Best Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

Best Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe
Makes about 4 dozen

• 3 Cups All-Purpose Flour
• 1 Tsp Baking Soda
• 1 Tsp Salt
• 1 Cup (2 sticks) Butter (room temperature)
• 1 1/2 Cup Light Brown Sugar (tightly packed)
• 1 Cup Sugar
• 3 Tsp Vanilla Extract
• 2 Eggs (room temperature)
• 1 Bag Chocolate Chips (sem-sweet, milk, dark, your choice)

1. Adjust baking rack to top rack and preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Mix flour, baking soda and salt together in a seperate bowl
3. Cream the butter and sugars together on low speed with a stand mixer (using a paddle attachment) for about 3 minutes. Make sure you scrape the sides of the bowl as you go. 
4. Add the vanilla and eggs and beat on low speed for 15 seconds until just blended. (don't over-blend)
5. On low speed, add the flour mixture. Add a 1/2 a cup at a time and beat until blended, still scraping the sides as you go.
6. Add the chocolate chips and mix together using a thick spatula or wooden spoon.
7. Using an air-bake cookie sheet or a regular cookie lined sheet with parchment paper or silicone mats, spoon the dough, using a large cookie scooper or a tablespoon, 2 inches apart onto the prepared baking sheets.
8. Bake for 11-13 minutes or until golden brown around the edges but still soft, almost underdone-looking, in the center. To ensure even baking, turn the sheets front to back and switch racks halfway through.
9. Remove the sheets from the oven and carefully slide the parchment or silicone mats directly onto a work surface. When cookies are set, remove them to a cooling rack. Wait at least 5 minutes before serving or 20 minutes before storing in an airtight container for up to 3 days at room temperature.

Side notes

These are the world's best homemade chocolate chip cookies, hands down. Any time I make a batch I have to make at least 4 batches because everyone wants some. My coworkers, my honey's coworkers, some for the neighbors, etc. I hear I'm famous for my cookies. Seriously. 

Weed your Garden with a Screwdriver! (The Easy Way!)

What You'll Need:

Weeds
Long Flat Head Screwdriver

How To:

1- Plunge the screwdriver into the dirt about 3-4 inches deep at a 30-45 degree angle aiming towards the group of weeds you're looking to pull up

2- Wiggle the screwdriver in an up and down motion until your dirt starts to pull up in a clump

3- Pull out the screwdriver

4- Grab the dirt surrounding the group of weeds you're looking to pull up and twist up, bringing the weeds up with you. Doing this will pull up the loosened weeds along with the root! Shake the excess dirt off the weeds and toss them into your yard waste bin!

Mini Chicken Pot Pies

Mini Chicken Pot Pies

Yields: 16 pies
Prep time: 15 minutes
Cook time: 14-17 minutes

Ingredients

• 2 Cans Jumbo Flaky Biscuits (the kind that make 8 biscuits each)
• 1 Large Chicken Breast
• 1 1/2 Cups Frozen Mixed Vegetables
• 1 Can Cream of Celery Soup
• 1/3 Can Chicken Stock
• Shredded Cheddar Cheese
• 1/2 Tbs Butter
• Garlic, Salt, Pepper (to taste)
• Non-Stick Cooking Spray

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Cut Chicken breast into small cubes. Cook thoroughly in a pan with butter and garlic.
3. Heat soup and chicken stock in a saucepan until blended into a gravy consistency.
4. Mix chicken, vegetables and soup/stock "gravy" together in a bowl.
5. Flatten biscuits and form into cupcake tins
6. Spoon filling into each cup, fill to the top and even out.
7. Top with cheddar cheese
8. Bake in preheated oven for 14-17 min

Enjoy!

Mason Jar Candle Holder

How cute are these candle holders? Mason Jars. Twine. Lace. Daisies. Fabulous. They look amazing at night on the front porch. Ahh. I love adding a little south to my house! 

Wanna see how I made them?

DIY:

1- Grab a mason jar! (Or spaghetti jar)

2- Grab some pretties! (Lace, ribbon, flowers, twine, rocks, beads)

3-Grab a candle!

4- Light and enjoy!

