Summery Sweet Toffee Fruit Dip

Looking for a tasty summery treat? This sweet fruit dip is perfect! I want to thank Our Best Bites for the awesome recipe.
Ingredients:
• 8 oz. package of cream cheese (I used fat free cream cheese)

• 3/4 cup brown sugar

• 1/2 T vanilla

• 4 oz. toffee bits
• fruit for dipping

Allow cream cheese to soften to room temperature.

Once it's warm, combine cream cheese with sugar, brown, sugar, vanilla and toffee bits.

Serve with fruit. I used apples, pineapple and strawberries.

I brought this to work for a birthday celebration and it was completely gone by the end of the day! I was kinda hoping for leftovers for myself!

Linking up to:

Lighting the way to 2010

As you know, we bought into a "70's-chic" house. Right when we moved in, one of the things we knew we would be changing was all the brass. Nasty! Now that it's warm out, we decided to tackle the exterior sconces.

Here are the brass-tastic sconces before...

And the scary light by the back door...

And now our pretty new satin nickel sconces...

So much better and it makes a huge difference!

1 brass task down, many more to go!

Linking up to:

Show Me the Progress at Serenity Now

Tasty Almond Chicken & Spinach

One word: AMAZING! This recipe was SO good and I really recommend trying it for a yummy dinner. (adapted from Better Homes & Gardens)

Ingredients:
• 4 small skinless, boneless chicken breast halves (1 to 1-1/4 lb. total)
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 2 Tbsp. milk
• 1/2 cup finely chopped almonds
• 1/2 cup bread crumbs
• 2 t fresh rosemary
• 1/4 t salt
• 1 T vegetable oil
• 1 shallot, chopped
• 8 cups fresh spinach leaves
• 1/4 t salt
• Freshly ground black pepper

1. Place one chicken breast half between sheets of parchment paper. With flat side of meat mallet, pound chicken to 1/4- to 1/2-inch thickness. Repeat with the remaining breast halves.

2. In shallow dish, mix egg and milk. In another shallow dish, mix almonds, breadcrumbs, rosemary, and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Dip chicken breasts, one at a time, in egg mixture, turning to coat. Allow excess to drip off, then dip chicken pieces in almond mixture, turning to coat.

3. In a non-stick skillet cook chicken in hot oil over medium heat for 4 to 6 minutes or until no longer pink, turning once halfway through cooking. Remove chicken from skillet; keep warm.

4. In same skillet cook shallot in drippings 3 to 5 minutes or just until tender, stirring frequently. Add spinach and 1/4 teaspoon salt; cook and toss about 1 minute or just until spinach is wilted. Serve chicken with wilted spinach. Sprinkle pepper. Makes 4 servings.

So yummy! Enjoy!

Nutrition Facts

• Servings Per Recipe 4 servings
• Calories 276
• Total Fat (g) 11
• Saturated Fat (g) 1
• Monounsaturated Fat (g) 5
• Polyunsaturated Fat (g) 3
• Cholesterol (mg) 66
• Sodium (mg) 456
• Carbohydrate (g) 11
• Total Sugar (g) 2
• Fiber (g) 3
• Protein (g) 33
• Vitamin C (DV%) 31
• Calcium (DV%) 12
• Iron (DV%) 18

Linking up to:

Tasty Tuesday

Summery Cute Flower Scarf

If you haven't noticed the scarf trend, you're living under a rock! They're everywhere! You can never have too many scarves, right?

I wanted another springy one, so I found this really pretty linen floral fabric and measured out enough for a scarf. I like mine to be about 70" x 8" so they hang to just the right spot. And yes, I do use a pen to mark my fabric. I know this is horrible, but I've been doing it for years. Time to invest in a fabric pencil!

To get the size I need for the scarf, I sewed 2 pieces together.

To keep the edges from unraveling, I used a running stitch along the long edges of the fabric. I just discovered this special foot just for this purpose and it worked really well to keep the fabric in place.


Here's my stitches. I love the small amount of unraveling to add some texture, but not too much that it falls apart.


Then I cut some pretty white lace for the edges and sewed them to the scarf.


Now here's the fun part! In order to get the crinkled look, I lightly rinsed my scarf in cool water. (I know I read about doing this on another blog, but I can't remember where. Let me know if it was you!)

Then I twisted it and let it dry overnight.


Once it's dry, give it a shake and knot it around your neck!
So fun!


Linking up to:

Happy Blogiversary!

I cannot believe it's been one year since I started blogging! Life has changed a LOT since I started this little thing one day when I was bored last July.

116 followers and more than 15,000 views later, here I am! I would not be doing this if it wasn't for you, the readers and my friends, who leave me sweet comments and encourage me to continue being creative and sharing my ideas.

Here's to a successful, fun, and creative year and hoping for another one!

Love,
Lisa (and the cute goat I met at the zoo last week)

Yummy Spinach & Artichoke Frittata

I saw this recipe on a great blog and I knew Hubby would love it. We were excited to try it and it was SO yummy! In fact, I just finished the last piece right before I typed this up : )

(Adapted from Cara's Cravings)
Ingredients:
• 10 oz. package fresh spinach
• 1/2 c water
• 4 eggs
• 5 oz. non-fat plain Greek yogurt
• 1/2 t salt
• 1/8 t pepper
• 1/2 t basil
• 1 oz. parmesan cheese
• 1 T olive oil
• 1 c chopped onion
• 2 cloves of minced garlic
• 14 oz. can of artichokes, drained & chopped
• 3 oz. crumbled goat cheese

Preheat over to 400. Chop spinach into small pieces and place in a large microwave-safe bowl. Add 1/2 c water and microwave for 4 minutes to steam spinach.

Whisk eggs, yogurt, salt, pepper, basil, and parmesan cheese in a bowl.

Pour olive oil into a pan and heat. Add chopped onion and cook until soft.

Add garlic and artichokes and cook for 1 more minute.

Then add the steamed spinach to the pan.

Increase heat to high and pour in the egg mixture. Cook for a few more minutes and stir gently. Let the mixture start to set in the pan.

Add crumbled goat cheese on the top and place the pan in the preheated oven.

Bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown on the top.

Amazing!
Great for a brunch or even leftover dinner as I did tonight : )

Linking up to:


Tempt My Tummy Tuesday
Tasty Tuesday