Wow! I can't believe that we have already hit Friday Faves #72! It is kind of cool to like so many things! But, honestly, before today, I can't say that I have always been a big fan of trail mix. I saw on my calendar of unusual holidays that today is National Trail Mix Day. When I saw that, I thought ugh! What is there to say about that? To me, the best part of trail mix is the M&Ms! It always bugs me that when you get to the bottom of the bag of trail mix, all that is left are some crumbs of cereal and nuts. So, I got to thinking, what if I make a personalized trail mix that I will really love? And no, it can't be just the bag of M&Ms. It has to have other healthy stuff in it as well. Well, I began to poll my family to find out what their favorite ingredients are in trail mix and then I made our own personalized recipe for it! I will share it with you later in this post! Then, if our faves are your faves you can just use my recipe. If not, you can take your own poll make your own personalized trail mix recipe.

     After you make the mix, it is nice to package it up to either take hiking or to give away, or just to keep it fresh for snacking.  It won't last long.  Maddy and I have been munching on it all day.  That serves 12 thing is just a guideline.  But, here are some ways to package it before you eat it all. 

     So, Happy National Trail Mix Day! That is our personalized mix.  What would yours look like?  Let us know your favorite ingredients!
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      Come on, admit it! Everyone likes getting personal cards and letters in their mailbox.  And, when you give gifts, isn't it an extra bonus to get a beautiful, thoughtful greeting card to go with the gift? And handing someone a gift card to a store or restaurant just seems a little more personal when it is packaged in a nice greeting card with a message, rather than just handing them the gift card all by itself.  But, WOW! Have you checked the price on some of those greeting cards lately?  They are approaching the price of the gift in some cases! I would rather put the $4.00-$7.00 I could spend on a greeting card towards a nicer gift! 

       I know that some of you make your own cards.  My niece makes beautiful cards and she has all of the supplies to make such beautiful ones for every occasion. I have made a few, but I am just not that talented person who can spend that much time and effort and money on supplies to get a gorgeous product, (like she does), for all of the events where the cards would be given. I truly applaud all of you handmade card makers out there. Those handmade cards are a gift in and of themselves as they are pieces of art and worth every penny you might spend on them.  
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      But, I am a grandma with grandchildren who live in 3 states.  I love sending them greeting cards for various holidays and birthdays.  It means so much to them to get mail of their own.  That is why I am so excited to team up today with DollarTree and tell you about how they are saving my life (and my pocket book)!  Starting today, you will be able to purchase high quality Hallmark Cards at Dollar Tree for just $1.00 and in some cases, 2 for $1.00!  

     I know what you are thinking.  Hallmark Cards for 50 cents?  They must be some cheap knock-off version of the real thing.  But you are thinking wrong!  These are the real, high quality deal. The quality paper and the wonderful sentiments are all there. With hundreds of new greeting cards to choose from, you can celebrate every moment with your friends and family without breaking the bank!  I have to show you this adorable one that goes right along with our 3 Winks Design theme! 

     There are perfect cards for every occasion!  Look at these! 

Don't you love the big eyes on that cow?  And I love the sweet saying on the front of the blue baby card.  "tiny laundry, tiny shoes, tiny smiles,...great big news!"  I could just die over that!  And those are just a few of the 2 for $1.00 cards from the Heartline collection. 

     The Expressions from Hallmark line has bigger cards, or sometimes the licensed cards (like Disney)  that are also a terrific value at just $1.00 each!  Take a look! 

     Now, the big news is that today, August 30th, more of the Hallmark lines are also available!  You can find Mahogany, Vida, Tree of LIfe and joyfully yours collections all available at Dollar Tree! Here is a super sweet example from the joyfully yours collection:

     Have you ever stood for a really long time at the greeting card section of a store trying to pick out a card and finding it difficult to choose because so many of them touch you or make you laugh?  Now you can afford to buy more than one and save it for the perfect occasion!  I have to admit that I have gone a little nuts over being able to afford some great cards.  We have made a little video to kind of spoof my excitement.  Check it out here, we hope that you enjoy it! 

     With over 6,500 Dollar Tree stores, nationwide, I hope that there is one close enough for you to visit and stock up on some awesome greeting cards! You can also go to www.DollarTree.com to check out the details.  

     One great idea is to stock up on birthday cards and put them in an organizer so that you are ready to send your greetings out every month!  Now that Hallmark cards are so inexpensive at DollarTree, this is so doable.  Here is a cute organizer from Etsy, or come up with your own! Have fun getting ready to hand out all of your best wishes, with a lot of help from DollarTree and Hallmark! 

**This post contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links. ​  But, all opinions expressed are my own.

Alicia back again with a couple more Spanish recipes for you. One is actually Catalonian, so I'll say Iberian Peninsula recipes for you. 

