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Friday Favorites {Week 29}

Friday Favorites

Yeah for Friday!  This has been a doozy of a week!  Labor Day Weekend was filled with fun and a little relaxation.  However, these three day weekends throw me off schedule!  Plus, add in a very quick, less than 24-hour trip down to Arlington Cemetery for a family funeral.  We picked the kids up from school early Wednesday afternoon, drove down to Arlington, spent the night at a hotel, went to the burial on Thursday afternoon, stayed a little bit at the reception and then drove the 5 plus hours back home to finish out the crazy week.  The kids have an upcoming four day weekend  because of the Jewish holidays.  Hopefully, we can catch up on some rest and get in some relaxation then!  Here are some of our faves from this past week:

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1.  Sunday we took a trip to Hershey Park.  Our daughter won the tickets from a local radio station earlier this summer and they expired at the end of this month.  Even though we just got back from Disney World AND we went to Hershey Park last summer, we couldn’t not go, since she was so excited about winning.  Labor Day weekend was our only free weekend to go.  We ended up leaving early Sunday morning and just spending the day there.  It was a relaxed trip where we didn’t feel like we needed to do everything.  Our daughter had finally grown tall enough to ride ALL the roller coasters, which the Weekend Chef was happy about.  In the past, he had to ride the coasters by himself while I waited with the kids.  Even better, although she was a bit apprehensive at first at the height and loops of some of these coasters, she ended up LOVING them!  The Weekend Chef has a roller coaster riding buddy!  Plus, as seen on Instagram, we got some good eats as well!

2. Favorite bookmarked recipe of the week:  These Apple Pie Pancake Rolls.   This will make a tasty breakfast for dinner one night soon.

 

3.  Netflix Favorite this week:  Last week on a Friday link-up B and M of The Sequin Notebook had mentioned this show on Netflix.  Sing it On is a reality show following five collegiate a cappella groups as they try to make it to the ICCA finals in New York City. Umm, how had I not heard of this show before?  I love a cappella and back in the day really enjoyed going to my college (Cornell University) and nearby Binghamton University’s various a cappella shows.  The Weekend Chef and I watched all eight episodes this past week.

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4. The Martian by Andy Weir- This is another book recommended by Lisa from expandng that I didn’t think that I’d like and was pleasantly surprised when I did.  While it was a bit technical in some parts, the story itself was suspenseful.  Matt Damon will be starring in the movie based on the book which will be released in October.

         

5. Podcasts – We are so late to the podcast game.  I just downloaded my first podcast earlier this week.  I spent some time outside weeding and listening to various podcasts.  It made the time fly by!  Plus, we listened to some on our 5+ hour drive down and back to Arlington.  I know about and have downloaded Serial, which I think the Weekend Chef and I will enjoy.  However, we couldn’t listen to it in the car with the kids!  So far, my favorites are Happier With Gretchen Rubin and The Nosh Show.  But please, if you have any other podcast recommendations, please send them our way!

Linking up with Tif @ Bright on a Budget, Amanda from Meet @ The Barre and Andrea from Momfessionals.  Have a great weekend!

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Food Finds #2

Food Finds

Here’s a look at some recent food finds that we’ve tried.  I have to admit, most of them are junk food and snacks, as most of these were bought and tried before I decided that I needed to start eating healthier.  Be on the lookout for some “healthier” selections in the next Food Finds post!

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three twins organic ice cream:  sea salted caramel – Founded in 2005, three twins ice cream is a California-based ice cream company that uses only certified organic ingredients.  I love all things salted caramel, so when I saw this flavor in the freezer case of my local Shoprite I knew I had to try it.  This ice cream was super creamy and smooth.  It wasn’t overly sweet and had a hint of salty caramel.  The Weekend Chef and I were both fans of this!  Other interesting three twins ice cream flavors include Chocolate Orange Confetti and Dad’s Cardamom. For additional information, check out the three twins site here.

