Tried and True Pinterest Recipes

So, as most of you know, I love Pinterest!  I consider myself a picky Pinterest pinner.  (haha, say that 3x fast!)  I try to only pin things that I actually think I will do.  So, I want to go through a bunch of these things to let you know which ones worked and the disasters.

Bacon Wrapped Chicken

This is AMAZING!  I tried this and it is so delicious!  I have made it multiple times and we love it.  Make sure you don't skimp on the brown sugar.

Pizza Crescent Rolls

These are good, but don't plan on it being for dinner.  Think Superbowl snack or maybe a fun lunch for kids.

Baked Cheesy Chicken Penne

NOT GOOD!  I thought that this would become a favorite in our house.  I mean, how can you go wrong with penne noodles and cheese?  Apparently you can.  Don't even bother to make it, even though the picture makes it look delicious.

Crock Pot Orange Chicken

This was okay.  It didn't pass the husband test though, so I won't be making it again.  I thought this was the answer to my desire for Panda Express' Orange Chicken cravings, but it's not.  I thought it was tolerable, but Jarred hated it, so we are not making it again.

Mexican Casserole

This is GREAT!  Now, it isn't exactly healthy, but....who cares.  The recipe calls for tortilla chips, but I love using Doritos Nacho Cheese chips.  In addition to the cheese on top, I also add whole Doritos chips on top too (if you haven't already eaten them all!).  Anyways, if you are on a diet, this isn't one to make, but if you want to eat yummy comfort food, then this is for you.

Grilled Pineapple

HOLY AMAZING!  If you are only going to try one of these recipes, please try this one!  My mouth is watering just thinking about these babies!  I don't follow exact measurements for the marinade glaze and it always turns out great!  These taste so similar to the Rodizio Grills' pineapple.  I can't wait for it to be BBQ grilling weather again!

Hawaiian Haystacks

Meh...this is okay.  It just doesn't have a lot of flavor.  If anyone has a good hawaiian haystack recipe, I would love to have it.

Chicken Enchilada Puffs

These are yummy!  Like the pizza crescent rolls, they aren't dinner quality, and more lunch/snack style. The recipe uses chicken chunks from a frozen bag, and I just used a can of chicken (from Costco) instead.  I think they are good, but it was not a great dinner meal.

Roasted Zucchini and Carrots

This is Delicious!  I tried this in the summer and it made my house hot, but they tasted yummy and I felt awesome for actually really liking some veggies.  I think it will be even better this winter because I won't be mad about a hot kitchen.  Don't put too much olive oil on the pan though.

Chick-fil-a Nuggets and Sauce

AMAZING!  This is so yummy!  please try this.  The hardest part of this is just making sure that the oil is at a good temperature for frying the nuggets.  if it is too hot, then they can burn too easily, and if its not hot enough, then they soak up way too much oil and don't taste too great.

Bacon-Cheddar Pinwheels

Yummy!  I made these for our little Superbowl party.  They were so good.  I added more ranch than the recipe calls for and went easy on the green onions.

Rhodes Rolls Mini Pizza's

These are GREAT!  I have always been a little hesitant about making my own dough and I hate taking a lot of time to make it as well.  The recipe says to let the dough balls thaw out for an hour, but since I procrastinate dinner all the time, I end up sticking them in the microwave and rotate them every 10 sec. or so until they a thawed.  Best mini pizza's ever!

Egg Bake

Loved this! This is a yummy recipe for an overnight breakfast casserole.  Im not a huge fan of spinach, so I changed some of the ingredients to sausage, onions, and green peppers.  So good.  Think of this like an omelet and just add the ingredients you would want.  I wouldn't make this be the main breakfast food, but it is easy to make and doesn't take up your morning time while you make crepes or pancakes.

Grilled Pesto Chicken

This is yummy!  I love that this meal makes me feel like I am being healthy and eating something delicious at the same time!  And we all know how hard that is to come by!

Strawberry Lemonade

This has great potential!  I think I would have like it more had I not gotten as much pulp into the drink.  I also didn't get it cold enough either.  Anyways, I will be trying this again and not smoosh the pulp and liquid through my mesh strainer so much.  If you try it, please let me know what you think.