How I made mine:

 1- Hot glued ribbon around the jar

2- Wrapped twine around the top and tied into a bow at the front

3- Hot glued a daisy scrapbook embellishment to the front of the bow

4- Added some beads to the bottom of the jar and dropped a candle in

5- To light the candle I lit the end of a piece of uncooked spaghetti 

DIY Wedding Cupcake Toppers

Mr. and Mrs. Cupcake Toppers

(Tutorial)

Makes 12

How To:

1- Cut out (24) 1 1/2 in circles using a cricut cutter (I used Elegant Edges {Circle 4}

2- Cut 6 Cake Pop sticks in half

3-Embellish your circles (This can be done before or after step 4)

4- Hot glue one half stick to the back of a circle, and dab hot glue on the front of the stick and a dot above, to the right and to the left. Add a second circle on top of your glue

Done!

Stick in your cupcakes and enjoy!

Regrow Vegetables From Kitchen Scraps

You can regrow nearly anything with just a little bit of love and water!

Romaine Lettuce

When you're done preparing your lettuce for your meal, make sure you save the very end part (the bottom of the heart) and place it in a glass of water. Set it on a windowsill near some sun. In just about a week you should see some new baby lettuce sprouting up! Make sure you change the water every few days or so. 

Green Onions (Scallions)

When you're done preparing your onions for your recipe, save the end part (the white 'root' part) and place them in some water and set the glass on a windowsill near some sunshine. Make sure the roots are facing down. Green onions are about the easiest food to regrow, and will sprout up in about a week. Again, just like the lettuce, make sure you change the water every few days or so as well.

Tips from my kitchen:

You can regrow vegetables (or any kind of plant, really) in water alone. However, it is always best to give plants nutrients through the soil. I like to start my plants or veggies in water on the window sill then take them outside into soil once they start sprouting (or rooting)

Hope you enjoyed! Thanks for reading! Please share if you think your friends might like this too!

(Pin, Share, etc. below!)

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes
Yields: 24 Cupcakes

Ingredients

• Chocolate Cake Mix
• 1 Cup Butter, softened
• 1 Cup Creamy Peanut Butter
• 2 Cups Powdered Sugar
• Peanut Butter Chips (to taste)

Directions

Prepare chocolate cake mix per box instructions, adding peanut butter chips to the batter. Fill your cupcake tins and bake accordingly.

Frosting

Beat butter and peanut butter together with a mixer. Gradually mix in the sugar. Beat for at least 3 minutes or until fluffy. (You can add additional butter, peanut butter, powdered sugar, or even milk if the frosting is not to your liking.)

Free Shopping List Printable

(Click the photo to download and print)

Free Shopping List Printable!

Check out the newest free printable I made using Google Drive's Drawing App! It's yours to use, if you think anything can be added to it, let me know!

Thanks for stopping by!

Passion Tea Lemonade Skinny Recipe

Skinny Starbucks Copy-Cat Passion Tea Lemonade
Makes 4 Quarts

5 Calories per serving!

Ingredients

• 4 Passion Tea Bags
• 1 Pouch of sugar free lemonade mix (the kind that makes 1 quart)

Directions

 Boil 4 cups of water and steep tea. Add lemonade mix. Add another 1 quart of water. If it's a bit tart for you or not sweet enough you can add some splenda or other sugar substitute. 

Serve over ice!

Cat Card Tutorial (Cricut)

How Cute!

This simple cat card was made with the help of my favorite paper crafting tool, the Cricut. I used the Doodlecharms cartridge to get the cat face, whiskers and nose. I even cut out a little mouse and put it on the inside of the card!

Gather Materials

What I Used:

• Cricut
• Doodlecharms Cartridge
• Cardstock
• Darice Permanent Adhesive Roller (I swear by this product- I LOVE it! Everything sticks so well!)
• Double-Sided Adhesive Foam Squares
• Ribbon
• Pom-Poms (small)
• Button Brads
• Brad Hole Punch
• Cricut Tool Kit

Making Your Card

First

Using your cricut, pre-cut two cat faces using the shadow button. (I made mine the same size [3in] but you can make the background head larger if you'd like. I liked just the pop of color from behind so I used both 3 in heads. 

Also, grab 2 pieces of cardstock (your choice- but I like to make one plain so it's easier to write on the card on the inside) Cut to the desired length ( I made mine 8 1/2 x 11 for the card base and  made the card cover 8 1/2  x 10 1/4- to give a little room for the ribbon I added at the bottom) Glue the two pieces of cardstock together and press down on the fold to make your card.

