Recipes

SPOTLIGHT! Boom Boom Shrimp Tacos

BasicMom
Photo taken by Kathryn Z.

SPOTLIGHT recipe! My good friend sent this recipe to me, so I thought I would share it with everyone else! Keep in mind we are quarantined, thanks to COVID-19! Some of the ingredients would be a little different if we were able to get to the grocery more often!

Who doesn’t love a good taco recipe!? If I could eat tacos every day, I would. BUT, I wouldn’t eat shrimp tacos, since I am not a fan of seafood. If tacos were a food group on the food pyramid, I would be set for life!

She used boom boom shrimp from Whole Foods. Then, she put Yum Yum Sauce on the shrimp.

She made her own slaw. The ingredients will be below!

Once everything was prepared, the pan seared the tortillas and served them on plates.

Slaw ingredients:

  • 1/2 cup vinegar
  • 1/8-1/4 cup cold water
  • 1 tsp sea salt
  • 1 tsp black pepper
  • 1 packet sweetener (she used Truvia)
  • Coleslaw cabbage
  • Red onion
  • Mix well and put into the fridge for 1 hour & toss every 10-20 minutes
  • Freshly squeezed lime juice

DISCLAIMER: for the coleslaw, she usually uses:

  • 1 cup purple cabbage
  • 1 cup cabbage
  • 1 cup shredded carrots
  • 1/2 cup shredded radish
  • 1/2 a shredded jalapeño
  • Cilantro (to taste)
  • Mix well and put into the fridge for 1 hour & toss every 10-20 minutes.
  • Freshly squeezed lime juice

I hope, I you try making these tacos, they look as good as the pictures and taste AMAZING! Leave a comment if you try this recipe, I want to know how they taste!

Photo taken by Kathryn Z.
Motherhood

Festival of Lights – Cincinnati

BasicMom

Having a toddler requires a lot of creativity when it comes to winter when it becomes cold outside.

One of our favorite things to do, no matter what season it is, is going to the zoo! During the winter, for a few weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas, PNC Bank sponsors Festival of Lights!

We love looking at all the lights, saying hello to the animals and riding the train. Even during the evening time when we go, we still spend 2 hours there!

It is amazing at how great the zoo is and how much fun my daughter has. We have probably been 100 times in the last couple months!

Fashion

Oversized Sweaters – Perfect for Winter

BasicMom

I absolutely LOVE being able to wear oversized sweaters with a pair of leggings! There is nothing better to throw on in the inter to feel cozy.

My all time favorite store to shop to for cute, oversized sweaters is Altatd’ State! That store always has the cutest clothes – for dress up or coziness.

With this sweater, I usually tend to dress it up a bit. I usually wear it when I go out to dinners with my friends or family. It is so cute and warm that there is no doubt I will throw it on when I don’t know what to wear!

Not to mention, my pants are from Ever Eve and I love them so much! They are Spanx Pants that look like dress pants! Most comfortable and probably most expensive pants I own!

Outfit Details:

  • Sweater – Altard’ State
  • Pants – Ever Eve
  • Bandeau – Altard’ State
Work

Boss Babe

BasicMom

BOSS BABE in the making! My blog is finally coming together and in addition, I am working on getting ads!

This Christmas season will give a lot of time to publish my new posts! I am really looking forward to spending time with family and traveling around Europe!

There are good posts to come to ring in the new year! I am excited about my blog and where it is going. Additionally, this Christmas season will allow me to work on my new posts from all my traveling!

Not to mention, life has been a little crazy in my life lately — school, work, family, house things, etc.

I wish everyone a great Christmas Holiday and a Happy New Year!

Work

Fishing Addition – First Grade

BasicMom

As I am getting ready and preparing my math lesson, I am thinking of creative ways that will engage the children! My goal is to engage the children in a way that they will learn and have fun.

I am teaching adding three numbers, so thinking of a fun game has been challenging. A number of the children have trouble adding numbers together, but I still need something a little challenging for them

So…who is ready for Addition Fishing?! Addition Fishing will consist of having the students fish for 3 numbers. The fish that they catch will be the numbers that they add together.

I made super cute magnetic fish and fishing poles for the students to use! It took me a few tries to get the right materials … paperclips weren’t strong enough, magnets weren’t strong enough at first. I had to reposition the magnets and finally got it! I practiced with a lot of different ways and got a little frustrated at times.

fishing pole with magnet
fish with magnets on the back
Fashion

Super Trendy & Comfortable Outfit For Hot Weather!

BasicMom

It has been so hot this summer in Cincinnati! I can’t believe how hot, sunny, and nice it has been!

All summer, my go-to outfit has been jean shorts and a white tank top! It is super simple and trendy. It can also be dressed up with a pair of straight jeans or dressed down with jean shorts! You can easily match any type of shoe with this outfit and add any kind of jewelry you would like!

Outfit details:

White tank top: H&M

Bandeau: Free People (purchased at Dillard’s)

Jean shorts: Altard’ State

I didn’t pair it up with any jewelry, but on a daily basis I usually wear my Apple Watch, Kendra Scott Necklace, diamond earrings and my Pandora rings! All my jewelry is silver, because I think it looks best with my skin tone, but I will occasionally wear gold!

Travel

Top 10 Parks [Playgrounds]

BasicMom

Cincinnati has a lot of wonderful parks that the kids just love!

Cincinnati Parent listed 10 Parks [Playgrounds] that are fabulous!

