Homemade Ding Dongs, *vegan, gluten-free*

Not too long ago I came across this recipe, of course on Pinterest. I pinned it and then went about my life. Then we started the gluten-free thing and of course I needed a dessert. My sister (who has been gluten free for a long time now) told me, "I just knew you'd try all the desserts first." Yeah, she's got me. I'm nothing if I can't have my desserts.

The original recipe is already vegan, but I used Pamela's Baking and Pancake mix instead of flour, to also make it gluten free. It worked well.

So when making this, I realized that each individual part isn't necessarily awesome. You know how you try your dessert at every stage.... the batter, the frosting, the finished, oh wait? Is that just me? Probably. I admit it now. So each part wasn't that great and I had doubts about the finished product. But not to worry, everything came together wonderfully in the end.

They were delicious.

If I were to make them again, I would fill them with a little more of the inside stuff. I couldn't find my pastry tips, that was a little problem. But that's ok. I overcame.

Arielle at the Diva Dish has an amazing step-by-step tutorial, so I won't re-create one here. But if you are at all tempted, check it out, here.

Enjoy!

Master Bedroom Makeover- A Real Look at the Awfulness

We've never had a "nice" master bedroom. It's never been pretty, it's never been relaxing, it's just been "there." Do you know what I mean? I am an avid Oprah fan and used to feel a little guilty when she'd talk about your bedroom being a 'safe haven,' 'a relaxing retreat'...... yeah sorry, Oprah. Ours definitely WASN'T.

Don't get me wrong, it was fine. It served it's purpose. But I was ready for a change.

Because I didn't have an enormous amount of funding, I had to do it in stages.

A few years ago I re-stained our dressers. I definitely didn't want to do that again. And I really love our bedspread. I'm quite picky about bedspreads, and it took me forever to find this one (on Target clearance!!). So I'm sticking with it.

I decided to keep with the colors- blue/gray, white, silver and specks of green.

My long term plan was....

• paint the nightstands and desk
• build a headboard
• add pillows onto bed
• hang curtains
• make a "just us" photo wall
• hang other pictures around the room
• rearrange the room

Yikes! I can't wait to see the end result!

The first project I did was paint the desk. But I thought of going a little bold. Just on this one piece.

A friend gave me a great tip- go to the paint store and check their discounted rack. It's all paint that either they made too much of or the color wasn't right. But instead of being full priced, it's deeply discounted. At our store, a quart is $12... discounted it's $3.50. Most of the time you can find something that will work for you. And find I did.

I found a yellow that I thought would be good. Yellow is a hard color as it easily changes its own color depending on the shadows.

It was warm out the day I decided to paint. But the next night it was freezing cold again (this was back in March) so I was quickly trying to finish it.

In the end it came out like this....

It was cute. I didn't love it. I added some wrapping paper to the inside, just for a burst of color when you open it.

So while I didn't love it, I certainly wasn't going to re-paint it. I might one day, but for now, it's still growing on me.

But it was a great first project and definitely got me motivated to finish everything else.

Stay tuned..............

Chicken Broccoli Braid

Is anyone else out there a HUGE fan of funcheaporfree.com? Oh that Jordan, she has her finances in order! I love her. And I love her system. I'm trying to adopt her financial management system in our house. I, ahem, am not always so disciplined.

I was scrolling through her site, reading some old entries and I came across her recipe section. She has some great recipes in there. We tried her Avocado, Tomato and Sprout sandwiches the other day. Um, delish! This week I also had her Mummy Bake (aka- Chicken Broccoli Braid) on our menu. It was awesome as well.

Earlier this week I bought several pounds of chicken (on sale, of course). I then threw them all in my crockpot, with a bouillon cube and a few cups of water. Once they were all cooked, I thought- "Man, I really don't want to stand here and shred all of this." Then I had a memory of something I saw online a long time ago..... shredding chicken in your Kitchenaid!

Worked like a charm.

Just put it in, use the paddle attachment and 2 minutes later you have perfectly shredded chicken.

I {heart} my Kitchenaid. Best wedding gift EVER.

Then I divided it out into smaller portions, filling a sandwich baggie, and froze them for later use. I got 9 bags, plus what I left out for dinner that night. Niiiiiiice.

So when it came to pull this dinner together, I just grabbed one of my frozen chicken baggies, some frozen broccoli and that was that. Easy Peasy.

To see the original recipe, click HERE to be take to Jordan's site. I altered it a little (used frozen broccoli, no almonds, not a ton of seasonings and just enough mayo for it to be held together. I didn't really measure anything) but however you make it, it will be great. Yum!

Time Off

I've been taking some time off... for really the past year. Last year I had baby #3 and whoh- did it get to me. On top of that, our oldest started school and whoh- that's keeps us busy. not as much "busy" but more like... "the boys have to take a nap at this time, so they can be awake before we pick her up from school" type busy.

