Chocolate Chunk Peanut Butter Banana Bread

Packed full of chunks of chocolate & crunchy peanuts, this Chocolate Chunk Peanut Butter Banana Bread is a chocolate & peanut butter lover's dream come true...

This post is sponsored by Walmart, Thyme & Table, and The Women's Blogger Network. As always, all opinions & thoughts expressed below are 100% my own.

I know when most people think of their "happy place" they usually think of a beach with a cocktail in hand. Or a secluded cabin in the mountains. And while I could definitely go for either one of those places right about now, my favorite happy place happens to be my kitchen.

It is the one room in my house where I can create. And cook. And bake. And tinker with new recipe creations while also whipping up the tried & true recipes that my family loves and asks for time & time again. The rest of my house can be an absolute chaotic mess, but as long as my kitchen is clean, & tidy, and stocked with all the pretty things then I am able to find my inner calm and breathe.

One way that I am keeping my happy place decked out in trendy, yet functional utensils, gadgets, & cutting boards is with the Thyme & Table kitchen line from my local Walmart. Thyme & Table is the newest line of stylish kitchen products from Core Home. For those of you who have been following along with me for a while now, you all already know of my love for Core Home. Their products have been a staple in my kitchen for the past four years now. :)

5 Easy Ways to Bring the Comforts of Home to the Dorm Room

Make that college dorm feel more like home with these 5 Easy Ways to Bring the Comforts of Home to the Dorm Room...

This post was sponsored, but all thoughts and opinions are my own.

We just moved my son into his dorm room for his freshman year of college this past weekend. (I am still trying to wrap my mind around that one, folks!) Even though his college is just an hour drive away, this is his first time being out of the house and out on his own. An hour is far enough away that he does need to live on campus, but close enough that he can drive home when he needs to (and we can drop in for weekend visits pretty often too ;) ). 

As we were out shopping for his dorm room & packing up totes to take with us on move-in day, I knew I wanted to make sure that he had some of the comforts of home with him over the next semester. As much as I know that he is excited for this new chapter in his life & the adventures that will surely come with it, I also know that he will get home sick every now & again. That is why I came up with this budget friendly checklist of 5 easy ways to bring the comforts of home to his dorm room...

How to Create an Instagram-worthy Hummus & Veggie Board

Forget that boring store bought veggie tray! You can create an Instagram-worthy Hummus & Veggie Board in just 7 simple steps... 

This post was sponsored, but all thoughts and opinions are my own.

Have you ever been scrolling through your Instagram feed and just stopped & gawked when you saw a pic of a gorgeous veggie tray that someone had made for a summer party or backyard BBQ? Maybe you thought that person had to have a ton of extra time on their hands because most of us just pick up that pre-made (& not so Instagram-worthy) vegetable tray in the produce section of the grocery store. Maybe you even found yourself feeling a little bit intimidated and thought there was no way you would be able to pull something like that off yourself. 

But guess what? You can ditch that store bought veggie tray because putting together an Instagram-worthy veggie board is much easier than you may think! Especially when you have a little help from Sabra hummus and fresh, seasonal produce from your local Walmart! :)

Send Smiles for Less with Hallmark & Walmart

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #SendSmiles #CollectiveBias

Are the months from May to August the land of never ending birthdays and anniversaries for anyone else besides me? It quite literally starts with my sister's birthday at the end of this month and then runs the gamut clear through to the first day of September which happens to be my own birthday. ;) While I love celebrating birthdays and anniversaries and milestones and achievements, I am not necessarily a card giver. I haven't always been this way, folks. I used to run into the store a week or more before the celebrated event and spend a good half hour pouring over cards until I had found just the right one. I literally couldn't wait to give that special person their card and see their reaction. So, what changed for me?

I was visiting a family member once about a week after their birthday party and went into the kitchen to throw away a napkin. Guess what I saw sitting there on the top of their trash can? The very card I spent so much time picking out. The very card I had plopped down almost $5 for a little over a week ago.  And that is when I became greeting card jaded, friends...  I became that person. The person who never has a card with their gift who either has to verbally tell the recipient it was from them or who would quickly write out a To/From on a note card and toss it into the gift bag. I didn't like it. I hated that I didn't have a card to present with my gifts, but I just stopped buying greeting cards. When I did the math, I figured out that I was spending on average $40-$50 from the months of May to August buying greeting cards that were just being tossed out in the garbage less than a week later. Spending the time and money to pick out the perfect card no longer made sense to the frugal side of me. 

But recently I have had a change of heart, and it is all thanks to my recent discovery of the Hallmark cards starting at 47 cents at my local Walmart...

Game Time Pizza Dip Trio

I am a member of the Collective Bias®  Social Fabric® Community.  This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper amplification for Collective Bias and its advertiser.

Football always means pizza in this house. One of our favorite frozen take home & bake pizzas are the DiGiorno Rising Crust pizzas.  They are better than delivery & faster too! These pizzas bake in around 20 minutes- the delivery guy usually takes at least 30 minutes, usually more on game day. Am I right? ;) Plus, you really can't get any fresher than hot from the oven!

When I heard that Walmart had our favorite frozen pizzas on rollback for just $4.50, I headed right over and picked up a couple of pizzas for the big games this past weekend...

5 Tips to Getting Back on Track & Achieving a Balanced Lifestyle

I am a member of the Collective Bias®  Social Fabric® Community.  This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper amplification for #CollectiveBias and its advertiser. #WowThatsGood

Finding balance hasn't always been my strong suit.  Occasionally I nail the whole balance thing, but then find myself straying back to one extreme or the other.  (Usually towards the "I will eat whatever & work out when I feel like it" extreme.  Yeah, not the balanced lifestyle I was aiming for... )

And being a food blogger- especially during the holiday season- definitely doesn't make it easy to keep a healthy balance.  Hello... my job is to create amazing holiday perfect treats & sweets for the masses. ;)  By the time January 1st rolled around, I wasn't feeling very good about what I had been putting into my body lately, how very little I had been making it to the gym, and how snug my once perfectly fitted jeans had started to feel. 

I determined it was time for me to find balance...

And when I say balance, I am not just talking about the foods I eat and how many times a week I practice my yoga.