  1. Ault Park
  2. Cincinnati Nature Center PlayScape
  3. Highfield Discovery Garden
  4. Land of Make Believe
  5. Nature Play at BCM
  6. Parky’s Farm
  7. Pleasant Ridge Playground
  8. Smale Riverfront Park
  9. Summit Park
  10. West Fork Park Playland

Out of these 10 parks, I have been to 6 of them! I have been to Ault Park, Cincinnati Nature Center PlayScape, Parky’s Farm, Pleasant Ridge Playground, Smale Riverfront Park, and Summit Park.

My two favorite parks are Cincinnati Nature Center PlayScape and Summit Park.

The Cincinnati Nature Center PlayScape is a great place for the little ones to explore ad get their hands dirty! They are free to do mostly whatever they would like. They are able to play in the water, build with large and small logs and sticks, explore the nature surrounding them, play in mud. The Nature Center provides materials such as spoons, buckets, pans, etc for the kids to use when playing.

Summit Park has two play grounds, ages 2-5 and 5-12. There is also a large field, big bench swings and a playscape with many different sections. The playscape at Summit Park is amazing. There is a section with water, swims, stick/rocks, sand, zipline swing, etc. I love going there and walking too.

Work

Summers Out, Schools In!

BasicMom

For everyone who is still a student, has kids in school or is even a teacher, summer has flown by! It’s amazing how fast these few months fly by, especially if your summer is just as busy as the school year!

Parents, kids, and teachers are all trying to get the supplies they need, rooms set up, lessons planned and a whole lot of other last minute details. It is that time of year where we are all stressed about making sure we are ready for the school year!

Teachers:

Teachers scurry to get their classrooms set up, making sure they have enough books for their students, making sure everything is organized, making sure projectors work, etc.

Parents:

Many parents are making sure their kids have backpacks, uniforms, all the supplies the teacher requests among the basic school supplies.

Parents also need to make sure there is a bussing service for the kids to school. Where I live, 15 public/private schools bussing was taken away and they are now bus-less 2 weeks before school starts!

School supplies isn’t always cheap, you have to find those deals at the stores, which isn’t always easy. Staples, a big office supplies store, has great deals going on where some things are less than $1! I have never seen school supplies this cheap! Walmart is another big chain super store, I was able to grab a few “Pean&Gear” brand things for under $5! We don’t really want to spend a fortune on a notebook that will eventually get used up and then tossed in the trash, that’s why we try to find great deals where you won’t feel terrible about throwing away 100 or so pages.

My Experience:

As for me, I was able to get all my school supplies from Walmart! When I ship, I typically don’t shop there, but stumbled across deals I couldn’t pass up! I was able to get all my supplies there for under $20! I am surprised it wasn’t more than that. If I had gone to staples, my total cost would been at least double the cost if not less.

Wall decor is from Marshalls & TJ MAXX
Whiteboard is from Target
Pen Holder, Black Book Keeper, & White Organizers from The Container Store
Black & Gold note paper from Staples
Binder, Folder & Notebook (not pictured) from Walmart
Unicorn Planner from Michael’s
Motherhood

A Very Picky Toddler!

BasicMom

It’s time to eat lunch, so you prepare a turkey and cheese sandwich for your toddler. You sit her down in her high chair, put a bib on and finally hand her the plate with her sandwich and some fruit. Of course, when you hand your toddler a plate of food, you would think they would eat every single bit of it — not in my case! My daughter ate EVERYTHING but the bread! She usually always eat the bread, but she also thinks its funny to lick off the peanut butter and jelly when I give her that kind of sandwich. In this case, she at the turkey and cheese and the fruit but eft all the bread. I had a feeling that is what she was going to do, and therefore I only gave her half a sandwich so that I wasn’t wasting two pieces of bread.

I never knew toddlers were so picky until I had my own! As I got older, I got more picky with what I wanted to eat. For a toddler to be this picky but not wanting to eat bread kind of shocked me! She is a great eater all around, but this bread thing is a little weird.

As one of my friends said, “at least she ate what is healthy for her!” I couldn’t help but laugh be because she is absolutely right. All you can wish for a toddler is for them to eat healthy foods and not always eat that sugary stuff we tend to give them a lot!

Motherhood

She Screams for Ice Cream!

BasicMom

On those special days, where it is nice and sunny and hot out, we walk down the street to this cute little ice cream parlor.

Once the little princess wakes up from her nap and has lunch, sometimes I will ask if she wants to go get ice cream. Her little brown eyes get as wide as head and she gets the biggest smile on her face as she shakes her head with a nod. Lilly goes to grab her shoes and brings them to me, sits down on the floor and lets me put her shoes on her feet.

She heads to the door and tries to open it, but doesn’t have the full strength so I open it; she rushes to the elevator and pushes the button then runs to the wall. I make her stand by the wall so that she isn’t blocking the door if anyone is getting off! Once the door opens, she runs inside the elevator and always goes to the corner, unsure why, but she thinks it is funny! We get off the elevator, head outside and finally make our way to the ice cream parlor. We always share vanilla with some kind of topping. She loves sharing with me and sometimes I let her finish it herself, without my helping and makes a mess. She makes a great ice cream date and we enjoy the little mother-daughter day dates.

It is dangerous how close we live to the ice cream parlor, 3 minutes walking! During the summer we go more often than we should, but how can you not!? On those hot days you want something to cool yourself down with and ice cream is definitely the cure!