If you love Halloween and want to make some cute treats for your kids or even their classroom, but you’re short on time, this is the post for you!
I’ve got 3 ideas that you can make in 10 minutes or less and all with pre-made store bought items so you won’t need to turn on the oven for any of these!
This post contains affiliate links. By using my links to shop I may receive a small commission. Thank you for your support!
I love being able to get my groceries delivered through Walmart’s online grocery service. I put in an order every week and it’s such a time saver!
If you haven’t tried it yet, new customers can use promo code TRIPLE10 to save $10 off their first three pickup or delivery orders. $50 min. Restrictions & fees apply.
Walmart has a such great selection and shopping there helps me save money as they keep their prices low.
One tip that I have is to look for Walmart’s own brands like Great Value, Marketside, Freshness Guaranteed or Sam’s Choice as the food is always high quality but the best prices!
3 easy Halloween Treats that you can make with store bought items
Pretzel Ghosts
There’s not much to this one! Just grab the pretzel mini twists and dip them in melted white chocolate and pop the candy eyes on while the chocolate is still warm.
Cookie Spiders
This one might take a bit longer but still very easy and the outcome is just the cutest! Break your pretzel sticks in half and then take one side off the chocolate sandwich cookie. Put 4 pretzel legs on each side and then close the sandwich cookie (you can use the excess melted chocolate from the ghosts to seal it if you need.) and then add candy eyes.
Fancy Marshmallow Treats
This looks way fancy for how easy it is to make! Get pre-made marshmallow treats and melt orange candy melts in the microwave. Dip the marshmallow treats into the melted chocolate. Top it off with a fun halloween icing decoration.
My kids helped me make all of these treats with ease! I love doing these kinds of activities with my kids and let them go crazy with decorating, it’s so fun to see what they come up with!
An easy fun idea that I did with my kids is to simply dip marshmallows in melted chocolate and then dip in halloween sprinkles. Super easy and so yummy too!
Start your order at Walmart today and don’t forget to use the code TRIPLE10 to save $10 off your first three pickup or delivery orders.
With two kids in school and a busy business, my schedule is all over the place and as much as I want to just take the family to eat out, it’s just gotten too expensive! And with grocery prices going up as well I have been very conscious about what we spend on our groceries.
This post contains affiliate links. By using my links to shop I may receive a small commission. Thank you for your support!
One thing that I’ve been doing is utilizing Walmart+ for ordering groceries online! I love the ease and convenience of having my groceries delivered straight to my doorstep! And not only that, your weekly grocery budget can stretch even further when you make easy swaps using Walmart Brands like Great Value, Marketside, Sam’s Choice and Freshness Guaranteed.
Stock up on after school snacks
I do a weekly order of items that I can easily make for dinner and I also stock up on the after school snacks.
My kids are huge fans of the freeze dried fruit! They are such great snacks to pack for school and of course after school. I love how affordable they are too so we always stock up.
Our go-to easy family dinner
One of my go-to dinners is spaghetti and I love how easy it is! The Walmart brand items are not only affordable but high quality too! The spaghetti sauce is one of my family’s favorite pasta sauces.
To make the sauce feel a bit more homemade, I just add some ground beef, chopped onions (cooked down) fresh tomatoes (mash them down while you cook them) and fresh garlic.
And I have to rave about those Savory Garlic Knots! Just pop them in the oven and you have the yummiest garlic knots to serve with your spaghetti. It’s that easy!
I grew up and have lived all over the Seattle area. From the Eastside to downtown Seattle, West Seattle and North Seattle and with my extended family in South Seattle, I am very familiar with restaurants all over the greater Seattle area! My family and I love food and we love finding small restaurants in every neighborhood to enjoy.
With the pandemic, supporting small restaurants and small businesses is more important than ever and I have tried to do my best by ordering take out directly from them or purchasing gift cards to some of our regular restaurants.
Now that WA state has opened back up and restaurants are able to run at full capacity again it’s been fun to go out and eat at the restaurants as well! I’ve really enjoyed all the new outdoor seating that a lot of restaurants have been able to add and appreciate that they have been taking the safety of their employees and customers seriously.