 

Next

Add embellishments to your cat

1- Glue the whiskers and nose you cut out to the face, Poke holes for the eyes using one of your cricut tools (the hook works well- you can skip this step and just use a pen to mark the eyes), Punch the holes with your brad punch, Insert the brads for the eyes

2- Add double-sided adhesive foam to the back of the cat to add height and dimension to your face

3- Glue the cat face to the card and add some ribbon if you'd like and DONE!

This is all yours! Create it how you want it!

Envelope

You can add a bow closure to your envelope to add a fun touch!

How I did it:

1- Glue the ribbon to the card

2- Punch holes in the top flap of the envelope

3- Thread ribbon through and tie!

Kielbasa and Cabbage Skillet

Kielbasa and Cabbage Skillet
Serves 4-6
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 13-14 minutes

Ingredients

• Olive Oil
• 2 pounds polska kielbasa, cut into pieces
• 1 head cabbage, chopped
• 1 large onion cut into pieces
• Garlic
• Sugar
• Salt
• Pepper
• Old Bay Seasoning
• Mustard

Directions
Spray or coat a large nonstick pan with olive oil and set at medium-high heat. Add kielbasa slices. Cook for about 3-4 minutes. Remove from pan and set aside

In the same pan (do not rinse or drain)  add the cabbage and onion. Season to taste with garlic (about 1 1/2 tbs), sugar (just a pinch), old bay seasoning, salt, and pepper (a few shakes each). Stir to combine and cook for  10 minutes. Add a squirt or two of mustard (any flavor) and add the sausage back to the pan and cook for another 2 minutes to heat through.

This dish is great served over wide egg noodles or mashed potatoes. My honey likes it by itself too!

How To Make Free Computer Art

How To make this print for FREE on Google Drive

1. Open 'Drawing' (program) in Google Drive- If you don't have a Google account, I highly recommend getting one. You can use so many of their features and programs all free!

2. Find Your State- go to google.com and search for your states. Below you can see how to search for transparent only images. This will help make sure there is no background in the way. I use this search feature all the time when searching for embellishments for photos. 

3. Insert Your States- Add your states to your page by uploading and inserting a photo. (You can also just copy and paste from the web if that's easier)

4. Add Hearts- Add hearts to where the city/cities you lived (This will be our starting point for our scribble dotted lines!)

5. Draw Dotted Lines- In order to make these lines, use the scribble line feature (don't worry about making your scribbles perfect, they automatically smooth them out for you!) Make the line then make the lines dotted by using the line dash drop down menu. 

6. Add Text- You can make this say anything you want, just add a text box and edit the text, size and font!

If you have any questions or need help creating your own, send me an email! I would love to hear from you and I'd be more than happy to help!

Thanks,

Katie Lynn

Ps! Don't forget to follow my blog for more ideas, tips and tricks!

Another example:

Coleus Care (Tips and Tricks)

Colorful Coleus

Coleus plants are by far one of the easiest plants I've worked with. They are so beautiful and come in many different colors. They can grow in full sun, shade, anything works well. You just have to adjust your watering schedule accordingly.

Tips and Tricks:
(From a new-found green thumb---you can have one too!)

1. Water, water, water. Coleus love water, so make sure they get plenty. A little miracle grow in the water will help, too. (But that really goes for any plant you're growing.)

2. Pinch the leaves. When coleus starts to grow larger, two tiny baby leaves with pop up at the top. Pinch them both off and four will grow in its place! (This helps your coleus grow nice and large and bushy!)

3. Start new seedlings. You can trim off stems of your coleus (about 4-6 inches worth) and place it in a small glass of water that's near bright, but indirect sun. Once you see roots growing off your clipping you can transplant them into some moist, damp soil.

Enjoy!

Twine Pears Tutorial

I love a good three step anything! Recipe, craft, you name it. This is pretty self explanatory, and you can't really go wrong with it. As you can see my twine was not wrapped perfectly around my light bulbs, but that's okay! Pears don't have a perfect shape anyway. It helps them look less like a light bulb wrapped in twine!

Try something new! Let me know how it goes! I would love to hear from you! I'm always looking for new tips and tricks for decorating on a budget.

Enjoy!

Thanks for viewing and don't forget to follow my blog for more tips and tutorials!

Loss of a Furry Family Member

When a furry family member passes away...

Here's how I'm trying to make it a little less hard. (I know how hard it is, and my thoughts are with you if you're going through this.)

