Rainbow Cupcakes



 

I made these rainbow cupcakes this weekend for our family reunion and they were a big hit. The last time I made these was at Wade's birthday party last year. I think they are so much fun and so stinkin' cute! They are not too tough to make, they just take a bit more time than your average cupcake.  

The directions are simple: Take a box of white cake mix and mix according to directions. Separate the batter equally among six small bowls. Add drops of food coloring to each bowl. (I use AmeriColor's soft gel paste that I found at Hobby Lobby. You don't have to use very much to get bright, vivid colors!) When I first saw this a long time ago, the layers were all equally stacked and layered, but that seems impossible to achieve so I just plop a blob (ha, that sounded funny) of each color in each muffin cup. It's very forgiving- if you get more of one color, no big deal, it'll still look cool. Fill half full and bake as directed. Yes, it's a little time consuming, but so worth it!

I top them with a buttercream frosting. Once I discovered how fabulous homemade frosting is, I'll never buy store bought again!

Buttercream Frosting

1/2 c butter

1/2 c shortening

2 tsp vanilla (or any extract)

1/8 tsp salt

5 c powdered sugar

1/4 c whole milk

Beat together butter, shortening, vanilla, salt until creamy. Gradually add sugar and milk and beat until smooth.

**Nicole McIntosh, thought of you when I made these! I know you appreciate yummy food and pretty things, and these are both. :) **

Round Two

*sigh*

I was so excited for warmer weather to come this way, foolishly thinking that the cold weather would take all those yucky germs with it.

So yeah. Not so much.

Wade has been sick for the past 4 days with the flu- the fever, achy, chills, dry cough, loss of appetite kind. This means that this 8 month pregnant mama's been on her own for feeding the kiddos, putting them to bed, doing the dishes, etc. so that Daddy can rest. I didn't realize how much I relied on him for help. Yikes. So I've been exausted, unmotivated, uncomfortable, and grumpy this week. Confession: today I finally washed the dishes from Tuesday's night supper. Gross.

And then today, Miss Reese complained that her head hurt when she coughed. Wade and I just looked at each other, knowing exactly what that meant. Throughout the day you could tell she just wasn't feeling herself and we put her to bed tonight with a fever. Beckett hasn't gotten it yet, but he woke up this morning with his nose running like a faucet. Pretty typical for him, but still not fun.

We've been trying something new called Oscillococcinum. Have you guys heard of this? It's supposed to work wonders if you take it at the onset of flu symptoms.

Wade took it on day 3 of his symptoms, so he didn't find it as effective, but I'm hoping it'll kick in for Reese before it's the full blown awful yucky flu. :(

I also made chicken noodle soup tonight and it's one of our favorites. It's hearty and makes a ton so I usually have some for leftovers for the rest of the week PLUS some to freeze for supper on a different night. We use a buttery garlic rotisserie chicken that we grab at the store to make it easier (not to mention SO GOOD!) So in case your interested:

Chicken Noodle Soup
1 tbsp butter
1 c. onion, chopped
1 c. celery, chopped
2 c. carrots, sliced (I always use baby carrots to keep it simple)
2 cloves garlic
4 (15 oz) cans chicken broth
1 (15 oz) can vegetable broth
1 (15 oz) can cream of chicken
1 1/2 cup wide egg noodles (half a bag)
1 tsp each of basil, oregano, thyme

1 rotisserie chicken, shredded or chopped
salt and pepper to taste

In a large pot, over medium heat, melt butter. Cook onion, celery, carrots, garlic in butter until just tender, abt 5 min. Pour in broths and remaining ingredients. Bring to boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 20 min.

In the meantime, we'll try to stay far, faaaar away from everyone and hopefully not spread this around to anyone else! As for me, I've got myself some PB m&ms and am determined to make this next week better than the last. I've got soooo much to do and I cannot afford to get sick (again!) on top of being preggo, so I'm crossing my fingers and toes hoping this one skips me!

