Lookie What We Made

Remember these? Tuesday morning, I spent my day helping make 40 of these beauties! Mandee and I are the Co-Vice Presidents on the PTO at our school. My friend Shelley wanted to make make these and practice on a few other cookies, so we figured, if were making a few, we may as well make 40!! So we had 4 of us working on these and it took us 2 and 1/2 hours, minus the baking time. Shelley cooked them the night before.
We used a egg to cut out the cookie shape and it was a bit smaller than the one on Bake It at 350. So we didn't have enough room to write popcorn on them. But they turned out way cute anyway.

I had never made royal icing, used meringue powder or floated icing. It was a whole new experience, but very fun! I think we will be dabbling in cookie decorating a bit more. Shelley and I are going to make darling graduation hats for our preschool kids at school. I'll post pictures of those when we get to that. In all our free time, ya know :).

Then the 4 of us met at the school this morning and handed these out to all the teachers and staff. Everyone loved them! Super cute idea. Thanks for Bake It at 350 for the idea!

The Most Delicious Cupcakes Ever!!

I honestly don't know where I got this recipe. When I was doing food therapy (first round of HCG) I would spend hours looking at food blogs and printing recipes for that happy day when I could eat agian! Well, it's time to eat! I made these yesterday and they are the best cupcakes I have ever had! Seriously!! If this recipe came off your blog, let me know so I can give you credit, because you DESERVE it!

Extra Delicious Cupcakes:

1 box yellow or chocolate cake mix
1 - 4 serving box of vanilla or chocolate instant pudding mx
4 eggs
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup oil

Mix all ingredients togehter. Bake at 350 for 17-22 minutes. While they are cooking, make sure to lick the spoon! It's sooooo worth the calories. Cool completely and frost.

They aren't a rounded top cupcake. They kind of sink and spread outward, which makes them look a little diffrent, but oh my, my, oh heck yes, they sure do taste delicious.

Speaking of delicious. Cupcakes should be both delicious and pretty.

I'm having a love affair with cupcake decor.

Check out this darling Esty shop!

Bake It Pretty, is another fun shop.

Full of eye candy and temptation.

How's a girl to choose?

Could They Be Any Better????

That's a smore in all it's yummy goodness, but it's made with a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup. How much better could life be? Well check out this article for 5 more great way's to yummy up your smores! Were going camping in a few weeks!! I'm gonna have to try some of these out!

Measurement Equivalents

I have a confession: I love Martha! Thought this was a fun little treasure. To print, click here and enjoy! I'm excited to stick this on my fridge!

I Have a Confession to Make......

I HAVE NEVER BEEN TO IKEA! Sad, isn't it? Sadly, there is no Ikea where I live and the closest one is in Las Vegas and when I go to Las Vegas, I try to leave it as quicly as I can. However, I am on my way to California today and I need to find an Ikea somewhere along the way, so I can go and browse their baking section. If I have to stop at every Ikea between here and San Diego to find that cookie cutter set, I will. I. MUST. HAVE. IT. It's not a want, it's a need. Check out some of these great finds.

Red baking dishes. I love them. This one is only $6.99.

My hubby hunts. He's into everything outdoors and so are my boys. I think these are darling!

This is my very favorite of all the little beauties I saw. I must have this simply for the flower shaped cookie cutter in the middle. I'm envisioning my sweet daughter and her friends decorating cookies in my kitchen.

Cakes and I do not tend to get along, but for $1.49 I may try this fun stencil set. I can just see a fun baby shower cake with polka dots. Yep, going to have to try it.

To see all this and lot's more, click here. The best thing is that they are extremely affordable!

Freezer Jam

I love freezer jam. I love how easy it is and how yummy it is! I also love that it doesn't require you to turn on the stove! It makes a great gift!

Freezer Jam

5 Cups frozen mashed fruit ( I did raspberries)
1/2 cup Corn Syrup
2 Cups sugar
3 Tbsp. Clear Jel

Mix sugar and fruit. Add corn syrup. Mix well, put in containers and freeze.!

Go here to see the other recipe I sometimes use. It's a lot more sweet than this was. Almost to sweet. But both are great recipes.

