Easy Roll Ups

Photo Credit: Taste Of Home

Tasty, attractive, versatile and budget friendly! I love roll ups. Whenever my church has a potluck or if I'm having a lot of people over I always make roll ups. They are so presentable and easy to make. This is what I do! Use any tortilla wrap you like, spread with any flavor cream cheese and then fill with deli meats, cheeses, veggies etc. Roll tightly. Cover in plastic wrap and put in the fridge for two hours. Cut them in 1.5-2 inch sections and put them on your platter. You can put a toothpick through each one to make it look more decorative or secure it if you roll isn't holding tight enough. Here are some flavor combinations I have used but feel free to use your own and be creative!

Turkey Pesto
Spread cream cheese and pesto on plain wrap. Fill with baked turkey and romaine lettuce.

Southwestern
Mix 1/4 cup of your favorite salsa into a 8oz tub of soft cream cheese. You can add more if you need more flavor. Spread salsa cream cheese mixture on a sun dried tomato wrap. Sprinkle with Mexican cheese blend, chicken and cilantro.

Ham & Cheddar
Spread plain cream cheese on garlic and herb wrap. Layer baked ham and cheddar.

Roastbeef and Swiss
Spread cream cheese and horseradish on a plain wrap. Layer medium rare roast beef and swiss.

Very Veggie
Spread Spinach wrap with vegetable cream cheese. Fill with ice burg lettuce. thinly sliced carrots, red peppers and cucumbers.

Yum :-)

Stacey

Movie Night

We do movie nights in our house at least once a month. It's such an easy activity and the children really look forward to it. What I did was buy a three fold poster board and created our "Box Office". Each child comes to the box office to get their ticket, food and drinks. We always offer water, juice, candy and popcorn.

 

Daddy is the the ticket taker. He takes each childs ticket before they can enter the "theater" (our living room) and issues the rules before he starts the film. His rules are usually silly and make the kids laugh but if he say them, the girls will remind him he needs too.

 

 

 

 

We have done themes on movie nights too. Some of our favorites have been "drive-in" movie nights when we created cars out of cardboard boxes. We have also done a "The Lorax" themed movie night, "Spooky Buddies" and "Barbie: Princess Charm School". We use Redbox or Netflix. Lately Redbox has been emailing cents off codes so it has been costing us .50 to .75 per movie. Affordable and meaningful family entertainment.

 

Stacey 

Bridal Shower

 

My baby sister got married last year. My two sisters and I threw her an amazing Bridal Shower. It was set outside on a beautiful sunny day in the country. We are a very simple and budget minded family. We put together a salad lunch buffett. This included a myriad of dressings, grilled chicken, fresh cooked bacon bit, lettuce, hard boiled eggs, veggies, croutons, cheese etc. We also had rolls and fruit salad to accompany.

 

We should to decorate in yellow and white. As we grew up as children we all had "colors" that would signify what object or belonging was ours. Angela's had always been yellow. 

 

 

We used a combination of white flowers, lemon and dollar store finds to decorate. We also created tissue paper pom- poms to hang from the tent we had. We all coordinated our gift wrapping in yellow and white so that even the gift station looked like it was part of the decorations. 

 

My mother put together these delicious cupcakes with homemade buttercream frosting. We served lemonade out of an old fashioned decanter into fancy classes with a lemon twist. It was a very simple but elegant occasion.

 



We played a variety of games including bride & groom trivia, bridal gift bingo and Guess Who. Guess Who was my favorite. We had printed several names of strong females in politics, movies, literature etc. Each woman who attended the party had a name attached to their back. The object of the game was to guesss who you were. This could be done using only yes or no questions. All winners to the games go to pick a hand sanitizer from Bath and Body Works. Each prize was only $1.00. They were practical and pretty!

 

It was a lovely afternoon.

 

Stacey

Menu Planning Monday

Monday: Chicken Tacos, Spanish Rice, Corn
Tuesday: Slow Cooker Pork Chops, Mashed Potato, Corn
Wednesday: Quesadillas, Red Beans & Rice
Thursday: Shepard's Pie, Crescent Rolls and Fruit
Friday: Meatball Subs
Saturday: Dinner Out
Sunday: Spaghetti & Meatballs, Salad and Cottage Cheese

Chicken Taco recipe to follow soon!

