day 268: chicken and apple salad

the chicken and apple salad

day 268 and i wanted something light and yummy for dinner that used some of the already cooked chicken i had in the fridge.  i found this recipe from budget bytes for a chicken and apple salad on my recipe must do's board.  it sounded ideal, not too filling (we had a big yummy lunch, thanks lana!) and semi healthy!

the recipe is for 6 people so i halved it as it was just for steve and i.  you simply add the chicken, roughly chopped apple, and cranberries to a bowl.  the original recipe also adds in a diced red onion, but as i am not overly keen on raw onion i omitted it.  then you make a simply dressing to toss it in using one of my favourite ingredients, dijon mustard :)

the ingredients

put the main ingredients in a bowl, mix the dressing together and you are good to dress and eat :)

the finished salad, it was really good :)

outcome:  one word, yummy ... if you wanted others you could use fresh, easy to make, very quick, delicious, crunchy, economically sound, nice on the palette, time friendly ... you get the picture.  the next time i am in need of using some cooked chicken and want something simple and fresh, this will be on my hit list first :)

my thanks to beth at budget bytes for a really good recipe nobody could mess up and one the peeps will happily eat if i ever wanted to share with them :)  will definitely be back to budget bytes for more recipes if this one is anything to go by!

outcome for day 267:  pollyanna's little friend is fairing so much better today and it was wonderful to see her and give her a big hug.  as for the chick flick gift, she seemed to love it and will no doubt spend some time using the contents tomorrow as she recovers!

day 267: chick flick survival gift

click flick goody bag for a little peep :)

day 267 and we have had a terrible start to this weekend :( pollyanna's best friend ended up in hospital last night with a really serious medical situation ... it was terrifying for polly and for us as we adore her, so i can't imagine what it was like for her parents.  a lot of things happened and in the end thanks to some awesome advice she has come out the other side and is recovering thank goodness.

we know she will be spending a lot of the next few days lying down getting back to full health so this chick flick goodies gift basket from heartland paper seemed like the ideal thing to give her!  the idea is pinned to my gift wrapping and gift ideas board.  polly went shopping with gusto collecting lots of her little friends favourites, chocolate, toys, favourite movie type, popcorn, a magazine, and some other little bits and pieces.

what we put in hayley's chick flick bag

the finished gift bag lined with tissue paper :)

outcome:  we will deliver it tomorrow but i know she will love it.  polly put so much thought into all that went inside so i am sure this little gift of polly's love will make her feel a little happier and help with the recovery


outcome from  day 266:  nicky loved the nuts and she left a note saying they had made her day :) AWESOME!

big thanks to  heartland paper  for their cool gift ideas, this one is perfect for so many occasions and for all age types making it a definite do again :)  ok, go to go, mum is off to singapore today to visit my sister :)

day 266: 'we're nuts about you'

a really cute, versatile gift :)

day 266 and i need a quirky little gift to give our real estate agent tomorrow ... i am sure she thinks we are nuts, but to be honest she is the best real estate agent we have ever dealt with and i am sure at some stage will sell our house for us, especially with all the effort she puts in.  i am VERY aware it's not often you can say this about a real estate agent, we have had some real duds in the past!  anyway, she did some special things for us over the last week so this gift idea from debbie at the happy scraps seems like the perfect little gift for acknowledging her hard work :)  the idea is also pinned to my gift wrapping and gift ideas board on pinterest.

i decided on layering a selection of nuts, made a funky tag, added an angel charm my sweet friend dee made, some ribbon ... and we were good as done :)

the bits and bobs

the filled jar .. i love nuts, i hope she doesn't have any nut allergies  : 0

done, complete with ribbons, tag, and angel :)

outcome:  i'll let you know tomorrow, but i already have four other people who are all happy nuts i plan to gift these jars to also!

my sincere thanks to debbie at the happy scraps for this cool idea that has whimsy and gratitude written all over it, love it and so versatile for so many different occasions :)

day 265: picasso helps me put a mini art gallery together :)

100 days to go, 100 days to go, la la lala la la, 100 days to go :)

ok now i have that off my chest, welcome to day 265, and it has taken me a while to get to this pinterest creation because i have never graffitied anything in my life before the size of a wall ... but i reckon this creation inspired from sarah's tumblr board and pinned to my home school projects board is totally worth it!  in fact, this is one of the first things i pinned about a year ago when i joined pinterest ... who knew then how i would come to depend on my friendship with this spectacular site ;)

any way, let us not get sidetracked from today's creation, where i take to the walls of our classroom with a sharpie and pretend like i am pablo picasso.  really nothing could be truer than the half quote i am writing on the wall from picasso,

every child is an artist

the man was an absolute genius as an artist, but when he opened his mouth it was mind blowing.  some of my favourite quotes come from this man, for example the other half of the quote above is,

the problem is staying an artist when you grow up

another of my absolute favourites is this one from picasso,

inspiration exists, it just has to find you working

ahhh, the man speaks the truth, even when you don't want to hear it.  i have taken so long to put up an art space on the wall as i knew the only way i could achieve it was to hand write it and i really didn't want to have my wonky handwriting on the wall for everyone to see :)  but as the team at pinterest says, 'done is better than perfect' and they are totally right.  the peeps have been churning out some awesome artwork over the last few weeks and they deserved the bare space on the wall to be turned into a mini gallery to show their wares off. so i set to with sharpie in hand and just DID IT :)

the before :)  yes, that is pinterest in on the laptop screen!

the after, before the artwork was installed!