World Wide Ward Cookbook & I Can't Believe It's Not Food Storage Book Review

I love Crystal's sight, Everday Food Storage. I have visited it a lot in the last year. Well, Crystal came out with a book, I Can't Believe It's Not Food Storage. I knew this was one of those books that I had to have! My sweet hubby bought it for me for my birthday! It's like having access to the website, but in book form. She walks you through step by step on how to build up your 3 month supply and then move onto your 1 year supply. She also has places where you can write in your amounts to fit your family, so it's all kept right there in the book. I love her recipes and am way excited to be able to try them out. Gotta get off my diet first. I made chocolate pancakes for my kids on Saturday and I used my powdered eggs. Such a proud moment!!

For my birthday, I bought myself the Worldwide Ward Cookbook. First of all, it's the prettiest cookbook ever. I don't know if I will actually be able to use it in my kitchen because I would be afraid to spill something on it. It is full of great recipes. I love the beautiful pictures and I love how she has included the stories to some of the recipes. I actually teared up a time or two as I read the touching stories. And it's such a small world. I saw atleast a dozen recipes that we make on a regular basis. I have a fabulous peanut butter popcorn recipe that I make up and to my suprise it was in the book! I have never found anyone outside my own family who had ever had this. Maybe I need to get out more.

If your interested it looks like they are going to make a Worldwide Ward Cookbook 2!! If you would like to submit a recipe, click here for all the details!

Both are great books and I am so excited to use them. I'm making a bean dip recipe out of the Ward cookbook tomorrow for a family party. I'll post it later this week!

I Miss Food

I have been on the HCG diet for 13 day's and food seems to be consuming my thoughts! I've decided that I am just not meant to be a skinny girl. I am dreaming about cookies and cupcakes, and baked potatoes. I have to admit I love food. This diet has been eye opening for me, however and I realize I do need to eat better and get in more exercise. But do you have to be miserable or can you find a balance?

I have lost 12 pounds. And I feel better, my pants are fitting much better. The first few days were miserable, but every day gets better. That doesn't mean that I am constantly tempted. Every time I see a cookie, I have to physically pull myself away. I'm also a little on the cranky side. I think my kids would rather a happy, chunky momma, then a skinny, awnry momma. But I am committed to do this diet for 23 day's and go from there. We'll see where I am at in 10 day's. I just hope there aren't cookies in my house on day 24, or I'm busted!

When you have no money, you like to window shop. To go to the mall or in my case the craft stores, and browse around and imagine what you could buy, if you had the money. It's kind of the same way with food. I have been blog hopping and have found some FABULOUS cooking blogs. I kid you not, I have printed about 100 recipes that are just waiting until May, when I can eat agian. My husband came in, while I was blog hopping and he thinks I am crazy for looking at food, but it's like window shopping. I am imagining how yummy it all tastes. Am I crazy, or what? I must share a few that I have stumbled upon. I am also adding their buttons to our side bar.





Haylee's Food

A Cup of Sugar

Good Eats n' Sweet Treats She has this on her side bar! (In life, there are two types of people: those who eat to live, and those who live to eat. I fall within the latter group :) AMEN TO THAT SISTA!

Cute Easter Cheesecakes

How cute are these little babies?
You'll have to click here to get the directions!

Peanut Butter Bars (well kinda)

One of my very favorite recipes!!! I changed it a little bit. All I did was add 2 cups of chocolate chips to the recipe instead of frosting them with peanut butter and chocolate frosting. Makes a great cookie bar!!! LOVE them as peanut butter fingers too! Just depends what your in the mood for. I also break these down and bake in 2 9x13 pans. They cook better this way. I have also done it in a sheet cake size pan, you just have to cook them a little longer.

Peanut Butter Fingers

1 cup butter
1 cup sugar

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup peanut butter

2 eggs

2 tsp. vanilla
2 cups flour
2 cups oatmeal

1 tsp. soda

½ tsp. salt

Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs, peanut butter, and vanilla; cream. Add remaining dry ingredients. Spread on a sheet cake sized cookie pan. Bat at 350 degrees for about 15 to 18 minutes. Take out of the oven and spread with a thin layer of peanut butter. Let cool and cover with a layer of chocolate frosting.

My Rainbow Cupcakes!

So I made the rainbow cupcakes. I didn't actually do the recipe that used the sprite and cake mix, although that is something I will be trying. I don't have any Sprite in my house today so I just used, my Alison's Pantry Creme Cake Mix. This was so easy, and I thought it would be time consuming. HA!! I am in love with this idea. I think this will be our new birthday cake at our house, because it really is cool to look at. What a fun new tradition! The kids thought it was great fun and loved it.

