Food

Halloween Rice Krispie Treats Everyone Will Love

by alicefaggi2 Comments on Halloween Rice Krispie Treats Everyone Will Love
Halloween Rice Krispie Treats Everyone Will Love

This post has been updated with some pro-tips that I’ve learned after making these for a few years.

We love going to The Yard House. My husband and I love the food and beer selection, the girls love the special treats that come with the kids meal. I decided to recreate their recipe but make them into easy Halloween Rice Krispie Treats, perfect for all of the Halloween activities we have coming up this month. 

To make these Halloween Rice Krispie Treats you need the not so secret ingredient, Halloween Oreos. They taste just like regular Oreo’s but have an orange creme center that takes these Rice Krispie Treats from really good to really festive. I had to go to Target to find them but if you can’t find them locally, I linked them in my Amazon Shop here. 

This post contains some affiliate links – meaning if you click through the links and buy anything, the retailer will pay me a small commission at no additional cost to you! 
Halloween Rice Krispie Treat

How to Make Halloween Rice Krispy Treats

There are two things that I do a little different than some other recipes.

  1. Melt the butter and the marshmallows in a medium sauce pan over medium heat. The key here is to keep stirring and don’t rush it. You could easily melt this in the microwave but for some reason, I think it tastes better this way.
  2. I butter my 9×13 pan instead of spraying it with non stick spray. I like having the butter taste match up to the butter flavor of the Rice Krispie Treats. 

These Halloween Rice Krispie Treats are super easy and quick to make. Butter you pan and put your Oreos in a gallon zip lock bag. Using a mallet, or rolling pin, or wine bottle, mash the Oreos. I left mine a little bigger because I wanted to see the black and orange pieces clearly in the treats. 

Combine the Oreos with the Rice Krispies, melt the butter and marshmallows, then combine. It’s really that simple. 

Here is the secret to not getting entirely frustrated when you are mixing and placing the combined Rice Krispy Treats into the pan – keep your fingers greased up with butter, or cover the top with parchment paper and press it down with that on top.

I cut these into square but you could use festive cookie cutters or put them on sticks like they do at The Yard House. This will be the perfect dessert to go with our traditional Halloween dinner of Vollmer Chili.

I love when you combine the marshmallow mixture into the Rice Krispies – they literally snap, crackle and pop and I immediately become an 8 year old girl. Something so nostalgic about that sound for me. 

Halloween Rice Krispie Treats that are easy to make and fun for kids. Lots of ideas on how to serve them either in squares on a stick or festive shapes like ghosts and pumpkins. This fun recipe uses Oreos for the orange and black color pop. #halloween #RiceKrispie #treats #sweets #dessert #onastick #recipe
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Halloween Rice Krispie Treats

Festive Halloween Rice Krispie Treats that use Oreos for that special pop of color. 

Course Dessert
Keyword Halloween, Rice Krispie Treats

Ingredients

  • 4 tbsp butter
  • 6 cups small marshmallows
  • 4 cups Rice Krispies
  • 20 Halloween Oreos

Instructions

  1. Mash the Oreos in a Ziploc bag

  2. Melt the butter and marshmallows in a sauce pan over medium heat, stirring often

  3. Combine Oreos with Rice Krispies. Mix in melted butter/marshmallow mixture until combined.

  4. Spread into a buttered 9×13 pan. Butter your fingers to press the mixture down evenly into the pan. Let cool completely before you cut and serve. 

Halloween Rice Krispie Treats that are easy to make and fun for kids. Lots of ideas on how to serve them either in squares on a stick or festive shapes like ghosts and pumpkins. This fun recipe uses Oreos for the orange and black color pop. #halloween #RiceKrispie #treats #sweets #dessert #onastick #recipe
Fun

How to make a unique DIY Pine Cone Halloween Costume

by alicefaggi21 Comments on How to make a unique DIY Pine Cone Halloween Costume
How to make a unique DIY Pine Cone Halloween Costume

Editor’s note: This is one of our most popular posts so we’ve updated it recently.

