Bee Inspired

Camping and a Chili Recipe

February 25, 2013 By TheLocalHoney Leave a Comment

This past weekend we went camping on the coast. There were a total of 11 trailers loaded with friends and family. There was way too much food, lots of cocktails, a lack of sleep, happy and dirty kiddos, beautiful sunsets, campfires, crabbing and of course sledding down sand-dunes.

I have a few things to say about camping. I feel kinda misunderstood so let me explain. My husband and I started dating over 14 years ago. We never discussed camping. There were no pros or cons, never did we camp alone or with friends. We just never discussed it. Then one day about 5.5 year ago my hubby tells me he wants to go in with another firefighter family on buying a trailer. He wasn’t kidding, within days we were co-owners of a used camping trailer. All of a sudden I was supposed to have this die hard love of camping and all that it entailed. Well guess what? I didn’t! And 5.5 years later I still don’t. Yes, we have the luxury of having a trailer but let me tell you, it is not just like home. The bathroom barely fits a small child let alone an average sized adult. You have to be hyper aware of how much water you are using because the fresh water tank empties just as quickly as the grey water tank fills up {the fact that I even know what grey water is is actually pretty amazing!} So things like doing dishes, an occasional shower and going potty are all things that have to be calculated. Of course we are surrounded by walls and we have an actual bed to sleep in. Plus having access to power and heat are wonderful – especially when you camp at the beach in February. Now on to the sleeping or lack of. Anytime someone tosses or turns OR gets up for the middle of the night bathroom run {um hello hubby who drinks more cocktails then normal while camping} the whole trailer rocks and rolls. Then I wake up. I have mastered the art of earplugs to kill the sounds of late night campfire games and laughter {which I enjoy until I just can’t hang anymore}. The trailer moving wakes me every time. So I pretty much come home feeling like I was just up with a newborn for days on end. Three nights = sheer exhaustion. Plus it’s pricey. By the time you buy ‘camping food’ {which is always more then regular food}, pay for the site, gas to travel and any other odds and ends. It ends up costing a pretty penny.

So before I sound like the most unappreciative person ever, let me tell you the things I do enjoy about camping: visiting with family and friends that I don’t get to see often, the laughing – so many stories and awesome humor, my children being filthy and happy plus the nonstop of being outside breathing the fresh air and just loving nature, watching my 10 year old cast nets into the ocean in hopes of catching crabs, my 7 year old sliding down the dunes over and over on a snow disc shrieking with laughter, walking on the beach or in the mountains depending on where we are, eating and drinking foods I don’t normally buy, playing games and just being with my family.

Are you a camper? Personally I’d rather have a house at the ocean and one in the mountains and make regular trips to both — I really like the amenities of home. The packing up to go camping as well as the massive clean up upon coming home is just a lot. Too much for this girl! But until I become a millionaire, it’s a trailer life for us!

Speaking of, I had better get back to sweeping up sand and laundry!! But before I do, let me leave you with a chilly day chili recipe that I made for our camping crew. Bon appetite!!

3 Bean Chili with Bloody Mary Mix

Recipe adapted from Just a Pinch Recipes

Ingredients

FROM THE PANTRY
1	(15) oz can cannellini beans (drained)
1	(15) oz can dark kidney beans (do not drain)
1	(15) oz can pink beans (drained)
1	(14) oz can dice tomatoes (no salt added)
1 c	marinara sauce
1/2 c	spicy bloody mary mix
FRESH FROM THE GARDEN PANTRY
1/2 md	red bell pepper (diced)
1/2 md	yellow bell pepper (diced)
1/2 md	orange bell pepper (diced
1/2 lg	white onion (diced)
5 clove	garlic (diced)
3 sm	green chili peppers (sliced thin)
1/2 c	fresh parsley (chopped)
SPICES FROM THE PANTRY
1/4 c	chili seasoning
2 Tbsp	cumin
2 Tbsp	southwest seasoning mix (see note)
2 Tbsp	corn masa flour (for thickening)
	salt & pepper to taste

Directions

1 South-west seasoning note:

You can make your own south-west with any spices you may have in your pantry.
Example of some blends: (dried) Mexico chilies, Ancho chilies, paprika, coriander, garlic, cayenne pepper, red pepper flakes, black pepper and oregano. Put in a spice grinder and blend. Note: I just added all of the above but didn’t grind them together.

