A Little Update..

I know I haven't been able to post any blogs in awhile and I'm way behind, especially on all my holiday crafts, but I am starting to catch up. At least I'm trying as I'm beginning to work on my Christmas decorations. In the past few months, I've been traveling a lot, seeing the world as much as I can, while I'm still young, with the love of my life.

I've also learned some sad news about my dog. She turned 12 back in October and we found out that she has cancer, lymphoma to be exact, so we know we don't have a whole lot of time left with her, unless we get a miracle. Just have to keep positive and spend as much time as possible with her. She's still a ball of energy, so it's a good sign.

The end of the year is a busy time, with the holidays, getting the house ready for each one and all the cooking and baking. I have so many ideas and spinoffs of things I've found online or have learned from someone, that I can't wait to share with all my readers, so I will make sure I start finding more time to get them written out, hopefully in time for the holidays.

Deviled Eggs

I've tried many different deviled eggs and let me tell you, every one of them have tasted different. Some I liked and some I didn't. I stick to the recipe I always helped my mom make growing up because to me, it tastes a lot better than any other one I've tried. It's a fairly simply recipe. I don't measure the ingredients really, it's more of eyeballing them and tasting it as I go along to see if I need anything else.

Ingredients:
4-5 large eggs
mustard
pepper
Worcestshire sauce
mayonnaise

Optional:
paprika
relish

The first thing you have to do is boil eggs. I usually boil 4-5 depending on how many people are going to be eating them because you have to remember each egg, makes 2 pieces. To boil eggs, cover eggs with water in a pot, cover and bring to boil. Once they begin to boil, turn burner off and let them sit for 12 minutes with the lid on. Once they are done, it's best to let them cool a little to where you can handle them without burning yourself or if you're in a hurry, hold them under running cold water as you're peeling them so they don't burn you.

Once the eggs are peeled, cut them in half, the long way. Carefully remove the yolk by turning the egg over and gently pushing the white, popping out the yolk. I've tried many methods of mashing the yolks and I finally came up with the best one, that makes the yolks always smooth, never lumpy. A strainer. I have a little metal strainer that I use (in the picture), that I put all the yolks in and use the back of a spoon to mash them through it. If you don't have one, you can always just use a fork; it just takes longer and it may have little lumps in it.

When the yolks are all mashed, you can start adding the other ingredients. A few shakes of Worcestershire sauce is all you need since it is pretty salty. Be careful not to add too much. Remember less is more. You can always add, but can never take out. 1/4 tsp pepper and a  1/2 tsp mustard is about as much as I use, but you can always add more to your liking. For the mayonnaise, I start with about a tbsp or two and mix it up and add little by little until it's the creamy consistency that I want. After you've tasted it and got it to your liking, I like to split mine in half and do the deviled eggs two different ways: one plain and one with relish. If you want the plain, then you are done and can start spooning the filling back into the egg halves. I like to top the plain ones with sprinkled paprika. If you want the relish ones, add about a tsp of relish (I like to use dill relish) and then fill the egg halves. Both are equally good, but some people don't like pickles so they stick to just making the plain ones.

Minecraft Cake

I enjoy making cakes and decorating them, tests my abilities to be creative. Now, I know nothing about this game, Minecraft, but one of the kids I work with is really into it and he was turning 13 so I wanted to make him a special cake for his special day of becoming a teenager. I tried Googling it to see what ideas would pop up to help me figure out how to decorate this cake. Now, there were some really neat ideas on there, but they seem to be ones that were very time consuming and I didn't have days to design this cake. I've also never worked with fondant and didn't want to start using it at a time where I'd have to roll and cut out hundreds of squares to make the all the little pixels that the game consists of.

I decided to go with the cut up and layered cake to make it look like it came from a scene from the game. I decided to make 4- 9 in square cakes. I didn't have the time to go out and buy all the ingredients to make these so I used box cake mix to make it easier. However, I did take the time to make the icing from scratch because store bought icing is way to sweet and well, I just don't like it. I made chocolate cake and for the filling icing, I tried making a mint chocolate chip icing, that turned out pretty delicious. I'll add the icing recipe below. For the outer icing, I made a mix of vanilla and chocolate chocolate chip icing.

I made the cakes and threw them into the oven. It helps to put a square piece of parchment paper on the bottom of the pans and spray the sides with nonstick cooking spray so you don't find yourself with a rough bottom where parts stuck and you don't have an even square cake. Once they are completely cool, I cut the tops of the cakes off so they would be flat, since the middle usually rises, causing a hill and we want flat land for this cake. The tops I put aside and plan on making cake pops with them. With the flat squares, I put the icing in a plastic ziploc bag and cut the tip so it would squeeze out in a thick layer. I outlined the first square with the icing and then filled in the rest with more icing, laying one of the other pieces of cake on top. I repeated the same for the other two pieces of cake, so I ended up with two cakes filled with icing. Then I cut the cakes in half so I had 4 long pieces and cut two of them a bit shorter so I'd have a stair like effect, when layered. With the little bit of icing I had left, I used it to stick the pieces together.

Once it was in the shape that I wanted, I made another batch of icing, to cover the outside and make it look like one big piece instead of a few chunks. The second batch, I made just like the mint one, except I didn't put the peppermint oil in it. I used 1 tsp of vanilla extract instead. I also divided it into two parts 1/3 of it I added green food coloring to, to make the grass and the other 2/3 I added cocoa, to make it look like the dirt, as well as hand mixing in a handful of mini chocolate chips to make it look a little rocky.. Using cocoa made it a very light brown, not so much the dark dirt color that I was hoping for, so I took some of the cake that I had cut off earlier and crumbled it up and covered the chocolate icing with it. Make sure you don't cover the whole cake with it though. The tops of the pieces of cake should be covered with the green icing, piped on with the grass tip that you can find in the cake decorating section of a craft store or possibly even Walmart. I only needed one batch of icing to cover the whole cake but I really had to stretch it, so be careful when icing it so you don't run out. You can tell by looking at the picture, how the icing goes.