When my 3-year-old and I were talking about what she wanted to be for Halloween this year, we scrolled through Amazon looking at all the costumes. She loved the Paw Patrol ones, thought the Batgirl costume was pretty cool but then told me, “No, no, no, I want to be a pine cone for Halloween”. And it stuck. I asked her about it the next day “I want to be a pine cone”. Finally, we made the trip to the craft store and she decided that even though she loves pink AND purple, a pine cone it is.

While I adore her creativity and uniqueness…..not even on page 147 of Amazon’s costume selection am I going to find a pine cone costume. I did find a pine cone mascot for 327 UK Pounds. No. Thanks. And one DIY project on Pinterest but it didn’t really fit our pine cone vision.

I don’t shy away from craft projects, especially for one of our favorite holidays! Looking for other Halloween inspiration or an easy recipe for Halloween Rice Krispie treats, then I’ve got you covered.

This post contains some affiliate links – meaning if you click through the links and buy anything, the retailer will pay me a small commission at no additional cost to you! I never link to anything that I haven’t actually used.

Supply List for this Toddler Halloween Costume:

  1. Brown T-shirt
  2. Brown Tutu
  3. Brown Felt
  4. Craft Paint
  5. Sponge
  6. Glue – hot glue AND fabric glue

How to Make a Pine Cone Costume

I ordered a brown t-shirt and brown tutu from Amazon to use as the base and they were surprisingly affordable. Then I bought a few pieces of felt to experiment with to make sure that was the right fabric. Felt is easy to work with because it’s hardy and forgiving and cheap! I got a few sheets for a dollar and experimented with a few sketches on the shape of the pine cone pieces. There is a fine line between a pine cone and owl feather so I made sure that we stayed in our pine cone lane. Once I settled on the shape, I traced it on the felt and cut a few out.

Once I was happy with the size/shape, I bought a yard of brown felt and cut out as many pieces as I could. I laid them out on the shirt and tutu to get the pattern right. It felt like it was lacking depth.

Pine cone felt pieces
Cut out felt pieces

Pine Cone costume version 1
Laying out the pieces to see if I’m on the right track

I bought some light brown craft paint and sponge painted the edges of the felt. I flattened the tutu and started laying out the felt with straight pins.

Pine Cone tutu
Painted pieces pinned to the tutu

Then it was time to glue. I started from the bottom and ended up not doing the top row shown above. I didn’t want to lose the elasticity of the waistband because of the glued felt. The No-Sew fabric glue worked pretty well but I ended up having to use my glue gun on a couple of spots. I still felt that she needed something on her head. Thankfully I found this hat on Etsy and it was perfect.

The finished pine cone

I’m pretty happy with how this turned out. The true test will be if it can withstand the dance class, school parade, and actual trick or treating. The most important part though is that Big Nugget is so excited about her costume.

Update – it made it through all of the events that we had for Halloween! Super durable and such a unique costume – it’s 3 years later and one of our dance teachers still has a picture of Big Nugget in this costume on her phone.

Function

7 Things to Know Before You Use Peel and Stick Wallpaper

by alicefaggi14 Comments on 7 Things to Know Before You Use Peel and Stick Wallpaper
7 Things to Know Before You Use Peel and Stick Wallpaper

I decided to give our laundry room a facelift and wanted to do something bold on the walls. I’ve been hearing a ton about peel and stick wallpaper and found a pattern that I loved. The reviews were good. The Youtube videos looked easy enough. So I decided to give it a try, this is what I learned.

This post has been updated for 2020.

Peel and Stick Wallpaper Graphic

This post contains some affiliate links – meaning if you click through the links and buy anything, the retailer will pay me a small commission at no additional cost to you! I never link to anything that I haven’t actually used. 

The laundry room is complete! See the full reveal here!

How long will it last?

