Category: Eats

Nabisco Pick Your Party Sweepstakes

  • Eats
  • November 13, 2019
  • 0

Eek!!!  If you guys know me by now, you know I LOVE to travel.  Almost as much as I love my kids, almost:).  So I am SUPER excited to share that I have partnered with the Nabisco Pick Your Party Sweepstakes and want to share it all with you!!!  It is SO simple, actually really fun, and you have the chance to win 1 of 4 AWESOME trips!!!  Are you ready for the dets?!?!?!??!

Step 1:  Go to your local Walmart and pick up a “Party Size” Package of either, RITZ, OREO, or Chips Ahoy!  Exactly like the 3 pictured below!  Or click here to add them to your cart:  http://bit.ly/2NCsLSq

Step 2:  Go to www.nabiscoparty.com and scan one of your packages.  It’s called Augmented Reality!  It is super cool.  You literally just scan the front of the package, it doesn’t have to be a specific barcode or anything.  Pro Tip: There is even a fun filter!

Step 3:  Keep following the rules and pick your dream trip out of these 4 below!!!

Step 4:  Eat ALL the RITZ, OREOS, and Chips Ahoy!  you want!!!!

Step 5:  Cross your fingers for a big win, my trip of choice is NYC for New Years Eve!!!!  I was just there in July and had the BEST time.  I have always wanted to spend NYE there watching the ball drop in Times Square!!!

GOOD LUCK!!!!!!  and most importantly, Happy Snacking!

XOXO,

Lissa

***This post was sponsored but all opinions are my own***

Summer Snacking with Tru Fru

The kids and I headed into Costco today after Ballet Class.  We were on the hunt for these new chocolate covered blueberries from TruFru that just launched in all midwest stores yesterday!!!!!  We found them almost immediately near all of the other frozen fruits.  First off they are only $9.99 I think that is a fabulous price point!  And good news, if you are an Ibotta member, click here to save $2, making them only $7.99!!!!  They are white and dark chocolate covered and positively delicious!!!

They literally didn’t make it home before we opened them in the car, and truth be told, the kids LOVE them!!!  Emme’s favorite fruit is blueberries and Max LOVES chocolate so the combo is perfect.

On the fence?!?!  Don’t worry there is sampling happening at select Costco’s on 7.20.2019.

Happy Snacking Friends!!!!

 

XOXO,

Lissa

***This post has been sponsored by TruFru but all opinions are my own***

Valentine’s Dinner with Fresh Thyme

Dusko and I love to go out for dinner. Although date nights are few and far between these days we enjoy trying new restaurants!  However, for Valentine’s Day even before having kids we actually preferred to stay in and cook together!    We have just always felt that restaurants get so busy and it’s nice to enjoy the evening at home.  So when I got to tour the new Fresh Thyme grocery store that opened in Geneva, I knew I was on the hunt for what we could have for Valentine’s Dinner!  Truthfully, there are SO many options. From their self serve salad bar, fresh made bread(which you can slice there on your own: so fun btw), the meat & fish selection, smoothie bar, the entire center of the store is produce(basically a produce museum 🍎), so many pasta options (even chickpea), their amazing wine and beer selection(don’t worry, they have my favorite Kim Crawford Sauvignon Blanc), and fresh flowers!!!

 

But, I stopped in my tracks because they have Fresh Made Sushi EVERYDAY!  We LOVE sushi and don’t have it very often. Also, guess what?!?  It’s half off on Thursday’s and Valentine’s Day happens to be on a Thursday. So I was dying to try it and how cool that I could tell all of you to go grab some!  Btw, it did not disappoint ❤️.

I grabbed some fresh tulips for my table, because they were only $3.99, eek!!!  Best deal in town gentlemen!

And of course a bottle of red sangria because, well duh!  It’s the holiday of hearts, red, and pink 💕💕💕💕.  Speaking of hearts, I snagged a heart shaped CHEESECAKE, Dusko died and went to heaven. It’s his favorite dessert, and I was happy it was heart shaped!  And in case you forgot to buy a gift?!?  Fresh Thyme also sells cards, so many fun skincare products, water bottles, and even some hats and or accessories.

It’s basically a one stop shop and I’m so excited to know I can do all of my shopping at one place. No more going to two stores to complete my list of organic vs. better deals.  Here are a few pics of our Early Valentine’s Dinner!!!!

Now stop reading this and get to Fresh Thyme!  Hope you enjoy it as much as I did, Happy Valentine’s Day!

XOXO,

Lissa

Btw: How cute is this reusable tote bag you can snag too?!?

***This blog post was sponsored by Fresh Thyme, all opinions are my own***

Chocolate PB Smoothie

Just over here making smoothies!  Seriously the kids would eat smoothies every day, I’m more of a pizza girl myself 🤣🤣🤣   For real though this smoothie is delicious!  All we did was add the ingredients pictured below with ice and wa-la!

Recipe:

approx measurements for 2 smoothies

1 banana

2 tbls PB2

2 scoops Orgain Protein

2 tbls prana organic cacao

2 tbls prana chia seeds

1 cup ice

blend until desired consistency

add a cute straw and enjoy 😊!

