Monday Made It: Healthy Passion Iced Tea Lemonade, Picadillo, & A Water Bead Deodorizer

It is time for Monday Made It.  I am joining up with Fourth Grade Frolics.

Knockoff Starbucks Passion Shaken Iced Tea Lemonade (Made Healthy)

You can read about it at my sister blog here.  (I would love to have you follow me at Balancing the Backpack as I try to start documenting my journey toward wellness, fitness, and balance. Basically, you just brew some Passion Tea, let it cool, and add some lemon slices.  It is refreshing on a hot summer day and easy.

 Picadillo and Picadillo Quesadillas

I started with Skinny Taste's Recipe for Picadillo. (By the way, Skinny Taste has a lot of great recipes.) It is a Cuban dish that is very flavorful and easy to make.  She has a crockpot version, but I find the skillet version is easier (only one pan to clean).  I just used salsa instead of tomato sauce because I had some I wanted to use up.  I also used black olives. I had Picadillo over brown rice and my husband ate it as a taco.

The second night I made Picadillo quesadillas. I just added Picadillo, fresh spinach, and cheese to some tortillas.

Waterbead Essential Oil Deodorizer

I got to share a bit with a good friend about essential oils this weekend. One of my favorite things to use Essential Oils for is to freshen up my house.  I have four pets, so there is always smells to freshen up.

You just take a mason jar, add some water beads, and about 8 drops of an Essential Oil of your choice. It freshens a room by neutralizing odors and you're not breathing synthetic chemicals or oils (such as a Glade Plugin).  I have these all over my house and in my classroom. Below, you can see my water bead jar on my desk to the right of my water bottle.

I decided Sunday night I wanted to make one for my friend's young son.  I needed water beads.  I went to two Walmarts, and they did not have any.  Michael's was closed. As a last resort at 8:45pm on Sunday night I went to Dollar Tree. Guess what? Dollar Tree prevailed where Walmart failed.

I made him a Thomas the Train Water Bead Jar.  What do you think?

Did you have any fun made-its this week?