Halloween Candy Crunch + World Market Sweepstakes!

Disclaimer: Thank you World Market for sponsoring today's delicious post! 

Today I'm excited to share with you a treat Braden and I made last week. 

I love kettle corn - so much so that I eat an entire bag in one sitting, without sharing!

It's my favorite and with all the goodness mixed in, I think my kids love it too!

Braden definitely enjoyed making it and keeps on asking, 

"Mommy, we make another treat?"

He really loved shaking the sprinkles all over the place and sneaking bites! 

I expected it to be good, but not so good 

that I didn't want to share any and that I wanted to eat every last piece ASAP.

It's just the perfect amount of sweet and salty! 

So, here's what you'll need (all from World Market, 

because they have so many yummy treats!)

Halloween Candy Crunch

Sweet & Salty Kettle Corn

Candy Corn

Halloween Bat & Pumpkin Pretzels

Ghirardelli White Chocolate Melting Wafers

Halloween Sprinkles

Spread the kettle corn out on a cookie sheet.

Add as much candy corn as you desire

Crunch up the pretzels (or don't!) and spread them over the kettle corn + candy corn.

Melt the white chocolate and drizzle it over the mixture.

Shake sprinkles over it all. 

Mix it up in a cute container like this adorable pumpkin baker!

Then dig in! You can share or you don't have to! 

What's a yummy popcorn treat without a movie? 

The Book of Life is coming to theaters October 17th and I think it would be a great film 

for the whole family (not that I'd ever sneak my own snack into a movie ;). 

Book of Life is an animated Romeo and Juliet inspired love story set during a Day of the Dead celebration: Manolo is a young matador who wants to shed the expectations of his family to follow his dreams of being a musician and his best friend, Joaquin, is the successful pride of the town. They compete for the heart of Maria. In order to win Maria's heart and save her life, Manolo must face his greatest fears and follow his heart to rewrite his destiny. It starts the voices of Channing Tatum, Zoe Saldana, Diego Luna, Danny Trejo, and Cheech Marin.

To celebrate the movie, World Market is giving you the chance a trip to Riviera Maya and free movies for a year! The grand prize is a 5 day/6 night, stay at Grand Velas Riviera May, free movies for a year, a $1,000 World Market gift card and Book of Life Merchandise! Three first prize winners will also receive a $50 World Market gift card. I don't know about you, but I would sure be happy to win! 

Be sure to enter the sweepstakes here. Ends October 24th. 

Don't forget to check out all the Book Of Life merchandise World Market has too!

World Market Dark Chocolate Strawberry Scones + #CelebrateingDad

Hello wonderful readers. 

Father's Day is quickly approaching, which means family time is bound to happen. 

When it comes to my family we always gather and have lots of yummy food. 

So, today I want to share a recipe with you featuring World Market's strawberry scones. 

They are simply delicious and of course I wanted to make them even better by adding some dark chocolate because you can never go wrong adding chocolate. At least not in my family! ;) 

Don't they look delicious? 

It was a struggle to not eat the whole plate.

But of course I saved some for my husband! 

Ingredients

• 1 package of world market strawberry scone mix
• 1 bag of Nestle Dark Chocolate Morsels
• 1 jar of World Market Dark Chocolate Spread

 Instructions

1. Make scone mix as directed on package.
2. Add dark chocolate morsels to the mix. 
3. Bake as directed and let cool.
4. Coat one end of the scone in the dark chocolate sauce.
5. Enjoy! 

Isn't your mouth just watering?
The chocolate sauce reminds me of frosting on a cupcake.

These of course are a little bit healthier. At least that's what I'm telling myself! 

Of course, for me, it's okay to indulge a bit when celebrating the people I love!

World Market not only has great foods, but also amazing items for your home and plenty of gift ideas for anyone and everyone in your life! They also have a great giveaway going on in honor of Father's Day!

