You know that I am no stranger to swapping out pasta for veggies. Zucchini Lasagna anyone? Or how about this tasty zoodle recipe? Well, I am really trying to get back on track with my diet and exercise (because this baby weight is not going to lose itself, unfortunately.) Using Spaghetti Squash is a tasty and easy way to get more veggies, and less carbs in your diet. You can eat a ton of this spaghetti squash dinner and not feel guilty about loading up on all that pasta! Additionally, PH has finally admitted he may have gluten sensitivity issues. There is gluten free pasta out there, and you can hunt down a quality brand that doesn't immediately taste like cardboard. Spaghetti Squash tastes so much better! Everyone loves Spaghetti for dinner, and with Spaghetti Squash pasta it is back on the menu in our house! Cooking spaghetti squash for this spaghetti squash dinner is super easy. Follow the pictures below to see how! With your squash all ready, you just need to cook your meat and sauce as you normally would for a spaghetti dinner. I used lean ground beef this time. You could also use turkey meat if you'd like. Here is how I do it: Spaghetti Meat Sauce 1. Brown 1 pound lean ground beef with 1/4 cup white onion in a skillet. 2. When meat is cooked add in one can tomato sauce. 3. Season with salt, pepper, garlic, and Italian seasoning. 4. Let simmer about 10 minutes. 5. Serve over spaghetti squash noodles 6. Top with Parmesan cheese Your spaghetti squash will make a lot of noodles. You can eat more and fill up on veggies. We still had plenty of leftovers, so guess what I ate for lunch the next day?
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This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase after clicking them, we will be compensated, but there is no additional cost to you. All opinions expressed are our own. Thank you for your support. Living in Phoenix, AZ where the heat is already about 200 degrees hotter than where anyone else lives, one of the things we love to do to get out of the heat is take weekend road trips out of town into higher and cooler country! My husband and I will take off on our own and just take an all day drive or sometimes we get together with family members for camping trips or sight seeing trips. There are great places to visit in our beautiful state that are within just a couple of hours driving distance. This summer, we have already taken a day and driven up to Prescott, AZ. We took in a folk arts festival with our son, daughter-in-law and little grandson. It was a great day. Prescott always seems to have something going on and is such a great place to visit. Trips up to Flagstaff and the south side of the Grand Canyon are also easy to do on a weekend, as well as trips to the Mogollon Rim or even over to the White Mountains. We have done all of these trips over the years with our children. As adults, the drive to these places were relaxing and beautiful. But, to kids, a couple of hours can seem like an eternity and it takes some creativity to help them have fun and make memories with you that will last for years to come. Car Games are always a life saver.
Songs It is second nature to me to sing in the car while driving. My dad always sang with us when I was a child when we drove places. It is one of my favorite memories. We would sing old songs like "I've Been Working on the Railroad" and "I've Got 6 Pence." I taught those to my children as well. With our kids, we would also put in tapes (in the old days) and now CDs and sing along to favorite oldies. Beach Boys and Beatles tunes were some of our favorites. Our kids loved having Mom and Dad join in singing with loud pizzaz and gusto as we drove down the road. Everyone laughed and had fun. Maps We traveled with our children before the days of GPS. So, we navigated using maps! It always surprises me to learn that people do not know how to read maps. It really isn't that difficult. My kids have GPS now, but they still look at maps as well. Reading maps is a very good skill to have and maps give you a better idea of the lay of the land and the area you are traveling in than simply by following a GPS voice. Don't get me wrong, there are some really good benefits to having better technology when it comes to traveling though. For one thing, because of social media, we have a lot more access to tools and ideas that will help kids have more fun on trips and to help families create more memories together. For one thing, we can go to Etsy and find great travel game printables! Or, for your next Disney trip, this Disney Would You Rather Game will keep everyone happy until you get there. My husband and I were just settling down after his Father's Day festivities and we were talking about some short trips that we would like to take, as well as a couple of long ones! I'm starting to love the idea of his retirement coming soon and the time we can spend together. I as so glad that we still love being together and spending time doing things that we enjoy.
Are you planning any road trips this summer? We would love to hear your plans! What are your favorite ways to pass the time as you drive? Leave a comment and let us know!
This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase after clicking them, we will be compensated, but there is no additional cost to you. All opinions expressed are our own. Thank you for your support.
News Flash! Father's Day is this Sunday! If you forgot to take advantage of our awesome list of Father's Day gift ideas that we gave you on this post, never fear, there is still time to help your totally awesome dads in your life actually feel totally awesome! For Friday Faves today, we are sharing some of our best last minute ideas and printables for all of our fellow procrastinators!
