Works-For-Me Wednesday: Summer Recipes - Tortellini-Chicken Salad & No-Bake Desserts

Today's WFMW edition is the best summer recipes! Yum! I just discovered a great main dish salad. It's from the cookbook Best Recipes From American Country Inns and Bed & Breakfasts. This particular recipe comes from White Mountain Lodge in Greer, AZ.

It was delicious, easy to prepare, and light & refreshing for a summer day! Give it a try!

Tortellini-Chicken Salad

1 20-oz. pkg frozen, cheese-filled tortellini (I used dried - it worked fine)
1/2 cup virgin olive oil
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon dried parsley flakes
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon garlic
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 large bunch spinach leaves, cleaned, dried, and crisp (I used bagged baby spinach)
4 cooked, boneless chicken breasts, cut in strips and chilled
1 cup shredded Italian cheese blend or feta cheese
1/2 large red onion cut in thin rings (I skipped)
6 hard-cooked eggs, peeled and quartered (I skipped)

Prepare tortellini according to package directions, drain, and set aside in large bowl. Combine oil, lemon juice, wine vinegar, sugar, parsley, oregano, garlic, salt, and pepper. Mix well and pour over tortellini until coated. Cover bowl and chill at least 2 hours or up to 1 day ahead.

To assemble, mix spinach, chicken, and cheese with tortellini and mound on individual serving plates. Arrange onion rings and eggs on top or around edge of plate. Yields 6 servings.

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I've posted a few other good summer recipes on my blog. Here they are:

Side Dish:

Marinated Vegetable Salad

Cookie Salad (or Dessert - you be the judge!)

And of course you need some no-bake desserts when it's hot out!

No-Bake Chocolate Chip Cheesecake

Chocolate Dip

Peanut Butter No-Bake Cookies

Microwave Brownies

Frozen Chocolate Mousse

Cookies & Cream Dessert

Enjoy and stay cool! For lots more great summer recipes, stop by Works-For-Me-Wednesday hosted by We Are THAT Family!

I'm also linking this up to Tasty Tuesday at Balancing Beauty and Bedlam! Stop over there for many more recipes!

Tea For Two-sday ~ Strawberry Scones

Welcome to Tea For Two-sday! May I suggest that you get a tall glass of iced tea today before reading rather than hot tea since we seem to be having a heat wave? I'll take mine unsweetened with a splash of lemonade, but I think the majority of you prefer sweet tea!

We had a Mother Daughter Tea for church this past Saturday and I helped out with the food and favors. The bonus is that I have something to post about for a few Two-sdays! It turned out very nice and was a great time of fellowship.

I usually make white chocolate apricot cream scones, but I had seen these Strawberry Mascarpone Scones at good Life {eats} and tested them out. Yum! So I made them smaller by making 4 rounds instead of 2 and still cutting each into 8 wedges. Smaller scones, but plenty of them! They are a little heartier scone and a nice way to use some fresh strawberries. I wish I had better photos of them - but hopefully you get the basic idea.

They were yummy and it was nice for me to try out a new scone recipe! And now you have another recipe to use with your strawberries. Stop over at good Life {eats} for the recipe and tell her hello!

Happy Tea For Two-sday and have a lovely week!

P.S. Don't forget to enter my giveaway for free laundry detergent. And that reminds me (the giveaway part, not the laundry detergent!), be sure to enter the book giveaway at good Life {eats} while you're there!

Got Laundry? Me Too, But At Least I Have A Giveaway

*This giveaway now closed.*

Welcome to a new week! Thanks so much for joining us during our Bloggy Friendship Days last week!

Well, I keep hearing about piles of laundry that everybody has to do, myself included - one load washing right now! But I have a laundry giveaway today! Oh no, I'm not giving you my dirty laundry to do, as tempting as that is!! How about some free laundry detergent?

Recently, Mom Select sent me a free bottle of Sun laundry detergent to try and review. Let me get all disclosurey (new word made up by me!) and tell you that I am not being paid for this review, but I did receive the laundry detergent and giveaway for free and was asked to review it on my blog.