2 In a large pan or Dutch oven over medium – high heat, add 2 tablespoons of olive oil and brown ground turkey, then add onions, garlic and blend well. Then add diced tomatoes, marinara sauce and bloody mary mix, bring to a simmer (about 2 – 3 minutes).

3 Now add Cannellini , kidney and pink beans. Stir to combine, then add all your spices including the masa flour (used for thickening). Salt and pepper to taste, then add bell peppers and chili peppers. Stir and simmer for about 5 – 8 minutes . Then add chopped parsley cover and keep warm until ready to serve.

4 To serve, spoon chili into bowls and top with sharp cheddar cheese, a dollop of sour cream and garnish with fresh parsley. You can also serve with corn bread or your favorite tortilla chips.

Filed Under: Bee Inspired, In the Kitchen, The Hive

Valentine’s Day Goodies

February 7, 2013 By TheLocalHoney Leave a Comment

I have a serious sweet tooth and I am afraid my pants have proven that since Christmas. Yikes. So instead of eating my way through Valentine’s, I’m going to pass along my finds for YOU to make and eat. I know, so very sweet of me eh? You’re welcome!

This deliciousness over at Glorious Treats has some sweet and salty which is a very dangerous combo!

How about some corny Valentine’s sweetness? Shaken Together Life used a Mason jar to put together this treat.

I always love the M&M, pretzel and Kiss recipe but this one is different. What’s Cooking Love used Raspberry Kisses. Yum!

Iowa Girl Eats made these Brownie Mix Truffles. OMG!!!

Of course you need some pink milk to wash it all down. Lil Luna has a fun Valentine’s party going on including printables to pull it all together.

Wishing you a Valentine’s Day full of sweet treats and zero calories.

Filed Under: Bee Inspired, Fun finds, Holidays, In the Kitchen Tagged With: Holidays, recipes

Super Bowl Yummies

January 30, 2013 By TheLocalHoney 2 Comments

Super Bowl Sunday is right around the corner and for us Northern California folks, it’s a big one! I don’t watch much sports but I am a wee bit excited that the Niners made it. I love the energy that comes about when local teams make it to the play offs, etc. It’s a happy contagious kinda energy. Plus I enjoy the parties that bring people together and provide endless amounts of food and drink I’m pretty simple like that!

That being said there will be a lot of Super Bowl parties. Whether you are hosting or heading to a party, here are a few appetizers that look too good to pass up.

1} Baked Fontina by Smells Like Home

2} Meatball Stuffed Biscuits by Recipe by Photo

3} Mini Mexican Pizzas by Dashing Dish

4} Baked Chicken Taquitos at Chef in Training

Of course I must share some sweet treats as well.

1} Loaded Cookie bars by Pip and Ebby

2} Peanut Butter Graham Cracker Balls at Baby Gizmo

3} Peanut Butter Pretzel Bites by Two Tiny Kitchens

4} Cookie Dough Millionaire Bars at Bake or Break

All of the above recipes came from my Foodie Love Board over at Pinterest {yes, I do pretty much rule my world through Pinterest these days. Don’t we all? } I do however have a few favorite recipe sites that I visit quite often and I wanted to share those sites for you as reference. You know, just in case you ever feel like looking at amazing recipes and drooling all over your keyboard. Or meal planning, they are also good for that! I adore Picky Palate, Smitten Kitchen, Food Network, All Recipes and of course a constant source of inspiration for just about everything is Better Homes and Gardens.