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Alpina Café  Selections:  Vanilla Latte yogurt – Oh, how I had high hopes for this yogurt.  This line of Greek yogurts is the first to be infused with real coffee.  The cup of yogurt has 30-50 mg of caffeine, which is equivalent to approximately a half a cup of coffee.  I can’t eat dairy first thing in the morning on an empty stomach, so having this for breakfast was out.  The Weekend Chef and I decided to share it for dessert one night, though I was a bit hesitant, since I can be sensitive to caffeine and didn’t want to be up all night!  Well, after one bite of this yogurt I didn’t need to worry, since I really didn’t like it.  The yogurt itself was creamy and the coffee taste evident.   However, both the Weekend Chef and I found the taste to be bitter and unenjoyable.  There are too many other yogurts that we enjoy out there.  For additional information, check out the Alpina US site here.

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Mighty Leaf Chocolate Mint Truffle Tea – I don’t remember where I received a free sample of this tea from.  I much prefer coffee over tea.  However, this tea is caffeine free and was perfect for a recent relaxing night of Netflix viewing.  While I normally add sugar to my tea, I didn’t with my mug of this.  The chocolate and mint flavor was very mild and barely noticeable.  I was hoping for a more pronounced flavor.  For additional information, check out the Mighty Leaf website.

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Canada Dry Blackberry Ginger Ale – I have really tried to cut back on my soda consumption.  However, when I see something new I have to give it a try.  We only let the kids drink caffeine free, regular soda on special occasions or when we go out to eat.  They both have started liking ginger ale so we all tried this blackberry ginger ale.  We all liked it, though it had more of a grape taste than a blackberry taste.  I would definitely pick this up again. For more information check out the Canada Dry website.

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Lay’s Kettle Cooked Greektown Gyro Potato Chips – Our daughter had us enter the Lay’s flavor contest.  We didn’t win, but these Greektown Gyro flavored chips were a finalist, along with Southern Biscuits and Gravy, New York Reuben, and West Coast Truffle Fries.  So far, we’ve only tried these and weren’t impressed.  They had a weird, lab-dill flavor that wasn’t very appealing.  Definitely not a fave.  Still have some other flavors to try though!

Have you tried any of these?  Do you have any recent food finds that we should try?!

Straight Up Tasty: A Review

Straight Up Tasty by Adam Richman
Rating:  3 out 5 stars

Our family is a big Adam Richman fan.  We love watching old episodes of Man V. Food together.  So I was really excited to see that his cookbook was available from Blogging for BooksStraight Up Tasty is a collection of over 100 recipes ranging from breakfast and snacks & small plates to sauces & condiments and sweets.  I like that Richman is not a chef or claims to be one.  He’s a guy who loves food….and don’t we all?!!!  There isn’t a specific theme to this book of recipes.  Rather it’s a mix of recipes that Adam has grown up making and recipes of family and friends.  Interspersed through the cookbook are recommendations on where to get the best breakfast, the best burgers as well as a list of best restaurants based on the protein (beef, chicken, pork, shrimp and meat substitutes), based on his culinary travels.

I didn’t end up cooking any of the recipes from the cookbook.  I found the recipes were either similar to things that I’ve already made before (“Lemon Ricotta Pancakes,” “Easy Carbonara,” “Chicken Marsala,” and “Spaghetti Pie”) things that I’d just rather order out at a restaurant and not be bothered making (“Maple-Glazed Pork Belly Poutine and Sweet Potato Fries,” “Roast Pork and Broccoli Rabe Dumplings” and “Pulled Pork Egg Rolls”) and things that I already make and don’t need recipes for (“Latkes,” “Home-style Corned Beef and Cabbage” and “Grandma’s Egg Salad”).

The recipes cover a range of tastes and ingredients.  There’s simple recipes like “French Farmhouse-Style Simple Roasted Chicken,” “Easy Lemon Butter Salmon,” and “Smoked Paprika Onion Rings.”  None of the recipes called for difficult to procure ingredients, except for maybe the “Banh Mi Burger” which asks for pork pate.

So who is this cookbook for?  I’d say fans of Adam Richman will enjoy this cookbook as they get to know a little more about him and are able to cook some of his favorite recipes, including his “Mom’s Spinach Pie” and his “Grandma’s Home-style Brisket.”

I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.  However, all opinions are my own. 

