NYC In A NY Minute Quick Drying Nail Polish

Posted by AntiMomAmanda

On my hunt for the best and cheapest nail polish, this month’s travels brought me to Target and NYC In A New York Minute Quick Drying Nail Polish. NYC has officially carved a special place in my mani-heart. Not only does this polish give you a fantastically perfect mani that looks like you just got pampered, it’s $1.74. Boom.

Just two coats of their color, Sidewalkers, and a clear top coat my nails look great. I am still trying to get used to the greyish color, since I’m typically a light-colored kinda gal. It’s slowly growing on me, although I have gotten mixed compliments – my husband loves the color and my mom told me she hated it! Ha!

Initial Apply:

It went on great, very smooth. Took me only 2 coats to get my desired look, then finished off with a light, clear top coat. More than that just don’t work for me, so total plus. It’s quick drying, which allowed me to do my nails while the baby took her afternoon nap, instead of waiting till she went to sleep and not doing them till later in the evening when I’m usually draggin’ ass. Double Plus!

Chippage:

With washing my hands a million times a day, this lasted a good week-week 1/2. Not bad for a $1.74 bottle of polish.

Overall Rating:

After about a week, I hated the grey color. I just can’t step out of the box when it comes to nail color on my hands. I will, however, stick to it on my toes. I can go wild with any color on those guys. I can’t wait to go back to Target and get some fun summer colors for my feet…and of course a light for my hands.

weird grey…

Definitely worth the try ladies, and for less than $2, can’t pass it up!

- Amanda

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Meatless Friday’s: Cheese Fondue

Posted by AntiMomAmanda

I love me some fondue! As a Mother’s Day treat, my mom whipped up some delicious cheese fondue as an appetizer and let me tell you, it blew the socks off the Melting Pot’s version! I have always been intimidated to have my own fondue night but rather opted to just go out and let a waiter take care of the dirty work. I observed as she made the cheese and no joke, it took her about 15 minutes from start to finish. That’s it. What the hell am I so intimidated by?!

We feasted on bread and green apples covered in the deliciously melty, hot cheese and it was the best part of my Mother’s Day! Definitely the way to a pregnant girls heart, FOOD! Mom knows best.

i lucky got a pic before it was all gone!

Cheese Fondue

yield 2 cups

1/4 cup Butter
1/4 cup Flour
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1/4 teaspoon Dry Mustard
1 can (12 oz.) Beer (We used Sam Adams and it was very Beer-y, you can try a light beer if you want to tone down the beer taste)
1 1/2 teaspoons Worcestershire Sauce
2 cups Sharp Cheddar Cheese, shredded

In a medium sized pot over medium-high heat, melt butter then blend in the flour, salt and dry mustard.

Slowly add in the beer, followed by the cheese and the Worcestershire sauce – all the while constantly mixing. Once everything is melted together nicely, transfer to a fondue pot to keep hot and serve with bread, veggies and green apples.

Chef’s Tip: Use day old bread or just cut up a loaf of sour dough or french and let it sit out for about an hour or so just to let the crust get a little hard and the inside remains soft – Perfect for dippage!

This will make a fun appetizer – total throw back to the 70′s baby. I mean, check out the pot…that thing is older than me!

- Amanda

Organizing Your Life: De-cluttering Papers & Bills

Posted by AntiMomAmanda

I am probably the most unorganized person on the planet, but am trying to learn how to organize my life and de-clutter pretty much everything around me. Because seriously, I can’t freaking stand all the crap around anymore, it’s driving me insane!!!

This is what usually happens in my house when we get our mail: it piles on our buffet until I can’t stand looking at it anymore, so I then shove it into our very small mail organizer on the counter.

ew im gross.

After a few weeks, it looks like it’s about to burst at the seams with bills, letters and whatever I end up shoving in it. My nesting phase has started pretty damn early with this pregnancy, and just looking at it all makes my skin crawl. I knew I had to do something, but what?

I tried filing them away in our Tupperware filing bins, but that turned into an even bigger disaster.

I tried shredding things after reading them, but that just got old-fast.

I had to think outside the box. They say if you de-clutter things around you, your head is able to function better and I’m a firm believer in that because my head was spinning with all the piles of papers around my kitchen. I noticed on various blogs and Pinterest, people using binders to organize their family budgets and bills. Printing out spreadsheets and calendars to further help organize their bills and paper work. Now, this is sooooo not like me to even contemplate, but I am desperate!