Whatcha doing for Superbowl? Do you have any special treats that you make for this big sporting event?

Filed Under: Bee Inspired, Fun finds, In the Kitchen Tagged With: Fun finds, recipes

Our Garage Entry

January 26, 2013 By TheLocalHoney Leave a Comment

If your house is at all like mine then you have kid paraphernalia everywhere. I’m constantly on a mission for the perfect system to keep my kids from throwing their stuff all over the ground. I have found socks in so many odd places including stuffed in-between the couch cushions, in the magazine rack in my bathroom and under my bed. I don’t know what it is but socks {dirty ones mind you} show up everywhere. Well, now that I go on and on about socks I realize my latest storage solution will do nothing to remedy the sock debacle BUT it does help with getting backpacks and jackets hung up upon coming home from school. We have a coat rack by the front door but we usually enter from the garage so this just makes more sense.

This simple DIY involved a 1 x 6 board cut down to fit my wall and then we {by ‘we’ I mean my husband} attached 6 coat hooks which I picked up at Target. I found the idea here. I like her use of bronze hooks but I had silver so it made sense to use what I had. Resourceful eh? I also stumbled upon this super cute burlap weaved cork board over at Jones Design Co and because I ‘had to’ make one, I also ‘had to’ find a space for it. This worked out perfectly. I also had an old cork board and the burlap on hand. Because it’s not in a space that I utilize for my daily must do’s, it will really just be a fun space filler. I’ll just hang up photos, some quotes, maybe a hand made flower or two, etc.

I think this whole project cost about $20 and that it has already been so useful.

By the way, if anyone has any tips about the dirty sock situation, I’d love to hear it

Filed Under: Bee Inspired, Bee Organized, Crafts, Fun finds Tagged With: Bee Organized, Fun finds

My New Office Lamp and Corkboard

January 24, 2013 By TheLocalHoney Leave a Comment

As you might have guessed, I am all about being organized and I love how a cork board can help you stay that way {just make sure you purge and reorganize every now and again or you will look like a hoarder – just sayin!} Anyway, awhile ago I found this lampshade at Target that I was just in love with. It was $25 though and that was just too much for one lampshade. So I watched and waited. It went on clearance to $17 and some change. I still waited. Then I went back and it was not marked down but seemed like it should have been so I scanned the barcode just in case. My intuition paid off cause it was on clearance for $7.48 Woo hoo! Done. Mine. I bought it immediately. Then of course I had to find a base. Well bases are also not so cheap so I ended up with a $15 base plus ugly shade at Ross. The shade is burlap which I love but it has some funky burgundy swirls. I’ll probably attempt to recover it at some point. The base was a dark cherry brown. Not quite my thing so I got crafty with some spray paint. I painted it a cream which matched the lampshade. I wanted to make it look a little rustic so I took the sander to it and roughed it up a bit. Now I love it! I ended up paying about $30 for the whole project which included the lampshade, base and spray paint. The original shade was $24.95 all by itself pre-clearance.

Here is the finished product — not quite the way it’s typically set up but I wanted you to get the full view of the color scheme.

Of course I needed to tie the colors of the shade to something else in the space so I went on a mission to recover another old cork board. I couldn’t find a fabric that I loved at any of my local fabric stores so I made a trip to Triad Plus in Roseville. I’d wanted to go for some time so this was the perfect ~~excuse~~ opportunity. I headed there with my lampshade in hand so I could pull from the colors in the shade. I really loved the orange in the lamp but I just couldn’t find a good match. I ended up pulling from the shade of grey-blue.

I used a spray adhesive and voila, done! I was going to add tacks to serve as a nailhead edge but I opted to keep it simple. I could go back and add that at another time if I felt like it. Note: the spray adhesive worked awesome on this fabric but I also tried using it on burlap and it would not hold which was so weird.