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August 2015 Reads

Life According to Steph

I’m happy to be participating again in Steph and Jana’s monthly Show Us Your Books link-up.  I love finding out what everyone’s been reading and my to read list grows tremendously after this link-up!  I was on a big psychological suspense reads kick this month!  Here are my August reads sorted by rating:

2 Stars

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Truth or Die by James Patterson & Howard Roughan –  I don’t know why I keep reading Patterson’s stand-alone books!  This book was a page-turner as usual, but the overall story was disappointing.  Trevor Mann’s girlfriend, a newspaper journalist is killed in a mugging.  However, he doesn’t think it was a chance shooting and attempts to find her murderer. I prefer his Women’s Murder Club and Alex Cross series and should just stop reading these stand-alone books!

3 stars
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Eight Hundred Grapes by Laura Dave – Georgia returns to her family vineyard in Sonoma a few days before her wedding to discover her fiancé and family all have secrets they’ve been hiding.  There were some interesting facts about winemaking that I learned, but overall, this was just an okay read for me.

In the Unlikely Event

In the Unlikely Event by Judy Blume – Blume was one of my favorite authors when I was growing up.  I remember really enjoying her adult novel Summer Sisters.  I thought this book was just okay.  I found it interesting that it was based on actual events.  However, there were a ton of characters to keep track of and the storyline didn’t really interest me.

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Luckiest Girl Alive by Jessica Knoll – This book has been on the New York Times best seller list for several weeks.  I put it on hold at the library and I finally received it after waiting what felt like forever.  I had seen this book dubbed as “the next Gone Girl,” which apparently is the standard to which every new psychological thriller is now compared to.  I had also read several negative reviews of this book prior to reading.  Not sure if those reviews subliminally affected my opinion of this book, but I wasn’t very impressed.  After experiencing tragic events in high school, Ani Fanelli has now reinvented herself into a woman who seems to have it all.  She revisits those painful memories and we find out what happened in the past as she is interviewed for a television special about the events that happened long ago.  Reese Witherspoon is going to be producing this the movie version of this book, which Lionsgate  has acquired.  I of course, will watch it, regardless of the fact that I didn’t like the book so much.

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Missing Child by Patricia MacDonald – Patricia MacDonald is not a new author to me.  I’ve read three other of her psychological suspense type novels.  This was one of my least favorite books of hers.  Caitlin’s stepson Geordie goes missing one day after she drops him off at school.  This story is the search for the boy, with fingers even being pointed at Caitlin.  Just an okay read for me.

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Sister by Rosamund Lupton – While I was at my new job training, I got into a book discussion with another woman who highly recommended this book after discovering that I liked psychological suspense books as much as she did.  The book is set in England and is written in letter form from Beatrice to Tess.  When Beatrice’s sister Tess is missing and then found dead, it is ruled as a suicide.  Beatrice knows her sister would never kill herself and she flies to London to try to figure out what happened to Tess.  Through her own investigation Beatrice discovers there’s a lot about her sister that she didn’t know.  This was an okay suspense type read for me.

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Those Girls by Chevy Stevens – I loved Still Missing which was my first introduction to Chevy Stevens.  This is now my third book of hers that I’ve read and unfortunately, it disappointed.  Three sisters end up on the run after an attempt to avoid their father’s abuse turns bad.   They create new identities and lives in order to survive after additional tragedies occur.  Again, another just okay read.

4 Stars

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Ready Player One by Ernest Cline – Blogger friend Lisa from Expandng had recommended this book to me.  This was a monthly selection from her online book club Page Turners.  After reading the synopsis, I didn’t end up reading it, because based on the summary, it just didn’t sound like my thing.  And this is why I love book recommendations and link-ups like this.  She read it for the book club and has since highly recommended the book.  I decided to give it a try and I was so pleasantly surprised!  I’m not a big sci-fi fan, but I enjoyed the game show premise of the book as well as all of the 80’s references.  This one was even passed along to my husband to read, who also gave it a big thumbs up.  We were excited to find out that Steven Spielberg will be producing this into a movie, which is supposed to premiere sometime in 2017.
5 Stars
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The Sea of Tranquility by Katja Millay – This book has been on my “want to read” list for what seems like forever.  I’m not sure what took me so long to read it, but am so happy that I finally did!  This is a young adult, coming of age story that is beautifully written with very likable characters.  Nastya Kashnikov starts a new school with a hidden, tragic past.  She ends up forming unlikely friendships with Drew and Joshua, two friends with very different personalities and lives.  Relationships form and secrets come as the story unfolds. I can see this book being made into a movie.

