One Pot, 15 Minute Asian Noodles with Shrimp

*Disclosure- I received the mentioned product courtesy of the sponsor for the purpose of this review. All opinions are genuine, based on my experience with the product, and have not been influenced by promotional items.



For most of us, we're readjusting to life in the fast lane. Early mornings, homework headaches, packed schedules... For the next few weeks while I am trying to get my groove back, I am embracing simplicity where I can find it. Dinner prep usually takes up a good chunk of my evenings, which I usually don't mind, but some days we aren't even getting home until 8pm and on those days I have to have fast and easy meal solutions on hand so I can get everyone fed and settled in for the night. I usually turn to stir fry recipes on those nights because they take very little effort or time to get on the table. I recently came across this Asian-Style Angel Hair Pasta with Shrimp recipe on Golden Blossom Honey. After a quick scan, I noticed it is a one pot, 15 minute meal which sounded so perfect for busy work/school nights. 

Quick meal and quick clean-up, I don't think you could ask for more when you don't have a lot of time to toss dinner together. Not only is this quick, easy, and delicious, I like that it is a flexitarian recipe. My family enjoys it with the shrimp, but I can leave the meat out of my portion and toss in some broccoli or carrots into mine and still have a filling meal. I do love recipes that are versatile like this!

Ingredients

Sauce:
1/4 cup low-sodium soy sauce
3 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil (found in Asian section)
2 tablespoons GOLDEN BLOSSOM RAW HONEY
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper, or to taste

1 pound angel hair pasta or capellini
3/4 pound snow peas, trimmed and strings removed
1 pound large shrimp, shelled and deveined
1/3 cup fresh cilantro, chopped (reserve 2 tablespoons for garnish)
1/3 cup scallions, thinly sliced
4 tablespoons slivered almonds

CLICK HERE FOR FULL RECIPE

You can find this recipe, as well as many more delicious recipes right on the Golden Blossom Honey recipe page! Be sure to follow Golden Blossom Honey on Facebook and Twitter to stay up to date on new products and promotions.

If you like this recipe, be sure to come back every Friday, where I feature a new recipe from Golden Blossom Honey!

What is your favorite Asian dish?

 

Going To Hogwarts Through King's Cross Station

We were fresh off a 7 hour flight to London, and instead of grabbing a taxi from the airport, we thought it would be a brilliant idea to try to navigate London's train station to get us closer to our hotel. I like to think that we aren't complete morons, but trying to figure out the workings of a foreign train system when you're completely exhausted was a little more than we could handle. After Jason had to ask the attendant 3 times which train was ours, I had a feeling he was muttering "stupid Americans" under his breath before we finally got it right. Thankfully, that was one of our very few snafus on our trip.

After about a 30 minute ride, we arrived at the station and decided to cut across the street to King's Cross because Mariah had it on her London bucket list to get to Platform 9 ¾.

There were about 50 people milling around in front of it when we arrived, and we were a bit confused as to where the line started. Eventually, the workers told us they only let a handful of people into line at a time, but led us to a line outdoors where they were having people wait their turn to get into the official line so they could keep train station traffic from getting clogged up in the area in front of the Harry Potter platform.

It only took us about 30 minutes of wait time before it was our turn. They give you a wand and let you choose your Hogwarts house color from a selection of scarfs to use as photo props. It was completely free, but they do take your photo, which you have the option to purchase in the gift shop when you are done. We did bring our own camera, and they are totally cool about letting you take your own photos, but you'll only get enough time to snap two or three quickly before they take their own and move you along.

I guess we were Slytherine House as the girls picked out the green scarf for us to wear. Fitting, since we were looking a bit rough still in our flight clothes :)

While we didn't have the magic touch to get through to the Hogwarts Express, we were able to hail a cab outside of King's Cross to take us to the Holiday Inn, which looked pretty magical itself after an exhausting day of planes, trains, and taxi cabs.

Which Hogwarts House do you belong to?

Energy Booster Breakfast for BTS!

*Disclosure- I received the mentioned product courtesy of the sponsor for the purpose of this review. All opinions are genuine, based on my experience with the product, and have not been influenced by promotional items.


I can't believe it's already time for back to school. Mariah is leaving today to head back to college and Allison will be starting her first year of high school next week. Maybe I'm in the minority here, but I hate it when my girls have to go back. I love our carefree, unscheduled summer days where anything goes. But, time marches on and so do we. I will admit, I am pretty excited that the high school hours have been pushed back an hour and a half, so we can to sleep in a little later this year. I never liked making a hot breakfast super early, but now that we have more time in our mornings I'll be more inclined to make breakfast on the stove more often before school. I found this Energy Booster Breakfast on Golden Blossom Honey that is made as a hot breakfast, but doesn't take a lot of time to prepare. 10 minutes tops, so even if you don't have extra morning hours, you can still get a hot and nutritious breakfast on the table in a jiffy.