I originally did this post two years ago and I’m happy to say that I haven’t had one issue with the durability of this wallpaper. It is installed in a high traffic area and I’ve been able to keep it relatively clean. All of the corners are staying put and the color is just as vibrant as it was when I installed it.   

What I learned about peel and stick wallpaper

Pick an easy space. Don’t do what I did and pick a small room with three doors, cabinets, and a washer/dryer to maneuver around.

Pick a simple pattern – or better yet, no pattern at all. I feel like I wasted a lot of wallpaper trying to match up the patterns between rows. The good thing about a busy pattern is that it hides the imperfections. Speaking of which…

Throw out your perfectionist tendencies. I wouldn’t have considered myself a perfectionist before starting this project. But holy hell. Lining up the pattern while trying to keep the wallpaper from sticking wrong…or to itself…or to your hair…was a bit of a time-consuming nightmare. I came to terms with it being close enough and promised myself that I wouldn’t stare at the spots I knew where a little off when I used this room.

Peel and stick wallpaper pattern

Don’t do this project in front of your kids. Or just go and put $100 into your swear jar now. I believe I cursed everything from the wallpaper to the builders of our nearly 40 yr old home. Bite your tongue and take deep breathes and repeat after me “it will all be worth it”.

Just hang. I tried to follow the directions and precut my pieces but I couldn’t do it right. Nothing was matching or I cut them short and wound up wasting a ton of material. What worked for me was to pick my starting spot – I chose a corner part of the wall with zero obstructions – and get the top lined up and start sticking. I didn’t cut the piece at the bottom until I had about a foot adhered at the top.

Wallpaper installers are underpaid. I do think installing normal wallpaper is easier than installing peel and stick because you are able to move the wallpaper before it sets. Regardless, getting this done right on a consistent basis is an art.

It’s worth it. For all the swearing and sweat and cost….it looks amazing. It’s exactly what I wanted for this space. See the full reveal of the new laundry room here.

peel and stick wallpaper room

Where can I buy it?

I bought this wallpaper from Target, and they carry lots of different prints. There are also plenty of options on Amazon, you can see a whole list in my Amazon Store.

Family

Talking about diversity with our kids

by alicefaggi2 Comments on Talking about diversity with our kids
Talking about diversity with our kids

I had originally written this post about diversity in November 2017 but given all that has happened after the death of George Floyd, I thought it would be appropriate to update this post with additional links and resources for those of us who are working hard to raise white children who are actively anti-racist.

Are you ready to talk to your kids about diversity? I didn’t think it was going to happen at only 3 1/2 years old but it did. If you follow me on Instagram (please do! @nuggetlands), you probably saw my InstaStories about an unexpected talk I had with Big Nugget.

The conversation

At lunch last week, we were eating our burgers at Habit and people watching. Out of nowhere, she tells me “Mom we have the right skin color. Ours is the normal one and the right one.”

? I nearly choked on my burger. 

I asked her what made her think that? And she said it was something that she decided. I asked her then what about Ms Tika and Ms Missy (her school teachers who are African American and Latina) and she said their skin was ok and that she loved them.

We kept talking about it and I was trying to probe her more on where she heard something like this but she just kept saying “I decided that myself”.

Meanwhile, all that is going through my head is that racism is learned….who is teaching my child these things? FREAKING OUT. We chose her preschool because it was so diverse. We don’t talk that way and I’d like to think that our actions and words show her acceptance and empathy.

The Diversity Lesson

She now understands that no one has the right skin color and that everyone has different skin colors and hair colors and eye colors and each and everyone is perfect for that person. Just like the rainbow, the more colors that we have around us, the more beautiful it is. She loves rainbows so I think that really resonated with her. I said God made everyone perfect and different and that it’s ok. She asked about Jesus and what color he was and I said that he had dark skin like Ms. Tika.

She started to lose interest in our conversation at this point because, well, she’s 3 but I wanted to drive home the most important point to her, that saying something like that is not only untrue but hurtful.