This time I decided to do tapas. Tapas is a small portion of food that is enough to accompany a drink (according to the official Spanish dictionary). You can think of them like appetizers or bar food in America. They got their start long ago when King Alfonso X forbade taverns from serving wine without food to accompany it (to prevent drunkenness).This is how the name tapas came along. Tapas literally translates into cover or coaster. Before the royal decree, coasters were commonly placed over the drinks in order to keep bugs from drowning in the drinks. The little plates with the required food went on top of the cup instead. So the tapas were free at first and just small things like sausages, olives, and meats. But now it has evolved and is a national meal in Spain. You can find it all over.

I decided to stick to some basics and tried to get as much authentic Spanish food as possible, but I had to substitute in some Italian meats, Sorry Spain. I did get Spanish cheese though. I also don't own any small plates and didn't think of this until I was already home, so we just used our regular plates. 

For our tapas meal we had:

• Manchego Cheese
• Iberico Cheese
• Murcia Al Vino cheese
• Spanish Olives
• Kalamata  Olives
• Mushrooms
• Proscuitto
• Salame
• Coppa
• Dill and Sweet Pickles
• Toasted French Bread
• Pa amb Tomàquet (Catalonian)
• Garlic Shrimp

This bread was so simple to make, yet so delicious. I found out about it because my friend posted on facebook about tomato sandwiches. She has some Spanish friends who commented that this is a popular way to eat tomatoes and bread in Spain. 

It is very simple to make.

1. You take a rustic crusty bread (I used French Bread). Cut it in half and toast it.
2. Cut a piece of garlic in half and rub it all over the bread.
3. Take a garden fresh tomato and slice in half. Squeeze the juices and pulp over the surface of the bread until it is saturated. I used one whole tomato on one side of the bread. 
4. Sprinkle with olive oil and salt.

This was so GOOD YOU GUYS! And it took barely any time to make. If you have tomatoes coming in from your garden make this! so fast and easy! It's perfect. I saw pictures where the bread they used was much thinner, but I liked it like this too. I do wonder if I should have used more tomato though. 

​I only used the top half of the french bread, and just toasted the bottom half for us to eat the cheese and meat with.

I saw garlic shrimp on a lot of tapas lists. I didn't look up a recipe because I thought the name was the recipe. This is another one that is so simple, but delivers big time on flavor! I'm noticing that theme with Spanish food so far.

To make:

1. Heat skillet over medium-high heat and add a couple TBS salted butter.
2. When the butter is melted add in raw, peeled shrimp.
3. Add 4-5 minced cloves of garlic.
4. Sprinkle a little salt if desired. 
5. Cook until shrimp is done.

I didn't measure anything in this recipe, just kind of through it together. If you have extra garlic butter it's a great dip for the plain French Bread.

Overall, this meal was very fast to put together, especially if you're not trying to make it look nice for a picture (haha). And it's very filling. Of course it's not supposed to be a huge thing but be little meals to accompany your drink (we had ginger ale). But if you eat a lot of little meals, it makes a pretty big meal. This would be great to feed a crowd with. Try it and let me know what you think!

If you want to learn more about Spanish cooking and cuisine,Panna has a class that is 6 lessons for $59.99! It's called Modern Spanish Cuisine and is taught by Seamus Mullen of Tertulia. That's basically $10 a lesson. What a deal! It'd be a fun gift for your loved one who is a foodie.

**This post contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links. ​  But, all opinions expressed are my own.

     Just a couple of weeks ago, I shared with you my all time favorite rolls that I have ever made.  They are Potato Rolls.  Well, one of my goals for this year is to do more sprouted wheat baking.  It is a technique that I shared with you last year.  So, after I made the regular Potato Rolls, I decided to give them a try using sprouted wheat.
       I sprouted the wheat, dehydrated it, ground it into flour and gave the recipe a try.  (I feel like the Little Red Hen!)  Here is what I discovered:

• These rolls are much softer and lighter than any other totally whole wheat rolls I have eaten, but not as light as the ones made with white flour.
• The dough itself was stiffer than the white flour dough, making it take longer for them to rise. Because the dough was so much stiffer, next time, I will probably use about 1 c less flour that the recipe calls for.  
• The taste is still soft and delicious, just different from the white rolls.  They are extra good with honey! 

    A lot of people may feel like the sprouted wheat method is too time consuming, but really, you just put each step into place and go on your merry way.  I feel like the health benefits are worth it.  You can check out my article about this method here and here.  
    I am referring you back to the original recipe and all you have to do is change the type of flour that you use.  I hope that you will give these a try! 

We have a ton of bread recipes of all kinds on our blog!  Check out the Bread Pages here! 

Believe it or not, it is time to start thinking about the holidays and all of the baking you will want to be doing.  Be sure to click over to our Etsy shop and pick up our Bloggelicious Baking Printables to put together your own recipe binder filled with the new ones you find here and on Pinterest! 
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Click here to find out all about how this binder works!