Whats your favorite smoothie recipe?!?  Would LOVE to know, drop one in the comments below!

Have a Great Week!

xoxo,

Lissa

 

***All links are affiliate links which means I may make a percentage of the sale.***

Naked Cake

The Easiest and Prettiest Cake you will ever make!  I just want to start out by saying I am NOT a baker!  I do love to decorate things but if there is a will, there is a way!!  So as if I am not busy enough lately, I committed to making a cake for my friend Kate’s Birthday Gathering.  I kept swaying back and forth on if I should make/decorate or just buy something!  However, I have been wanting to make this specific cake for awhile and I felt it was totally her style!  If the shoe fits!  haha.  So, here you are, step by step!

Ingredients/Supplies(linked the important stuff):

3 Wilton 8 inch round cake pans(you can totally get away with 1)

Wilton Spatula as shown below

Pam Baking Spray(This stuff is life changing)

2 boxes yellow cake mix(or make your own)

2 containers white frosting(or make your own)

Powdered Sugar

Faux Succulents

Cake Stand

It is great to have 3 pans because all I did was spray the pans, throw the mix in, and baked all 3 at the same time!  They fit on one rack in the oven.  The first time I ever did this I only had one pan.  I literally baked each one at a time.  lol.  Ridic!

Pro Tip:  Let them cool for about 15 mins in the pan, then take them out, let them cool completely, put them back into the pan until you are ready to decorate!

My cakes never cook even(flat) and for stacking they obviously need to be.  All I did was slice the top of each of the 3 cakes with a huge knife to make it flat.

Next, I slathered frosting between each layer.  Doesn’t need to be pretty, we will save that for the end.

Then I took the spatula(wiped the frosting off with a paper towel), held it vertical, and just went around the cake.  This gave it that smoother look and also made the frosting kind of spread out.

I wish I would have gotten a better picture of this step….let me tell you it was a HOT mess!!!  It’s all part of the fun.  This is the part where I absolutely don’t know what I am doing but I just want the cake to look a certain way, so I literally threw the powdered sugar all over it!  and Ta-Da!!!  Doesn’t she look pretty?!?!?

I was lucky enough to have faux succulents laying around the house!  All I did was stick them in the cake where I wanted them.  SO easy!

The Finished Product!

Happy Baking!!!!

XOXO,

Lissa

Shop my full Look HERE!

To Grocery Pick Up or Not…

Grocery Pick Up….
tbh, I was never really interested in this before. When we lived in the city(Chicago), I used instacart once and had kind of a bad experience. If you’ve never heard of this it’s a grocery delivery service. Basically, the chips came crunched and the milk was leaking. So, we never utilized this service again. Fast forward 4 years and 2 kids later. Wal-Mart, One of the biggest companies in the world starts a grocery pick up service. There was a lot of buzz in my world of moms. I still wasn’t super interested at first. Maybe because it was Wal-Mart, maybe because of my experience with instacart, and maybe just because I like to shop. At any rate, one of my friends kept raving about how obsessed she had become with this awesome service. Alas, I had to try it.
Result:
Well, I’m kind of obsessed now too!  I totally get it.  It is hands down one of the best things since sliced bread.  Here is my list of pros and cons.
Pros:
*Super user friendly, there is even “an app for that!”
*You get a window of an hour to pick up, they text you when it’s ready and you check in on your way.  You basically don’t have to wait.  Super fast.
*I am way more organized and prepared with what I am buying.  You can add items and it saves them in your bag until you order.  You are basically writing your list in the shopping cart.  Takes the middle man out!  And if I forget something I can always do a new order the next day!  haha.
*You can place the order and have your husband pick it up!  He won’t be calling you every 5 mins asking about the item you text him to pick up!  lol.
*You can order other things besides groceries!  My first time I placed an order, I got tulips.  They were cheap and lasted a week.
*Now that I am working Part-Time, it is a HUGE time saver.  More time for playing at the park and snuggling with these two cuties!
Cons:
*They do substitutions for things….For example:  if I order yogurt pouches in a specific brand and they are out, they will substitute them with something else.  Even if that something else costs more.  Sounds like a pro, right?  Well, I’m sure 90% of the time it is but I had a time last week that I really needed frozen rice for a meal train I was doing that night.  They were out of the item and apparently had no substitute.  The problem here is I didn’t know this until I went to pick up all my groceries with 2 kids in a pinch.  So, that can be super annoying.  I would like to note, this has only happened to me once and I have used this service a number of times now.
*Your order has to be over $30, this is obviously easy to do but today I just needed a couple of things.  These things totaled $21, so I ended up spending over $30 so I could utilize the service.  Obviously I bought things I know I will need anyways so not the biggest deal.
*You can’t order alcohol.  I am sure they will eventually figure out a way to make that happen.
*Wal-Mart definitely doesn’t have everything I need.  But that’s ok!  I still shop at Trader Joes and Meijer.  This just gets me through the week!
Click HERE to receive $10 off your first Grocery Pickup of $50 or more!
Have you ever done Wal-Mart Grocery Pick up or any other service?  Would love to hear about your experiences in the comments.  Also, I hear Target is going to be offering a pick up service.  Would love to hear more about this!
Happy Weekend Y’all!

