This one's for the boys!

Has anyone else out there seen these ads at Walmart to make your headlights look like new? They look like this:

I always wondered about them, because the headlights on my 1998 Grand Caravan look like this:

Pamper yourself and feel the love!

Happy Valentine's Day! As I mentioned yesterday, I just love this holiday. I am really feelin' the love today. I really enjoy seeing my friends posts on facebook about what their valentine has done for them and I hope that I can give some love to all of my friends who feel unloved or left out of this day. Valentine's day is for everyone, not just couples. In my family we give a little something to everyone that we love, not just spouses. It doesn't have to be extravagant, although contrary to yesterday's post, my sweet hubby surprised me with roses and candy. I wasn't expecting it and was completely caught by surprise. It was also nice to see how thrilled my kids were that their dad had gotten something for me. They all knew before I did and I could just see the joy in their faces when I discovered my surprises. I am a stay at home mom, so I don't have a bunch of cash to spend and I really enjoy giving homemade gifts, so that is what I will be doing today. One of my favorite gifts to make and give (or keep) is a nice sugar scrub. I don't know if you have ever purchased one or even looked at the price, but they are so expensive that it's ridiculous (I am also pretty cheap thrifty.) The worst part about the high price is that they can be made at home with ingredients you most likely already have in your cupboard. Seriously, can we say highway robbery?

Who needs Honeybaked?

I don't know about you guys, but I am a real fan of ham....actually I really love pork (BACON) in general. I always look forward to Easter because my Mom always either cooks a ham or buys a Honeybaked ham. I had never cooked a ham until about a year ago, because I had no idea how and I thought it took hours of oven time. Boy was I wrong! I have been following Stephanie O'Dea for a while now over at crockpot365.com and she posted a recipe for a copycat honeybaked that looked so good! I didn't have all of the ingredients on hand, so I winged it and made it my own and now it's a family favorite. Let me just pause here and tell you that if you haven't been over to her website, you should check it out. She has so many great recipes for the crockpot, you won't regret it! Now back to your regularly scheduled blog. So, this is how you make it and you won't believe how easy it is. Before I start, I must tell you to make sure you get the butt portion of ham when you go shopping, the shank portion won't fit in the crock (don't ask me how I know that).

House Rules 2.0

Well, my friends, today I am going to repost and edit and old post from a couple years ago. You may remember my posting about our Family Rules Canvas that I made based on a couple of other blogs. Well, I have gotten many compliments since I hung it up and my sister loved it, so I decided to make her one for Christmas. Here it is:

I've officially gone granola!!!

I don't know about you guys, but here in the Caliente household we love, Love, LOVE granola. We love to eat it by itself or as cereal or with some fruit and Greek yogurt. We also LOVE Greek yogurt. We love granola and Greek yogurt so much so that we were spending too much of our grocery money on it. Luckily, this summer, my favorite blogger Jillee posted a recipe for homemade Greek yogurt. I tried it and I LOVE it. I can make a whole gallon of plain Greek yogurt that costs less than a 24 oz container of my preferred brand. So from that point on we were making our own yogurt, but that caused us to eat MORE granola. I played around with the idea of making granola, but I thought it would probably be too much work, so I put it off until finally, about a week ago, I was bored and thought I would just look around on the net and see what recipes I could find. I was floored at how simple it really is to make and I had all of the ingredients right here

Mall Chicken (aka Sweet & Sour Chicken) with fried rice

Hello World! Sorry I haven't posted in almost 2 months. It has been a combination of laziness and trouble getting blogger to upload the photos I use in all of my posts. So here is my post holiday "Happy Thanksgiving" and "Merry Christmas"! I couldn't resist posting this awesome photo that was supposed to be our Christmas card. Unfortunately that didn't come together for me either so I wasn't able to send it out. However, I HAD to show it off, because I am so proud of my mad photography skills and my BFF/Aunt's mad photoshop skills. I got the idea from another blogger (Summertime Designs) that I saw on pinterest. I think we will have to redo this idea next Christmas so I can actually send them out.

Anyhow, that is not what today's post is really about. Today I am going to give the awesomest (Yeah, I know, I made that word up) recipe that I got off of Pinterest (you can check out the original here). I have had this recipe for a few months and the first time I made it we all loved it so much that I made it another night that same week. I didn't post it because I kept seeing it all over Pinterest, but finally I decided that maybe not all of you have seen it, or perhaps you have seen it but been hesitant to try it. I have also made a few tweaks that I think make it better. We call it Mall Chicken, but I think the proper name would be Sweet & Sour Chicken. The reason we call it Mall Chicken is because it tastes just like the chicken you get at the little chinese restaurant in the mall food court, but better. At least that's what my family said. Of course, you know mall chicken wouldn't be complete without fried rice, so I am going to give you that recipe too. Let me just post a little disclaimer here, I know this may not be the healthiest meal on the planet, but it is way better for you than the chemicals & junk food you buy at the mall. The best part about this recipe is that it's practically impossible to mess it up.

Doesn't that look so yummy! I'm still working on my food photography, so hopefully the pic does it justice.

PB & Chocolate go together like Batman & Robin

Hello my bloggy friends! Boy have I got a surprise for you today! Before I start, I should tell you that if you are dieting, you should think twice before reading this posting. There, you have been sufficiently warned and I take no responsibility for what happens after you read this. Who doesn't love a good Reese's Cup? Well, besides people with peanut allergies. I used to buy no bake Reese's Bars and make them for my family quite frequently. I haven't made them in a while and was really wanting some of that peanutty goodness and also I was at my election campaigning breaking point (I, too, am really tired of Bronco Bama and Mitt Romney). I went to the store to pick some up only to find that they no longer carry them.....WHAT?!?! So, I tried making buckeyes instead. I really like buckeyes, but they just weren't quite right. They taste great, but not like a Reese's cup or bar. So I started searching Google and I found it. The perfect recipe. It taste's just like Reese's to the 10th power...or heaven. So, first I have to credit BakerLady for the original recipe. I tweaked it a bit, though, and look at that yummy piece of paradise! The good news is that I made it through the election intact, but sadly the peanut butter bars did not.