Its a girl thing.

Brown and Black double cheetah bow.

Since I found out I was having a girl I have been obsessed with everything girl.. check out my etsy account (:

Fresh Strawberry Pie

So since this summer I have been big on fruits, since I'm pregnant I have been on this healthy kick!  I found a recipe for some things that I had randomly in the house which included strawberries and graham crackers.  I found on the Honey Maid website.

Here is what you will need..

For the crust...
1 cup crushed graham crackers (I suggest without cinnamon, because it just doesn't taste right with it)
1 tbsp sugar
3 tbsp butter

Mix sugar, crushed graham crackers, and butter all together and line a glass pie pan bake at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes until it is nice and firm.  Once out of the oven set aside and start the filling.

For the filling..
1/4 cup corn starch
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 cup water
1 pkg of strawberry instant jell-o
1/2 cup of chopped strawberry

Put cornstarch, sugar, and water in a pan and bring to a boil stirring constantly, stir for about 5 minutes or until the mixture is nice and thick and it will be a cloudy white color.  Once the mixture thickens add jell-o mix and cook & stir for about 2-3 minutes or until the liquid is clear and jell-o is completely dissolved.  Let filling cool for about 5 minutes, once its cooled just slightly pour 1/3 of the mixture into the pie pan and pour the freshly cut strawberries into the remaining mixture and stir it up.  After adding the strawberries pour the rest into the pie pan.  Place in the refrigerator and allow the filling to set for about an hour or so.  Once it is set, serve with a dollop of cool whip on top and ENJOY!

Gender Reveal Cake!

So a friend of mine found out that she is going to be welcoming a little boy into this world come January!  I am so excited about this because I got to participate in the reveal of the babies gender.  She sent me a picture of a bumble bee cake that she really liked, so I decided to make her a cake similar but a little different because I had to add my own touch.  Here are some pictures of the cake I made.  Hope you like it!

I love it!! I am so excited, congratulations Jennifer.. boys are sooo MUCH fun!

Cinder Block Beauty!

Since I have found out that I was pregnant I have not been myself, I hardly do any of the fun activities that I used to do.  I honestly, just feel worn out!  Well, since I gained some energy this past week I decided that I would work on my garden.  I don't know why but I find working on my garden one of the most stress-relieving things to do.

 Well after browsing pinterest for a really long time about a new activity that I can do to keep myself occupied I came across a posting about using cinder blocks as planters.  Since I didn't really think cinder blocks would look cute in my garden, I thought that maybe doing a mosaic on them would be fun.. so that's what I did!

What you will need..
Cinder blocks (however many you need)
Tiles (multiple colors and full sized  3x3 tiles)
Glass tiles
Mortar (you will need a trowel for the mortar)
Grout (you will need a rubber trowel for the grout)
Sponge

Step #1:

After going to the local home improvement store and finding the cinder blocks & tile.  The estimated total cost for cinder blocks & tile is about $12.  I prepped the cinder blocks by making sure they were nice and clean and prepared the tile by putting them one at a time in a plastic zip block bag and gently tapping them with a hammer until they broke, set aside.  Once all the tiles have been broken you want to start to prepare your mortar, prepare how it states on the package, once it is ready to be laid use the trowel and apply a thin layer on the cinder block but ensure that it is thick enough to press the tiles into it without worrying about it moving.  Place tiles on the mortar in any pattern you want.

Step #2:

Once the mortar is set up and the tiles are not going to move use a squirt bottle to wet the mortar slightly so that it adheres to the grout.  Prepare the grout as stated on the package and start to apply.  Make sure that you apply a nice good layer getting into every crack and trying to apply as evenly as possible without applying too much.  Let set up, the amount of time should be listed on the package.

Step #3:

Once the grout is somewhat dry, use a large sponge and water to get the excess grout off the tiles and to make a nice smooth surface.  Set aside and allow to fully dry, this is my least favorite step.. I hate waiting!!

Step #4:

After the grout has completely dried set the cinder blocks wherever you want them to go fill about 3/4 of the way with dirt and plant some flowers.. and TADA!! a beautiful cinder block garden (:

Go ahead and try it, it took me 4 days to complete my whole garden.  Enjoy!

Fajita Salads!

Since it seems like the temperature outside is not going down anytime soon, my fiance and I are trying to think of new ways to make dinner without heat up the entire house.  Since salads have been our favorite thing to make lately we have been looking up different dinner salads all the time, tonight we decided to make some fajita salads! YUMM!!

What you will need...

