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.

Book Folding

 I came across this new idea, or maybe it's an old idea, but I just discovered it. Book folding. If you have patience and can handle measuring and folding, I think 250+ pages of a book, I highly recommend this. It turns out great in the end. There's lots of patterns to choose from or you can ask to get a custom one made. It's a perfect gift for someone to display on an end table or shelf. It's very simple directions. You can purchase and download the directions from the link below. It tells you what size book you need and gives you the measurements of the pages where they each need to be folded.

https://www.etsy.com/shop/Bookfolding

I went to a thrift store and found an old book that I didn't care to fold all the pages in, for super cheap and it worked beautifully.

Mac n Cheese Lasagna

Macaroni and cheese lasagna. Sounds crazy, right? I was bored one day and I craving some mac n cheese, but I wanted something more, so I turned to the internet and this crazy idea popped up. I didn't have a lot of time to cook something when I got home from work and this turned out to be the perfect thing. It's also a great meal for kids too because who doesn't like the cheesy goodness that comes from that Kraft box? Krafts own website had this recipe, I just changed a few things with what I had available to me in my pantry. http://www.kraftrecipes.com/recipes/mac-cheese-lasagna-94496.aspx

I prefer to make homemade macaroni and cheese, but sometimes the box will do.

2 boxes of Mac n Cheese
1 lb ground turkey
1 1/2 cups tomato sauce (I like the meat flavored)
1-2 cups of shredded mozzarella or 4-5 slices of provolone cheese

You need to make 2 boxes of mac n cheese as directed in the box.
While the noodles are cooking, cook and brown the ground turkey and crumble it. When they are done, you start the layering process. Spread a layer of half the tomato sauce on the bottom of the baking dish. I used a 7x11 dish. Then top it with a layer of half the ground turkey, then half the mac n cheese and repeat the process with the other half. Layer the very top with a later of mozarrella or provolone cheese and pop it in the oven at 350 degrees for 20 minutes or until cheese is melted.

*I'm not a fan of tomatoes so I didn't use a whole lot of tomato sauce and I added extra cheese because I love cheese, but you can adjust it to your liking. 

Stuffed Cabbage

I know a lot of people like stuffed peppers, but I'm not a fan of peppers so I go the cabbage route. I love cabbage and by using brown rice and ground turkey, it makes this recipe a pretty healthy one.

Get the head of cabbage a do your best to take it apart without ripping the leaves. Boil a pot of hot water and quickly blanch the leaves. If you don't know what that means, you put them in the hot water until they appear to be wilted so they'll be able to fold up easily after they get stuffed with the meat.

1 large cabbage
2 cans stewed tomatoes

For the meat filling:
  1 1/2 pounds ground beef or ground turkey (I prefer turkey, but they taste the same)
  1 cup cooked rice (white or brown)
  1 1/2 tbsp onion powder
  1 tsp garlic powder

Lay out the pieces and put a log of meat mixture in the center (kind of like a mini meatloaf). Depending on the size of the leave, the meat is usually about 3 in x 1.5 in. Fold over the top and bottom parts of the leaf, followed by the left and right sides so it's rolled up and no filling is showing. Layer them in the pot with a little bit of tomatoes on the bottom and cover them with the remaining stewed tomatoes. If you have extra cabbage, I like to to add it in the pot and eat it on the side. Cover and let simmer for 30-40 minutes. I always cut one open to make sure all the meat inside is cooked. I like to serve with a side of extra rice.

Moroccan Chicken with Green Olives

I've never tried Moroccan chicken before, but I was looking for a new way to cook some boneless skinless chicken breasts. I found this recipe from google and I'm sure glad I did. I LOVE olives and will put them in any recipe that I think they would work in.

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/moroccan-chicken-with-green-olives-and-lemon-352532 is the original source that I based my recipe on.

Now, I thought I had lemons, but they turned out to be like a lemon/orange mix that tasted horrible so I didn't put the lemon in. Instead I added a lot more green olives and I halved the amount of cumin because some people aren't huge fans of spicy.


