2.27.15 // High Five {for the little things} Friday!

Happy Friday friends!  Alright, I'm going on week two for High Five {for the little things} Friday. Hope you had a wonderful week and have a few little things that made you happy this week that you can share!

1. We stopped by Starbucks on Sunday morning for a little coffee and breakfast. I tried the new Chocolate Caramel Muffin. I tried to take a picture but of course my camera was full! It is amazing! And make sure to get it warmed so that all of that ooey gooey caramel melts down into the muffin. Yum!

2. So, I finally hit 1,000 pageviews!!! That may seem small to some but I jumped up and did a little dance when I saw this! Thank YOU for stopping by and helping me cross that first goal. Can't wait to interact and converse with you all more. Come out, come out, wherever you are!

3.I got to teach my four year old how to play Go Fish! We've tried to play a few different board games but this one he actually sticks to through the end of the game. He can't exactly hold all of the cards out so I have to look up at the ceiling while he sorts his cards. It's pretty darn cute!

4. I made Lentil Soup over the weekend and it was a hit with everyone. Always the best when all of the kiddos and the husband scarf down something you made. :-) You can check out the recipe here if you missed it.

5. I've got a haircut appointment tomorrow! Um, it has been almost A YEAR since I have had my hair cut or colored. Good way to save money, right? So yeah, needless to say I'm pretty excited about my hair appointment. It's long overdue.

Anything fun from your week you want to share? Enjoy your weekend!

From the Kitchen: Lentil Soup

OK, so I realize that most of my recipes so far have been soup. It's just the time of year and the fact that they are so easy to switch up ingredients with. Lentils are so good for you as are all of the veggies in this soup. You don't even need to add meat and it is still a really hearty meal.

Ingredients:
1 cup dried lentils (rinsed and picked though)
2-3 carrots - diced
2 stalks celery - diced
1 leek- diced
medium onion - diced
clove of garlic
32oz carton of chicken broth
14oz can of diced tomatoes
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
olive oil
ham bone (optional)
fresh thyme (optional)

Saute carrots, celery, onion and leek in a large pot with olive oil.
Mince clove of garlic and add to pot once the veggies are soft.
Add can of diced tomatoes, chicken broth, lentils and ham bone (optional), salt, pepper and fresh thyme (optional).
Bring soup to a boil.
Cover and simmer for 1 hour, stirring occasionally.

Notes and Variations:

• The ham bone is great at adding flavor to the soup. But I never have a ham bone unless it is Christmas. You can leave that out or add: cubed ham, sausage, chopped Canadian bacon as I did above.
• You can sub the chicken broth for beef or vegetable broth.
• I've never actually made with the leek although I'm sure that would give it a nice flavor.
• I also never have fresh herbs on hand. I seasoned with a little Italian Seasoning this time.

Ever had lentils before? The first time (and only time) I've had them is in this soup.

{D.I.Y} Lost Socks Laundry Room Sign

When I moved into our new home I knew I wanted to make the laundry room as bright and fun as possible. I wanted a 'Lost Socks' laundry room sign after seeing one in Hobby Lobby. The one I saw was a little too simple/plain so I decided I was going to make one.

Here is what you need:

Piece of plywood (For reference- mine is 24 inches x 8 inches)

Can of spray paint in color of your choice

2x picture hangers
Pack of Magnetic Clips
Craft paint in color of choice
Small craft paint brushes

(Apologies that my pictures are showing step by step on a finished sign. I didn't take pictures when I first made the sign.)

1. You'll first want to spray paint your piece of plywood and let it dry.

2. The next step is adding your lettering. I'm sure you can use stickers or vinyl letters if you have something like a Cricut. I didn't have anything to make this part easy, so I went the tedious route. I chose a font I liked in Word and adjusted the size according to what I wanted on the sign. Then I printed out the words LOST SOCKS in that font and size. I placed my letters where I wanted them on the sign and used a pen to trace the letters onto the plywood. I pressed as hard as I could in order to make an imprint of the letters.

3. Next I used a small craft brush and craft paint to trace over the indentation and paint in the letters.

4. Once the letters dry, flip over the plywood and nail in the picture hooks so you can hang the sign on the wall.

5. Final step. Flip back to the front and lay your magnetic clips out and evenly space them out. Glue each magnetic clip to the plywood with super glue. Let dry and you are done!

Let the lost socks come a runnin'! Oh cause they will. How does that even happen so often?!

Do you have a special place for your lost socks? Do you think you'll be making your own sign?