I tried making green rice krispy treats and wrapping them around KitKat sticks to make square trees like I saw online, but the rice krispy treats ended up being too heavy and made the trees sink into the cake, so instead, I made them into green slime cubes that you can find in the game. I think it ended up working better that way anyway. I also had little chocolates that looked like pieces of gold from the game that I put around the cake.

I was trying to figure out what to put on top of the cake since trying to make any character from the game out of gum paste was going to be impossible with the little amount of time I had to get it decorated and all the little figurines that you can buy of them, he already owned. So I found 3-D cardboard cutouts that you can buy and assemble and they worked perfectly. Once it was all done, I got a simple tube of icing, the kind that doesn't taste good, but it's good to write on cakes with and wrote Happy Birthday.

*NOTE: I needed to transport this across town and it didn't do well traveling 25 minutes, in the sun and going over bumps, but it was fixable. It'd probably be easier to have everything ready and bring it to your destination, if you need to move it, before assembling it with the outer icing. Or if you have someone to hold it for you and they can stay completely still, you'll be good too.

Mint Chocolate Chip Icing:
2 sticks of butter, room temperature
4 cups powdered sugar, sifted
2 tbsp milk
4-5 drops peppermint oil
3-4 drops green food coloring
1 cup mini chocolate chips

In the mixer, whip butter for 4-5 minutes until light and fluffy. Add powdered sugar a cup at a time along with the peppermint oil and food coloring. Add milk accordingly, if you feel it's too thick. Once all is mixed, beat another 3-4 minutes. Remove from mixer and hand mix in the mini chocolate chips.

*You can find the peppermint oil with the cake/candy making supplies at any craft store. You can also use peppermint extract from the grocery store, it's just not as strong and you may need to add more drops.

Homemade Pizza

I think homemade always tastes better than store bought. Awhile back, an ex's parents gave me a recipe for an I guess, semi-homemade pizza. I thought I'd give it a shot and I haven't made pizza any other way since. I'm not a big fan of tomatoes so I much rather have white sauce or a pesto or even bbq sauce on my pizza than just typical tomato sauce. That's probably why I like making my own pizza so much. That and the fact that when you go to Pizza Hut or Dominos, they don't put many toppings nor do they put a lot of cheese that I like. This is a pretty easy way to make pizza at home and the topping possibilities are endless. I've made this recipe many times and have tried different sauces and different toppings and it has always turned out great.


I was originally taught to use this pizza kit. It comes in a box and is pretty cheap, but I only needed the dry ingredients in it to make the crust. I didn't use the cheese or the sauce or anything so it got to the point where I just started buying the cheap packs of pizza crust mix that usually cost under $1 and bought everything separate. If you are making your pizza with tomato sauce and you want pepperoni on it, then your better off buying this box and just buying some more toppings and some cheese to go with it.

To make the crust, follow the directions on whatever packet of dry ingredients you end up buying. I like to add garlic powder to mine to make it taste more like a breadstick. When the dough is mixed, drop about a tsp of canola oil on top the ball of dough, cover it with saran wrap and let it rest for 20 minutes.

While it's resting, prepare your toppings. Make sure if you're putting any kind of meat on your pizza that it is precooked. Don't put raw because the pizza doesn't cook long enough to thoroughly cook it. A few combinations that I've tried and really liked are:

• bbq sauce, shredded chicken, olives, pineapple
• white sauce, olives, ricotta cheese, spinach, ground turkey
• basil pesto, shredded chicken, ricotta cheese, olives, cilantro
• white sauce, ham, pineapple, olives
• white sauce, ricotta cheese, crumbled bacon, olives
• tomato sauce, pepperoni, turkey sausage, ham

 Preheat the oven to 400. Roll out or stretch the dough on a floured surface until it's about 12" round or will fit your pizza pan. Spray the pan with nonstick cooking spray and lay the dough out, folding up the edges to make a crust. You can also add cheese to the inside of the crust if you'd like. Use a fork and poke holes throughout the dough so air can circulate and your dough won't bubble up. Spread a layer of sauce evenly over the dough. Cover with you toppings. I like a lot of toppings so my pizzas are always pretty thick where you can't see much of the sauce anymore. Put it in the oven for 10-15 minutes. Take it out and cover your pizza with cheese. I usually buy a 2 cup bag of shredded mozzarella or pizza cheese and use the whole bag because I like a lot of cheese. Put it back in the oven and cook for another 15-20 minutes or until the cheese is lightly golden. Take out and let it set for 10 minutes. If you cut it right away, it'll fall apart, especially if you have a lot of stuff in it. I've learned from experience. Plus, it'll be too hot to eat anyway. Use a pizza cutter and cut the pizza into 6 pieces. That's usually the best size where it won't fall apart.

*Reheating leftovers: it tastes best if you put it on a baking sheet and pop it in the oven at 400 for about 10 minutes, but the microwave will do too, it just won't be crispy like it's straight out of the oven.

Christmas Cookies

Christmas time is one of my favorite times of year. I love to cook and bake and this is the time that I can go all out baking and have fun with it. On average, I make 10-15 different kinds of cookies every year and they always seem to be a hit with all my family and friends. Some are old favorites and some I find throughout the year and want to change it up and try something new.

Venetians or 7-layer cookies
Eggnog Thumbprints
Florentines
Rudolphs
Holly Clusters
Rice Krispy Balls
Russian Teacakes
Bakeless Fruitcake
Santa's Whiskers
Hungarian Cookies
Pecan Tassies
Lemon Pretzels
Red Velvet
Macadamia Nut Cookies
Raisin Cookies


With such a variety of cookies, it makes for a very good presentation and everybody seems to be so impressed, when majority of the cookies are so easy to make. The only few that take some time to do, are the Venetians, Pecan Tassies, and the Hungarian cookies.

