EnjThere are times for the fancy dinners where you spend 4+ hours cooking in the kitchen, and then there are the days where you don't feel like lifting a finger.  Sheet pan dinners are a quick and easy way to whip up a delicious dinner for the entire family with very little clean up.  Throw your favorite vegetables, fish or chicken and some slightly boiled potatoes onto a sheet pan, season well, and cook in the oven.  I used salmon, patted them dry and seasoned with salt, pepper, and paprika on both sides. For the potatoes, I boiled them for about 5-7 minutes first which helps them cook faster in the oven.  They'll be nice and crispy on the outside and soft on the inside.  I opted for broccoli and added a few onions, salt and pepper.  If your broccoli is frozen, make sure they've been thawed well and water drained thoroughly.  Put everything in the oven at 375 degrees and cooked for about 45 minutes.  This meal is 100% toddler approved and delicious! Enjoy it

A simple and delicious cocktail, perfectly festive for the holiday season!  This recipe was inspired by a fellow IGer Amber (Amberlights_home).  Recipe is very easy to make and one that can be tailored to your liking.  I personally used brandy, but vodka and even Chambord can be used instead.  

-Raspberries
-Glitter sugar to rim the glasses (I used a mix of gold and white glitter sugars)
-1 wedge of lime
-1oz pomegranate juice
-1/2 cup Prosecco
-1oz Brandy (or Chambord or vodka)
-1-2 scoops raspberry sorbet
-Mint leaves for garnish 
Start by lining the rims of your glasses with the wedge of lime.  Swirl the rims of the glasses in the glitter sugar to line the glasses.  Next, scoop the sorbet into the glasses.  Add Prosecco, brandy, and raspberries.  Next, add the pomegranate juice and garnish with the mint.  Cheers!

 It was so much fun creating this little winter wonderland village.  A little styrofoam and fuzzy yarn and voila!  I searched everywhere for these styrofoam cones and was lucky to find two because they were sold out everywhere or were to be delivered after Christmas which does me no good.  And because I wanted several cone trees, I ended up using construction paper which works just as well.  Rolled the construction paper up into a cone and glued cardboard to the bottom for leverage and sturdiness.  From there, I used my glue gun to glue the yarn around each cone and wrapped it several times to avoid gaps.  A nice and unique twist to making Christmas trees!  When creating this, you can tailor it to your liking.  One suggestion I have is to create trees of different sizes to create depth and dimension  and also use different yarn textures to keep things interesting.  Think of a theme and create!  My kids loved playing with this, although I took out the foam ball filler beforehand.  I didn't want to clean up that mess.  Ha!  Head over to my Instagram reels to see the step-by-step process.  

-Yarn (I got mine from Michael's.)
-Styrofoam cones or construction paper.  Varying sizes
-Tape
-Hot glue gun
-Bottle brush foam trees (any of your liking)
-Any Christmas figurines that you'd like to add to your wonderland.  
-Styrofoam ball filler (for the snow)

-Whole milk
-1 teaspoon sugar
-Any of your favorite hot chocolate (if you're using the sweetened kind, skip the sugar above)
-Marshmallows (optional)
Mix up the powdered hot chocolate, sugar, and about a tablespoon of milk until a creamy mixture forms.  Add the rest of the milk to fill your cup.  I prefer to toast the marshmallows just until slightly golden and then add them to the hot chocolate.  Warm up the hot chocolate in the microwave with the toasted marshmallows so that they become incredibly soft.  Keep in mind that toasting the marshmallows isn't necessary, but I do recommend warming up the hot chocolate in microwave with the marshmallows to make them nice and soft.  Enjoy!

The temps have dropped on the east coast and it's the perfect time to set up a hot cocoa bar for yourself and/or family to snuggle up and cozy indoors!  Put your favorite treats together to create a sweet and delicious table.  Here I included marshmallows, chocolate chips, candy canes, chocolate baton cookies, donuts, and chocolate chip dunking cookies.  My kids finished their dinner so quickly in anticipation of dessert! Check out my recipes to see how I made the hot chocolate with marshmallows to be absolutely perfect.  Happy Holidays!

I'm so excited that I finally got a new waffle maker!  We love homemade stuff around here so I tweaked my pancake batter a bit to make these delicious waffles.  I swapped out the buttermilk that I normally use for pancakes and used regular milk instead.  I also love how we can change the settings on this waffle maker to brown the waffles to our liking.  So easy and delicious!  Plus, I have a trick for making these waffles extra fluffy!

-2 cups all-purpose flour
-1 tablespoon baking powder
-2 tablespoons granulated sugar
-1/4 teaspoon salt
1 and 3/4 cup milk
-1/4 cup canola oil
-2 eggs (separate the yolks from the whites)
Mix the dry ingredients together and set aside.  In a separate bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients (milk, oil and egg yolks).  Add these wet ingredients to the dry and combine without overmixing.  Lumps are okay.  In another separate bowl, beat the egg whites with a mixer until they become stiff and peaks form.  Add the stiff egg whites to the waffle batter in two halves, folding it in.  This is the trick that makes the waffles extra fluffy and delicious!  Once all has been combined, add about half a cup of the batter to the waffle maker and spread evenly.  When done, the light will turn green.  Enjoy!