Dinner and a Movie

Anyone else remember that show? Ha! Actually, it's probably still on, I just wouldn't know since we don't have cable anymore.  :)

Just wanted to share 2 quick things from my week so far:

First, last time we were at Wade's parents' house, I snagged a recipe that was originally from Ms. Sarah Monroe, as I'm a sucker for anything with tomato sauce and mozzerella cheeze. I made it Sunday night and it was de-lish! So, thanks Sarah! :)

Don't Cook the Pasta Manicotti

1 (8 oz) pkg uncooked manicotti shells

1 lb ground beef

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

4 cups tomato juice, divided

1 (6 oz) can tomato paste

2 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1/8 tsp ground black pepper
4 cups shredded mozzerella cheese, divided
1 (15 oz) carton ricotta cheese
1 (10 oz) pkg frozen chopped spinach
2 eggs
1/2 cup parmesan cheese


In a large skillet, brown meat w/ garlic, pour off fat. Stir in 2 cups tomato juice, tomato paste, oregano, sugar, salt & pepper. Simmer while preparing filling. In a large bowl, combine 2 cups mozz cheese, ricotta, thawed & drained spinach, eggs & parm; mix well. Preheat oven to 350°. Stuff uncooked shells (I used my hands), arrange in 9x13 pan. Spoon mean sauce evenly over shells, pour remaining tomato juice evenly on top. Cover w/ aluminum foil; bake 1 hour. Remove from oven and remove foil; immediately top w/ remaining mozz cheese. Serves 6-8. (Perfect for leftovers!)

And second, you've got to watch this little clip. They were on Ellen today and could not get any cuter if they tried!



Have a great Wednesday!!!

{Manicotti picture found here}

A Few Recipes...

So as you know, this is Week 3 of my Food Challenge. I. AM. EXAUSTED!!!!

I'll post all of my recipes for week 3 tomorrow or so, but here are a few that my sister jazzed up in her free time. Y'know, just a little something she whipped up in like 5 minutes. Aren't they SO CUTE?! (She's upset that I didn't take pictures of recipes 1-15.)

On the agenda for this week: Wade's birthday, garage sale, picking raspberries, and a home meeting with Reese's preschool teacher (!!!).

{click pictures to enlarge}

Have a fabulous week! :)

Slow Cooker Meals

Like I mentioned before, I rely on my slow cooker a lot. When I teach swim lessons in the evenings, it's awful coming home at 6:30 to just be starting supper when my kids are already grumpy, whiny, and hungry. So during naptime, I'll throw something in the slow cooker and by the time we get home it's ready to go!

Here are two good ones that we had this week:

Asian Peanut Butter Pork
pork chops (sometimes I put them in still frozen)
1 onion, coarsly chopped
1/4 soy sauce
1/4 cup brown sugar
3 tbsp white wine vinegar
3 tbsp water
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1/2 cup peanut butter

Dump it all in. Don't bother stirring it until the peanut butter has melted. Cook on high 4-6 hours. Rearrange the chops and stir about an hour before serving. *This sauce is amaaaazing! Everyone loves it.

Chicken Fettucini Alfredo
2 chicken breasts, cubed
1 can cream of chicken or cream of mushroom
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 parsley
1 bag frozen broccoli florets
1 box fettucini noodles

Combine all ingredients (except noodles) and stir. Cook on low all day. Before serving, cook up the fettucini noodles and toss into the slow cooker to coat.
*This one needs a little salt, but is overall pretty easy and good.

Also, I've been absolutely drooling over the Serena and Lily catalog the past couple of days. And especially loving these:

Couch and Nachos

Hope you had a great weekend! We definitely did. I wanted to thank to Angie for letting us come down on Saturday and hang out with them. There are some friends in life that are really worth hanging on to and I know she is one of them!

(Such an old pic!)

I also wanted to thank Wade's cousin Sara for the couch and other furniture that Wade's parent so graciously hauled here from Chicago. What was meant to be a quick process of transfering the couch from the trailer to the basement, turned in to an ordeal that took a couple of hours. It resulted in dismantling half the couch, a trip to Lowe's, and lots of squeezing, pushing, and manuvering to get that darn couch through the door!

(Stuck in the kitchen. Wade is convinced in will not fit down the stairs.)

And finally, we had nachos last night and instead of salsa on them, I tried Texas Caviar. Have you tried this stuff?!?! SO FABULOUS! Like, right up there with Pottery Barn Dip!

Texas Caviar

1 can of garbanzo beans (chickpeas)
1 can of black beans
1 can of Navy beans
1 can of corn (I used frozen)
2 avocados
1 small red onion
a bunch of cilantro
Italian dressing
sugar
lime juice
salt


Directions:
Drain the beans and corn well. Put them in a bowl. Chop up the onion into very small pieces. Add them. Add about 1/3 bottle of Italian dressing to the mixture. Squirt in a whole buncha lime juice. Add about 1/2 cup of sugar. Then shake on some salt. Stir well. Cover. Chill overnight in the refrigerator.


