Cupcakes!

I love cupcakes. I mean, who doesn't? I very much prefer mini ones over regular size because then you don't feel so bad for eating more than one. And you can sample several flavors that way.
This summer, I tried two different kinds. I made rainbow\tye-dyed cupcakes for Lea's t-ball team's end of season picnic. It was super hot and I didn't want the frosting to melt, so I had a can of whipped cream in a freezer bag full of ice. That way I was able to top the cupcakes as fast as little hands were grabbing for them.
Of course, this was when I was only taking pictures of finished products, not step-by-step. BUT these were a hit so I'm very sure I will be making these again. All I did was..
Prepare a box of white cake mix.
Divide the batter into freezer bags, one bag per color desired.
Add food coloring to each bag and mix well.
Snip a small corner of the bag. This makes it SUPER easy to measure the batter into cups. If you are doing mini cupcakes, snip the smallest hole as you can so its easier to manage.
Squeeze just a small amount into the cups, when you add all the colors, you want the cup about 3 quarters full. Just as if you were making regular ol cupcakes.
Bake as normal and the end!

Another day, after grilled burgers and veggies, I thought about hamburgers in dessert form. So I prepared yellow cake mix to make mini-cupcakes and a pan of brownies. Sliced the cupcakes in half for the 'bun'. Used a small circle cutter to cut circles out of the brownies. Melted some yellow and red candy melts, tinted some vanilla frosting green and put it all together! I wasn't 100% happy with the turnout but because it was the first time and I had done it on a whim, I was glad with how they did turn out. Definitely a little more prep-work next time.

So much ground beef ....part 2

I had seen a recipe for a mexican lasagna and thought 'that's something Chris would eat'. I found a few different recipes and they all had roughly the same ingredients and steps, so I made out my list knowing that we were heading to the grocery store that week.

I opened up a small can of enchilada sauce (mild, boo) and poured just enough to coat the bottom of my glass cake pan so the tortillas wouldn't stick. I added the rest of the sauce to an envelope of taco seasoning (again, mild..gah!)and the ground beef that I fried up.

I tore tortillas in half so I could have a flat edge against the side of the pan. Oh, I was using flour tortillas, 6 inches? The smaller ones you would typically get for fajitas.
Then it was layering. Tortillas, seasoned beef, refried beans (I did beans on half, not sure if Chris liked them or not), sharp cheddar. I was able to do each layer twice for the size of my pan.

Topped it with a heap of cheese and tossed that bad boy into the oven. 350 for approx 20-30 minutes. the cheese was melted and the beans and beef were bubbling around the edges.

Chris took some to work that night. Since I was already full thanks to a stuffed pepper and a couple hours worth of taste-testing, I was waiting to hear his critique. When he got home this morning he said he really liked it and would like me to make it again sometime. YES! I rarely get that when I try new\different recipes. I hate living with 3 picky eaters!!

I just finished a portion of it for my lunch. My only complaint is that it's not spicy\hot enough. If I could have, I would have used spicy\hot enchilada sauce and taco seasoning. Maybe even a layer of jalapeno peppers. If I had a jar, I would have put a spoonful of salsa on top of my portion.

All in all, a success! Yay! :dances:

So much ground beef ....part 1

I had a couple pounds of ground beef that I had sitting in the fridge, screaming 'cook me already!'. I kept putting it off and finally decided to do something about it. I made 3 seperate meals because I didn't want to cook some and freeze some (which I would forget about).
First thing, I had a leftover green pepper from making chicken fajitas over the weekend and I thought, 'hmm a stuffed pepper sounds appetizing.'
So from the poundage of ground beef, I took out approx a half a cup and set it aside while I cooked up the rest of the beef for 2 other recipes.

When I had a free pan, I sliced the bottom and top of the pepper off, chopped it and some onion and tossed it in the pan with the half a cup of beef.I really cooked the piss out of it, so the beef actually got a bit of a crust on it...YUM!

While that was cooking up, I made a third a cup of rice and added it to a few tablespoons of garlic and onion tomato sauce. The tomato sauce was also reserved from another recipe tonight. When the beef\pepper\onion was done, I added it to the bowl. I added a sprinkle of onion powder and garlic salt to taste.

Next step was to...well...stuff the pepper! Amazingly, everything fit! The only thing I truly measured out was the rice, but even then, the amount was a guess. Topped with some mozzarella cheese, placed it in one of my crappier cake pans, and popped it in the oven. Since the the oven was already being used, it was set at about 350. I kept the pepper in til it was soft to the touch and the cheese was melted, everything else inside it was cooked so I wasn't worried about that.

As you can see, I only made one. No one else in the house likes green peppers or rice but me. Now that I know that I can just scoop a bit of beef out from another recipe, I'm sure I'll make this more often :)
I haven't dug into it yet, its still cooling and I'm kinda full from 'taste testing' everything as I was cooking!

Love Cards

I've been forgetting to take pictures along the way, but I ALWAYS make sure to get a shot of the finished product. Here are some cards I've been working on :)

This one needs something...a small knot\bow in the middle?

I tried a heart out of buttons, but turned out horribly. Definitely wanted to do something with buttons tho. Although, not *too* crazy about this one.

Valentine Love Bugs!

Since I got my table cleaned off, I started to work on a Valentine's project. I decided on love bugs :)

-Start with supplies!

-Cut out pieces. I used the Simply Charmed cartridge for the Cricut.

-Glue the pieces together and voila! Love Bugs! :)

-Add to cards if you want! I used other embellishments and papers that I had on hand. In fact, that is one thing that I an intent on doing, using what I already have. I have so many scraping and paper crafting items here that are taking up space, its time they get used! I am planning on only buying new items if someone asks for something very specific.
I am really hoping to turn this into some sort of part-time business, just to get some extra cash in for savings. With (almost) 3 kids and the need for a bigger house in an better town, we could use all the extra cash we can get!

Starting Anew...

I started the year off well, I got my craft space (folding table and one shelf) as organized as I could.

These are the before pictures. Scary.
The lack of wanting to clean\organize kept me from starting and completing projects.

This is after. I need another shelf and some more bins to really be able to get as organized as I'd like to be. But gotta make do with what I got!