I did try out the detergent. It's called Sun Burst and has a fresh, clean scent. It's also HE compatible. It's cleaning power comes from an ingredient that's plant-based and is considered a biorenewable resource (that info comes from www.sundetergent.com). I did notice the scent - not something I would wear as perfume, but a very strong clean scent. When the clothes came out, they did not smell perfumed as I was afraid they might - they just smelled clean. And one other thing that I noticed was that my whites seemed just a little whiter and brighter, which is something I never notice when washing. Now that is just my opinion, not a claim - you'll just have to try it for yourself!

Anyway, I know you - all you care about is what I'm giving away - LOL! I have five, yes FIVE coupons for a free full-size bottle (or powder if you prefer) of Sun Burst laundry detergent!!! Woo Hoo! It's like I'll be helping five of you with your laundry! Well I won't be coming over and helping you, but I'm saving you money on detergent - close enough, right??

To enter the giveaway, just leave a comment on this post! That's it!! You can enter through next weekend and I'll announce the 5 winners (drawn randomly from comments) next Monday 7/6!


Have a great day and feel free to share any good laundry tips in the comments!

Bloggy Friendship Days ~ Friendiversary

Welcome back! Hope you're enjoying Bloggy Friendship Days so far! Today is the day you can link up your friendship posts! In the past couple of days I've mentioned some of my special bloggy friends and Kim's mentioned her bloggy friends. I showed you the chocolate battle between me and Kim while she showed you videos of us! But today is actually our Friendiversary!!

It was exactly one year ago that Kim and I commented on each other's blogs and that was the beginning of a beautiful friendship! We've been back and forth on each other's blogs ever since. Kim comments on my blog as The Real Me, so you might take a look at her daily comments and get a chuckle. We are each other's Top Commentators (it means we're the people who have commented the most times) and we are in friendly competition with our blog growth.

We have talked on our blogs, through e-mail, on facebook, and even on the phone. Through it all we make each other laugh! But we pray for each other too when times are tough. A friendship like that is such a blessing! One of these days we will actually meet and there will be so much laughter and chocolate-eating going on, you won't believe it!

Now please understand that we are not trying to exclude our friends who have been with us long before and during blogging - we do love you all!! Since Kim and I realized that it was possible to have a"real" friendship even though we only "met" through blogging, we wanted to celebrate and give bloggers an opportunity to celebrate the fact that bloggy friendships are real friendships. True friends are a blessing no matter where you find them!

Hmmm...I think Kim's here with a video! If you're reading by e-mail or in a reader and the video doesn't show for you, then you just need to pop on by my blog!

Now Kim worked hard and had all sorts of technical problems with her video - she spent a lot of her time just to get it to me, so please leave her some nice comment love today!

Now link up your friendship posts below! But WAIT - you also need to link up your posts at Homesteader's Heart! Then you get twice the linkage! Thanks for joining our Bloggy Friendship Days and stop back by over the weekend to read everybody's posts.

Bloggy Friendship Days ~ Battle of the Chocolates

It's still Bloggy Friendship Days here and at Homesteader's Heart! I enjoyed telling you about some of my bloggy friends yesterday! When you stop over at Kim's, she's got Friday Funnies with a friendship twist. And I am happy to celebrate my usual Chocolate Friday, BUT this one is a battle. The battle of the chocolates between me and my bloggy friend Kim. See who you think is the winner - OK, we're all winners 'cause it's all chocolate and chocolate is goooood!

For example, Kim has written a post entirely devoted to chocolate. But I wrote a post about chocolate that included a poem! You want more examples?

Kim drinks chocolate tea.

Hey I drink chocolate tea!

Kim likes candy bars.

Oh yeah? Well I like candy bars, too!

Kim likes chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting.

Well I like chocolate cake with a chocolate glaze.

Kim likes peanut butter and chocolate combined in a pie.

I like peanut butter and chocolate combined in cookie bars.

Kim like brownies with extra stuff in them.

I like brownies with extra stuff in them, too - so there!

Kim takes pictures of herself eating chocolate.

Hey, give me that chocolate - that's mine!