• Chuck Steak
• 1 Bell pepper
• 1 white or red onion
• 1 16 oz sour cream
• 1 12 oz salsa of any kind
• 1 head of romaine lettuce
• 4 flour tortillas

Cook the steak to your liking and cut it up into thin strips, set aside.  Prepare salad by cutting up the lettuce, onion, bell pepper and mix it in a large bowl.  After preparing the salad, mix the whole sour cream with the entire bottle of salsa, salt and pepper to taste.   For toppers we chopped the tortillas into thin strips and deep fried them in our deep frier and seasoned with pappys which is just a seanson-all but it is one that is sold locally here in California.

Put your salad in the bowl and top with steak, then a little dressing and the tortilla toppers.  Fast and easy meal and I am sure everyone will love it!!  Enjoy!  By the way I hope everyone had a fun & safe 4th of July!

Bacon Pasta

One of my FAVORITE recipes is this recipe.  I have loved it all my life and my son has loved it as long as he has been old enough to eat whole food.  It is a great recipe for summer because you do not have to use to oven.. here it is and I hope you love it too!!

Bacon Pasta

What you will need is..

1 lb bacon
1 box of penne pasta (or pasta of choice)
1 medium white onion
3 roma tomatoes
1 can of diced tomatoes with Italian seasoning
2 cloves of garlic
garlic salt, Italian seasoning, basil leaves, crushed red pepper flakes, salt and pepper to taste.

What you will need to do..

In large pan bring water to boil, while the water is coming to a boil slice up bacon and in a skillet fry up bacon to crispy.  Once it bacon is nice and crispy strain on a paper towel and plate, set aside.  After the water has come to a boil add some salt and a little vegetable oil to ensure that your noodles do not stick together, then add pasta.  Set timer for about 11 minutes and cook until aldente.  Strain and set aside.  Once you've added the pasta drain 1/3 of the oil in the skillet into a bowl and dispose of.  After you've removed 1/3 of the oil dice up the whole onion and the garlic cloves and put in skillet with bacon oil.  Sautee the onion until transparent and dice up tomatoes and put in pan with the onions and sautee until soft, not too soft you still want them slightly firm.  While the onion & tomato are cooking add seasonings to taste, if you do not like spicy foods then I suggest not adding the red pepper flakes.  After adding all the seasoning the final step is to add the can of diced tomatoes and bring to a simmer and add to strained pasta.

ENJOY!!





pasta salad

It's almost summer!!  That means that we need to come up fun, easy, and delicious meals, because I don't know about you but the kitchen is the last place I want to be during the summer.

Here is a meal, or side, that I whipped up in less than 10 minutes.

Yummy bacon ranch pasta salad!

1 cup shell pasta noodles
4 slices bacon
1/4 cup cooked peas (or to your liking)
1/4 carrot grated (or to your liking)
1/2 cup ranch dressing

Put water in a sauce pan and bring to a boil, put in pasta and set timer for 7 minutes.  While water and pasta are boiling, slice up bacon and fry in a separate pan.  Once bacon is nice and crispy strain on a paper towel.  After bacon is done the pasta should be done, strain the noodles and put back in pan.  Add bacon to pan and mix, add peas and grated carrots, mix well.  After all ingredients are mixed well add ranch dress and mix, if 1/2 cup doesn't seem like enough dressing add more to your liking and TADA you're all done!! Enjoy!

Twice Baked Potatoes!

Twice baked potatoes happen to be one of my favorite side dishes.
I love the creaminess of the potatoes and the crunchiness of the cheese and bacon on top.. mmm.. my stomach is growling just writing this.

This is how I made them today...



Ingredients:
7 Russet potatoes
1 8 oz sour cream
2 green onions
4 slices of bacon
1 cup milk
grated cheese (to your liking)
4 tbsp butter
dash of salt
dash of pepper

Score all 7 potatoes and put in the over at 450 degrees for 1 hour.
After potatoes are soft (can stab with fork without having to put any effort) remove from oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes.

Once potatoes are nice and cool cut potatoes in half and remove the filling from the skin and set skin aside on a cookie sheet.  Put the filling of the potatoe in a large bowl along with all of the sour cream, milk, butter, salt, pepper, and a little cheese.  With hand mixer, mix the potatoes until nice and creamy.

After mixing the potatoes and all of the fillings until nice and creamy use a spoon and scoop spoon fulls into the potato skins that were set aside earlier on the cookie sheets.  After the skins are all completely filled top with cheese, green onions, and bacon.  Bake again for about 10 minutes at 350 degrees or until cheese is completely melted and ENJOY! yummm [:



Turkey Tofu Soup

So any pregnant woman would tell you that food is #1 during pregnancy.

