Freschetta Simply Inspired Pizza was yummy in my tummy

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of FRESCHETTA®. All opinions are 100% mine.

So, I'll admit it. I read all the blogs who were gushing about the FRESCHETTA® Simply…Inspired™ pizza campaign. And I was totally jealous, I wanted to try it too. We eat frozen pizza at least once every couple of weeks in our house. Sometimes it's once a week, depending on how lazy I'm feeling. So I was totally stoked when Freschetta contacted me and let me try one too.

We've always been loyal lovers of another pizza brand. But now I'll admit, I'm switching to FRESCHETTA® Simply…Inspired™. And hubby, who's a creature of habit, told me he wants to switch too.

There are 8 new varieties. We decided to go with the Rustic Pepperoni Pomodoro.

Did you read that description? Pepperoni, shiitake mushrooms, roasted red peppers, mozzarella and gouda cheese... talk about yummy!

Hubby and I are normally strictly thick crust kind of people. So I wasn't sure if I was going to like the thin crust. I resisted the urge to get out my pizza stone (we love our pizzas crispy) and I baked it according to the directions (put on middle rack of oven, sans pizza stone or tray). It turned out nice and crispy. And yummy.

And are you drooling over that pic yet? This isn't a case where the picture looks a heck of a lot better than the food actually does. The pepperoni slices were HUGE, the mushrooms and red peppers were plentiful. Yeah, it was pretty darn good. No false advertising here.

The only con I did find was that while it was perfectly sized for two people (enough for hubby and I with leftovers for his next day's lunch), you'd want to pick up two so you have enough for the kids. But with all the different selections and great price, that's not a bad thing.

It didn't come in a big bulky box like traditional pizzas, which is great for those of us with limited freezer space. The FRESCH-TASTE SEAL™ Packing locks in the vibrant flavors, while using 30% less packaging material. So yummy in your tummy, PLUS good for the environment? Score.

Want to know more? Check out @FreschettaSI on Twitter and “Like” www.facebook.com/FreschettaSim… on Facebook. On the Facebook page they are offering weekly giveaways of awesome prizes through the rest of 2011. Also, starting soon, they will be offering the opportunity to download a $2 off coupon for FRESCHETTA® Simply…Inspired™ on their Facebook page.

So a yummy pizza for a great price, PLUS coupons to save you money? Score.

New ink makes for a very happy Jen

"Your body is a temple, but how long can you live in the same house before you redecorate?"

  ~Author Unknown

I didn't want to say anything, just in case I jinxed it, but I had my rescheduled tattoo appointment yesterday. I showed up at 1. Hubby worked through his lunch hour so he could come up there and help me pick out the flower style and placement. I figure, he's the one who's going to have to look at it for forever, right? 

The tattoo artist was Casey Cokrlic. Seriously, he's the man. We talked about the kinds of flowers I wanted, and he free handed them on me. Pretty cool not to have flash (the tattoo pics on the wall) just copied and pasted on me. Plus, he was able to work with the work I already have. 

Here he is, drawing it on me. He first sketched out everything in red, and then went back with the ink pen and finalized the drawing.

We went with just the line work today, and made the appointment to finished it for June 10th. Tattoos seem to heal better when you split it up and not do too much at one time.

So here it is now. We (I say we like I did anything besides sit there, LOL) did cherry blossoms around the whole thing, with a chrysanthemum at the bottom.

With a big peony on the back side. I think I'm going to have him add a few more cherry blossoms on the inside of my arm (ouch) but I think it'd fill it in better. Hubby wants me to do gray whispy smoke around the whole thing, but I'm undecided. He says it'd fill it in more, Casey said it'd make it a heavier piece. But I figure, I'm little and girly, I don't need a huge heavy tattoo. But I might change my mind, I dunno.

Hubby of course, starting jonesing for a new tattoo while he was there. So we scheduled him an appointment for the 10th too. He has a tribal shoulder cap and the upper part of his arm done. They're talking about adding some black Japanese waves and a big koi fish, and turning it into a 3/4 sleeve.

So, share. Tattoos, yay or nay? Do you have any? Plan to get any more? Love them but couldn't do it? 

Moms Rock.

If you haven't linked up to my Highs and Lows link party this week, it's still open. 