This post is sponsored by WA Dept of Health. All opinions are my own. Thank you for your support!
Even though I am young and healthy, I got vaccinated as soon as I could as I wanted to help do my part in protecting my community. It also helped give me some comfort in knowing that I could go out and enjoy eating at my favorite restaurants as that is one of my favorite things to do as well as having date nights with my husband.
The COVID-19 virus is still spreading, even among younger people. By getting the COVID-19 vaccine, even if you’re healthy, you’re playing an important role in helping stop the transmission of COVID-19 in our communities.
My Favorite Seattle area Restaurants
One of my top questions that I get often is where to eat at while visiting Seattle so I thought I’d share just a few restaurants that we absolutely love.
I’ll also mention that although I love downtown, Capitol Hill, Queen Anne (the regular Seattle hotspot) restaurants, the ones I’m sharing today are on the Eastside and North of Seattle, which I find to be easier on families with small children as parking and kids menus are a lot easier to come by!
I love taking the kids to The Village at Totem Lake and Joe’s Burgers is great for kids and adults. Everything is freshly made and oh man those french fries are some of the best!
For dessert, stop by Salt & Straw, just a short walk away for some of the best and unique ice cream flavors!
If you love hot pot, this is the place to go! I love that they do individual hot pots and rather than a traditional hot pot where you choose each item that you want, these are pre-set flavors and ingredients and all of them are amazing! Below I had the Taiwanese Spicy and my husband had the Milk Cream Curry.
They have several locations around the Seattle area. I do find that they are always pretty busy at all locations so be prepared to wait for a table at peak times.
If you’ve never had a mochi donut before, you gotta try one! They are so light and chewy, less sweet than a regular donut but just as yummy! Mochinut has a lot of great flavors that change daily. Below is the hazelnut, strawberry and cheesecake flavors.
The shop in Edmonds is connected with Happy Lemon which is also a great spot for bubble tea!
My husband and I love Italian food, especially hand made pastas and wood fired pizza and these are some of the best in Seattle. We also love the downtown Edmonds area as it’s close to the water with a ton of great restaurants and boutiques.
Other favorites in the Edmonds area by the same chef are The Market, Salt & Iron and Bar Dojo. They are all beyond amazing and the Edmonds waterfront is also a great place to take a walk after dinner.
Downtown Bothell has a lot of great restaurants and The Bine makes the top of our list. Everything that we have tried there is so good, especially the burger but I also have to give a shout out to the Pho’rench Dip it is simply amazing and something I’ve never had before!
I highly encourage you all to go out and enjoy your favorite restaurants and small businesses to help support them through these tough times and at the same time, to also encourage everyone to get vaccinated so that these small restaurants can continue operating so that we can all continue to enjoy them!
One other thing that everyone can do to help slow the spread of COVID-19 is to Activate WA Exposure Notifications (WA Notify) on your Apple or Android phone.
WA Exposure Notifications (also known as WA Notify) allows users to find out if they’ve had an exposure to COVID-19 without sharing any personal information and anonymously alert those they have come into contact with if they test positive
The more people who use exposure notification, the greater the benefit and is simply an easy way for all of us to help slow the spread in Washington state.
This post is sponsored by Walmart. All opinions are my own.
With the holidays coming up and knowing that I will be hosting a few family and friends at our house, I’ve been trying out recipes that are easy to make for a large group and that my kids will actually eat!
Being a mom of two and running my own business leaves me very little time to grocery shop. I do most of my shopping at Walmart Grocery as I love that they have fresh and organic produce and good cuts of meat which is essential in this recipe! You can even place your order online and pick up in store which is a huge time saver!
I’m a fan of beef stew and typically make it on the stove but thought I’d try making it in the Instant Pot. Honestly, I don’t think I’ll go back to making it on the stove again! It was nice to cook it all in one pot and with the prep + cooking time it was all ready in about an hour!
I basically followed this recipe which I found to be very easy to follow. I omitted any green items like the peas, even though I like them, my daughter is currently in the stage where she won’t eat anything green and I didn’t want her to make a fuss so I left them out. Kids are so fussy but having her eat the stew was enough for me as I can sneak her greens in other foods!
