I Did It!

I took the challenge and I did it!!  Today marks my 31st day of no fast food!

Woo-hooo!!  *happy dance*

Many of you took this challenge with me (42 of you signed the challenge linky!) and I'd love to know how you did!  Leave a comment below this post to do so!

For this entire month I have not spent ONE PENNY at a fast food restaurant.  I didn't grace their door step for any reason at all! And I'm super proud of myself.

Now some of you have asked... "do you feel better?"

Honestly?  I can't tell a difference.  Which really surprised me.  I fully expected to feel like a new person during this challenge.  But just because I cut out fast food, doesn't mean I fully cut out "bad" foods!  So my lack of feeling a difference physically could be due to the fact that I didn't really change my diet much while eating at home. *blush*

Others of you asked... "did you lose any weight?"

Again, a surprising disappointment there for me.  I totally thought I would!  I probably SHOULD have!  But like I said, just because I wasn't eating fast food doesn't mean I ate healthy at home. *deeper blush*

As for saving money?  (which was another one of my goals during this challenge) I DO believe we saved money.  I mean, how could we not?  That drive-thru money adds up fast!

HOWEVER, I did notice that when I wanted a burger I'd go to a sit-down restaurant for one and pay double what I was paying at a fast food joint.  Of course the burger was better tasting and better quality, but it cost more!

And when we wanted pizza, instead of the cheap $5 hot-and-ready ones from Little Caesars that we normally would buy, I'd get the $10 large from Pizza Hut.  So again, paid double for it!

But overall, yes, I do feel like we saved money.  Do I have any hard and fast figures to prove it? No.  Although I probably could look at September's food bill and October's food bill and get some for you, but that takes too much work... and, well... I'm lazy.

So.  Now that this challenge is over, there's been talk of a new challenge for November. 

No soda (or coke, or pop, or whatever you call it where you live) for the entire month of November!  Thanksgiving and all folks!  

What do you say?

Come on, you can do it!! 

Sign your name to the linky stating that you're "in" for this challenge and use the hashtag #NoSoda on twitter!



After you sign your name, grab our button to post on your blog or website if you'd like to! 

<center><a href="http://www.imalazymom.com/2011/10/i-did-it.html"><img border="0" src="http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z54/staceyplaisance/no-soda-727300.jpg"/></a></center>

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From Now to Wow! {Giveaway}

It's been a while since I've done a vlog for you.  This could be due to the fact that I like to give y'all some "recovery time" from the one before it.  Or it could be due to the fact that I hadn't had much inspiration to make one lately.

Either way, I'm back with an inspired vlog and a fun announcement!

(video)

I just have two words for you...

Cake.

Batter.

Yup, that's right. Slim·Fast® is introducing its richest, creamiest and best-tasting shakes ever – all inside convenient on-the-go bottles. It’s never been easier – or tastier – to wow the crowd at that next big occasion or event.

(AKA: CAKE. BATTER.)

The all-new Slim·Fast shakes are part of the Slim·Fast 3·2·1 Plan - 3 snacks, 2 meal replacement shakes (or bars) and 1 balanced 500 calorie meal - a proven method to meet weight-loss goals quickly and conveniently. Getting that look of ‘wow’ has never tasted so good!

I truly enjoyed each of their new shakes! Even the flavors I thought I wouldn't like, I loved! (Say it with me: CAKE. BATTER.)

Oo! Oo! And I spied some $1.50 off coupons on their Facebook page and their website! So be sure and print those off before you run to your grocery store for these new yummy flavors.

Over the past 30 years, Slim·Fast has helped millions of woman lose weight and look great for the special moments in their lives. Its balanced and proven approach to weight loss is supported by more than 45 published, clinical studies. Wow!

And Slim·Fast wants to help five of YOU look WOW at your next big event! They are generously giving away five $25 gift cards to Sephora! So not only can you lose the weight you want to, but you can have a whole new look to go with it!

U.S. and Canadian Residents can enter to win! Simply fill out the Rafflecopter form below doing as many or as little as you like! Each thing you do is an entry to win.



Thank you to Slim·Fast for providing me with their new flavors and a $50 gift card to Sephora in exchange for my honest review of their new and improved product. All opinions expressed are my own and no other compensation was received.

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Taffy Apple Pizza

On Monday I shared with you all about the totally fun Favorite Things party I pretended to helped throw. 

And do you remember this little darling, darling dear of a dessert?

I promised I share with you how to make this little bit of heaven.  Even though it's not exactly a Lazy Mom Recipe (it has more than five ingredients and is a bit more involved than our typical recipes).

It is seriously one of my "favorite things" to take to a party in the Fall when dessert is required of me.  Because A) it looks fabulous and B) it serves a lot of people.