I hadn't planned on doing a Mother's Day post, but after seeing a bajillion other blogs do posts about their mommies, I didn't want to be lame and not do one too. But doing this post made me realize two things. 

First off, I suck. I see my mom 3-4 times a week, and I had to go back to May 2009 to find a pic of us together. I have a ton of pics of her, just not of us. Mental note to remedy that.

Second thing. Holy crap, I take a lot of self portraits. You might notice a theme of that in these pics. I'm usually the one with the camera, so if I want a pic of myself, I just take it. I can ask hubby to take the pic, but he's done after two, maybe three pics of me. But you know how it is. You want to take thirty pics, just to find that one good one (I'm not the only one who thinks that, right?). So it's easier to take it myself, I don't get bored and can take as many pics as I want. 

My mom is awesome. Besides the whole free babysitter thang. And the fact that she was a seamstress/tailor for twenty years, so she saves us a ton of money on clothes. Pretty cool. But besides those perks, she's just a lot of fun to be around. Completely selfless, so amazing to my girls. I can tell her anything. Growing up, we weren't close at all. But as I've gotten older and have grown up, and she's relaxed a bit, we're really close now. I heart her.

My oldest is going to be 8 in two weeks. Eek, where did the time go? She's completely independent, can be so sweet at times (when she's not trying to mother her two sisters). I'm a lucky mommy.

What can I say about my 5 year old? Most days I want to pull my hair out with this one. She's the epitome of a middle child. Can't be the boss because of the older one, but can't be the baby because of the baby. Kinds just floats in the middle. But she can be sweet, and I wouldn't trade her for anything.

And last, we have Miss Pumpkin Booty Girl, as I call her. Sweet as can be, has a smile for everyone.We went thru a lot with this one. 66 days in the NICU, 6 surgeries. But it was all worth it.

Some days as a mom are harder than others. I threaten at least once a day to punch them in the head, but I wouldn't trade these girls for the world.

Wanna know what I got for Mother's Day? Do ya? Do ya? Besides some lovely cards, an awesome book and some crafts from the older girls? I got me this bad boy. 

Silhouette, what what? Hubby The girls did good!

Highs and Lows numero 3

So here we are again. Time for Highs and Lows. Pretty simple. Share the highs and lows of your week. I even had hubby make me a pretty button you can place on your blog. 

 

I'm making a couple of changes though. I'm going to leave the link thingy open for 5 days. 2 days just wasn't long enough, and people were participating but weren't able to link up in time. And next week I'll be starting it on Sunday instead of Saturday. I figure, a week is Sunday thru Saturday. So starting my list on Saturday is throwing me off. But you live, you learn.

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Highs

• I finished two days of the Couch to 5k thing. Was hoping for 3, but hey, there's always tonight. Might be able to get that third one it. I HATE running, but I feel really awesome when I'm finished. Not awesome like "Wow, that wasn't hard at all". But awesome like "Holy crap, I'm going to die, but I did it. I rock, the end".

•  We had a girls night last night. Pajamas, wine, chili cheese tater tots from Sonic all make for a great night. It's such a blessing to have friends like those ladies. Girls who just "get" you. Blended families, asshole bosses, killer chimney birds. No topic is off limits.

• Hubby bought tickets to go see Michael Winslow at the Improv for next weekend.  Michael Winslow is that guy from Police Academy, the one who makes all of those noises. His comedy seems whatever on youtube videos, but the sounds are still cool

• I scored at my favorite thrift store. I don't get over there very often, it's 25 miles away. But it's about a mile away from the Korean grocery store that my mom goes to. So when I take her over there, I stop by the thrift store. Spent $14, got a bunch of cool stuff. 

• after being a one car family for over 7 months, we finally got hubby's car back from the shop. His computer went out, and it took a while to find a used one. The shop that was fixing it works with the church, so since we're getting a deal on it, it became low priority. But we made it work. 

• Slowly getting all the stuff together for Arielle's party. Hubby designed the invites to look like concert tickets for her rock star theme party. 

Lows

• My tooth still really freaking hurts. Thank goodness I have my appt on Tuesday to put on the permanent crowns.

•  Hubby's car just had the check engine light come on. What the crap. 