To finish it off, I added a burlap pennant made by me. These are just 6×6 squares of burlap which I then stencil my choice of word on. Finish it up by tying the squares together with twine. It’s a cheap and adorable way to dress up a space. I chose the word Create because that is what this space is ~~supposed to be used~~ for. I end up crafting and creating in the kitchen most often though cause it’s the hub of the house. I like to be where the action is!!

Filed Under: Bee Inspired, Bee Organized, Crafts, Fun finds Tagged With: Bee Organized, Crafts, Fun finds

Love is in the Air. My Valentine’s Decor

January 22, 2013 By TheLocalHoney Leave a Comment

A new season or holiday = a new mantel!! I love changing this up with the seasons and it’s fun to make it different every year. So this year I have added some new to the old.

Burlap garland – made by me. I just used the burlap ribbon with red pinstripes found at JoAnn’s, cut it down and wrapped in half over twine and then I cut some hearts and added them for that pop.
Burlap covered letter M – also my creation. The letter is from JoAnn’s Superstore and so is the red burlap.
Vase and hydrangeas – The flowers are from Michaels and the vase is Cost Plus.
Candle holders and candles – I’ve had them so long that I can’t remember where they came from but I love them!
Framed art – Of course I had to add some words so I found this printable on-line and added to an already on hand frame. I spent a 1/2 hour searching and I can not find the original source! I printed this a couple of weeks back.
Candle – on clearance at Target.
Of course I had to add a couple of close ups of my true loves.

A few other fun Valentine’s spots in my house:

Front door wreath {outside} – I created this using a large straw wreath form and lots of burlap and fabric for the flowers and base.

Front door wreath {inside} – A small straw wreath form wrapped in yarn and covered with pretty rosettes made of felt, burlap and pretty fabrics.

Do you change things up for the holidays? I’d love to see your creative side!

Filed Under: Bee Inspired, Crafts, Holidays Tagged With: Crafts, Holidays, Valentines Day

Fabulous Organizing

January 22, 2013 By TheLocalHoney 3 Comments

I {heart} organizing so I thought I’d share some fun stuff that has popped up over on Pinterest as of late.

Let’s start with some awesome kitchen organizing, shall we?

Kitchen Organization

1} Design Dining and Diapers pantry DIY

2} wine wall

3} Heart 2 Home – organized fridge

4} Tip Junkie’s kitchen command center

5} door storage

6} Vertical silverware storage at Apartment Therapy

7} BH&G snack jars

8} I love these divided walls although I can’t locate the original source.

Jewelry & Make-up

Of course organizing your make-up and jewelry makes you want to get all dolled up, right?

1} How cool is this magnetic makeup board

2} What an amazing jewelry wall

3} Towel bar necklace holder.

4} This is my own creation made out of radiator metal and an old frame.

Home Office & Craft Room

I adore craft rooms and how personalized they can be to your own individual tastes, crafts, uses, etc.

Office collage

1} Multi material bulletin boards over at PB Teen.

2} Yet another fab design by PB Teen.

3} I love the sleek look of this one.

4} BH&G always does it right.

5} I love the vibe in this space.

I hope I have provided with your organizational eye candy.

Filed Under: Bee Inspired, Bee Organized Tagged With: Bee Organized, Fun finds

2013 – Healthier Me?

January 4, 2013 By TheLocalHoney 6 Comments

So it has begun – a New Year. A fresh start. Well it seems that so many of us have New Year resolutions. I’d like to not burden myself with such a heavy load as a “Resolution” cause then I just feel like crap if I let myself down. Right? Who’s with me? Fist bump. Come on, you know you wanna!

This is how I am feeling. Like there is a constant noise in my head pulling me in several directions. I feel like I need to slow it down. Not try and do so much but one of my biggest obstacles is taking care of me. What I mean is diet and exercise. I have many friends that are so disciplined about these aspects of life and then there are so many like me. Always struggling. Food is SO DAMN GOOD. If I try and become obsessive about my diet, it will backfire in a hot second leaving me feeling even yuckier. So the best way for me to go about heating healthier? Not think of it as a diet but a series of healthy life changes. Will I quit my iced coffees with milk and vanilla? Nope, no way. That would just make me so sad. Can I lay off the pastries and bread? Yes, doable! Can I stop the holiday baking frenzy and thus stop eating my way through the holidays? YES! Reason #1 why I am happy December is behind me. Honestly, I don’t have a weakness for much but those White Chocolate Peanut Butter Krispies? So help me if I find one of those laying around.