I actually got this recipe from a Pampered Chef party years ago.  It's been a staple in my recipe box ever since.

Taffy Apple Pizza

2 (16.5oz) packages of refrigerated sugar cookie dough
1 (8oz) package of cream cheese softened
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup creamy peanut butter
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 medium Granny Smith apples
1/4 cup caramel ice cream topping
1/2 cup peanuts
lemon juice

Preheat your oven to 350°.

Note: The original recipe calls for one 18oz package of sugar cookie dough, however I think most packages are 16.5oz these days.  I always felt that one package of the sugar cookie dough even at the 18oz size wasn't quite enough to make the "pizza" bottom to my liking, so I like to buy the mack-daddy size, which I think is 30oz, so I have enough to play with.  However, the 30oz size isn't always available.  That's why my ingredient list up above says to buy two 16.5oz packages of sugar cookie dough, but you won't use all of it! *left over cookie dough alert!*

Line a pizza pan with parchment baking paper and cut off where it hangs over the pan with scissors (don't skip this step... it will burn! I may or may not have learned this by experience. *ahem*).  Then spray the parchment with cooking spray (I like to use PAM's Baking Spray - it has flour in it).

Take the cookie dough out of the refrigerator and shape one package of it into a ball.  Place the ball of cookie dough in the center of the pizza pan and start to push it out into a circle with the heel of your hand.  When you feel like you need more dough to get to the edges of the pan, use the second package of cookie dough to add to it as needed.  *left over cookie dough alert!*

This next step is VERY important. Don't skip it!! -- Pop left over bits of cookie dough in your mouth as you work on your pizza bottom. This will give you the energy you need to get through the rest of this not-so-lazy recipe.

I usually end up using about a package and a half of cookie dough, but my pizza pan is quite large (it's 16" across), so you may not use as much if your pan is smaller.  *left over cookie dough alert!* My end result looks like this:

Try to get a nice edge if you can. I usually use the side of my finger and sort of bump the edge back a little to get it to form into a nicer edge.  Notice the bottom right of this picture I didn't do so hot on this and that side sort of crumbled on me when working with it later, but it wasn't that big of a deal, I just covered it with the cream cheese mixture.  It definitely doesn't have to be perfect because the cookie puffs up while baking and usually covers any mistakes pretty well.

Bake this ginormous cookie for 16-18 minutes or until light golden brown. Remove from the oven and let it cool completely on the pan.  (Sometimes I even do this part the night before so it cools overnight).

Combine cream cheese, brown sugar, peanut butter and vanilla in a mixing bowl.  It takes a little while to get it all mixed together, but mix it well!  Then spread the mixture evenly over the cookie using a spatula (I leave a slight space at the edge of the cookie).  At this point it will look like this:

Slice apples about 1/4 to 1/2 of an inch thick and let them soak for a minute or two in a bowl of cold water and lemon juice.  This will prevent the apples from turning brown on your dessert.  Pat them dry with paper towels then arrange them in a pattern or however you like on top of the cookie. 

Sprinkle peanuts over the cookie and drizzle with the caramel ice cream topping (sometimes I wait and drizzle the caramel right before the party).

At the party cut the dessert into wedges (I usually cut the wedge around each apple slice) and step back and watch people "Oo" and "Ahh" over your dessert!

On my size pizza pan, this dessert will serve about 24-30 people. So it's great for large parties!

Now if you really want to wow, you can make this recipe into individual cookies instead of one big one, but I have never done this before because I think that would take even MORE work and would be harder to transport, but it sure would be impressive looking!

Like I said, this is not a typical Lazy Mom Recipe, but it is one of my favorites for parties, so I had to share!

By the way, in the coming weeks, I'll be sharing some Lazy Mom Tips on cooking for the holidays!  If you have a great lazy cooking tip, please email it to me!  Pictures are always appreciated with your emails.

Also, some of you may remember last year when I did A Lazy Mom Thanksgiving week. Well, this year I've decided to do a Lazy Mom Christmas Cookie week from November 14-18!  I'd love to feature YOUR lazy Christmas Cookies, so submit those to me as well! (Again, pictures are appreciated!)

Ta-ta for now!
Stacey

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Fall Decor on the Cheap

Let's talk about Fall decor.

Sometimes it can be intimidating, no?

I mean, when I see a picture

like this

{via}

as much as I can admire the

thoughtful design

of these beautiful pumpkin topiaries,
I just walk away feeling

defeated.

Anyone else?

Anyone?

Because:

a) my house isn't a palatial mansion, so extravagant topiaries

 would look a little bit silly.

b) even if my house did look like that, those gorgeous urns

probably cost a small fortune!

