Grandpa's Lemonade for Friday's Happy Hour

This week I am sharing Grandpa's Lemonade for Friday's Happy Hour.  This is a recipe that my dad came up with when he was on dialysis, and the kids all love it.  When they ask for it they ask for Grandpa's Lemonade and the name stuck.  He has been gone for 7 years now, but the name is still here.  I wanted to share this recipe with all of you, since it is simple to make and relatively low calorie.

Grandpa's Lemonade

Ingredients:

1 can frozen lemonade (follow the directions on the can to make the lemonade)

5 oz. club soda

Directions:

Make the frozen lemonade, following the directions on the can.  It will make much more then you need for one serving, but I bet it will go fast in your house.  I don't think it will go to waste.

Next put ice in a tall glass and pour 5 ounces of lemonade in the glass.

Then pour the club soda over the lemonade.

Stir and serve.

This is such a refreshing summer drink and our family goes through it quickly.  Even the big kids drink it.  Have fun and enjoy your summer with Grandpa's Lemonade.  We always love hearing from you.

Have a great week.

Debi

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Sauteed Mixed Greens with Kale

Today I am sharing a recipe that I came up with for Sauteed Mixed Greens with Kale.  I recently had kale for the first time at a restaurant in downtown Denver.  I ordered scallops and they came on a bed of lightly sauteed kale, and they were delicious.  I then went to my trusty Trader Joe's to buy kale and try to make Kale with a similar lemony taste.  It came out great, but the next time I went to the store I found a mix of baby kale, swiss chard, and baby spinach.  This is the second incarnation of the dish that I originally made.  We all liked this recipe also, so today we are having sauteed mixed greens with kale.

Sauteed Mixed Greens with Kale

Ingredients:

4 to 6 cups mixed greens with kale (mine had a baby kale, swiss chard, and baby spinach, but you could make it with just kale)

2 TB olive oil

2 tsp garlic

salt and pepper to taste

1/2 lemon (squeezed over the greens at the end of cooking)

Directions:

Heat olive oil in a large saute pan and add garlic and cook for about 2 minutes over medium heat.

Add mix greens and cook for 3 to 4 minutes until greens start to soften and wilt.

Continue cooking and season with salt and pepper to taste. This takes about another minute

Next, holding the cut side of the lemon against your palm, squeeze the lemon juice over the mixed greens.

Stir, and cook for another minute to incorporate the flavors. 

You're done. 

This serves approximately 4 people depending on the amount of greens that you use and how much you cook them down.

I hope that you like this recipe.  It is super healthy and delicious.  I always love hearing from you.  

What is your favorite recipe with kale?

Have a great week.

Debi

Wednesday's Adorned From Above Link Party 89

We want to thank everyone who shared with Wednesday's Adorned From Above Link Party 88.  We love seeing all of your posts.

Welcome to Wednesday's Adorned From Above Blog Hop 89.

Now we present you with the featured bloggers from Link Party 88, and grab your featured button from our sidebar.  It was so hard to pick this week's featured bloggers.  All of your posts were so wonderful.

Featured Bloggers from Link Party 88

1.  Give Up Your Child to God from Saved By Grace

2.  7 Tips for Being an Available Parent from The Character Corner

3.  Quick Berry Crisp from Three Kids and a Fish










4. DIY Scrubbers from Montejo's Memorials

5.  A Shawl to Sevilla from Ana Love Craft

6.  Bacon Mango Salad from Melissa Kaylene is Willamette Valley Wonder Woman

7.  Rhubarb Dump Cake from Grandparents Plus

8.  Polka Dot Rosette Wreath from My Life of Travels and Adventures

We are happy to have you at this week's party.  We always love hearing from you, so leave your comments.

Have a great week.

An InLinkz Link-up

Chicken Seasoning Mix

We don't have a lot of seasoning mixes or seasonings at the house in Florida, so I came up with this Chicken Seasoning Mix.  It came out absolutely amazing, so I wanted to share it with all of you.  I served the chicken with a salad of baby kale, swiss chard, and arugula with strawberries, almonds slices, roasted sunflower seeds,. and poppy seed dressing.  Yum!!!