I have been feeling ‘pudgy’ lately. I know I have packed on some pounds over the years. Back in 2006, after a year of nursing I was sitting at a fabulous weight and feeling great. Yep – nursing, chasing a toddler and hauling around a baby were the best diet and fitness routine ever. But I stopped nursing and the weight slowly came back. And then some. I don’t feel obese but I don’t feel healthy. I watched a video of my baby’s 1st birthday last week and I was reminded of just how much my body has changed. I was not the mom who held on to the baby weight. It fell off. Seriously. When I saw the video, I very much wanted to be back at my after baby weight. Talk about motivation.

I had to laugh as this has been on my mind and then yesterday I got the latest issue of Us Weekly and the cover was talking about Kourtney Kardashian’s amazing 40 pound weight loss. Oh yes, tell me all about celebrities who drop the weight. When they have nutritionists, chefs, personal trainers and various cash incentives at their disposal. I have myself. My own want to be healthy has to surpass my lack of will power. OK — so here I am, sharing my innermost thoughts with all of you. No fads, no unrealistic goals. Just the need to be healthier. I’ll be 40 in 2014. Wouldn’t it be nice to be super healthy as I cross into a new decade of my life?

A friend is trying to get a group of us to do a 1/2 Marathon in October. My husband laughed. That kinda irritated me but he’s right. I hate running {and I try to NOT say the word hate}. I’m more motivated by my girlfriends then I am by training for a marathon. BUT I can try right? I’m thinking of my friend James that is active and ran a 1/2 Marathon and said he’d never need to do that again. That might be me. I’m the girl who flunked PE as a freshman in high-school cause I wouldn’t dress down for the mile. Yep, that was me. So embarrassing to admit. OK, so goal #1 – find a 5K, sign up and train.

Now onto the other part of getting fit. I really enjoy what I get from yoga both mentally and physically however, the studios I love are HOT and the heat and the flow together often times makes me super nauseous. I have tried different methods to alleviate this {going 1st thing in the morning, on an empty stomach, a light stomach, etc} nothing really squashes the nausea. So I think because I do love the feeling I get from yoga, that I should try different styles of yoga. So goal #2 is to try various workout program. Yoga, Pilates and whatever other things come my way.

So here we go 2013 — let’s do great things together!!!

Filed Under: Bee Inspired, The Hive Tagged With: Being Healthy, The Hive

2012 Ramblings and New Year Wishes

December 31, 2012 By TheLocalHoney 2 Comments

I have not been blogging as much. I started a new job back in mid November and it’s also been the holiday season so double whammy. The job came at a perfect time. I had been looking but not really getting any replies to resumes, etc. It’s a tough market and I just had a feeling that something would come via networking. And it did. A friend referred me to another mutual friend who needed a part time admin. {Perfect!} That is what I was looking for. It is a good fit for my family and helps with our monthly budget a bit. I realized how much less stressed I felt when I got my first ‘real’ paycheck. So this mama is acclimating to working out of the home after being an at home mama for 10 years. It’s good though. I feel pretty lucky to have landed this job. My boss and coworkers are all so nice. You can’t beat that. Oh, did I mention it’s an accounting office? Ask me how I feel again after tax season. Ha ha!! Just kidding

December has been full of sadness for so many. It’s really been heavy on my mind as of late. Obviously the tragedy in Connecticut hit close to home for so many. It left lots of questions on how we can make this world safer for our children. It made us question gun control {OK, I have questioned this a lot. I know my views and opinions don’t align with many so don’t yell out me if you disagree!}. It made us question mental illness and how we can better cope with people who suffer from mental illness. I think mostly it just made us feel helpless. It also made us enjoy our own babies more this holiday season.

