Tasty Tuesday: Roasted Butternut Squash and Pepita Salad

I actually crave this salad daily.

Like woah, the flavor combination is the best.

It's probably tied with the strawberry beet salad (I'll post that one soon!) but even Oaklyn likes this one!

Butternut squash has such a yummy flavor. It's kind of sweet unlike zucchini squash or yellow squash. 

When it's roasted it has a little bit of a crisp outside and a bit of salt just makes it so flavorful.

We eat butternut squash as is, in soup, as a side, but it's my favorite in a salad. 

I love adding a bit of warmth to a salad, and a different texture. 

Paired with feta, pepitas, and apples... you guys it is SO good!

Ingredients:

- 1 butternut squash (or cheat and get the already cut up butternut squash at costco! It's the best!)

-1/4 cup roasted pepitas

-1 package crumbled feta

-1 apple of your choice (I loveee pink lady)

-Favorite Balsamic vinaigrette

-1 Roma Tomato

- Washed and dried arugula (or another leafy green you like but I love the flavor of arugula)

Directions:

1) Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. If you bought an entire butternut squash you'll want to cut and peel. If you bought precut, you're saving yourself some time! Make sure your squash is in bite sized cubes. Toss it with 1 tbs olive oil or other oil you have on hand. Spray a baking sheet with nonstick spray and add cubed squash. Sprinkle a little salt and pepper over the top to your liking. Bake for 30-40 min or until squash is fork tender and golden on the outside. 

2) While your squash is baking you can start to prepare the rest of your salad. You'll need to dice your apple into smaller than bite sized cubes. I use about 1/2 of the apple. Dice your tomato. wash and dry your arugula. 

3) Once your squash is ready and cooled down to a warm temperature, assemble your salad. I like to add the arugula first, then the squash, then tomato, then apples, next pepitas, and finally feta. I let each person add dressing to their liking. 

I love pairing this salad with some grilled chicken and Hunter loves it with some warm crusty bread. It would also be really good with some yummy tomato soup! No matter what you pair it with, this salad is sure to please!

All my love,

Aleigh Joy 

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Oaklyn's Ballet Birthday Party

So, if you haven't figured it out by now... I'm kind of obsessed with party planning and party throwing. I love hosting guests, making holidays extra special, decorating anything and everything and always, always making all the above extra. Once I get a theme or a general color scheme going in my head, I can't stop! I know how silly this sounds, but it honestly makes me feel alive! I've always loved creating with my hands and mind. Sitting in a classroom and learning all things science or math... not my jam. Choosing the linens, centerpieces, and backdrops for a party... I'm all in! Having kids gives me several really good excuses to throw parties. Holidays, birthdays, special occasions, you name it! Last year I went a little overboard and really tired myself out. It was a really great distraction for a pretty tough year, but I promised Hunter this year would be cheaper, ha! Because even though party throwing is sooo fun, it isn't cheap! Oaklyn is just like me and wants any excuse for a party. When she found out her birthday was coming up, she couldn't stop talking about a party! I asked her what kind of birthday party she wanted and it was an easy choice, a ballet party! Not only do pink and gold seem fitting for this kind of party, but I also already had a bunch of decor with this color scheme, score! That is one of my biggest tips, reuse decor! Save all forms of banners, centerpieces, and backdrops. Usually you can recycle them in some way or form. Anyways, since this is a "cheaper" year, we decided it would be at a time where a meal doesn't need to be served and we would just have treats. We also invited significantly less people. Previous parties have been a family affair, but Oaklyn made the guest list for this party which consisted of her little girly besties. SO cute! The girls came dressed in their tutus, we decorated crowns, danced with a ballerina, hit a pinata, played in the backyard, and ate lotsssss of treats! Seeing Oaklyn's smile was soo worth blowing up over 100 balloons and baking a million treats!

The treat table was the focal point of the party. The backdrop stand is from amazon, linked here. We hung white curtains on them from IKEA to create a clean slate backdrop. I made the balloon arch with leftover balloons from Cambria's birthday party and a couple more packs from the dollar store. I don't know a for sure number but I think there's over 100 balloons in there. I did the threading method which I showed on my IG stories! Saved under the party prep highlight! The pink tablecloth is from the dollar store and the gold sequin one is from Amazon, linked here! Some cake stands were borrowed from my mom and others are mine, but cake stands are seriously the best thing to collect if you plan on hosting! They are perfect for every party and look so cute! The treats were funfetti cupcakes, gooey rice krispies with sprinkles and pink chocolate drizzle, oreo truffle pops, cheesecake cups, pink goldfish, and donuts. I made the cake and it was so fun! I actually made the cake and cupcakes a few days before and froze them. It made frosting the cake way easier and made for saving time the day before and day of. I frosted the cake and decorated it the day of. It started to lean because the lollipops were so heavy, oops! But a little more cardboard saved the day! I love baking cakes from scratch but it honestly is just too time consuming with everything else so I've started doctoring up boxed cake mix with a packet of instant pudding mix! It's the best! Just add a little more oil and water and you're golden!