Everything I got from Walmart was fresh and easy to prepare. I always try to buy organic so I’m happy that I can get everything for my recipes at Walmart. When you are making dinner for a big group it can get pricey too but I’ve found that everything at Walmart is very reasonably priced and you don’t need to spend a lot to make a delicious meal.
My girls loved the beef stew and I just love watching them eat it! It’s nice to be able to cook for my girls even on the crazy busy days that we have.
Grab everything for you need in this recipe here:
Check out my other holiday favorite and share your favorite holiday recipes with me. On social media use #WalmartCommunityTable.
Last week I had a chance to get a private tour of The Cheesecake Factory to see how they prepped and cooked all their delicious dishes! I’m excited to share some of these photos and information with you as it’s something that you rarely get to see the behind the scenes of what really goes on in a restaurant!
I have a soft spot for Cheesecake Factory as my mom, who typically only loves Chinese food, LOVES the Cheesecake Factory. It is seriously one of her favorite restaurants and I of course had to bring her along for this fun meal!
CHEESECAKE FACTORY KITCHEN TOUR
I love that they have over 250 menu items as I never get the same thing and love to try a different dish each time. Right now they have a few new menu items that I got to see how they make and try them out and of course, I loved them!
The amazing thing is that even with that many menu items, every single item, even down to each sauce is freshly made each day! Nothing is frozen and heated up, and I got to see that for myself when I toured the kitchen to see how everything was made.
My absolute favorite thing on the menu is the avocado eggrolls. Look how yummy this looks! They handroll the eggrolls everyday. I even helped make an eggroll! I was very proud of myself!
If you haven’t had the mashed potatoes before, well you are missing out. SO good! I got to try them freshly out of the mixer and they were beyond amazing. These are made fresh all throughout the day so when you order your meal, you’ll always have the best mashed potatoes!
I also got to help make a pancake, and this wasn’t just your regular pancake. This is their new Cinnamon Roll Pancakes and oh my goodness, they are so good that I’m craving them right this minute. They only serve them on the weekends so you have to make sure to get them and just share with the table. They were so fluffy and perfectly cinnamon-y.
It was really interesting to get the full kitchen tour just to see how they prepped and cooked everything. Honestly, I was amazed by how every single ingredient was fresh and freshly prepared that morning even down to the sauces and dips that go along with each dish! They make more than 160 sauces and dressing from scratch!
CHEESECAKE FACTORY NEW MENU ITEMS
Of course, I was very excited to sit down and eat. And eat we did! I was there with my husband, mom and dad and we all thoroughly enjoyed our meal.
The pork belly sliders are a new fave! The fried pickles with the pork belly was such a good combination. My husband and I will definitely be coming back just for these.
Obviously I had to get the avocado eggrolls but wanted to try out the eggroll sampler which included four different kinds of eggrolls. You get the avocado, Tex Mex, Cheeseburger and Firecracker Salmon eggrolls.
The Spicy Shanghai Noodles were so flavorful! I love spicy food so it wasn’t too spicy for me and I really liked the sesame ginger sauce.
Thank you so much to The Cheesecake Factory for the fun experience! I now know why all the food is so good, you could really tell all the care the chefs and everyone in the kitchen puts in to prepare all the dishes. Seeing how busy they are and how many people they serve, it was pretty amazing to see how it all comes together!
I can’t believe it’s already FEBRUARY. It seems like New Years was just yesterday and I was making all sorts of goals (new and old) for 2018. If you’re like me, you might have had some health + fitness related goals on your list this year (like every year, am I right?). Since I started my own health + fitness lifestyle a few years ago, I’ve found things that work for me and my busy schedule and others that just don’t. MEAL PREP is one of those things that just WORKS. The better prepared I am at the beginning of the week, the more likely I am to stay the course. But on those weeks that I don’t have time or just decide to “wing it,” I’m 100% more likely to veer off track.
Quick, easy and healthy recipe
In the perfect world, I would love to spend hours + hours on meal prep, have enough time to workout and take a long shower to release those toxins from a nice long sweat sesh but in reality, my days are busy running around between work, kid’s homework, after school activities, tournaments and church obligations. This means I have to be smart about how I’m spending my time and my preference is not to slave over a meal for hours on end. I’m all about quick + easy – and if it’s healthy, that’s an added bonus!
