Pumpkin Puke #Spookamole Recipe

Who is getting excited about Halloween?  I have to admit, I’m not much of a Halloween fan… kids dressing up and going around house to house begging for candy… most of which will end up in the trash at the end of the night… doesn’t make sense to me.

Now, that being said, I do love hosting and attending parties… don’t really care the occasion!

If you are hosting OR attending a party this year, I have a seriously fun and easy recipe for you.

With all the candy and sweets all of us eat around this time of year, starting with Halloween and ending with Valentine’s Day, we really need something healthy to eat!  Hass avocados from Mexico are perfect for snacks at home, parties, or just to add to your favorite sandwich.  Avocados are available all year round, so it something healthy you can have in your house all the time (and we do!).

I know you are dying to hear what recipe I have for you, so here it is…

Pumpkin Puke!

Ummm… yum, right!?  Can you just see this in the middle of your table (or your friends’ table) at a Halloween party!!!!

Alright, so here’s your step by step:

First, wash the outside of your pumpkin (I suggest getting a couple so you have one to practice cutting on).  Awe… look at the pretty pumpkin!!

Then make small slits in your pumpkin, just as you would a potato.  Just make sure you do it where no one will see since your pumpkin will be displayed!  I did a few on the bottom and a few on the top, like so:

Now, your pumpkin is ready for the oven.  Let it cook on 350 for 45 minutes.  Remember to use pads or gloves when taking it out of the oven!  Set it down on the stove or counter.  Now, you can let it cool down a tad, but it’s not really necessary.  I started the next steps right away.  It’s really up to you.

First thing you will do with your pumpkin is make a nice round cut around the top to remove the top of the pumpkin.  Be gentle with this, though, because you will be putting it back on the finished product.

There will be a few seeds on the top of the pumpkin you just cut off.  Go ahead and scrape those off into a bowl.  Then, scrape the rest of the ‘guts’ out of the pumpkin into a bowl like so:

I used a serrated grapefruit spoon, but a regular spoon would work, too.

Now, it’s time for the fun part!  Carving the puke face!  For the eyes, you will do a kind of crescent moon, with half circles at the top.  For the mouth, just a circle.  It’s best described in a picture:

I would like to note, this is just the face I came up with…. use your imagination and do something different if you don’t like this one.  Honestly, it doesn’t matter!  Have fun with it!

Next, make your favorite guacamole recipe.  Mine has avocados, roma tomatoes, onion, garlic powder, salt and pepper.  Guacamole is such an easy and forgiving recipe.  It’s super hard to mess it up.  Sometimes, I just make it with avocados and spices and skip the tomatoes and onion.  For this recipe, though, I highly recommend the tomatoes and onions, even if they aren't your favorite, because it adds to the ‘puke’.

Alright, at this point, your pumpkin should be carved and your guacamole is made.  Now, put your pumpkin on a large plate or serving platter.  Serving platter works best if you have one.  Put it on the end or edge of the plate.  Add a spoonful of guacamole through the top of the pumpkin and put it on the bottom of the pumpkin by his mouth.  Then, spread the remainder of the guacamole out from his mouth onto the plate.  Surround the guacamole with chips and it is ready to serve!

How stinkin’ perfect is that for your next Halloween gathering??

If you have a fun idea for a Spookamole recipe, go ahead and make it and take pictures, because Avocados from Mexico is running a contest!  Submit your recipe HERE.  You DO NOT have to have a blog in order to enter the contest!  Just a fun, yummy recipe. 

Have fun creating your recipes!
~Nicole~

Discloser: I wrote this review while participating in a Spookamole blog tour by Mom Central Consulting on behalf of Avocados from Mexico and received avocado items to facilitate my review and a promotional item to thank me for taking the time to participate.

Tri-Cross from Games for Competitors Review

This game is a cross between checkers and chess.  It has some of the same concepts of checkers in that you are jumping over pieces and removing them from the board, but there is more strategy involved, just as there is in chess.

 

I was sent the Standard board game, as well as the Eco-Friendly version of the game.  Being the natural girl that I am, I definitely prefer the eco-friendly version.  It’s the same game either way, but the eco-friendly version doesn’t have all the packaging and so on.  In fact, my only complaint with this product is that the standard version has a box that is WAY to big for the game with a big piece of plastic in the middle so that everything looks pretty inside.  And, while it is a good presentation, I think it’s unnecessary.  Make sense?  Other than that, I am very happy with the game!

