Wishing you a Merry Christmas and
Happy New Year!
Love,
Julie xo
I love finding people on Instagram to follow. I've been following Babs from @brunchwithbabs for a while now. Babs is popular on Instagram and is a mom of four and grandmother of eight, who loves sharing her recipes and wisdom. Some of you might remember when I shared this post about Babs back in April. If you like easy recipes and tips, I recommend you follow Babs on Instagram at @brunchwithbabs.
Over the summer Babs had a Bootcamp where she shared some of her food shopping lists, recipes, and tips.
When I saw this recipe for One-Pot Broccoli Pasta and I knew I wanted to try it. I usually make broccoli rabe with pasta for dinner as it's a family favorite. This method that Babs shares for making broccoli pasta is so easy to prepare and tastes delicious.
My husband and I liked this pasta dish and I'd love to share the recipe with you.
You can see below the broccoli and pasta cooking in one pot. I've never done this before and I always cooked them separately. Cooking both in one pot saves time and is so easy to cook this way.
The pasta is all cooked and ready to eat.
ONE-POT BROCCOLI PASTA
INGREDIENTS:
1 pound penne pasta
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 1/2 teaspoons fresh minced garlic
8 cups broccoli florets
juice of 1/2 lemon (or more, to taste)
1/2 cup Romano cheese
DIRECTIONS:
Boil a large pot of water. When it comes to a boil add two tablespoons of salt. Add the pasta and the broccoli and cook for 9 minutes, until al dente.
Before straining, reserve one cup of pasta water. Strain pasta and broccoli.
With the empty pot on medium heat, add in 2 tablespoons olive oil and the minced garlic and stir until fragrant. Re-add pasta and broccoli, stir. Add the rest of the olive oil and reserved pasta water.
Add 1/2 cup Romano cheese and mix. Top with lemon juice and combine. Ready!
NOTE: For the pasta: I used Trader Joe's Brown Rice & Quinoa Fusilli Pasta.
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| YUMMY ONE-POT BROCCOLI PASTA! |
I enjoy crocheting during the winter months. I thought I'd share with you some easy projects to make for the holidays or the upcoming winter months.
I made this crocheted infinity scarf last year. This is an easy scarf to crochet using Yarnspirations Caron Latte Cakes yarn. I bought my yarn at Michaels craft store. This type of yarn is soft and has the look of fun fur mixed in with it. Do any of you remember fun fur from many years ago? My mom used to knit scarves with this type of furry yarn.
I made these crochet fingerless gloves back in 2019. I crocheted them for my daughter, her friends, for family members, for myself, and for the church group, I used to belong to for charity crochet. These are simple and easy to crochet and they make the perfect gifts for the holidays.
I love making small crochet projects like the crochet face scrubbies I made back in 2019. These scrubbies can be used with soap or with a facial cleanser to wash your face. You can make these scrubbies in different colored cotton yarn and make them into gifts with soap and a makeup bag.
I enjoy crocheting coasters and I made these boho coasters back in May. This is another simple crochet project using cotton yarn. I made mine with white yarn but colored cotton yarn would like nice too. The coasters are great to use for a mug, a glass, or a teacup.
I also shared last year some of these holiday crochet projects that you might like to make. Anyone of these projects would make a great last minute gift for Christmas.
I hope you enjoy some of these projects for the winter months.
I love Muffins! I wanted to make pumpkin muffins that were low carb without a lot of sugar and didn't have any oil or butter used in the recipe. My husband and I are enjoying these small pumpkin muffins in the afternoon with our espresso coffee.
I searched and found this low carb/high protein pumpkin muffin recipe on Pinterest.
The pumpkins are so easy to make and still taste great without any sugar added to the recipe.
The best part about these muffins is that each pumpkin muffin has 11 grams of protein with just 5 grams of carbs. They are 135 calories for one muffin and just 2 Smart Points.
I hope you enjoy these low-carb pumpkin muffins.
LOW CARB/HIGH PROTEIN PUMPKIN MUFFINS
The original recipe can be found at Mason Fit
INGREDIENTS:
- 3/4 cup almond flour
- 2 scoops PEScience protein powder, vanilla
- 1/2 Tbsp pumpkin pie spice
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 3 large eggs
- 1 cup canned pumpkin
- 1/2 Tbsp vanilla extract
DIRECTIONS:
- Preheat an oven to 350F and spray 8 slots in a muffin tin with nonstick cooking spray or place 8 silicone muffin molds on a baking sheet.
- Mix the dry ingredients together in a large bowl.
- Gradually stir in the eggs, canned pumpkin, and vanilla extract. Stir until you have an evenly mixed batter.
- Spoon the batter into the muffin tin or molds, filling each mold about 3/4 full.
- Bake for 23-26 minutes or until the muffins are cooked through and the tops are golden brown.
- Transfer the muffins to a wire rack to cool and enjoy!
NOTES:
Each muffin has 2 Smart Points
You can find silicone baking cups on Amazon.
WHAT I CHANGED:
The first time I made the muffins, I sprayed the muffin tin with cooking spray, and the muffins stuck to the tin. The next time I made the muffins I used cupcake liners that worked out great. I baked the muffins the second time for 24 minutes. I also didn't have any pumpkin pie spice and I used cinnamon instead. I used 2 scoops of Orgain Organic Protein Powder, Vanilla Bean flavor. I was able to make 12 muffins.
