Happy Fri-yay!  I can’t believe it’s the last few days of April!  Where is the time going?!  We did yardwork all last weekend so I’m hoping for a more relaxing weekend this week.  At least our yard is somewhat ready for the spring/summer season.  There’s still a ton of things I want to do out there but it’s presentable at the moment!

Now on to the links!  Here’s my faves of the week…

New (to me) blogs I followed this week:

- Chocolate Covered Katie
- decor8
- Design*Sponge
- Keiko Lynn
- La Tartine Gourmande
- Little Kitchen. Big World
- My Life Cookbook
- The Almond Eater
- The Art of Doing Stuff
- Wholefully

- Totally Out-There (Yet Awesome!) Design From Real Homes – My house is fairly bland compared to these homes but I absolutely love the pops of color & uniqueness of these houses!

- Before and After: A Vintage Kitchen in the Desert Gets a Bright Face-Lift – I love when cabinets can be salvaged/painted!  This remodel totally brightened up the space!

- 7 Cheap and Easy Dinners You Should Make This Week – Cheap & easy?  I’m in!

- How To Make Healthy Peanut Butter Balls – This recipe looks incredibly easy & it’s healthy too!

- 16 Champagne Floats To Celebrate Spring With – Champagne floats forever!

- The Most Popular Kitchen-Related Cleaning Hacks on Pinterest Right Now – Totally trying these tips!

- Baked Chili Cheese Chips – These look delicious!

- 5 Ways To Use Leftover Wine – These are some neat ideas!

- 3 Ingredient Flourless Cheese Breadsticks – Easy & delicious!

- DIY zig zag coat rack – This is so cool!

- Mini Strawberry Pistachio Turnovers – Even I might be able to make these!

- Lemony Lime Island Mango Mezcal Breeze – Summer drink season will be happening soon & I’ll have to add this to my drink rotation!

- A Chef and DIYer Spice Up Their Home with Color & Culture – This house makes me want to redecorate my own!  It’s so cool!

Have a great weekend!

If I had to eat one food for the rest of my entire life, macaroni & cheese would be it.  I’m not a macaroni snob, either.  I love boxed mac and fancy prepared mac the same.

Mac & cheese was my go-to work lunch for years.  I would splurge on the hot mac from the deli.  When I wasn’t hungry but still wanted to eat a little something, I always got the microwave mac.  I even bought the frozen meal mac & cheese.  When I felt fancy, I bought the frozen meal with broccoli!

The recipe I’m sharing today is more on the fancy side, but totally easy to make!

Like all good things in my life, this recipe happened by accident.  I was originally going to prepare a red sauce ziti one night when my husband got the butter out.  He usually likes to butter the noodles before he adds sauce, but I had another idea:  why don’t we just add cheese to the buttered noodles & make a mac+cheese?

Lots of cheese & spices later, we had the most fantastic mac & cheese!

I’ve briefly mentioned before that my dad is a “kitchen sink” cook.  Leave him alone in a kitchen (or around a grill!) & the spices come out.  Everything but the kitchen sink is added to his recipes & they’re never lacking in flavor.  I still remember the time when he was left alone with the grill at my cousin’s graduation open house.  The burgers were never more flavorful!  The thing is though, it’s never a bad spice taste; it’s an interesting mixture of flavors that actually is delicious!  Even though my dad does some weird spice combinations, I’ve never tasted a bad meal from him!

While I tend to cook on the bland side, sometimes I take after my dad & kick it up a notch.  It doesn’t help that my spice rack is right above my stovetop either, which provides easy access to the spices!  For this mac & cheese, I utilized my go-to spices:  garlic powder, onion salt & pepper.  My favorite thing is adding pepper to any mac & cheese.  While I kept it mild on the actual mac, I ended up adding a ton to my individual bowl.  As I noted in the recipe, add the spices to your individual taste.  It also saves me because I never actually measure anything!  I just start adding things until I like the way it tastes!

Mac + Cheese

by Tiff @ www.onthecreekblog.com April-27-2017

A super easy stovetop macaroni & cheese!

Ingredients

• 16oz Macaroni Noodles
• 8oz Shredded Cheese (I used Colby Jack & Mild Cheddar)
• 4 Tablespoons Butter
• 1/2 cup Milk
• Pepper (to taste)
• Garlic Powder (to taste)
• Onion Powder (to taste)

Instructions

- Make noodles according to package directions, drain
- Place noodles back into pot, add butter & stir to combine
- Add milk.  (You may need to add more or less depending on your desired consistency.)
- Add cheese & mix well.
- Add your spices according to your taste.  If spices aren’t your thing, just skip!

Over the weekend, my husband was digging in the yard & came across three snapping turtles!

The first one he found was small and I relocated it to the creek.