                

Honestly, this game is a little too old for my kids.  The game is for ages 10 to adult (my kids are 3, 7, and 9).  Now, that being said, it’s a great game for my husband and I to play with the 7 and 9 year old on teams.  So we can each pair up with a kid and we can teach the child how to play that way.  It’s a great avenue to create bonds with your child, as well as teach them strategy in game playing.  We own a few other games that we do this with and I feel it has helped our kids think outside the box and think ahead to their next move, etc..

 

Another great thing is that they also sent me a CD that has tutorials on how to play the game.  Everyone learns differently, and sometimes it’s nice to see and hear how to play a game!

 

Information at a glance:

Product: Tri-Cross

Price: $19.95 – $35.95 (depending on which version you like)

Where to buy: Tri-Cross website or Retail stores

Skills learned:

• Logical Thinking
• Cause and Effect
• Predicting
• Interpreting Outcomes
• Abstract Thinking
• Memory (In Variations of Play)
• Visualization

Ages: 10 to Adult

 

I do recommend this game.  My husband and I are ‘game players’, if you will, and this is one we will add to our repertoire.

 

~Nicole~

Disclaimer: I was given both versions of the game spoken about in this post in order to facilitate the review.

AIMS Review

Have you all heard of the AIMS Education Foundation?  I had the opportunity to review their Getting Into Geometry book.

This book is great.  It makes learning about shapes fun!  It starts out with 2-D shapes.  It shows your child how they can make shapes into other things (like the pic on the front of the book above).  Then they move to 3-D objects, showing the comparisons between the 2-D and 3-D objects.  The book has great games too, to help your child learn the concepts.  I also want to note that there is a CD that comes with the book.  The CD has the activities from the book.  It makes it super easy for you to print them off.

It is important to note that AIMS gives permission to make up to 200 copies of the activities if you are wanting to use them in a classroom setting.  I’m sure that would be a major benefit for those teaching in a public or private school setting or for those that teach in homeschool co-ops.  Honestly, I think it’s very generous of them to offer that!

I’ve told you in the past, I am not the most creative person, so this book is great for our family.  It gives me activities to do with my kids that are fun!

Information at a glance:

Product: Getting Into Geometry

Price: $24.95

Where to buy: AIMS website

Age: K-1 (for this book... AIMS has products for grades K-9)

~Nicole~

Disclaimer: I was given a copy of the book mentioned in this post in order to facilitate the review.Price

Before Five in a Row Review

Before Five in a Row is a book geared towards children from age 2 to 4.  This book is perfect for my youngest who is 3, so I was excited to be able to review it.

My daughter is dying to do ‘cool’ just like her older siblings and I thought this would be perfect for that.  Well, it’s not necessarily, because the things the book gives you to do with your young child makes it so that the child doesn’t really even know they are learning.  Which, by the way, I think is great.  It’s just that she wants to do worksheets… I know… not the normal 3 year old!

Anyway, that being said, I definitely still like this book and will continue to use it.

It has 2 main sections.  In Part 1, it has a list of stories to read to your child.  With that, it also has fun activities and such that you can do that relate to the story you just read.  The idea is the read the same book over and over for a week and each day you would do a new thing that Before Five in a Row suggests in correlation with that book.  I love this, because I am not the most creative momma and this gives me ideas!

In Part 2, it has tons of ideas and activities to help your child achieve reading readiness and a love of reading.  Again, not being the most creative or artsy momma out there, I love that the book spells it out for me.

I will definitely continue to use this book on a weekly basis to help me with ideas to do with my youngest!

Information at a glance:
Name of product: Before Five in a Row
For Ages: 2-4
Price: $35
Where to buy: Rainbow Resource (this is the only place you can buy the book)

~Nicole~
Disclaimer: I received no compensation for this post.  I did receive a copy of the book to facilitate the review.

ALEKS Math 2 Month Free Trial

Have you heard of ALEKS online math program?

 

Well, whether you have or haven’t, now is the perfect time to get introduced to it!  They are offering a 2 month free trial to their program for all homeschoolers! (click on 2 month free trial if you want the free trial)

 

I’m excited about this, because I have checked out their website in the past and it looks and sounds great, but I never wanted to spend the money on something I wasn’t even sure if I would like.

 

Now, I get to try it for free and so do you!   Enjoy!