Meal Plan {Week 11}

September Meal Plan

Happy Labor Day everyone!  Hope you are enjoying the day off that most of us have from school and work.  School is back in session and the weather will hopefully be getting a little cooler soon.  I am looking forward to quick and easy meals and using the crockpot more.  Here is what was on the menu last week at our house:

Saturday: The Weekend Chef and our daughter made Hawaiian Quesadillas, Cilantro-Lime Rice and refried beans for our first back from Disney dinner.  The Weekend Chef made some homemade guacamole to have with.  It was nice eating some home-cooked food for a change!

Country-Style Ribs

Sunday: The Weekend Chef cooked some Country-Style Ribs in the slow cookers and served with roasted potatoes and roasted broccoli.  Although he made a spice rub and sauce, the ribs ended up losing a lot of their flavor.

Mexican Tortellini Salad

Monday: I made this Mexican Tortellini Salad.  The Weekend Chef and I enjoyed this but the kids weren’t the biggest fans.  The leftovers were also great for lunch the next day.

Sweet Chili Chicken with Coconut Rice

Tuesday:  I made this Sweet Chili Chicken with Coconut Rice. I served it with a salad.  I wasn’t sure if the chili sauce would be too spicy for the kids.  However, they loved this!  It was so quick and easy to make that I know this will be making an appearance on our menu again soon!

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Wednesday: We made this Banana Chocolate Chip Fluffernutter French Toast Casserole.  Yes, the name is a mouthful.  I’ve mentioned that my kids love breakfast, so breakfast for dinner is always a hit in our house.  This casserole was so good!  While it probably counts more as dessert than dinner, it was winner for sure!  Note that this dish can mostly be prepared the night before but does have to cook for an hour.

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Thursday: I  made this Cajun Shrimp with Garlic Parmesan Cream Sauce.  I was worried that the Cajun seasoning might be spicy for the kids but they ate this.  The flavor of the pasta was actually somewhat bland and the seasoning helped spice it up.  Overall, this meal was just okay for us.

Friday: We were going to the kids back-to-school picnic so I made homemade pizza.  I fed the kids before going since I know there would be no eating once they saw all their friends.

 

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Friday Favorites {Week 28}

Friday Favorites

Yeah for Friday!  It’s been a long, busy week around here.  The kids have started school and we are getting back into schedule mode.  Luckily, we have a little bit of time before all the activities start up.  Plus, with Labor Day and the Jewish holidays, the kids don’t have a full week of school until October!  Here are some of this week’s favorites:

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1. Disney Mug – I bought the mug pictured above as a souvenir from our recent Disney trip.  They had sooo many different mugs to choose from it was so hard to pick.  Since I don’t really have a favorite character, I thought this mug, which depicts all the parks and many of the classic characters was a good memory of our trip.  However, this is a jumbo mug!  My morning coffee intake has doubled since it just didn’t look or feel right drinking from a half empty mug!

2.  Favorite bookmarked recipe of the week:  These Hoisin Burgers with Peanut Slaw.  I’ve made an Asian Turkey Burger before that we like from a recipe from Cooking Light.  However, this recipe looks like it has a bit more flavor and I love the addition of a peanut slaw.

DIET DIET DIET *dammit just thinkin bout it makes me sweat.. but for the love of having a great body, I CAN DO THIS!!!: DIET DIET DIET *dammit just thinkin bout it makes me sweat.. but for the love of having a great body, I CAN DO THIS!!!

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3.  This workout plan – Since getting back from Disney, I’ve gotten more serious about starting to exercise and eating a bit more healthy.  I found this workout plan on Pinterest and have been pretty good about keeping up with it.  It’s a small start and I like how it mixes up different exercises and amounts every day!

4.  Netflix this week – I finished up watching the latest season of Grey’s Anatomy.  I had seen a spoiler so wasn’t totally surprised at how the season ended.  The show still makes me cry almost every episode!  The Weekend Chef and I are one episode away from finishing up Season 3 of Orange is the New Black.  I’m continuing to watch Revenge and I’ve started watching Bloodline.  I’ve heard good things about it.  But I’m only into episode 3 and am having difficulty with it keeping my interest.
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5.  Hop’n Mad Apple Cider – I bought a variety pack of Angry Orchard hard cider, which is one of my favorite adult beverages.  If you follow on Instagram, you might have seen that we tried a new to us flavor, Hop’n Mad Apple.  The Weekend Chef really likes this cider, with its blend of cider and two different hops.  It wasn’t as sweet as their other varieties, which I prefer.