Chicken Seasoning Mix

Ingredients:

1 tsp salt

2 tsp garlic powder

1 1/2 tsp onion powder

1 1/2 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp paprika

1 tsp chili powder

1/8 tsp black pepper

1/8 tsp cayenne pepper

2 tsp Weber Mango Lime Seasoning

2 TB brown sugar

Directions:

Mix everything together and sprinkle on both sides of your chicken.

Pat into chicken to make sure it is sticking to the chicken.

Grill chicken as you normally would.

This made enough for 8 boneless skinless thighs.

I hope that you like this chicken seasoning mix.  I always love hearing from you.

Have a great week.

Debi

10 Christian Songs from My IPod May 2014

I wanted to share 10 Christian Songs from my IPod with all of you this week.  My kids call them Jesus Jams, because I start really rocking out to them in my car.  I am a horrible singer, but I love to sing, especially as the kids call them, to my Jesus Jams.  Sometimes Charly gets into my car, and she'll say, "Mom, is your music loud enough."  I just laugh, because it is and it makes me so happy.  I listen to K-Love, which is my favorite radio station, but I also have a great list on my IPod.  So today, for your listening pleasure, 10 Christian songs playing on my IPod.

10 Christian Songs from my IPod

1.  How He loves Us - The David Crowder Band

2.  The Motions - Matthew West

3.  He Reigns - Newsboys

4.  Stained Glass Masquerade - Casting Crowns

5.  I Can Only Imagine - Mercy Me

6.  Where I Belong - Building 429

7.  The Space In Between Us - Building 429

8.  God Gave Me You - Blake Shelton

9.  Beautiful Ending - Barlow Girl

10.  The Words I Would Say - Sidewalk Prophets

Now,I have a zillion songs on my IPod, these are just a few, I may have to do several more music lists.  I really love listening to this worship music, I hope you enjoy some of these songs also.  Maybe you will find someone new on my list to add to yours.  

I would love to hear what your favorite songs are.  I am always looking for new music to listen to.

Have a Blessed Week.

Debi

Mango Margaritas for Friday's Happy Hour

Last Friday we made these delicious Mango Margaritas for Friday's Happy Hour.  It was the first time that I had tried making these, and I was pleasantly surprised.  I used to drink margaritas when I was younger, but my tastes changed and I like my drinks a little sweeter today.  I just went from my regular margarita recipe and changed it up a little.  Instead of sweet and sour or tons of lime juice, I added mango nectar, a little mango, and lemon juice.  They came out perfect .

Mango Margaritas

Ingredients:

4 oz tequila

2 oz triple sec

6 oz mango nectar

1 oz simple syrup

1/2 lemon squeezed into blender

1/2 cup mango

sugar

water
2 to 3 cups of ice

Directions:

Put all of you ingredients into a blender and blend until it is smooth and slushy.

Put water on one plate and sugar on another plate.

Dip you glasses into the water and then the sugar to rim your glasses in sugar.

Then pour your mango margaritas into your glasses and serve.

This will make 2 margaritas.

I hope you like these margaritas as much as we did.  We had them with guacamole, pico de gallo, mango salsa, and both flour and corn tortilla chips.

Have a great weekend.
Debi
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Triple Berry Tart

I made this Triple Berry Tart last week and shared it with H's office.  It was a huge hit there.  Gone in about an hour, so I thought I would share it with all of you.  It was super easy to make, which makes it even better.

Triple Berry Tart

Ingredients:

1 can raspberry fruit pie filling
1 cup mixed berries
1 puff pastry thawed

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees and spray a tart pan with non stick cooking spray

Lay your puff pastry into your tart pan and roll sides down inside the tart pan.  There will be about a 1/2 in between the bottom of the puff pastry and the top of the rolled dough sides.

Spread  about 2/3 of the can of raspberry fruit filling on the bottom of the tart.

Next sprinkle the berries over the top of the pie filling.

Then using a pastry brush, brush some additional filling over the top of the fruit.  Almost like a glaze.

Bake for 30 minutes.

After you pull the tart out of the oven use your pastry brush again and spread the filling again lightly over the fruit.

Let cool and serve.

Serves 8 to 10 pieces

I hope that you like the tart.  I thought it came out really delicious.  I took it to the office, so that I wouldn't eat it.  It is always a great place to take food that I should not have in the house.