Sometimes we can be intimidated by the
sheer number of possibilities.





{Martha Stewart}

So rather than doing something,

we do nothing.

So.

When faced with the task of decorating

our homes

for Fall

do we hang our heads in defeat?

Heck NO!

Why?

Because we're

Lazy Moms!
We're thrifty!

We're scrappy!

We know how to stretch a dollar!

And we've got kids,

so we're not scared!

So here we go, Lazy Moms!

I've combined many of my inspirations
from Pinterest 

And I've come up with something
sorta like that.

Settle down.

I said sorta like that!

So the first thing you'll need is

this urn planter from Home Depot.

It's only

$99!

Pshhhhhh!

Yeah, right!

 

We're doin' this the

Lazy Mom way, Y'all!

Okay, let's try this again.

First thing you'll need is a

plastic (aka: CHEAP) urn planter.
I like this one I found on Amazon.

$3.99, Baby!!!

That's how the Lazy Moms roll!

Next, you'll need to go to your hardware store

and pick up a can of

oil rubbed bronze spray paint.

I feel like it's my duty to warn you that this

one bottle

can change your life.

Sometimes for the good.

Sometimes for the bad.

You will want to paint every.thing

in your house with it.

Sometimes that's good.

Sometimes that's bad.

{but that's another post}

So, when you have your urn all painted,

it's gonna look something like this:

I chose to use my large urn for flowers,

because I have two small urns too.

I loved the idea of using

corn husks as a filler with my smaller urns,

but alas, I couldn't find any.

So, I used spanish moss.

Find things that inspire you,

and then adapt them to the needs of your family

and your budget!

...And if your budget is $0?

Well, there's even fun ways you can decorate for Fall

that won't cost you a penny!

 I already had this frame,

I stole the orange paper from the kids' craft box,

I got the sticks from my yard,

and used Mod Podge that I already had

to decoupage it.

If you don't already have Mod Podge,

you could use Elmer's Glue diluted with a little water.

Another free way to decorate for Fall?

I already had the frame.

I took an article out of a magazine, cut it to the

size of the frame, and glued a pretty red leaf to it.

How easy and free is that?!

I hope you saw something that inspired you today!

Until next time,

Happy Decorating!

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Rubbermaid Bento Storage Boxes {Giveaway}

I know the title of this blog doesn't imply this, but I DO like to be organized.

It's just those four other pesky members of my household make me appear otherwise. 

*ahem*

So when Rubbermaid® told me about their new Bento™Storage Boxes I was pumped.  Because, uh, who doesn't like Rubbermaid®?  And who doesn't like storage boxes? 

When I first saw the Bento™ Storage Boxes I thought they were going to be flimsy.  Boy howdy, I was wrong.  These bad boys are super sturdy and strong.  And they're super cute.  I was seriously impressed.

The boxes I received are red, or "Paprika" according to Rubbermaid.  They go perfectly with my home decor, so I was even MORE excited about that.  But if red doesn't go with your home decor, don't worry, they also come in a variety of fabric designs and colors.

What's MOST exciting about these clever storage boxes is the fact that they have Flex Dividers in them!  See the things that look like pockets on the inside?

Those are actually the Flex Dividers!  You simply pull on the divider...

 ...and it pops out! 

Effectively dividing the entire space into smaller sections!

I thought this was an ingenious idea!  Because how many of you know that those big storage bins you have can get just as cluttered inside because there's nothing to divide it up?!

This way, you can use the entire box if you need to, or pop those dividers out and divide up what you're storing!  Brilliant!

Case in point:

This is the bin we use to store all the game remotes my boys have. 

It's an overgrown mess of wires that is tangled and twisted up and makes a person frustrated just looking at it!

So I whipped out my Large Bento™ Storage Box, popped out the Flex Dividers and viola'!  Order is once again restored.

Thanks to the Flex Dividers, my heap of a mess is now more orderly and each remote has a "home" to be put away in!

Buh, buh, BUT!

Check out the toppers that come with these bad boys!  They can either be a lid...

... or flipped upside down to make a tray!

SooOOooOOoo, The big items that didn't fit into my newly organized game controllers Bento™ box went up on top in the tray!

AHHHHHH!  It's stuff like this that helps make the world go 'round, y'all.

Oo! Oo!  And did I mention these awesome storage boxes come in small, medium, large and x-large?

Check out how I used my small one!  (It's my favorite one to use around the house cause it's so stinking cute!)

Ta-daaaaa!

We have people over all. the. time. so this is a perfect cute little way to coral the silverware and napkins! 