Crock pot Sweet Potato, Turkey and Quinoa Chili

Quinoa....this stuff is....different. I wanted to start cooking healthier and I started researching different grains that are better for you than others. I came across quinoa. I wasn't sure how it tasted and it was fairly new to hit popularity so not many people knew much about it. I originally tried it plain, without any seasonings or sauces because I wanted to see how it tasted. I didn't like it. But I didn't want to rule it out quite yet so I searched on Pinterest for recipes that looked good and could ease me into eating it and I came across this one for a chili where it was mixed with sweet potatoes and ground turkey and I actually really liked it. Most people may not like the initial taste of quinoa, but when you season it right and mix it with other things, it does taste pretty good. I decided to give this chili a try and tho I don't like beans I was able to omit them and still have a tasty meal. If you want the original with the beans in it like typical chili has, click on the link  http://iowagirleats.com/2014/01/13/crock-pot-sweet-potato-and-quinoa-turkey-chili/ and follow their recipe. I'm sure either version is just as good as the other.

*Note: You can buy quinoa rinsed or not, so make sure you check if it's been pre-rinsed before cooking it. The rinsed kind are a lot easier to cook with because when you have to rinse it yourself, it can make a bit of a mess because they're such small little balls, that they stick to everything. You can find bags of it at Costco or Sam's Club.

You'll need:
1 pound ground turkey
1 small onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
salt and pepper
4 cups chicken broth
1 28oz can crushed tomatoes
1 cup uncooked quinoa, rinsed
1 large sweet potato, peeled and chopped into small chunks
2 tbsp chili powder
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp red chili pepper flakes In a large skillet, put a little bit of olive oil to coat the pan and saute the chopped onions 5-7 minutes. Add the ground turkey and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cook until no longer pink. Make sure to break up the turkey so it's in smaller crumbles as it's cooking. Add garlic and let it cook 30 seconds more. Scrape out pan into your crock pot. Add remaining ingredients and cook on high for 3 hours or low for 6 hours. Check sweet potatoes to make sure they are tender, by sticking a knife through one. Pour into bowl and top with toppings of your choice.

*I topped mine with tortilla strips, shredded cheese and avocado. Fresh cilantro would've been good too.


*Save 1 cup of chicken broth to mix in when refrigerating it so it won't be dry when you reheat it.

Sweet Chicken (or Pork) Barbacoa

I don't eat fast food. The closest I get, is eating at Cafe Rio and there's only one thing that I get there every time I go: the Sweet Pork Barbacoa Salad. It is amazing. I'd eat it all the time if it wasn't so expensive and if it was a bit more healthier for me. I found a copykat recipe for it and thought I'd give it a try and hope that it tastes the same. It tastes pretty darn close. I've tried making this recipe a few times, a few different ways and each way came out tasting just as good. I tried going the little bit healthier route and using chicken breasts instead of pork. The original recipe in the link, uses pork butt, but my version will use chicken. You can always follow the link for the pork. They both taste great. http://www.onegoodthingbyjillee.com/2013/05/my-favorite-cafe-rio-copycat-recipes.html

The last time I tried this, I made the chicken and put it in lettuce leaves for a lettuce wrap feel and added a little bit of cheddar cheese, fresh cilantro, a couple slices of avocado, some cilantro lime rice and a few tortilla strips to give it that little bit of salty crunch. I've also made mine a salad in a taco bowl that I made from using my tortilla bowl molds and putting a tortilla in the oven to make it harden into a bowl shape.

You'll need:
4 chicken breasts
2 cans of Root Beer (I had a 2 liter bottle and used 1/2 of it)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp garlic
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup water
1 can diced green chiles
1 14oz can of enchilada sauce (red)
1 cup brown sugar

Marinate chicken in a mixture of 1 can of soda and the 1/2 cup brown sugar, in a reclosable bag. I like to marinate it overnight, but marinating it for a couple hours works just as well if you're short on time.

Drain the marinade and place chicken in your crockpot along with 1/2 of a can of root beer, water, garlic and salt. Cook on high 2-4 hours or low 7-8 hours. Remove chicken from pot and shred. At this point it should be easy to shred using two forks. If it doesn't fall apart easily, let it cook a little longer.

While chicken is cooking, in a blender preferably so you don't have big chunks of chiles, blend together the remaining 1/2 of can of soda, can of diced chiles, 1 cup brown sugar and the can of enchilada sauce.

Put the shredded chicken along with the sauce you just blended together, all back into the crockpot and heat through, for 15 minutes or so.

Healthy Blueberry French Toast Bake

I love fruit and any chance I get to add fruit to a healthy recipe, I'm trying it. I stumbled across this recipe on Pinterest and thought it was worth a shot. I don't like milk and I've tried soy milk and didn't care for that, but then one day the store had almond milk on sale so I thought I'd give it a try and it actually tasted pretty good. At least the vanilla flavored almond milk does and it doesn't make you feel guilty with all those extra calories that regular 2% milk has that I grew up on. I was able to make this ahead of time and cut it up and have an easy meal for breakfast for the week, that just had to be warmed up.




I got the recipe from http://www.thegraciouspantry.com/clean-eating-blueberry-french-toast-casserole/. I made a few slight changes. You can easily substitute the blueberries for a different kind of berry if you prefer. I'd like to try it next time with raspberries. I also added extra blueberries as you can tell because one, I had them and two, I love berries. I also made a double batch, so if you want to make as much as I did in the picture, double the recipe below.