Have a great week.
Debi
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Wednesday's Adorned From Above Link Party 88

We want to thank everyone who shared with Wednesday's Adorned From Above Link Party 87.  We love seeing all of your posts.

Welcome to Wednesday's Adorned From Above Blog Hop 88.

Now we present you with the featured bloggers from Link Party 87, and grab your featured button from our sidebar.  It was so hard to pick this week's featured bloggers.  All of your posts were so wonderful.

Featured Bloggers from Link Party 87

1.  Sausage Bites from Musings of a Vintage Junkie

2.  How To Blog for Profit Without Losing Your Soul from a Little R & R

3.  Hot Wing Chicken Casserole from Lou Lou Girls

4. 4 Natural Homemade Sunscreen Recipes from Simple Life Mom

5.  Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Ice Cream Cake from Three Kids and a Fish







6.  Cuban Street Tacos from A Mother's Shadow

7.  My Mom, A "Different" Mother's Day Tribute from Debbie Dabble

8.  Banana Upside Down Cake from Twigg Studios

We are happy to have you at this week's party.  We always love hearing from you, so leave your comments.

Have a great week.

An InLinkz Link-up

How To Make Natural Toilet Bowl Cleaner

Today I will show you how to make a Natural Toilet Bowl Cleaner.  Yesterday, my future daughter-in-law, Lish told me that since her girls clean the toilet in their bathroom, it sometimes smells.  They are 4 and 5, so she does not let me use chemicals, but what they are using is not strong enough for them to get it really clean and clean smelling.  I told her there was an easy solution.  I  would make a natural toilet bowl cleaner, at that would not be dangerous for the girls to use, and it would still get the bathroom clean and clean smelling.  

I have in the past written about uses for a variety of normal household items such as hydrogen peroxide, baking soda, and rubbing alcohol.  These are all great ingredients for a toilet bowl, but I wanted to make sure this was a super kid friendly recipe.  I realized as I was writing I have been remiss about writing a post for all of the uses for vinegar, which I think is an amazing cleaning product.  I guess that will be for next week.

These are the ingredients that I wanted to use for my Natural Toilet Bowl Cleaner and the reasons for using them:

Vinegar - this is a great all around anti bacterial and when combined with either washing soda, baking soda, or borax it becomes an amazing cleaning product.  It is also non toxic, so safe for the girls to use for cleaning their toilet.  This is an acid.

Washing Soda - is alkalline and is great for cleaning.  We use it in our washing machine all of the time.  I was hoping to be able to make something that the girls would just be able to spray in the toilet, but the washing soda will have to be sprinkled into the toilet after they have sprayed the vinegar solution.  This will also help with scrubbing the stains around the toilet.  If I were making this for myself I would use borax, but since I am making this for two little girls to use, I want to make sure that it is super safe.

Tea Tree Oil - This is a great essential oil.  It comes from the leaves of the melalueca plant.  It has antibacterial and antifungal properties.  It is not harmful for the two girls to use, so I will definitely add this to the cleaner. 

Lemon Essential Oil - This is another essential oil that has antibacterial properties.  So it will not only help clean and sanitize, but it will also help make the bathroom smell nice.

Now before we start, excuse my toilet.  It really dirty.  I know it is hard to tell from pictures what has been put inside the toilet, but it does work well.  You can at least tell that it is clean at the end.

Natural Toilet Bowl Cleaner

(it can also be used all over the toilet)

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cup white vinegar

1 cup Arm and Hammer Washing Soda

1 tsp tea tree essential oil

1 tsp lemon essential oil
1 squirt bottle or spray bottle
1 jar with holes in the top

Directions:

Put vinegar and essential oils into a spray bottle or squirt bottle.

Put the washing soda into a container with holes, to that they can sprinkle it over the vinegar mixture.

How to Use:

Shake the vinegar solution well before using.  The vinegar solution should be sprayed or squirted in the toilet bowl and can either be sprayed or wiped all around the toilet, toilet seat, toilet tank, and on the floor around the toilet.

Sprinkle the washing soda inside the toilet.

The girls can then use the toilet brush to scrub the inside of the toilet.  

