Non-Edible Cupcakes

If you're like me, you like to add a personal/creative touch to the gifts that you give.

I always try to buy off of a bride or mom-to-be's gift registry, (because I know that's what they want!) but I always try to do something a little "extra" to make the gift more special.

I just seems a little more personal than "Here - I know you already like this gift because you picked it out yourself!".

So, when I had a baby shower to go to for one of my dearest friends, I first took a quick look at her baby registry. Once I saw the registry, I knew JUST what I wanted to create, from a gift that she had already picked out herself!

She registered for these cute girly burp cloths:

{source: target.com}

I was able to turn this cute little pack of burp cloths, into an even cuter little batch of cupcakes!!

　

To be honest, I didn't time myself to see how long it took to package these up, but it was no time at all....maybe 15-20 minutes. Tops.  And that includes my amazing photography.

After I rolled the "cupcakes" and placed them in the jumbo cupcake liners, I clipped some little hair bows that I picked up at the store to toothpicks and inserted them as "cupcake toppers". I think that was my favorite part. Now we're just hoping this baby has some hair so she'll be able to use them :)

And isn't the presentation so much cuter than just picking it from the rack at the store and stuffing it into a bag?

I did tie the box with some multicolored grosgrain ribbon (in coordinating colors, of course), but forgot to take a picture of it. I added it to my gift bag, with a few other things for the mom-to-be.

I think they turned out super cute!

You can try this idea with numerous items that a mom-to-be might have on her registry, including washcloths, onesies, or even socks!

　

And of course, it goes along with the theme of my new hobby/business...don't you agree?!

　

　

Meet my best friend

Do you all love your crock pot as much as I do? (ok, I think the technical term is slow-cooker because crock pot is a brand name, but you know what I mean)

It is seriously one of my best friends. Let me explain:

5:00pm is by far one of the most hectic times of our day during the work week. It's when we're getting home from work, picking up the kids, feeding the dog and letting her outside, and trying to get a (somewhat) wholesome meal on the table so that we can all eat together as a family before it gets cold. And all of that must happen in a span of about 15 minutes.

I've picked up a few tricks to try and combat the craziness, but there's only so much you can do.

Into my best friend, the slow cooker.

Dinner is already made for me, and all I have to do is lift the lid and dish some deliciousness onto the kids plates to let it cool off for a minute before it's served.

Talk about awesome.

One of the other things I love about the slow cooker is that it is basically effortless. Dump a bunch of ingredients into a big pot and turn it on. Really. It's that simple. I'm always experimenting with new "recipes" if you can even call them that. I rarely measure ingredients and many times will just add in random items that I have on hand or left-over.

Here's my latest creation (before being cooked):

　

　

I know you can't see all of the ingredients in this picture, and I'm a bad blogger by not taking step by step instructions. But I know you're smart and I bet you can figure it out from my super simple instructions:

What you'll need:

2-3 lbs of boneless, skinless chicken breasts

8oz cream cheese, softened (I use fat free; use your preference)

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

1 can corn, drained and rinsed

1 can diced tomatoes, juices included (Get creative here...I used diced tomatoes with green chilies; you can use any variation you wish!)

1/2 small onion, chopped

Add any spices you enjoy (I always add garlic, because I'm a garlic lover)

　

Layer ingredients into the slow cooker in the order listed above. Turn slow cooker on low and let it cook for a few hours (until chicken is cooked through).

**Here's the thing, since I cook mine while I'm at work for 8-10 hours, I really have no idea how long it takes until it's done. I know mine is slightly over cooked, but that's the awesome thing about slow cookers...it's pretty difficult to ruin the meal!)

I served mine with rice, all mixed together :) I had made the rice the night before (after the kids went to bed) so that took about 1 minute or so to heat up the microwave :)

You can eat it as is, like a casserole type dish, or we actually then put the entire mixture (with rice) served on soft taco shells with lettuce, cheese, and avocado (I'm sure my husband added hot sauce; he always adds hot sauce).

We don't have a name for it other than Crockpot Mexican Chicken Mix...if you come up with something better/more creative, feel free to share in the comments below :)

　

　

"New" Microwaved Popcorn

I love popcorn.
I mean, who doesn't love popcorn (Ok, besides my husband!).

I think the absolute best popcorn is when my mom makes it over the stovetop, with oil, in a pan.  Delish!
I don't have the patience to do that myself, and I also don't like the calories that come with the oil.