I headed over to Target and got some supplies: a binder, dividers, and sheet inserts. I sat down with a pad of paper and grouped our bills and came up with a system that fit our family and divided the binder in to specific section: Monthly Bills, House Hold Miscellaneous, Cars, Healthcare, Financial, 1 for my husbands personal things and 1 for myself and daughter. After figuring the basics out, I grabbed all the piles of crap and bundled them into each group. Took me no longer than 20 minutes to get everything done.

neat, tidy and concise.

The piles are gone, the mail organizer is neat and tidy and my brain doesn’t feel like a hoarder lives in there. I have been using it for about 2 weeks now, and so far so good. I never thought I’d use anything like this to organize my daily life, but it seems to be doing the job. But now for the bigger test…keeping it up!

How do you organize your bills/budget/family?

- Amanda

Disney Dining: Where To Eat Part 2 – Character Lunch at Tusker House

Posted by AntiMomAmanda

I have been meaning to write this post since our return from Disney last month!

Now, dining at Disney can get extremely pricey and we were on a strict budget this trip. We found a great snack shop in Magic Kingdom but what about in some of the other great parks? I did some research and saw rave reviews for Donald’s Dining Safari Lunch at Tusker House in the Animal Kingdom, which also is a character lunch. So since we were heading to Animal Kingdom, this was a no brainer.

With all character dining – and seated dining for that matter – at Disney, it is extremely important to make a reservation! As far in advanced as you can. I’m talking months, maybe even close to a year! You wouldn’t believe how packed these places get just so you can get a glimpse of the characters! I made reservations about 2 weeks in advanced and there was slim pickings. Luckily they had a time later in the day, 2 pm, that worked great for us on that particular day. Bonus to going that late, we saw all the characters twice! The restaurant wasn’t as crowded as we expected being towards the end of the lunch shift and we got to see Donald, Mickey, Daisy & Goofy. The only other place to really see those original characters is at Chef Mickey’s restaurants at the Contemporary Hotel.

So lets get into some details!

What’s Included:

Dining at Tusker House is truly an experience! You feel like you are out on a Safari and stumbled onto a great little hideaway. They had an outside bar that served beer for anyone who was interested. Of course my husband and dad enjoyed a nice cold one with their meal! For about $29-34.00, you get beverages and access to an all you can eat American-African buffet. Lunch also includes visits from the characters for photo ops. They have a great system of bringing them to you instead of you getting up to see them. Gratuity is only included if you are in a large party of 6 or more.

Now on to the food.

Tusker House is a buffet-style restaurant. I typically am very weary of buffet meals. I am always worried about proper food handling, proper temperatures, old food and of course getting sick! Clearly, I have issues from past horrible experiences. I will tell you though, Disney knows how to do a buffet! The buffet area was not only immaculate but all the food was displayed in cleanly, well maintained carts and Disney employees were working hard to keep the food stocked, fresh and clean. Even that close to the end of the lunch shift! Every time I went up to try something, I noticed a person wiping, replacing items, or stocking plates. Now that’s how you maintain a buffet, if you ask me! All the hot food was hot and fresh, and all the cold food was cold. Disney restored my faith in buffet’s. But I think I will only be limiting myself to buffets at Disney!

To keep with the theme of Animal Kingdom, Tusker House serves American and African meal items. They had a lot of exotic menu items that were outstanding! The carving station served freshly carved pork loin and beef top sirloin, with assorted dippings. Other main course items, like the spiced rubbed chicken was so juicy and flavorful! They also served hot Samosa’s with a mango chutney. They had a little kick to them but I couldn’t stop eating them! They were like little empenadas, stuffed with veggies instead of meat.

The salad/dip section had a variety of hummus, tabbouleh, couscous salad and other cold salads. In Disney fashion, they made some yummy kid items that were just their size. Two small carts that kids could easily reach that were filled with kid-friendly foods like corn dog nuggets, chicken, rice, potatoes, pb&j sandwiches, and fruit.

They did not skimp on the dessert either, a large selection of cookies, brownies, and bite sized cakes. Then if you were in the mood for some comfort, a warm banana bread pudding with vanilla frosting sauce and a berry cobbler. Both were sooo good and really hit the spot after the meal.