From now until June 7th you can enter to win one of four grand prize package. Wouldn't a $1,000 World Market Gift Card for you and dad just be wonderful? I sure think so! So make sure to enter the World Market Celebrating Dad Giveaway and head to World Market to pick out a special treat for the dad in your life!

Love World Market as much as I do? Then make sure to stay connected with them!
Web. Twitter. Facebook. Pinterest.

I'm a part of the World Market Trendsetter Tribe and while I was compensated in exchange for this recipe and post, all opinions and thoughts are my own.

Meal plan swap!

Today I'm linking up with Race towards joy and 

a punk, a pumpkin, and a peanut for a meal plan swap. 

Here are 5 recipes for you (want more? click on over to one of the girls sites)! Sorry I don't have pictures. I promise that its all good and I hope that all the directions can be understood.

Happy planning and eating! =)

Meal 1- Taco Casserole (from the Taste of Home Cooking show)

What you'll need: 1 pound lean beef, 1 cup chopped onion, 1 bottle (8 ounces) Ortego taco sauce, 3/4 cup of water, 1 can (4 ounces) Ortega fire-roasted diced green chiles, 1 packet ortega taco seasoning mix, 1 package (12 count) ortega yellow taco shells, 2 cups (8 ounces) shredded mild cheese, and chopped tomatoes, chopped green bell pepper, sour cream (all optional). 

What to do: Preheat oven to 375 and grease 11x7 inch baking dish. Cook beef and onion in large skillet over medium heat (stir, cook fully, drain, you know...), stir in taco sauce, water, chiles, and seasoning mix; bring to boil and reduce to low heat. Cook 3-4 minutes, stirring occasionally. Layer half of broken taco shells on bottom of prepared dish. Cover with half of meat mixture; sprinkle with one cup of cheese, repeat with ingredients. Bake for 20-25 minutes until cheese is melted. Serve with desired toppings. 

Meal 2 - Meat Balls over Rice (a meal from when I was growing up)

What you'll need: A package of precooked meatballs, a can of cream of mushroom soup (small or big, depending on how much you need), white rice, and milk. 

What to do: Get your rice cooking on the stove (we use minute rice and make it depending on how many servings we need). Mix together your milk and cream of mushroom soup (its about 3/4 cup milk... you don't want it runny, but it makes the mixture more creamy). Place however many meatballs you want in the mixture and coat well. Stick it in the microwave for a good 6 minutes and make sure meatballs are cooked throughly. After rice is cooked put in bowls and put meatballs and soup on top. 

Meal 3 - Hamburger Sandwich (one of my favorite meals my grandma used to make)

What you'll need: 1 lb of hamburger, 1 baguette, one can of cream of mushroom soup, and cheese slices.

What to do: Brown the hamburger and drain after fully cooked. Hollow the inside of the baguette (on top and bottom), but make sure you don't do it too much because you still want the sandwich to be able to hold the rest of the yummy stuff. Add the bread you took out of the baguette with the cream of mushroom soup to the hamburger and let it heat up for a few minutes. Layer slices of cheese in the hollowed part of the baguette, then place the hamburger, bread, and cream of mushroom soup mix on top of the cheese. Put the sandwich together and wrap it in tinfoil. Place it on a cookie sheet and cook in over for 20 minutes or until cheese is melted. 

Meal 4 - My grandma's chili

What you'll need: 1-11/2 pound hamburger, 3 cans of tomato soup, 1 can stewed tomatoes, 6 cans of water, 1 chili seasoning packet, 1 can of kidney beans, onions, and bag of noodles. 

What to do: Brown the hamburger and onions. Drain. Add the rest of the ingredients (except the noodles) and simmer about 20-30 minutes. Cook and add the noodles.

Meal 5 - Johnsonville Italian Meatballs (from the Taste of Home Cooking show)

What you'll need: 1 egg, lightly beaten, 1/2 dry bread crumbs, 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese, 1/4 cup milk, 1/4 up finely chopped onion, 1 package johnson ville mild italian sausage links or ground sausage. Spaghetti noodles.

