2 tasty recipes

My friend gave me this recipe for "healthy" cookies. I guess really healthy people reserve these for their treat, but I justify eating them all day long because they have so many healthy ingredients.

Mix together:
3 mashed bananas
2 cups of oats
1/2 c dried cranberries (or any dried fruit you like)
1/3 c olive oil
1/4 c almond milk
1 tsp. cinnimon
bake at 350 for about 15 min.
Less healthy version ( I recommend)
add:
dark chocolate chips
a drizzle of honey in the batter
pinch of salt


I made these mini-quiches (hate that word- and you know why, so they will henceforth be called cheese-baskets)for a brunch yesterday and they were a big hit, and totes easy.

basil & goat cheese baskets


3 tablespoons of fresh basil (or pesto)
1 package of puff pastry dough
4 tablespoons crumbled goat cheese
3 eggs
1/2 c. half and half (2% milk works fine)
1 T. flour
3/4 C. tomato, diced
salt and pepper to taste

Blend together eggs, cream, flour, and salt and pepper. Set aside.

cut pastry dough into squares and place them into a greased muffin tin. Bake for 5 min at the recommended temp. on the package. Take the tin out of the oven and sprinkle basil, tomato, and goat cheese into each cup.

Pour the egg mixture into each cup, filling about 3/4 of each cup. Bake for about 15 min @ 400 (keep an eye on it though, because I can't really remember how long I kept them in for).



Consider these variations:
-sun dried tomatoes instead of fresh
- zuchinni & rosemary
-cheddar & parm if you don't like the tang of goat cheese

Post your favorite quiche filling combos in the comments so I can try them!!

PS these photos were ripped off google images. They are not mine, but they look a lot like the recipes

Easy Fish Tacos

I love these tacos! The ingredients I use make them pretty healthy, and they even rival Rubios in taste! The biggest bonus is that they are SO EASY to make.
Ingredients:

Frozen Fish Fillets (I use multigrain breaded tilapia)

Shredded Cabbage

Flour Tortillas (These are the BEST whole wheat, low carb tortillas ever! They taste just like white flour tortillas. I get them at Walmart.)

Aioli (I couldn't find it in any stores out here so I used THIS recipe and like it better!)

Limes

Hot Sauce (Valentina is my favorite with these tacos)

Directions:

Bake your fish according to directions on box then split each fillet down the center.

After warming tortillas, layer on the aioli, fish, cabbage, and hot sauce. Add a squeeze of lime and any other toppings you desire! Enjoy!!!

Backyard Ambitions: Stone Bench

Our quaint little backyard is nothing but dirt and dog poop. So this Spring Break we are trying to transform it into a lovely oasis for us and our two labs. We are extending the porch using pave stones, but we were feeling ambitious and decided to first put in 2 stone benches. I'm not sure this is technically "crafty," but it was a fun DIY project so I thought I would share a quick how to:

1. Hose down the dirt in the shape and size of the desired bench making surface level.

2. Using 2x4s make a frame with an opening the size of your desired bench. Ours was 18" deep by 6' long. Then fill in frame with gravel.

3. Then pour sand ontop.

*Even though the wise man built his house upon a rock, this gravel/sand step is necessary since we are laying pave-stone in front of the benches. We want everything to be level and laying about 2 inches of gravel and sand allows some "give" room when laying the stones.

 4. Hose down and smooth out sand.

 5. For back row, lay cinder blocks 2-high (or desired height) and 4-long (or desired length.) Be Sure to level!!!

6. Hammer 2-foot rebar down center of each opening for reinforcement.

  7. Choose front/facing stones. We used relatively cheap retention wall stones from Home Depot so as to get more depth without buying twice as many cinder blocks.

 8. Stack in front of cinder blocks, 1-high and level. Then hammer more rebar between each front block for additional reinforcement.

 9. Between each row (we made ours 4-high) apply a layer of mortar about 1/4" thick covering top of facing block.

 9.b. (optional) Apply mortar between each block in each row. We ended up not liking this more finished look as much as leaving the natural cracks between each block. It's just a preference thing.

10. Fill in cinder blocks and triangular spaces between facing with cement.

11. Smooth cement.

 12. Apply 1/4" layer of mortar and position chosen capstones atop.

13. After a couple days remove wood frame and Whala! Finished!

Pinterest Hit or Miss

So I've been trying out a lot of recipes from Pinterest and some are just as fantastic as they look and others...not so much. So I thought I would do you all a favor and tell you which ones are actually worth trying. I would also appreciate if you would do the same!

Chic-fil-A Copycat Sandwiches

These are exactly what they claim to be, so if you love Chic-fil-A, you will love these. In general, it's just a good-tasting breaded chicken recipe that could be used for lots of things. I'm excited to try it cut up in a salad.


Saucy Roast Big-Mouth Sliders

Jacob loved these! I thought they were pretty good and really easy. The recipe was WAY too much for the two of us so the beef ended up lasting forever and was good wrapped up in a tortilla too!


Cheesy Chicken and Rice Bake

It was fine, but a little blah. Not something I would make often.


Mongolian Beef

This was really good but kind of a lot of work. I'm pretty lazy when it comes to cooking.


Lemon Feta Pasta

This looked really good. I don't know if we got the recipe wrong or if it was because we didn't use fresh basil, but ours was pretty nast. I don't think I'll even bother trying to make it the right way.

2 cakes in 1 weekend

I made some cakes for a brother/sister birthday party this weekend.  It's A LOT of work to get two done by the same deadline!  I had to literally pull an all-nighter to get them finished in time.  Thank goodness for a mom who came and watched kids so I could sleep the next day!

 The boy wanted a lego stormtrooper.  It turned out to be as big as a small child becuase they had a lot of people coming to the party. I made chocolate cake with caramel buttercream.  The head is formed from rice krispie treats.

Here's the Hello Kitty cake I made for the little girl.  I formed the kitty with a mixture of fondant and gum paste.  Fondant alone is too soft, and gumpaste alone was too hard for me to get really smooth, so the combo worked great.

The top layer is pink cherry cake with cherry buttercream, and the bottom is white cake with chocolate buttercream.

This time around, I got a cake leveler and a new rolling pin.  The right tools make the process so much easier.  I also made the MMF(marshmallow fondant) in my Bosch mixer, which was better than doing it by hand, and it turned out really smooth.  I rolled the fondant thicker than I have in the past, which also made a more smooth surface with less bubbling/sagging issues.  I'm learning as I go!  I feel like I've run a cake marathon, but I think the family was happy with the results. 

Decorations for Valentine's Day

Before school got too crazy, I did a little crafting of Valentine's Day decor.

1. I cut some of Martha's Handmade Heart Doilies out of fabric instead of napkins. Disclaimer: It's a lot harder to cut through 8 layers of fabric.

2. I put my InDesign skills to work and made this little print inspired by a little valentine I saw somewhere online.. I don't know how to share a PDF on here, but I can send it through email to anyone who wants their very own (ndellsworth@gmail.com)

3. I made some little oragami hearts (tutorial here and here) to hang on my glittery branches

4. I also made some little tissue paper flowers, roughly following  this tutorial, and hot glued them to some of the branches. If I'm ever feeling motivated enough, I make several more.

The card is last year's valentine.

#8 Oreo Pops

I've been wanting to try the dipped oreo pops floating around on pinterest.  I was in charge of treats for my niece's baptism, so I came up with my own version of oreo pops to create a number "8" for the occasion.It's just two mini oreos on a flat craft stick, dipped in melting chocolate.  I used some flower sprinkles I already had for the centers of the "8".  I think using an M&M would be even better proportionally, but I forgot to get them at the store, and didn't want to make another trip with the 3yr. old!  Next time!

To make these, I opened up each oreo, lined up two, placed the stick on the frosting side, squirted a little of the chocolate on like glue, then put the tops of the cookies over that.  I then put them in the freezer for a while before dipping them.  I used a spoon to help get them coated with the chocolate, then put the sprinkles on while the chocolate was still wet.  I put them back in the freezer so they would be solid.  They were a hit at the baptism party and tasted so yummy!