Dora - 3rd Birthday

My daughter Madalynn loves Dora! So I hosted for her a Dora Birthday Party! Being a lady on a budget I did majority of myself -- plus I just loving DIY-ing it!

 

The Invitation:

 

I freehand drew backpack on a purple piece of paper. Once I get form that I like I trace it on to pieces of paper and cut them out. I was going to color the facial features in myself but I wasn't sure that I could do it justice. I went to www.nickjr.com. They have a lot of great party printables for the characters on their programs. I mass printed the facial features of backpack and glued them on.

 



 

The Wording:

 

Come On, Vamonos!

Everybody let's go!

 

It's Madalynn's 3rd birthday

and we are celebrating

in an aDORAble way!

 

When:

April 11, 2011

3:00-5:00

 

Where:

Madalynn's House

1234 Main Street

My Town, My State

 

Decorations:

I used Pink, Purple and Yellow for the main colors to decorate with. I made the famous Martha Stewart Pom-Poms with tissue paper I purchased at the Dollar Store. I find that the stiff tissue paper that's sold in the long package works better than the soft tissue paper that is sold folded up. It was really basic. Just yellow and purple tables cloths, plates and cups. I bought a few Dora Napkins and plates to accent the colors.

 

 

Our Menu:

Mini Sandwich Platters

(peanut butter & jelly, Ham & Cheese on Dollar Rolls and Turkey Roll Ups)

Bagel Pizzas (they were frozen)

Assorted Chips

Fruit Platter

Veggie Platter

Water

Juice

Soda for Adults

 

Dessert Time:

 

I ordered 12 cucpakes with Dora Rings and a Dora Character cake from Walmart. This cost about $12.00. It's about $6.00 for a character cake. They make all Disney princesses, Dora, some princes/heros and I think they may have expanded since we had this party.

 

The Favor

 

I bought canvas bags from Dollar Tree. They were 3 for $1.00. I glued on googly eyes and a red felt mouth with a hot glue gun. I filled them with candy, a party blower, plastic maracas and Dora stickers. It looked like Backpack :-) The kids loved it and it was a perfect end to a perfect party! Fantástico!

 

 

Stacey

Indoor Luau

I definitely think outside the box when it comes to parenting! I strive daily to make the day to day tasks extraordinary. I also like to stretch the imaginations of my children and help them to experience things like no one else!

We had an Indoor Luau at our home! I decorated our home (including filling an inflatable pool) and cranked the heat to 75 degrees. Put out a spread of delicious snacks and drinks. We listened to a Luau inspired playlist I created on www.playlist.com. I asked my children to come out into the kitchen in their bathing suits! They were absolutely puzzled -- once they came out to the kitchen they were streaking with excitement and had a really fun time!

 

What We Ate :

Veggie Platter

Fruit Salad

Cheetos

Swedish Fish

Tropical Colored Cupcakes

 

**Not my healthiest spread, I'll admit! But it was colorful and all of the girls favorites **

 

We also had a tasty punch that looked cool too!

 

What We Drank:

Using clear or a patterned see through cup or glass

Pour 2/3 full with Sierra Mist, Sprite, Seven Up or a bubbly clear soda

Put 2 scoops of any flavored Sherbet ( we used Lime,Orange Lemon).

Finish with a brightly colored straw and drink umbrella.

 

It's bubbles up and tastes great.

Our Decorations:

Everything was purchased from The Dollar Tree Store

-Purple Table Cloth

-2 Tropical Luau Mural

-Palm Tree Decoration

-Palm Tree Inflatable for Pool

-Beach Ball

 

 

We had a wonderful time. This was a great activity because it allowed the girls to try something they had never tried before. They still talk about it! I encourage you to try to try something like this! I understand filling a pool in your kitchen might be a little out of your comfort zone but a bathtub works wonders :-)

 

 

 

Stacey