You'll need:
6 cups cubed, wheat bread
8 egg whites
1 1/2 cups unsweetened vanilla almond milk (I'd add an extra 1/4-1/2 cup)
1/4 cup honey
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp almond extract
2 tsp ground cinnamon
3 cups blueberries

Preheat oven to 350. Whisk together the egg whites, almond milk, honey, extracts and cinnamon in a large bowl until everything is combined. For the double batch, I used a 9x13 baking dish. You could use a smaller one if you're just making the normal recipe. Fill the dish with the cubed bread.
Pour the liquid mixture over the bread and allow it to sit for at least 30 minutes until most of the liquid has been absorbed by the bread. Mix in the blueberries. Bake for about 45 minutes or until there is no longer any liquid between the bread. It should look similar to the picture on the right. If you doubled the batch, it will need to stay in for a little bit longer. When it's cool, you can cut it up and serve or put it in containers if you're doing a meal prep and it will be good for the week. Depending on how much you eat, it will last for 4-6 meals.

*It was a little dry, so I'd add a bit more milk next time, but it was still delicious.

Eggplant Parmesan

This is a fairly simple recipe. It's easy to make and it doesn't require a lot of ingredients.It's also a bit healthier than most recipes because you don't fry the eggplant, you bake it.

You'll need: 
1 medium to large eggplant
Jar of tomato sauce
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
2 eggs
Panko crumbs
Olive oil

Preheat the oven to 375. Scramble the eggs in a bowl and add a little bit of water to them so they're not as thick. In another bowl, pour in about a cup of the Panko crumbs. You'll probably need more, but it's better to use a little at a time so you don't waste much. Slice the eggplant in equal size slices, best at about 1/2 inch thick or you can slice them the long way too. Dip them in the egg mixture and then into the crumbs, coating both sides. Lay them single layer on a baking sheet and drizzle olive oil over them. Stick them in the over for 12 minutes. Take them out, flip them over and sprinkle olive oil over the other side and put back into the oven for another 12 minutes or until they're golden brown. Take them out and layer them in a baking dish:

 layer of sauce

layer of eggplant

layer of sauce

layer of cheese

layer of eggplant

layer of sauce

remainder of cheese

Put in oven for 15-20 minutes or until cheese is melted.

Chicken Salad

Everybody has their own versions of chicken salad. I've even tried a couple of different variations, but there was one recipe that mom used to always make for me when I was younger, that I just seem to keep coming back to. The amount of ingredients varies depending on how much you're trying to make, but you can eyeball it and add or subtract stuff if you want. The secret ingredient to this deliciousness is mango chutney. It gives it a slight sweetness.

You'll need:
1 cup chicken, cubed or shredded
1/2 cup chopped celery
1/2 cup grapes, cut in half
1-2 tsp mango chutney (I like extra)
1-2 tbsp mayonnaise or greek yogurt (depends on how dry or wet you like it)
salt and pepper

Shredded chicken works a lot better when trying to fit in a sandwich, but cubed chicken works too. Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix well. If you have big chunks of mango in your chutney, you may want to chop them into smaller bits. If you want to take a healthier route, try using greek yogurt instead of mayo to cut out the fat. I've tried it and it was good, but it does taste a bit different. As pictured, I think it tastes really good on pita bread, but it can be enjoyed with many things: rolls, bread, crackers, tortillas.

Dr Seuss Day

This week is Nevada Reading Week and since I'll be subbing most of the week, I thought I'd participate in the dress up days. Today was Dr Seuss day. I didn't have any Dr Seuss shirts, nor did I have any red and white striped clothing so I thought I'd make my own shirt. Luckily for me, everything I needed to buy to make it, was either on sale or I had a discount coupon for it so this shirt cost me about $5 to make. A lot better than spending a lot of money on a shirt from the store. And it took hardly any time to do.

Things you'll need:

 

T-shirt
Sheet of white felt
Black fabric paint

White thread and needle

Wash your t-shirt so the color is set. Sometimes the color comes of of t-shirts depending on the brand you get. I went onto Pinterest and found a template for "Teacher 1" copied it and pasted it into a word document so I could adjust it to the size I wanted, and printed it out. The white felt is light and thin enough that you could lay it over the printout and still see where the lines are to trace. Once it's traced, cut it out and go over it with the black paint. I used a fabric paint that had a tiny little tip at the end that would make it easier to use with smaller lines. When the paint was dry, I sewed it onto the shirt.

Stuffed Sweet Potatoes

I'm not a huge fan of potatoes, but sweet potatoes, are awesome! I always like adding flavor to simple things, to make them extraordinary. I never liked feta or maybe I was scared to try it, but decided to give it a shot one day and turns out, it takes great.

You'll need:
Sweet potato
Feta cheese, crumbled
Chopped spinach, cooked
Chopped Garlic
Salt
Pepper

I like to cook my sweet potato in the oven, but if you're in a hurry, the microwave does just as good to cook it. In the oven, I put the potato on an aluminum foil lined pan and put it in a 400 degree oven for 30-40 minutes depending on how big it is. You can stick a knife in the largest part and if it easily goes through, it's done. In the microwave, I start with 5 minutes and flip it occasionally until a knife slides easily through it. When it's cooked, let it cool slightly so you can handle it. Slice it in half and gently scoop out the potato into a bowl, being careful not to break the skin so you can put it back. Or if you don't care about presentation, just leave it in the bowl. Mash the potato with a potato masher if you have one or just a fork, if you don't. Mix in the feta cheese, spinach and garlic and season it with salt and pepper. Carefully scoop it back into the skin before serving or  eat it straight out of the bowl.

Crock Pot Cream Cheese Chicken Chili

I love anything with cream cheese in it. I also love anything I can put in my crock pot. This recipe is super easy and doesn't have too many ingredients in it. The best part, you dump it all into the crock pot and leave it be.

I found this recipe used often online and they were all pretty much the same, but I based mine from http://www.truelifekitchen.com/2014/01/crock-pot-cream-cheese-chicken-chile.html Theirs has black beans in it, but I omitted them since I don't like beans and used fresh chicken instead of frozen, but I'm sure either version is as good as the other.


You'll need:

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 can Rotel tomatoes
1 can corn kernels, not drained
1 pkg Ranch dressing mix
1 tbsp cumin
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp onion powder
1 8oz pkg cream cheese

Put chicken in crock pot. Pour all other ingredients over top of chicken, except cream cheese, and stir. Lay cream cheese on top. Cover. Cook on low 6-8 hours or high 3-4 hours. You can stir once or twice throughout the cooking process. It will look like the ingredients separated, like you did something wrong, but don't worry. After the full time cooking, mix it well and the everything will combine correctly. Either break up the chicken or as I like to, shred the chicken.

*I like to put mine over a bed of brown rice.

2 chicken breasts, still frozen

1 can Rotel tomatoes

1 can corn kernels, do not drain

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

1 pkg. Ranch dressing mix

1 T cumin

- See more at: http://www.truelifekitchen.com/2014/01/crock-pot-cream-cheese-chicken-chile.html#sthash.UIdpkt7g.dpuf

2 chicken breasts, still frozen

1 can Rotel tomatoes

1 can corn kernels, do not drain

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

1 pkg. Ranch dressing mix

1 T cumin

- See more at: http://www.truelifekitchen.com/2014/01/crock-pot-cream-cheese-chicken-chile.html#sthash.UIdpkt7g.dpuf

2 chicken breasts, still frozen

1 can Rotel tomatoes

1 can corn kernels, do not drain

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

1 pkg. Ranch dressing mix

1 T cumin

- See more at: http://www.truelifekitchen.com/2014/01/crock-pot-cream-cheese-chicken-chile.html#sthash.UIdpkt7g.dpuf

2 chicken breasts, still frozen

1 can Rotel tomatoes

1 can corn kernels, do not drain

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

1 pkg. Ranch dressing mix

1 T cumin

- See more at: http://www.truelifekitchen.com/2014/01/crock-pot-cream-cheese-chicken-chile.html#sthash.UIdpkt7g.dpuf

2 chicken breasts, still frozen

1 can Rotel tomatoes

1 can corn kernels, do not drain

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

1 pkg. Ranch dressing mix

1 T cumin

- See more at: http://www.truelifekitchen.com/2014/01/crock-pot-cream-cheese-chicken-chile.html#sthash.UIdpkt7g.dpuf

2 chicken breasts, still frozen

1 can Rotel tomatoes

1 can corn kernels, do not drain

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

1 pkg. Ranch dressing mix

1 T cumin

- See more at: http://www.truelifekitchen.com/2014/01/crock-pot-cream-cheese-chicken-chile.html#sthash.UIdpkt7g.dpuf

2 chicken breasts, still frozen

1 can Rotel tomatoes

1 can corn kernels, do not drain

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

1 pkg. Ranch dressing mix

1 T cumin

- See more at: http://www.truelifekitchen.com/2014/01/crock-pot-cream-cheese-chicken-chile.html#sthash.UIdpkt7g.dpuf

2 chicken breasts, still frozen

1 can Rotel tomatoes

1 can corn kernels, do not drain

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

1 pkg. Ranch dressing mix

1 T cumin

- See more at: http://www.truelifekitchen.com/2014/01/crock-pot-cream-cheese-chicken-chile.html#sthash.UIdpkt7g.dpuf

2 chicken breasts, still frozen

1 can Rotel tomatoes

1 can corn kernels, do not drain

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

1 pkg. Ranch dressing mix

1 T cumin

- See more at: http://www.truelifekitchen.com/2014/01/crock-pot-cream-cheese-chicken-chile.html#sthash.UIdpkt7g.dpuf

2 chicken breasts, still frozen

1 can Rotel tomatoes

1 can corn kernels, do not drain

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

1 pkg. Ranch dressing mix

1 T cumin

- See more at: http://www.truelifekitchen.com/2014/01/crock-pot-cream-cheese-chicken-chile.html#sthash.UIdpkt7g.dpuf

2 chicken breasts, still frozen

1 can Rotel tomatoes

1 can corn kernels, do not drain

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

1 pkg. Ranch dressing mix

1 T cumin

- See more at: http://www.truelifekitchen.com/2014/01/crock-pot-cream-cheese-chicken-chile.html#sthash.UIdpkt7g.dpuf

2 chicken breasts, still frozen

1 can Rotel tomatoes

1 can corn kernels, do not drain

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

1 pkg. Ranch dressing mix

1 T cumin

1 t chili powder

1 t onion powder

1 8-oz pkg. cream cheese

- See more at: http://www.truelifekitchen.com/2014/01/crock-pot-cream-cheese-chicken-chile.html#sthash.UIdpkt7g.dpuf

2 chicken breasts, still frozen

1 can Rotel tomatoes

1 can corn kernels, do not drain

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

1 pkg. Ranch dressing mix

1 T cumin

1 t chili powder

1 t onion powder

1 8-oz pkg. cream cheese

- See more at: http://www.truelifekitchen.com/2014/01/crock-pot-cream-cheese-chicken-chile.html#sthash.UIdpkt7g.dpuf

2 chicken breasts, still frozen

1 can Rotel tomatoes

1 can corn kernels, do not drain

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

1 pkg. Ranch dressing mix

1 T cumin

1 t chili powder

1 t onion powder

1 8-oz pkg. cream cheese

- See more at: http://www.truelifekitchen.com/2014/01/crock-pot-cream-cheese-chicken-chile.html#sthash.UIdpkt7g.dpuf

2 chicken breasts, still frozen

1 can Rotel tomatoes

1 can corn kernels, do not drain

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

1 pkg. Ranch dressing mix

1 T cumin

1 t chili powder

1 t onion powder

1 8-oz pkg. cream cheese

- See more at: http://www.truelifekitchen.com/2014/01/crock-pot-cream-cheese-chicken-chile.html#sthash.UIdpkt7g.dpuf

No Sew Tie Blanket

Now, I've always seen these awesome looking tie blankets, but never actually made one. After finding out just how easy they are to make, I wish I would've made some a long time ago. I saw some NFL fleece at Joanns on sale and thought it would be a great idea to make one for my boyfriend. He has a king size bed, might I add, so making a blanket to fit, wasn't easy, but I was up for the challenge because I knew it was something that he would enjoy and could actually use.