But my little man is a year now, so amazingly, things have been getting easier.

By the way- LOVE these monthly stickers. They were the first thing I ordered when I found out we were having another boy. I wish I had thought of it with the other 2 kids. I was good at taking a lot of pictures, but I just really like the white onesie and same sticker look. Plus, it's so fun to look back at the previous months picture.

This is how excited I was to stop nursing...... and I even bought pink pants.

I was fortunate enough to nurse all my babies for a year. But now I'm officially done.

So I'm here. I'm back. And hopefully will have some more fun things for you. I hope you'll stay tuned.

From Trash to Treasure... frames and a hook

I have a dear friend who hosts a "swap" each year. We all donate our old stuff.... women's clothes (only, no kids or men's), shoes, purses, books, home decor, kitchen stuff.... just anything we want to get rid of. Instead of sending it to Goodwill, my friend sets it all up in her house. Then we pick through, get what we want (she makes a game out of it) and go home with 'another woman's trash, that is now our treasure.' It's a lot of fun.

Last year I came home with a few magazines and a metallic large star (that I have since spray painted and have in my living room). This year, I scored some old picture frames and a hook rack thingamajig. There were a lot of great clothes, but I, ah-hem, couldn't fit into those quite yet... :)

 I didn't care anything about the pictures inside the frames, I just wanted the frames. Our hall bath has never had anything "done" to it. There is a bright, deep purple shower curtain (that I love) and that's about it. I decided to spray paint the frames the same color. And instead of filling them with pictures of our family, I decided to print off some quotes. I'm always pinning them on my pinterest board. It's time I make use of those great sayings. 

I liked them so much, that I decided to do a full "quote wall" with of course, purple frames. More pictures to come as I complete that. 

The other thing I scored, the fruit hook thing.... well, fruit isn't really my decor. If it's yours, that's fine. It's just not my style. When I was looking at it, I noticed the fruit tiles were just screwed on. It was a little bent up, but overall it had good 'bones' as they say. Of course, no one else wanted it, so I scored again. 

I unscrewed and tossed the tiles, then gave it a fresh coat of spray paint. (It was a green, now it's black). For now, I decided to cut square pieces of scrapbook paper and hot glue those into the places the tiles used to be. Then I couldn't decide where to hang it. Right now, it's holding our belts in our closet. So who cares if it's bent up, no one will see it but us. Awesome. Free and solves the belt problem. Double Score. 

So when you see something that your first glance says, "U.G.L.Y." Stop and look at it again. If it has good "bones," you can probably do something worthwhile with it. But my suggestion is to decide what you are going to do with it right then. Otherwise you will end up with a garage of unfinished projects. We've ALL been guilty of that from time to time.

What is your favorite trash to treasure find?   

Peanut Butter and Chocolate Filled Brownie Cups, *gluten free*

Recently we discovered that our daughter has a gluten allergy. Not fun. Did you know that every possible 'kid food' has gluten in it? Ugh, it's been so hard and sometimes frustrating. And the "gluten-free" products you can find, cost a fortune. So that's been hard as well. So it's forced me to try some new 'gluten-free' recipes.

Today I was desperate for an after school snack for her. She loves carrots and apples, I had that already, but she also likes something snack-y. A treat, so to speak.

I've been buying Pamela's Baking and Pancake mix and using it like I would use flour. For the most part, it's been great. No one can even tell a difference in pancakes. It's $16 a bag, compared to the $2 a bag of regular flour. So {gasp!} that's been hard to swallow. I got on Pamela's site and scrolled around until I found something that a) the kids would eat and b) something I had all the ingredients for. I finally came upon it. Peanut Butter and Chocolate Filled Brownie Cups. These were great. Delicious. Kid-friendly. Adult- friendly. Gluten-free. All ingredients on-hand. Score. I've been having a problem with the gluten-free baked goods falling in the center. Anyone else have that problem?? Anyhow, thankfully, in this recipe it didn't matter since you fill it with chocolate.

I didn't have any peanut butter chips, so I just used a few tablespoons of regular peanut butter. Aside from that, the recipe worked great. If you aren't gluten-free, regular ol' flour would work too.

But, Yuuummmm! Thanks Pamela!

To get the recipe, click here. You can even print off a copy on Pamela's site.

Easter Egg Maracas

Our daughter came home from school with an Egg Maraca one day. "Genius," I thought. They were such a hit. So the next morning, I made a few with the boys. Easy, simple and loved by all. My kind of project.

Go ahead, pull out the 1,000 plastic eggs you have and whip up a few. The kiddos will LOVE them.

(and honestly, they aren't even that loud. Usually I get annoyed by 'noise' things... there's enough noise around here....but these were just fine. You could also do different items inside, beans, rice, popcorn, and compare the sounds. That would be a fun game!)