Pinspired Reviews – Cooking Edition

I am so excited that I have been able to find a couple new South Beach Diet recipes on Pinterest. I was eager to try out a couple new ones from my South Beach board.

As a huge deviled eggs fan and a huge avocado fan these Avocado Deviled Eggs were something I just couldn’t pass up.

Avocado Deviled Eggs (and photo) from Eating Well... Living Thin~er

No tips or adjustments here. Just yumminess. Andrew and I chowed them down and the kids liked them too. We ran out of avocado so then I made some deviled eggs by simply mixing the yolks with Laughing Cow cheese and the kids chowed those too.

The other pinspired recipe I tried recently came from the need to make sure Andrew had something to eat at our church pot luck. The theme was “hot-dish competition” and so I figured it wouldn’t be a very South Beach Diet friendly meal. I searched and found Ham and Cauliflower Casserole au Gratin.

Ham and Cauliflower Casserole au Gratin (and photo) from Kalyn's Kitchen

I love Kalyn’s Kitchen and I have been super impressed with almost every recipe I have found over there! I was so nervous about how the casserole would go over, but my husband and I loved it as did the others that I heard who tried it so I will definitely be making this one again.

Pinspired Reviews- Baking Edition

Why hasn’t anyone been giving me a hard time for not letting you know what my weekly pinspired activity has been? Haha! You mean your life doesn’t revolve around my blog and…. me? Well, just so you know, I have been doing my self-required weekly Pinterest activity. I won’t overwhelm you all at once, so today you get my reviews of some baking I did from recipes found on my Pinterest cooking and baking board.

I was in charge of desserts for Easter and I thought this recipe for Cinnamon Toast Crunch Cupcakes would go over well with the kids.

Cinnamon Toast Crunch Cupcakes (and photo) from BS in the Kitchen

I didn’t have a ton of time and my big cupcake pan is in storage. So instead of doing them 6 at a time I decided to just make it into a cake. I did an eight inch double layer and it was delicious! The frosting calls for a lot of vanilla extract, but I don’t mind (although Sarah, I owe you a new bottle!).

A couple tips/ adjustments I made… I didn’t use the butter flavoring in the frosting. There is already a ton of butter in the recipe and I didn’t have any nor have I ever so I didn’t want to make the purchase for the one teaspoon called for. I also found the frosting to be super thick so in the end I added some regular milk. I think if I make this again I may try and just use milk instead of opening up a whole can of condensed milk just for this. And make sure you get the cereal crumbs super tiny or you will end up with some soggy cereal chunks in your frosting that are a little questionable when you bite one.

I decided that this would be the perfect dessert or side for a brunch and I brought the leftovers to our Easter breakfast at church and they cleaned it up. Delicious!

The other dessert I baked was this Chocolate Chip Cookie Delight. Oh. My. Goodness.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Delight (and photo) from Taste of Home

I did not have any leftovers of this one. It was so delicious. Andrew has been pretty strict about no sugar lately, but he has requested that I make this again in a couple weeks so that he can have some. I didn’t put nuts on top (I did chocolate powder instead) just because I wasn’t sure if everyone would like the nuts. I think they would be delicious though. The only tip I have is to make sure you have time to chill it properly so it doesn’t get too runny. Oh, and I did read in the reviews to take caution not to over-bake the cookie because it will get too hard to cut. I almost was afraid it was going to be too doughy but I’m so glad I took their advice. Not only was it easier to cut, but I think the softer cookie made the overall dessert better.

What have you been baking lately? I’m always up for some great recipes!

Pinspired

Pinspired. That is what I’ve decided to call my weekly Pinterest inspired project. I really have loved finding so many fun things to do, and I’m so excited about how many I’ve done. Today’s post never even made it to my boards before I tried it! I found out around 1:00 yesterday that I wouldn’t have anyone baking for youth group that night. I wasn’t too worried because we have a little stash of store bought cookies that I could use, and I wasn’t feeling up to baking myself. I had just sat down for my naptime Pinterest fix and saw this recipe for Peanut Butter Chocolate Bars from The Girl Who Ate Everything. The pin description caught my eye because it said they were made using a yellow cake mix, and I just happened to have an extra one (and no frosting to go with it) so it seemed perfect. (On the subject of pin descriptions…. leave them! I am so much more likely to look at something if there is a quick note saying what it is and why it’s neat enough to be pinned.)