Another story I have been following in our little community is the one called, Shane’s Village. It’s about a local 8 year old boy battling Leukemia. The updates both make me want to cheer him on and cry for him. Mostly I’d love to give him a big giant hug. And his mama, I want to hug her too. My heart hurts for him and his family as they battle this disease. He’s this amazing little soul who continues to smile through the ‘yuck’ of a serious disease. What an inspiration.

There have also been several deaths from cancer and other serious illnesses this past month. Several people I know have felt loss first hand and they are trudging through the holiday season with a heavy heart. My heart hurts for their losses.

Last night I found out that one of my dearest friend’s has a sick little girl. She is in the PICU with fluid around her heart. They are not sure what has caused this. Medicine has not alleviated the problem so they are exploring other options. My girlfriend has also suffered from various autoimmune issues for years so the stress this puts on her is also not good. I’m sending many get well wishes their way tonight!! Maybe you can join me in doing so?

Then today came along — I was cruising along, running some errands alone as my sister took the boys to spend their Christmas money {awesome Auntie!}. Anyway, my phone rings and it’s her. She says in a tearful voice, “Don’t panic, everyone is OK”. Yikes. Not a call I wanted to get. They had been in a minor car accident. Everyone was OK but shaken up. Of course the 20 minute drive from Folsom to Roseville felt like a million miles. My babies are OK. My sister is OK. It was scary but could have been so much worse. So I am feeling extremely blessed to have healthy and safe kids but I am also hyper aware of how quickly that can change.

So going into 2013 can I ask for world peace and healthy children? Seems like a an easy enough task? Sigh. If only.

With that I am leaving you with a few of my favorite quotes – may you apply them in life. Along the way. When needed.

source

Source

And last but certainly not least, I leave you with this:

Source

I am so thankful for all of you that read my little blog. It makes my heart smile to see the comments and the shares. I love when you tell me that you tried and loved a recipe that I shared on my blog. Those of you who know me and read my posts know that I feel things whole heartedly and with this comes my emotions. The good, bad and ugly but no matter what my mood, I am always so thankful for all of the little things that really are the BIG things in life I wear my heart on my sleeve and I may go from laughing to crying in a split second. I feel deeply. Then I share with all of you. Thank you for being there for my life!

What are your intentions for the new year? Whatever you do — do it with kindness and love. I wish you a new year with a happy heart and great blessings and love.

Filed Under: Bee Inspired, The Hive Tagged With: a little bit of honey, Blessings, Quotes, The Hive

Neighbor Gifts

December 23, 2012 By TheLocalHoney 2 Comments

I love giving gifts and there are so many people on my gift list. I am about done but I still have my neighbors. Well, I typically do platters of cookies but then I started to think that I wanted to be different this year. So this is what I have come up with — I have 6 neighbors that I deliver too. This is my plan:

I love these oh so practicable soaps. The attached gift card is adorable and personalizes it a bit. I found the idea over at g*rated but she linked back to Crafts reDesigned for the printable. I picked up the soaps at Bath & Body Works. They have some great coupons right now too!

I think I will also add a mini loaf of egg nog bread. It’s a holiday favorite in our house. I love how Knead to Cook wrapped them up all sweet with a very simple hole punched gift tag and a pretty ribbon.

Last but not least, I like to include a little something special for the kids. Every year my boys and I whip up some Reindeer Food. This tradition is a sweet one and of course, super simple {notice my pattern here — SIMPLE!}. I love the *free* printable over at TomKat Studios. I love that it allows the children to feel the magic of Christmas by leaving something special to bring Santa and his reindeer to their homes.

There you have it – a few fun and simple gift ideas

Filed Under: Bee Inspired, Crafts, Holidays, In the Kitchen