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| YUMMY LOW-CARB PUMPKIN MUFFINS! |
Hello blog friends. Are you almost ready for Thanksgiving?
I thought it'd be fun to do a This or That Thanksgiving since it's a few days away.
I've circled my answers seen below.
2. Lunch or Dinner - We've always done Thanksgiving dinner.
3. Stuffing or Dressing - We LOVE stuffing in our house.
4. Dress Up or Dress Down - It's always been dress up for us or dressy casual.
5. Mash Potatoes or Sweet Potatoes - We love mashed potatoes in my house but my sister-in-law makes the best sweet potato pie.
6. Football or Movies - My husband loves to watch football on Thanksgiving. I enjoy watching movies later in the evening if we are home.
7. Black Friday or Cyber Monday - I like the Black Friday sales.
8. Pumpkin Pie or Pecan Pie - Our family LOVES Pumpkin Pie.
Click HERE to see the blog parties I will be linking up to.
Julie
You can play along and leave your answers in the comment section.
What will you pick?
Wishing everyone a HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
Click HERE to see the blog parties I will be linking up to.
Julie
I can't believe the last Costco blog post I did was back in August. We needed to do a Costco run at the beginning of November. I'd love to share with you my Costco finds.
I was so happy when I saw the nice selection of pajamas. I needed a new pair and these will be part of my Christmas present from my husband and daughter. These pj's also come in a leopard print and are only $15.
I'm in love with this Nautica coat. You can wear the sleeves as hand warmers and or as a regular sleeve. This is a warm coat with fleece-lined pockets and the hood is detachable. The price was only $23.99. It also comes in the colors white and red.
I'm in love with this gel nail polish. You don't need a UV lamp and there is hardly any chipping after wearing it for a week.
I've been doing some baking lately and I like using almond flour. I'm happy that Costco now sells this flour.
I was surprised when I found Monk Fruit sweetener at Costco. This will be a good sugar replacement for baking.
We needed more chia seeds for when we make our morning shakes.
We like to use this protein powder in our morning shakes.
We also add frozen fruit to our shakes and this one is a winner.
I was happy when I saw this Starbucks winter blend coffee. I love making my Starbucks coffee at home every morning.
These cauliflower sandwich thins are a new item to us that we liked. It's a substitute for using bread.
One morning my husband made an omelet with the cauliflower thins. We toasted them and they tasted good with the eggs.
The fire-roasted brussels sprouts and uncured bacon is a new food item we decided to try. I'm looking forward to making this as a side with our dinner.
We always buy Caesar salad whenever we go to Costco. We'll be able to eat this salad two times. The salad kit comes with two bags of croutons, two Caesar salad dressings, Parmesan cheese, and two lemons.
This was the first time we've tried the Street Taco kit. All I had to do was heat the chicken and the tortillas.
They were a hit and we liked the chicken tacos.
You can visit Heather from Our Life In a Click who also loves sharing her Costco finds.
Have you bought anything lately from Costco?
Click HERE to see the blog parties I will be linking up to.
Julie
If you all remember I did a Friday Favorites blog post last week mentioning the nail polish I bought at Costco. I thought it was a great buy for three nail polishes for only $19.99.
If you don't belong to Costco or can't get there then they sell this nail polish at Ulta, Target, and Amazon.
I did this manicure on Wednesday afternoon and it was so easy. There are only two steps. I will see how my nails hold up for a gel nail polish look.
Step One: Add nail polish
Step Two: Add on the clear topcoat
- Chip and fade resistant
- No base coat or UV lamp needed
- Removes like regular polish
- Vegan formula
WEDNESDAY MANICURE
MONDAY - 5 DAYS LATER MANICURE
MANICURE RESULTS: I'm very happy with the Essie Gel Couture manicure after five days. There was just a little bit of chipping on my nails. I usually have a lot of chipping by the fifth day of an at-home manicure. I liked that this manicure had the look of a gel manicure without using any UV lamp and you also do not have to put on a base coat of polish. I would definitely recommend this nail polish.
It would make a great Christmas gift for the person that likes doing at-home manicures.
HOLIDAY MOVIES:
If you love watching Christmas movies as I do, here is a schedule of movies to get you in the holiday spirit.
GIFT GUIDES
We all have trouble figuring out what to buy for friends and family for the holidays. I've started my shopping and here are some gift guides that might be helpful with your gift list.
Andrea from Living on Cloud Nine has the best gift guides. If you need some inspiration please visit her gift guide for what she wants here. You can't go wrong with perfume, a Sephora gift card, or the FitBit for the person that loves exercising.
You can visit Lindsay's Sweet World for her Holiday Ladies Gift Guide here.
ADVENT CALENDAR
If you like gifting Advent Calendars then you can visit Tanya's blog for a huge selection. On Monday's Tanya will also be sharing her gift guides for the holidays.
HOLIDAY BAKING
If you love holiday baking ideas and recipes, then visit Kitty's Kozy Kitchen. You will love all of her easy and delicious-looking recipes.
Have you started your Christmas shopping yet?
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