Here is the site I used for my guidelines of making this blanket. http://www.ehow.com/how_4811095_king-sized-fleece-blanket.html It has more detailed instructions. I'm just giving you some extra tips on the way I made mine, here.

Before you begin, keep in mind that this is for a king size bed so if you need to make it smaller, you will need to look up the measurements for the specified size bed. It is very time consuming though, so make sure you have a good amount of free time. Pick out what fabrics you want to use. You need 8 yards of the 60 in wide fleece, 4 yards per side. Mine was double sided and I made it checkered, so I ended up with 4 different patterns, 2 yards of each: Seahawks print, grey, lime green and navy blue. You can make them all match or do two that go together on one side and two that go together on the other side. I thought about doing that with one side representing the Seahawks for him and the other side representing the Cowboys for me. I then got some posterboard and cut out a 12"x12" square to use as a pattern and traced and cut 128 squares, 32 of each fabric. The blanket was 8 squares x 8 squares. Once the squares are cut, you need to cut 2" x 1"w slits along all 4 sides of each square as well as cut a 4" x 4" square from each of the four corners. This does take a lot of time to do so pace yourself. I was getting cramps in my thumb from cutting so much. Once everything is cut and ready to be assembled, it's smooth sailing the rest of the way. You'll need a good size open area for assembly. Place the squares in the pattern you want them so you know which ones get tied together and start tying. I did a double not on each one to make sure that they would stay together. Once you have one side done, work on the other side. When both pieces are done, you can tie them together by matching up the squares. I didn't do it with this one, but if you are making this somewhere where it gets pretty cold or if you're going to use it as a comfortable on a bed, you can add some stuffing in between the layers for more warmth.


This blanket can be washed. I know he's washed it quite a few times and it hasn't started to come apart or anything.

Soft Baked Pretzels

This is a copykat recipe of Auntie Anne's pretzels. I got the recipe from http://www.food.com/recipe/auntie-annes-pretzels-copycat-59462

You will need:
1 ¹⁄₂ cups water, luke warm
1 ¹⁄₄ tsp active dry yeast (1 pkg.)
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 ¹⁄₄ tsp salt
1 cup bread flour
3 cups flour
2 cups water
2 tbsp baking soda
coarse salt

Toppings:
butter (melted)

cinnamon sugar
ranch dressing seasoning
sour cream and onion seasoning
cheddar cheese and jalapenos

Stir yeast into bowl of lukewarm water until dissolved. Add sugar and salt and stir to dissolve. Then  add flour and knead dough until smooth and elastic. Let rise at least 1/2 hour.

Let rise.

While dough is rising, stir together 2 cups warm water and 2 tbsp baking soda until dissolved. Set aside.

After it rises.

After dough has risen, divide dough into twelve equal pieces and roll into a long rope (about 1/2 inch or less thick) and shape into pretzel shape.
Dip pretzel in baking soda solution and place on greased baking sheet. Allow pretzels to rise again for 10 minutes. If you allow to rise too long, they will get pretty puffy and somewhat loose the pretzel shape, like some of mine did, but they taste just as good. Bake in oven at 450 for about 10 minutes or until golden.

Brush with or dip it in melted butter and sprinkle with coarse salt. You can also try sprinkling it with things like cinnamon sugar or Ranch dressing mix (powder). I thought about sprinkling some shredded cheddar cheese and slices of jalapenos on top as well, before popping it into the oven.

French Dip Sliders

Whenever I got to meet up with friends for lunch, we'd go to Applebees for their lunch specials. They had these little french dip sliders as one of their options and they were sooo good. I thought I'd try to come up with a recipe that was like them, but one that I could make at home.

You'll need:
King's Hawaiian Original Sweet Hawaiian Dinner Rolls 12 ct
12 slices of roast beef
6 slices of swiss cheese
Au Jus gravy mix packet (or can create from scratch)

You can use any other small slider size roll, if there's a different one you like. I like using the sweet hawaiian rolls because it adds a little more flavor with the sweetness. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Split the rolls in half, try to keep both parts attached. Fold up a piece of roast beef and set on slider. Rip a piece of cheese in half and lay on top the roast beef. Do this for all rolls. Stick in oven for 10-15 minutes or until cheese is melted and rolls are slightly toasted, take out of oven and put top of roll over the cheese, completing the slider. While they are in the oven, you can either make an au jus sauce from scratch or do what I did and buy a packet of the seasonings and follow the directions on the packet to make the gravy. Serve it in a little bowl along side the sliders so you can dip the mini sandwiches in it.

Crab and Shrimp Ravioli with a Saffron Cream Sauce

One day, before my boyfriend was leaving to his new base in Anchorage, he wanted to cook me a special dinner. He said anything I wanted, he'd make me. Now, being a person who likes to cook, I wanted to try something different and well, I really wanted to test his cooking skills, so I went online and tried to find the most complicated thing I could find for him to make me and I stumbled across this recipe for crab and shrimp ravioli. http://www.food.com/recipe/crab-shrimp-ravioli-with-saffron-cream-sauce-448376
It ended up being a meal that we cooked together rather than him making it for me because it was a bit tricky making the pasta from scratch, but it was a good lesson for both of us and it was a fun thing for us to do together.

I love crab and shrimp anything, but a saffron cream sauce? I had no idea what saffron was and had to look it up. It's not the easiest thing to find at the grocery store, at least it wasn't at the time we were trying this recipe out, but now I see it all over, at Sam's Club, Walmart, Costco. Maybe it's starting to become popular now? It usually comes in a little glass jar and it's red, but it's not very cheap. I think for a little jar of it, it's around $10, but it will last you a long time.