Make it Special

Even though it's hard and you're sad, try to remember the best things. The great times you got to share with your pet. Use photos to create a collage or scrapbook page or even print some photos to hang in frames as a reminder of the love you shared. If you have other pets in the home or children, you can use this time to include photos of the rest of the family too, create these projects and new memories together. Having a creative outlet can take your mind off the giant gallon bucket of ice cream you'd like to dive right into. (Trust me, I know the feeling.) It can also bring a family closer together by spending time enjoying each other's company.

--- The collage today was on Fotor. Check out my blog review here.

And don't forget to follow my blog!

Best Photo Free Editing Software (And Review)

Fotor - Photo Editor

So I've been trying to find the best photo editing software out there that is (of course) free.  Fotor.com is the best one I've found thus far. It has all the great features that I look for, basic editing like croping, fine-tuning, and it has advanced options (that are still free) like blemish fixes, red-eye remover, [it even has lip tinting  mascara, eye shadow, wrinkle remover, smoothing, reshaping, and so much more, still free] all while having an easy to use, clean cut interface.

What really caught my attention was the "try it first" demo/thing. When I first went to the page it didn't bombard me with popups making me sign up or anything like that, I could just go and try the website and see how I liked it (which made it helpful because this wasn't the first website I went to) It gave me some of their pictures in the 'basket' for me to try out on the canvas. It didn't take me long to scan all the features before I stopped my search. This was the one. Plus, you can upload photos from your computer, dropbox, facebook, picassa, flickr, webcam or the web. 

The program also has a free app for your smartphone that you can download and edit from there as well! They still have some great features available (all free) [not as many on the web, but that can be expected]

Here is a photo I edited from the smartphone app!

(After)

(Before)

Enjoy!

Try something new, you'll like it! Don't forget to follow my blog for more tips, tricks and ideas! :)

Weekend Beach Date!

Our Day at the Beach!

 We had such an amazing day at the beach yesterday! It was great to have a day all to ourselves and enjoy some relaxation by the ocean.

Breakfast

They day started off by making some fresh banana muffins for breakfast. They were just too good! Along with our muffins we made some eggs and sausage. 

(Click the photo to see how we made these muffins!)

Ready to Jump in!

I had everything all packed (Towels, blanket, dry clothes, a zipper pouch to hold sunscreen, lip balm, etc, and a bag for wet suits all in one big bag [a Thirty-One Large Utility Tote- I highly recommend]). My honey likes to say the women in my family like their bags, totes and 'containers for containers'.  I like it. Organization is a good time! We also packed a thermal tote with some fresh fruit, veggies and sandwiches and made sure it would stay cool with frozen water bottles (Those came in handy with the warm weather!)
Once we got to the beach we laid out our blanket and headed right for the water. We had an excellent time swimming (even though my bathing suit bottoms kept falling off me!) [Oh well- gives me an excuse to buy a new one with the Real Women Lane Bryant Dollars I earned last shopping trip! Oh and I can't wait for more of the T3 Capris!- I'll make sure to post my curvy girl shopping experience with you all! I know sometimes shopping can be a bit of a pain..]
After we were done swimming we went back to our blanket and enjoyed some nice cold fresh fruit and laid out in the sun for a bit. We even had some time for my honey to fly her kite! It was such a beautiful day!

Can't wait for our next Weekend Beach Date!

Try something new, you'll like it! Don't forget to follow my blog for more tips, tricks and ideas! :)

Daily Schedule Freebie!

Hey Everyone! I made this! Click the link to take you to the editable page! And it's yours as a freebie to use and edit all you'd like! With the ever-amazing Google Drive, I created this daily schedule to share with you! You can add it to your drive by copying it or you can save it as a PDF and print it out each day! (Or better yet- print it out, use a page protector on it and use dry erase to edit it daily! Now there's an idea!) I have a copy of this template from the 'Drawing' app in Google Drive, and I edit my daily schedule there. Maybe one day I'll share my schedule with you, who knows! Guess you'll have to start following my blog to see more!

Five Things Friday

Five Things I'm Loving Lately

1. Google. All of it. Blogger is how I'm able to be writing here today, and I'm loving it. Google drive has been incredibly helpful with my job in creating documents, presentations, and spreadsheets to help organize and have immediate communication within the business. Also, Google+ has been amazing in keeping track of all my photos and being able to access them from anywhere, all synced with my phone. That brings me to numbers 2 and 3.

