome.  I loved having the grandkids contribute... it made for a fun variety of answers!

If your recipient doesn't like andes mints, you could always do lifesavers mints or even mint gum!

Below are the gift tags, one in case your mom is also turning 62 and one where you can fill in the age yourself.

Of course, I completely forgot about the part where you might want to give this to someone who is NOT your mom, so there's no tag for that.  Whoops.

*Be sure to check below for all the fun parties I link to!*

Mom-Approved

This recipe is 100% Mom-approved.  And by mom, I mean MY mom, not just any mom.  So that's saying something.

This really came about as I looked at the random assortment of fruits/veggies/other meal items I had just purchased without a plan and saying "what can I make with this?" It was a grab-bag style dinner.

Fortunately, it worked out.  Doesn't always happen that way, but it worked out.  I realized that I had the makings of a pretty awesome fruity salsa, which led to the decision to thaw out some fish - they go hand in hand, am I right?  I glanced over a few different fish recipes and then decided to wing it.  This is what I came up with:

It's not complicated and takes very little time, though the recipe seems long.  The coconut taste is prominent, but not overbearing - which I thought worked out well since Tilapia really has very little flavor on its own.  The fresh fruit in the salsa was so ripe and PERFECT for this recipe... it couldn't have come together any better had I actually planned it.

Which just goes to show you that the best results are sometimes simply happy accidents - even in the kitchen!  
My personal recipes certainly don't always turn out this well, but I'm fairly proud of this one.  Go on and try it and tell me what you think!

*Be sure to check below for all the fun parties I link to!*

Insects of the Sea...

That whole holiday on Monday totally threw me off... I'm all mixed up on my days.  And although I intended to have my usual weekend blog break, I didn't mean for it to go on and on like that.  

So, to all veterans and those currently serving for our country: Thank you.  It doesn't suffice, but it's a start.  And to everyone: Happy belated Memorial Day.

Because I'm all topsy turvy, it only makes sense to do Yummy Monday on Wednesday, am I right?  So that's what we're going to do!  

Long ago, I shared a version of this (so if you've been around a while, you may have seen this on the blog already) but I've adapted it a touch and increased the serving size to accommodate a whole herd of folks, since I usually make this when I have company.  Why?  It's easy, but it seems all fancy AND it tastes amazing.  PLUS, it's low carb and totally healthy, which - let's face it - can't be said of most of my food.

I'm bringing it back because 1. I'm super embarrassed of all photos before like a year ago on this blog. 2. It's altered a touch. and 3. It's delicious and you don't want to miss it.  Just take my word for it.  I mean, I don't even like shrimp.

(print out the recipe card!  It's made as a 3x5.  Just right click and download.)

I'm serious.  They're like, the insects of the sea.  And who wants to eat insects?  But for some reason, I still really like this recipe - shrimp and all.

So that's saying something.  The only other time I've enjoyed shrimp is when I had it fresh off the boat on my honeymoon in Mexico.  Which was probably the best part of that honeymoon, just saying.  

It's the perfect time of year for it too, it's light and summery!  If you don't want enough to feed a small army, just half the recipe above.  Happy eating!

The original is from George Stella and you can find it here. 

*Be sure to check below for all the fun parties I link to!*

A roaring good time INSPIRATION!

Pinterest has obviously made planning parties both AWESOME and HORRIBLE.  Awesome because you find way more ideas than you could ever use.  Horrible because you find way more ideas than you could every use!  I (as you know) always procrastinate.  So I never, ever actually throw the party I plan to because I always run out of time.

In any case, here are some adorable ideas I pinned when looking for inspiration for my monster party!  Use as you wish.

Monster Food:

Monsters U Pushpop Cupcakes - The Country Chic Cottage

Fruit Monsters - (can't find original post, pinned here)

Monster Decor:

Birthday Boy Monster Frame - Amanda's Parties To Go!

Monster Banner - (can't find original post, pinned here)

Monster Utensil Holders from Tissue Boxes - A Day With Little Mama Stuart

Monster Wreath - She's Freaking Crafty

Monster Cups and Napkins - Pickles and Paisleys

Monster Favors:

5 Mix and Match Felt Monsters - It's Always Autumn

Monster Rocks - Cocoa Bean

Build-a-Monster Edible Play Dough - Sun Scholars

WHOLE PARTY:

Little Monster Birthday Party - Hostess With the Mostess

Have fun planning your little monster's party!

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A roaring good time. Part 1.

Long, long ago... like just over a year ago now... my son had his 5th birthday.  And I never blogged about it.  Because I fail.  The end.

Just kidding.  Not the end.  That would be a short post, and I don't do short posts.  Anyway, he turned 5 and we threw him a party (just for family and some close friends) and I snapped some pics.  I figured it's about time to show it to you since he's now 6.

Every year, I let the kids pick what kind of party they want.  And with much throwing around of ideas, bug finally landed on: MONSTER PARTY!  And I quickly set to work pinning my heart out on my party til you drop pinboard.

Since today is yummy Monday,

I'll be sharing:

We let bug decide what the main course would be.  He picked pizza, which we did NOT make ourselves.  

Now that I think about it though, how cute would THAT be??  Little individual pizzas with toppings to make them look like monsters... awesome.

But ours was just lame and cheap.  But the kids liked it.

I got some apple juice boxes and decked them out for the occasion:

Nothing difficult here.  I wrapped red and turquoise duct tape around the boxes, each box took 3 pieces.  I just overlapped them a little.

Then I glued google eyes in different sizes and amount to the front.

I cut some white sticker address labels into teeth, fangs, crossed out eyes, etc. and stuck them on.

Also, do you know the little trick where you pull up the top side triangle pieces for the kids to hold onto?  That way they don't accidentally squeeze juice everywhere.  I pulled them up and they kind of look like little horns.

I also made cupcakes.

I used yellow cake mix because the birthday cake was chocolate and I wanted variety.  I used cream cheese frosting from a can.  And this is KEY, I think.  I bough NEON food coloring.  That's why the frosting is so vibrant, and I really think it makes the monsters awesome.

I used mini oreos, mini m&m's, mini marshmallows, and mini chocolate chips for the eyes.  I layered them differently for each and stuck them together with frosting.

I used twizzlers pull and peel in green apple and cherry to make the mouths, tongues, eyebrows, some hair and a few crossed out eyes.

I used mini marshmallows for teeth and fangs. 

bug LOVED them.

Now, we all know my cake skills are... well, pretty sad.  You know about this super ridiculous failure.  And then this sad attempt.  And then the cakes I finally got my sister in law to make: mini's, mr's, and el's.  

I decided I should give her a break, so attempted another cake on my own.

And it turned out great!

I made a two layer chocolate cake with chocolate frosting.  
I used those little edible candy eyes and poked them all over.  I made a mouth with cherry pull and peels for lips and giant marshmallows for teeth.  I pulled the curve off some candy canes and stuck them around the top for spikes.  Then I layered a bunch of green apple pull and peels all around the bottom of the cake over the cake plate to look like slimy tentacles.

bug thought it was incredible, and that's all that mattered to me!

And suddenly my little bug was a great big, HUGE 5 year old.  Which was weird.

(more monster party tomorrow!)

*Be sure to check the right sidebar for all the fun parties I link to!