Overall Experience:

This was our first meal on our Disney trip and it truly was a memorable one! I really can’t recommend this place enough if you like experiencing twists on some of your favorite foods, this place is for you. They also serve a character breakfast and a regular dinner service (no characters). You will be leaving full and ready to continue your day at the awesome Animal Kingdom!

Perks:

Like I said, you get to see the original guys – Mickey, Goofy, Donald & Daisy. There are not that many other places in the parks where you can see these guys while you eat, that’s what makes Tusker’s special. Plus if you go later in the seating, you will get some quality time with your favorite characters. Each character came by twice. They also take pictures for you before you are seated outside with the African decor and are given the option to buy them. You can also sneak out some snacks – like the PB&J sandwiches and cookies. We took a few for the kids to snack on when they go hungry.

If you are venturing to Animal Kingdom or Disney – Tusker House is a definite must for a meal. I have one more Disney Dining review coming up, so stay tuned! If you missed my other post on the best place to eat in the Magic Kingdom, check it out!

- Amanda

Leftover Chicken? Make Some Chicken Parcels

Posted by AntiMomAmanda

I haven’t been inspired too much lately in the kitchen. Hate to admit it, but there have been a lot of soup & salad nights…and sometimes sans soup. Call it laziness, call it I’m pregnant AND lazy. The other night I splurged and went to good old Publix and grabbed a yummy rotisserie chicken. So what to do with all the left overs?? Chicken Pot Pie is always a nice fall back, but tonight I decided to step outside the box and make Parcels. What the hell is a parcel you may ask? A fancy word for a package. Cause I’m fancy like that. So basically they are little light-puffy-chickeny packages of deliciousness. You need to make these. I promise you will get rave reviews!

fluffy goodness

Chicken Parcels

Serves 8

1 package Frozen Pastry Sheets
3 tablespoons Butter
4 tablespoons Parsley, chopped
8 slices Cooked Ham, diced
2 cups Chicken, cooked & chopped
1 small/medium Onion, diced
1/2 to 1 cup Heavy Cream
1 Egg Yolk
Salt

Thaw out pastry dough and preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Peel and chop the onion. In a medium sized pan, fry onions in the butter until they are transparent. Place chopped chicken, ham, fried onion and parsley in a medium sized bowl. Lightly beat cream then slowly stir into the chicken mixture. You just need to put enough cream in to make the mixture moist but not runny, so you may not need the whole cup.

Roll out dough on lightly floured surface. Cut each sheet into 4 squares (5 inch squares). In the package there should be 2 pastry sheets.

Place some of the chicken mixture in the middle of each square. I used about 1 1/2 tablespoons of filling on each. Dampen the dough edges with cold water. Fold corners to center to cover the filing, pinching the edges together but leaving a small hole in the top.

Place parcels on a greased baking sheet. Then beat the egg yolk with a pinch of salt and brush the parcels. Bake for 25 minutes until they have risen and are golden brown.

The parcels can be frozen, too, just bake frozen parcels for 35 to 45 minutes for a quick dinner!

Have a great weekend kids!

- Amanda

What To Do When Your Toddler De-Clothes…

Posted by AntiMomAmanda

Seriously, I am asking. WHAT THE HELL DO YOU DO?!

For about a month now, we have been having issues with getting and staying dressed. Mornings usually consist of me exerting all my daily energy into just getting her dressed. Then followed by the ripping off of said clothes I spent a good 10 minutes trying to put on. Oh, and how could I forget the 20 minute long tantrum that follows. Now, it’s not every day, but its about 5 of the 7 days of the week. This is stuff that drives mom’s to drink bottles of wine to the head.

The newest thing is now she has figured out a way to take all her clothes off as well as the diaper. Ehhhh is she prepping us for a future career as a stripper?? For the love of God, say it ain’t so.

Today while I was preparing dinner, I had to run into the front room to grab something and left my toddler for not even a minute. I came back to the kitchen to find this:

exhibit a

A crumpled up romper and a diaper about 4 feet away. Sigh.

jay bird & mickey-not a care in the world.

Obviously, I know this is just one of the wonderful phases of a toddler (ahh-hem the cursing phase) and she is not practicing for a career that entitles her to earn dolla bills, but how am I supposed to keep this kid dressed?