I usually just do the standard pre-packaged, store-bought microwave popcorn. (You know, probably the only thing you think of when think microwave popcorn.---until now!)

I'm typically calorie conscious, which means I eat the oh-so delicious 98% fat free microwave popcorn.
Even that has tons of preservatives, which I'm not such a fan of, if it can be avoided.
I've asked for a hot air popcorn popper before, to which my husband responds, "yay, more crap!"
Then, probably a year or two ago I heard a trick about making your own microwave popcorn, using a brown paper bag (you know, like you used to pack your school lunch in) and popping corn.

I finally tried it last week.
I added about 1/3 cup of popping corn to the bag.  Nothing else.  Just plain popcorn kernels.
I folded the bag a few times (tightly).
Put it in the microwave.

Success!!

How have I never tried this before?  So simple, so cheap.  If I reuse the paper bag a few times, even cheaper!
The only thing I might do is add a little piece of tape to the fold on the bag, but this time it didn't matter.
So fair warning that if you're not careful, you might have a popcorn explosion in your microwave.  Just sayin'.

I added some salt and a little bit of spray butter

Now I want to expand into the world of popcorn seasonings.  Things might just get a little crazy.

Happy Popping!

Reusable Grocery Bags

Do you use reusable grocery bags?
We do, and I love it!  We have all kids of them, small, medium, large, cloth, canvas, insulated, colorful, etc.  You catch my drift.  I even have one that rolls into itself and stays clipped to my key chain for those improptu trips to Target (or the grocery or whatever).  We even have some reusable produce bags!

This isn't to say that we never use plastic bags. 

Like when we had our recent weekly trip to the grocery store and realized we had forgotten ALL of our reusable bags at home. I didn't even have an emergency stash in the car!  We had both kids in tow, so the though of heading back home to get the bags was out of the question.  It crossed my mind for about half of a second before it was quickly wiped from my thoughts.

A few plastic bags won't be that bad, right?

OH.  MY.  GOSH.

I'm writing this blog post if for no other reason than to remind myself to bring my reusable bags every time we do our weekly grocery trip.  Every. Single. Time.



(my husband found 2 more bags in the car after I snapped this picture!)

 For reference, we usually have about 4-5 of our reusable bags full of groceries each week.
The amount of plastic bags used was just ridiculous.  Pair the fact that the plastic bags can't hold as much as the resuable bags with the terrible bagging process and it's just has WASTE written all over it.

The 3lb bag of potatoes that we bought was in a plastic bag by itself.  Really?  Was that necessary?

Don't get me wrong.  We still use these plastic grocery bags as liners in our bathroom garbage cans and for misc. dirty diapers that need to be brought outside ASAP, but we might only use 2-3 per week, if that many!
So, I gathered up the extra bags to be taken back to the store next weekend to be placed in the "bag recycling center".
From now on, I'll try even harder to remember to bring those reusable bags!

Do you use reusable grocery bags?
What tricks or tips might you have for a busy mom like me to remember to bring them with her to the store?!

Being Productive in the Evening

When you're a work-out-of-the-home-mom like me, evenings and weekends are the only time you have to do anything around the house.  And honestly speaking, I don't like doing chores or work on the weekends because I like it to be family time.
So, that really only leaves me the weekday evenings to get to all of those little things that pile up around the house.

Let me share with you how motivated I usually am after I get home from work:

NOT motivated at all.

My normal routine when I get home from work is to kick off my high heels and change into some super comfy scrubby clothes.  I won't put on a pair of shoes unless I know I'm heading out for an errand or we are going for an evening walk with the kids.

So, how do I make myself get some things accomplished?

I put on my tennis shoes.




No, not so I can go play tennis (I actually don't even know how to play!), or go for a run.

For some reason, having shoes on (and not just flip flops) makes me feel like I have some sort of purpose. 

I might actually head out side and pull weeds from the flower bed.
I might sort through the endless pile of "Stuff" that accumulates on our kitchen counter
I might clean my closet to find some things to donate
I might even collect the garbage from all of the bathrooms and take it to the outside trash can


Please don't misunderstand. 
It's not like my shoes hold some sort of special power like Harry Potter's magic wand, or Clark Kent's glasses (even though that would be quite awesome).

But when I'm wearing shoes, I'm not going to just go curl up on the couch or jump into bed.
You might call it silly, but hey, whatever works, right?

Try it, and let know if it works for you, too!