Oats are great for feeding the kids before school since they keep the tummy feeling full longer than other breakfast items. Instead of using water or milk, you cook the oats in apple cider, which I think is an amazing way to add flavor to this dish. The dash of cinnamon and cloves adds a hint of warmth, which would also make this the perfect breakfast for fall. I imagine I'll be making this for myself quite often this autumn. Paired with a steaming mug of tea, I'm almost excited for the crisp temps to kick in.

Ingredients

2 cups old fashioned oats
3 1/2 cups apple cider
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon cloves
2 tablespoons GOLDEN BLOSSOM HONEY
1 cup strawberries, hulled and sliced
low-fat vanilla yogurt

CLICK HERE FOR FULL RECIPE

You can find this recipe, as well as many more delicious recipes right on the Golden Blossom Honey recipe page! Be sure to follow Golden Blossom Honey on Facebook and Twitter to stay up to date on new products and promotions.

If you like this recipe, be sure to come back every Friday, where I feature a new recipe from Golden Blossom Honey!

Have your kids already started back to school?

 

Happy National Root Beer Float Day! #AWRootBeer

Disclosure: The product, information, and gift card have been provided by A&W so that I could try the product and share my thoughts and information about A&W Root Beer. The opinions expressed in this post are my own and do not reflect the opinions of A&W.






There are just some summertime traditions that never go out of style, whether it's jumping through the sprinkler, staying up late to chase fireflies, going to the drive-in movie theater, or skipping rocks across the lake. These are all activities that I loved participating in when I was a little girl, and it warms my heart every time my own kids are making their own memories by participating in them too. These are memories that will be passed down to their own children, I'm sure, because some things are just too special no matter how much time goes by.

One of my favorite family memories from my childhood was when my parents would take us to dinner at the drive-in diner. Eating away from home was a privilege that we only got a few times a year, so when it did happen it was a real treat! It was so fun to watch the waitress hook our tray of burgers and hotdogs to the car window, then we would have a good old fashioned sit down family meal right in our car. Good times! The real treat always came at the end of the meal though, when dad would have the waitress bring us out huge frosty mugs of A&W Root Beer Floats as an extra special surprise.

The  A&W Original Root Beer Float includes 2 scoops of vanilla ice cream in your favorite frosty mug, then filled to the brim with delicious A&W Root Beer. There's something almost magical about the vanilla ice cream flavor mixed with the root beer that just makes the taste buds sing and dance. And those vanilla flavored fizzy bubbles that always surround the top of the mug? That's the stuff sweet dreams are made of.

While we no longer have those old fashioned drive-in diners near us, I do like to recreate a drive-in style meal for my family a few times each summer, complete with hot dogs served with frosty mugs of A&W Root Beer Floats to wash it all down.

My family loves these treat meals just as much as I did when I was a child, so I am glad I am able to pass down another time honored summer tradition for them to enjoy for many more years to come.

Did you know that today, August 6, is National Root Beer Float Day? I had no idea such a day existed until recently, but now that I know that it does, it will forever be marked on my calendar to celebrate each year. Any excuse to enjoy a root beer float is a good excuse to me! Now, you could make the A&W Original Root Beer Float to celebrate the day, or you could do like us and try a new root beer float creation.

We just whipped up this Brownie Sundae Root Beer Float made with Original Flavor A&W Root Beer and it was Ah-Mazing! Simply crumble a brownie and place it in the bottom of a mug, reserving a tablespoon or so for topping. Squirt a little hot fudge sundae topping over the brownie, top with 2 scoops of vanilla ice cream, then fill the remainder of the mug with A&W Root Beer. Finish it off with a swirl of whipped cream, spoon on the remainder of the brownie crumbs and some decorative candy sprinkles, top with a cherry, then enjoy! Nom, Nom!

If that doesn't sound like your cuppa tea (or cuppa float), check out A&W Root Beer's Instagram page for more root beer float recipe ideas. There's a salted caramel one on there that's begging for me to make it real soon! Original or new creation, no matter what kind of root beer float you whip up, be sure to snap a pic before you sip and tag your pics on social media with #AWRootBeer. I can't wait to see your creations today!

Did you ever enjoy getting root beer floats from the drive-in diner?

 

Ooh La La! Fresh Fruit Crepes

*Disclosure- I received the mentioned product courtesy of the sponsor for the purpose of this review. All opinions are genuine, based on my experience with the product, and have not been influenced by promotional items.


On one hand, I love the European's way of life. Life seems more relaxed, it's not all work, work, work, sleep, repeat. On the other hand, I really appreciate being able to grab a doughnut at any hour of the day here. I had grand dreams of waking up early in Paris, sitting at a little cafe, and eating Fresh Fruit Crepes for breakfast while I people watched. We did end up sleeping in on our second day in Paris, but finally got out the door around 8am to hunt down some breakfast. Our hotel was a 5 minute walk from the Eiffel Tower, so I thought there would be plenty of options to choose from, but we only came across 1 restaurant that was open that early and the girls didn't want anything that was on the menu. We started to walk back to our hotel and stumbled upon a little boulangerie with a small line out the door, so we had a peer in the window and were immediately salivating over the baked goodies beckoning for our attention. We ended up buying some croissants, beignets, and some French apple tarts that were so good, I almost cried when I took a bite. So, I didn't get my crepes, but bakery goodies more than made up for it.

