1st (Not 6th) Anniversary Gift Idea

Review by Melody:
I am all for home-made gifts, and this one would make for a fabulous first anniversary gift.  Paper is what you're supposed to give on your first anniversary gift, and a map is...duh...PAPER!!  You're supposed to put a pin in the place you met, where you got married and where your home is.  Great idea, right?  My husband loves maps -- he's nerdy like that, and hates GPS because he thinks it's important to be able to read a map, as opposed to someone with an accent telling you where to go.  So, I made this for my husband on our SIXTH anniversary.  His reaction...um...I think he would have rathered a gift card from Menard's.  So, my review of this gift is, it's easy, not too expensive, and would be best coming from the guy to the gal in the relationship.  Us girls appreciate these kind of gifts a little more than the guys in our lives. 

Cheesecake stuffed strawberries

Cheesecake-Stuffed Strawberries

Review by Rachael

What You Need:

• 1 lb. strawberries, washed and dried

• 1 (8 oz) pkg. cream cheese

• 3-4 Tbsp. powdered sugar

• 1 tsp. vanilla

• graham cracker crumbs

• piping bag (or a plastic bag with the corner snipped off)

First slice the green tops off your strawberries. If they are not already hollow, clean out the insides a bit.

In a mixing bowl, beat together the cream cheese, powdered sugar, and vanilla.

Fill your piping bag (or plastic bag) with the cheese mixture and fill each strawberry.At this point you can cover them up and pop them in the fridge until you are ready to serve! Once it's time for dessert, pull them out and sprinkle with the graham cracker crumbs! 

Review by Rachael

These sounded so good I ran to the store to buy the items I didn’t have to make them ASAP. To help cut a little bit of fat from the recipe I opted for Neufchatel cheese instead (1/3 less fat) and low fat graham crackers.

After prepping the strawberries I started putting together the cream cheese mixture. The recipe calls for 3-4 Tbsp. of powder sugar, I put in 4. The mixture is pretty thick when you are done. I didn’t have a piping bag so I grabbed a sandwich bag (mistake #1) not thinking about it I also grabbed a fold over top bag instead of one that seals shut (mistake #2). 

There is enough cheese mixture that you will want to use a quart size bag. Although I was determined to fit it in the sandwich bag, as I already had ½ of the mixture in there, I wasn’t giving up that easy. I stuffed it so full that I couldn’t get the end to even twist. Big mistake! 

I then snipped a little too much of the corner off (mistake #3), which caused an excessive amount to come out of the bag when trying to fill the berries. At one point I had the cream cheese mixture coming out from every open area of the bag. Looking back it was funny, but not at the time. I did get them all filled but the end ones were not so pretty. 

I then took two graham crackers and put them in a sandwich bag (one that seals this time) and began making my crumbs. One would have been enough for this recipe. I sprinkled on the crackers and this is what I ended up with. 

So they don’t look great, but it was my first attempt! Let’s see how they taste!

They were okay…all I could really taste was the strawberry. I wanted a little more graham cracker crunch with it. If I make these again I think I would mix the graham cracker in with the cream cheese mixture so you have some of it inside the strawberry as well. 

I had some help in my taste testing and here are the reviews. 

1. “Only taste the strawberry. Waste of time adding stuff to the middle” (and no this wasn’t a review from me)

2. “I don’t like the center, can I just pick it out & eat the strawberry” 

3. “These are pretty good”

4. And the last review you have to see for yourself! I found this on the empty plate when I was cleaning up last night. 

No Bake Cake Batter Balls aka heaven on my tongue!

No bake cake batter balls pinned By Chef in Training

Ingredients

•1/2 cup unsalted butter softend

•1/2 cup sugar

•1 1/2 cups flour

•1 cup yellow cake mix dry

•1 tsp. vanilla

•1/8 tsp. salt

•2 Tbsp. sprinkles

•16 oz white dipping chocolate

•4 Tbsp. yellow cake mix dry

Instructions

1. Beat together butter and sugar using an electric mixer until combined. Blend in vanilla. Add cake mix, flour, salt, and vanilla and mix thoroughly. Add 3 Tablespoons of milk or more if needed to make a dough consistency. Mix in sprinkles by hand. Roll dough into one inch balls and place on a parchment or wax paper lined cookie sheet. Chill balls in the refrigerator for 15 minutes to firm up.