Roasted Parmesan Asparagus 

Delicious!  This is the only way I eat asparagus now.  Who am I kidding?  I didn't eat more than one bite of this weird veggie until I tried it this way!  Don't cook it too long and don't go too heavy on the parm.  Try this!


Wow!  I can't believe I have tried so many recipes!  Anyways, I love trying new recipes, and if you were wondering about any of these, I hope I have helped you with your decision to try them.

Summer Fun!

Jarred and I have had a great summer so far!  Here are a few of the highlights:

We went to Bear World with Jarred's family in June.  We had a blast with the kiddos as they rode the rides, played at the petting zoo, and fed the bears!  One bear even figured out how to open one of the car doors!  Jackson didn't really like the rides and either cried or didn't care.  Hopefully that changes in a year when we head to Disneyland.

We bought a new car!  Well, new to us.  We bought a 2005 Buick Terraza.  Yes, it is a minivan.  No, we are not pregnant.  Even though it is a minivan, I really do love it.  It drives very smoothly and has tons of space.  We also had the great joy of buying this vehicle off of EBay!  The van was located just outside of Memphis, Tennessee and we decided to have Jarred and his dad fly out there and drive it back rather than ship it to Rexburg.  This wasn't the first choice because apparently shipping companies don't want our business even when they say they do.  Oh well, water under the bridge now. Jarred had quite the adventure getting this car.  He ended up driving to Salt Lake, flying to Phoenix, flying to Charlotte, and then flying to Memphis.  It literally took him all day to get from Salt Lake to Memphis.  However, it was worth it because we saved mega $$$!  He made it back in one piece just in time for July 4th fireworks!

This summer was also Jackson's first "real" July 4th celebration.  Last year he was only a few months old and we didn't do anything, probably due to sleep deprivation.  We bought a bike trailer about a month ago, so I loaded Jackson in it and we saw some of the parade.  He loved any of the big trucks that went by and kept pointing to them with a big smile.  Then we had lunch in the park and checked out all the vendors and tents set up.  Later that night we had a BBQ with Ashley, Andy and their kids.  Afterwards we let the kids throw some "Snaps" on the ground before we started the "big" show.  Jackson loved to throw them, but he usually didn't throw them hard enough because half of them didn't pop on the ground.  Oh well, he still loved it.  Then we lit off our fountains that we had purchased.  The kids loved them, even when they didn't really work.  Jackson kept saying "Ohhh!!!"  Super cute!

We recently had a lot of fun with my family at our first official Karlsven Family Reunion.  My family is just starting to get big enough to do our own reunions.  We ended up renting a couple cabins in Island Park (about half an hour south of Yellowstone).  We had fun riding four wheelers, riding our bikes, site seeing at Yellowstone, and singing/chatting around the campfire.  Speaking of campfires, if you haven't tried s'mores with Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, you simply haven't lived!  Try it, seriously!  Anyways, Jackson loved riding on the four wheelers with us.  We went super slow and held onto him really tight, and he just loved it!  He also loved the dirt and playing outside.  He even wanted to play outside when it was raining.  Crazy kid!

The most recent adventure was a Bookstore conference Jarred went to and I tagged along.  Our families watched Jackson and we had fun at the Zermatt Resort in Midway.  I didn't plan on going to the conference classes that Jarred went to, but I actually found them to be really entertaining and interesting.  We just enjoyed the classes, the good food, and being child free for a couple nights.  It felt so good to sleep in past 6:15am.  It was glorious!

Jackson also loves playing at the Rexburg Splash Pad and being a little cutie.  Hopefully we keep having fun like this all year round!

July 4th Decorations!

So, I was getting out my decorations for Independence Day.  That's when I realized my collection of decorations for this upcoming holiday is dismal at best.  I had two things!  How did I let this happen?  So, I started perusing Pinterest to see what I could do about this.  There was a tutorial I had pinned to make 3D stars into a garland.  I also, came up with something of my own as well.

Here is what I did:

1. cut scrapbook paper into 6in x 11in pieces. 

2. Fold a piece of paper in half (hamburger style).  

3.  Fold in the same direction 2 more times.  

4.  Unfold and then use the fold lines as guides to fold accordion style making sure to press folds firmly.

5.  Staple the middle perpendicular to the folded edge.

6.  Measure 1 inch from each short edge.  Cut from the folded side diagonally to the opposite corner.

7.   Unfold and tape or staple ends together.

8.  You can be done here, or apply a layer of Mod Podge to make it a little more sturdy and shiny!

9.  Instead of threading ribbon through the points to make a garland, I superglued the stars onto a wreath circle that I had wrapped in ribbon. 