1 tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 tbsp paprika
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
2 cups chicken broth
4 bonless skinless chicken breasts, cut in halves
1 jar green olives. cut in half, pimentos removed


 Heat oil in large skillet over med-high heat. Add onion and sprinkle with salt and pepper; sauté until golden brown, about 6-8 minutes. Add garlic, paprika, cumin, cinnamon and ginger; stir 1 minute. Add chicken broth; bring to boil. Add chicken to skillet. Cover, reduce heat to med-low, and simmer until chicken is cooked through, turning occasionally, 25 to 30 minutes. Transfer chicken to platter. Add olives to skillet. Increase heat to high; boil uncovered to thicken slightly, about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Put chicken back in skillet, spoon sauce over chicken and serve.

*I served mine with brown rice.

Ugly Sweaters

Christmas ugly sweaters are fun to make. Nobody wants to walk into a party or into work and see somebody there with the same sweater. A couple years ago, I had to just throw something together last minute and decided to just get a sweater from a thrift store and go to the dollar store and grab a bunch of cheap, tacky, Christmas stuff and glue them all onto the sweater. Well, since then, I've gotten more creative and actually took the time to come up with a clever, ugly sweater. I hope these will inspire you to create your very own ugly, tacky Christmas sweater.

These I made for my friend and I who needed a last minute idea for a party.

This one I made for myself this past December for the ugly sweater 5k and an ugly sweater party (which I tied for 1st place).

Wooden Signs

I've looked all over for signs with quotes on them that I liked and would want in my house, but I could never find any that were the right right colors or the right words. I found a company on Etsy that sells mylar stencils for all different occassions that work great. Homestead Stencil Company is a great one to take a look at. Their prices are reasonable and they have a lot to choose from.
                            https://www.etsy.com/shop/HOMESTEADSTENCILCOMP

Another one that I've used is Landee On Etsy. They sell vinyl lettering, not stencils, but I asked them and they were nice enough to make me a one-time use stencil of the vinyl quote that they did sell because they had the quote I was looking for that I couldn't find anywhere else.
                            https://www.etsy.com/shop/LandeeOnEtsy

I wanted my signs to be wooden instead of canvas so they didn't accidentally get torn somehow, but finding a wooden sign to paint seemed almost impossible. Hobby Lobby sells wood signs that are already designed and aren't the cheapest, but if you have one of their 50% off coupons, they don't end up costing very much. If you use a darker color paint and and put a couple layers on it, it covers whatever is already on the sign and gives you a blank canvas. Make sure when you are stenciling, that you don't use too much paint because the paint will get under the stencil and you'll have to go back through, when it's dry, and touch up all the spots. This happened to me and it was very tedious fixing. But none the less, it turned out pretty nice in the end. Lastly, I sprayed it with a clear protective coat.

Those Cute Lil Snowmen

Growing up, my mom got the idea to make all our Christmas cards for family and friends. She came up with the idea of making the cards into the shape of snowmen and then getting fabric strips and foam and buttons and anything she could find, to decorate them. It's pretty easy to cut a snowman out of some posterboard or cardstock and then you have the chance to decorate it any way you want and even have the kids help.

For a few of the necessities, I found certain things that work better than others. For the scarf, a thin strip of fabric works best. You can buy some scraps or maybe you have some laying around that you can cut up. For the nose, it's easy to buy a sheet of orange foam and cut a carrot shape out. For the arms, brown pipe cleaners work wonderfully. The rest is up to you, button or bead eyes, or even the squiggly eyes you can buy, felt or paper hats or even no hat and a pipe cleaner for antlers. The possibilities are endless. Have fun with it, like I did.

Red, White & Blue shirt

This past year I wanted to go all out on the 4th of July since I was going up to Oregon to spend it watching fireworks on the beach. I couldn't find any patriotic shirt that I liked, so I decided to make one myself. Old Navy had a sale going on where tank tops were only $2.50 so it was perfect to decorate. I got some fabric paint, painter's tape and some star stickers and got to work. I think the whole shirt cost me under $10.
 





 
Painter's tape worked perfectly making just the right width for the stripes and to block off the square for the stars in blue. What I learned worked, was if you put the star stickers on first and make sure they're pressed down good on the shirt, you can paint around them with the blue paint, just be careful not to have too much paint on your sponge or brush, where it would leak under the stickers. Once it's all dry, carefully remove the stickers and paint and you're done. It really didn't take a whole lot of time to do. The longest part was probably putting the painter's tape on, making sure the stripes were straight and letting them dry before painting the blue square.