There were many more similarities, but without pics. It's a little scary, isn't it? Whew - a chocolate battle is tiring. I might need some chocolate to recover! OK Kim, I'll match any chocolate recipe you got - Oh YEAH!! By the way, trash talkin' makes Kim extremely competitive so there will probably be some great chocolate posts coming up on her blog soon! You're welcome - LOL!

I happen to think that friendship and chocolate are essential ingredients of A Beautiful Life, so I'm linking this up at The Inspired Room today! Stop by there to see how others are making life more beautiful.

Now you link up some chocolate posts! I promise - I'll love them and won't even give you any trash talk! Link up your old or new chocolate posts with Mr. Linky below!

Don't forget to be writing your Bloggy Friendship posts (I've seen some around already!), but don't link them up yet - that's for tomorrow. And remember, when you link those up tomorrow - you need to link them up here AND at Homesteader's Heart! It's our friendship linky love to you!

Go over to Kim's now for Friday Funnies - she just might be trash talkin' ME! :)

Welcome To Bloggy Friendship Days

It's here! It's here! It's the first day of Bloggy Friendship Days! Welcome one and all! We're glad you could make it! Just a reminder, you need to head over to Homesteader's Heart to get more of the scoop on friendship, OK?

Of course, we love and treasure our friends that we already have in "real life." But we're talking about the unexpected pleasure of making new true friends through blogging. When I started blogging, I was hoping for a sense of connection and a little community, but I had no idea that I would make some really good friends along the way. They know a lot about me and they will laugh with me, cry with me, and pray with me whenever I need them. Some of us have had the bonus of meeting (in real life) our bloggy friends and some of us may not meet some of our best friends for years!

Kim from Homesteader's Heart is one of those wonderful friends and we realized that we have known each other for a year. Kim suggested we celebrate our "Friendiversary" - I totally made that word up. Even though I don't really care for blog parties - Oh LOLOL, you know I can't even say that with a straight face - I love an excuse for a party!! :)

Now I consider all of my blog readers friends, so please don't feel bad if you're not mentioned! I'm talking about the friends that I know really really well.

My first blogging friend is Sarah from Real Life. She didn't know that I would force her to be my friend! :) Her blog inspired me to start blogging and she helped me out in so many ways on my blog. Over the past year, I have grown to know Sarah even better and we have so many similarities. If we got together, we would talk and laugh nonstop. And we get to a bit through vlogging and through Sarah's new show on MomTV!

Another good blogging friend is Sarah Mae from Like a Warm Cup of Coffee. I found her blog shortly after she started and have been around over there ever since, watching her develop and grow her blog. Sarah Mae is a sweetheart and she inspires me with her thoughtful, sometimes convicting blog series. We share some of the same struggles in motherhood, so I can really relate to a lot of things she talks about. Sarah Mae -I hope I see you at a blogging conference someday!

I keep making new friends as I go along like Alicia from Confessions of a Snowflake (we could chat over coffee and talk about motherhood and having "only" sons). I've also made friends through twitter and blogging like Donna from Way More Homemade (she is a true foodie and I like to eat food!) and Nicole from Being Frugal Is Fabulous (we actually got to meet in real life, most recently at Yanni Voices).

So many wonderful bloggy friends, including Kim - but I'll talk about her some more later! In fact, you do need to stop over at Kim's place to read more about Bloggy Friendship Days!

Tomorrow is Chocolate Friday here, but as part of Bloggy Friendship Days - I'll be showing you the battle of the chocolate between Kim and me! You can link up your chocolate posts as usual. And at Homesteader's Heart tomorrow is her usual Friday Funnies - you've got to go over for some laughs. Kim will be sharing some special Bloggy Friendship funnies - who knows what she might say?? And you can link up your own Friday Funny posts at her place.

Then, your mission - should you choose to accept it - is to write a post about your special bloggy friendships or thoughts on friendship. Post it on your blog today, tomorrow, or Saturday. On Saturday, come link it up here AND over at Homesteader's Heart - double the fun!!

Love and hugs to you all! Let's spread the friendship throughout the blogosphere! Thanks for putting up with a long post! :)

Frugal Fashionista ~ One Versatile Black Dress

When I found out that I would be attending the Yanni Voices concert, I was excited! But then I realized that I did not have a decent dress to wear. I was inspired by Jen at Balancing Beauty and Bedlam with her Frugal Fashionista post about black dresses. In fact, I'll be linking this post up at Jen's on Friday for her Frugal Fashionista Fashion Show!