Linking Up with:
Tatertots & Jello

2.20.15 // High Five {for the little things} Friday!

Happy Friday!

I wanted to try something a little different today. One of my favorite bloggers, Lauren Elizabeth, used to do a High Five for Friday post which was a link up every Friday where fellow bloggers posted five highlights from their week. It was fun to peek at a list of a person's favorite things for the week. She passed on the torch to the ladies I am linking up with today.

1.I received beautiful red roses from my husband for Valentine's Day. Love having fresh flowers in the house!

2. The kid's (and my husband) woke up to this little Valentine's Day set up. The kids were jumping, squealing and so excited! My son kept saying "Oh wow, is this for me?!" and my daughter was giddy over the bee balloon. Just LOVED seeing their reaction.

3. Finally rented a Redbox for the first time in over two weeks. We saw Gone Girl and it. was. awesome! Highly recommend. I wanted to read the book first but I think I'm OK with still trying to read it after seeing the movie.

4. I caught the cat sunbathing on the stairs. It was a pretty cool day and I would have liked to sunbath right next to him. So stinkin' cute!

5. I saved $26.13 at Publix this week from sales, BOGO deals and coupons. Small trips this week (spent $36.58 total) at Publix but love seeing the savings.

Any little thing you found exciting or made you happy this week? 

From the Kitchen: White Bean, Kale & Sausage Soup

I really love being able to look at a recipe and alter it as needed depending upon what ingredients I have in the kitchen. It helps to utilize what you have already instead of making a trip to the store. It's nice to be able to cook the same recipe with slight variations to make it something new. This is a great simple and versatile soup. I'm giving the original recipe plus alternative suggestions and notes on how I typically make this soup below.

White Bean, Kale & Sausage Soup

Ingredients:

Olive Oil

1 medium onion, chopped

5 cloves garlic, minced

1 bay leaf

4 cups kale, washed and torn into bite sized pieces

2 cans white beans, rinsed and drained (I tend to use cannellini)

8oz of hot turkey sausage

8oz pork links sausage

8 cups chicken broth
Pepper to taste

Parmesan Rind

(Chicken broth not pictured. whoops!)

Heat the olive oil in a large pot over medium high heat. Cook sausage in the oil, slice it and return to pan to brown. Add onion and garlic to the pan and cook until translucent. Pour in the broth and bring to a boil. Add the bay leaf, parmesan rind and season with pepper.
 (Remove rind and bay leaf before serving.)
Stir in the kale, cover and simmer until the kale is wilted (8-10 minutes). Stir in the white beans and cool until heated through (about 5 minutes). Serve with grated parmesan.

Notes and Variations:

• I have never made with sliced sausage. I always use 16oz of either chicken sausage or italian sausage cut from the casings and browned, This time I used 16oz of pork sausage roll. I added onion, garlic and italian seasoning as I browned the meat.
• I had way less than 4 cups of Kale this time around. No big deal, still tasty. You can also sub the kale with spinach.
• I lowered the broth from 8 cups to 6 cups as I felt it was going to be a little too soupy with 8 cups. You can also switch to beef broth if preferred, 
• No bay leaf, no problem, You can omit. I never use a parmesan rind. You can sprinkle soup with whatever parmesan cheese you have or omit.

Does it make you nervous to alter recipes? Think you'll give this recipe a try? 

Linking Up with:
Tatertots & Jello

President's Day Sales + Follow By Email

Good Morning! Hope you had a lovely weekend.

First, I just wanted to let you know that you can now follow Every Little Penny by email.

Just put your email in over there to the right, hit submit and you will get an email whenever a new post goes live. Just thought that would be helpful if you don't follow along via something like Bloglovin as Facebook doesn't put new posts in every followers feed. 

And since it is President's Day...everyone is having sales:

Target: Up to 20% off clothing, shoes and accessories. Promo code: DEAL 20  

PLUS 15% off plus free shipping when you spend $75 on your home. Through today

Old Navy: Entire store on sale - up to 50% off. Through today.

JC Penney: $10 bonus cash  when you spend $50 or more in store.
(Redeemable 2/17/15-2/24/15)
PLUS $10 off $25 or more on apparel shoes, accessories fine jewelry & home + Extra 10% off watches, furniture, mattresses & custom blinds.
Get this coupon on your phone by texting AD3A to 527365. Through today.

