Projects in July

Hey all, my but summer is busy...
Little Man has been crawling and pulling up on things and teething so between all those things I don't have alot of time to just sit and blog.

I have been doing alot of project lately though.

#1 on my list was baby shower gifts, I really do like to make things for peoples gifts instead of just buying something, however it has to look professional or somewhat decent to give them, I hate gifts that look really "homemade".

I decided to make all burp clothes. These are like the ones that I made for Little Man and I love them.

I should have taken a picture using them but the reason I love them so much is because they are the perfect size. YES!  They are 17in by 20in.

When I was pregnant I looked for burp clothes in the stores and all I could find was either those skinny "doesn't do any good" kind or the huge receiving blankets or the white folded cloth diapers (which by the way smell really bad when regourgetated on)

Thus, I made my own...



My next project was making a snack bag... The first one turned out bad, but the second one was great and super cute. Next time I will probably make it smaller.

Cute Huh?

Ok and finally my most favorite craft to date: I am super excited about this one folks.

Please excuse the picture quality, the lighting in the living room is a horrible place to take pictures.

Isn't he beautiful? You might be thinking that it looks silly or 'whatever' but I LOVE IT!!

He's so eclectic and whimsy, and trust me if you saw him in person you would like him too.

Here is the tutorial I followed complete with print outs: Have fun!

http://www.chroniclebooks.com/blog/2009/02/19/chronicle-craft-sneak-peek-project-and-book-giveaway/

Of course my blog isn't complete until I show you a picture of the 'birthday cake' I made for my mother-in-law.

This is a Lime Pound Cake with Lime Glaze

OH MY GOODNESS... It was delicious.

here is the recipe:

http://www.bakebreak.com/2012/04/lime-pound-cake/

Surprise B-DAY and recipe

The other day it was my Birthday, OK maybe a couple weeks ago... anyway my friend told me she was taking me out for my birthday to eat and to wear a hat (because we love hats and we can). I thought that sounded a little weird but ok if she is, I will. Of course I'm oblivious to things and when I got to her house  found out that her and another friend and my sister in law were giving me a mini surprise party. FUN

The cool thing is they made food that was from my Pinterest that I had been wanting to try... Here are the recipes, YUM YUM

Appetizer:

These were really yummy and you could make these and freeze them.


Baked Southwestern Egg Roll


2 cups frozen corn, thawed 
1 (15 oz.) can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 (10 oz.) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
2 cups shredded Mexican cheese blend
1 (4 oz.) can diced green chiles, drained4 green onions, chopped
1 tsp. ground cumin
½ tsp. chili powder
1 tsp. salt
½ tsp. pepper
¼ tsp. cayenne pepper
1 package egg roll wrappers (about 24 total)

DIRECTIONS

• In a large bowl, combine everything but the egg roll wrappers. Mix well to blend. Lay an egg roll wrapper out on a work surface so that one of the corners is pointing toward you and place ¼ cup of the filling in the center. Fold the tip closest to you up over the filling, roll a bit, then take the points pointing outward and fold them in toward the center. Continue rolling into an egg roll shape until a small part of the remaining point is still free. Dip a finger in water or beaten egg and lightly brush on the edges of the free corner. Finish rolling and press to seal closed. Repeat with the remaining wrappers and filling.
• Preheat the oven to 425˚ F. Lightly oil a baking sheet with cooking spray. Place the sealed egg rolls on the baking sheet seam side down and spray the tops of the egg rolls with cooking spray. Bake for about 15 minutes, or until lightly brown, turning halfway through baking. Serve warm with salsa.
• Main Dish:

                                              Fish Tacos

Ingredients

• 
  1 pound halibut or other meaty white fish fillets
• Juice of 2 limes
• 1 11 ounce can  whole tomatillos, drained
• 4 small zucchinipeeled, seeded and cut into small cubes
• 1/4 cup chopped cilantro leaves and stems
• 2 1/2 teaspoons coarse salt, plus more to taste
• 8 6 inches corn tortillas
• 2 tablespoons chili powder
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper, or to taste
• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 Hass avocado, peeled and thinly slice. Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 225 degrees . Place the fish in a medium bowl and drizzle with half of the lime juice. Cover and refrigerate for 15 minutes.
2. Using your hands, squeeze the juice and flesh from the tomatillos, 1 at a time, into a medium bowl; discard the skins. Mash the tomatillos with a fork. Add the zucchini, the remaining lime juice, the cilantro and 2 teaspoons of the salt and toss.
3. Spread the tortillas on 2 baking sheets and warm in the oven for about 10 minutes.
4. In a small bowl, combine the chili powder, cayenne pepper and 1/2 teaspoon of the salt. Remove the fish from the lime juice, pat dry and cover with the spice rub. Heat the olive oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat and cook the fish, about 4 minutes on each side. Break the fish into bite-size pieces and season to taste with salt. Arrange the fish in the tortillas with some of the salsa and avocado slice.

Dessert:

Orange-Kissed Brownies

Makes 24 servings.