Before serving, drain the Texas Caviar quickly in a colander. Cube up the avocado and add it. Rip up as much cilantro as you want and add it too. Toss together. Can be served as a dip, or on nachos, or with shredded chicken as a salad. 

(I also added some drained, fire roasted diced tomatoes so it would be salsa-like, but they're not required)

It doesn't look so great in the picture, but believe me, it was tasty!

Black Bean Brownies, wait... WHAT?!?!

Yes, you read that correctly. Beans. In brownies.

I've wanted to try these for awhile now, and finally got around to it this weekend. I'm on this little health kick right now and remembered this little recipe I had sitting on a back shelf in my brain, so I decided to try it.

And they were actually pretty good!!! I think I overcooked them a little bit so they weren't as chewy or fudgy as I was expecting, but still not too bad. You couldn't even taste the beans. I might tweak them a little and substitute applesause for the oil next time, but overall pretty darn good!

Black Bean Brownies

1 (15.5 ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained

3 eggs

3 tablespoons vegetable oil

1/4 cup cocoa powder

1 pinch salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3/4 cup white sugar

1 teaspoon instant coffee (optional)

1/2 cup milk chocolate chips (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease an 8x8 square baking dish.

Combine the black beans, eggs, oil, cocoa powder, salt, vanilla extract, sugar, and instant coffee in a blender; blend until smooth; pour the mixture into the prepared baking dish. Sprinkle the chocolate chips over the top of the mixture.

Bake in the preheated oven until the top is dry and the edges start to pull away from the sides of the pan, about 30 minutes.

Another version I found for this called for one can of beans (plus the liquid), one box of brownie mix, and 1/4 cup of water. Blend it together in a blender and cook similar to above recipe. Just might have to try this one, TOO!

Winterizing!

It's so chilly around here! I just put on a pair of thick, fuzzy socks, whipped up the chili (see recipe below) in the crock pot for tonight, lit a vanilla candle, and made some coffee w/ white chocolate creamer.

I am in the process of putting away all the kid's summer clothes and pulling out all their fall/winter clothes. What a process! It seems like I can't finished a project without having kids jump all over it and then getting overwhelmed and pushing it all into a big pile to deal with later. And I haven't even started w/ my clothes yet...

Chili

1 lb. hamburger

3 (16 oz.) cans of Bush's chili beans

1 (1 lb.) can of tomato sauce

1 jar Pace picante sauce

Brown hamburger in skillet. Chop very fine and drain. Put all ingredients into crock-pot, let cook all day.

It doesn't get much easier than that. I'm all about recipes that call for the fewest amount of ingredients possible! This is the first time I've tried this recipe, but it even tastes good cold. (Not that I would know... I definitely don't try a bite every time I walk by it...)

Have a great Wednesday! :)

Good-bye September, Hello October!

Well, I'd say fall is officially here! And oh, it's just lovely. ;) Last month when I said that I was ready for sweatshirt weather all those other wonderful fall-ish things..... yeeeeaaah, it was like 80 degrees when I wrote that. Ha!

Either way, September was full of starting music and dance classes, family pictures, squash soup, cutting both of my babies curls off, crafts, a half-marathon, a big fight, an art festival, our favorite shows back on TV, cutting molars, and much more. Fun!

And since we were stuck inside all day, we made these Snickerdoodles this afternoon. :)

Snickerdoodles

1 cup butter

1 1/2 cups white sugar
2 eggs
2 3/4 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons white sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Grease cookie sheets.

In a medium bowl, cream together the shortening and sugar. Add eggs one at a time, mixing after each. Sift together the flour, baking soda, cream of tartar and salt; stir into the creamed mixture until well blended.

In a small ziploc bag, mix together the 2 tablespoons of sugar with the cinnamon. Roll the dough into walnut sized balls and roll the balls in the sugar mixture. Place cookies 2 inches apart on the prepared cookie sheet. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven. Cookies should be slightly golden at the edges. Remove to cool on wire racks.

Super Fabulous Dip #2

Wade is begging me to make this one again ASAP. It was sooooo good!

