School's Out!!!

I made a Little C a name frame to give her teacher as an end of year thank you gift.
The teacher's favorite colors are blue and red, so I went with the red apples in the background and red letters.  I was afraid that it would look like a Fourth of July theme rather than a school theme if we used both red and blue.  :)

Teacher Name Frame

First Anniversary = Paper

We celebrated our first anniversary on Monday!  This last year has been wonderful and flown by!

I made an album of photos of our first year.  When I started out, I had no idea that the traditional first anniversary gift was paper, so that worked out really well since the whole album was made of paper!

I made/designed the entire thing - cover, pages, everything.  I was so excited and really happy with how it turned out.  I finished it last Friday and it was so hard to keep it a secret until Monday.

I did a couple of trials, under the ruse of making a baby book for my brother and sister-in-law.  That way I was able to try out different things, and have them out in the open.   Now I have 2 pink books I may or may not use - I might just start over - but they will get a pink book!

I had spent about an hour browsing my favorite scrapbook store for the right paper and color scheme.  On that first trip I bought the cover paper, distress ink and the keys (which say love, memory and heart).  I was not sure if I was going to use both olive green and cream papers, so I bought both.  I ended up going back for 30 pages of the olive paper and a few cream pages.  I used distressed ink on the paper the photos are mounted on, and I liked the way that set the photos off/away from the pages, so I didn't use any of the cream paper.  I even found a pen that matched the distress ink.  As I have said before, I love it when things match!

Now I want to make my own albums for everything!!!!  It takes a lot of time though - gluing the pages together and doing the distressed ink on the edges was rather tedious.  So worth it for the final product!

Anniversary Album Cover 

Anniversary Album Inside Cover

Anniversary Album Inside Page

Anniversary Album Back Cover

Nostalgic Mo-mints

Cream Cheese Mints - oh how I loved it when my Grandma made these!

So light and minty and pretty.....they just make me smile!  

I have candy molds for the roses and leaves that are the classic cream cheese mint shapes, exactly like my Grandma had.  Since I was trying these out for the first time, I figured I would just focus on the pink flowers, and deal with the green leaves later.  It took a little bit to get the sizing right for each mold - the roses are much smaller than the daisies, and hearts are super small.  Once I got it down, it went pretty quickly.  Now that I know what to expect, I will make two batches next time so I can have pink roses and green leaves.  

Cream Cheese Mints

Cream Cheese Mints

Angel Food Cake

How did three weeks go by between posts?!?
I will catch up with short, but sweet posts :)

This Angel Food Cake was on the cover of Southern Living 4 years ago and I finally made it!  I had purchased the SL cookbook for 2008 and was shocked that 4 years had passed since this cake was on the April cover.  

I had never made an Angel Food Cake, but loved them growing up.  This one is a bit different, as it is made in a regular cake pan and frosted with a lemon cream cheese icing.  I only made half the recipe, and it still took about 8 egg whites.  I baked the cake in a 9x9 pan and it was a little difficult to cut since it was more dense and square than a traditional Angel Food Cake.  But, it was delicious!

After trying this cake, I want to buy an Angel Food Cake Pan (can't believe I don't have one!) and make a classic Angel Food Cake.  They are so much prettier and tastier than the ones the grocery stores sell!  

Angel Food Cake with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

Well, This Is Different

No sweets this week!  Ugh!  But, it's Friday and I may have to make something.
My wonderful husband is eating super healthy and I have tried to not have too many goodies around.
He doesn't seem tempted, but I don't like restricted diets, and will tend to eat more desserts.  Take those cookies I made last week, I couldn't seem to get enough of them!  (they were extremely good!)

I have tried 3 interesting and healthy things this week, adapted from various recipes.

Last night I made a meatloaf based on a recipe from The Fat Flush Plan book.  I was very surprised at how delicious it was.  I was nervous about this recipe and when Little C came home, she asked what was for dinner.  I told her meatloaf and she said, "I love your meatloaf".  Yikes, this wasn't my normal meat loaf, but she loved it!  I have never been a meatloaf fan, but I make mini meatloaves using lean beef, oatmeal, egg, and various seasonings, topped with a sweet ketchup/brown sugar sauce.  Well, this new meatloaf was so tasty and we all agreed I would make it again, but use my sweet sauce on the top.
Here's what I did for this one:
1 pound lean ground beef
1 cup chopped onion (I used approximately this much)
1 cup of frozen chopped spinach, thawed & drained (I used most of the 10oz pkg & will use it all next time)
4 cloves of garlic minced with the garlic press
1/2 tsp Cayenne
4 Tbsp Muir Glen Organic No Salt Added Tomato Sauce

The recipe called for mixing it all up in the food processor, even though that seemed weird to me, that is what I did.  I put the onion and garlic in first, and made sure they were fully chopped/diced.  Then I added the cayenne and spinach, and pulsed until it was all incorporated.  I added the ground beef, and mixed it in.  It was rather weird looking at first, but I just let it go and it mixed nicely.  I did use a spatula a few times to help it out.  I then made 4 oval mini meat loaves and placed them in a round stoneware baking dish.  I topped each one with 1 Tbsp of the tomato sauce, and baked for 1 hour at 400 degrees.  The original recipe said to bake for approximately 30 minutes, but that was no where near enough time.  I kept checking them with a meat thermometer, and it took the hour to get to an acceptable temperature (170).

I didn't take a picture because I never dreamed they would be so good. :)

I also made mashed cauliflower.  I just boiled about a full head of cauliflower, cut up, in 2 cups of low sodium chicken broth.  I brought it to a boil, covered it and simmered on medium for ten minutes.  Then I uncovered it and continued to boil until the broth reduced.  As it was cooking down, I used a potato/berry masher and mashed the cauliflower, and occasionally stirred as the liquid reduced.  It was good plain, and with a little butter, sea salt and pepper.

The other new recipe I tried this week was for mini frittatas.  (I based my recipe on an egg muffin recipe from kalyn's kitchen, who was inspired by The South Beach Diet book.)  I lined 12 muffin cups with double cupcake liners (plain ones this time), and sprayed each with non-stick spray.  In each cup I put diced green onions, a couple tiny slivers of ham (I didn't even use one whole thin deli slice for the entire recipe), asparagus tips (1/4-1/2 inches, about 6 pieces cutting from the tip - 12 pieces per cup).  I then whisked 10 whole eggs and 5 egg whites together with some cayenne, and poured in to each muffin cup, filling each about 3/4 full.  I had the equivalent of 3 eggs left, so I will just use a dozen next time.  I baked them at 375 for 25 minutes.  I cut open one to make sure it was done, and tasted it - pretty good.   My husband has been taking these for breakfast/snacks and said they were good.

True to the nature of Treva's Test Kitchen, I didn't follow any of these recipes exactly, but they all turned out well.  Hard to say what extra healthy things I will make this week, but as I crave sugar, I am thinking up something sweet to make! :)

Mini Frittatas with Asparagus