Any and every piece of advice is greatly appreciated because I don’t think I can handle another mid-day show.

- Amanda

Dunkin Donuts Newest Creations!

Posted by AntiMomAmanda

I had the pleasure of attending a blogger event at the newly renovated Dania Beach Dunkin Donuts last week to sample some of DD’s newest wrap and sandwich creations. I love that Dunkin Donuts is taking it a step above breakfast and keeping us fueled through out the day on some delicious sammies instead of just donuts. But what sandwich wouldn’t be complete with out one of their famous drinks to go along with it, and they are recreating those too!

Not only is the menu getting a makeover, but most stores are getting a nice facelift. Dania Beach Dunkin Donuts has completely vamped up their interior with new seating, tables and a comfortable lounge area complete with TV’s, couches and big, comfy chairs. Bring your lap top to get some work done and use their free Wi-fi or grab a paper or magazine to read while sipping on your coffee.

So I know you guys are dying to know about the FOOD! Probably my favorite part about Dunkin since I am not a coffee drinker.

Turkey Sausage, Egg & Cheese Breakfast Sandwich

The ultimate in breakfast sandwiches, in my opinion, AND the newest addition to the DDSmart menu (280 calories). What better way to start off your day than with a delicious turkey sausage patty on top of egg and cheese?! You can choose what kind of bread you would like it on, either a bagel, croissant, flat bread or biscuit. Be sure to specify which one you’d prefer.

Egg & Cheese Wake-Up Wrap

One of the other newest DDSmart menu item (240 calories). These are items are the best for the weight conscious individuals. A simple flour tortilla that envelopes fluffy eggs and cheese. It is the perfect amount of food for a quick bite in the a.m.!

Southern Style Chicken Biscuit & Smoked Sausage Biscuit

This one was my favorite. Call it the preggo cravings, but something about a buttery, flaky biscuit and a piece of fried chicken patty really hits the spot for me! Its a complete change to the typical eggs and bacon sandwich. You can also get it with smoked sausage links. And that one is just as good as the chicken one too.

Tuna Salad & Chicken Salad Wraps

Moving on into lunch now! These wraps are awesome. A flour tortilla filled with your choice of chicken or tuna salad, bacon and cheddar cheese will make a great companion with one of DD’s sweet tea’s for a quick and yummy lunch. I am a chicken salad person, but I have to say, the tuna tasted fantastic, and I typically am very weary when it comes to where I get tuna from.

Mother’s Day Inspired Donuts

OK so what meal wouldn’t be complete without a sweet, doughy donut! In honor of the favorite women in our life DD in Dania Beach has made a few treats that will make any mommy’s heart melt with delight. Be sure to check out your local DD to see if they have these sweet treats for mom!

Baskin Robbins-Inspired Coffees

For all you coffee drinkers, if you like iced coffee’s, you are going to need to try these bad boys. Dunkin Donut’s paid homage to their sister store, Baskin Robbins (my absolute favorite ice cream store) to create some ice cream-y inspired drinks. Old Fashion Butter Pecan Iced Coffee & Mint Chocolate Chip Iced Coffee. Now, I’m the farthest from a coffee drinker, but this tasted more like a dessert drink-right up my ally! Definitely great for anyone who likes a little flavor in their coffee.

Coolatta’s – Mix it up!

Since my visit last week, and trying their Coolatta’s for the first time, I’ve already hit up my local DD for one of these guys! So deliciously refreshing. The newest flavors of DD Coolatta’s are Berry Blast, Rasberry Lime and Minute Maid Orange. But I will tell you a little secret, you can mix and match your favorite flavors. I had no idea before this day and let me tell yah, Strawberry & Lemonade mixed is probably the best thing in this world! DD also has a great deal on Coolatta’s for the month of May…only $1.99 for a small and you can add flavor shots to them.

Dania Beach Dunkin Donuts has a great offer for you too! Print out this coupon to bring it in for a $0.99 Iced Coffee – any size you’d like.

Just visit Dania Beach Dunkin Donuts @ 550 S. Federal Highway Dania Beach, FL 33004.

If you are on the run and need a bite, stay clear of the fast food joints and hit up your local Dunkin Donuts for some wonderfully delicious sandwiches morning, noon or night!

- Amanda

Disclaimer: Although I was supplied samples, all opinions and thoughts were my own, as always.

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