I decided to hit the thrift stores first to find the most frugal dress I could because I am losing weight (OK, v.e.r.y slowly) and thought I might not have a reason to wear a fancy dress again before the new dress would be too big (uh, fingers crossed). A few hours and four thrift stores later, I found this black dress! Perfect! And a bargain at $5.35 if I do say so myself!

Though I wanted to go buy shoes and jewelry, I ran out of time and decided it would actually be most frugal to "shop my closet" to complete the outfit. In the meantime, I realized that I could make the black dress work for different occasions. (And if you would just tell yourself that the camera actually adds about 50 pounds, I would greatly appreciate it!)

I thought I could make it casual by putting it on over a white tee, and adding a denim jacket, locket and sandals.


I could make it look more professional with a nice necklace and a jacket.


I could wear it in winter with a shirt underneath, a nice sweater, and a long necklace.

I could give it more of an evening look with a sparkly purple shirt and purple necklace.


In the end, I added a scarf that hubby had brought me from India, a clutch and some heels I already had. I decided to let the scarf and clutch be the accessories and skip a necklace. I also think it may have been a more slimming choice without the necklace breaking things up.

So what do you think? Fashion flair or fashion scare?!

Be sure to head over to Balancing Beauty and Bedlam for the Frugal Fashionista Fashion Show!

Finding a versatile and super-frugal black dress works for me! For more Works-For-Me-Wednesday fun, stop by We Are THAT Family!

You know what else works for me? Having a guest post about homemade focaccia bread at Way More Homemade - please stop by to say hi and check out Donna's wonderful blog while you're at it!

And one more reminder! Bloggy Friendship Days start right here and at Homesteader's Heart tomorrow (Thursday)! Get your posts ready about friends you've made through blogging so you can link those up on Saturday and spread some friendship love!

Have a fabulous day!!

Yanni Voices Concert

Friday night, my hubby and I got to enjoy a lovely night out at the Yanni Voices concert!! Thank you to One2One Network who provided the tickets so I could go and review the concert for you!

The show was fantastic! Not just a concert, but a show! Of course, Yanni was fabulous to see and the Voices were so talented and exciting to watch. The musicians almost stole the show though - they are extremely gifted. The songs and music were better in person than on the CD. Since I only do honest reviews, I do have to say that as a super-conservative kinda chick, there was one musical number that was too provocative for me, with the two female voices "dancing" with each other. I got a disapproving look from hubby on that one! But all of the other performances were wonderful and that one would not keep me away from the show. It really was an exciting show!

We tried to get a picture of the concert for you, but there just wasn't enough light and we didn't think the lady in front of us would lend us her head to rest the camera on! :) So here's the best blurry shot we had (that's Nathan singing):

After the concert and a couple of encore performances (Woo Hoo!), we got to go back and actually meet the Voices! They were all even friendlier and sweeter than expected! It was like chatting with friends and they were more than happy to take pics. That really was a special treat. Here are a few of the pics:

Who is that handsome guy in the pic with me? Why that's my hubby! Yes, there is a *slight* height difference between us, and yes, I am wearing heels. Sigh.

Just me and the girls - LOL! That's Leslie Mills on the left and Chloe on the right.


Hanging out and chatting.


Here I am with Nathan Pacheco.

Here we are with Ender Thomas - he was so sweet and funny to talk with! And that's my friend Nicole - another Mom Blogger.

MIRL (Meeting In Real Life) alert! This is my friend through Twitter - Nicole from Being Frugal Is Fabulous! We have met before, but didn't have photographic evidence! :) And that is me with her, in case you couldn't figure it out through the huge shiny flash reflection on my forehead.


Such an exciting evening! Thank you again to One2One Network for providing the tickets! Thank you to Yanni and all the musicians and voices for putting on an excellent show! And thank you Ender, Nathan, Leslie, and Chloe for chatting with us and posing for pics! We look forward to hearing more music from you in the future!