Linking up with Amanda from Meet @ The Barre, Tiff from Bright on a Budget and Andrea from Momfessionals.  Have a great Labor Day weekend!

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Disney Snack Round-Up

As you know we recently returned from a week long trip to Disney World, which you can read about here.  While we enjoyed the rides and meeting the characters,  my husband and I were probably most excited about the food!  We purchased the basic Disney Dining Plan which includes one quick service meal, one sit-down restaurant meal and one snack per person, per day.  What counts as a “snack” credit differs by park and includes everything from bottled water, a bag of chips or all of the items featured below.  When looking at each kiosk’s menu, the items that can be used with a snack credit have a Disney Dining purple and white square symbol next to it.   Below is our Disney Snack Round-Up of the snacks and desserts that we ate on our trip!  Please note that the four of us SHARED all of these treats.  This sometimes meant just a bite or two of something.  I did not gorge on all of these snacks by myself (though sometimes, I really wanted to)!

Note:  *It is no secret that counter service restaurants and kiosks will provide you with a cup of ice water at no charge.  It was super hot while we were in Disney  and we took full advantage of this!  However, the water at Magic Kingdom had a funny taste to us and we did not like it at all!  I recommend bringing water with you to this particular park.  All of the other parks had water that tasted fine!

ANIMAL KINGDOM:

 

We got this Chocolate Chip Cookie Vanilla Ice Cream Sandwich from Dino Bites at Dinoland in Animal Kingdom.  This cookie sandwich is gigantic!  A huge scoop of vanilla ice cream sandwiched between two large, soft chocolate chip cookies = deliciousness!

EPCOT:

 

Now, we have not tried the famous Cronut from Dominique Ansel in NYC.  However, we picked up this Croissant Doughnut at the Refreshment Port near Canada in Epcot.  It’s covered with cinnamon sugar and was delicious!  Sweet on the outside and soft, pastry-like layers on the inside.

 

We had these Churros con Cajeta as the dessert selection for one of our quick service lunches at La Cantina de San Angel in the Mexico section of World Showcase at Epcot.  However, these can be purchased using a snack credit.  They were sprinkled with cinnamon and come with a caramel dipping sauce.  They are served hot, but by the time we got around to eating them they were warm and had lost their crispiness.

 

This Watermelon Paleta was our second quick service dessert selection from La Cantina de San Angel.  This also can be purchased using a snack credit.  These Mexican ice pops comes in other flavors including Mango, Lime and Coconut. This was a nice refreshing treat on a hot day!  It wasn’t super sweet and you can taste the watermelon.

 

We got this Berry Cream Puff at the Kringla Bakeri og Café in Norway at the World Showcase.   This was a giant cream puff with fresh berries (blackberries, raspberries and a strawberry).  The cream was not too sweet and we really enjoyed this.

 

We also got this Kringla Sweet Pretzel with Chocolate at the Kringla Bakeri og Café.  I have to say that this pretzel looks better than it tastes.  This pretzel is not a traditional tasting pretzel (like the Mickey pretzel), but is more pastry-like.  It’s a sweet raisin pretzel topped with icing and a chocolate drizzle.  I found this pretzel to be a bit dry and wasn’t the biggest fan.

 

We stopped at L’Artisan des Glaces in France at the World Showcase and the kids ended up choosing this Mixed Berries Sorbet Waffle Cone to share. This French ice cream shop sells 16 different flavors of ice cream/sorbet so there’s sure to be a flavor to please everyone!

My husband and I shared this Peaches & Cream Macaron Ice Cream Sandwich from L’Artisan des Glaces.  The macarons were larger than the typical size, but not huge and I found them to be a bit on the sweet side.  Not my favorite dessert, but it was cool and refreshing on a hot day!

 

We ate a quick dinner at the Electric Umbrella in Future World at Epcot and were able to choose two desserts as part of our quick service meals.  The first one we chose was this Strawberry Cheesecake.  There’s a thin graham cracker crust layer on the bottom.  This was a creamy cheesecake and the kids loved the strawberry gel swirls.

