Diaper Cakes

So i'm the world's worst person to look at something and say....."well I could have done that myself".  Yep.  Most of the time if I say it I can, but that doesn't always mean I will.  I just can... haha!  I'm also probably the laziest person on the planet....no....really I am.

Well a few years ago a teacher at Smoky was having a baby girl and myself and some other amazing coworkers elected to throw her a school shower in the lunch room.  Well I hadn't really frequented baby showers so Jodie tells me a friend of her can make a diaper cake for us.... well at the time I needed clarification because I had no clue what she was talking about.... like literally a cake?  Nope.

Well later at the actual shower and I see this creation, yep... I could have done that myself!  However no discredit to the person who made it for us :) They did an amazing job and Megan loved it!

Now we fast forward to last year after finding out one of my closest friends was pregnant I threw her a shower.  Well this was my chance to "do it myself" and well I did.  After some googling of course haha I found a blog or two with how to's, ideas from pinterest, and then just shopped for anything that looked very Hailey :) This one is my favorite and the one I did the best job with!

Then in the meantime another friend of my family's also found out she was pregnant and my mom wanted me to make a diaper cake for her to take to the shower.  And so far, making them isn't really hard, but it's not easy either.

This last one was #3 and I made it for my sister to give to a friend of her's who is having twins!  However you cannot fit two of everything in existence on the diaper cake haha!

I just thought I would share these creations, as my creativity sometimes is overshadowed by my laziness... well more than just sometimes lol  However I do need to remember I have an actual camera I could be taking pictures with and not my cell phone haha.

Leave a comment and tell me what you think!!!  Happy Tuesday!!!

Italian Chopped Salad

I have a face book friend (Kandance Green) I went to high school with that posted she made this recipe over the weekend, so though her I am sharing it with you!  It looked really good!  She found it on Pinterest, where else right?  

I will share the recipe below , but she did a few things differently than the recipe called for and she also had some suggestions that I will add.  

Prep Time: 30 minutes

    Cook Time: 10 minutes

   Total Time: 40 minute

Yield: 8 servings as a main dish, 16 servings as a side dish

Ingredients

Dressing
• 1/2 cup red wine vinegar
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 1 teaspoon dry Italian seasoning
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• Salt and pepper
• 1/2 cup olive oil
Salad
• 1 cup ditalini pasta
• 3 cups chopped romaine hearts
• 1 can (15 oz) chickpeas, drained
• 1 jar (7.5 oz) marinated artichoke hearts, drained and chopped
• 1 cup grape tomatoes, quartered
• 1 cup cubed salami
• 1 cup cubed Provolone
• 3/4 cup chopped cucumber
• 1/2 cup mini pepperoni
• 1/2 cup sliced green onions
• Pepperoncini peppers

Directions: 

1. To make the dressing, combine the vinegar, honey, mustard, seasoning and garlic in a blender. Season with salt and pepper. Blend to combine. Slowly stream in the olive oil to emulsify. Alternately, add all the ingredients to a jar and shake until completely combined slightly thickened.
2. Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Add the pasta and cook until done. Drain and cool.
3. In a large bowl, combine the romaine, chickpeas, artichoke hearts, tomatoes, salami, provolone, cucumber, pepperoni and green onions. Add in the cooled pasta. Add in the dressing and toss to coat.
4. Serve the salad topped with a few whole pepperoncini peppers.

Advice from Kandace:  

• She chose to buy the Greek Vinaigrette instead of making her own.  (I probably would also do this, in the past when I've made a dressing from a recipe it hasn't turned out so great lol )  plus she said it was cheaper to do that instead of buying all the ingredients not knowing if she would even use them later for anything else.  

• She also pre-chopped everything and let it marinate in the dressing for about an hour.  And she said next time she will probably leave out the chick peas because they really didn't have a flavor.  But her advice is they do add fiber and protein!  

• To make the recipe low carb she suggested leaving out the ditalini.  

• And to serve she said she chopped romaine and served it on a plate and topped it with the mixture but she would eat it even without the romaine because of how flavorful it was!  

Here is a link to the original posting of this recipe !  http://www.tasteandtellblog.com/italian-chopped-salad/ 

Mexican Cornbread

Even though i'm trying to eat healthy I can still share some good food with everyone :)  So I've never liked plain cornbread it just tastes horrible.  And when someone throws a few peppers in it and calls it Mexican cornbread its still nasty lol its just nasty with peppers in it.  However the recipe i'm going to share is the only time I eat "cornbread" because its actually REALLY good.  This is probably one of the things I make that my friends enjoy the most and actually requested on our beach trips!

I found this online so it's not my creation... most things i've shared i've just found and made anyways!

Here is what you need:  

Cast Iron Pan (the size depends on how much you want to make)  For this recipe I use about a 9"
2 boxes of jiffy corn muffin mix
2 eggs
1 cans of cream corn
about 1lb of ground chuck
green pepper handful chopped
white onion  handful chopped
8 oz Shredded Mild Cheddar Cheese
2/3rd cup of milk
ground cayenne pepper (to taste)


Directions: 

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees
• brown the ground chuck with the peppers in onions mixed in... I don't measure the peppers and onions I literally just put a handful of each in to taste  

• mix together the muffin mix, eggs, cream corn, milk and then sprinkle in some of the cayenne pepper.  I just put enough to taste but not a lot because I don't like it hot.  

• pour enough of this mixture on the bottom of the cast iron pan to cover it completely (make sure you don't use more than just a layer to cover the pan or you wont have enough for the top!)  

• After you finish the ground chuck strain it and layer it on top of the wet mixture in the pan  

• Next put the entire bag of cheese on top of the ground chuck

• and last pour the rest of the wet mixture on top making sure it completely covers everything.  

• Put it in the oven for about 25-30 mins until its golden brown.  Toothpick it and make sure the bread is done!  I've put it back in for 5-7 mins longer before and sometimes it was done after 30.  

Tip:  If you let it cool for about 15mins before serving its best because if you serve it really hot it falls apart (but its still good)

August Update!

I've not posted in a little bit so I thought I would share what i've been up to!  I started this blog out with the intentions of it being a little bit of everything and it ended up being mostly food lol imagine that :)  however in July I started eating healthier (I say healthier) because if I say healthy and I cheat people are like I thought you were eating healthy!?  haha anyways I'm just watching the starchy carb intake and calories and tracking them.  However If i do it "carbs" its whole grain or whole wheat!  It's going well so far I've lost 11 pounds :)  

The one food I refuse to give up is Sushi ... and if you know me you know that's my absolute favorite food!  And I have about a million phone pics of sushi to prove it !  Sushi is pretty haha and I must share!  

Okay enough of food and diets... I posted a little while back about movies I wanted to see, and I've had the chance to see several of them so i'll share what I thought (but keep it brief with NO SPOILERS)

GI Joe Retaliation -  it has the rock in it... thats pretty much all I need to say there 

Lincoln-  Very good but if you're not interested in history at all then you will be bored to tears.. I loved it (even though I knew what would happen) haha :) 

42- EVERYONE needs to see this movie.  LOVED it, it's a wonderful visual representation about the struggle Jackie Robinson faced and how hard it was for him to do what he did.  This is one of my favorite movies

The Lone Ranger- I've not seen it yet but I will... I saw bad reviews but I can go ahead and tell you I will love it ... Johnny Depp... the end

Iron Man 3- Robert Downy Jr...... moving on

Pain & Gain- I've not seen this one yet either but.... The Rock

Man of Steel-  This one turned out to be a lot better than I thought it was going to be!  And wow... superman AND Kevin Cosner!  The fighting wore me out though haha its like it went on forever  (I wont spoil anything)  

The Hangover III- not seen it yet but from what I've heard nothing beats the first one and NOTHING will ever beat the Tiger Song...nope....  

Thor- I dont have any idea when this is even coming out!  

The Great Gatsby-  I was skeptical about this one (mostly because I dont even remember reading the book but apparently I did at some point lol) but WOW this is one of my favorite movies.  I think it did an awesome job of depicting the 20s and all of the organized crime that was caused by prohibition!  Leo was GREAT and the music in this movie was also good.

Anchorman 2- no clue when it will be out

Fast 6- I'm embarrassed to say i've not seen it yet :(  I will keep watching them as long as they keep making them... Vin Diesel and The Rock

That's pretty much it for the movies except I cant wait for the Avengers 2 to come out... however Robbie ruined my day when he found something that said it wouldnt have Loki in it!  gosh!  

That's about it for this post (if you have read this far) I'm currently working on powerpoints, and collecting school supplies to set up my new room!  I'm SOOOOOOOOOO excited about it and I will post pictures.  I still lack a few things though.... hopefully it comes together nicely !  

Hope everyone is having a great August!  

Zucchini pizza

This one is easy and fast! I decided I didn't want to eat starchy pizza crust so I substituted zucchini as I had seen on pinterest! I got a big zucchini and cut it into slices like mini pizzas and then grilled them enough to where they were cooked but not rubbery.   Then you add pizza sauce, cheese and I used turkey pepperoni.   After topping them i put them back on the grill to melt the cheese and they were done in just a few minutes. 

Buffalo Chicken Dip

This is a awesome recipe I got from my friend Hailey! This is a hit at any party and it's yummy!

All you do is throw it all in a skillet and melt it on medium to high heat.  Super easy takes about 15mins.  

For one serving mix together

8oz shredded mild cheddar cheese
8oz cream cheese
5-10oz can of chicken depending on how much u like in it, chop it up
8oz ranch dressing
Hot sauce to taste depending on how spicy you want it! Best thing is to mix it in and taste as you make it

And that's it!

Herbs and Oil

So my friend Ira invited me and Robbie over for supper last night for spaghetti.  We decided we wanted to try to imitate Carrabbas herb and oil mixture for their bread.  I found a recipe online but I would change it and I thought I would share that with everyone :) 

We were going to make the bread but we didn't have the 3 hours it took to make it so we found some at the Ingles bakery and reheated it in the toaster oven and it was amazing.  They have lots to chose from.  

You can actually buy an herb mixture but it was around $7 but if you have the herbs already at your house then its cheaper to mix it up!  

Here is what you mix together:

it calls for a tablespoon of crushed red pepper but that was entirely way too much so I would advice:

1 teaspoon of crushed red pepper  (maybe even less than that depending on what you prefer) 

1 tablespoon black pepper

1 tablespoon dried oregano

1 tablespoon dried rosemary

1 tablespoon dried basil

1 tablespoon dried parsley

1 tablespoon garlic powder

1 tablespoon minced garlic

1 teaspoon salt 

and all you do is mix it, up good pour the desired amount into a plate and then put some extra virgin olive oil on top of it and dip away!  

I've included some pics, the mixture isn't the prettiest picture in the world :) and the bread was yummy!