Macys: Extra 20%, 15% or 10% off. Home and select departments.
Excludes Specials. Promo code: PRES 
PLUS $10 off your purchase of $25 or more. Select departments. Excludes furniture. mattresses and Specials. Promo code: PRES25 Through today.

Michaels: 25% off entire purchase including clearance.
Promo code: PRESIDENTS25 Through today.

Bealls: 20% off your entire purchase plus free shipping when you spend $65 or more.
Promo code: HUGE DEAL
PLUS Take an extra 50% off entire stock of clearance.
(Coupon in sales flyer.) Through today.

Most stores have coupons on their website that you can print out that match up with the online discounts.

Any plans for shopping today? I'm going to be sitting this one out. :-)

Valentine's Day: The Table Set-Up

Oh Happy Friday to you! Just one more day until the infamous love day.

You know- you don't have to go all out. $100 dinner at a restaurant that you KNOW is going to be packed and the wait is going to be entirely too long.

Having your loved one(s), whether it be kids or a significant other, wake up to a really cute little Valentine's Day set up can be just as special.

Pardon the pictures as they were old and not taken 'for a blog,' but I came across some Valentine's Day table set up pictures from a few years ago that I wanted to share.
(I had ones from other years but can't find them...organizing my photos is a whole other project I have to tackle!)

Hit up the dollar store; dig out everything you own in pink, red and white; bake up some treats.

- All of the dishes and vases were gathered from around the house.

- The napkins, confetti, box of Whoppers, tablecloth and red flowers are from the Dollar Tree.

- I baked the cupcakes and made the chocolate covered strawberries.

- I cut out the circles for the MY SWEET heart sign from construction paper I had.

- And I think I found the peppermints in my pantry.

Think you'll set up a little Valentine's Day table? Please share if you do!

Recent Purchases + .10 cent digital prints

It's huuuuummmp day! Hope you are having a great week.

I just wanted to share a few recent purchases that I got great deals on....all at one of my favorite stores, T.J. Maxx. And as you can see by the red and yellow tags, I had good luck in the clearance sections this time.

Nicole Miller Frame @ T.J. Maxx: $6

Max Studio Frame @ T.J. Maxx: $3

 Giorgio Picino Italian Leather Sandals @ T.J. Maxx: $15

Mint Julips Lip Scrub @ LUSH: $9.95

This was actually a gift from my mom - I was dying to try it. So far, so good!

Tastes yum and makes my lips really soft. They tend to shed like a snake. :(

I also wanted to share that you can get a great deal on digital prints at CVS and Walgreens this week.

If you are anything like me (you have tons of photos on your phone and haven't printed anything in forever!), this is a great deal to start getting some of those pictures printed!

CVS: 4x6 digital prints are .13cents each. 50 print minimum.
Enter promo code: PRINT13. (Offer expires 2/14/15)
Walgreens:  4x6 digital prints are .10cents each. 75 print minimum.
Enter promo code: PRINTS2LOVE. (Offer expires 2/14/14)
 You can choose in-store pick-up at either store to save on shipping. 

Find any good deals to share? Got any pictures you need to print?

Valentine's Day: Chocolate Dipped Marshmallow Pops

So, I tried to get a different Valentine's Day post up before today but the project was a flop.

I'm hoping you still find time to try and make these on or before Saturday!

These heart marshmallows were bought at Aldi and as I stared at them in my pantry, I had the idea of turning them into these chocolate dipped marshmallow pops. So cute and easy...and a real sugar bomb! I could only eat one but my son on the other hand was happy eating three! Between my mother-in-law and I, we happened to have all we needed to make them.

What you need:

Bag of heart shaped marshmallows

6oz white chocolate

6 oz semi sweet chocolate

lollipop sticks

wax paper

sprinkles, nonpareils, etc

Start out by putting the lollipop sticks into the bottom of the marshmallows.

Now you want to melt your chocolate over a double boiler. Way easier than it sounds and a much better option than melting the chocolate in the microwave. I always seem to burn the chocolate if I attempt to melt it in the microwave. These are the double boiler instructions we followed. 

Dip the top third or half of your marshmallow pop into the chocolate.

Now you can sprinkle your pop with whatever sprinkles you choose.

Lay on a wax paper lined baking sheet. When all of your pops are done, put in the fridge for 15 minutes to set. And then enjoy!

Or pass out to all the neighborhood kids. :-) 

We ran out of lollipop sticks and still had chocolate left so we made some more chocolate dipped marshmallows sans lollipop stick.

Did you make any treats for Valentine's Day? 

Linking Up with:
Tatertots & Jello