 

Disclaimer: I DID NOT receive any compensation or free product for this post, I just wanted to share the good news that I thought my readers would like to know!

#Mompact Blog Hop Review & Giveaway Label-Itz

I have teamed up with 119 other blogs in a giveaway event that features businesses owned by moms.

Click on this pretty rectangle to find out more about MomPact... Us moms need to stick together!

You will have the opportunity to win mom made products on each of the 120 blogs (including mine).  All you have to do is hop around to the different blogs and enter each one.  Easy, right?

I know you want to know what I’m giving away on my blog, so I’ll get right to it.

I am giving away products from Label-Itz from ViveVita.  Here’s a little bit about the company:

I got to review the bandette cup labels, toothbands, and my spot.

Bandettes are a cool way to keep children's cups from getting mixed up.  I know at our house when my youngest drinks after the other two, they get annoyed.  Rightfully so, she is still pretty young and doesn’t know how to drink without letting food go in the glass if she is eating!  The only complaint I would have with the bandettes is that they are hard to get on and off the glass.  Maybe it’s just the size glass I use with them?  At the same time, maybe that’s a good thing that they are hard to get on and off, because that means your child can’t take them on and off easily!  Anyway, other than that, they are great and an easy way to keep track of whose glass is whose.

The toothbands are a toothbrush label that you can put on your children’s toothbrushes, that again, make it simple to distinguish one toothbrush from another.  I always get different colored toothbrushes for that, but it would be nice to not have to stand in the toothbrush isle forever trying to find the right color.  With the toothbands, it doesn’t matter what color toothbrush your child has, you but the toothband on their toothbrush (the same color as their bandette so there is unity) and they will always know which one is theirs!

Lastly, the My Spot.  My spot is a soft, flexible pad that you can use for a number of things.  We put ours at the dinner table.  The kids are always arguing over what seat is theirs.  Well, now, I just put their My Spot down, and that’s their seat!  You can also use it as a time out seat and put it where you like in the house.

All 3 products come in the same color palettes with the same characters on each, so that if you have all the products (and you will, if you win my prize pack), you can keep the color consistent with each child.  So, one child would have the orange lion for the bandette, toothband AND my spot.  Make sense?  I hope so!

Alright… on to the giveaway!  You know you want these for your kiddos!  Even if you only have one child, they are still great for playdates! (the bandettes and my spot)

Enter on the Rafflecopter form below!  Good luck and when you are finished entering mine, you can hop on over to the next blog by clicking the Candyland type picture at the bottom of this post!

Master Cleanse–Done!

It is the end of day 10 of my cleanse and I thought I would just give you all an update of how the last few days went.

I did do the salt water flush like I said I would.  I drank it on days 7, 8, and 9 and then decided to skip it this morning (Day 10).  Let’s just say… it didn’t work out.  I’m not sure that I will ever willingly swallow salt water again.  I’m sure it works great for some people… I’m just not one of those people.

These last couple of days, have been harder than the rest of the cleanse.  For some reason, I have felt hungry.  Other times during the cleanse, when I felt hungry, I would just drink some of the lemonade and I’d be fine.  Well, the last couple days, that didn’t suffice.  Yes, I probably could have or should have just drank more, but I didn’t.

Anyway, today is the end of day 10 and tomorrow I plan on beginning my after fast preparations or as some call it the ease out.  It is not wise to just start eating whatever you want after you have been only drinking lemonade (and tea and saltwater) for 10 days.  You will undoubtedly become ill.  In short, your body will hate you.  Not to mention, it could mess up all that you have accomplished for your body over the 10 day period, making it a waste of time!  I definitely want these 10 days to mean something, so I’m doing the ease out!

The Master Cleanse book suggests you drink orange juice for the first day of your ease out.  The next day you are to drink orange juice vegetable based broth soup. Then, on your 3rd and final ease out day, you are to eat orange juice for breakfast, the vegetable soup for lunch and what ever you want in the form of salad, fruit and veggies for dinner.

I’m doing it a little different and praying I won’t get sick…

I am going to drink orange juice for my first ease out day.  Then on days 2 and 3 of my ease out, I am going to eat fruits and veggies.  I plan on avocados, asparagus, apples, bananas, squash, green peppers, tomatoes and salad.  You have no idea how yummy all of that sounds right now! 

I’m happy to be done and hope that my body is a little healthier for it.  Thanks for coming along with me for the ride.

 

~Nicole~