I dream about food, I constantly eat and never seem to get full.

So, since I really have no energy to my regular arts & crafts you will probably get a lot of posts about recipes and new food ideas I have come up with.

Since my chicken with rice & dumplings soup came out so good last night my sister-in-law special requested a turkey tofu soup.

Healthy & Delicious this will hit the spot any time of day!

7 cups chicken stock

1 rotisserie turkey

1 rib of celery

1/2 white onion

1 large carrot

1 block of tofu

1 can of cream of chicken soup

(I would prefer to add egg noodles to this recipe but my sister-in-law didn't want any type of noodles or rice in it, if you want to add egg noodles go ahead and boil the noodles when you start the broth and put them in before you add the cream of chicken soup)

Before you start the actual soup, de-bone the turkey and shred the meat and set aside.

Put all 7 cups of chicken stock in a pan and bring to a boil, lower temperature and allow to simmer.  While the stock is simmering chop up carrot, celery, and dice onion.  Put all 3 ingredients in and allow to get nice and tender.  Once vegetables are tender chop up tofu into small squares and drop into your broth.  Allow the tofu to simmer in the stock for about 5 minutes to allow it to soak up the chicken flavor.  After the five minutes add the shredded turkey.  Once the turkey is the same temperature as the rest of the soup add the cream of chicken soup 1 spoon full at a time to ensure that it gets thoroughly mixed.

Once its all mixed wait about 5 minutes and then its time to EAT! Enjoy!!

Strawberry Banana Smoothie

Since I just recently found out that I am expecting baby #2 I have been trying to increase my intake of fruits and vegetables.  This morning for breakfast I prepared a fruit smoothie that counts as the 1 banana that I need to eat daily and 1/2 cup of the fresh fruits I am supposed to eat daily.  This recipe is super easy and it is delicious!!

1 Large banana (ripe, if not your smoothie will be bitter tasting)

4 fresh strawberries

7 Ice cubes

1/2 cup milk

1 tsp sugar

 

Blend all together and ENJOY!

Chicken with dumplings.

So odd enough it was almost 100 degrees yesterday and well, today, it is freezing cold and rainy.

What better to make you feel warm and cozy then chicken soup with dumplings?

I created the best recipe ever.. and here it goes.

4 14.5 oz cans of chicken broth

4 chicken bullion cubes

3 tbsp chicken with tomato bullion powder (optional)

1 cup of cooked rice

1 can cream of chicken soup

3 ribs of celery

1 small white or yellow onion

rotisserie chicken

Before getting started de-bone the rotisserie chicken and set aside.

To get started put the 4 cans of chicken broth along with 7 cups of water.  Mix in the 4 bullion cubes and the bullion powder.  While that comes to a simmer put 1 cup of rice and 2 cups of water in a small pan bring to a boil, lower temperature cover and allow to cook for 20 minutes.

While the stock is cooking cut up the onion and 3 celery sticks and put into the stock, bring to a boil.  While it is boiling shred the already de-boned chicken and put in the stock.

Once that is all done your rice will more than likely be nice and fluffy, scoop the rice in to the stock.  Once you have done that add the can of cream of chicken soup 1 tbsp at a time to make sure it gets well mixed.

Add salt and pepper to taste.

Simmer for about 5 more minutes.

While that is simmering together start with the dumplings.

2 cups flour

1 tsp salt

3/4 cup cold water

Mix the flour and salt together than add the water a little at a time.  Once it is completely mixed roll 1 inch balls and drop into the soup.  Allow the dumplings to cook for about 4 to 5 minutes, or until they float.

Wait about another 1 to 2 minutes to make sure everything is well tempered and voila!  Enjoy!!

ICY PINK LEMONADES!

If you live in California, you know the meaning of HOT!

What a better way to cool down than with an icy pink lemonade.

I first started off with two containers of frozen minute maid pink lemonade, a bag of frozen strawberries, a 2 liter of squirt and a lot of ICE!

I both containers of minute maid pink lemonade in the blender along with about 10 strawberries a half a cup of squirt and a LOT of ice, be careful not to fill too high because it will overflow, I filled too high and it overflowed all over the counter.

Blend it all together, pour it in a cup and enjoy!

  perfect way to cool off in this HOT weather!