2. While dough balls are chilling, melt almond bark in the microwave in 30 second intervals until melted. Stir between intervals. Once melted, quickly stir in cake mix until incorporated completely. Using a fork, dip truffles into almond bark and shake of excess bark by tapping the bottom of the fork on the side of your bowl. Place truffle back on the cookie sheet and top with sprinkles. Repeat with remaining balls until finished. {Note: for smoother looking truffles, don't add cake mix to melted chocolate, just leave it by itself}

3. Chill cake batter truffles in the refrigerator until serving. Makes around 24-30 truffles.

The verdict:  These are amazing melt in your mouth yummy goodness!!! They are cheap to make.  I had all the ingredients on hand except for the cake mix ($1.35) and the almond bark/white chocolate ($2.50).  They are relatively quick to make too.  Mixing and doing the balls was easy.  The only time consuming part was dunking them in the almond bark.  I don’t know why but this is never a simple thing for me.  I end up covered in chunks of white chocolate and making a huge mess.  Also, remember to dip a few balls, put on the wax paper and then add the sprinkles.  My first batch I dipped all of them and then when I went to add the sprinkles on top, half of them were already dry so the sprinkles didn’t stick.  I also tried a batch where I added a few mini chocolate chips and used chocolate almond bark.  I would try that again but not add the cake mix to the almond bark as directed.  The chocolate stuff never seems to melt as well so these were less covered balls and more balls with chocolate drizzle and dollops all over them.  Regardless, they tasted awesome and the kids gobbled them up like they were going out of style.  If for some reason they don’t get devoured in one sitting, they can be stored in the fridge and are just as good a few days later.  If you like cake batter these are a must try!  I will definitely be taking these to future gatherings and making for a quick portion controlled snack to have around the house.  

Roasted chick peas

Review by Rachael

Last night I tried to make a roasted chick pea pin that I had found through snack-girl.com.  I’m not a huge fan of chick peas but these sounded like they were worth the try of a healthy chip alternative.

Spicy Roasted Chickpeas Recipe (4 servings)

1-15.5 ounce can chickpeas (garbanzo beans)

1 tablespoon olive oil

½ teaspoon cayenne pepper

Heat oven to 450 F and line a rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil. Drain chickpeas, rinse, and put them in a bowl. Mix oil, salt, and pepper with chickpeas and spread them on baking sheet.

Put them in the oven. After 15 minutes shake the pan to ensure that the chickpeas brown evenly. Roast another 15 minutes until brown and crunchy. Enjoy warm or at room temperature.

For one serving = 161 calories (again, cut down calories and fat by using spray instead of oil), 4.7 g fat, 25.0 g carbohydrates, 0 g sugar, 5.5 g protein, 4.9 g fiber, 329 mg sodium, 4 PointsPlus

Spicy versus sweet

I was excited at this point because they had a great aroma while baking

I decided to try roasting half the can sweet and the other half spicy.  I did the cayenne pepper and garlic on half of the batch and on the other I did brown sugar, sugar and cinnamon.  When they came out of the oven they smelled awesome but they tasted pretty bland.  Perhaps I didn’t use enough seasoning?  They were ok but nothing that I was going to gobble down in one sitting.  I tried a few of each kind and then put them into baggies, thinking I would bring them in to work to share.  I left them at room temperature as instructed.  This morning when I tried them they were not good.  Apparently you can eat them at room temperature but it should be while they are fresh.  I was hoping this could be a snack I could keep with me on a road trip like almonds or pistachios but after a few hours they lose their “crunch” and the taste of chick peas overtook the seasoning I had added.

If you enjoy chick peas in general, then I would say go ahead and try this.  It’s was about as easy as a recipe can get from start to finish.  It only took a few minutes to prep and then they were baked for 30 minutes.  Also, it’s a cheap experiment for sure! The can I bought was around $1 and I had all the seasoning and olive oil at home.  If you’re not a fan of chick peas or the texture of hummus or bland beans, then I would probably not recommend giving them a try.  

Powdered laundry soap

2 cups finely grated soap (Ivory, Fels Naptha, Zote, homemade, or a combination)
1 cup borax
1 cup washing soda

Mix and store in a coffee can or what have you. Use 1-2 T per load.

This is so easy!! You have to try it!

I found all the products needed to make this at the local hardware store (who would have thought!). I had a bar of soap at home so I decided to use that instead of the Fels Naptha since I didn’t know if I would like the laundry soap or not.

I took an empty, clean ice cream pale & added the borax and washing soda. Then I used an old hand held cheese grater I had lying around, but never used, to grate the soap. I had to cut the soap in half length-wise to get it to fit in the grater but it worked perfectly. 2 cups is approximately one bar of soap. My hand got a little tired after awhile, but well worth it! Once the soap is grated mix it together & cover with the lid... that’s it!

You really don’t need more than 1-2T per load. It doesn’t soap as much as store bought soap so don’t freak out. But this also makes it good to use in HE washing machines.

The clothes seem as clean as with the store bought detergent. They smell like the soap I used (so chose wisely when picking soap). The only thing I really noticed is they seem a little stiffer so to beat that I add vinegar to the fabric softener dispenser and it seems to help! Once you dry your clothes you won’t smell the vinegar on them.

I would recommend this to anyone who wants to use all natural soap or is sick of paying for laundry detergent. It took approximately 10 minutes from start to finish and costs much less than buying laundry detergent. I paid just under $10 for the ingredients and have at least 50 loads of detergent out of one batch. Plus I have extra Borax and washing soda left to make more when I run out. 

Clear vases with love letters or song lyrics

Review by Rachael

Directions from Pinterest:  http://ilovethisandthat.blogspot.com/2012/01/candle-in-bottle.html

What you need:

2 sheets of reading book paper 

scissors

an old clean glass bottle

glue

rope or ribbon

Take the page and measure on the bottle what the size of the paper should be. The circumference of the bottle will be wider on the outside than the inside, but measure it to get an idea.

