Sunshine in my pocket

laffy-taffy-one-side-wet-wipes-other-side

Double-Sided Paper Pocket (tutorial)

By KariV on July 17, 2013 in Gift Ideas, Paper Crafting

I am excited to (finally) bring this post to you. Girls Camp started this week, which means it is safe to start posting some of my projects and handouts I’ve been working on for the girls! 🙂 So get ready for a week of girly crafts and projects…here we go!

The colors for camp this year are pink and grey, with chevrons. When I was asked to help make some cute handouts and favors, I jumped at the chance (this is right up my alley)!

The first handout I thought of were these double-sided paper pockets. I found the PERFECT paper that had pink chevrons on one side, and polka dots on the other side.

You might recognize these little darlings, I used them for my Backyard Picnic here! See, if you just change up the colors, you have an entirely different feel. They are the perfect size for Ghirardelli chocolates, but use your imagination for other items that can slip inside the pockets.

At my backyard picnic, I put Laffy Taffy candy on one side, and Wet Wipes (for the BBQ!!) on the other side. Perfect.

Wouldn’t these be adorable as a little “Thank You” for someone? For these little pockets, you need a 6×6″ sheet of paper, adhesive, and some ribbon. (For a larger sized pocket, I’ve seen them made with a full 12×12″ sheet of paper.)

Here’s a semi-quick (just under 4 minutes) video How-To:

Since it is July in Arizona, we decided to use Laffy Taffy for the Girls Camp pockets, instead of chocolate. I’m pretty sure that was a smart move. I hope the girls are enjoying camp…and laughing it up! Can’t wait to hear how they loved Girls Camp.

Leave me a comment and let me know if you have any other creative ideas for using these pockets. 🙂

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The Best Bruschetta in Minutes (Guest Post)

By KariV on July 16, 2013 in Cooking Light, Recipes, Uncategorized

It’s time for some Garden Bruschetta! I am excited to be guest posting at Mom Endeavors with my VERY favorite Bruschetta recipe. So if you have tomatoes from your garden (or even from the grocery store), then try this easy recipe here. I’m also sharing a tip for putting this together FAST (no more tedious chopping).

And while you are there, don’t forget to leave a nice comment or two. Enjoy!

I’m off to make some Bruschetta now…this has my mouth watering. 🙂

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Dose of Sunshine Monday – I feel great!

By KariV on July 15, 2013 in Inspiration

Good Monday morning! Today I have some great sunshine thoughts to share with you. I talk about my grandmother a lot because she is so inspirational to me…she is always in good spirits and has some happy thoughts or poems to share. I think that she is amazing because she is in an assisted living home and cannot get around on her own, yet she is always smiling with a good word.

Today I am sharing a string of words she would say EVERY morning to get her day started on the right note. My mom remembers this well: she would wake up, throw open the curtains and say: “I feel great…I feel healthy…It is a fantastic day!” And then she would go about her day.

I think there is something to this way of starting of your day! A positive note, a positive affirmation….who wouldn’t smile to start off with these words?

Now, if you are anything like me, you may need to wait until after you fully wake up (and eat breakfast) to say this, but whenever it suits you, go ahead and give this a try for this week. See if it makes your week incredible.

Until next time…

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Taste Test Tuesday — Sweet Pork (Cafe Rio Copycat) with NO cola involved

By KariV on July 9, 2013 in Dinner in Minutes, Recipes, Taste Test Tuesday, Uncategorized

There are a lot of Sweet Pork (Cafe Rio Copycat) Recipes out there. But have you noticed that most of them call for Coke or Dr. Pepper? Well, I’ve tried my fair share of these recipes in the past…but since I strongly dislike colas (yes, all of them) I found that I did not like those recipes that included them! {Plus, I sorta have an aversion to cooking with soda pop.}

SO, I’ve been searching for a good recipe for sweet pork that didn’t have cola in the ingredient list. I’m happy to announce that I found a couple recipes and then put them up to the Taste Test Challenge!

The great thing about these recipes is: you put all the ingredients in the crock pot to cook all day (easy!), then just shred up the meat and add in the sauce. I love that!

After I cooked up both recipes, I put a taste of each on small plates for our judges. And then, when they picked their favorite, they got to make an entire sweet pork salad (or burrito). Now those are some lucky judges!

Sorry about the half eaten salad in this next picture…it was SO good that I forgot to take a picture before I ate most of it!

We used the following for our salads:

Fresh cooked tortillas
Cilantro Lime Rice
Garlic Black Beans
Lettuce
Peach Mango Salsa
Kari’s Garden Salsa
Cheese
Cilantro Lime Dressing

Oh. My. Goodness. I think these homemade salads are SO delicious! (They do rival the restaurant — however, there is something lovely about having all the ingredients ready and a salad made-to-order for you at the restaurant!)

Just to make sure of our results, I took both cooked recipes to my brother and sister-in-law (who just had a baby! yay!) to try out. The difference was, they would warm theirs up for dinner the next night. And they both liked the SAME one.

THE RESULTS:

Surprise! It was a TIE. I know, I know. I can’t believe it either.

So today, I am going to share with you my mother’s recipe for Sweet Pork.

And I will link up to the other cola-free Sweet Pork recipe ~~as soon as I get permission!~~ Permission granted! Here is the Sweet Pork Recipe that was a favorite among 50% of the judges! (Thank you to The Sisters Cafe for such an awesome recipe!) If you do try this recipe, be sure to try their Garlic Black Beans as well…so good!
[Note to judges: this was recipe 1 for all of you that picked the first sweet pork sample as the winner]. This one has a small hint of a spicy kick to it (probably from the enchilada sauce) that was delicious, and this one was definitely quite a bit sweeter than the other.

And the other 50% of the judges liked my mom’s recipe! {recipe to follow} This was, in my opinion, the easiest of the recipes. You just mix together all four ingredients (yes, only four ingredients!), add on top of the pork roast, cook it up all day, take out the pork and shred it up, and add back in some of the sauce (not all of it….it makes a lot of sauce!) [Note to judges: this was recipe 2 for all of you that preferred this one]

*Recipe here

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I used the green can of El Pato (jalepeno salsa). The yellow can said “hot” and I was a little ~~scared~~ hesitant to try it. If you like a little more spice, try the yellow can.

So there you have a couple of the BEST cola-free Sweet Pork Recipes! Give them a try and let me know what YOU think! I just love a good Sweet Pork Salad. 🙂

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Angels Watching Over You

By KariV on July 8, 2013 in Inspiration

Have you heard that song by Amy Grant “Angels Watching Over Me”? It’s a beautiful song and here are some of the chorus lyrics:

God has Angels watching over me,
Every step I take
Angels watching over me!

Have you ever felt angels watching over you? I certainly have. This past weekend I was rear-ended in a car accident. I felt like the car would have major damage, but when we pulled over to check…there was no visible damage! How could that be? I was feeling so blessed. And I know that must have been a small little miracle.

And I don’t think it was a coincidence that I came across the following scripture: