Chocolate chip cookies

Have you heard of the Deceptively Delicious cookbook by Jessica Seinfeld? Well, it's great! I'm pretty lucky because both CalJ and Ry-pie are NOT veggie snobs, so I technically don't have to "sneak" stuff into their food - but I'll never shy away from a recipe that tucks in a couple more healthy options.

Here is a recipe for her Chocolate chip cookies. Or as I like to call them... choco chick pea chip cookies. Yup! You heard me - chick peas. Or Garbanzo's. Whatever your fancy.

It sounded pretty odd to me at first. I gave it a try anyways and was totally sold! You can't tell that there are actual - whole - chickpeas in them. In fact, Josh knew something was different just by looking at the little butterscotch colored mounds and asked if they were peanut butter chips. Hehehe!

Ingredients

nonstick cooking spray
1 c firmly packed brown sugar
3/4 c trans fat-free soft tub margarine
2 large egg whites
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 15 ounce can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
2 cup ap flour
1/2 cup oats
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350. Coat a baking sheet with cooking spray.
2. In a large mixing bowl, or the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the sugar and margarine with a wooden spoon or on medium speed until smooth. Beat in the egg whites and vanilla, then the chickpeas and chocolate chips. Add the flour, oats, baking soda, and salt, and mix on low speed until a thick dough forms.
3. Drop the dough by the tablespoonful onto the baking sheet, spacing the cookies about 2 inches apart. Press gently with a fork to flatten. Bake until the cookies are golden brown and just set, 11 - 13 minutes; do not overbake. Transfer to a rack to cool.
4. Store in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

Hmmmmm...........

Loved them! See? I told you!!!

The 'stache necklace

I've really been into mustaches lately. I mean - really, really, into them. Good thing too, because mustache paraphernalia has been popping up all over the place.

CalJ's birthday isn't until April - but I've been trying to convince him to have a mustache themed birthday party.

me - Caleb, doesn't a mustache birthday party sound like fun?

CalJ - yeah mama!

high fives for me!

30 seconds later

CalJ - but not for me mama...for someone else!

*sigh*

fail

To get my mustache fix - I ordered THE cutest necklace from Bunny Madden Designson Etsy. I'm always ecstatic to get packages in the mail - but when I received this one today I literally squealed with excitement!! Yes, squealed - like a 12 year old girl at a Justin Bieber concert!!! It's the little things in life that thrill me. Did I mention free shipping? And comes in other colors? It does! So, if you have a slight 'stache addiction too - go get one! GO! Now! Time's a wastin'...

Thanks for dropping in!

Felt sweets

One of my good friend's daughter just turned 4. I wanted to make her something cute, and thought what 4 year old wouldn't like a nice array of delicious sweets! Felt sweets - naturally! How 'bout cookies, cupcakes, and donuts - [in my best Homer Simpson voice]- mmmmm....donuts! Take a look. I think she'll like them.

And I hope you do too!

Black forest chocolate cupcakes

These beauties are delicious. These beauties are easy to make. These beauties were extra awesome because all I did was take the pictures! ha!

CalJ had his first stay-away-from-home this past weekend with Josh's parents. So he got to get a little kitchen time with his grandmom, and this is what they made.

Recipe: Black Forest Chocolate cupcakes adapted from allrecipes.com

Ingredients

• 1 (18.25 ounce) package chocolate cake mix
• 1 (250 g) package brick Cream Cheese, softened
• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 (19 ounce) can cherry pie filling
• 1 1/2 cups thawed COOL WHIP Whipped Topping (or get extra fancy like my mother-in-law and make your own with heavy whipping cream and sugar)

Directions

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Prepare cake batter as directed on package for the light or low-fat version; set aside. Mix cream cheese, egg and sugar until well blended.
2. Remove 3/4 cup of the cherry pie filling for garnish; set aside. Spoon 2 tablespoons cake batter into each of 24 paper-lined medium muffin cups. Top each with 1 tablespoon each of the cream cheese mixture and the remaining cherry pie filling. Cover evenly with remaining cake batter.
3. Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted in centres comes out clean. Cool 5 minutes; remove from pan to wire racks. Cool completely. Top with whipped topping and reserved cherry pie filling just before serving.
4. And add some extra pizzaz with some chocolate shavings - that's what my mother-in-law did!
   
   
   

Singed flower hair clip

Here's a quick tutorial on how to make some cute singed flowers.

I had this red satin fabric from a previous craft project gone awry. I didn't think I would use it for anything else. Then I thought - the singed flower would be perfect!

First cut a lot of circles out of your satin fabric.

Next, light a candle. Take your circle and just barely touch it to the flame, moving the circle all the way around, so all the circle edges comes in contact with the fire. (You can just use a lighter but a candle is so much easier and you'll have less of a chance of burning your finger tips).

After all the singeing is completed you should have a nice group of circles like these ones.

Now take your circles and just stack them. I like to sew them into place but I'm sure gluing them would be just as fine.

Glue it onto a hair clip and you're done!

After I had finished, I thought it had a slight pin-up-y feel to it. I decided to play a little dress-up! Yay! I thought it came out pretty dang cute - if I can be so vain - heehee. It took me less then 10 minutes to make the flower and about 20 to do the hair!!! lol! It really makes me want to go buy some saddle shoes and a retro halter dress. OOOOH - and maybe get a swallow tattoo! No seriously!!!!

Thanks for stopping in!!

Ruffle shirt for Ry-pie

When I got my sewing machine last year I was stoked! I was so excited to start sewing all kinds of stuff! My good friend Genise teased me and said as long as I don't start making Ry-pie's clothes we were in good shape. I promised I wouldn't!!! Oops! Broke that promise. :)

After making this dress for Ry-pie I've embraced the whole clothes making process. I just can't seem to stop myself - and frankly, I don't want too! As long as it's a simple pattern of course! ;)

Here is the cutest little shirt pattern from Heidi & Finn on Etsy that I bought.



I love how it came out!

t-shirt and tulle flower headband

Have you ever had a t-shirt that you've been holding onto for just a tad too long? It's not like you actually wear the thing - well - maybe occasionally, during an extremely bad clean-clothes drought. Well, that's exactly what I had. Time to dump it or burn it, right? Well, let's just up-cycle it into a new flower hair accessory. Duh!

The aforementioned t-shirt just happened to be grey. I've really been into grey lately, it might even be my NEW favorite color over green. SHOCKER! Must be the gloomy, doomy rain I guess. (And nothing against the rain of course. Rain - I love you! hehehe).

I picked up some shiny grey tulle to go with the grey t-shirt for our flower. Let's begin, shall we?


Supplies:
T-shirt
Tulle
scissors or rotary cutter
sewing needle and thread
small beads
glue
felt
headband (or hair clip)


First start by tracing you circles onto your t-shirt. Decide how many circles you'll need. I cut out two sizes of circles, two sizes for each flower. I made three flowers for my headband so I needed three big circles of t-shirt and tulle, and three small sizes.


After all pieces were cut out I stacked the circles. Alternating between large t-shirt circle, large tulle circle, small t-shirt circle, small tulle circle.


Hand sew in center of each flower until secure.


Then add beads until they are secure as well.


Now, arrange your t-shirt/tulle flowers to your desired look.

Cut out a piece of felt. **If you will not be putting these on a headband just glue one flower straight onto your hair clip, and you're done**


Glue your flowers onto felt piece, trimming excess felt if necessary.


When finished, glue second piece of felt to the bottom of the felt piece that the flowers were just glued to. Leave a thin strip unglued (wide enough for your headband to slide through, if using) down the center of the felt. Just slip your headband through the unglued part and...READY!? You're done. Go wear it - you know you want to!

Bubble Art

So I saw this idea awhile back from Mark Montano, who is basically - amazing! I knew I had to try it out with CalJ.

The great thing is, is that you already have everything you need! And the star character is bubbles. I mean, who doesn't like bubbles, right?

Start off with:
regular old dish soap
small cups
paper
food coloring
straws.



Mix soap and water together in your cups and add your food coloring. Use lots and lots of food coloring - you want your colors to be nice and bright.


We used the left-over table cloth cover from this post to catch any messes. It's not that it's a messy project, but with a four year old you can never be TOO careful.


Now, just start blowing your bubbles! Start off blowing the bubbles just above the rim of your cup.


Take your paper and transfer the bubbles carefully onto the paper where it will dry in the bubble form. Neat!


CalJ was great at not ingesting any of the bubbles but DO NOT turn your back away for more then 1 second or you might end up finding this. Lesson learned - don't trust a four year old. HA!


Now make some room on your fridge for your beautiful and fun bubble art - we did!