XOXO,

Lissa

***This post is not sponsored, just my own opinion:)***

The Henry

First off all, this restaurant is CUTE!  And as you drive up to it you are looking at Camelback Mountain which is pretty cool too!  We went there for brunch, when we got there the parking lot was super busy.  That always leads me to believe it’s going to be good, but you never know.  It was definitely busy but it is pretty huge, and we were there around 10:30 so we didn’t have to wait long.  For breakfast/brunch, you order and they bring your food out to you.  I had a chai tea latte, delicious, not super sweet, just right!  Plus the classy looking to go cup they put it in I’m pretty sure makes it taste better!  haha.  Dusko had a coffee with cream and he was happy with that.  We split the “Le Pig” Sandwich and the Smashed Avocado Toast.  I’m not going to lie, Dusko wanted the avocado toast and I was kind of thinking, seriously?  We eat that all the time.  But it was pretty much the best avocado toast I’ve ever had.  I am definitely going to try to replicate it!  I am pretty sure the eggs on top were poached so it had just the right consistency!  Check out the rest of their menu here.

 

We came straight her from the airport so I was still wearing my travel clothes!  Shop my entire look here

They are opening a location in West Hollywood soon, so if you are in the area, check it out!

XOXO,

Lissa

 

 

My take on Whole 30

Ahhhh, Whole 30…So I shall mention before you read this that I am a Whole 30 graduate.  So I kind of have a love/hate with Whole 30.  I first heard about it when I was pregnant, insert chuckle, obviously the timing was definitely off on that one.  I had zero interest in it then and didn’t think I ever really would.  Fast forward to my third trimester with Emerson(my second child), I found out I had gestational diabetes(save these details for a later date).  I obviously decided it was time to start caring what I was putting into my body again.  I was approximately 6 weeks post partum when I knew it was time to take charge.  For those of you un familiar with Whole 30, in a nutshell you don’t eat anything processed and NO dairy!  Try to do that in 2017, not exactly an easy task.  We live in a world where everyone is in such a hurry and to eat well, it’s hard to be in a hurry.  I have a great situation for eating better because I am home everyday and I knew this, which is another reason I knew it was time to take charge.  I also need everyone to know I was a dairy junkie.  I used half & half in my coffee every morning and afternoon, as well as added cheese to almost everything!!!  Here is a meal plan for an average day while I was in my 30 days.

Average Day

Lots of water, coffee with almond milk or nutpods(you can find them on amazon)

Breakfast: sauteed onions, potatoes, and red pepper, 2 eggs over easy, avocado(and or guacamole)

Lunch:  Kale/Spinach mix, grilled chicken, avocado, EVOO & balsamic vinegar

Dinner: Steak, Brussel sprouts with EVOO and lemon

Every day was fairly similar except sub out different meats and vegetables.

PROS

+I did not miss dairy.  I really thought I would but it turns out vegetables add so much flavor that I really didn’t care.

+I felt very satisfied when I was done eating because taking out the sugars helped me to not have cravings.

+I lost approx 12 lbs, and my huband lost 17lbs.  Overall, we both felt a ton better, no  headaches, not as tired.

+My clothes fit sooo much better

CONS

+I definitely felt like garbage the first few days as my body was ridding all of the nasty processed garbage inside of me.

+You can’t really eat out and I love to eat out.  It is an event for me, especially now that I am a stay at home mom.

+I thought I was going to turn into a chicken because I ate so many eggs. lol

+No Alcohol-although, this is the part of Whole 30 where I made my own rules!  Seriously though, this “lifestyle” is pretty strict and I couldn’t drink for 9 months while I was pregnant!

 

Overall, I am so glad I did this and it truly has been a lifestyle change for myself and my family.

If you are interested in a Health Coach, click here to check out my childhood friend, Natalie’s website: http://www.natalieschroder.com She is actually the one that got me started on feeling like a new person!  She also posts weekly meal plans and has great ideas!

If you are about to start your journey, Good Luck!  If you are on the fence, do it!!!

XOXO,

Lissa

Worth the Visit?!?

  • Eats
  • February 16, 2016
  • 0

The 3 Arts Club Cafe at Restoration Hardware exceeded my expectations. The overall experience was awesome, I mean look at this place?!?!? We got there about 15 mins before they opened on a Saturday and didn’t have to wait. Obviously a plus considering they don’t open until 10am. Our waitress was more than personable, they offer bellinis vs. the typical mimosa(I’m not really an orange juice girl), and my burger and fries were over the top delicious! I read somewhere that the creators of Au Cheval in the west loop assisted with the 3 Arts Club which only makes sense. Not to mention it’s basically a Restoration Hardware museum! For someone like myself that LOVES interior design, I was in fiber and metal heaven. Lol. Even if you aren’t into fabrics or lighting-get there like yesterday! You won’t regret it ????

www.3artsclubcafe.com

Prime Wardrobe

Archives

Wanna hear from me more?!?!?

Categories