A while later, I was in the house and he yelled for me to come out.  He was holding something large in his hands.  I realized it was a huge snapping turtle & ran out with my camera.  I snapped some pictures before we took it down to the creek.

The next day, hubby was still digging around in the yard & found another turtle.  It was placed in a bucket & I headed down to the creek once again.  The first two turtles stayed on the shore when we released them, but the last one immediately headed to the water and dug itself into the mud.

Even though I’m not the biggest fan of snapping turtles, I loved seeing them up close.  Now I’ll be happy if they stay at the creek & don’t make their way back up by the house!

Last week, I was knee deep in Pinterest “research” for my blog…

Alright, so maybe I wasn’t quite that desperate (I am!), but I’m always looking for ways to improve my blog and internet presence (whatever that means!).  In my “research”, I came across roughly a million helpful tips that I tried to do immediately. But, that’s a story for another day.  This post is about one tip that I will absolutely NOT follow:

Linking Facebook & Twitter together.

For those of you out there who have no idea what I’m talking about, let me fill you in. Linking Facebook & Twitter together is a thing you can do to streamline your social media.  For me & my blog, that means every time I post something to my Facebook page, my Twitter will automatically post the same thing.  For a while, I had it set up that way and didn’t have to run all over social media syncing up my stuff.  That was cool…for a while.

The problem with linking up Facebook & Twitter is that some things get lost in translation & it looks ridiculous.

Here’s what I’m talking about…

Notice the annoying “data:blog.metaDescription” thing underneath my link?  That was because my old layout (& my new one to an extent) didn’t provide the description of my post when it made the link.  I just fixed it when I posted it to Facebook to say whatever I wanted, but when it automatically posted to Twitter, it looked like that.  Ridiculous.

Also, the picture?  On Facebook, it looked fantastic.  On Twitter, it was cropped into a tiny square and you couldn’t even see it, let alone read any text that was on there.  Totally unprofessional looking.

Now let’s look at the bottom tweet about the iced coffee?  On Facebook, it actually had a picture of an iced coffee.  On Twitter, not so much.  And who’s got time to click on that link?  Nobody, that’s who.  I wanted a picture, not a link.

Because of those annoyances, I decided to unlink Facebook & Twitter.  Oh, the horror!  Not really.  Even though I now have to actually go over to Twitter to post my links, at least I have control over what you see.  I can post a link to my blog with pictures that you can actually see.  I can also choose a few different pictures to include instead of just having one.  Sure, it’s an extra step, but it allows me more control of my social media.  Sometimes automating everything isn’t the best option.  In this case, it totally wasn’t for me.

Now, I’ve only linked my blog Facebook page with Twitter, but the same could be said for personal Facebook pages.  Every time you post a photo or a status that’s above 140 characters (Twitter’s limit)?  You get the little fb.me link.  It’s not cool at all.  You want your people to see what’s going on instead of clicking a link. 

Honestly, it doesn’t take that long to post things individually. If it’s such a time suck, you could always use a scheduler.  There’s about a million of those out there.  Right now, my favorite is Hootsuite.  I also love scheduling posts on Facebook. ‘'

What are your thoughts on linking profiles together?  I had terrible luck with putting mine together, but I’m sure there are a ton of success stories out there.  I would love to hear them!

Happy Friday!  Here are my favorite blogs & links of the week!

New (to me) blogs to check out this week:

- a pair & a spare
- Ann-Marie Loves
- Franish
- Mel’s Kitchen Cafe
- My New Roots
-The Dainty Squid
- The Elliott Homestead
-White on Rice Couple

- Berry Pavlova With Lemon Whipped Cream – How dreamy does this look?
- A 1900s Firehouse With A Modern Redesign – This house is gorgeous.
- Coconut Custard Pie With Coconut Whipped Cream – This looks so dreamy.
- Overnight Cinnamon Roll Casserole – Yum!
- Easy Lemon Ricotta Old Fashioned Doughnuts – Doughnuts forever!
- Strawberry Sheet Cake With Meringue Frosting – I need to make this immediately.
- Get The Farmhouse Look With These Dollar Tree Items – Going to The Dollar Tree ASAP!
- Weeknight Chicken Chili – I love chili and this chicken version looks amazing.
- Remarkable Remodel: An Industrial Modern Loft In Nashville – This house is beautiful.
- 10 Tips On How To Bake The Perfect Cupcake – Maybe even I can bake the perfect cupcake?!
- No-Bake Banana Cream Pie Bars – This looks easy and delicious.
- 18 Cleaning Tips That’ll Save You So Much Money – Good to know!
- The Best Chocolate Cake Recipe {Ever} – How can you argue with a name like that?

Have a great weekend!

Chicken tacos forever!