 

There were pretty slim pickings, dessert-wise to choose from at the Electric Umbrella.  The second dessert we chose was this Chocolate Cupcake topped with vanilla icing and sprinkles.  The icing was a bit on the sweet side but the cupcake itself was moist and chocolate-y.

*Not pictured:  We stopped by Karamell-Kuche in Germany at the World Showcase in Epcot.  There we bought a large bag of Caramel Popcorn as well as a Caramel and Peanut Covered Apple that we brought home with us.  The person helping us had cut the apple into four pieces for us.  When we got home, we realized that we shouldn’t have had her cut it, as the apple turned brown.  It still tasted really good though!  The popcorn was really tasty and addicting as well!

HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS:

I had read about and was really looking forward to having a seasonal milkshake at Min and Bill’s Dockside Diner.  When I found out the seasonal milkshake flavor was blue raspberry, I opted to pass. A blue raspberry milkshake did not sound at all appetizing to me!

 

We had a late lunch at Pizza Planet and chose these two cupcakes as our dessert choices with our quick service meals.  The Olaf Cupcake was a carrot cake cupcake.  It had cream cheese icing and little white candy sugar crystals.  The Cappuccino Cupcake was a chocolate cupcake with a mocha chocolate icing.  We loved the toffee bits that decorated the outside of this cupcake.  These were both really good!

 

This Funnel Cake with Soft Serve Vanilla Ice Cream, Strawberry Topping and Chocolate Sauce was our “best-bang-for-your-snack-credit” find!  We found this gem at the Oasis Canteen located near the entrance to the Indiana Jones Stunt Show Spectacular.  Yes, this can be all yours for ONE snack credit!  Out-of-pocket this costs over $8!  Ice cream on funnel cake….the hot with the cold…. I cannot believe we had never seen or heard about this until now! This was so good!

MAGIC KINGDOM:

 

By far, one of our favorite Disney snacks is the Dole Whip Float.  This tasty treat is found at Aloha Isle in Adventureland.   Pineapple soft serve is swirled into cold pineapple juice for a cold, tasty and refreshing treat!  Dole Whip Floats can also be found at Disney’s Polynesian Resort.  The Pineapple Whip soft serve is also available at Tamu Tamu Refreshments in Animal Kingdom and can be ordered with Coconut or Dark Rum over it (but not available as a snack credit!).

 

We got this Cinnamon Roll at Gaston’s Tavern, but it’s also available at the Main Street Bakery.  I had read about this snack before traveling to Disney and was excited to try it.  I found it to be a bit dry though and wasn’t very impressed.  My husband reminded me too late that the secret is to ask for extra icing!

 

We got our Mickey Pretzel at the Lunching Pad in Tomorrowland, but they are available throughout the park.  A Sweet Cream Cheese pretzel is also available.  This is your classic soft pretzel, an amusement park staple!

POP CENTURY RESORT:

 

We only had one quick service dinner at the Pop Century Resort where we stayed.  This was a late after 9 PM meal after a very long day at Hollywood Studios.  We weren’t impressed with the dessert selection but after seeing a picture of this Tie Dye Cheesecake on a poster every time we went in the elevator, we decided we had to try it.  This was a single serving, small, round container with a very thin cake layer bottom and a cheesecake top.  It tasted like regular cheesecake and wasn’t bad.  We’ve had better and worse, as far as cheesecake goes.

What are your favorite Disney snacks? 

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September Currently 2015

Currently

Once again, I am participating in Anne and Jenna’s monthly “Currently” link-up.

Pretty Baby

Reading: I am reading  Pretty Baby by Mary Kubica.  I’ve been on a psychological thriller kick recently.  I don’t remember where I had heard about this one, but I’d been waiting for awhile on the hold list at the library for this one.  I started it over the weekend and haven’t made a big dent in it, but so far so good!

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The Weekend Chef is currently reading Chew On This by Eric Schlosser & Charles Wilson.  Our daughter found this at the library and thought that her dad might be interested in reading it.  He hasn’t read Fast Food Nation, but thinks it might be a junior version of that book.

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Our Daughter is reading The Candymakers by Wendy Mass.  This is the second time that she’s reading this, since she enjoyed it so much the first time.  It’s a chunky 453 pages and she keeps telling me that I need to read it.  It’s about four children who are participating in a national candy competition.  I’m not sure that I’ll have time to read this before she finishes it again and it has to go back to the library…..but I’m adding it to my to be read list!

