TAKE THEM A MEAL

I love cooking for others, for a dinner at our home, and I love cooking for others, for a dinner in their home. Have you ever had the opportunity to take family or friends dinner? Maybe they are going through a tough time, they are new parents, or new neighbors just moved in next door, etc. Whatever the reason is, there is always something going on in life that requires a meal, and a good one at that!

One of my favorite things to make for these kinds of situations is lasagna. Maybe not everyone likes lasagna as much as we do, but I like to assume they do. 

Lasagna, the easiest meal to make, and it freezes well! The two families that I made dinner for recently were small, so if you are making dinner for a larger family then I would recommend making larger portions. I bought these, aluminum to-go containers at Dollar Tree and they come in packs of three.

You know what's even better than lasagna? Lasagna that you didn't even have to cook yourself and is delivered right to your doorstep...I like to make each family two lasagnas (one to eat that night and one to freeze for another time, they are good for up to 6 months) a box of garlic bread, salad + dressing, dessert, and if I have extra time I will make them breakfast! Breakfast casserole, breakfast burritos, or what I did recently, cinnamon rolls - all in disposable containers to keep it hassle free! 

 I also made recipe cards to label each item. That way if they have any questions about what's in the dish or need instructions to warm it they have it right there in front of them! Check out the recipe card printable below. I printed a lot off and keep them in my kitchen for anytime I need them!

You can find the Pioneer Woman's recipes here, and I will be sharing the lasagna recipe tomorrow!

Here is the recipe card that I designed for these and for future meals. You can right click and save on the picture below to save it to your computer for your own personal use.

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TAKE THEM A MEAL

OUR RED, WHITE, & BLUE BBQ | 2016

We had our Red, White, & Blue BBQ this past weekend and it was a blast! If you have been around here for nay length of time then you know my husband and I love hosting dinner parties and I love planning them.

Since we weren't able to have our cookout on July 4th weekend we had it the weekend after. Side note, if you are having a holiday themed party after the actual holiday has passed go to the store and stock up on all the clearanced party decorations!

Thankfully the weather worked out for us this time. It was very sunny and very warm, the humidity wasn't terrible though! We had planned on going to a Sounds game but decided to all go see a movie instead since it was so hot outside. Instead of making everything this time we asked people to bring a side. We provided appetizers, the BBQ, drinks, and desserts. Our dinner spread turned out great and I gained a few new recipes that I am excited to try out myself and share with y'all!

 {Printable}

I made Loaded Baked Potato dip, Rotel dip, and Cheddar Bacon Ranch Pinwheels for our appetizers.

In order to keep things simple and budget friendly we usually just do sweet tea, lemonade, and water. I got the paper straws from Dollar Tree and the washi tape from Wal-Mart. The washi tape sprucens things up and is the best way for people to label and keep up with their drinks. A few of you asked where our drink dispenser is from, so I wanted to be sure and share that with y'all this time. I picked it up at Wal-Mart! It's from The Pioneer Woman's line and I love it! It comes with two cute decorative lids and two plain metal lids, two chalkboard labels, and the metal stand they sit on double as an ice bucket. They work perfectly for our dinner parties and people always go on and on about them. 

After appetizers we all went outside and played croquet. My FIL recently bought this yard game and let us borrow it for the weekend. Some of the guys rotated between playing Xbox inside and playing croquet outside, while most of us girls hung out in the shade chit chatting and watching the guys goof off.

After we had enough of the heat we went inside and then it was time for dinner.

After dinner we played games until it was time to go to the movie. Almost everyone spent the night with us this time. We had a full house, and as always, we are so thankful for our home, and that we are able to host so many sweet friends.I think this was our last dinner party for the summer since school starts back up next month, but we have some fun events in the making for later this fall and early winter (I may or may not have already planned about 95% of Friendsgiving) that we are pretty excited about! 

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OUR RED, WHITE, & BLUE BBQ | 2016

MURDER MYSTERY DINNER | 2016

I'm breaking up my Hilton Head girls trip recaps to share with you about the murder mystery dinner party my in-laws hosted this past weekend. To read about day 1 & 2 of our girls trip go HERE.