I know this is just the beginning of educating her and making sure she is accepting and inclusive but HOLY HELL. I was blindsided.

Talking to teachers about diversity

That next day, I spoke with her preschool teacher about our conversation. At first, I had some doubts that I should bring it up. I didn’t want her to think that we were horrible parents and some sort of racists. She was very thankful that I told her about it and said that she hadn’t heard anyone of the kids saying anything like that but that she would be a little more vigilant in what she overhears. She gave us a book to read over the weekend and she said that she would incorporate it into class next week as well.

Let’s face it, having these conversations, both with our children and their educators, are more important than ever. It can be awkward or uncomfortable but not talking about it just makes it worse. I saw both of those conversations as opportunities to learn and grow, not just for my daughter but also, for me.

5 Ways to Raise Anti-Racists

  1. Read diverse books, both with your children and on your own.
  2. Provide diversity in your toy selection
  3. Talk to your school about how they plan to address diversity and inclusion – especially if you live in predominately white areas.
  4. Be the adult you want them to grow up to be – speak up with your peers say something racist.
  5. Educate yourself so that you can explain things to them at age-appropriate levels. Don’t rely on your POC friends to do this for you.

Diversity Resources

This is a great article for parents on how to talk about diversity.

This is a comprehensive anti-racist book list for kids from Ideal Bookshelf is fantastic.

I ordered a handful of books from Amazon for us to read at home. Karen Katz is one of my favorite children’s book authors, I was really excited when I saw she had this book.

I found this YouTube video about this book and decided to order it.

Finally, a classic book with a great message.

Pin This!

Family

5 Signs That Your Probiotics Are Working

by alicefaggiLeave a Comment on 5 Signs That Your Probiotics Are Working
5 Signs That Your Probiotics Are Working

There is a lot of talk about how probiotics and gut health are important factors in supporting our immunity. Lots of people will blindly take probiotics but often don’t know how to tell that they are working. Unlike taking an ibuprofen for a headache and knowing it’s working because that headache stops, there really aren’t obvious signs that your probiotics are working at first.

Disclosure: This is a commissioned blog post in partnership with Seed. Any purchase of their product will result in a commission paid to me at no cost to you! All experiences and opinions are my own. 

What are probiotics? 

Probiotics are live microorganisms, that when taken in adequate amounts, give a health benefit on the person taking them. They can come in a variety of different ways – in pills, chewable, dissolvable, or in powders. They can also be called a variety of different things: prebiotics, probiotics, active cultures, symbiotic bacteria…it all gets a little confusing and VERY overwhelming. 

How to know your probiotics are working.

What are the benefits of probiotics? 

Probiotics can help you in a variety of ways, mostly in your digestive system. But don’t be fooled into thinking that it just helps if you have digestive issues, your gut health plays a part in so many other functions of your body. If you digestive system can’t process all the good food that you are eating to feed your body, then other things can suffer like your immune system or your skin. 

5 Signs your probiotics are working

  1. Regular poop! 
  2. Less bloating
  3. Improved skin
  4. Better immune system
  5. More energy

Why I like Seed Products

I’ve used a handful of different probiotics from ones at Target to super fancy ones from specialty stores. I keep coming back to the Seed product and here is why: 

  1. They have a complex scientific composition of their probiotic/synbiotic that benefits my entire system from digestion to the skin to heart to immunity. 
  2. They are plant-based. I can feel good about taking this pill each day and know that I’m putting good things into my body. Not only that, but they are also very earth-friendly in their packaging. 
  3. No refrigeration. When I have supplements that I need to keep cold, I forget about them. I can keep the glass Seed container right next to my coffee cups so that I remember to take it each morning on an empty stomach. 

Why the Daily Synbiotic from Seed? 

Probiotics can be an important part of your morning routine, building a strong digestive system, and supporting your overall health. Knowing what to look for to know if your daily probiotic is effective makes choosing your probiotic even easier. Seed makes sure that you are doing that with a product that is plant-based and scientifically formulated so that you get the most out of your daily synbiotic. 

