Food For Thought: Taste of Home Cooking School

Last night my mother and I attended the Taste of Home Cooking School.
If you don't know what it is or have never attended, I highly recommend it! You can find out more info here: http://www.tasteofhome.com/Cooking-Schools
They are traveling the country and they may be in your area soon! :)

Anyways, I wanted to share some pics and info about the show incase anyone wanted to learn more!

Lunch Made Easy: It's FRIDAY!!

Woohoo! It's Friday!! *Happy Dance*
So last night I attend one of the Taste of Home Cooking Schools with my mother. I'll post about that next. :) I didn't get home until almost 11pm (since it was an hour+ away) aaaaaand if you remember from my previous posts, we are early risers in this house (4:30am now). Ick! So I am one tired Mama, but it was totally worth it.

Anyways, here's Little Miss's lunch today -

Party Pants: Ice Cream Cone Cakes

For Little Miss's birthday cake at her party last weekend, I had made a tiered display of these ice cream cone cakes...

She loved them so much, she asked me to make more for her class treat yesterday on her actual birthday!

Here's the how to:

Lunch Made Easy: Mac n' Tulips

Happy Thursday everyone!

Today's Lunch is... 

Lunch Made Easy: HAPPY BIRTHDAY LITTLE MISS!

TODAY MY BABY IS 6 YEARS OLD! AHH, I FEEL OLD! LOL
Here is not only her lunch I made her today BUT some other fun surprises she had this morning to wake up to! ;)

Lunch Made Easy: A Well "Rounded" Meal

Today's lunch is pretty simple but I thought it'd be fun if everything was round or circular in shape. :)

Party Pants: I Scream, You Scream... (6th Birthday Party Ice Cream Social)

Little Miss had an Ice Cream inspired 6th Birthday Party this weekend. I wanted to share some of the creative food & fun we had! :)

Lunch Made Easy: Party Hangover

Little Miss had her birthday party this weekend. It was so much fun and turned out great, but after all the hard work and then clean up... we are dragging this morning. lol, one more day would be great at home to relax! Anyways, her lunch today is pretty basic:

Lunch Made Easy: Pizza Face...

After some pretty time consuming lunches this week, today is a bit simpler. :)
Her pizza face turned out a little creepy, lol, but she thought it was hilarious.

Lunch Made Easy: Well, Hello, Kitty ;)

A few days ago I finally found and purchased a set of two cute Hello Kitty cutters. Found them at Hobby Lobby (I spend way to much $ each time I walk into that store... is there a Hobby Lobbyholics group?)
Anyways, here is Little Miss's Hello Kitty lunch for this fabulous Thursday! She even wore one of her Hello Kitty shirts & socks to school to go with the theme, lol.

Lunch Made Easy: The Very Hungry Caterpillar

I've been waiting to do this lunch all week! Today's lunch is inspired by Little Miss's class at school - They are learning about Caterpillars & Butterflies. They also just finished reading "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" and even created their own class story called "The Very Hungry Kid" (lol, so cute!).

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There are a few options to choose from for only $10.00. This would be a great gift for someone or yourself. :) 
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Lunch Made Easy: Picture Day!

It's Picture Day for Little Miss at school today! :)

Lunch Made Easy: Monday's Basic Bento

I don't know about you but I stayed up waaaaay to late watching the Falcons/Eagles NFL game last night! lol
Very little sleep means very little creativity. ;)

Snackable: No-Bake Sunbutter & Chocolate Chunk Granola Balls

This awesome recipe first started with an idea from Mermaid B over at ...And, yes, I have a full time job.

The recipe she originally linked up had peanut butter and a few different ingredients. I thought, HEY, I can make those peanut free for Little Miss AND put my own spin on it to be a little bit healthier! So I did. :)

Lunch Made Easy: Lady Bugs & Smiles

Using Little Miss's ladybug bento box again today. I tried to recreate the character on the lid on her sandwich (lol) not my best job but she loved it. :)

Lunch Made Easy: A Very Veggie Tale ;)

My Little Miss had been begging me to do something in her lunch with VeggieTales... so after some thought and preparation... TA-DA! I got a little carried away with all the pictures you'll see below but I was just so excited with how it turned out. She screamed this morning with delight and a hug that almost knocked me over. Totally worth it. ;) lol

Lunch Made Easy: Ladybug Bento Box

I received Little Miss's new ladybug bento box yesterday (along with her birthday gifts I ordered from Old Navy ;) .) It is so cute. :) She loved it when I showed her this morning!

