Coastal Oaks

My family if by far the most important to me! I would walk through fire for them.... My next love in life is Halloween and Disney! So let's put those two together for a great treat! If you even slightly know me you know I really LOVE Halloween! It is my favorite holiday by far! I keep wondering where this love for Halloween comes from? Perhaps the excitement that always came with the holiday, no pressure, all the fun treats, my Dad always use to dress up with me..... I'm sure all combined together Halloween has always been a happy time for me throughout my life. While I was pregnant with Anna we got to take a family vacation to Disney World with Derek during Halloween. It was so wonderful! The Halloween party was beyond my expectations! The parade, the shows, there dressed up characters, the treats..... I could keep going on..... It's hard to try all the treats that are only available during the party time at Magic Kingdom but I sure tried to at least see them all. So

Potatoes are so versatile! Many things you an do with them and most people like them. Being a Mom I'm always looking for new ways to get my kids to eat good things. Preheat oven to 400. Start with washing your russet potatoes. Slice into coins. place on a lined baking sheet. Brush with melted butter on both sides and sprinkle with garlic salt. Bake in oven for 20-30 minutes. I tested their doneness by sticking the middle with a fork to ensure it was soft and easily slides out. Take the potato chips out of the oven. Top with Cheese, Bacon and Chives. Put back in the oven for a minute to melt. Remove and serve. You can even top with a little dollop of sour cream or however you normally take your baked potato. My family loves salmon. I tell my kids all the time this is a "super food" since super heroes are a popular topic in our home these days. Some great words to live by below. This is probably easy at times as we surround ourselves with people we love. How

Last week I had the pleasure of getting a "date lunch" with my husband. We went to Main St. Bistro here in old town League City. It's always a favorite of ours. The food is always good but during high crowd times can get a bit loud. When Matt and I actually get a date night we like it to be quite so we can talk and enjoy each other's company. We started with the fried green tomatoes topped with a generous amount of crab meat! Matt had the Chicken Caprese sandwich with asparagus on the side! I had the fried fish tacos supreme which means it had pico and avocado on top! We made some home made ice cream this past weekend and I also made some chocolate chip cookies. Fresh out of the oven we ate them with our ice cream! This summer has been filled with lots a swimming, playing hard, lots of parties. Derek told me "Mommy, we party a lot. I think it's because we are nice people so we always get invited to the party". Hope you all are enjoy

Summer fun is here and these will add to those fun, hot days!! 🍉🍉 I actually got this idea from my kids' school. During the summer they surprise the kids with healthful treats while they get all sweaty on the playground. They are very easy to make and also add to the life span of the watermelon. Watermelons are huge and unless you are going to party or serving to a large group of people its hard to consume the whole thing before it goes bad. So get your pen and pad out cause these are AMAZING! I start with washing the skin of a whole seedless watermelon. I then slice into one inch circles. I then cut into triangles like a pizza. The skin on watermelon is pretty thick so I use my knife to make a slit-cut in the skin to then insert a popsicle stick. You can use regular popsicle sticks or if I could find the thick thumb prints ones- those are my preferred choice. Place in freezer safe bag or container and place in freezer. When ready to enjoy just take out of freezer to enjoy.

Another yummy meal created with the help of Kroger's Prep+Pared meals. This was my husbands favorite. I felt on top of my health game making and eating this meal. The great long term advantage of making these meals are that you get to keep the recipe card that lists the ingredients and the recipe instructions which allows you to easily recreate the meal. I'm most definitely keeping this recipe and plan to make again. My kids ate the steak and the veggies (carrots and cauliflower). For this recipe I added a bit more butter to what was called for and added in some minced garlic when tossing the veggies together. Last week was tough for me when I found out about the news in Santa Fe HS. This hit too close to home and has shaken me to my core. I'm so protective of my children and cannot imagine the pain those families and affected kids are feeling right now. I do not know the answer and I think we as a community have more questions that answers. We live in a scary world o

Amazing, yummy and super easy!!! This meal prep kits was nothing short of amazing! I was very nervous going into making this meal as I have this fear of cooking fish... That I will under cook or tear up the delicate fish. I should have had more confidence in myself! This meal prep I would definitely purchase again and is totally worth the money. I did not have many of the ingredients so having it all packed together for me was super helpful! At the time of the posting Kroger is selling the Prep+Pared meals for BOGO (Buy one get one free). My first bite!! The whole meal plated! The box it came in.     All the ingredients spread out. I purchased two boxes which are each two servings. So four servings total.  The potato cake mixture. Super fresh and fragrant ingredients. The butter topping for the salmon. Sizzling salmon! Not as hard as I originally thought. Not fishy smelling at all!   Getting the potato cakes in for a little browning!   Oh yes! This

The past month has included some tough moments for our family. My daughter has had three back to back ear infections. My son had a stomach virus and I've been a basket case worrying about them! Today in life we always seem busy although I'm also very firm on the belief that we make time for the things that are important in our lives. I'm sure we all have those people in our lives that always claim to be so busy but instead of getting continuously frustrated I've realized that apparently we  are not that important to them. Even with all these busy times with my own family including getting my kids well we have always made time for family and the important things. Some of my short cuts during the busy times are easy dinners. I have a few I always keep in my arsenal of grocery and pantry items. Kroger has now introduced an easy and quick option for dinner called Prep+Pared. I've received a ton of coupons in the mail for the mail order dinner subscriptions. I've l