There are a lot steps to this recipe and it does take a couple hours to make, but it's very good and a great thing to make for maybe a special romantic dinner or maybe you have a fancy dinner party that you're hosting or something. Or if you're not doing anything and just feel like making a special treat one day for your loved one while they're at work or your family. One thing that comes in handy when making this, is a ravioli stamp. We didn't have one when we made these so it took a little longer to cut the dough and they weren't exactly the same size. They were close, but if you can find a cheap stamp on eBay or at Marshalls or something, it'll save you some time and make them look prettier.

 You can buy pasta sheets that would take a load off your time and work, but I wanted to attempt to make pasta dough from scratch. If you choose the easier route, you can skip the first steps and go right to the filling. Before you start, get the ¹⁄₄ tsp saffron and soak in 1 tbsp water for 2 hours.

For the pasta:

1 ¹⁄₂ cups all-purpose flour
4 large egg yolks (save whites, put them aside)
¹⁄₂ tsp sea salt
1 tsp olive oil
2 -3 tbsp water
4 tbsp flour

For the filling:

16 oz ricotta cheese
1 cup lump crabmeat
20 large shrimp, raw, deshelled
2 tbsp butter
3 garlic cloves, minced
¹⁄₂ cup parmesan cheese
salt & pepper
1 tsp thyme

For the sauce:

2 tbsp butter
1 ¹⁄₂ tbsp flour
¹⁄₄ tsp saffron
¹⁄₄ medium onion, finely chopped
1 ¹⁄₂ cups chicken broth
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup dry white wine
³⁄₄ cup heavy cream
salt & pepper
¹⁄₂ cup lump crabmeat
¹⁄₄ cup parmesan cheese (garnish)
1 tbsp parsley (garnish)



To start, you need to make your pasta dough. On a clean surface, make a mound with flour and create a well in the middle for the eggs. Pour egg yolks into the well of flour, along with the olive oil, salt and water. Gradually mix in flour towards the middle until all of it is mixed into the eggs. Add another tablespoon or two of water if the dough is too dry. Knead dough for 10 minutes until dough is smooth and elastic. Prepare filling while dough rests. Wrap the ball of dough in plastic and let it rest for 30 minutes.

Sautee shrimp with butter and garlic until cooked and then remove from pan. Chop shrimp into 1/4" pieces and scrape out eveything from pan and mix with ricottta. Add crab meat, parmesan cheese, salt, pepper and thyme and stir until mixed together. Set aside.

Bring 4 quarts of salted water to a boil. Cut dough in half. On floured surface, roll dough to make a thin sheet (about 1/16" thick) or if you're using pasta sheets, get them available now. Cut rounds using a ravioli stamp or the top of a glass. Brush the edge of each piece with reserved egg white. Fill each piece with about 1 tbsp of filling. If you used the top of a glass to cut your ravioli, fold over and pinch shut, making sure the pasta is completely sealed (will look like the picture above). If you have the stamp, take a second cut out and place over the first and seal the edges together with the egg whites, pressing firmly so filling doesn't come out.

In a large pan, over med-hi heat, sautee butter, garlic and onions 2-3 minute. Whisk in 1 1/2 tbsp flour to create a "roux" or a thick paste. Add wine and reduce 2-3 minutes. Add saffron, chicken broth, heavy cream, salt, pepper and crabmeat, cook 3-5 min until sauce is thickened & bubbly.

Boil ravioli 3-5 minutes until done. Gently remove and add to sauce. You can either toss  the ravioli in sauce until coated or do I like I did and pour the sauce over the center of the ravioli on the plate and garnish with parmesan cheese and parsley. Enjoy!





 *We served ours with sauteed green beans with garlic and sliced almonds.

Strawberry Whipped Cream Roll

I have a huge sweet tooth and growing up, my mom always made me a homemade birthday cake. There was one specific cake that I would always ask for year after year, the strawberry whipped cream roll. It was sweet, but not too sweet , light and fluffy and so good, that everybody always came back looking for more. It got to the point where we had to start making two every time because it would be gone so quickly. One thing to remember tho, is that you are using fresh strawberries so they do get moldy if not eaten up within a few days, but you should never have to worry about throwing any of it away. Kids love it, adults love it and it's perfect for anybody who doesn't want something too sweet but needs to feed their craving.

For the cake:
1 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
3 large eggs
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup water

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease and line with parchment paper, a 15 1/2 x 10 1/2 x 1 pan. Also known as a jellyroll pan.
Blend flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl. Beat eggs 2-3 minutes until thick. Add sugar. Blend in water and vanilla. Fold in flour mixture. Bake 12-15 minutes.
Take out of pan and put on a powdered sugar covered dish towel and roll up. Let cool.

For the whipped cream:
1 cup chilled whipping cream
1/4 cup powdered sugar, sifted
1 tsp vanilla

Whip whipping cream, powdered sugar and vanilla until thick and fluffy.

1/2 lb strawberries, sliced and patted dry

When cake is cool, unroll, cover with a layer of whipped cream and a layer of strawberries. Roll back up and refrigerate.

Cherry Cheese Cupcakes

I love cheesecake! I grew up with my mom always making these cute little cheesecakes. And they freeze well too so you can pop some out of the freezer whenever you feel like having a sweet treat. These are my absolute favorite cheesecake and are perfect for a party or special occasion.


You'll need:

3 (8oz) pkg cream cheese
1 cup sugar
5 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
 
Topping:
1 (8oz) container sour cream
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

2 can cherry pie filling


 Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Beat cream cheese until soft. Add sugar and mix well. Add eggs and vanilla. Beat 3 minutes until frothy. Fill cupcake liners 3/4 full. Bake 40 minutes.

Mix together sour cream, sugar and vanilla. Remove cupcakes from oven. Center of cupcakes will drop. Top with a spoonful of sour cream (spread over top. see picture) and a spoonful of pie filling. Return to oven for 5 minutes. Serve chilled.

Reinbeer!

Sometimes it's hard to find the right gift for somebody. That's when you think outside the box. I came across this idea online and thought it would be cute for a guy or even for a decoration if you're having a Christmas party. You can use any bottled beer, preferably brown bottles since they're reindeer, just make sure you have 10 bottles. I preferably would use angry orchard since that's the closest to beer I drink.