You will have to stick the sheets together, but to start off first stick the one side together and make sure that it is cut straight. Then and cut off the wrinkled edges.

Now measure approximately where you want to cut the hearts or shapes. Lightly fold the paper and cut out your shape.

Before you put the paper in the bottle, glue the one end of the paper, put it in the bottle and spread the paper inside the bottle. Then stick the other end of the paper to the botle. Almost done.

To finish off the project tie a ribbon or piece of rope around the neck of the bottle, and place a tea-light candle in the bottle.

They are beautiful for the middle of your table or to put a few of them on your windowsill and light them for a pretty picture in the evenings.

The Pinterest jar

My assessment:

I couldn’t find reading book paper that worked for this. I wanted to use these for my centerpieces at my rehearsal dinner and felt I needed to find something that really captured that moment. So instead I found lyrics to songs I love and printed them off. The tricky part about this is that you have to keep experimenting to find the correct size to fit the jars you have. But atlas I did it and was able to get started. Not knowing what size jars to use I found several different jars & started the project. I was so excited because these are so cute! Also, they could be done cheaply with old jars, pages I printed at home and Jute or ribbon from a craft store.  

Unfortunately, these are not as easy as they look. They aren’t difficult but I found it impossible to get them exactly how I wanted. First, you can’t get the exact size of the paper because the inside of the jar is smaller – so you have to keep putting the paper in and taking it out to trim it. A few times I cut it a little too short and had to start over again. Second, when you “lightly fold the paper and cut out your shape” I found that the paper creased too much when I started cutting. Which leaves a line in the paper that I noticed and wasn’t a fan of. Third, when you have a jar with a smaller opening then the bottom of the jar it is very hard to get the paper in and spread out to fit the whole jar. To try and beat this I put the paper in the jar, tried to spread it out and then had to try & glue it while it was inside the jar; tricky, but not impossible. My biggest complaint about doing it this way is that I couldn’t get the paper to line up correctly once I had it in the jar. In the picture you can see how the line where it was cut is crooked. Therefore, I would recommend using vases or tall jars that do not have a lip on them and are the same size all the way up.  After the paper was in the jar I just added a LED tea light and tied some Jute (you can use ribbon as well) on the top of the jar. They look pretty close to the original pictures but I can see the flaws. They did the trick for what I needed but wouldn’t make more of these as I got frustrated with them not being perfect. 

My jars

Breakfast casserole

When it comes to breakfast I’m hard to please.  I need a good one to last me throughout the morning.  I don’t really dig cereal or cold breakfasts.  And my healthy living and budget does not allow me to eat a bagel every morning so I am constantly looking for easy and tasty breakfast ideas because a girl can only eat egg beaters so many days in a row.  I found this breakfast bake on Pinterest and decided to give it a try.  I love the idea of making something up on Sunday that I can eat all week and cutting out some prep time each night that I would usually spend making breakfast and lunch the next day.  The recipe I found was called breakfast tater tot casserole and came from grouprecipes.com. 

The original recipe

Ingredients

1 pound ground pork breakfast sausage (or cubed ham or bacon, whatever you like best)

2-4 cups shredded cheddar cheese

2 cups milk

4 eggs

2 pounds frozen tater tots

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

Spread the sausage, bacon, or ham evenly in the bottom of a 9x13 inch pan. Spread cheese over meat.

In large bowl, beat together milk and eggs. Pour over cheese. (May be refrigerated overnight at this point).  Top with frozen tater tots.  Bake in preheated oven for 45 minutes.  Cool for 5 to 10 minutes before serving.

Adjustments:  I decided to healthify this meal from the get.  I went with the ground turkey this round.  I think ham would be great too.  Bacon would be tasty but it would take a lot of bacon since it shrinks and you’d have to crumble it.  I browned the sausage with some onion and red and yellow bell peppers and placed it on the bottom of a 9x9 pan so it was thicker.  I covered that with 2 cups of egg beaters then ¼ cup of reduced fat 2% shredded cheddar cheese.  I spread 3 cups of shredded hashbrowns on top of that.  Hashbrowns are less fat and calories than tater tots because they are not seasoned.  I did add some salt and pepper then another ¼ cup of cheese on top.  This baked uncovered for 45 minutes and came out perfectly!  I cut it into 6 large sections and put it in the fridge.  Each morning I remove one square, microwave it for 2 minutes and have a perfect breakfast meal. 

This is what the healthified version looks like

Wonderful breakfast!

Cost:  $2 roll of ground turkey breakfast sausage, $2.50 bag of hashbrowns, $2.50 bag of 2% shredded cheese, $4 carton of egg beaters, onion and bell pepper from the garden.  Grand total of $11 for six meals.  $1.83 per serving is cheaper than the fast food. 

Overall:  This was easy to make, tastes great, is cost effective and I love that it can be healthified. 

Rating:  Thumbs up!