(after step 6 it should look like this)

(step 7)

(Step 8)

The finished product!  I think it would look good with some holiday themed ribbon coming off in random directions from all around the wreath.  However, I live in a town that didn't have stores with cool ribbon like this and I was too cheap to add anymore.  Maybe another year.  

 Okay, so here is the thing I came up with on my own.  I've seen a lot of things similar to this, but I decided to just make my own.  I bought everything for this project for about $5 because everything was on sale!

The items I used were some very cheap 5x7 wood frames, cheap wooden letters, scrapbook paper, ribbon, paint, and a drill and small screws.

1.  I drilled 2 holes into each frame.  One on top and one on bottom.

2.  Drilled holes into the backs of the letters so I could attach each letter to the frame with screw.

3.  Paint the frames and letters.

4.  Cut scrapbook paper to fit into the frames.

5.  assemble the frames together with the paper and letters.

6.  Thread ribbon through holes to attach the frames to each other.

Finished product!  I thought it turned out really well.  I may cover it with Mod Podge to help protect it from the elements. 

 Here is the latest family picture we have had taken.  My in-laws had the big family pictures taken at Camara Shy in Utah, and each child got their own little family pictures there too.  I just love Jackson's happy smiling face in this one!

Idaho Falls Zoo!

Jackson and I headed to the Tautphaus Park Zoo in Idaho Falls the other day. They had just opened the previous Saturday, so we decided to check it out.

It was a lot of fun! Jackson's favorite part was when we went to their petting zoo. He especially loved the goats. The goats would stick their faces to the fence and Jackson would try to touch them. Then, the goats would lick his fingers and Jackson would laugh and giggle every time! I wish I got video of it, but unfortunately I didn't act fast enough. We also were able to see a news crew there doing a story on the zoo. We came just in time for us to see one of the penguins hopping down some stairs and walking around while they filmed. The little penguin was so cute! Jackson wanted to touch it and kept reaching out to it. So Cute. Jackson also finally figured out how to wave while we were at the zoo too. We were looking at the emus and I was waving to it, trying to show Jackson what to do. Then all of a sudden Jackson started waving to it too! Yay! Now, if only we could get him to wave bye-bye to Daddy when he goes to work. Maybe I need to get Jarred an emu costume.

The zoo was just perfect. Not a huge zoo with tons of walking, but just the right size. We only spent about an hour and a half there and we got to see everything and Jackson didn't get cranky! Win Win! I loved it so much that I decided to get a membership there so we can have a lot more adventures at the zoo this summer!

Another Pinterest Creation!

Well, I've made something else from pinterest, and I'm so excited about them! I love them so much and needed to share some pics!

My inspiration for these was this. I thought they turned out so great and a big plus is that they are so EASY! Seriously! My mom came up to visit during her spring break and one night after Jackson went to bed, we made all of these. So here are the supplies:

glass vases

Permenamel Surface Conditioner (I got mine from Amazon,

but you should be able to get it from a craft store like Michaels)

Permenamel Paints (I got this from Michael's. the 2 oz bottles were on

sale for $0.99!)

Paint brush

We cleaned the vases with hot soapy water and dried them completely. Then we poured some surface conditioner in. Its like the consistency of water, so you only need a little bit. We swished it around until all of it was covered and just poured the leftovers back in the bottle. Let this airdry completely. It is alcohol based, so it dries pretty fast. Then add some paint in the bottom and swirl it around, using the paint brush when needed until the entire surface is covered. Most likely you will have too much paint. I let it drip out into a cup as I swirled it around. I also used just the back of a plastic spoon for some of this because it doesn't leave any weird brush strokes. On one of the vases I had the vase drying right side up and as the paint gathered at the bottom, I simply spooned out the excess a couple of times. It worked great. I'm not sure if I would feel comfortable putting water in these for fresh flowers because I didn't use any kind of sealant on the paint. I don't even know if thats available. Some of the vases were a little scary looking on the inside, but they all looked great on the outside! I'm so happy with how this turned out. I feel like my kitchen is ready for spring too!