Avocado Egg Salad

Most work days I come home for lunch and have leftovers, but once in a while our nanny will prepare something for us. Her avocado egg salad is one of my favorites. It kind of a cross between guacamole and egg salad. It's so simple, why didn't I think of it before?

Here's what you need.



1 medium avocado
2 hard boiled eggs (chopped)
1/4 c chopped tomatoes
1/2 tbsp finely chopped red onion
1/2 tbsp finely chopped celery
Chopped cilantro (optional)
Juice of 1/2 of a lime
1/2 tsp garlic powder
Salt and pepper to taste

In a mixing bowl, mash your avocado, then add your eggs, tomatoes, onion, celery, and cilantro. Mix well, then add your lime juice, garlic power, salt, and pepper.



My nanny serves it as avocado tacos on her homemade tortillas, but we've added to our burgers, sandwiches, spread on toast, and used it as dip. Even my toddler loves it!

Enjoy!

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Father's Day Daycation

I must admit, I am so lucky to have Will as my husband. Not only is a great husband, he is a wonderful daddy to our little girl. Since he made my Mother's Day so special, I wanted to make sure he had a memorable Father's Day.

We started the day with a little breakfast and a homemade card.
It's amazing what you can do with apps these days. I used Turbo Collage to piece the many pics I've taken of these two all snuggled up.


Then I printed it and created this card...


(Note to self...invest in washable markers and hide the colorful Sharpie pens from Cora).

After breakfast and a nap for Cora, we packed up for a Daycation in Galveston (which is about 45 miles outside of Houston).

We lunched at Gaido's. Apparently this restaurant has been here since 1911. I don't know how it's survived all of those hurricanes.



Cora looking out to sea.



We decided to take the ferry over to Boliver Island. My gosh the line to get on the ferry was soooooo long. When we finally got to the loading zone. We had a chance to get out and stretch our legs. Thank goodness it was a "controlled area".



Before we went to Galveston, I read online how the kids love feeding the birds from the back of the ferry. I brought some leftover bread from our lunch and we headed to the back of the boat. Cora loves watching the birds out the window at home and i just knew she was going to love this. I start to throw the bread and instantly a huge flock of seagulls were hovering right over us. My face went from excited to sheer panic. These birds were ready to take that bread right out of my hand and peck our eyes out! Okay, okay, a little exaggeration, but I swear they were all saying, "Mine! Mine! Mine! Mine!" I ended up chucking the whole bread so we could escape. It was definitely a Finding Nemo/ The Birds moment!



Once we got away. We enjoyed the rest of our ride and a quick drive around the island






After a lovely day (minus the bird attack), we headed back on the ferry just in time to catch this beautiful sunset.



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Beating The Heat With A Watermelon Smoothie

Ahhhh Texas summers... They can be brutal. I found that a good way to beat the heat is a refreshing watermelon smoothie. The cute coffee shop around the corner makes wonderful watermelon smoothies, but they can be costly if I go throughout the whole summer. So why not make my own? All it took was:

A blender
2 C watermelon
1/2 C frozen watermelon
1/4 C crushed ice

Delicious!!!!



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Recipe: Easy Peasy Chicken Nuggets

You know that yummy, crunchy topping that makes your Thanksgiving green bean casserole taste so good? It also makes great chicken nuggets! Here's my recipe for Easy Peasy Chicken Nuggets.

Ingredients:
2 chicken breast or 5-6 boneless/skinless chicken thighs
1- 6 oz container of french fried onions
1 tbsp of flour
1/2 tsp garlic seasoning
Black pepper to taste
1 egg (slightly beaten)

Preheat oven at 350.

Pour the French fried onions in a large ziplock bag. Take out the air out of the bag so it'll be flat. With a rolling pin, roll over the bag and crush up those onions into small bits and pieces. Add your flour, garlic seasoning, and pepper in the bag and shake to mix it. The coating should look like this...




Slightly beat an egg and set aside. Cut you chicken into 1 inch pieces and then coat them with egg.



Then your chicken in your in the bag to coat each piece and place on a foil lined cookie sheet (it makes cleaning up a snap!)


Once all of the pieces are ready, you may notice that you have extra coating. Don't discard it. Go ahead and spoon the extra crunchy goodness on each chicken piece.




Bake for 20 minutes and they're done!


I'm not a big sauce fan, so I don't serve my nuggets with sauce. Honestly, I think these nuggets have so much flavor, you won't need it. They are always a hit when I've made them for guest. I hope you enjoy them too!

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DIY: Making Felt Cupcakes (Free Pattern & Tutorial)

Aren't these just adorable?  One of the things I love about making felt food is that it's easy, inexpensive, and so cute once they're done.  I made these as my daughter napped today. I also took lots of pictures and created a pattern so you can make some too.

Here is the pattern.  Cut the pattern out and trace it on to your felt. Then cut your felt pieces.  Your cupcake pieces look something like this...

Okay I know it looks like a happy face.  I placed it that way because it made me giggle :-)  As you can see, we are making a chocolate cupcake.  So you should have:

• cupcake bottom
• cardboard bottom
• cupcake top
• cupcake side

Take your cupcake side and overlap the two ends slightly.  It should look like this.. 

Sew the piece together using a whip stitch.  In case you don't know how to whip stitch by hand, here is a good video.  It's really easy and you can do this while watching t.v.  

Once that's done, you can sew the cupcake bottom to the cupcake side using the same stitch.  When you are done, it should look like this....

Next, sew the cupcake top on. About half way through, place your cardboard bottom on the inside of your cupcake.  This will help your cupcake stand.  No need to glue it on.  You will add the stuffing next and that will keep the cardboard in place.  Once you stuffed your cupcake, sew it shut.

Ice, Ice Baby!  Time to cut out some icing.

Once my icing pieces were cut, I went ahead and used fabric glue to place the icing.  You can sew this if you prefer. First glue Icing A, B, C, D, and the topping of choice all together.

Once the icing has been assembled, glue the entire top to the cupcake.  Allow to dry according to your fabric glue instructions (mine says 24 hours).

Viola!  Your cupcake is ready to be served at your child's next tea party.

I designed these cupcakes to be the same size as actual cupcakes, so you can put them in muffin tins or in cupcake liners.

Enjoy!

Take Me Out To The Ballgame

We took Cora to her first baseball game the other night. I think she was overwhelmed by the sights and sounds. We didn't get to stay for the entire game, but we had a great time. Here are a few pics from the night...













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Organizing A Hairy Situation

Cora's hair accessories were out of control. When she first started getting hair clips and barretts I'd put them in a little bowl on her dresser and it was fine. A year later, there were just too many for the little bowl, so I decided to organize it.




For my supplies, I used a plain 16 x 20 artist canvas, ribbon, and staples. I chose brown and golden yellow to coordinate with Cora's room.


I cut 6 stands of ribbon, each at 25 inches long. I then measured and stapled the ribbons 2 inches apart to the back of the canvas.



Staple the top and bottom and cut off any excess ribbon (if any) and the back should look like this...



Flip over and you're ready to add your hair accessories.



Have a great day!


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Yum Yum Dim Sum!

Back in December, we took Cora to The Children's Museum and stumbled across this little Asian play area.


It was the first time I had seen Chinese play food. I really wanted to buy a set for Cora, but they didn't sell it in the gift shop and I couldn't find a dim sum set online. I guess if I wanted her to have one, I'm going to have to make it. Here's how it turned out...

Siu Mai



Dumplings, Mini Egg Rolls, and Bao



Banana Leaf Sticky Rice





I really love how these turned out. I may have to make sets for my nieces and nephews.

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