the completed gallery, complete with it's first installations!~

outcome:  the artwork looks superb and the peeps are incredibly proud to have their own mini art gallery ... and they should be.  today was a lesson in getting over ones self and doing things as opposed to worrying about perfection.  i am absolutely certain picasso himself would have been proud of me today, even if aging has taken away my ability to be an awesome artist ;)

i would LOVE to thank the person who's original concept this is, but alas i can not find them :(  whoever you are, thank you.  it's creations like today,s that make you realise how little things like this can make your children's day, and it certainly did :)

day LEAP DAY! lets make cookies!

the spreadable, very edible cookies!

day LEAP DAY ... yes in my pinterest 365 this day is a bonus creation day!  didn't think to look ahead last year when i started and see how many days were in february, but as it turns out it's a bonus and i decided this sort of day deserved cookies :)  who am i kidding, the cupboards where borderline bare and the peeps and my husband are looking for goodies to snack on as the weather cools down for autumn.

this recipe is courtesy of mel's kitchen cafe.  after pinning this to my recipe must do's board, i went to check out the her website, this site is full of the most mouth watering yummy things, the pictures alone had me drooling!

the recipe does require the heavy machinery to be lifted out, but apart from that it's a straight forward recipe of just adding in the ingredients as the mixer goes around ... there is something mildly soothing about watching the mixer go around ... ... ... ... ... ... i must get more of a life, honestly ;)

the mix

outcome: these cookies SPREAD, and i mean SPREAD like wildfire .... off the tray and onto the next tray and onto the bottom of my oven (anyone want to come and clean it??).  so the next tray's i put in i gave the cookies more room and put less on the tray, that just gave my cookies the all clear to spread EVEN FURTHER!  ben was one happy chappy ... why?  ... as he was watching the oven while i was preoccupied he asked if he could have the biggest cookie, i said sure absent mindedly as often happens when it gets to the end of a busy day and i am over making sensible decisions.  HE was looking at this ....

the happy boy

i told him if he thought he could get dad to agree to go without a cookie, it was his ... he had no chance ... thank goodness!  he was proud enough to get one over me not to worry about my reneging!   there is no doubt, after the two i had this evening, these cookies are mighty tasty .. unfortunately for my waistline, but i will worry about that tomorrow!  if you can figure a way of not getting these to spread so far, these cookies taste so very, very good.  and if you don't mind the spread and a thinner cookie these are definitely a must make :)

my thanks to mel's kitchen cafe, i loved the taste of the cookies, if not the fact i now need to clean my oven!  luckily it's the taste i care about and i will definitely make them again, just to check i didn't go wrong with the recipe, which is always a definitely possibility!

day 264: ranch dressing mix

whip this lot together and you have your own homemade ranch dressing mix :) 

day 264 and i had a quandary until a few days ago.  a LOT of the recipes i was pinning to my recipe must do's board on pinterest called for a ranch dressing mix in the list of ingredients ...  no such thing have i found in new zealand, it's hard enough to find the tuscan seasoning ;)  this irked me no end because the recipes sounded so good and i wanted to try them! well wouldn't you know it, someone has done me a huge favour and pinned a homemade recipe for a ranch dressing mix to pinterest ... THANK YOU PINNERS!

so today's creation is to make the said ranch dressing mix from scratch so i can have it on hand to make, well, ranch dressing, but more importantly a whole pile of crockpot recipes that have it as a key ingredient!  now you are with me, right?  thankfully the clever erin from $5 dinners (which i now follow, who wouldn't!) gives us this recipe and the best part is it only has six ingredients~!  this took .. oh ... two minutes to make, amazing for a problem that was so serious.

the ingredients ... plus pepper

the finished ranch dressing mix :)  yes indeedy, these are happy days :)

outcome:  it's getting closer to autumn here and that crockpot is going to get some serious use over the coming months so no ranch dressing mix was becoming almost emergency status ... but alas if like me you can not find it at the grocers, you can now make it at home EASILY!  in the meantime, i couldn't wait to taste the flavour of this mix so i put it on the chicken we barbecued tonight and it was sensational ... yes, i love ranch dressing but not as much as i love my new favourite herb mix!

my biggest thanks goes to erin from $5 dinners for solving this major issue for me ... honestly where would i be without the lovely pinners of pinterest and people like erin who try to make the world a much better place for all of us ... my crockpot dinners for the coming season have been saved ;)

day 263: scrabble inspired easter trinket

the easter decor trinket inspired by all the scrabble tile ideas on pinterest!!

day 263 has arrived and one of my dear friends scared the beegeeze out of me today when she said it was only a month until easter ... holy *$*@*@;^% where is this year going?  anyway, while i mildly panic at the fact we haven't yet saved a bean for our 5 week trip away at the end of the year that is coming up WAY too fast,  i felt inspired to make some easter decor today to put out in a couple of weeks time.

if you have ever been on pinterest, you would know there is a big love of scrabble tiles for all kinds of uses including wall art, coasters, ornaments, trinkets, cupcakes, tags, necklaces, and most other things you can think off for the home! i have even made scrabble frame art for my niece and nephew as part of pinterest 365 :)  today i thought  i would kick it up a gear and use letter dice from a game i had as a child called word yahtzee to make a little sideboard easter trinket.

all you need for today's creation is some dice with letters not numbers and some craft glue.  then you use a sentiment and glue it all together ..

the word dice

the sentiment that fits with the word dice ... this is the hardest part!

let glueing commence!

the final trinket, finished and ready for when the easter décor goes up :)

outcome: REALLY easy,  but you have to admit cute!  i love little things like this for decor, understated but people are immediately attracted to them because it's made of something everyone can relate to .... and seriously whether you are good or bad at scrabble, who can't relate to it!

my thanks go to the MANY wonderful creations i have seen on pinterest using  scrabble tiles  ...  it totally inspired today's creation and that is what pinterest and my 365 challenge are all about :)