Pottery Barn Dip

2 Packages Cream Cheese, softened
1 Can Niblets Corn, drained
1 Can Black Olives, drained and chopped
1 Red Pepper, chopped
10-20 Sliced Jalapenos chopped (*optional, just buy a jar of sliced jalapenos and chop up 10-20.)
1 Large Package of Ranch Dressing Mix

Instructions:
Combine everything except the cream cheese. Stir Corn, Black Olives, Red Pepper, Jalapenos and Ranch Mix together until mixed well. After letting the cream cheese soften a bit, add the two packages to your mixture and combine well.
Serve cold with crackers or chips (like Tostitos Scoops).

Make this and you will NOT be disappointed! ;)

Super Fabulous Dip #1

I made two awesome dips this weekend that I just had to share. Here's the first one...

{click to enlarge}

I literally licked the bowl clean. But that's nothing too out-of-the-norm for me....

Red Velvet Cake Balls

I'm making these today, only with white chocolate. I'll letcha know how it goes!

I'll post soon about out new renovation project, which is still on the drawing board, but Wade thinks he will be able to complete it in... oh.... about 2 weeks. At the end of August FOR SURE. ;) All right, babe! Let's see what you can do!!!

Berry Crisp

We are back from another busy weekend! Mondays at our house this summer have been full of putting the house back together, naps, and just recovering from the busy weekend. Mondays are also usually our backyard pool days (but not today since it was only in the 70s) but I'll post about that later.

But right now, here's the spur-of-the-moment dessert I made this afternoon!

A friend of mine brought over a bunch of cherries last week. I really needed to use them up before they went bad so I found a recipe for cherry crisp online, only I added blueberries and strawberries since I didn't have enough cherries. It's pretty tasty so I'm guessing it's not going to last very long! Tomorrow, the kids and I are off in search of tahini, which we need to make hummus!

Fresh Cherry Crisp

4 cups pitted sour cherries
1 1/2 cups white sugar
4 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup old-fashioned oats
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup butter

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
In a large bowl, combine cherries, 1 1/2 cups white sugar, and 4 tablespoons flour. Pour into 9x13 inch baking dish. In a medium bowl, combine 1 1/2 cups flour, oats, and brown sugar. Cut in butter until crumbly. Sprinkle over cherries.
Bake in preheated oven for 45 to 50 minutes, or until topping is golden brown.

Veggie Burgers

We are BIG fans of burgers in this house (who isn't?!) so we love trying different meats, toppings, combinations, and buns. We had these veggie burgers last night for supper and they were awesome! We've had them before, and each time they were great. Really healthy and really easy.

And tonight for our pizza night, instead of our usual pepperoni/sausage, I'm going to try all veggies and play around w/ cream cheese fore the sauce. I may add chicken, I haven't decided yet.

Homemade Black Bean Veggie Burgers Rated: Submitted By: LAURENMU Photo By: baskerville_gal Prep Time: 15 Minutes Cook Time: 20 Minutes Ready In: 35 Minutes Servings: 4 "Spiced up with chili sauce, cumin, garlic and chili powder, these quick and easy black bean burgers will make you forget all about frozen, packaged veggie burgers. They're great on the grill or baked in the oven." Ingredients: 1 (16 ounce) can black beans, drained and rinsed 1/2 green bell pepper, cut into 2 inch pieces 1/2 onion, cut into wedges 3 cloves garlic, peeled 1 egg 1 tablespoon chili powder 1 tablespoon cumin 1 teaspoon Thai chili sauce or hot sauce 1/2 cup bread crumbs Directions: 1. If grilling, preheat an outdoor grill for high heat, and lightly oil a sheet of aluminum foil. If baking, preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C), and lightly oil a baking sheet. 2. In a medium bowl, mash black beans with a fork until thick and pasty. 3. In a food processor, finely chop bell pepper, onion, and garlic. Then stir into mashed beans. 4. In a small bowl, stir together egg, chili powder, cumin, and chili sauce. 5. Stir the egg mixture into the mashed beans. Mix in bread crumbs until the mixture is sticky and holds together. Divide mixture into four patties. 6. If grilling, place patties on foil, and grill about 8 minutes on each side. If baking, place patties on baking sheet, and bake about 10 minutes on each side. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © 2009 Allrecipes.com Printed from Allrecipes.com 7/9/2009

Next time I might double the batch and freeze them for a quick last-minute supper. Yum!