Once upon a time, I attempted to make beef nachos.  They turned out great-ish.  They were great because they tasted fantastic. They were also terrible because the chips at the bottom were a soggy mess. Basically, I made a taco bake with chips at the bottom.  I ended up stuffing them into tortilla shells. I loved the way the flavors melted together! I then abandoned my ideas for nachos because taco bakes are where it’s at!

Since I wanted to make a taco bake, the next time I made the dish, I omitted the chips.  Who needs chips anyway?  Apparently I did because the entire thing ended up being sooo soupy.  Still good, but soupy.

The thing about making a taco bake with ground beef is that the beef doesn’t really soak up anything.  It just hangs out in there with the rest of the ingredients and the end result is a liquid mess.  A tasty mess, but still a mess. I was going about this all wrong.  How could I get a taco bake that actually set up and wasn’t a taco soup?

Chicken!

I discovered this by total accident.  I bought some grilled chicken to make for lunch.  I figured it would make a nice wrap.  Well, I bought Southwestern style chicken, something I wouldn’t buy at all!  I hate overly spicy food so I would have skipped on this altogether.  Also, I wouldn’t be sitting here right now writing this blog post if I didn’t make this “terrible” error.  Anyway, I decided to go with the Southwest chicken one day. I threw it in a tortilla with cheese on top and put it in the microwave to melt.

It was basically the best thing ever.

I loved the flavor of the Southwestern chicken and how much it tasted like a chicken taco.  I didn’t even have to season the chicken!  It tasted like a taco on its own!

It was time to bring back the taco bake.

I gathered my ingredients and got to work.

At the bottom, I put two 6oz packages of Southwestern chicken.  I shredded it a little so there weren’t such big pieces.  I spread it in an even layer across the bottom of my pan.

Next, I put a layer of black olives.  I love olives so I used an entire 6oz can.  I also diced up the olives and formed a single layer on top of the chicken.

Now it was time for the diced tomatoes!  I used a 14.5oz can.  You might find this unnecessary because the next step is salsa, but I loved the extra tomatoes. I drained the can and dumped them in!

Salsa time!  I used a 16oz jar of mild chunky salsa and placed it across my mixture.

Lastly, I put a layer of shredded mild cheese at the top!  I love cheese so I used a lot.  I had mild cheddar, but the taco blend would be fantastic too!

Then I put it all into a 350 degree oven until the cheese melted, about 20 minutes!  I then spooned the mixture into tortilla shells and had the best chicken tacos ever!

Chicken Taco Bake

Recipe by Tiff @ www.onthecreekblog.com

An taco bake made easy by already seasoned chicken!

Total time: 25 minutes

Ingredients

Cooking Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Take an 8x8 glass pan and layer the ingredients as follows:
- Bottom Layer:  Chicken
- Next Layer:  Black Olives
- Middle Layer:  Diced Tomatoes
- Next Layer:  Salsa
- Top Layer:  Shredded Cheese

Bake for 20 minutes or until cheese is completely melted.  Serve warm in tortilla shells.

Happy Easter weekend!  Here are some links and new blogs to get your weekend started!

New Blogs
A Cozy Kitchen
Alissandra B.
Beneath My Heart
bunnies are magic
Krista Aoki
Plaster & Disaster
The Healthy Maven
twigg studios

Links
19 Kitchen Makeover Before-And-Afters That Will Make Your Jaw Drop – I love before & after photos and these kitchen makeovers are so good.
How To Make Butter In A Jar In 3 Easy Steps – Definitely trying this!
20 Smart Five-Ingredient Dinner Ideas – These all look fantastic and they only have 5 ingredients!  I might turn into a chef yet!
Food Experts:  What It’s Like to Be a Baker – I liked this honest look at owning a pie shop.
10 Unexpected Shelf Ideas – Total shelf love.
30+ Real Food Grilling Ideas – I can’t wait for grilling season!
Homemade Hot Chocolate with Pastel Whipped Cream – How cute is this? 
25 Campfire Recipes For Your Next Camping Trip – I’m not a huge fan of camping, but I’m down for campfire food!
The Price of Spite: Boston's Skinny House Is For Sale For $895K – I had never heard of spite houses before so this was awesome!
Grapefruit Citrus Sparkling Mocktail – This looks simple and flavorful.
Everything You Need To Know About Halo Top Ice Cream – I loved getting the scoop on this low calorie treat!
Frozen Mimosas – I can’t say no!
30 Delicious Things You Never Knew You Could Make With A Crock-Pot – I’m a huge fan of slow cooker cooking so I love this!
15 Delicious Lemon Desserts That Taste Just Like Spring – Lemons forever! 

