Ceviche Inspired Creamy Shrimp Salad

I looooooove ceviche.  It's like shrimpy delicious crack....I could eat it all day every day if I could.  The only downside is that it can be a bit time consuming and I'm pretty impatient

I was craving it but didn't want to put in the work or wait for the shrimp to "cook" in the lemon juice...which can take a while.  The solution to my laziness and impatience was to take all the flavors from my original ceviche recipe  but turn it into more of a shrimp salad.

Here's whatcha need:

Shrimp, cucumber, red onion, sweet bell pepper (not green), cilantro, lemon, avocado, mayo, and salt

I bought already cooked shrimp...that's what makes it this so much easier than the traditional recipe.  Take the tails off and chop them into bite sized pieces.  Then add your chopped onion, cucumber (seeded) bell pepper, cilantro, and avocado

Then squeeze in your lemons. I like ALOT of lemon.  And then for the "salad" portion of this I add mayo.....but just a little bit.

Season to taste with a little salt and it's ready to go.  All the flavors of ceviche but done in a fraction of the time

I ate it as lettuce wraps with Sriracha....AKA sauce of the gods in my world

Yummy

Ceviche Inspired Shrimp Salad

1 1/2 lbs. Cooked shrimp, chopped
1 cucumber seeded and chopped
1/2 large red onion finely chopped
1 sweet bell pepper (red, yellow, or orange) seeded and chopped
1 bunch cilantro chopped
5 avocados diced
Juice of 2-3 lemons
1/4 C. mayo
Salt

Combine all the ingredients and chill.  Eat on a tostada like ceviche, as lettuce wraps, or on bread like a traditional shrimp salad

MoMo Monday Week #15

I have this fear......that one day by accident MoMo will get tumbled in our dryer

Why?  

Because MoMo loves to climb into the dryer and hang out.  I know your probably thinking....how could you possibly start the dryer without knowing she's there? But it's MoMo doesn't speak up.  

Like most people, I just open the dryer door (usually it's already open a crack) and start throwing clothes in.  It's not like I inspect it every time.  It's happened TWICE now that as I'm throwing the clothes in...right as I'm done and about to shut the door and hit the Start button....I hear a faint jingle.

MoMo had been laying in the dryer and I was just piling clothes on top of her.  Through all that she never felt the need to make a peep.  Come on MoMo??  Maybe a little meow to give me a heads up?  Really??

So now I live in dryer fear.  And I've had a few nightmares.....it's great.

I do love it though when I call for her and I hear the creak of the dryer door....it slowly swings open...and she climbs out.

So stinkin cute

Using Old Christmas Cards

There's lots of different things you could do with all those Christmas cards you receive.  There's the obvious one where you keep them....maybe put them into a keepsake box or even make an album.

I've seen that some people cut them up and create their own Christmas tags....also a genius idea.  And then there's the one I came up with....turn it into a Christmas deco ration

I received a card that was from A Christmas Story....one of the best movies of all time!  It was way to cool to put in a box or throw away so I decided to frame it

It's so simple I didn't take any pictures...but I just bought a dollar store frame and painted it green.  then went over it in 2 coats of green glitter paint (using only 2 coats shows serious restraint on my end)  Then put your card in it.  This card was large so I cut it to size, but if your card is small you could always mat it to cardstock or a piece of paper before framing

That's it!

This about sums up our Christmas In July Week.  Hope you got some ideas rolling around for the holiday season ahead

Christmas Tree Scavenger Hunt

Sorry I've sort of been sucking on this Christmas in July Week.  I know I've complained before....but my job has been super stressful these days so it's hard to keep up with my bloggin life the days that I work. But I'm off the next 2 days so I should be able to catch up and finish out my planned posts

Today I have an activity for the kiddos.  And it takes little effort from you....just printing out a list.

One of my favorite things as a child at Christmas time was ornaments.  Even though I saw the same ones year after year I used to love sitting by the tree just looking at them all.  And when we went to other peoples houses I loved to inspect all of theirs....it gives you a good glimpse into peoples personalities.

Like for a example a tree with all balls and fancy ornaments....means yous boring.  Ok, so maybe that's a little harsh of me.  But I prefer to see trees with meaningful and fun ornaments that really describe each person and families personalities and interests...it makes for a much more eclectic and personalized tree. 

So basically the seed of my ornament hoarding was planted as a child and my obsession with them continues today.  Since I have soooo many I got the idea to use them in a scavenger hunt.

Just print out a list and give it to the kids to hunt around for. I made some straight forward (find an icicle) and some where you had to put more thought into it. Like "Something vampires hate"  so you would look for a garlic ornament.  (yes I have one) 

It's a good way to keep the kids occupied during your Christmas festivities and I've never met a kid that didn't love a scavenger hunt

Christmas Photo Props

Back in Christmas 2011 I was on a real photo prop kick.  My wedding had just passed in November and I had made a bunch of photo props for my reception which you can check out here and I wasn't ready to quit the prop madness just yet

I hosted Christmas at my house that year so I thought the kiddos (and me of course) might enjoy some Christmas themed photo props.  So Christmas Eve I was up all night doing my usual....wrapping presents, baking Christmas crumb cake, simmering posole, and then just to make things more hectic....making the props

Luckily it's a super quick and easy project.  Just cut your shapes out of craft foam and hot glue them to wooden dowels.....easy peasy

The kids really liked them and it made for some good pictures. Here's Brooke as Rudolph....hoof in the air

Elsa as Santa Clause.....she looks super confused and her hat is falling off

And Katie....the big girl whose never too cool for a Rudolph nose

Apparently nobody wanted to be the snowman with a carrot nose?  Or maybe I just don't have any pictures??

The cool thing is you can keep these year after year to get some real use out of them.  I think this year I may add on to the collection with some elf ears and hat and maybe some reindeer antlers.  We'll see if I get around to it before 3am Christmas morning this time around

Personalized House Ornament

So my dear seester Kinsey and her boyfriend (now fiance..woot woot!) bought a house and moved in in mid January.

As a housewarming/ late Christmas gift I made them an ornament to look like their new homestead.  Since it was past Christmas time I never blogged about it....that is until now

It's pretty simple...I started out by cutting pieces of felt out to look like the house and layering them with hot glue to hold them in place.  I used stitches for windows and to replicate the panel look of the garage

It was cute but needed a little more dimension.   So I cut a piece of poster board (or use cardstock) and folded it in half

Then glued the house to the top part, and created a yard and driveway for the bottom

Glue on some ribbon and you have yourself an ornament

It looks super cute on the tree

Here's a side by side (or I guess top to bottom??) so you can see the inspiration

Makes for a quick and easy gift that's both thoughtful and personalized.  And you could make it for most anyone because I don't think there too many people out their with ornaments of their house....unless of  course I've missed a trend?   

I might just have to make one for everybody on my list this Christmas

Great......  Now everyone will know what I'm giving them this year.  Then again they have 5 months to forget

MoMo Monday Week #14 Christmas in July Edition

It's Christmas In July Week....so this weeks MoMo Monday posts is no different.  It gets a dose of holiday cheer!

MoMo is alot like her mama....shes's pretty much a Christmas freak.  And she dresses the part most of the month of December

Check out her cool Christmas garb

She looks intense here because she was supervising a gift wrapping session...she wasn't pleased with my skills.  My sides are never even and they come out crinkly....MoMo was appalled.  Or I guess I should say aPAWlled.   Merp! ;)

 And here she is laying amongst her gifts Christmas morning.  All wrapped in kitty wrapping paper of course

 She can't wait for another visit from Santa Paws.  Only 5 months to go!