Enter: Eggroll in a Bowl. This meal is so quick that in the time it takes you to read the ingredients, you’ll have made the entire dish start to finish! This dish is easy to make in bulk which means when it comes to meal prep, you make it once and have lunches for the rest of the week! #winning! Being Korean, I’m always looking for Asian inspired dishes for meal prep (something other than rotisserie chicken and broccoli because we all know that gets old…FAST!). Try this for your next meal prep and let me know how it turns out!
EGGROLL IN A BOWL
Prep Time: 10 min.
Ingredients
1.5 pounds ground turkey
2 bags cole slaw mix
1 teaspoon grated ginger (or ginger powder to taste)
1 teaspoon minced garlic (or garlic powder to taste)
1/4 cup liquid aminos (or soy sauce)
4 eggs beaten
Instructions
1. Heat ground turkey, ginger and garlic in a large skillet on medium high heat (season with sea salt + pepper). Drain fat.
2. Add in 2 bags cole slaw mix and liquid aminos (soy sauce). Stir to combine.
3. Push eggroll mixture to the side of the pan and pour in beaten eggs. Scramble.
4. Return to heat and combine eggroll mixture and scrambled eggs. (NOTE: cook as long as you like depending on how cooked you like your veggies. I like mine with a bit of crunch so only stir to combine and let the heat from the mixture wilt the veggies slowly)
5. Serve by itself or over brown rice.
ENJOY!!
For more ideas on meal prep and other related fitness inspiration, check out and like G.I. Jen Fitness!
For help getting started with your own health + fitness journey, fill out an application here!
This post is sponsored by AmazonFresh. All opinions are my own. I use affiliate links in this post which means I may make a small commission if you purchase something using my links. Thank you for your support!
I have been a fan of AmazonFresh for awhile now, grocery shopping without leaving the house? Um yes, sign me up. Living in Seattle, we are pretty lucky as we are usually the first to get Amazon’s newest concepts and I have been using this one since it started! Last weekend I was invited by AmazonFresh who paid for a fun girl’s weekend with a few other bloggers and to be honest, I was a bit nervous. I mean, I always love a girl’s weekend but this would be the first time that most of us had met and that’s always a bit nerve wracking to meet new people AND spend 3 full days with them! But, thanks to AmazonFresh and the awesome ladies on the trip, it literally was the best weekend ever. Even though I am a Seattleite and very familiar with Seattle living, I loved this little staycation as you don’t often get to be a tourist in your own city!
BLOGGERS TO FOLLOW!
First I have to mention the other girls on the trip as they made it such a fun time. We all got along so well that we’re hoping to plan another trip soon!
Portia from Obsessed by Portia is another local who lives about an hour outside of Seattle. She covers lifestyle and travel and is a mommy to two adorable girls. I’ve met Portia a few times at Seattle events and it was so fun getting to know her more on this trip.
Jessica from Happily Hughes is a fitness and travel blogger who has traveled to some fun destinations with her two little ones. I hope to travel more with my daughter and husband this year so I’ve definitely bookmarked some of the places she has stayed at to visit.
Jackie from Gluten Free Follow Me is so knowledgeable about food, I love it! Her site is amazing if you have any dietary restrictions, it’s a must see if you plan on traveling and want to find a good restaurant that can fit your needs. She mostly covers gluten free but I try to stay away from dairy and I was able to find a ton of great restaurants that she listed as dairy free. I love her instagram and follow her for all the yummy food posts!
WHERE TO STAY IN SEATTLE
The AmazonFresh team set us up in a fabulous airbnb in Queen Anne. If you are visiting, it’s a great spot to stay in as it’s close enough to downtown but also a great location close enough to all the cute shops and restaurants in Queen Anne, Magnolia and Fremont.
The fridge and snacks were all fully stocked, all from AmazonFresh (of course!) and I was so happy with all the yummy and healthy options. I love how they also set up an Echo for us to use. We had music playing at all times! (If you are a long time blog reader you know I love my Echo!)