There are very few concerts left on the tour, but if you can get to one - I do recommend it! If you can't make it, check out the CD to enjoy the music. And we heard that there will possibly be more CDs coming from them in the future!
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Be looking for another post (hopefully later today) on my frugal dress that I wore to the concert and what other looks I can come up with using the same black dress (inspired by Jen's Frugal Fashionista posts over at Balancing Beauty and Bedlam)!

Would You Like Chocolate With That? ~ Old Fashioned Mayonnaise Cake

Oh I'm so glad we made it to Friday! I hope all of you have had a great week. This has been a very busy week! I have had a lot to do and had to throw in some dress shopping since I am heading to a Yanni Voices concert tonight with my hubby!

I have an old chocolate recipe today. A while back, I was searching for a simple, frugal chocolate recipe and remembered this old cookbook that belonged to my grandmother. Look at the simple cover on it.

Please stop looking at the old stained grout on my counters!

And here's the first page.

Do you see that? It was put together in 1957!! The ladies that helped put this book together included my grandmother and my 2 great-aunts. There are several of their recipes in there, though today's didn't come from them.

Today's recipe is short and sweet! I hope you can read it OK from the pic.

My first reaction was - blech - I'm not a big mayo fan. But then I realized that it contains oil and eggs so it made perfect sense to use it! I love how the recipe doesn't tell you what pan to use or how long to cook it. I assume that the ladies of the day already knew how to bake it! I baked it in 2 round cake pans, though I think it would be best to bake in a 9x13-inch pan. The 2 layers took around 20 minutes to bake. A 9x13 cake would take longer to bake. Take the cake out when an inserted pick comes out clean. Cool in pan on rack.

This cake was sooo moist! It falls apart rather easily. It's not heavy on the chocolate flavor and it's not super-sweet either. It would be good with a glass of milk. I think this cake would be best as a square piece from a 9x13 pan with a big dollop of some sweetened whipped cream.

Have you heard of Mayonnaise Cake? Have you ever tried it? If not, give it a shot - it's an easy recipe!

What are you supposed to go and do right now? That's right - go get or write a chocolate post and come back to link it up and share! You can get more info here and you can take a look at last week's links.

Before you go get that, I have to share a link to chocolate with you. It's from The Recipe Girl - Fudgy Kahlua Brownies With Browned Butter Icing. Oh my, if that doesn't get you drooling, I don't know what will!

Have a blessed Chocolate Friday and don't forget to link up something chocolatey! And please spread the word about Bloggy Friendship Days next week!

Bloggy Friendship Days Are Coming

My friend Kim from Homesteader's Heart and I have decided to celebrate our "friendiversary" because we like to have reasons to have a party! :)

We're including you in the celebration! I know that so many of you have made a lot of wonderful friends through blogging. This is your chance to tell the blogosphere all about your friends and why they're special or what's unique about bloggy friends or why you connected so well, etc.

Kim and I will be talking about our bloggy friendship next Thursday. Then on Friday, she'll have Friday Funnies as usual and I'll have Chocolate Friday as usual, but we'll include some friendship fun! The best part will be on Saturday, 6/27 - when you get to link up your friendship posts! Write and post about your bloggy friendships and then link them up that day - at BOTH of our blogs! You get 2 links for the price of 1 - LOL!

I really hope you'll join us! Feel free to spread the word and grab the picture if you like!

Happy Thursday to all! :)

This post is being linked to Your Life, Your Blog at Real Life! Link up your own post from the previous week to share!

Wordless Wednesday: Two Sides Of My Son

There's my sweet son and our dog. So peaceful. I almost can't stand how cute this picture is - LOL!

But then, there's this side...

My son can be very competitive, especially when it comes to Wii Fit. He has decided that he's in direct competition with my friend Kim 'cause she's got the best Wii Fit scores around (it's true, go ask what her scores are and be amazed). So it is now his mission to beat Kim (that would be Mrs. W to him) in every area possible.

The above picture is of his perfect score in the Advanced Soccer Header! He says to Kim: "Beat THAT - which you can't, 'cause it's perfect!" (said in a most respectful tone, of course, though with a mischievous grin).

Enjoy more fun photos at Wordless Wednesday hosted by 5 Minutes For Mom!