Netgalley Reader Wellness Challenge Accepted

Listen. You see that badge up there? The one that says "Professional Reader"? It's from NetGalley.

And I loooooove me some NetGalley.

It's a fantastic tool book publishers use to get digital copies of soon-to-be-published books in the hands of reviewers, journalists, book store owners and librarians.

I'm a little obsessed.

But, I'm also a little bit terrible at actually leaving the reviews. Now, I'll star a book up over on Goodreads, but I am less than stellar when it comes to sitting down and writing out how much I loved (or loathed, or was ambivalent about) a book.

So when I got the email about the NetGalley Reader Wellness Challenge, I hopped right on board that reading train and took the pledge. The pledge to update my profile. The pledge to read and review more books this year. The pledge to give back to the publishing and writing community some of the awesome that they give to me.

Stick around here, or check out my (woefully neglected) bookish blog- SeeSavRead.
It's about to get reeeeeal review-y up in here.

Happy SPD!

And Éirinn go Brách, too!

Busted, Not Broken

Eight days ago, I was chasing down a burglar through the deep woods on a dark night. I almost got him, but then the horror movie thing happened- I fell and twisted my ankle. Luckily, the burglar got eaten by a bear and I recovered the stolen treasure, so the sprained ankle and strained ligaments were worth it.





Ok. Fine. I was taking off my pajamas and my foot rolled over on itself. I heard two terrible POPs, and I nearly threw up, it hurt so bad.

And then I took some more Benadryl to fight the terrible sinus infection I'd been harboring since New Year's Eve.

And then I had to leave the house for six hours while various realtors brought various strangers to traipse through my home in hopes that one or two of them might want to buy it.

And then, at the end of the day, my ankle was nowhere to be seen.

And that makes it look pretty.

So, after a trip to our friendly neighborhood x-ray machine the next morning, I was told that my foot was busted, but not broken. 

"Why, that's a great title for a blog post."

It's a great way to describe my poor, neglected blog, too. I mean, I haven't posted since October. Of last year. I've had a lot to say, I've just... lacked the will to say it. I know. Pitiful. Shameful. Lazy. 

So, with all this new time on my foot hands, and this new year stretching ahead of me, I'm hoping my sweet lil site is busted, but not broken. 

Just hangin' out over on Instagram, wearing my fancy boot

.

FlatOut Bread + gift card giveaway!

Remember how much fun we had with the FlatOut pizza bread?

Now YOU can get in on the pizza-making action, too!


I'm giving away the very same awesome prize pack our family received, PLUS a $50 Wal-Mart gift card!

Let me tell you how great those spreaders are for smoothing out pizza sauce AND for digging the last tablespoon of peanut butter out of the jar. So great. 

So. 

Check out www.FlatOutBread.com (they have LOTS of great recipes), find them on the facebook, and tell me this: 

What is your favorite kind of pizza? 

And don't say pepperoni. 

You can do better than that.  

I'll notify the winner as soon as the giveaway closes! 

**I was not compensated for this post. I'm just excited about being able to give cool stuff away, and I love the folks at www.TheMotherhood.com, who facilitated this giveaway.**

Family Movie Night with FlatOut Pizza Bread

Nights at our hive can be chaotic at best, and an all-out wild rumpus at worst. Since I work a few nights a week, we all relish in the nights when all five of us are together for dinner and bedtime.

This week, we had an extra special dinner time, thanks to FlatOut Bread and The Motherhood.

"It's a good day when UPS delivers carbs to my door

FlatOut & The Motherhood sent us a box of fun goodies and three Thin Crust Artisan Pizza Flatbreads to try: Rustic White, Spicy Italian, and Heritage Wheat. 

We had only three instructions: make it fun, make it ours, make it a family movie night!

We went to The WalMart Store and stocked up on pizza toppings, drinks, and ingredients for a TOP SECRET DELICIOUS DESSERT, and found a heckuva bargain in the entertainment section. The Dr. Dolittle 4-Pack of movies was $9.99. Ten dollars for four kid-friendly movies! (WalMart online has it listed as $32. Do not pay $32.) I certainly did not also buy a five-dollar "4 Movie Marathon" for myself. 

I forgot to take pictures of the actual pizza assemblage, but let me say, it was easier than I'd anticipated with all three Bees buzzing around the kitchen. 

This is how it went: 

pre-bake pizza for a few minutes

top flatbreads with whatever your li'l heart desires

ignore the pitiful pan

bake for a few more minutes

remove from oven, refrain from nomnomnoming right then

let cool, wrangle your children

use awesome pizza cutting tool

plate, and enjoy while watching Eddie Murphy's wacky animal shenanigans. 

I swear, she really did love it.

In fact, we've had pizza several nights this week. They were that easy and delicious. 

Flatout has TONS of recipes on their website, but these are some of the ones we came up with:

Traditional:

Rustic White flatbread

Pizza sauce

Shredded mozzarella 

Pepperonis

Make-do:

Rustic White flatbread

Leftover spaghetti meat sauce

Shredded cheddar cheese

Steak Night:

Heritage Wheat flatbread

No sauce

Shredded mozzarella

Fajita beef strips

Cheese Lover's:

Heritage Wheat flatbread

Alfredo sauce

Shredded mozzarella

Grated Parmesan 

Momma's Fave:

Rustic White flatbread

Alfredo sauce

Shredded mozzarella

Leftover grilled chicken strips

And then. THEN.
I made the super awesome secret dessert pizza.

Two sticks unsalted butter + one cup light brown sugar

Cover white flatbread

...then I stopped taking pictures because I got too excited.

Basically:

When the caramel sauce looks delicious and not-yet-boily, take it out of the oven, sprinkle chocolate chips over it, wait 5 minutes, smoosh chocolate all around, wait some more incredibly loooooong minutes while it cools, break into pieces. EAT. EAT. EAT.

Also, don't tell anybody that I made matzo candy with flatbread. Mmmkay?


We loved the FlatOut bread, and loved coming up with new toppings. The kids loved "helping" with supper, and I loved that they actually ate it all.








*old-hat-by-now disclaimer*
FlatOut sent me their bread and some other small fun things. The Motherhood included a WalMart giftcard to purchase food and Movie Night treats. Everything I wrote is my own opinion and is true. Except the RomCom movie pack. I totally bought that.