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 30 minutes

1 package (21 ounces) fudge brownie mix
1 tablespoon McCormick® Pure Orange Extract
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
Orange-Kissed Chocolate Frosting (optional)

1. Prepare brownie mix as directed on package. Stir in orange extract and chocolate chips. Spread in greased 13x9-inch baking pan.

2. Bake and cool as directed on package.

3. Spread with Orange-Kissed Chocolate Frosting, if desired. Cut into squares.

Orange-Kissed Frosting: Stir 1 teaspoon McCormick® Pure Orange Extract into 1 container (16 ounces) chocolate frosting until well blended. 

COOKiES

So I've been in a baking mood lately (don't know why), Even trying Biscotti (More on that to come)

I decided to try something from Pinterest and since I've been wanting something LEMON'''Y I tried these. They are delicious and soft and Oh so full of LEMON.

Actually I love LEMON so much I think next time I will put MORE LEMON in these and maybe some more.

I think you should too (unless you don't like lemon...........so then make some chocolate chip cookies for goodness sakes)

Lemon Crinkle Cookies
Makes 2-3 dozen

Ingredients:
½ cups butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
½ teaspoons vanilla extract
1 whole egg
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1 Tablespoon fresh lemon juice
¼ teaspoons salt
¼ teaspoons baking powder
⅛ teaspoons baking soda
1-½ cup all-purpose flour
½ cups powdered sugar

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease light colored baking sheets with non-stick cooking spray and set aside.

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Whip in vanilla, egg, lemon zest, and juice. Scrape sides and mix again. Stir in all dry ingredients slowly until just combined, excluding the powdered sugar. Scrape sides of bowl and mix again briefly. Pour powdered sugar onto a large plate. Roll a heaping teaspoon of dough into a ball and roll in powdered sugar. Place on baking sheet and repeat with remaining dough.

Bake for 9-11 minutes or until bottoms begin to barely brown and cookies look matte {not melty or shiny}. Remove from oven and cool cookies about 3 minutes before transferring to cooling rack.

*If using a non-stick darker baking tray, reduce baking time by about 2 minutes.

Lauren Brennan; laurenslatest.com

Spinach and Feta stuffed Chicken Breast

Let me tell you the tale of my front door...It was an ugly front door, painted in a brick red that
I hated. So I started looking at pictures to get an idea of what I wanted. Of course I had to see all the beautiful doors that were painted bright blue and pink, burnt orange and canary yellow and they were all so wonderful to behold. So I picked out a lovely bright blue green (almost turquoise) and painted my door. I was so excited as I saw the painted sprayed over the ugly red.

As we stepped outside to see our wonderful door with the lovely color, we were shocked to see, that our beautiful front door looked aweful with the house. We were the house that people drive by and say "What were they thinking? Who would use that color?" Really is didn't look good and I realized that I never took into consideration the color of our house did not work with bright colors, if we had a pretty white house it would be perfect.

So guess what my husband and I did the very next day? We painted it chocolate brown and it looks great!

Ok here is what I made up yesterday, I'm sure there is a recipe out there somewhere but I like making up my own and not using a recipe so here it is.

Spinach and Feta stuffed chicken breast

4 chicken breasts - halved and pounded thin 

2 slices of bread

3/4 C. frozen spinach, thawed and water squeezed out

1/4 C. Parmesan cheese

1 handful of Shredded Monzerella

1/4 C/ Feta cheese

1/8 t. pepper

1/4 t. salt

1 1/2 t. basil

1 1/2 t. Oregano

1 t. Thyme

Chili pepper flakes for spice (as much or little as you would like)

2 fresh tomatoes, diced

1/2 onion, carmelized

In food processor or blender, add bread and pulse until almost crumbs, 

add spinach, parmesan, salt and pepper and spices and pulse until all is crumbled.

take out of prossesor and put into a bowl and add monzerella and feta and stir.

Next open up the halved chicken and press and stuff with the crumbs. Close up and put into a 

baking dish that is sprayed. If there is left over crumb mixture, sprinkle that on top and 

top with onion and tomatoes.

Bake 375 for 30 to 40 min or until chicken is done.

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This was also very good, a pinterest find I decided to try last minuet. It didn't take very long to make and was a really good healthy end to a meal. 

Plus, everyone says it tastes like an Almond Joy! YAY!!

Coconut Chocolate Pudding

1 14-ounce can of coconut milk (lite is fine), divided

3 tablespoons pure maple syrup

dash of salt

1/4 cup cornstarch

(Way to much corn starch, please don't use this much unless you like really rubbery pudding. I used:

2 T. Cornstarch)

3 tablespoons cocoa powder

1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (or any chocolate you would like)

1 teaspoons vanilla extract

Shake the can of coconut milk vigorously for a few seconds before opening. In a heavy saucepan bring 1 1/4 cups of the coconut milk, maple syrup, and the salt to a simmer over low heat.

While that is heating, in a seperate bowl whisk together the remaining coconut milk, corn starch, and cocoa powder. It will look like a smooth chocolate frosting.