They can then just wipe around the toilet, toilet seat, toilet tank, and floor to finish cleaning the toilet with a rag or cloth with gloves on.

This is a great way to get your kids, even the little ones helping around the house.  It gives them something that they can do that is fun, and they can feel a sense of accomplishment.

It's also great because you are not using chemicals in the house.

Have a great week and I always love hearing from you.

Debi

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Flight To Heaven - Book Review

Flight to Heaven by Capt. Dale Black

Today is a short book review on the book Flight to Heaven by Capt. Dale Black.  This is such a great book.  My friend Karen recommended it to me and I read it in a day and a half.  I had to write a blog post or two in there (haha), otherwise I would have had it finished even sooner.  

This book is about a pilot who was the only survivor of a horrific plane crash, his amazing recovery, his time in Heaven, and what he went on to do with his life.  He was like lots of people who are living in the world, and kind of not paying attention to God.  He was a believer and knew God was there, but until the plane crash he didn't really live his life for God.

Capt. Black's is an amazing man with an amazing story, but how could it be anything else with God at the helm.  Capt. Black may a pilot for airplanes, but his story certainly shows that God is at the controls for our lives.

I hope you will give this book a try.  It's really a wonderful heartwarming story.  

Have a great week.

Debi

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I am not being compensated in any way by the author or publisher.  The opinions in this post are my own.

Graduation Supplies from Celebrate Express

**This post contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links 

Graduation is just around the corner so make your graduate feel extra special by celebrating their accomplishment with a graduation party! Celebrate Express has a huge selection of graduation party supplies and decorations that will help you create the perfect celebration. Everything from plates, cups and napkins, to balloons and streamers - you'll find what you're looking for. 

To make things a little sweeter, Celebrate Express has two offers for you to use on graduation party supplies. Get $10 off a graduation banner when you buy a party pack at Celebrate Express (expires 6/15/14) or Save 15% off all indoor and outdoor graduation party decorations at Celebrate Express (expires 6/2/14). Shop now! 

Celebrate Express has great party supplies, and my niece is graduating in a few weeks.  I'm sending this info to my sister-in-law.  She hates to shop, so this is the perfect way for her to get all of the party stuff, without having to go shopping.

Have fun with the graduates in your life this year, and make it simple and fun.

Debi

Party in a Box from Birthday Express

 

**This post contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links 

With all the superhero movies coming out this summer, now is the perfect time to supercharge your kid's next birthday party! Let the little ones spin webs with a Spider-Man party theme, cast them to fight crime with The Avengers party theme or let them test their strength with the Superman party theme. 

To help you get the job done without breaking a sweat, Birthday Express has the Complete Party in a Box, where you can get all the party supplies you'll need to host an amazing party. Birthday Express even has party favors, decorations and costumes to coordinate with your superhero party, all of which help you setup the perfect party in a cinch! Plus, Birthday Express always has free shipping on orders over $75! 

This is such a great offer.  I have been looking at all of there party boxes and they are really great.  They also have lots of other Complete Party In A Box for girls and boys.

Have fun looking around.

Debi

How to Make Your Own Memoir Book

Are You Ready for an Amazing Memoir?

**This post contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links



It's said that everyone has a book inside them. For Jane Stokes, Managing Editor at News Canada, that book was her 86-year-old mother's memoir. The collaborative effort is, "Are You Ready for a Bumpy Ride?", which chronicles Charlotte Stokes's turbulent journey from wartime Germany to Canada. Blurb was lucky enough to be able to chat with Jane and Charlotte about the importance of making a book about the twists, turns, and bumps in life. See the video.

Do you have a story to tell? Right now, Blurb is offering 25% off for first purchases made by new customers through May 31st! Like Jane and Charlotte, you too could finally tell your own tale to the world, and even get a great discount, with Blurb. 

This is a great offer and a great way to get your family history in writing for future generations.  I know that this would have been great to do with my grandfather before he passed away.  There are so many stories that were lost when he was gone, that our families would love to have.  Unfortunately, so many are lost, but this may be something to do with my mom.

Right now  I am working on a cookbook and a book of DIY household and beauty products.

Have a great weekend and think about it.  

Debi