On our walk to Notre Dame, we passed by Haagan Dazs where they were outside making these incredibly delicious smelling banana and chocolate hazelnut crepes topped with ice cream, and while it was a $15 dessert (yikes!), we did end up buying one to share. It was totally worth the cost!

I have never tried to make my own crepes before, with the exception of making them in our 8th grade foreign language studies class, but when we returned home from vacation I was still craving some crepes and was excited to find a Crepes with Fresh Fruit recipe right on Golden Blossom Honey's website. 

While I didn't have one of those fancy crepe makers like they do in France, I did make do with a small skillet and must say that they came out quite well. After blending the batter I was worried that it looked a little too thin and thought about adding in more flour to thicken it up a bit. I did a test run with the batter as prepared and it came out perfect on my first try. So DON'T add in more flour to the recipe. It's supposed to be runny! Make sure you are coating your pan with a little cooking spray before adding in more batter to get even results every time. Add in your summer fruits and roll up, maybe sprinkle on a little powdered sugar on top, and you'll be saying ooh, la la in no time. 

Ingredients

Fruit:
1 pint strawberries, hulled and sliced
1/2 pint blueberries
1 peach, peeled and sliced
2 tablespoons GOLDEN BLOSSOM RAW HONEY
 
Crepes:
2 cups milk
1 cup flour
1 egg
2 egg whites
1 tablespoon GOLDEN BLOSSOM HONEY
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1/8 teaspoon salt

CLICK HERE FOR FULL RECIPE

You can find this recipe, as well as many more delicious recipes right on the Golden Blossom Honey recipe page! Be sure to follow Golden Blossom Honey on Facebook and Twitter to stay up to date on new products and promotions.

If you like this recipe, be sure to come back every Friday, where I feature a new recipe from Golden Blossom Honey!

What's your favorite pancake, waffle, or crepe topping?

 

Champions du Monde! World Cup 2018

The day before we were to fly out of the U.S., I got notice that the Eiffel Tower tickets I purchased had been cancelled because France was a finalist to compete in the World Cup. Since we were arriving on Bastille Day, I already knew everything was going to be closed when we got there, but since I was only getting 2 days in Paris on this vacation, I was pretty pissed that the trip I had my heart set on for the past 25 years was about to be ruined by a soccer match. Not only were we not going to get to go up in the Eiffel Tower, The Louvre was scheduled to close early and all of the shops and most of the cafes were going to be closed as well. My heart was broken and I admit, I let my petty side come out and secretly prayed that France would lose the match since I was losing out on my trip. But, thank God for unanswered prayers because as we all know, France did indeed win the 2018 World Cup. Had they lost, I still would have missed out on visiting the sites and the mood would have been somber across the city, putting an even bigger gray cloud on my day. Fortunately, I was in the heart of the country and got to experience the overwhelming joy of the Parisians once their country brought home the win.

The day started out on a festive note. Most of the city was up bright and early walking towards the Eiffel Tower to unite and cheer on their team. Patriotism was out in full force, as almost everyone we saw was decked out in blue, white, and red. "Allez les Bleus !"

The fans would start spontaneously singing as they marched through the streets, flags were waving everywhere, cars blasted their horns as they flew down the roads, and spirits were high. Since most of the city was glued to their screens watching the match, we didn't have large crowds to fight through while we explored Notre Dame, Sacre Coeur, or our very short stop into The Louvre, but once we were done being tourists and France brought home the win, the energy levels in the city skyrocketed.

Even though most of the streets were closed to traffic, it didn't stop cars and motorcycles from flying through, horns blaring, high 5's being tossed to close by pedestrians, and flags wildly waving.

I remember when the Chicago Cubs won the World Series, excitement was high, but I don't think us Americans could even hold a candle to how the French celebrated their victory. The noise levels alone were through the roof! While many opted to celebrate on the ground, there were plenty celebrating from their terraces, waving their flags and pouring water and wine on the pedestrians below and clanging their pots and pans together.

The energy was almost tangible, and I actually did have a few people grab my arm and ask me to take their photo. Probably because I was one of the few walking around with my bulky dslr camera, they might have thought I was a reporter or something? They'll probably be disappointed to know they'll just get a small feature on my tiny little blog lol ;)

Even though I am not French and am not a soccer fan, for a short time we were welcomed into the fold, hooting and hollering, passing out our own high 5's, and just living in this once in a lifetime moment. We joined the throngs of fans walking through the streets from the Eiffel Tower to the Arc de Triomphe where motorcycles were doing burnouts and fireworks were flying through the sky.

While my once in a lifetime trip didn't turn out how I expected it to, I feel really blessed we just happened to be in Paris for this amazing event. It was truly incredible experience that my family will remember forever. Congrats to France for being the Champions du Monde!

Did you watch any of the World Cup? If so, which team were you rooting for?