Holiday Treats | Peppermint Marshmallow Bark

With Christmas just a few weeks away, you might be looking for a little gift you can make for friends, neighbors, teachers... Just about anyone you can think of that you just want to give a little treat to this time of year.  This Peppermint Bark is something we make every year and it's always a huge hit.  It's also super easy to make, so win-win in my book ;-) I hope you enjoy is as much as we do!

Ingredients for Chocolate Peppermint Marshmallow Bark:

Two 12oz bags of semi-sweet chocolate chips (or whichever type of chocolate you prefer) 

6 candy canes with wrappers removed 

1 cup of small marshmallows

1 large sheet of parchment paper

Comfort Food - Turkey Chili

It has been cold here in Northern California.  I laugh as I type this, knowing very well that cold for us is a high of 58 during the day and low 40's at night, but still, for us, it's down right chilly.  Speaking of chilly... I'm sharing an oldie, but goodie here on the blog today.  My Turkey Chili recipe.  We are heading out this afternoon to have some family photos taken and I know that we will be cold and hungry when we get home this afternoon, so I thought a good slow cooker recipe would be perfect for dinner tonight.  I actually had all the ingredients on hand to make this, and you just might too!









Ingredients:
1 lb of lean ground turkey
1 can of black beans drained and rinsed
1 can of kidney beans drained and rinsed
2 cans of fire roasted diced tomatoes
1 onion diced
2 cloves minced garlic
1 pkg of taco seasoning (I like Trader Joe's brand)
1 pkg of ranch seasoning mix
olive oil
salt & pepper to taste

Suggested garnish toppings:
sour cream
cilantro
tortilla chips
cheddar cheese

Directions:

You can make this chili two ways, throw all the ingredients into a slow cooker and let it cook on medium all day, or if you get home from work and need to make something relatively quickly, the directions below will work just as well.

Brown turkey in a heavy bottom pot (such as a dutch oven) over medium heat with a little olive oil in the pan. Once the turkey begins to brown add the onions and garlic. Cook until the turkey is nearly cooked though, then add the taco seasoning and mix well. Add the tomatoes, beans and ranch seasoning. Simmer on medium heat for about 30 minutes to allow all the flavors to meld together. Serve in large bowls and garnish with your choice of suggested toppings.

Whether you choose the slow cooker method or the stove top method, I promise this will warm you right up and is the perfect comfort food for a cold winter day!

Holiday Home Tour 2016

I can hardly believe that it is already December and my favorite time of year is here!  The holidays are such a fun time of the year and of course I love decorating the house and tree, so I'm super excited to share what we've been up to here.  Since we are expecting a new addition shortly after Christmas, I got started on my decorating a little early this year, but I have been trying hard not to do anything over the top.  I felt the need to scale back, one for financial reasons, and two so that I wasn't putting so much pressure on myself to have everything be perfect.  I have a tendency to want things to be just so, and that can be a little stressful, so I won't be showing pictures of my kitchen on this tour today. At a later time I might get a few shots in, but for now, I'm just pleased with the way the main room of our house turned out, and I hope you'll love it too!

Welcome! We added these Ikea Hemnes shoe cabinets to the entry way a few months ago and I love them!  The kids each have their own cubbies and there's no more searching for shoes in the mornings before school.  Plus, they are fun to decorate!

Behind this book shelf is the door to the nursery. There is another entry way from the hall on the other side and I wanted to keep the kids from running through the room as a short-cut to the bathroom, so we just blocked the door and you'd never even know it was there!

The main room in our house is a dining/living combo.

We have to move the piano out to the garage every year to make room for the Christmas tree.  Since no one really plays, we don't miss it, but boy is it a pain to move...

I might have a slight obsession with Christmas throw pillows... Sorry for the grainy pics, the lighting in this room is so tricky with that big window.

Do you love my new throw blankets?  They are super soft chenille and were only $9.99 each at Target on black Friday.

This is the first year we've had a real tree since we've lived in this house.  I'm so in love with it I'm not sure I can ever go back to fake again.  It's huge, beautiful and smells amazing!

I love this red runner.  And, so do the cats... I have to use the lint roller to remove white cat hair everyday, but it's really pretty, so I don't mind... too much.

These paper fans from T.J. Maxx are so cute and festive.  They are hard to find, but completely worth the $10 if you see them!

So, thanks for stopping by!  I hope you liked what we've done this year!