We pushed two 6 ft tables together for the girls to sit while they ate and decorated. I rented the chairs from Allie's Party Rental and always love their service! The plastic pink tablecloths are from the dollar store. They're super thin and lightweight and honestly I love that we can just throw them away once everything is done! The sequin runners are from Amazon, linked here. The centerpieces were mason jars painted pink then distressed with twine hot glued to the mouth. I used my cricut to cut out the numbers and the ballerinas. How I made the poof balls are also on my party prep highlight. I made the gifts banner years ago for Oaklyn's first birthday and have kept it since and reused it 3 times! The tassle banner is also from her first birthday and has been reused several times! On the drink table we had pink lemonade, pasta salad, and onion dip with potato chips.

The girls had lots of fun decorating little crowns with jewels and stickers. The crowns were found at Hobby Lobby and were like $5 for a pack of 8! Don't forget that 40% off coupon! Then they danced around with a "real" ballerina with some ribbon wands and it was the cutest thing ever! The ballerina was my brother's girlfriend... she's the best and the girls loved her! I played some Frozen songs and Baby Shark and it was too cute! Then they hit a pinata and went crazy over all the candy! In their pink bags were little jewel rings from the dollar store and more plastic crowns from Party City. They also used those bags for grabbing the candy. 

After that we sang, ate cake, opened presents, and played around in the backyard. It was a fun little party and I'm so glad Oaks had a blast! 

If you have any more questions about where anything came from or how it was made, feel free to message me!

All my love,

Aleigh Joy

4

Tasty Tuesday: My Favorite Energy Bites

Literally every single night right after the girls go to bed, all I want to do is treat myself to something sweet. It's like giving myself a reward for getting through another day, ha! If I was still 16, it would be totally fine to have a little treat every night! Buttttt... I'm not haha. So, I've been trying to find an alternatives to cookies, ice cream, and all the other deliciousness I crave. There are a million and a half protein and energy bite recipes out there. Each of them contain mainly the same ingredients, just different ratios and different extras. After putting these ones together, I became obsessed! They are plenty sweet without all that extra guilt and are filling enough that you really only need one. I hope you love them as much as we do!

Ingredients:

-2 cups natural peanut butter or almond butter

-2 cups quick oats

-1/4 cup honey or agave (if you choose agave, you'll need about 1/4 cup extra quick oats to hold them together better)

-1/3 cup chopped almonds

-1/3 cup dark chocolate chips

-1/3 cup shredded coconut 

Directions:

1) Add all ingredients into a mixing bowl and combine. You can do this with a spatula, your hands, or my favorite way... in a kitchenaid with the bread hook. 

2) Line tupperware with parchment paper. Spray your hand lightly with cooking spray. Grab a small handful of the mixture and roll it into a ball. You can also use a cookie scoop to make it easier. If you run out of room, you can add another layer of parchment paper so they don't all stick together. 

3) Keep in the fridge until set! You can also freeze them. Whatever you fancy!

Anddd that's it! So simple and so yummy!

I hope you love them!

All my love,

Aleigh Joy

1

DIY Extra Large Wood Sign

Okay, this post has been a long time coming and I'm really sorry it has taken so long... but I can't wait to share it with you! I've wanted a really big sign above our bed for SO long but have not been able to find one I love for an affordable price. After searching and searching, I decided it was worth a shot to at least look into making my own. I walked into Home Depot with no real direction so I just walked up to an employee and he helped me tons! You guys won't believe how cheap it ended up being with all of the employees suggestions! It was cheap, easy, and might just be one of my favorite decorations we own! Soo let's get right into it!

What You'll Need:

-A stencil or really good handwriting. I used my Cricut and stencil vinyl to create my own. 

-5.0mm 2'x4' underlayment. It'll be pre cut and really cheap! I found a piece with some pretty natural wood designs. Find one that lays completely flat and stick it in your cart.

-General Purpose Lattice cut into 4 pieces. 2 pieces will be 4 ft and 2 pieces will be 2 ft

-grey wash for the frame

-White wash for the wood

-Black acrylic paint

-White acrylic paint

-Paint brush

-apoxy glue

-Two large sawtooth hooks

What You Need To Do

1) Go to Home Depot and get your supplies. You should be able to purchase everything there. While I was in store, I made sure to take pictures! So here's what you'll need... Also you'll need to cut the lattice. You can absolutely ask someone to cut it for you, but they should have saws out and it's really easy to just cut yourself. 

2) Lay out some plastic trash bags or an old blanket and white wash your big board. After that lay out your lattice pieces and grey wash them. I did a couple coats of each until I found the look I was going for. Let it all dry fully.

3) Lay out your lattice pieces to make a frame on the board. Once you get them all to fit use the apoxy to attach them. I used clean rocks on top to keep the pieces laying flat while they dried.

4) Okay, your board is ready! You have some options here... If you have excellent handwriting, go ahead and free write it. If you have a cricut, create your own stencil. I used fonts from dafont. I used Athena and Italian Breakfast. I did it in three parts, "You Will" (12in across) "Forever" (23in across) and "Be My Always" (20in across). I added on the swirls freehand. I used stencil vinyl and transfer tape to get it just right. I just used black acrylic paint and once it was fully dry, I touched up with white where needed. Your last option is to just buy a stencil from etsy or Hobby Lobby!

5) Once the stencil is removed and all paint is dried, attach your hooks to the back. I did two, one on the upper right side and one on the upper left side. Use a ruler to make sure they are even in height. Then ta-da! Your sign is ready to be hung and will be such a statement piece!

I really hope I covered it all in this post but if not, feel free to reach out with any questions!

All my love,

Aleigh Joy

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