Special Offer from Seed

Want to try Seed? Click here to preorder your supply for just $49.99/month. Use the code NUGGETLANDS for 15% off your first month supply.

Fun

How I’m going to read more books this year

by alicefaggiLeave a Comment on How I’m going to read more books this year
How I’m going to read more books this year

It’s a new year and a new decade and with that, I’m thinking of what I want to work on in the next 12 months. I don’t like resolutions but I like working towards goals. This new year, I want to read more books. Easy enough right? Well, as a working mom with a preschooler and a kindergartener – it’s not and why it’s a great goal to set for myself. Last year I read 6 books, which is not too shabby but not near the avid reader status I’d like to have.

How I’m going to read more books this year:

  • Set a reasonable goal
  • Join the Book of the Month club
  • Lead up my Audible library
  • Hold myself accountable on Goodreads
  • Make the time

Setting a reasonable goal

First things first, I need to be reasonable with how much time I have to read. I work full time, have two young kids and have a side job. SO, when I really think about it there doesn’t seem like any time left. How am I going to read more books this year when I don’t feel like I have any time for anything besides what absolutely needs to get done?

When I peak at my handy screen time tracker on my iPhone, I see that I have PLENTY of time to scroll through social media. If I do that for just HALF the amount of time I did last year, I can probably fit in a few more books.

I just need to MAKE the time. Bring my book with me when I’m waiting at pick up or have time during my lunch hour. Listen to books when I’m out for a walk or driving to pick up the kids or waiting at dance class. There is time, I just need to take advantage of it.

Last year I read 9 books. Not a lot but it was a good attempt. I think this year a good goal would be to double that so I’m going to try to read 20 books this year.

This post contains some affiliate links – meaning if you click through the links and buy anything, the retailer will pay me a small commission at no additional cost to you!

Book of the Month Club

Book of the Month club is a great way to read more books. Each month, they choose five new nonfiction books for you to choose from – make a choice and have it at your doorstep in days. Or skip if nothing looks great. Plus it’s only $14.99 a month if you choose to pick a book.

How to read more books - join the Book of the Month.

I used it last year and LOVED being exposed to new books that I would probably never pick. I get a little overwhelmed in books stores or online so it’s nice to have a few different picks showcased and also helps me break out of my historical fiction niche that I usually default to.

For January, I picked Topics of Conversation, a debut novel by Miranda Popkey.

Use the code NEWPAGE in January to get your first book for only $9.99.

Read More Books with Audible

Listening to books is definitely a personal choice but a great way to read more books. Since I have Amazon Prime, I prefer to get my books from Audible. I love listening to a book because I can do it when pulling out a real book to read isn’t an option. I can listen as I run or walk, I can listen during my commute or even sometimes while I’m working.

There are a few more variables that go into making it a good experience. Not only are you looking for a good plot and writer but you are also looking for good production quality. If the person reading the book isn’t good, it will really disrupt your audiobook experience.

Audible is always running different promotions and this month there is a free month of listening with their romance package. That isn’t a genre that I’m into so I don’t have a lot of recommendations there but a free month is a free month right?

Some of my favorite Audible books from last year are The Whisper Network, City of Girls, and Where the Crawdads Sing. I’m currently listening to Beantown Girls, I just started so I don’t have a recommendations either way yet.

Tracking my Goal with GoodReads

I use Goodreads to track what I’m reading and what I’m hoping to read. It’s a great place to read reviews of books and plan out what you’d like to read next. Whenever I see a friend posting a book recommendation, I’ll mark it in Goodreads so that I will remember it when I’m looking to get a new book. You can follow your friends on there and see what they are reading as well. It’s a great resource to help you read more books because let’s face it, bookstores can be amazing but overwhelming. I like to follow Book of the Month as well because it will give previews and reviews of their upcoming selections.