Last Minute Easter Links
Strawberry Citrus Easter Punch – I need this for Easter!
Easter Bunny Brunch + Pink Pancakes – This is the cutest!
Let’s try:  Spring and Easter DIY – Pinterest IRL!

This recipe is one of those secrets that I wanted to keep to myself.

I recently read a story online about a woman who was famous for her cookies.  It escalated to the point where she ended up selling them because they were that good. It turns out that they were a frozen dough she purchased from the grocery store!  Now, these cookies aren’t quite that bad, but I do feel guilty that they’re so good because they are so easy to make!  For only having 3 ingredients, they pack a lot of flavor.  They’re one of those things that I could keep to myself and be the best cookie baker ever. Since I’m terrible at keeping secrets, here they are on the blog today!

These cookies are the best cookies I’ve made in my entire life.  I also have very limited kitchen experience, so my index of successful recipes is low…so there’s that.  But if you need a quick and easy recipe that looks like chef material then I’ve got your back.

I used this incredibly simple recipe. The first time I made them, I followed the recipe exactly and made peanut butter cookies.  I even did the little fork crisscross thing and they looked and tasted fantastic.  I then had the idea of making them into Peanut Butter Blossoms.  Since I had no idea how Peanut Butter Blossoms were actually made, I did some Pinterest research. The recipes I found all called for a ton of ingredients. While mixing lots of ingredients works out well for some people, I need a more simple approach. I also ain't got time for that many ingredients! The simple peanut butter cookie recipe I found was nowhere to be found in the world of Pinterest Peanut Butter Blossoms. I couldn't believe it! Today, that is changing.

Transforming these peanut butter cookies into Blossoms is easy. I used my Tablespoon measure as a scoop and rolled the dough into equal size peanut butter balls. I got about 12 in total. I then baked them and placed the Hershey's kiss in right after I pulled them out of the oven. I would recommend freezing them for a little while afterwards. The chocolate didn't set up very fast and was kind of melted . Unfortunately, my freezer was full and I couldn't do this so I have no idea how long to leave them in there for. They eventually set up on the counter though, so if you don't have the freezer space it isn't a real issue.

I admit that I was skeptical about this peanut butter cookie recipe at first. After making them like 5 times, it's safe to say that it's my new favorite!

This might look familiar because I did a similar post last year about my classic lemonade. With summer quickly approaching, though, it's time to take a second look at this lemonade! This is the perfect recipe to get you through those hot days. I also revised the recipe a little, by using less sugar.

I'll be the first to admit that I wasn't always the biggest fan of making homemade lemonade. In fact, I used to avoid it at all costs. The lemon squeezing sounded completely terrible. I didn't have time to squeeze lemons forever! I came across an electric juicer in our things when we moved and decided to give it a try one day. That citrus juicer changed my life forever! It can juice lemons in minutes! I went from avoiding lemonade at all costs to looking like a professional!

Recipe by Tiff @ www.onthecreekblog.com

A summertime classic!

Total time: 5 minutes

Yield: roughly 64 ounces

Ingredients

Cooking Directions

1. To make simple syrup:
2. In a small saucepan, mix 3/4 cup water and 3/4 cup sugar. Heat until sugar is dissolved.
3. Let cool and pour into the bottom of a pitcher.
4. Add fresh lemon juice and add water to fill. Stir to combine. Chill and enjoy!

Note: I put in the recipe to let the simple syrup cool before putting it in the pitcher. This is only because the simple syrup gets super hot. So hot that I'm concerned with it cracking a plastic pitcher. Because I have no patience whatsoever, I used a glass pitcher. That allowed me to add the syrup immediately.

Easy peasy!

Easter is just days away and I’ve put together a little roundup of all things Easter!

18 Excellent Easter Ideas – This list has a lot of home décor ideas.
FREE Printable Emoji Easter Bunny Boxes – How cute are these?
How to Make an Easter Basket With Newspaper – This is so neat and a great way to reuse newspaper.
5 Super Sweet Easter Cupcakes – The “carrot patch” cupcakes are the cutest!
Easter Bunny Peeps Racecars – OMG!  So adorable!
Top 50 Easter Brunch Recipes – I would like to try an Easter Brunch one of these years, especially after looking at all of those great recipes!
Easter Isn’t Complete Without This Strawberry Freakshake – Freakshakes forever!
Easter Décor…I Love Spray Paint – This simple transformation makes this look like a real chocolate bunny!
One Hour Easter Dinner – Easy peasy!
Peep S'mores Dip – Easter S'mores for the win!  This looks incredibly easy to make too!
Mix-and-Match Easter Brunch – I love reading the Easter traditions of others and there’s some recipes sprinkled in there too!
Carrot Cake Roll – What a fun Easter idea!
50 Easter Menu Recipes – Yes!

Check out more ideas on my Easter Pinterest Board!