There are tons of cute things to be found on Etsy! If your dad has a sweet tooth, here is a cute way to give him a candy bar and a message about how great he is as well! And here is a list of tons of other printables from Etsy's vendors.
One of my favorite bloggers who does beautiful free printables is Kristi from I Should Be Mopping the Floor! Her stuff is so cute and much of it is free!
Here at 3 Winks Design, we have created a couple of our favorite sayings as printables as well. If you would like to print these off to use for your Father's Day wishes, just click the buttons.
Of course, you have to make the breakfast to go with the breakfast in bed pack, and don't forget the candy bars to wrap with the special wrappers.
Maddy suggested making Dad a bucket of small things that he love, like socks, peanuts and other little things that make your Dad happy. LIndsey has a tradition of making her dad a giant cookie and decorating it. She can add one of the above printables and make it even more special! With time so short, many dads would be super happy with an Amazon Gift Card! They can be delivered through a text or email within 5 minutes of ordering them! Or, a subscription to something that they will love would be something that they an be notified of by Father's Day,and then reap the benefits all year long. Here are a few suggestions: For the Dad who loves to cook: So, be creative and give Dad all the love he deserves this Father's Day! Make it a wonderful day!
This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase after clicking them, we will be compensated, but there is no additional cost to you. All opinions expressed are our own. Thank you for your support.
This post was originally written for Memorial Day last year. It has been a busy, crazy time for my girls and I the past few weeks, so I didn't get to repost this for you in time for Memorial Day this year. We all spent that weekend much differently than we did last year, but we did take the time to remember the meaning of this holiday. Since it will only be a few weeks until July 4th, this post is still appropriate and I hope that you can use some of the ideas and inspiration that I shared.
Memorial Day and Independence Day are special to me. There are many veterans in my family and one of my Uncles gave the ultimate sacrifice as he trained to help keep our land free. It nearly broke my Dad's heart for him to lose his brother and he kept the newspaper clipping in his wallet for the rest of his life. My Dad served in WWII and rarely spoke of his experiences there. While traveling with my husband lately, he talked to me about his time in Viet Nam, recalling some frightening moments there and I am so grateful that his life was preserved. I am so grateful for the freedoms that we have that have been bought with a tremendous price throughout history and for those who continue to sacrifice so much to serve and defend in this world of turmoil. It does seem odd that we celebrate such a sober holiday as Memorial Day with backyard barbecues and swim parties. But, it is because of those who fought and died for our freedom that we are able to do the things we do the way we do them. We can travel from state to state without hindrance. We can buy the food that we want to eat. We can celebrate the way we want to celebrate and observe our religious customs in any way we choose to do so. This is not the case in many places in the world. What a glorious blessing it is to live in this free country. To prepare for a Patriotic Celebration, with swimming, grilling and family, I headed to Dollar Tree to pick up most of what I needed. I was so excited about the things I found there to help get everyone ready for the patriotic holidays. Here are the things that I brought home with me!
, One of the things that caught my eye right away was, of course, the sparkly beaded ribbon. (You can see it in the photo above.) They had it in red, white & blue! I knew I had to do something with it! If you buy a supply of it on line, there are 32 rolls of ribbon in a case. I picked up 3 rolls at the Dollar Tree in my neighborhood. I decided that I would make a printable with a saying that I love to put on display in our tablescape. Here is what I did, click on the pictures:
You can download and copy the print for your own use by clicking the button.
Our family likes to celebrate with a barbecue and for dessert, some ice cream is in order! Look at the ideas I got from walking into Dollar Tree!
I love the battery powered star light strands that I put on the tiered server! You can't beat the price. If you want to order a case, there are 24 in a case!
If you have a large family, you can order all of your supplies online and have them delivered for free to your local store. Just go to the Dollar Tree website to check it out.
These ideas would be great for July 4th as well! Here is a slide show with some images just to give you an idea of what I did. I will expand on this at the family party.
The end result of an ice cream sundae was so delicious! It looked good and tasted good! I think that the end result speaks for itself!
I think the ice cream bar is going to be a hit, with a little help from Dollar Tree!
Like our free printable? There are more available to you when you subscribe to us on the newsletter.
Hope you are having a cool summer so far! |
Creators of Hot Cocoa Bombs! (copyrighted)
Author
Helen Reynolds: Mother of six children , grandmother to eleven! I love to cook, craft and create things and I especially love doing that with my family, So, when my lawyer daughter, Lindsey, my artist daughter, Madalynn, and I came up with the idea of Hot Cocoa Bombs, this blog was born. Then, one more daughter, with her technical and science skills, plus creativity has joined in to round us out! Read more about us here! Archives
March 2024
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