Now, put chocolate and peanut butter together and you are a winner in my eyes! Add in the fact that these bars were so simple to make… It just took a few minutes and I didn’t even need to get out the mixer. My kids loved them, and they were gone in seconds at youth group.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Bars

You can find more yummy looking ideas on my Cooking and Baking board. I’m pretty picky about what I pin, and only post things I actually think I will do someday. I want to keep it clean so I don’t get overwhelmed and partake in reckless pinning.

Have you been Pinspired? I would love to see your projects!

Valentine Wrap Up

We had the most lovely Valentine’s Day! Miracle claimed that she just loves Valentine’s Day and that it is the prettiest and yummiest day ever! That comment made the whole day worth it to me. You see, I was never much of a Valentine’s Day girl. Andrew and I don’t exchange gifts and we don’t do the obligatory date. Sometimes Andrew will pick me up some February 15th priced flowers and I love them even more at half the price. But since I decided to celebrate even the little holidays, I went all out making Valentine’s Day a day where we celebrate family and friends and love for each other. Get ready for some pictures!

The kids woke up to this:

Valentine Breakfast Ready to Eat

Orange Juice with Cranberry Juice Heart Shaped Ice Cubes

Cranberry Orange Heart Shaped Muffins

and Yogurt Dipped Frozen Strawberries

Side note on the food: The heart shaped muffin idea is from this pin and the frozen yogurt strawberries is from this one. I’m using my Valentine’s Day Pinterest Board!

The kids begged me to sew up some heart shaped pockets that they could fill with chocolates for their teachers. It was a bit of trial and error, so I filled my testers with foam hearts for the kids (and Andrew). They each had a heart that said their name on it and then three smaller hearts each with a word that describes them. Oh, and a chocolate kiss too because Valentine’s Day is a great day to eat chocolate for breakfast! This idea was inspired by this pin.

She Was Completely In Love With This Breakfast

For lunch the girls and I had heart shaped sandwiches and pink (strawberry) milk. Then Miracle filled up her heart pockets for her teachers and it was off to school where I got to be the Valentine helper for her class party!

I Took the Teaching Opportunity to Figure Out How to Evenly Divide the Chocolates

Then we came home and made some pretty tasty brownies with amazing frosting and brought them to eat for dessert at Carbones! Andrew serenaded the dinner crowd and we ate pizza and treated everyone to a tasty Valentine dessert. Recipe is from this pin and I guarantee you want to try it!

All in all we had an amazing, tasty, pretty Valentine’s Day full of love, family and friends! (And I think I fulfilled my Pinterest Project of the Week quota.) I hope you all had a great day and didn’t get caught up with relationship status and overpriced flowers.

A Little Rest and a Recipe

After all our craziness the last few weeks it was nice to have a day off today. Technically I was supposed to be at a training for the Y all day, but yesterday morning I asked if I could reschedule it.

So that left us with a day to do nothing. Andrew hit his head Thursday night and was ordered onto bedrest and constant supervision (concussion) and I was glad to stay home and have a lazy day with the family. I did put jeans on long enough to run pick up some milk and take the kids into the yard for a bit.

Axel practiced a little tree climbing.

We didn’t exactly do nothing ALL day. The kids cleaned their rooms and I got some cleaning done too. We then grilled for supper and the kids and I baked up my favorite dessert. Chocolate Cherry Crisp. Sooo yummy, although you have to like cherries and chocolate or you won’t like this!

Chocolate Cherry Crisp

(Recipe from Easy to Bake, Easy to Make)

2 (21oz) cans cherry pie filling
3/4 cup flour
3/4 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
1/3 cup cold butter, cut into pieces
1/2 cup (4oz) chocolate chunks

1. Preheat oven to 375*F. Spoon pie filling into a 9inch square baking dish. Combine flour, oats, brown sugar and cocoa powder in a medium bowl; mix well. Cut in butter with a pastry blender until coarse crumbs form.

2. Sprinkle flour mixture over pie filling. Sprinkle with chocolate chunks.

3. Bake until filling is bubbly, about 40 minutes. Cool slightly on a wire rack and serve warm.

And may I recommend a scoop of ice cream with it?