•  Had a phone call on Monday that sounded like this. "Hi, this is Arielle's teacher. It's 1:45 right now, and we had early release at 1:20 today." Forgot to pick up my kid. Oops. Apparently I wasn't the only one, the office was full of "forgotten" kids. 

• Hubby has been stressed lately. He has a lot of freelance jobs right now, which is great. But he has more jobs than it seems he has time for. He gets home at 5:30, we eat dinner at 6ish. Then he plays with Ava for an hour before she goes to bed, and then spends time with me and the other girls until 8:30 or so. And by the time he gets to sit down and do freelance, it's 9. I just hate how much he works, but am so thankful that he has the means to more income. Meaning I can stay home with the girls. 

Another week where the highs outnumber the lows. Not too shabby.

Be less bitchy with Midol! Get your ass in the kitchen where it belongs, ladies!

I saw these over at Forever Decorating, and just had to share these with you. I don't think any of these would fly today. Hubby saw these and said he was going to return my Mother's Day presents and get me a new vacuum. I told him that he must not like sex very much.

Kitty Litter + poo = yumminess

No, I haven't gone off of my rocker. Have you heard of a Kitty Litter Cake? It's yummy, but you might have to eat it with your eyes closed.

At hubby's work, the person who had the last birthday is responsible for the next birthday person's cake. They used to always make fun cakes, but then people got busy/lazy/whatever, and started just picking up a cake at the grocery store. But what's the fun in that? The birthday lady, Janet, has always been wonderful to my girls, so I really wanted to do something special for her.

I originally found the recipe here, but after reading thru all of the reviews, decided to alter it a bit.

Ingredients

1 box german chocolate cake mix

1 box white cake mix

1 4 count package of vanilla pudding cups

1 bag of vanilla sandwich coookies

10 or so tootsie rolls

new kitty litter box (the small one was about $3 at Walmart)

new litter scoop

Bake both cakes according to the recipe on the box. let cool. Try not to eat too much of it (I heart warm cake fresh out of the oven)

After the cakes cooled, I put the chocolate cake on the bottom. Trim if you need to to fit. I forgot to take a pic of that. So pretend this pic is of chocolate cake, about half as tall. 

Then put the white cake on top of that. Mine is cut up in pieces, since my cake pan was being stupid and wouldn't release it in one nice piece.

I then took the pudding cups (I used all 4) and spread a thin layer on top of the white cake.

I used the cheapo Walmart brand of the vanilla sandwich cookies. Apparently they are really good though, since hubby said I'm not allowed to buy them anymore and I had to keep him from stealing the cookies from me. I put about 2/3 of them in a large ziplock bag, and then used a rolling pin to crush them. The original recipe says to use a food processor, but I'm cheap and never bought one.

I then spread a layer of the crushed cookies on top of the pudding layer. Apparently I sucked at the taking pics part of this tutorial.

I used tootsie roll minis, since the long tootsie rolls are too thin. I just unwrapped two of them, and worked the two ends together. Then put it in the microwave on a plate, heated them up on high for 10 seconds. Then when they're soft and pliable, have your hubby form them into "poop" (twist the ends so they are no longer blunt, curve them, etc). Then place them on the cookie layer.

Try not to gag when hubby is finished with the poop part. He had too much fun with these.

And voila! Poopy cake.

Oh, and apparently it was very good. Hubby texted me this pic after the party. Scraped clean, yo.

What I learned:

• You can use any kind of cake you want, since the vanilla sandwich layer covers everything. Some reviews said they used marble cake, spice cake, etc. 
• Other people used peanut butter cookies (i.e. Nutter Butter) instead of the vanilla. But I was happy with the color of the vanilla cookies. 
• The original recipe calls for you to save part of the vanilla cookies and mix them with green food coloring and sprinkle that on top. But I don't remember having green bits in my litter when we owned cats, so I nixed that part. 
• The original recipe calls for you to crumble both cakes, then mix the vanilla pudding mix until it's moist but not soggy. But that just sounds weird to me, and some reviews said it wasn't very tasty and was hard to scoop out, so I just did layers of cake. 

Oh, and you want to know how you know if your cake was a success?  When the party started at 2, and your facebook page looks like this at 2:30.

We all love a good party: