Christmas Lights Scavenger Hunt

I saw this in passing on Pinterest, and decided to create my own list to suit my lovely hometown of Smithville, TN.   This was quite interesting, as that I am only in my hometown a few times a year, and I was not the driver.   My husband, who is from another end of the state, drove and my dad was in the backseat telling him where to drive.  (Lots of jokes here, I know.)  I had the list, pen, flashlight, and camera.  It was raining and we put ourselves on a timer, so the camera was not used this time.

Rules:
1. Time limit: I think we gave ourselves between 30 and 45 minutes to find as many as we could. 
2. Area boundaries: We did not give ourselves any road boundaries (like "only in the city limits"), but I would recommend that for a larger community.
3. Items per house: More than one item on the list could be checked off at the same house. It would be more challenging if a "one house, one item" rule were used.
4. Photos: In a team competition, must have photo proof of each item checked.

Our list is below.  Feel free to add comments for things you think should be included!  Happy hunting!!

Christmas Lights Scavenger Hunt – Photo Ops

Lighted snowman

Santa with a sleigh

Boat on the water with lights

A house all in white lights (Bonus 5 points if all of another color)

A vehicle incorporated into yard decor (Points based on vehicle used-car, truck, tractor, etc)

Three or more inflatables in one yard

Lighted Christmas tree in a yard

House with 8+ wreaths

Penguin

Disney character in yard

Peanuts character in yard

Nativity scene with spotlight (Bonus 10 points for live nativity)

Yard with at least 5 reindeer

Grinch

Train

Giant candy

Cross

House columns wrapped with ribbon to look like candy canes

House with candles in the window

Chaser lights

Moving yard decorations

Decorations that incorporate a college football team

Store front on Main Street with a lighted tree

Solid white tree

Santa on the roof of a house

Light up presents

Christmas lights on a non-Christmas tree in the yard

 Boat, Disney, Grinch, moving decorations, and college team decor were the only ones that were not spotted.  Not too shabby for our first year!

I do have some Christmas light photos, but they are from the Huntsville Botanical Gardens walking tour in November:

Have a very merry Christmas and blessed new year with lots of light in your life!

Holiday Placecards - Candy Theme

I happened upon this place card idea on Pinterest, and I thought that I could modify it a bit for our church's Holiday Gift Drive dinner. Our decorators had chosen "Candyland" as our theme. Click on LINK to see the original by Martha Stewart.

For my version, you will need the following items:

Paper Studio Candy Cane striped paper, 8 1/2" x 11"
Vellum paper, 8 1/2" x 11"
Vellum adhesive
1 1/2" wide red ribbon

And the following tools:

Computer
Printer
Die Cut machine, like Big Sizzix
Oval die cut
Hole punch
Paper trimmer

I prefer to do each step individually, knocking out the whole batch.  Also, if you have a group of minions, you can delegate tasks.

Step 1:  Printing.  Print the names onto the vellum using Microsoft Word.  I created a document with two rows and two columns and chose a font in size 72 that would work for our event.   Then I moved the line between the two rows until it was at the 4" mark on the side of the document on the screen.  This evenly placed the names on the page.

Step 2: Straight cutting.   Cut each of the candy cane striped sheets into four 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" rectangles.  Cut each of the printed vellum sheets into four 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" as well.

Step 3: Sticking.  Adhere the vellum to the striped paper for each.  Since this is going to get trimmed in the next step, I recommend just putting adhesive where the name is and about 1/4" above and below.

Step 4: Die cutting.  Using the oval die cut, center the name for each and run through the die cut machine per instructions. Cut only one at a time.

Step 5: Hole punching.  Punch one hole on each side of the name, 1/4"- 1/2" from the edge of the paper for each.

Step 6: Ribbon cutting.  Cut an 8 1/2" length of the red ribbon for each.

Step 7: Ribbon adding.  Fold and feed the ends of the ribbon into each of the holes.  Adjust the curve of the paper to your liking.

Step 8: Ribbon trimming.  Fold the ribbon in half and trim the end toward the fold to make a V cut.  Unfold and fluff out.

For "regular" place cards where one is going to be placed at each seat, these will sit up nicely on the table by themselves.  We use these to identify a group, so I attached the card to a Skinny Stick. The brilliant ladies that decorate for our gathering came up with the idea of using brightly colored PlayDoh and glitter to make gumdrop bases. This raised the name about 6" so it could be seen from a distance.

Photo Card

Fun Merry Greeting Christmas

Turn your favorite photos into Christmas cards at Shutterfly.

View the entire collection of cards.

Photo Card

Fun Merry Greeting Christmas

Create personalized Christmas photo cards at Shutterfly.com.

View the entire collection of cards.

Breakfast Burrito

It’s the most important meal of the day.   Yet, I have always struggled with knowing what is the best choice for me – healthy and filling and fast.   When I met with the nutritionist, she made some suggestions, and with lots of trial and error and calculations, I have finally come up with my go-to breakfast for the work week – the Plain Jane Breakfast Burrito.  I call this Plain Jane because all I use is meat, no peppers, onions, or mushrooms like in other burritos and omelets.  But I might add mushrooms one of these days.

