I love finding new ways to put together weeknight meals and use every day products.  In an effort to get our kids more interested in fresh, raw vegetables, I have been seeking out different dips to make eating them fun!

I took a trip to Wal-Mart after hearing about the Kraft Anything Dressings (#anythingdressing) that were out now. I figured they would make good options for vegetable dips.

I picked a really busy day though because most of the carts were out!

Unfortunately, I had missed the demo at my local Wal-Mart store.  Check your local Wal-Mart for upcoming demos as they will be going on all this month!

Want some new dinner ideas?  Tweet @kraftdressing with the hashtag #dresscipe and #AnythingDressing along with an ingredient and have a new meal idea sent to you.

 
With my menu in hand, I headed over to the vegetable aisle to pick out some vegetables for dipping.

I know H loves carrots so that was an obvious choice.

Once I had my vegetables that I was planning to try and convince my kids to eat, I headed to find a dip.

There was a display of Kraft Anything Dressings (#anythingdressing) right at the entrance of the aisle.

I know my family loves ranch so I chose a ranch plus a salsa to mix with it.

See more of my shopping trip in my Google+ Album.

Once I was home, I got cooking.  First up was to mix 1/2 cup of my ranch dressing with 2 Tbsp of salsa.  I used half as a marinade for my fajita chicken. The other half I saved for my vegetable dip.

I also made chicken fingers for the kids because they don’t always love fajitas.

Once all the food was done, I plated it and called the family to dinner!

Want to connect with Kraft to find out more?  Find them on Twitter or Facebook.

Our basement has doors!

The basement finishing continues to move along. The newest addition: doors! I was on kid duty so, unfortunately, I have zero pictures or details on the physical hanging of the doors.

I promise the doors are level. I just couldn’t seem to get a straight photo. #bloggerfail

Don’t fret though. I do have some info on how we fixed an oops with one of the doors. {Those stories are better anyways, right?!}

My craft room has a set of double doors on it. The only thing I insisted on with the doors were that they did not have the little pressure mounted thing at the top {think apartment laundry room doors} because it constantly needs readjusting. So, Mathlete bought me double doors where the handles actually turn and open/close the doors.

When we built the room, Mathlete framed the opening for a standard size double door. BUT, the doors I wanted were special order and slightly smaller. Yep, there is the oops I mentioned! Now there was a gap between the door frame and the drywall.

No problem! Mathlete bought a small piece of drywall and put it into the gap.

Then, using this stuff

He “mudded” over the drywall to prep it for tape.

Once the mud was smoothed out, he applied the drywall tape.

Then, mud again.

The only trick is to make sure that, as the addition mud is being added, it needs to be really smooth so it matched with the other existing drywall.

I’ve mentioned before {at least once or twice} about how hectic our life can get sometimes. We have two kids in school plus we both work full time jobs with hour+ commutes each way. Yep, hectic should really be our last name.  Most of the time, I feel like this

[Source]

Despite how busy we seem to get, one thing I try to do regularly is have dinner at home. Sure, we go out from time to time but I think it is important to teach our children good eating habits and, also, use dinner time as family time.

Each week starts with a menu plan. 

Then, most weeks, that menu gets changed because of unexpected appointments, working late or some other schedule change.

For those nights, I try to keep some quick cooking meals for the kids on hand. I want to be able to feed them a good dinner and know they are getting the nutrition they need too. Having these meals around also helps when one {or both} of my littles decides they don’t want to eat what I’ve fixed for dinner!

A lot of times, I’ll take H with me to the store so she can pick out our “emergency” meals for the week.

There is a Harris Teeter right in our neighborhood so it is where go most often. For my major shopping trips, I use their online shopping feature and just drive up to pick it up…hectic remember?! We do still make it into the store at least once per week though.

Our first stop in the store is always fruit. We buy fruit on every.single.trip. {not that I am complaining!}

H really likes the samples that are always available in the fruit section.

On a recent trip, I noticed a new option in the frozen food section: Kidfresh Frozen Meals (#KFHealthyKids). As a mom of picky eaters, I have been known to try and sneak vegetables into their food. Kidfresh has the exact same idea and includes vegetables in every meal.

You can see more of our shopping trip in my Google+ album.

I grabbed my phone and found a coupon from the Kidfresh Facebook page which saved me a dollar off of the meal {shopping tip: always check the facebook page of a new product because there might be coupons available!}.  You can get a coupon of your own by clicking here.

There are a lot of options too that H seemed excited about.

We picked up a few and headed for check out.

Little did I know that we’d be using one of our “emergency meals” the very next night thanks to an awful traffic mess putting me home much later than planned. I let H choose her meal from the freezer.

The directions are really simple so, with help, she cooked it in the microwave.

Once it was done, I helped her stir it and put it on the plate.

She really enjoyed the macaroni and cheese.

In fact, she ate the entire bowl!

I was happy that we got a meal at home that I knew offered more health benefits than if we had grabbed fast food on the way home from school.

Hooray for hidden veggies and hectic weeknight meal solutions!

Do you want to learn more about the healthy options for dinnertime that Kidfresh has to offer?  Visit the Kidfresh website, connect with Kidfresh on Twitter or visit the Kidfresh Facebook page.

During our basement finishing project, we’ve done a ton of research of different kinds of stuff from carpet to countertops. During our flooring search, we found there are so many types of flooring that you can install in your home. A really popular option today is stained and polished concrete.

Concrete can be stained in a wide range of hues, and this provides you with the ability to customize the look of your space. It is sealed and polished to give it a gleam that looks like high-end tile or marble flooring, and the overall look can be impressive and sophisticated.

More than that, it is easy to maintain and durable. It offers great economic as well as green building benefits too. It is much less expensive to install than granite or marble.

Forrest Concrete is a great source for polished concrete installation. When you contact the company for assistance, you will enjoy expert guidance and personal assistance throughout the entire installation process. Forrest Concrete strives to provide high quality installation to ensure that your concrete flooring looks impressive for many years to come. Every step is taken to install a floor that is precisely stained and polished without blemishes. The company is well-known for its beautiful floors. On the website, Forrest Concrete offers a polished concrete estimator to request a quote on an upcoming project. There is also extensive information about the installation process.

Visit the gallery for pictures of past work. They even do logos into the flooring if requested!

If you are looking for new flooring for your home or office, be sure to check out Forrest Concrete for any polished or stamped concrete needs!