Sugar free frosting

So today my cousin and I were making her dad a birthday cake but he is diabetic and we looked everywhere at Save mart for some sugar-free frosting. The only thing we found was chocolate and since her dad is not a fan of chocolate we resorted to the internet and we found the best recipe ever!

2 - 1 oz packages of sugar-free instant pudding mix
1 cup skim milk
3 cups heavy whipping cream
2 tsp of vanilla extract ( any kind of extract you want )

We choose to use vanilla pudding since we made a butter pecan cake and it was the BEST frosting I've ever had and I grew up with a grandmother as a cake baker, but this topped it for me.  So for any of you who have diabetics in your life or if you're just trying to keep sugar low in your diet you must try this frosting!!

Easter Egg Candies & Decorations

I know its late, but in my house the only time I can ready do messy arts and crafts is at night because my son is sleeping [:  However, still in the spirit of Easter I made some Easter candies/decorations.  It is kind of a tedious task but if you have time and patience you can do a great job at it!

  

These are chocolate/vanilla/peanut butter hollow eggs.

I got the idea from a cupcake book that I have where you make cupcakes that look like real eggs from melted chocolate but I did mine just a little different.

What you will need.

• Plastic egg shells
• Candy Melts
• Ribbon
• Tape (Depending on what type of eggs you buy)

I went to Target earlier this week to pick up a few items for my sons Easter basket and while I was there I found a bag of 50 hollow eggs for just $1.98, couldn't pass that up so I bought them, I figured I could do something with them.

I made sure all of the eggs were clean and when I looked at them I realized that there were small holes in both the top and the bottom so I had to tape them off before I began.

After taping them off and making sure they were sealed I began melting down the candy melts.  I prefer to use the Wilton candy melts because they seem to work the best, but make sure they are fresh and new.  Once a bag of candy melts has been opened they seem to go bad, or just do not melt well a few days later.  Also make sure that the bag that you have purchased is just a few days old and has not been in the cabinet for months or they will just clump together and won't melt down to a nice creamy consistency.

After melting down the candy melts I began to scoop the melted chocolate with a spoon into the eggs, filled both the top and the bottom portions of the eggs about half way full.  Once they were both half way full I snapped the top and the bottom together and started to shake, the reason for shaking is to make sure that the egg shell is completely covered on the inside.  Once they were completely coated on the inside, you can usually tell by looking through the egg in some light if there is a light spot then you must shake some more!, I then put them in the freezer.  After about 10 minutes of being in the freezer I went and moved them around so all the chocolate would not settle on one side, I did that again 10 more minutes later and after 30 minutes in the freezer I removed them from the freezer.  Once they are out of the freezer I tapped the sides lightly and twisted and was able to pull the egg apart, you must be very careful when doing this or your eggs could break.  If an egg breaks you can always melt the chocolate back down and do it again.

Now that they are out of the plastic shell I put them in refrigerator to allow them to set for about 10 minutes, removed them and then tied a ribbon bow around them.  My son is going to love these tomorrow, but if I can keep him out of them they will be an awesome decoration for our dinning room.

Thanks for stopping by!  I would love to hear anyone's opinions and hints on how to make the process easier.  Please stop by more this week for more Easter decoration ideas!

Easter Cupcakes

Since Easter is just a few days away, today to get ready for it we made Easter egg hunt cupcakes.  My son could not wait for these to be finished, it was a short process and they are really fun and easy to make.

I used a regular white cake box mix.  I prefer to use Betty Crocker, it comes out super moist and doesn’t crumble when you are eating it.

The frosting recipe that I use is a simple butter cream recipe.

·         3 c. powdered sugar

·         1 c. butter (softened not melted)

·         1 tbsp vanilla extract

Cream the butter and vanilla extract together (add food coloring at this step, will explain why later.)  Once the butter and vanilla is nice and creamy begin to add the powdered sugar ½ c. at a time.

When working with butter cream you kind of have to eye ball it so that it does not come out too dry.  If you notice that it is coming out kind of dry add a little more butter, I do not like to use milk because it will leave your icing with a skin thus making anything else you are using impossible to stick.  I used Duff brand food coloring, electric green, to dye my frosting.  When adding a food coloring to a frosting make sure to add it when you are creaming the butter because it will make sure that the color is consistent throughout all of the icing.

I used wilton tip #233 or the grass tip to make the grass on top of the cupcake.

I topped my grass off with little m&m eggs.  I was planning on using jelly beans and just getting the edible markers to paint on them but when I arrived at the store I found these and they were easier to use because they were already speckled.  So I would suggest using speckled m&m's.  When I was finished I was so proud of my final result!