The key to keeping this low-cal and low-carb (per the nutritionist) is being picky about the wrap.  I read the labels of all of the tortillas available and tried the La Tortilla Factory brand, since they were low carb.  Next, I started out using real eggs but decided to try egg beaters one week.  They were not terrible and I still felt full, so for convenience and better numbers, I have stuck with them.  And last, the meat choice.  Jimmy Dean Turkey Sausage Crumbles is what I use most often.  I only use ¼ cup of the crumbles with ¼ cup of the egg beaters, so the package will last about two work weeks.   For variety I have used three slices of Publix thin sliced cooked ham or a couple of slices of leftover bacon.  I don’t add it to the eggs;  I just put them in the tortilla and cook the egg beaters by themselves and slap on top.  If I am out of everything else, I have been known to use some Oscar Meyer Bacon pieces.  Really, you can add anything – the aforementioned veggies, cheese, etc.  Just be sure that you check your nutritional values on everything.  Myfitnesspal.com is one of many websites that will calculate the nutritional value for any recipe or list of ingredients.

So after I add my sausage, I let it cook while I grab my lunch and pack it.  Then I flip it when it looks set, and turn the stove off.  Then I grab my diet Coke and my afternoon snack and pack those.  By then, it is ready to be assembled and wrapped in foil and in a few seconds – ta da – burrito ready to go.  By the time I get to work, everything is good and warm and I can have my breakfast while I check my morning emails.

The burrito with ¼ c. egg beaters and ¼ c. turkey sausage is 115 calories, 12 g of carbs, 7 g of fiber, 17 g of protein, and 565 g of sodium. 

Easy Peezy Crock Pot Roast

Yet again, I have allowed myself to get behind in my blogging.  So I am going to try to get two recipes in one week this time.  We'll see.

Anyway, tonight's fairly short blog is for what I consider the easiest and best crock pot roast I have ever fixed.  Now, this will only work for the person who is not home all day long.

Place one frozen roast in the crock pot.  Yep, right out of the freezer.
Pour one can of Campbell's Beef Broth over the roast.  Sprinkle one packet of Lipton Onion Soup Mix (your favorite recipe flavor) over the roast.

Cover and cook on low for 8-9 hours.  My crock pot is the programmable type, where it switches to Warm after the timer is finished.  That may have contributed to the greatness of the flavor, but this was the best roast I have ever fixed!  Since we are trying to reduce carbs along with calories, I did not add any veggies.  However, you could just pile them on at the beginning and they will probably be good and mushy after 9 hours.

The finished product photo does not convey the yummy smell in my kitchen when I got home, but trust me, this was falling off the bone goodness.

What type of roast was used:  In these photos, I used a chuck roast.  At a different time, I used a sirloin tip roast.  We get our beef from my dad, so whatever cuts the butcher gives us, that is what we work with.  Good ol' Tennessee farm raised beef!
 

Grilled Vegetable Skewers

For several weeks now I have been remiss in my blogging duties.  Big T and I have initiated a “lifestyle change” that involves regular exercise and carefully monitoring our eating habits, so I have yet to fully adjust to a different schedule that involves a side trip to the gym after work.   Therefore, some items have fallen behind, like laundry and blogging.  However, I want to share some of my recipes that I have been putting into our rotation for anyone else that might want to try them, so the first one is for grilled vegetables using a marinade I found online recently.   Unfortunately, I do not remember which website I found it on to give them credit. I do, however, want to give a shout out for myfitnesspal.com.  It takes some discipline, but I really like this website and they have a mobile app to make logging on the go very easy!  So back to our regularly scheduled food.

We prefer to use squash, zucchini, mushrooms, onions, and cherry tomatoes for our grilled vegetable skewers. 

  

 I don’t like tomatoes but I add them for my guests and they are pretty.  You can also add peppers.  I don’t like them either.  These pics won’t show onions because we chose to grill them whole.  I’ll post that recipe later.

Chop the squash, onions, and zucchini into big chunks and put them in a ziploc bag with the tomatoes and mushrooms. Next gather these ingredients and make the marinade.

Vegetable Marinade

½ c. olive oil

½ c. lime juice

¼ c. water

¼ c. dijon mustard

2 T. real maple syrup

2 T. minced garlic

2 t. dried basil

½ t. salt

½ t. freshly ground pepper

If you add everything in order and DON’T mix it until the very end, it looks like this:

 

Love it when science and cooking mix. Or don’t mix.

Anyway,mix well and pour it over the vegetables. 

 

Moosh all of the air out of the bag and zip it closed.  Then roll the bag around and make sure all of the veggies are coated.

 

Throw the bag(s) in the fridge for 2 hours.  Go watch a favorite movie.  Then put the veggies on skewers.  I prefer metal, but if you use wooden ones, make sure they have been soaked for at least 30 minutes first.  Then place them on the grill on medium heat.

 

 Flip them after about 3 minutes or so.  Then flip them onto the plate.  Your side dish is ready; dig in! 

A couple of tips:

The marinade can be made up to 7 days in advance of use.  I usually store mine in a mason jar.

Chop your veggies the night before to save time on grill day.