And when we aren't having people over, I use it to store all the miscellaneous items that hang out on the shelf over my kitchen sink.

Speaking of storing miscellaneous things, the medium sized one is also great for storing all the junk on the side of my dresser. 

Before:

After:

Now when people come over I can grab the whole box and hide it in my closet!

What? You don't hide stuff in your closet when people come over?  *cough* liar! *cough*

But my FAVORITE thing to use this medium sized one for is this....

Video game storage!!!  WOOT!

Now my boys' video game controllers and video games are all matchy and cute in their Bento™ boxes and it looks so much nicer in my family room!

DOUBLE WOOT!!

(as you can clearly see, it doesn't take much to make me happy in life)

So.  If you can't go another day in life without a Rubbermaid® Bento™Storage Box, you can purchase them on their website or find them in a store near you soon!

Rubbermaid® is also generously giving away a complete Bento™ set to one of YOU (a $113.93 value!)

U.S. and Canadian Residents can simply fill out the Rafflecopter form below for a chance to win!  (do as many or as little as you want on the form - each one is an entry to win!)


Thank you to Rubbermaid® for providing me with a set of Bento™ Storage Boxes in exchange for my honest review of their product.  All opinions expressed are my own and no other compensation was received.

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Favorite Things Party

Do you remember my post about the Caramel Apple Dipping party my friend Carrie threw when I really wanted to be invited to such a party?

And do you recall how I threw out some other party ideas to her at the end of that post in hopes she throw another party I wanted to go to?

Well guess what?!

It worked!!!

(what can I say? I'm awesome)

(and gorgeous)

(and a size 2)

(okay, okay... a size 6)

(in my head)

However, this time Carrie roped my friend Judi and ME into throwing this party with her.  So even though I don't like to throw parties, it was fun throwing a party with two fun party friends (basically they did all the work, I just showed up with my food contributions).

So the moral of this story is this... if you ever get roped into having party, make sure it's with two other friends who are way organized, super fun, great planners and offer up their squeaky clean house for it.  This will allow you to not have to do much of anything, but still get 1/3 of the credit for the party.

Oh, and it always helps you get party credit if the party was your idea.  Which this one was.

Well, sort of.

I actually got the idea off of pintrest. Which, if you remember, is where I got the idea for the Caramel Apple Dipping Party, too.

What can I say? Pintrest is proving to be a valuable asset in my party life.

So this party was called a "Favorite Things" party.  Each person had to pick out one of their favorite things that cost around $6.00.  Then they had to purchase five of them and bring them to the party to hand out as their "favorite thing" and they would leave with five favorite things from five other people.

Make sense?

No?

Let me break it down for you.... I brought five (okay, you'll never guess my favorite thing, I only talk about it all the time) bottles of Prefense Hand Sanitizer. (Yes, I'm so lame I bring my favorite hand sanitizer to a favorite things party).  Then I drew five ladies names out of the basket and they got my favorite thing.  Five other ladies pulled my name out of the basket and I went home with THEIR favorite things!

And check out what I scored!

 
It was SO. MUCH. FUN.

There was such notable items given away as Vera Bradley, Yankee Candles, Buckeyes, Pier One tea lights, gift cards to Starbucks and Panera!  I mean, this was an awesome party y'all!

And okay, I have to tell y'all about my favorite thing that I received.  It's hard to see it in the above picture, but it was this.

Finger nail polish.  But not just ANY finger nail polish!  Check out the name of it...

Can you see that?

"Vodka and Caviar" is the name of it!!  And when I heard that was the name of it I was hoping and praying that my name would be called out to get it.  And when my name was called out to get it, I may or may not have screamed out, "AHHHHHH! This is the only vodka I'll ever have in my life!"

And Carrie yelled out, "And caviar!"

So I retracted my first statement and yelled out this one, "Yes! Since I'm married to a Pastor, this truly will be the ONLY vodka and caviar I'll EVER have in life!"

And all the Pastor's wives out there said Amen. 

Moving on....

Also at the party, was some great food!  Check out these cute Pintrest inspired owl cupcakes Judi made!

Aren't they too stinking adorable?!

Oo!  Oo! And check out what I made.

It's my favorite dessert to make and take to a party in the fall.

(I'll be sharing how to make it later this week, even though it's a few ingredients over being a lazy mom recipe.)

But what made the party tons of fun was the women that were there!

Everyone was so excited to be there and to share their favorite thing.

And what I didn't expect was how exciting it was when you're name was called out to get someone else's favorite thing!

I may or may not have screamed like a little girl each time my name was called.

Even though I knew it would be called five times.

Just look at this gorgeous group of women!

GORGEOUS!


Now if Carrie would just throw this party for all of us already.

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