Race the Wild #1: Rain Forest Relay

Our son just started Race The Wild: Rain Forest Relay by Kristin Earhart.  This is the first book in the new Race The Wild series.  I had read about it and requested the first book from the library.  He’s only 27 pages in but is liking it so far.  Russell is competing in a race around the world, with the first stop, the Amazon rain forest.  I’m very curious about this book and am planning on reading it after he finishes it!

Disney Memories Post Bound Album

Making:  Well, I haven’t officially started making it yet, but I am planning on making a scrapbook of our Disney vacation.  I literally spent hours over the weekend downloading all the pics from Memory Maker and our camera, deleting the duds, adding special effects to some of the Memory Maker photos.  I bought the pictured scrapbook from Michaels before our trip and picked up a 2015 Disney kit while at Disney World.  Now, I just need to purchase some additional paper and embellishments and actually start working on it!

The Weekend Chef has been continuing to work on finishing building our front deck.

Our son is an amazing artist and is always drawing pictures of Pokémon characters.

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This summer, our daughter was on a rainbow loom charm making streak – making a minion, the letter A and many other charms as seen above.

Pinning:  Lots of fall crafts and recipes including these Starbucks Copycat Pumpkin Scones from Cooking Classy, even though I’ve never had the originals, LOL!

The rest of the family doesn’t “pin”!

Anticipating Fall

Anticipating:  Fall!  I can’t wait for the cooler weather.  Fall and Spring are my favorite seasons.  I love the in-betweens, where it’s not too hot or too cold.  I’m looking forward to sweaters and cooking lots of apple and pumpkin recipes, as seen from my pinning!  My birthday is also in September, though I’m not actually looking forward to getting another year older.

The Weekend Chef is anticipating a new job.  He’s been unhappy at his current job and has been job searching and networking for awhile.  We are keeping our fingers crossed that he can find a new job before the end of the year.

Our son is looking forward to our Hershey Park trip this upcoming Labor Day weekend.  Our daughter won tickets over the summer and we picked this weekend to go.

Our daughter is looking forward to a great school year.  She came home from her first day of school yesterday super excited and happy.  Her elementary school only goes up to 4th grade, so she’s excited being “top dog” in the school.

Loving:  This song.  I found this song via a Friday Favorites post from another blogger and ended up loving the song.  I haven’t heard it on the radio so I have to play it on Vevo/Youtube.

The Weekend Chef has started watching Daredevil on Netflix and is enjoying the show.  It’s based on the original Marvel comic book and according to him, “is action-packed with an excellent cast.”

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Our son is loving his Yoda Stitch.  This was one of the souvenirs that he picked out on our recent Disney trip.  He loves the character Stitch from Lilo & Stitch and he likes Star Wars.  When he saw this guy, it was love at first sight!

Our daughter is loving her new teacher.  She came home gushing about what a nice teacher she has.  From her two answers, can you tell she loves school?!!!

What are you currently loving?

1

Zucchini Pancakes

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Happy September!  Today is the kiddos first day of school.  My daughter starts 4th grade and my son starts 2nd grade.  We had such a great summer and they were NOT looking forward to heading back to school.  They were looking forward to seeing their friends and meeting their new teachers.  They were not looking forward to early bedtimes and homework.  However, with Labor Day and the Jewish holidays, I don’t believe they have a full week of school in September, so they have some time to adjust to this whole back-to-school thing.  Hopefully I will be able to adjust as well.  Returning from our Disney trip and then getting thrown right into the whole school/activity schedules and routines has me a little stressed.

I have mentioned before how much my kids love breakfast for dinner.  And while I wasn’t able to grow any of my own zucchini, (even though I tried!) they are always cheap enough at the grocery store.  For those of you lucky enough to have a garden full of zucchini, I am jealous!  This pancake recipe is a great way to use some of them up and sneak some additional veggies into your child’s breakfast, or in our case, dinner.  When my son heard what I was making for dinner, I of course got a response of “but I don’t like zucchini pancakes!”  He then proceeded to eat 4 of these pancakes at dinner.  This was a winning recipe at our house!