You'll need:
  10 bottles: make sure they come in a box and you don't destroy the box because you'll need it for the sleigh
  little pom poms: 8 brown and 2 red
  pipe cleaners: 9 brown 10 black
  little jingle bells
  cotton balls
  googly eyes
  candy or anything you want to put in the sleigh
  hot glue gun

I think by looking at the picture, you should be able to see how I put it together and can put it one together yourself

Spicy Peanut Noodles

I am a huge fan of any kind of asian and asian inspired foods and when I was younger, my mom came up with this spicy peanut chicken noodle recipe and I absolutely loved it. She never really measured ingredients, kind of just eyeballed stuff, but I finally sat down and tried the best I could to come up with an actual recipe. The two biggest things that can be altered in this is how spicy you want it and how strong of a peanut taste you want. I know there's a long list of ingredients and that might intimidate you if you're not used to cooking, but it's really not as hard as it looks. Plus you have your meat, pasta and vegetables all in one dish.

You will need: 

 1/2 bag of lo mein noodles (about 7oz)

Canola oil

1 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut up

1 tsp fresh ginger, minced

1/2 tsp garlic, minced

1 tbsp soy sauce

2-3 cups shredded cabbage

1/2-1 cup celery, sliced thin

2-3 cups bean sprouts

1/4 cup scallions, chopped

 For sauce:

2 cups chicken broth

4 tbsp peanut butter (add more if you really like the peanut taste)

1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

1 tbsp soy sauce

2 tbsp water/cornstarch mix

1/2 cup peanuts, chopped (garnish)
1/2 cup scallions (garnish)

Combine soy sauce and garlic, set aside to marinate. Cook lo mein as directed on package. You can cook the chicken two ways. In the picture above, I had some left over shredded chicken that I threw in, but normally I would cut up the chicken into bite size pieces and cook in a skillet with a little bit of oil, until no longer pink. Add celery, then other vegetables (cabbage, bean sprouts, scallions) and cook until tender. Take out of skillet.
In the empty skillet, add chicken broth, peanut butter, red pepper flakes, soy sauce, garlic and cornstarch mix. Cook until thick sauce forms. *It helps to heat the chicken broth and peanut butter in the microwave first to melt the peanut butter. Put the chicken, pasta and vegetables back in the skillet and mix well. Garnish with chopped peanuts and scallions. *I also like to add extra chopped peanuts into the pasta because I like the extra crunch.

Pick Me Up Letters

We all have our bad days and sometimes we just want to be with that special someone. With long distance, we don't get that opportunity very often. I gave some thought into what would put a smile on someone's face if they were just having one of those days. Who doesn't like getting a little letter from that special someone?

I found the idea off of Pinterest and I took a few different ideas from people and combined them together to make my own, what I think would work best for my guy and the situation that we were in.

The hardest part for me, was coming up with ideas for the 'open when...' Here's a list of some that I came up with and chose from there:

Open when....

you miss me

you're sad

you need a laugh

you need a boost

you're having a bad day

you're sick

you feel the distance is too much

you're thinking about us

you're mad

you feel like giving up

first to open (one describing the thought behind the letters)

you're nervous

when you want to know when I started falling in love with you

it's your birthday

you feel lost

it's Halloween

you feel unloved

you pick me up from the airport

From there, I decided which ones I wanted to use and wrote a little pick me up on a notecard to put in that envelope

I went to Joanns and bought some fancy paper, lucky for me they were on sale at the time 6/$1. I got a wide variety, trying to find patterns that matched some of the moods of my writing. I found an envelope template online and made a pattern for it so I could' cut it out of all the different patterned paper, leaving the white sides for the outside of the envelopes so I could write on them and have them look like actual mail.

 Once they were cut, I folded along the lines so that I'd know how big I needed to make all my inserts.

I found little quotes, funny pictures and pictures of myself or of us and printed them out, cut them up and sorted them to go with each day.

I even found this cute print of a love stamp that I copied and shrunk to look like a postal stamp for each envelope.

 Once I had everything written out and cut out, I sorted everything, made sure he would see the correct stuff on the correct day and got them ready to seal.

I wanted to get fancy with the envelopes so I bought some sealing wax with a heart print stamp on eBay.

When the envelopes were all done and ready to go, I bought a little wooden treasure box and put them in it and sent them off in the mail.

Baby Boy Diaper Cake with a Twist

When most people think of a diaper cake, they think of a typical almost wedding looking cake of stacked diapers. Or they have no idea what a diaper cake is. I didn't want to do a typical one and I knew my friend's sister was having a little boy so I wanted it to look more like it was for a little boy. It was a cute display to have at the baby shower at least.

I found the instructions to make this off of Pinterest. http://www.maidendshade.com/2012/01/tricycle-diaper-cake-tutorial.html Her site has a detailed tutorial of how to make this. It does take a little work, but she has pictures of the different steps which helped me out a lot. Above is what my final product looked like. I was able to get all the materials at decent prices with finding a pack of diapers for cheap at Big Lots and the blankets and clothes at DD's discounts which is like a Ross so it didn't end up costing me an arm and leg to make, but still looked like I spent a lot. I also added the stuffed monkey to make it more kid friendly. At least her nieces and nephews thought so when they were taking him off his bike the whole time. I also got a foam posterboard and painted it like a sidewalk and grass to add a little extra.

I will tell you what you'll need so that way if you do decide you want to make one, you can get everything together. I tried to find everything in similar colors to go with her theme.

-A pack of size 1 diapers
-2 receiving blankets
-A pair of baby socks
-2 bibs
-A bottle
-Some ribbon
-Stuffed animal 12" or so


*Tip: I used a round cake pan to help for the wheels of diapers and hold them in place while I put ribbon around them so if you have one, it really comes in handy.