What to do: Preheat oven to 350. In a large bowl combine the egg, bread crumbs, parmesan cheese, milk, and onions. Remove sausage from casings. Add sausage to bread crumb mixture and mix well. Shape into 20 meatballs. Arrange meatballs on a shallow baking pan. Bake for 20 minutes or until meatballs are cooked throughly. Serve with favorite sauce and spaghetti. 

A recipe: my grandma's chili

I actually thought about not posting this simply because the pictures didn't turn out the best. 

However, I don't want to be the type of blogger who doesn't post because things aren't perfect...thats just how life is sometimes. I'll try to work on my photography skills when it comes to food. Who knew that food would be the hardest thing to photograph?!? 

My grandma's chili is my favorite. I could probably eat it every single day. 

Its just so good and so warm plus a bit different considering there are noodles.

    What you'll need: 

1- 1 1/2 pound of hamburger

3 cans of tomato soup

1 can stewed tomatoes

6 cans of water

1 chili seasoning packet

1 can of kidney beans

Onions

A bag of noodles

What to do:

Brown the hamburger and onions. Drain.

Add the rest of the ingredients (except the noodles) and simmer for about 20-30 minutes.

Cook the noodles and add them in.

Enjoy and let me know what you think! =)

Meal planning and shrimp dip

Once upon a time I really enjoyed cooking, but over the past year or so I really haven't done much of it for multiple reasons, but having meals at home, together is important to me. I want to get back into the groove of cooking and also am hoping that by making more meals at home (and not eating out so much) will help us financially. So meal planning it is! I'm not the best at planning out meals... it takes a lot of time (especially when just starting out) and then theres the grocery shopping. Last night was the first night we went to the store with an actual hand written list... it took forever in the store and our grocery budget just didn't happen. It will get better though! As a friend reminded me, it takes time and practice! We can do this! In order to hold myself accountable I'm blogging about it and thought every once in a while I'd share a recipe. Today, I'm sharing my favorite dip! Shrimp dip!

This dip is a family favorite. We usually have it at holiday get togethers or just when we get together for whatever. Considering I'm pregnant and have cravings, I decided to make it last night! 

A few things: These are just the brands we used. You can use whatever brand you want. Also, normally I'd get canned shrimp, but had a bad experience with it once so went with this gigantic package which is in the freezer for the other times I'm craving it. I don't really have the measurements for this recipe...so you can make a tray as big or small as you want! 

Directions: 

Make sure your cream cheese is soft. We'd just gotten home from the grocery store, so ours had been out a while. Spread a pretty thick layer of cream cheese on your pan. 

Spread a layer of cocktail sauce over the cream cheese.

Drain your shrimp (if its from a can) or do as the directions say with whatever type you got. With ours we had to de-thaw it by running it under cold water for five minutes. Put a layer of it on top of the cocktail sauce. 

You're done!

Dig in! =) If you make it...let me know what you think! 

My favorite Christmas cookie (a recipe)

Today my mom and I (and baby boy, of course) got together with a family friend and do what we do pretty much every year. Baked Christmas treats! We make a ton. Today we made at least 5 different kinds, but there is one thats a favorite. We call it a snowball and I'm going to share the recipe with you!

Don't they look yummy?!?

What you'll need:

1 1/2 stick of butter

1/4 cup sugar

1 3/4 cup flower

A teaspoon of vanilla

A bar of white chocolate... I believe its the bakers bar, but any would work (I think ;)

Sprinkles

What you do:

Preheat oven to 350

Mix everything together (soften the butter)

Roll it into balls

Bake for 10-12 minutes

Let cool

Dip in white chocolate

Sprinkle your heart out! 

Let em sit until the chocolate hardens

Eat them, but don't be like me and eat them all in one sitting! ;)