Harry Potter Party: Pt 1: Planning

  This Halloween Hubby and I are throwing our first party. It is of course Harry Potter theme, because what else would we pick. I am so excited for this and have been planning for a few weeks.

 Today I am going to share our menu, games, and plan for the party. 

   Our menu is mostly based off of foods in the books and traditional London foods. For snacks we have dips and pretzel wands, and guest are bringing others. We will have a little tea bar with teas, cream, sugar and rock cakes. These cakes are some that Hagrid offered in his hutch, during tea time. For our main meal we will be having meat pies. One is a chicken and mushroom pie, they are traditional pub food. The other is a beef pie. The pies and rock cakes are from a Harry Potter Cook Book. Desserts will be apple pies from the great hall, roach clusters, and peppermint pasties. Of course there will be some candy eaten too it is Halloween.

Baked Chicken Wings

   Baking instead of frying chicken is not a new idea. These though you can get to the same crispness as a fried wing and I think they taste even better. We are following the Trim Healthy Mama plan and these are on plan and great for a date night or when watching a football game. These alone would be a FP but served with a side of sweet potato fries would make an E.

Married Monday: Update

   I have been a bit behind in my Married Monday posts, I have been having a hard time thinking of great topics that you all want to read about. I am going to take a little break just from my Marriage posts until mid November so that I will be able to give yall great information that is helpful and useful for you.

Chef Crafted Bundles

 I am required by the FTC to let you know that I am being compensated for these posts. I am not writing about McDonald’s for the compensation but because I love what the company is doing and want to share it with all of you. I'm Lovin' It!

   McDonald’s is testing out its newest burger creations in three locations across the country and Central Arkansas is one of them. These new sandwiches have bold, fresh flavors that you get to pair with your choice of meat and bun.

Homemade Baked Mac and Cheese

   This recipe was found by my dear Hubby and I am so glad he did. I have only made a couple of homemade baked mac and cheeses so I was a bit nervous on getting it just right. This turned out amazing though and this sauce before adding the cheese will be my base for all cheese type sauces. It came out ooey and gooey and didn’t set up so hard that you couldn’t enjoy it. Then after baking it is a gooey and stringy cheese sauce you think of and the crunch of the panko on top. It is perfect.

I am trying a new thing with my recipes and adding an easy printable recipe at the end that you can click on and print.

Outlets of Little Rock

   Yes you read that right, Arkansas has its very own outlet mall now and it is in Little Rock. They celebrated their grand opening this weekend. A few weeks ago I got to do a hard hat tour and see how the mall would be laid out and some of the stores as they were being worked on. Last Thursday they hosted a charity event, Open Doors, Open Hearts. Ticket sells went to 20 different charities and customers got to choose where their money went when purchasing. This event was a preview shopping event with great coupons, discounts, and the chance to be one of the first people to shop in these stores.

Weekend Recap- Craft Fair Weekend

    Friday night I headed up to Springdale or home as I call it. It was time for the annual Craft Fair weekend. This was one of my top trips over the last few years.  

   I spent the day Saturday hanging out with my mom hitting up two of the closer ones to the house. We sampled lots of dips, of course, I love dip mix taste samples at these types of events. We even bought a couple and we each got this adorable little serving dish.

Trim Healthy Mama Cookbook Review

I received this book from Blogging for Books in exchange for my review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

   This is a companion book to the Trim Healthy Mama Plan (review coming soon). These books are Serene Allison and Pearl Barrett’s second and third book, an update to their original self-published book that was over 600 pages long and included the plan overview and recipes. Their first book was a best seller and many ‘mamas’ were requesting a simpler version of the plan that was easy to understand and a separate cookbook that wasn’t so large. And boy did these ladies come through, both books are wonderful and have great information.

Weekend Recap

   This weekend has been a busy one, but great. Friday evening after a nap we went to the Arkansas State Fair with our friends and had a blast. Saturday morning we slept in and then decided a trip back home for the night would be fun. We came back Sunday afternoon and I set out to make our first week of a new meal plan.

   We went opening night to the fair and it was a blast. We watched the Cycle Wall of Death show, a set of three brothers rode motorcycles and a go-cart around and up a wall. I tried to catch a few pictures but they went too fast so I decided to take a video. This is when he was collecting money out of people's hands as he went around. It was pretty impressive. They also had two go at the same time and one was above the other on the wall.

A Recap of Bill Nye "The Science Guy" Lecture at UCA

   Tuesday night Hubby and I had a date night, not one common for us though. We went and of our own free will went and listened to a lecture at the UCA campus. I say that because this is the first time I have voluntarily gone to any type of educational event. But this one was an exception because it was Bill Nye, yes the science guy! I bought tickets forever ago and didn't even know what he was going to be doing, a small part of me did hope it would be experiments though, fast forward to Tuesday dinner time, we still didn't know the topic of his talk. Honestly we didn't care, Bill is someone we learned from during a lot of our schooling and he is a wonderful brilliant scientist, so just to get to see him in real life was enough to get us there.

Crock Pot Chicken Taco Chili

   I typically don’t make chicken in the crock pot, I tried when we first got married and it turned out dry and one time burnt. I thought it was the crock pot, but it made everything else perfectly, so I decided no more chicken in there. But when I saw this recipe and the blogger said that hers is normally dry as well and this one was moist and perfect, I decided to go for it. I am so glad I did because it is amazing and on our list to make often.

Married Monday: Fall Bucket List 2015

   Last year I wrote this post and made a cute little image with a bucket list of things I wanted to do with Hubby during the season. This year I am making a new one. Some things the same and a few new dates added.

Post on ARWB: Preparing your Calendar

   How do you organize your calendar? I am over on Arkansas Women Bloggers talking about preparing your calendar. I go through my planning process for the year, month, and each week. I would love if you would go over and give me some love! Click here or on the picture to visit the post.