My Recipe Books

I have a habit of losing recipe cards and printouts all over the house. I make a recpie and leave the sheet in the kitchen and then someone moves it the next day and I can never find it again. Well, I got a Cricut machine and wanted to try it out, so I decided to make my own recipe book, one for myself and one for my boyfriend since he was always asking me to send him my recipes and it came in handy. I went to Joanns and bought some pre-cut 5x7 cardstock and went online and found a recipe card program where all I had to do was enter my ingredients and directions and it set it up for me, printed them out and glued them to the cardstock, sorting them based on if they were an appetizer, poultry, pork, beef, side dish or dessert.

Then at the end, I made a separate section for all the wonderful Christmas cookies that I've accumulated over the years. Yes, they're special enough to get their own section.


I used http://alenkasprintables.com/recipe_card_templates.html They have ones with a cute little chef and black and white checkers that are more neutral for anybody's taste. It's a free template and a great site. I filled in the template with my recipes, printed them out on cardstock, cut them apart and glued them to the pages of my recipe books. This is what the template that I used, looks like.

Herb and Citrus Oven Roasted Chicken

  

I stumbled across this recipe on Pinterest one day and it looked pretty good, so I thought I'd give it a shot.

 http://www.thecomfortofcooking.com/2013/04/herb-and-citrus-oven-roasted-chicken.html#comment-23885 is where I got the original recipe from. Feel free to take a look at it.

Before      After

I changed a few things from the original recipe, so I will put what used on here.

1/4 cup olive oil
4 cloves of garlic,chopped
2 tbsp sugar
1 whole lemon, half juiced and half sliced
3 whole oranges, one and a half juiced and one and a half sliced
1 tbsp Italian seasoning
1/2 tsp paprika
1 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
10-12 pieces (about 4 1/2 lbs.) boneless skinless chicken thighs or chicken breasts cut in half
1 medium yellow onion, thinly sliced
1 tbsp dried rosemary


Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Mix together olive oil, garlic, sugar, lemon juice, orange juice, Italian seasoning, paprika, onion powder, red pepper flakes, and salt and pepper. If you plan on marinating the chicken, now is the time to put the mixture and chicken in a ziploc bag and put into the refrigerator. I marinated the chicken overnight to make sure it was as flavorful as possible. If not marinating, then move to the next step. Place chicken in a single layer in a 13x9 baking dish. Pour olive oil mixture all over chicken, turning pieces to coat all sides. Arrange slices of lemon, orange and onion around and under the chicken. Sprinkle all over generously with rosemary, salt and pepper.
Cook for 30-35 minutes until the juices run clear.

*I tried eating the oranges after and didn't think they tasted good at all, but the chicken was delicious.

The Cutest Love Story of All Time

I think one of the cutest love stories I've seen in a movie, had to be from UP. Carl and Ellie had such a cute relationship and it was such a tear jerker. One of the iconic scenes in that movie was Carl flying away in his house, using lots of balloons, on his great adventure. I found a pin on Pinterest showing a design that was made by someone, of the house with balloons, flying away in the sky. It didn't give any details of how it was made or anything so I don't know who to credit for the idea exactly, but it sure was a cute one. I decided to try to make it myself.

In order to do that, I had to go on a mission to find A LOT of round, colorful buttons, close to the same size. I used coupons at Joanns and eBay to find the right ones. The amount of buttons needed, depends on how you like it and what size you want to make it. I think I used 80 buttons, in 3 layers, piled on top of one another.

Now in order to make these look like balloons, I had to get some string and put it through the holes of the buttons and bunch them all together at the end, so when laying in a big pile, on top of each other, they gave the illusion of balloons.

I bought a 12x12 canvas and painted it sky blue and cut out some white clouds to add around the balloon to really make it look like it was flying. Now, I'm not the greatest artist so attempting to make an exact replica of the UP house, by hand, wouldn't be possible so I found a coloring book copy of it and shrunk it down to the size I needed, printed it out and colored it based on how the original house looked. Now, if you weren't making this for a special someone and wanted to use it more for a kid's bedroom or something, you can skip this next part. I found a picture of the two of us and shrunk it down and turned it black and white so it'd fit inside the house and stand out against all the colors. I also found a quote from the movie that would go well with the reasoning behind why I was making this. "You'll always be my greatest adventure."