© My Life 0utside The Box 2016-2017. All Rights Reserved. All photos, text, personal videos, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written permission of the blog author.
Monday, December 25
Merry Christmas!!
© My Life 0utside The Box 2016-2017. All Rights Reserved. All photos, text, personal videos, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written permission of the blog author.
Tuesday, December 19
Our family Christmas tradition...
All through December up til Christmas Day, we have daily readings and prayer to reflect on the true reason for this season. We enjoy one another as well as other activities outside of the home. We love listening to Christmas music from morning to night (even sleeping with the radio on), and watching old Christmas classics. We top it all off with something tasty to enjoy each day. This is how we enjoy the Christmas season in the Rhodes house :-)
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| Cookies galore, Hot Cocoa, Fudge, Nut Clusters, Popcorn Balls |
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| Candied Nuts, PB blossoms, PB Fudge, Egg Nog Snickerdoodles |
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| Chocolate Chip Walnut cookies, Chocolate dipped pretzels & Rice Krispies |
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| A plate full of yummy goodness! |
© My Life 0utside The Box 2016-2017. All Rights Reserved. All photos, text, personal videos, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written permission of the blog author.
Wednesday, December 13
Cedar Berry Pine Cone Centerpiece {Silk Plants Direct}~ Review
Recently I was given an opportunity to review a product from Commercial Palm Trees sister site Silk Plants Direct. I had never heard of either company before, so this was an introduction for a new place to shop around for things to beautify my home. This opportunity couldn’t have come at a better time since I was looking for something new to add to my other Christmas holiday decor. Before I talk about what I received let me tell you a little about each company.
Commercial Palm Trees is a commercial site for small to large commercial businesses and wholesale trade. They have been in business for 40 years located in the Minneapolis, MN. They are "a leading national interior landscape firm in the manufacturing of indoor/outdoor palm trees". They deal with live and artificial plants and trees. Commercial Palm Trees offers a diverse set of specialty services in landscape planning and design, landscape architecture, tree installation, plant service and maintenance programs and commercial decor.
Silk Plants Direct has been around since the 1980's through their parent company Commercial Palm Trees. They are "one of the most reputable silk plant and tree producers in the world.". Silk Plants Direct has an inventory of over 500 varieties of silk plants, trees, flowers, foliage, planters, ect. For my review I had a chance to pick the product of my choice. It was so hard to choose because they had such a great selection of products. I will be sharing with you about a silk plant centerpiece I wanted to go with my Christmas holiday decorations.
I received Silk Plants Direct's Cedar Berry Pine Cone Centerpiece. It comes in a pack of 2 and retails for $62.99. Each are 6.5", has red berries and green Cedar. You also get a glass candle holder to place in the center of each. The box came well packaged. It was so securely wrapped that it took a bit of workout for me to finally get to my product. LOL Nothing was loose or broken, and everything was in great shape.
The centerpiece is made with a black stand underneath. When you sit it up you can sit the glass candle holder that comes with it in the middle. The candle does not come with it. I had to go out and purchase a candle that would fit inside. I bought 2 at Walmart for under $3. I like that I had 2 of these centerpieces to use with my holiday decorations.
I placed one Cedar Berry Pine Cone Centerpiece on my kitchen table and the other one in my living room. My family thought the centerpieces looked really nice. I have had fake flowers/plants. but never had any silk plants before. The look of these are very realistic and life like. You can't help but want to touch them to see if they are real or fake. To care for silk plants it is recommended to dust or wipe clean with a moist cloth.
I could see myself using something from the many different product selections at Silk Plants Direct for holidays and year round home decorating. My Cedar Berry Pine Cone Centerpieces have been a great addition to our Christmas decor this year :)
© My Life 0utside The Box 2016-2017. All Rights Reserved. All photos, text, personal videos, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written permission of the blog author.
Commercial Palm Trees is a commercial site for small to large commercial businesses and wholesale trade. They have been in business for 40 years located in the Minneapolis, MN. They are "a leading national interior landscape firm in the manufacturing of indoor/outdoor palm trees". They deal with live and artificial plants and trees. Commercial Palm Trees offers a diverse set of specialty services in landscape planning and design, landscape architecture, tree installation, plant service and maintenance programs and commercial decor.
Silk Plants Direct has been around since the 1980's through their parent company Commercial Palm Trees. They are "one of the most reputable silk plant and tree producers in the world.". Silk Plants Direct has an inventory of over 500 varieties of silk plants, trees, flowers, foliage, planters, ect. For my review I had a chance to pick the product of my choice. It was so hard to choose because they had such a great selection of products. I will be sharing with you about a silk plant centerpiece I wanted to go with my Christmas holiday decorations.
I received Silk Plants Direct's Cedar Berry Pine Cone Centerpiece. It comes in a pack of 2 and retails for $62.99. Each are 6.5", has red berries and green Cedar. You also get a glass candle holder to place in the center of each. The box came well packaged. It was so securely wrapped that it took a bit of workout for me to finally get to my product. LOL Nothing was loose or broken, and everything was in great shape.
