new beater & PB cupcakes...

For Easter the Easter Bunny got me these items...

These gifts just about sum me up.

I'd been waiting and wanting to use my new KitchenAid beater. It's one of the ones that is supposed to clean the side of the bowl as it goes. Supposed to is the KEY phrase. As I found on yesterday...it works significantly better on wet ingredients than dry...

look at the floor...

Turns out the rubber paddle FLINGS the dry ingredients around! This was about 5 - 8 seconds worth of flinging. For second 1 - 4 I wasn't quite looking at the bowl {I was reading the next step} and from second 5 - 8 I was just starting at the bowl thinking {insert bleep here}. This is the aftermath. At least it wasn't in liquid stage. This beater worked MUCH better on the frosting of these delicious cupcakes!!

I'd been craving peanut butter and chocolate cupcakes for a while now. I couldn't decide on which I wanted to be frosting and which I wanted to be cake. I decided on this combo and it was yummy! Now, I think it could be yummier yet and I will be tweaking it in the future!!

I used the MS One Bowl Chocolate Cupcakes recipe {minus the safflower oil - whatever that is} and then the MS Creamy Peanut Butter Frosting. I used my micro plane to put chocolate shavings on top, the results would have been much more dramatic if I'd had dark chocolate. Also, the safflower oil isn't called for in the MS Cupcakes Book...I'll have to investigate!!

Homemade Chicken Taquitos

I saw a recipe for chicken taquitos over at one of my favorite blogs (and also a lady who's name matches mine) Annie's Eats. I'm pretty sure this other Annie and I would get along great!!

I modified her recipe a bit but since I'm writing this on 5/15 I honestly can't really remember how. What I liked about it was I had everything I needed on hand, which is a plus for me. I also liked it because we like Mexican and this was very tasty, easy, cost efficient and something that would make a good freezer meal!! We had them with Rice a Roni and corn.

They are on the menu to make this week, so I will post soon on how I make them to fit our family!

Bridal Shower Scrapbook.

I had a blast making this next project. It was something that I'd seen one of my co-workers do for a teacher who retired this year and knew it would be super easy to transfer. It basically is a guestbook for a shower (or any other event) that is handmade, gorgeous, lots of time and energy (and money) but very worth it in the end!!

Below will eventually be a few a video clips.  At her shower we passed around the pages and the guests signed them with whatever they felt like saying. Some were funny, some were serious, but they all were heartfelt and bound into a book that Leena and Jerome can treasure forever!!

The first one is of the book before I went to Chicago to deliver it to the bride-to-be. I wanted the other members of the wedding party to see what I'd been up too :)

Leena is supposed to be sending me a video of the finished product because I totally forgot to take video of that, but it turned out wonderfully!

When I first has this idea I went to the logical place - JoAnn's fabric. I knew I want the book to be an 8X8 format. Once there I found some paper packs that went nicely together, bought them, and started on my way. If I'd had more time (and patience) I would have put details on each page but I would bet I spent about 10 - 15 hours on this project. PHEW!!

cutting coupons...

Last week I watched the pilot episodes of Extreme Couponing. Holy Moly. Jason watched about 10 minutes of the last one and his jaw was on the floor! Since it was my spring break I stayed up late to watch them and during that time I was unconsciously drawn to coupons.com, Krazy Coupon Lady, and many more "frugal" websites. Eegads!

My goal was to save money while NOT buying unnecessary items. Some lady on that show bought like 56 tubes of mustard, and her family doesn't even eat mustard it was "just too good of a deal to pass up". STRANGE! I think I did pretty good on this trip. We generally "stock up" at Winco. I know the point of extreme couponing is to match up deals at standard grocery stores with coupons. I, however, am not an extreme couponer. I am not even a novice couponer. I am total amateur.

I used 11 coupons and I saved $7.83! The ONLY thing I bought that we don't already use was from this coupon on top. I bought these Mozarella Cheese Sticks. Obviously I'm craving them. Other than that it was salad dressings, cheeses, frozen lunches/dinner, cinnamon rolls, as examples. I certainly bought other things that I didn't have coupons for but maybe this is the start of something...

I also have about 10 coupons left from brand's that Safeway does not carry.

I do not want to become extreme but I wouldn't mind saving some money!

