Five Favorite Things - Food

Since I loathe Mondays, I thought it might be a good thing to actually post something positive on my blog to change my state of mind.  I don't know if I will get to it every Monday, but I will try to post on what my Five Favorite Things are, at least a couple times a month.  Some may be themed, some may be a mishmash, whatever floats my boat.  Today's theme will be food:

1. Chocolate - of course (see my blog name).  I really love dark chocolate but am not opposed to milk chocolate or white chocolate either.  My favorite is Green and Black dark chocolate in the 60-70 percent cocoa range.
2. Lemons - I love lemon EVERYTHING!!!  I used to eat a lot of lemon drops but chomping on them I chipped an already fractured tooth and decided I better not do that anymore.  Then my sister gave me a bag of Lemonheads.  Well it was all over after that.  They are a little crunchy, but not nearly as hard as regular lemon drops.  I have to get my fix every couple of days.  Thankfully they are only a dollar per bag at Dollar General.  I think I should probably create a separate Pinterest board for all the lemon things that I have pinned.
3.  Avocados - What can I say?  I had never eaten an avocado until about 10 years ago.  A doctor friend and his wife (foodies) invited us over for lunch when we were in town and made some sandwiches complete with sliced avocado.  Well, I was hooked!!  I crave these like I crave lemon.  She grew up in California with avocado trees in her yard (man am I jealous!!).  My favorite way to eat them is to mash up two of them and add half a can of Rotel for a quick guacamole with tortilla chips.  I have been known to make this and eat it in one sitting or as a meal for myself or even a bedtime snack.
4. Brownies - I have always loved brownies, no matter the ingredients, moist and fudgey or cakelike, nuts or no.  I always used the recipe I grew up with from my mom until a couple of years ago when my friend Wendi shared her recipe for Speedy Brownies.  Oh.my.word!!!  Love these.  About 12 years ago or so, we started using coconut oil in place of vegetable oil in our cooking and baking.  Well using coconut oil, these are heavenly!!  Think Mounds Bar Brownies.  Or add Almonds and you have Almond Joy Brownies.  Yes, they are that good.  One of my daughters' friends go crazy for these whenever we make them for an event/fundraiser.
5. Mint - just about anything Mint is good in my book.  It goes really well with chocolate (see #1 above).  It goes really well in Mojitos, etc.  Awesome in York Peppermint Patties (see #1 again)

What Happens When You Cut Back on Social Media - You Get Things Done!!!

I know I spend a lot of time on social media.  Finally being home for many days in a row and working on cleaning and decluttering the house for Confirmation last weekend, I was forced to get off social media and do more things that were on my to do list.  The house got mostly cleaned (except for a couple non-public areas), more real meals were made (with the help of my daughters and MIL and even today (our crockpot and stockpot)).

Having moved forward this week, we are trying to finish up school for the year, get the filing under control and decluttering some more before we have another weekend activity.  For my birthday I got a new label maker (handheld) because my old one only printed half of the words and I have been using it to label files and set up a filing system for all my homeschooling information and ideas.  About 1:30 today,  I ran it completely out of label tape.  Hoping I can find some at Shopko this afternoon so I can keep going with this project.

Next up is the office purging and filing.  Better get two label refills for that one.  Once the office is doing better,  Also making a list of curriculum to purchase for next year at the homeschool conference that is next weekend.  Always feels good when I have purchases our curriculum and can start planning out our next year.  Hard to believe but I have one graduating in 2 years and all three kids will graduate within 4 years.

Sadly, I have not posted on my blog for over 13 months!  Vowing to change that and hopefully spend a  little less time on Facebook.  I have always dreamt of writing and while I still want to write a book (I have ideas and notes started for two of them), I think blogging is a great foray into that realm to see if I really have as much to say as I think I do.

Hoping to set up a blog calendar of topics so I am reminded to blog more regularly.  Look for more pictures, more recipes (LOVE Pinterest ) and maybe even more political commentary (you can skip if you don't want to read it).

Foodie Fridays - The Lost Arts

I know this is a little late, but we were busy with quilting class, education fair and then we helped my sister pack up for their move this week. We also made up a couple meals for my sister while she is on bedrest, which started a couple days ago for her.

Lost Arts Kitchen

I just found this blog on Traditional Foods recipes through another link. The recipes look wonderful and I can't wait to try them. There is quite a variety from meats to soups, to dressings,etc. Hope you find something you like.

Enjoy! I know I will!

Crockpot Recipes

Through a series of links (that I can't even remember how I followed, so I can't just tell you), I came across this blog:

http://crockpot365.blogspot.com

The premise of her blog is a challenge to herself to use her crockpot(s) each and every day of the year. She has tons of recipes and I can't wait to try and use some of them. It is for all recipe categories, not just casseroles or other meat dishes.

Check it out and save yourself some time in the kitchen.