The craftiness of others

Sorry that we are such horrible bloggers. We did so well right at the start. We each tried to post at least 3 to 4 posts a week. And we did really good until the holidays came. And now we are in a rut. It's not that we aren't doing fun stuff, but we're busy! All you mom's know how busy it gets. So, please bear with us while we catch up and try to prioritize our lives. Blogging here and on my family blog has lately gotten put on the back burner. Sorry! It's just the way it is. I am trying to work my schedule out so that I am spending more time with my kids, trying to fit in exercise, and everything else in life. I'm afraid I'm giving up some of my blogging time for exercise. It's important and I'm really trying to get into the habit of doing it.

Good thing that there are some really crafty ladies out and about to get ideas from. Of course, because I am dieting, and trying really hard to be good, I want to bake. But I love to bake regardless, and here are two great idea's that we are going to try.

I found this little gem at Make and Takes. So much fun! I wonder what else you could make. See it here.

How cool is this cake? I'm going to try it. This weekend perhaps. It's super easy. At least it sounds super easy. See it here. Wouldn't it be fun to do it in all valentine day colors. OOOH! Or make cute cupcakes for the preschool party, although that would take oodles of time. I'll have to ponder that one.

For some great valentine printable sfor the kiddo's click here and here . And for tons of great ideas and printable valentines, check out Skip to My Lou's Valentine page.

What idea's have you seen or do you have???

Awesome Finds

I have been without my camera for a few days while the husband is off hunting :(. I feel like I am missing a piece of myself! Anyway, so no fun projects from me, though I have several to do this week once the camera returns. But I did want to put a post up today with lot's of cool things that I have found!!

This is for all you LDS Bloggers out there. Ever heard of Themed Cuties ? She has darling clipart for holidays and LDS themes. She has quite a few freebies on her website. Go check her out, she is also very affordable! Alway's a plus.

The Toymaker is a fun little site that I stumbled across. They have lots of ideas for paper. Mostly paper toys that she has offered the patterns for. You simply print out what you want and cut and glue. Easy, easy and free!!!

Simplify Supper is a pretty fun site and what a GREAT idea. They were actually on Good Things Utah the other day. It gives you menu ideas for each month with recipes, and your shopping list is all done for you according to what you choose.



Now, I really haven't liked blinkies much, but Cutest Blog on the Block has some adorable ones!! They have many sayings about family and just darling blinkies, like the one featured above. So go deck out your blog with fun sayings!!

Hope you guys thought this stuff was fun! Hopefully I will be back to posting projects soon!!

Wheat Bread

Okay, so I posted white bread yesterday, I thought I would post my wheat bread recipe. I tweaked several diffrent recipes until I came up with this and this is the bread that I prefer. It's more hardy and holds up better for sandwhiches or just even butter and honey.

Wheat Bread
(2 batch recipe)

1/2 cup warm water
1 Tbsp. sugar
1 Tbsp. Yeast

Brew together until bubbly

3 cups warm water
1/4 to 1/2 cup sugar
1/4 to 1/2 cup canola oil
2 Tbsp. Dough Enhancer (optional)
4 cups wheat flour or ground red wheat
white flour

Brew yeast in warm sugar water. In large bowl combine water, sugar, oil and dough enhancer. Add wheat flour and stirl. Then add yeast mixture. Add enough white flour to get dough manageable. I do leave it a littel sticky and add more flour after it has risen the first time. Raise until double. Bunch down and shape into loaves and place in greased bread pans. Let raise until bread it just starting to show over sides of pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes. Brush tops with butter for soft top.

This recipe is very easy and very flexible. You can adjust sugar and oild depending on you liking. You might could even use applesauce in place of the oil, but I have yet to try that out.
Good luck!!!

Better Than_ _ _Cake-You fill in the blank

Finished Project
Happiness is licking the bowl. I was trying to be sneaky in the kitchen by keeping the bowl to myself but after I licked the spoon two times I felt really guilty. So I called for them to finish the job. It won't be to many years before they won't be around to lick the bowl. They liked the bowl of stuff but weren't too keen on the cake. Silly kids.

1 box devils food cake mix

caramel topping

Heath candy bars(Crushed up)
chocolate cool-whip

Bake cake according to directions. Let cool for a few minutes. Poke holes with fork all over the cake. Drizzle caramel over top. so it starts to melt into the cake. Put it in the fridge to completely cool. Add cool whip to top of cake and top with heath candy bar.