When the coconut milk and maple syrup mixture has started simmering turn the heat down to low. Slowly add in the chocolate mixture while vigorously whisking it the whole time. Keep whisking until the pudding  thickens up a bit, about a minute.

Remove the saucepan from the heat and continue whisking while it is cooling for about a minute. Whisk in the chocolate chips and vanilla and keep stirring until the pudding is smooth. Transfer to a bowl  or bowls and place in a refrigerator to chill thoroughly. To prevent a skin from forming press plastic up against the surface of the pudding.

Roasted Cauliflower Curry Soup

This is my very own recipe...Of course i've made up my own recipes before but this is the first time i've posted a complete original on my blog. You are going to love this too, so healthy and delicious.

Roasted Cauliflower Curry Soup

1-2 Head Cauliflower, chopped into pieces (a little bigger than bite sized)
1 Yellow Onion, diced
2 C. Chicken broth or vegetable broth
1 C. Water
1 t. Chili pepper flakes
1 T. Paprika
2 T. Curry powder
salt and pepper to taste

In oven, roast the Cauliflower drizzled with olive oil and salt and pepper on 375 until it starts to get brown, stirring every once in a while

In pot, saute onion in olive oil, when they are soft add the roasted Cauliflower and stir. Add spices

When it is all mix together well, add the broth and water. Simmer on med-low until the Cauliflower is very soft and then mash with a potato masher or use the hand blender to mash and thicken.


This was very tasty I must say. It's got a hint of spicy but not enough for those spicy haters out there to hate :)

Popcorn cake and other discoveries

 

Last night I had a girls dinner and movie night at my house. I decided to try something that looked like so much fun to make and it turned out great. I made a popcorn cake, for those of you who have never heard of such a thing you should try it. It's like rice krispy's except using popcorn.

The options are probably endless...last night it was peanut M&M's, dark chocolate M&M's and pretzels. But I had visions of lucky charms, cocoa pebbles, fruit loops, Etc... you could even make it slightly more healthy and go for dried fruit like craizens, dried prunes and chocolate covered peanuts. Oh man, so many options.

Popcorn Cake:

6 C. popped popcorn (I popped it myself on the stove...to be health concience use GMO free corn)
Make sure you don't have any un-popped kernels in there :)

2 C. M&M's any kind you would like (I found that the Peanut kind stood up better and didn't melt as quickly)

1 1/2 C. Broken Pretzels (not crushed)

mix all of that together

1 stick melted butter
1 bag (16oz) mini marshmallows

melt together and then let cool for a little while so the chocolate doesn't melt

Add your popcorn mixture and press into a prepared pan (I sprayed mine with a little oil spray to make sure it didn't stick)

Also to make it look cool I used a bunt pan or you can use an angel food pan. that's what makes it look like a cake.

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I discovered something in my yard this spring! Want to know what it is?

Two rose bushes... aren't they beautiful?

   

It makes me think about it regarding our own lives. That sometimes you don't always know what is hiding in you until the dead things are made alive in Christ and we can see the beauty that we never knew existed within our own hearts.

And now for the final discovery--------------

I decided that I love MCM otherwise known as Mid Century Modern furniture. I've been doing a little research and realized that everybody loves it and I never knew that I could be so caught up in the new 'fad'. I don't want to always like what everybody else likes but I just can't help it this time. I just love that scandinavian, danish modern look that it popular right now.

I want to paint every single thing white, floor to ceiling. I keep looking on Craigslist hoping to find some treasure that somebody else doesn't know is expensive and is selling for pennies.
I did score some pretty awesome bedroom furniture that I found for $250 for three pieces. I'm not sure just how 'MCM' they are but they are pretty cool in my book and I love them.

 

Busy Baking Bee

I've been cooking up a storm lately and sadly it's been so buys that I've completely forgotten to take pictures, plus I'm just not used to taking pictures of everything I make anyway.

For those of you that follow my Pinterest also and know me, you are probably wondering why I'm pinning all this gluten free and super healthy stuff. Well it's not because I have a diet problem or I need a cure. I just think that taking away 'some' bready type things and making our diet more full of vegetables and other healthy things is good. We definattly still eat everything probably more than we need to but I'm trying hard to make meals during the week that are healthy and full of nutrition.
I also like making my own stuff so anything that everyone else buys at the store intrigues me to make from scratch. I'll let you know how all of it goes when I actually get around to making some of it.

So far I have tried the Coconut Flour Waffles and let me tell you they are pretty good. They really only have a slight difference in texture and flavor, if nobody knew they would think there was something different but not be able to place their finger on it.

I've also been using the bread in 5 minuets recipe with great results and wonderful taste.
So far from just the dough that you keep in the fridge i've made 1 crusty baguette, 1 batch of rosemary Cresent rolls and 2 batches of Cinnemon rolls (amazing) Most all of that was just thing weekend which because of being busy with Easter stuff I completely forgot to take pictures of all the goodness.

More on all that to come and I promise I will get pictures. I just need to get into the habit of taking them.