The centerpiece is made with a black stand underneath. When you sit it up you can sit the glass candle holder that comes with it in the middle. The candle does not come with it. I had to go out and purchase a candle that would fit inside. I bought 2 at Walmart for under $3. I like that I had 2 of these centerpieces to use with my holiday decorations.
I placed one Cedar Berry Pine Cone Centerpiece on my kitchen table and the other one in my living room. My family thought the centerpieces looked really nice. I have had fake flowers/plants. but never had any silk plants before. The look of these are very realistic and life like. You can't help but want to touch them to see if they are real or fake. To care for silk plants it is recommended to dust or wipe clean with a moist cloth.
I could see myself using something from the many different product selections at Silk Plants Direct for holidays and year round home decorating. My Cedar Berry Pine Cone Centerpieces have been a great addition to our Christmas decor this year :)
© My Life 0utside The Box 2016-2017. All Rights Reserved. All photos, text, personal videos, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written permission of the blog author.
Thursday, December 7
Batch {Bulk Cooking} with Sweet Potatoes
I’m back with another batch cooking session. This week I’ll show you different ways to cook and use sweet potatoes. I had around 6 lbs. (2 3lb. bags) of sweet potatoes to work with. I preheated my oven to 375 degrees.
I started off by thoroughly cleaning the outside of each sweet potato with water and scrubbed with a veggie brush. I poked a few holes all around 5 lbs. of the potatoes and put on a foiled lined baking sheet. I rubbed the outsides of each with a little oil and popped in the oven to cook for 50-55 minutes. I turn them halfway through the time for even cooking. Depending on the size and thickness of each potato you’ll want to check at the 45 minute mark for doneness (pierces easily all the way through with a fork). The other 2 lbs. where peeled and cut into bite sized cubes. Those got tossed in some olive oil and roasted on a foil lined baking pan for about 30-40 minutes.
Once the sweet potatoes were fork tender I scooped the flesh out and put in a bowl and set aside. I threw away the peeling because there was no use for it. I divided the sweet potatoes into 1,2, and 3 cup portions in labeled quart sized Ziploc bags. I mashed any lumps with my hands to smoothen out. I flatten each bag to get out as much air as possible to freeze flat on a baking sheet. As you can see in the pictures I ended up with 3 bags of the puree. As for the roasted sweet potato cubes (not pictured), I poured them into a container to use in meals for the week. Now what can I use all of this cooked sweet potatoes for?
These are just some examples of the many things you can do. If any other things come to mind, I may come back to add to this list later. What can you think of that I haven’t added to the list? Please fee free to let me know in the comments below. I will be back with you next week with another bulk cooking session.
© My Life 0utside The Box 2016-2017. All Rights Reserved. All photos, text, personal videos, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written permission of the blog author.
I started off by thoroughly cleaning the outside of each sweet potato with water and scrubbed with a veggie brush. I poked a few holes all around 5 lbs. of the potatoes and put on a foiled lined baking sheet. I rubbed the outsides of each with a little oil and popped in the oven to cook for 50-55 minutes. I turn them halfway through the time for even cooking. Depending on the size and thickness of each potato you’ll want to check at the 45 minute mark for doneness (pierces easily all the way through with a fork). The other 2 lbs. where peeled and cut into bite sized cubes. Those got tossed in some olive oil and roasted on a foil lined baking pan for about 30-40 minutes.
Once the sweet potatoes were fork tender I scooped the flesh out and put in a bowl and set aside. I threw away the peeling because there was no use for it. I divided the sweet potatoes into 1,2, and 3 cup portions in labeled quart sized Ziploc bags. I mashed any lumps with my hands to smoothen out. I flatten each bag to get out as much air as possible to freeze flat on a baking sheet. As you can see in the pictures I ended up with 3 bags of the puree. As for the roasted sweet potato cubes (not pictured), I poured them into a container to use in meals for the week. Now what can I use all of this cooked sweet potatoes for?
Meal ideas to serve sweet potato puree in, or with:
* Mix into pancake batter
* Make sweet breads/muffins
* Make cookies
* Make cake
* Make Sweet Potato Pie
* Make a Soufflé/Casserole
* Make Pureed Soup
* Make Sweet Potato Butter
* Mix into cornbread batter
* Use to replace pumpkin in recipes
* Use to replace pumpkin in recipes
* Use in a smoothie
* Use as baby food (Yes you can make it as thin or thick as needed)
Meal ideas to serve roasted sweet potato cubes in, or with:
* Add to Curry
* Add to Soup
* Add to Soup
* Add to a Stew
* Add to a salad
* Use to replace regular potatoes in a meal/dish
* Serve with other roasted vegetables (like carrots, squash, Brussel Sprouts, ect.)
* Use to replace regular potatoes in a meal/dish
* Serve with other roasted vegetables (like carrots, squash, Brussel Sprouts, ect.)
* Mix with roasted red or russet potato cubes (to serve as a breakfast Hash)
© My Life 0utside The Box 2016-2017. All Rights Reserved. All photos, text, personal videos, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written permission of the blog author.
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