GROCERY SHOPPING WITHOUT EVER STEPPING FOOT IN A GROCERY STORE
Because we were staying in the Airbnb, we utilized AmazonFresh quite a few times and honestly, not having to worry about getting in the car, taking the time to shop for everything and then coming home and unpacking everything was the best thing ever. It allowed us to have time to do so much and not have to worry about what food we needed for meals and snacks. At one point, we were out exploring Pike Place (more on that later!) and we got on the Amazon App and ordered wine for dinner that night! It was so easy and sure enough, we got home and the delivery came and we were set for wine for the night!
I love the AmazonFresh delivery which for a monthly membership fee of $14.99/month you get unlimited deliveries straight to your doorstep for all orders $50 or more. I always order my groceries the night before, set a time for when I know I’ll be home and the next day, I have groceries for my dinner that night! I also love the pickup option (it’s FREE for Amazon Prime members!)
On Saturday night, the four of us were each making a dish for dinner. Earlier in the day, we had put in an AmazonFresh order and we went to the Sodo location (which I personally use all the time) and got to scan and pick up our own order! How fun right?
AmazonFresh Pick Up
I love AmazonFresh for the produce and they in fact, guarantee the freshness of its products. You can order from a wide range of groceries including fresh fruits, vegetables, meat, seafood, baked goods, and dairy. Personally, whenever I have ordered fruits and vegetables from AmazonFresh, I’ve always been happy with how fresh everything was. We got to tour the entire warehouse, which was huge! But we all loved the produce section!
FRESH PRODUCE AND MORE
We got to pick and scan our order and I love how detailed their system is to make sure that we picked up everything that was ordered and that it was correct. It’s also great that you can order more than just your food items! AmazonFresh offers pet supplies, baby items, beauty products, meal kits, and foods made exclusively for AmazonFresh customers. I mean, everything you need from the grocery store, you can get delivered. It’s a busy mom’s dream come true!
I know how annoying it can be to drag your child to the grocery store, especially after picking her up from school when she’s tired and a bit cranky and the grocery store is jam packed with people. I mean, even getting her in and out of the car seat can be an ordeal so even if I don’t schedule a delivery, the pickup option is amazing as they can get your order ready in 15 minutes!
HEALTHY MEAL IDEAS WITH AMAZONFRESH
For our dishes, we didn’t plan it, but we all made dishes that went really well with each other! I made a Salmon Quinoa Bowl, Portia made Cranberry Orange Quinoa Salad, Jackie made Spaghetti Squash Boats and Avocado Chocolate Cookies (click to get her recipe!) and Jessica made Greek Meatballs with Avocado Tzatziki. Everything was SO good and all the ingredients were from AmazonFresh!
Here’s the easy recipe for my dish! I cook this dish for my husband and I all the time just because how fast and delicious it is.
Pan fry the salmon patties. Once they are cooked through, set aside. Once cool, cut into smaller pieces.
Cook the Quinoa following the directions on the package. I like to cook the quinoa in chicken broth for additional flavor but we had a pescatarian in the group so I wanted to make sure that she could eat it too so I cooked the quinoa in water and it was fine!
Stir fry the bell peppers with some crushed garlic.
Mix all the above ingredients together. Add salt, pepper and goddess dressing to your taste.
Once the mixed items have cooled down, add the fresh spinach and mix.
Add more dressing as needed!
I had the best weekend and we did so much more around Seattle which I will be recapping in another post! I’ll be sharing all the great restaurants we ate at over the weekend and some of the best spots in Pike Place that I love going to.
Free AmazonFresh Trial
If you are a busy mom like I am, I highly recommend you trying out AmazonFresh if you haven’t yet. Get your FREE AmazonFresh Trial to see if you like it! If you are in the Seattle area, try out the pickup, it’s free if you are a prime member. I guarantee it will change your life especially when work or mom duties make you so busy and the last thing you want to do is to spend an hour at the grocery store!
to see if you like it! If you are in the Seattle area, try out the pickup, it’s free if you are a prime member. I guarantee it will change your life especially when work or mom duties make you so busy and the last thing you want to do is to spend an hour at the grocery store!