2. My phone. The Samsung Galaxy Note 3. It's brilliant. The screen is huge, the storage space is massive, I totally love the S pen, the camera rocks, and to go with number 1, everything is synced with Google. My calendar, photos, contacts, everything. I love it.

3. Chevron. Hence the chevron in my "Five Things Friday" banner. I'm in love with my phone case, and my shirts to match! (PS- Check out those awesome curvy girl capris from Lane Bryant. They're called T3. More on those later!-make sure you follow my blog!) Anything in chevron I've been wanting lately. It's a popular pattern all throughout the south and I LOVE it.

4. Incense. I've never burned incense until I met my partner. She had brought some back from the store one day and every since then I've been obsessed. They are just so relaxing, and they smell so good! Plus, down here you can go to little flea markets or country stores and find some home made. Gives me a good excuse to go shopping (treasure hunting)! As a matter of fact, I went today to the peddler's mall!

5. Strawberries. (I think you can tell from my blog post "Strawberries everywhere!") Mmm, so good.

Unitl next Five Things Friday! Enjoy! And I hope this inspires you to start your own blog and post a Five Things Friday section! It's fun, you'll like it!

Chicken And Veggies over Rice

 

Chicken and veggies over rice

Mm. Okay so we had chicken and rice two days in a row. It's alright. 

Today we had chicken, green peppers, tomatoes and onions over plain white rice.

I sliced the veggies and cut up the chicken, then I heated a pan to medium heat and added a tablespoon of butter,  some salt, pepper and fresh garlic and threw the chicken on top and cooked the chicken until it wasn't pink anymore. (It will brown up a bit with the veggies

Then I added the veggies to the same pan and stirred 'em up making sure they were cooking evenly and getting nice and tender, yet staying crisp. 
While the veggies were cooking I prepared the rice by the instructions on the box, but added a little bit of salt and pepper. While the rice is steaming, let the chicken/veggie pan cook down until it looks like the last photo above. 

Below you can see my honey's lunch that I packed for her (grilled chicken, zucchini and squash with some white rice) from the dinner that we made together yesterday. 

We added some seasoning to the chicken (just some Old Bay seasoning sprinkled on top), threw it on the grill, and she sliced the veggies and put them on some foil with some butter (Yes, butter again, but just a little goes a long way, I promise!- Ps. nobody's perfect. enjoy some butter.) When they were almost done she took them off the foil and let them get those little grill marks on the veggie strips (Mm!) 

We served it with some white rice and egg. I made the rice according to the box but added a bit of salt and pepper. I heated a small pan and threw in some fresh garlic and chopped scallions (green onions- the green and the white parts) then added an egg and scrambled it, then added it to the rice.

 I also attempted a "Yum Yum" sauce recipe from my pinterest board but we're two northern girls with miracle whip instead of mayo and it just didn't work out too well. Next time I'll get some mayo and try again. If it turns out, I'll post the recipe :)

Strawberries everywhere!

We're getting back into being healthy and what a perfect way to do it than with some fresh summer fruit. Mmmm. Home grown are so much tastier! We've put them in smoothies, and cereal, and munched on some for snacks. Her first smoothie was fresh strawberries, ice, and greek yogurt. That's it. And she said it was super tasty! I made one (not pictured) with strawberries, kiwi, banana ice and lime flavored sparkling water. Mine was kind of a slushy rather than smoothie but mmmm it was good too! Just tonight for a snack while I work I had some corn flakes and a little bit of dark chocolate granola with sliced strawberries on top. (No milk, yuck! Also why there was no yogurt or milk in my "smoothie") I even measured the cereal by suggested serving size. So proud! Anyway... Hope this post was inspirational! All you gotta do is try something!

First Post :)

I am so very excited about my new blog! Here you will find everything from tutorials, printables, recipes, money saving tips, to fitness and curvy girl inspiration all from this rockin' work from home "house wife". My partner playfully named my daily activities "house-wivery," hence the blog name. I look forward to sharing my days with you! I'll be posting quite a bit for the next few days as sort of "catch-up" to all the photos I've been taking and recipes I've been gathering. I'm working right now and decided to take a break from the aggravating online program and create this blog! I've been thinking about a way to express myself and share my thoughts, so here I am! Hope you enjoy!