My MIL found this website and then they chose which one they wanted to do. They chose the Bumped Off on Bourbon St. themed one. There are SO many different options and they all look really fun. They had been planning it for weeks and everything turned out so GREAT. From the food/drinks to the decorations and printables. It was all so well planned and was a lot of fun. Disclaimer: this is a picture heavy post!

We were welcomed by a small gift basket on our bed filled with all things "Cajun" since the theme was a New Orleans/Mardi Gras theme.

We started off with our round one card. There were prompts in there to tell you what to talk about and some told you who to talk to. I don't want to give too much information about everything in case anyone reading this wants to buy this kit....which I definitely recommend! 

 While reading round one we snacked on appetizers. We all made appetizers and my MIL made the main dish, drinks and desserts. Matthew and I made Cajun Candied Bacon, Andrew and Christina made Cajun Shrimp Dip, and Nathan and Jenny made a Cajun dip as well, I just can't find the recipe.

The drinks my MIL made were absolutely DELICIOUS. I literally could have had about 5 glasses of that sweet liquid gold. Thankfully she sent the recipe home with me! I'll share the recipes from our party soon. 

After our appetizers we played a game. We had to all make up a rap with our significant other. The rap had to be about Murphy, their pup! It was hilarious, and Matthew and I found out very quickly that we could never quit our day jobs to become rappers lol. 

After everyone performed their raps they split the girls and guys up and we played another game. Then it was time for dinner and round 2! I am a HUGE sucker for cute tablescapes. So when I saw how they decorated the table I was alllllll heart eyes (hence the amount of pictures I took of the table lol). So cute and went so well with our theme! They also had two photo areas set up for us.

For some odd reason I didn't get a picture of our meal. Probably because it was so delicious. During dinner the victim was "murdered" so that moved us along to round three!

After our dinner and round two we made our way back to the living room for round three and dessert. They had music that followed our theme playing in the background the whole time, it was the perfect touch!

Our next game we had to draw a piece of paper from a cup and on the pieces of paper were types of dances we had to do, with our significant other. Matthew and I drew the funky chicken LOL. Andrew and Christina drew the robot, Nathan and Jenny drew ballet, and My in-laws drew ballroom dancing. It was so funny watching everyone and trying to guess what each couple had. After round three we had dessert and then all wrote down our guesses and evidence as to "whodunit", aka who was the murderer. My MIL made a delicious white chocolate dessert...seriously anything white chocolate send my way. I was so full from our meal that I was only able to eat a little of it. Thankfully the rest of it got sent home with us!

YUM.YUM.YUM.YUM.

And here are some other pictures from our night!

Everyone digging into some appetizers.

Everything was decorated so cute. Even their coffee bar got some Mardi Gras beads!

 These were the two photo taking places. So cute!

The victim and the murderer

And a group picture. Everyone did so great with their costumes, but I have to say, I think my MIL won best dressed!! Tattoo sleeves and biker studded gloves and all!

Jenny was a marathon runner, Nathan was a referee, Matthew was a S.W.A.T team member, I was a spunky cheerleading coach, Andrew was a chef, Christina was a street performer, Judy was a biker chick, and Thom was a musician.

A huge thank you to my in-laws for all the hard work and time they put into hosting this crazy fun dinner party! We loved it and can't wait until we are all together again!!

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MURDER MYSTERY DINNER | 2016

HOT DOG BAR PRINTABLES

A lot of you asked about the labels I used for our Summer Soiree, and here they are! I made all of these labels through PicMonkey...free and easy to use. If you've been around here any length of time then you know I am a pretty big fan of PicMonkey.

.

 All you have to do is 'right click' on the picture and save it to your computer to print whenever you want to use them! I got the hot dog menu ideas from Kristen's blog but just changed up the look.

The BLT Dog

The Chicago Dog

The Classic Dog

The Southern Dog

Hot Dog Bar

And here are some other labels that can be used at any summer themed party!

Appetizers

Desserts

Pasta Salad

Baked Beans

Cole Slaw

Potato Chips

Lemonade 

Sweet Tea

Water

Tip: I printed them all off on card stock paper. The smaller labels I taped to card stock paper tents that I made. They were very sturdy and I can use them again in the future.

Enjoy!

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HOT DOG BAR PRINTABLES