Food for Thought: Crockpot Love - Cheesy Italian Tortellini

This dish was SO yummy! I will be making this again SOON. I don't think the fella has ever told me that many times how good dinner was and that he wanted more. :) Made my day.

Lunch Made Easy: Goldfish Sandwich Bread

We finally found a package of the new Goldfish Sandwich Bread at our grocery store! I was thinking it was too new that hadn't got it in yet, but I found one lonely pacakge on the shelf... After talking to the cashier, I guess they've been selling out! That's crazy. Well anyways, Little Miss was JUMPING up and down when we got it. lol, over bread... I know... have to love kids! :)

Food for Thought: Cream Cheese & Chive Stuffed Chicken Breast with Bacon

I made this for dinner Friday evening and it was a huge hit! Little Miss devoured an entire chicken breast to herself even. lol

Lunch Made Easy: Monday Monday...

This mama is sick and uninspired this morning. Battling ear aches and a sore throat. My voice is shot. Somehow I got up, made lunches, dinner in the crockpot, and I'm going to stumble to work. We'll see how today goes. (Okay, sorry, enough of the pity party!)

Food for Thought: Crockpot Love - Zesty BBQ Chicken Drumsticks

Another simple and delicious meal made by my beloved Crockpot.
Finger lickin', fall off the bone chicken made easy!

Lunch Made Easy: Football Friday!!

Last night while watching the Packers v Saints game (and flipping to the Arizona v OSU game while that was on commercial) I was inspired to make Little Miss  a football themed lunch!
Our house is a football FANATIC home! All sports really but Sunday afternoons are sacred. I'm a Colts fan... my boyfriend loves his Lions... and last year Little Miss declared her team would be the Jaguars. She chose them because Diego has a Jaguar and she thought that was pretty cool! :)
Had I planned ahead I could have bought a few more football picks or inspired items but with what I had on hand, I think it turned out pretty cute. She loved it. She even wore her Jaguar socks to school today, lol.

Craft Complete: Crepe Paper Wreath **only cost $0.63!**

Little Miss's birthday is rapidly approaching! I have been keeping on busy on the weekend doing various crafts and decorations in preparation for her party. *Theme & more info to be revealed at the end of the month! It's a secret!* I will, however, share this super simple & inexpensive craft she and I did together last weekend - a wreath for the door using leftover crepe paper streamers from past parties.

Lunch Made Easy: Thankful Thursday

Thankful Thursday: I am truly thankful for my wonderful family. Without them, I would be lost! I am thankful for my beautiful daughter (Little Miss) and my supportive boyfriend. I am thankful I have a wonderful job with people that I not only call co-workers but friends. I am thankful for my daughter's amazing new school and all the opportunities she is going to have there. AND of course I am thankful for my very special blog readers and fellow blog buddies who take the time to enjoy my posts and inspire me as well. :)

Deals & Steals: Old Navy's Online Birthday - save 25%

Today only Old Navy is offering 25% your entire purchase online with code ONBDAY25 to celebrate 11 years online.

I wanted to point out a CUTE item I snagged (along with a few b'day items) for my Little Miss!

Animal Shaped Lunch Kits

CUTE little bento box and it's only $5! They have a frog, lady bug, monkey, and bunny.

Lunch Made Easy: Submarine Expedition

So I had an idea for Little Miss's lunch this morning. It didn't turn out as well as I wanted but when I showed her she laughed and said it was the silliest one I've made. She loved it! That made me smile and well, pleasing her is all that really matters. :)

Lunch Made Easy: Tasty Tuesday

It was a pretty wonderful feeling waking up this morning and remembering it was already Tuesday!! Love long weekends. :)
Today is Little Miss's first day riding the bus. She's rode in the past but this is a new experience because this is her first year at a new private school. The public school bus system picks her up then hubs kids to a local catholic school and there they catch another bus to her school. *nervous* I know she'll get the hang of it but imagining my 1st grader catching two buses every morning and afternoon... it's not just put her on and then she goes straight to her building. I'm going to try super hard not to cry about this, lol...

Lunch Made Easy: Mac-n-cheesy Leftovers

Thirty days hath September... Happy September 1st everyone! :)

Little Miss is excited because it's officially her birthday month - which she will remind me every single morning. lol