More after the next trip :)

happy bunny day cakepops ~ round one

Today I headed out to Tigard (about an hour away) to visit a great friend and actually, she is the person introduced me to cakepops about a year ago :) Thanks Meggers, Thanks.

Megan has an adorable little girl and is expecting a little boy in July! She and I were roommates in college and have been friends since. Since it is my spring break we decided to get together and make some cakepops! The fancy ones we made were bunnies, and they turned out...hilariously awesome. I definitely want a re-do on the bunnies.

Some are adorable, some are hilarious. Check out the top right one ;-)

We did some shapes too. We used the same methods my Mom used for the hearts for Valentine's. Stuff the cakepop mixture into a cookie cutter and press it out. Next time I will get a picture...It was a big harder at Megan's house, I felt kind of silly :)

We also used the "I want to use a lot of color but don't want to waste candy" trick. We had two melters going. We started out with dying the white chocolate pink and then after we were about half way through we added some blue to make purple. Turns out, you need LOTS of pink to make purple. Wish we'd had red...

We did a lot of balls and flowers that were a solid colors on the candy coating and brighter but still spring colors (ie. not pastels) in the sugar (sprinkles). 

I really liked the colors!

I even brought a little "welcome to the neighborhood" basket to our new neighbors!

{the best} chocolate chip cookies...

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE Nestle's version of chocolate chip cookies, but {strangely enough} I like Weight Watchers version better!! The recipe is from their Best Ever Desserts Cookbook, which we use all-the-time! They have a fabulous version of strawberry ice cream and cheesecake and so much more!!

This recipe calls for some interesting and surprising ingredients. When I tell people what they are made of they are usually surprised {and excited}!!

Chocolate Chunk Cookies
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Chocolate Chunk Cookies
Adapted From: WeightWatchers Best-Ever Desserts

Ingredients
½ C quick-cooking (not instant) oats
1 C all-purpose flour
½ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
4 TBSP unsalted butter, melted and cooled
¾ C packed light brown sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
⅛ C white chocolate chips
⅛ C milk chocolate chips
(Or whatever type of chips you like)

Directions
- Preheat over to 350degrees.
- Put oats in a blinder and process until finely ground*. Combine oats, flour, baking soda, and salt in small bowl; set aside. with an electric mixer on low speed, beat the butter, brown sugar, egg, and vanilla until blended.  Add the flour mixture and beat until blended. Add chocolate chips.
- Drop the dough onto cookie sheet one tablespoon at a time. With a glass dipped in flour press down each cookie into a 2 inch round.
-Bake until lightly browned along the edges, 9-11 minutes.
- Let cool on sheet for 1 minute then transfer to cooling rack for further coling.

As directed - 2 points per cookie.

*I buy quick oats, grind them all at once, and put them back in the container so when I go to make my cookie it is easier!!

sunday morning crepes {first}...

I seem to recently be going with the theme of "I've wanted to/have thought of trying {insert food here} for a while and I finally am!

I'd bought some crepe mix a few months ago at World Market. Yesterday I decided tomorrow was going to be the day to make crepes. I'd never made them before and only had them once in Paris...so I was worried it might take a while to perfect. Now, I did use a mix and I am really glad I did. At least now if I do try to make my own I'll know what the desired consistency should be! My husband went a little picture crazy {83 photos}...I couldn't be more proud. I'm finally converting him into a picture taker!!

In our crepes we had strawberry cream cheese (hand blended) and Nutella. The husband had never had Nutella until today...and he is hooked! We also had some fresh strawberries on top. In my life, it is a close tie between peanut butter & chocolate VS strawberries & chocolate...I don't know if I could ever honestly decide.

To make the strawberry cream cheese I took 4oz cream cheese and added 4 strawberries and 1 packet Truvia. It was perfectly sweet and tart. The Nutella was just regular Nutella.

I read the directions about 10 times and felt I was ready for any disaster...and none happened! We will certainly be having crepes again in the future!! The great thing about them is you can put whatever you please on them! Maybe next time I'll let Jason pick the toppings...maybe...

Strawberry cream cheese.

Pouring the crepes!! It went wonderfully!

store the crepes between wax paper.

then they don't stick to each other and it helps them keep warm.

Jason's!

My last one.

So delicious!!