Lemon Basil Spaghetti

I love this recipe! It started with a recipe that I found on Pinterest but I made a few adjustments for my family.

Lemon Basil Spaghetti

2-3 Chicken breasts

1 package of whole wheat spaghetti

1 package of pine nuts

4-5 basil leaves

1/2 cup shredded parmesan cheese

1/2 cup chicken broth

Juice of 1 lemon plus the zest

Salt and pepper chicken and add to a frying pan with 1 tbsp of olive oil. While that chicken is cooking, boil the spaghetti noodles by following the instructions on the box. Using a small frying pan, toast the pine nuts until golden brown. Watch them closely, they burn quickly... I learned the hard way! When the chicken is cooked all the way through, remove them from the pan and to the pan and add 2 cloves of minced garlic. Cook for about 30 seconds to a minute then add chicken broth, lemon juice and flour mixture. Stir to get all those yummy bits from the chicken mixed in. Once the mixture starts to thicken then add to the strained spaghetti. Also add the parmesan cheese, pine nuts, and basil. Cube chicken and add to the top.

HOW TO MAKE A DOLLAR STORE SKULL LOOK.... BETTER?!

If you know me, you know that I like to save money any way I can by shopping at garage sales, thrift stores, and the dollar store. 

Most of my Halloween decorations come from there, but as far as looks go.... well they look cheap! 

So I like to give them a little love! 

Over the next couple weeks I will be posting my tips and tricks to decorating for Halloween with dollar store decor. The first one is from the Halloween display that I posted on Instagram today. 

Have you seen it? You should, it's a giveaway that I am doing. Go find me @simplykatiegraham and see how to enter. 

Anyways, I bought some skulls, but they needed some help. I used some Krylon spray paint to give them a less plastic look. 

Once that dried I used some Valspar tintable glaze. It costs about $20 at Lowes, and they can tint it to any color that you want. I bought black and brown about 2 years ago and still have at least half in each can. It will last you a long time. Brush that all over the skull. 

While the glaze is still wet you want to use a rag, napkin, cloth, or paper towel to wipe off all the excess. It doesn't have to look perfect! In fact the the more imperfect it looks the better. Then you just let it dry.

That's it. A few little steps can make this plastic looking dollar store skull look real.

Healthy Chicken Wrap

This is a quick, easy, and healthy dinner that my family loves.


Easy and Healthy Chicken Wraps
Tortillas (I like to buy the uncooked ones from Costco... only 5 simple ingredients. Click here to see ingredients)
Roasted chicken (I also buy this from Costco... we like Costco!)
Turkey bacon
Tomatoes
Avocado
Lettuces or mixed greens
Soft cheese spread (We use Boursin garlic and herbs, also all natural)

We just pile it all up on the tortilla, red onions would be good too. Kambree had 2 servings tonight, both my kids love it. I love it because they actually eat it and it's easy!

Kitchen Table

A year ago I bought this table from a garage sale site. It was only $30 which was an awesome deal! Thinking that I could have it done in just a few weeks, I decided to sell my old table.

I thought that by selling it and not having a kitchen table would be motivation to get it done... wrong! 

Not having a Kitchen table just made me realize how stupid I was for selling it so quickly. Plus, this table was in such bad shape! It even had "I love Mom" carved in it!

It got cold here, it was never snowing or anything, but it was too cold for me to sit outside and work on the table. The owner before me did such a horrible paint job on the table that it needed to be stripped and sanded. 

After stripping the first chair I knew I needed to call for help!

So, I called my sister-in-law Amanda. I knew that she loved doing this kind of stuff so it was perfect! wrong again! She moved to California so I was left once again to get this table done with no help.

Don't get me wrong, stripping paint isn't hard. I have done it before lots of times, but they are usually flat surfaces. These chairs and legs were going to be the death of me! 

So, I decided to give up and wait until it was warm again plus I had our ward Christmas party to plan which took up a lot of my time.

Spring came.... I went outside and sanded the top of the table! I was so proud of myself! The top of the table had things carved in it and it took me forever to sand! The top was easy though compared to those chairs, I took a look at those chairs and legs and gave up again.

Summer hit. Brian started asking me when our table was going to get done and I said in the Fall. It was way to hot outside to work on this table. I wanted to wait for cooler weather, but one day Nicole came over and said lets work on your table and get it finished. She can get me to do anything (except dance! I don't have rhythm like she does!) So I said okay and we loaded up the table onto a wagon and walked it over to her house. (I miss those days!) She went to town on this table! She is amazing and does such a great job! She did all of the hard part while I sat and kept her company!

Sad I know!

We did make a deal though and she said she would finish my table if we had a girls night and went out with friends dancing at a club! At that point I wanted to call Brian up and have him come pick the table up and take it back to our house... so not me! She convinced me anyways and now I owe her a night out.

Well, fast forward a few days and they ended up moving last minute :( We brought the table back to my house and I was determined to finish it! Brian helped me a lot and we finally got it done!

It is so good to sit at a nice table and have a family dinner! I was getting so sick of using the patio table and chairs.

So I learned a few lessons here...

1. I am a procrastinator, I don't like doing hard things!

2. Next time I will just hire Nicole to paint my table (she takes custom orders!)

3. Next time I wont sell my table until the project is complete!

Healthy Ice Cream?

Sometimes (actually, all the time) I feel like I need a treat. I decided to make the banana ice cream that I see all over Pinterest. Have you tried it? I have done it a couple times for the kids and they love it. Here is what used.

3/4 - 1 cup of sliced frozen bananas

1-2 Tbsp of almond milk

1 Tbsp peanut butter powder

1 Tbsp chocolate Shakeology (or you could use cocoa)

That's it. Blend it all up. Hopefully you have a better blender than I do. I had banana chunks in mine... It was still good and healthy! Yum!