Hershey's Spreads... Oh My! And a peek at my classroom!

Hershey's Spreads Review

So recently, I had the opportunity to try some Hershey's Spreads! It's a new product by Hershey's which is similar to Nutella- only there are other flavors as well, like chocolate and almond and plain chocolate. I received the chocolate with hazelnut flavor so it was very similar to the Nutella I'm used to.
If you know me, you know that chocolate is one of my favorite foods and I could just eat it all day long, so I was especially excited for this Sample and Share. Additionally, it came RIGHT before the massive Polar Vortex smothered Michigan and my neighborhood with two and a half feet of snow. I was able to enjoy HERSHEY'S Spreads all to myself, though I wasn't able to share it with as many friends as I would have liked as I couldn't leave the house!
I loved the texture of the spread- I thought it was firm enough to work as a dip but fluid enough to spread onto toast. It goes with almost anything sweet or salty :) I ever ate some with blueberries for a sweet and sour twist- it was delicious!! While I love nuts, I'm not nuts about hazelnut. I feel I would have enjoyed the Chocolate with Almond more than the Hazelnut. The hazelnut seemed to add even more sweetness to the already sweet chocolate, thus masking a lot of the other delicious notes with, well, sweet.
My favorite pairings were using the spread in a parfait with fruit and pretzels as well as with my oatmeal in the morning and dipped shortbread cookies.
I would CERTAINLY recommend HERSHEY'S Spreads to a friend! I myself am excited to try the Chocolate with Almond flavor.

In other news, my new job is just fantastic! It's a dream job, only part time. Elementary students are just my favorites to work with! Every grade has it's ups and downs, and I loved working with high schoolers, but an elementary setting just feels right.

Here's a little pic of my desk in my classroom. It's about half the size of a regular classroom with tables, a few computers, and some filing cabinets (OK, TONS!) I just adore Dr. Seuss, so I created a Dr. Seuss bulletin board with revolving quotes :) (I also added black behind the quote... talk about a headache!)

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All opinions expressed in this blog are those of my own, not of Hershey's, Crowdtap, or any other company affiliated with them, or the products.
I received one or more of the products or services mentioned above for free. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.” 

Eating Healthier.

Eeeeek, one thing I am striving for this year is to be more CONNECTED! I haven't officially released this blog yet for that very reason; I wasn't sure if it was something I was going to stick with. I think if I had the following, it wouldn't be hard at all... but I don't know if I will, so we'll see.


One big thing that John and I started doing in early December was eating healthy. I'm a pretty healthy eater as is, I just take giant portions! I also am a die-hard sweet tooth, so anything sweet and savory is up my alley. I also love carbs. love love love. Mac and Cheese, Mashed Potatoes, Waffles, Homemade bread... OK, so I guess I'm NOT that healthy of an eater! John is opposite me. He can usually do without sweets and even carbs, but he LOVES salty things and dairy. I am telling you, that man eats at LEAST three times his daily amount of sodium (which, when you look at the DV of sodium on labels isn't that hard to accomplish. Salt is in everything and there's a lot of it.) I think we're still in a transition period grace stage. For example, for a snack, I'll have a LITTLE portion of icecream... or a LARGE portion of sherbert. John will have a banana... and load it up with peanut butter. Hey, we're getting there.

Anyway, the point of this is that I've been having a super fun time finding new recipes to try, as Emily will tell you! I will find myself on the phone with her salivating together over salads and bakes and chicken things... who knew I'd ever be that excited about dinner. I've found some great recipes that I can throw in the freezer until we're hungry. I've been told the crock-pot is man's best friend, but I've only used it once. SOMETHING likes to jump up on the counter and curl around it and poke her nose under the lid whenever I use it. Trust me, the counter is one of the most off-limit things for Penny and she knows it. Thus, I either have to be home with my eye in the kitchen or there's no crockpot stuff happening quite yet.


Here's one of the delicious things I've been creating:

 PIZZA! This is goat cheese, ground turkey, spinach, and tomato (at least on my half.) I used a Pillsbury pizza crust and just baked according to those directions, adding as much as I wanted (or as little.) It was super, super, super good and I'm just bummed I didn't have time to make homemade pizza crust!!

Anyway, so that's new with us. I'm still subbing, but rarely lately as there aren't many openings right after Christmas. I'm just reading, undecorating, organizing, and crafting in my spare time. John has been so busy with work. Pray for him because he's really getting down about it. He is constantly on conference calls and comes home from work drained. Penny is going crazy. Everyday, we find her in a new spot that she is not supposed to be in. Here was one from last week:
We have NO idea how she's even gotten up there, but it involves jumping on kitchen stuff and that is a total no-no. Very frustrating.

Also, I was offered a part-time resource room job in South Lyon at an elementary school. It would only be until the end of the year and it was every day for three hours, so no extra subbing. I was really excited that I was chosen but SUPER bummed when I found out it takes me about 2 hours to get there during rush hour in the morning. 23 SB is nice... but not that nice at that time. It is a long. Long. LONG. way.

Fall Bottles

Update on the job front: both companies I'm trying to sub for, PESG and PCMI, have pretty long process including background checks and several fingerprinting (I guess one fingerprinting for one can't be shared with the other??) Anyway, I'm continuing to plug away.

So also on the recent fall happenings, as I've had lots of time, I made this cute little project one day. We have accumulated so many wine bottles since our wedding. I've gotten some REALLY cute ones I want to use for something else, but a lot of other bottles that I wouldn't want to keep and have no idea why I've kept. Well, I saw a cute post on Pinterest for painting them with glitter on the inside for Christmas. Adorable, but I wanted some sort of fall decor since we have none. I had six bottles; what could I spell with six?

 This is what I came up with! The coloring is a little off, this was taken with my old camera, but they're super cute! The first is actually a bright red and the "N" is a wine-purple; very pretty. We love them! And I threw some twigs in from the yard since I'm too cheap to buy fake flowers :)
I used:
paintbrushes
different color acrylic paint
modge podge or other clear sealer
bottles
water and sponge
Chalkboard marker, paint marker, or paint for letters

1. I soaked the bottled in the water and scrubbed off the labels when they were ready. Totally unnecessary! Oh well, ya live and ya learn! It was a disaster and time consuming. I'm painting right over them next time.
2. I painted each bottle a different color. Let them dry.
3.The only clear seal I had on hand? Modge Podge, which I don't usually think of a sealer but I didn't want dried paint rubbing off onto my mantle! I covered the bottoms (heavily) and the sides of each bottle with a sealer.
4.  Using my nifty chalkboard marker that has come in handy SO many times long after our wedding, I doodled a letter on each bottle. You could use paint or a paint marker as well.

Lastly, the cork candles are a birthday present from my aunt a few years back. I had 4 and it just didn't work to leave the other 2 bottles empty. I thought about getting some fake foliage or something from Michaels, but I'm too cheap and went hunting in my yard for twigs instead.

xo
Alex

UPDATE: So here's the inspiration that I used for the bottles:

Here is the tutorial for how to do them from Cleverly Inspired.


The more I've been looking at candle and bottle holders (I. Have. So. Many. Candles.) the more I see some that look similar to mind. Here's another one from quite the patriotic home that looks pretty nifty.