Zucchini Pancakes
Recipe adapted from Two Peas & Their Pod

Ingredients:
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoon granulated white sugar
2 cups almond milk
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups grated zucchini, squeezed dry
Maple syrup and butter, for serving

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon brown sugar and white sugar.

2. In a separate bowl, whisk together the almond milk, melted butter, eggs, and vanilla extract. Pour liquid ingredients over dry ingredients, stirring until just combined. Fold in the zucchini.

3. Heat a large pan or griddle to medium heat. Spray with cooking spray. Pour about a 1/2 cup of batter onto heated skillet. Cook until surface of pancakes have some bubbles approximately 3 minutes. Flip carefully with a spatula, and cook the other side until lightly browned, an additional 2 -3 minutes. Continue making pancakes until all the batter is used. Serve pancakes with butter and maple syrup, if desired.

 

4

Disney Vacation Recap

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And we are back from our six night, seven day Disney vacation.  If you follow along on Instagram, then you have seen some of the fun and food (yes, there was LOTS of food) we had on this trip.  The last time we went to Disney, our kids were 3 and 5.  My son doesn’t remember anything from his first trip, except for what he sees in the scrapbook that I made of the vacation.  We were really excited for this trip because he’s now seven and we could all ride the roller coasters together.

We ended up leaving on Wednesday night at 10 PM and driving straight through the night.  The goal was for us to get past Washington D.C. before morning rush hour.  We actually made it to North Carolina by 7:30 AM, where the Weekend Chef took a little detour to get some Krispy Kreme doughnuts and of course….coffee!

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We had hotel reservations in Savannah Georgia and made it there by 2:00 PM with lots of bathroom and stretch breaks along the way.   We ate at our first Waffle House and then went to the hotel and crashed for several hours.  We woke up, watched some television and by 10 PM we were all asleep again.  We were exhausted!  We woke up around 6:30 the next morning, had breakfast at the hotel and then left for Disney.  We arrived at Disney Pop Century hotel around 1 PM and were able to get into our room early.

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We unpacked and then headed to the pool.  We decided not to do a park the first day since we weren’t sure what time we’d get to the hotel and had 6 PM dinner reservations at Cape May restaurant at the Beach Club Resort.

Saturday we spent the day at Magic Kingdom with a lunch break at Whispering Canyon at the Wilderness Lodge Resort.

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Sunday we spent the day at Animal Kingdom with dinner reservations at Tusker House with Mickey and other characters.

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Monday we had breakfast at the Contemporary Hotel with Chef Mickey and Friends and then headed to Hollywood Studios for the day.

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Tuesday we spent the day at Epcot and had dinner at Akershus in Norway with the Princesses.  Wednesday we were back at the Magic Kingdom and later had dinner at Ohana at the Polynesian Resort.

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Thursday we spent the day at Epcot and ended up leaving around 8 PM to start our drive back home.  We stayed at the same hotel in Savannah, Georgia Thursday night, got up at 6:30 AM (or more like 7 in my case!) and spent the entire day driving home.  We ended up getting home at 1:30 AM!

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Despite the heat and crowds, we had an amazing trip to Disney.  With my super planning before we left, coordinating Extra Magic Hours, Fast Passes, dining reservations, etc. we feel like we did everything that we wanted on this trip.  We rode all the major rides and my son only cried after Space Mountain, Expedition Everest, Tower of Terror and Haunted Mansion (I had to walk him out after the intro of Haunted Mansion, he didn’t even make it on the ride!).

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We have tons of character autographs including at least three different Mickeys, Aladdin, Princess Tiana and Dr. Facilier (as seen above, from The Princess and the Frog, which we own and I’ve never seen!) Mary Poppins and Alice in Wonderland! I referred to Disney lover Brenda from Chatting Over Chocolate prior to our trip about the Memory Maker package and ended up purchasing it.  Between our cell phones, our DSLR camera and the Memory Maker package we have TONS of photos!

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And of course, we tried to make the most of our meal plan, trying new restaurants and eating lots of yummy treats!

Unfortunately, the way we do Disney (at the park when it opens and staying until the fireworks/night time show/etc.) is not relaxing.  We’ve spent the weekend catching up on sleep and getting readjusted to “real life.”  We think we may do another Disney vacation in four years or so, with our next big vacation being something more relaxing!