Cinnamon Swirl Bread

As you know, I love to bake, but I am still in the learning stages! Last week when Wade was home sick, I decided to make him a warm little treat to cheer him up. Reese and I made him some cinnamon swirl bread and it was stupendous (that's a fancy word for great!-Fancy Nancy). My only problem was, that for some reason, the recipe made 3 large loaves. I only have one loaf pan, so I decided to use that and a spring form pan as a substitute. I ended up with a fat, funny looking loaf (I have one of those silicone bakeware loaf pans-don't get one.) and a giant cupcake looking thing.

We are still chopping away at it! My plan was to give some away, but it looked so funny, I just couldn't do it. Then I was going to freeze half, and well, that didn't happen either. ;)

Try it! It's pretty easy and tasty, but next time I'm only making a THRID of what it calls for!

Pizza Week!

Last week we decided to get CRAZY. That's right, we just threw all caution to the wind and do something we've only dreamed of doing!

Liz: Alright, I'm going to get groceries, anything special you want for
suppers next week?

Wade: Yeah. Pizza. Every night.

Liz: Haha, yeah right, now seriously, what do you want?.........wait a
minute.... long pause..... let's do it! Let's have a different pizza every night
next week!

And we did. :)

We normally make homemade pizza every Thursday night before we settle in to watch the Office. We usually just have half pepperoni, half sausage. We look forward to it all week long b/c it's sooo good! But last week we had a different, "exotic", pizza every night.

The Menu:

Thursday: Sausage/Pepperoni (gotta start out w/ a solid foundation)

Friday: Spinach Artichoke w/ Mozzerella Cheese

Saturday: Friends over for supper. Everyone got to top their own pizza.

Sunday: Buffalo Chicken w/ Bleu Cheese Crumbles

Monday: Taco w/ lettuce, tomatoes, & Doritos on top

Tuesday: BLT complete w/ a little mayo

Wednesday: Breakfast pizza w/ Bacon and scrambled eggs

Thursday: Thai Shrimp w/ Peanut Sauce, carrots and bean sprouts

Friday: Avocado Chicken w/ Swiss Cheese and roasted tomatoes.

8 days of bliss! Wade has perfected his pizza crust, and it's pretty darn good. Wade's favorite was the Thai Shrimp and mine was the Avocado Chicken. Wade wanted to continue these fun suppers, and while I loved it too, I had to cut him off. So we are back to old, boring suppers. But needless to say, we are already looking forward to Thursday again!

Wade's Pizza Crust
1 1/4 cup flour
3/4 cup water
1 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder

Knead/stir all together. Lightly grease bottom of pizza
pan. Dough will be wet and sticky, so after you plop the dough on the pan, sprinkle flour on top so you can roll it out. Add your toppings and bake at 425 degrees for 15-20 min.

Pumpkin Butterscotch Muffins

So one of my new hobbies is BAKING! I never knew how much I enjoyed it until I became a mom and wife. I'm not sure which I love more: the entire process OR the fact that I get to eat yummy baked goods at the end. Recently, Reese and I have been busy making blueberry banana bread, oatmeal cookies, apple crisp, brownies, and the newest addition: Pumpkin Butterscotch Muffins. YUM! It was the perfect afternoon to whip up these delicious muffins- chilly, windy and depressingly wintery. I didn't have a "mini" muffin pan so I made them normal sized and increased the time. Try them! They are awesome. :)

Mini Pumpkin Butterscotch Muffins

"Canned pumpkin and butterscotch chips provide an interesting taste combination in this recipe for mini muffins."

INGREDIENTS:

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour 1/2 cup brown sugar 1/2 cup white sugar 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg 1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon baking powder 1/2 teaspoon salt 2 eggs 1/2 cup melted butter 1 cup canned pumpkin 1 (6 ounce) package butterscotch chips

DIRECTIONS:

1.	Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease mini-muffin pan with cooking spray.
2.	Sift together the flour, brown sugar, white sugar, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into a large bowl. Whisk together the eggs, butter, and pumpkin in a separate bowl. Mix the flour mixture with the egg mixture. Stir in the butterscotch chips; pour into each cup of the muffin pan to about 3/4 full.
3.	Bake in preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean, 10 to 12 minutes.

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © 2008 Allrecipes.com

Printed from Allrecipes.com 11/8/2008

Song: Everything'll Be Alright by Joshua Radin
Heard it today on Pandora and fell in love.