Happy Fairy Day!

I may have posted this years ago, but for those with little girls, or even teenage gals...and how about us gals who never grew up....here is a cute easy craft, that gives you professional looking fairy wings.  The sky is the limit. The more you embellish, the better the wings. 

I just love this gal.

Pineapple Pulled Pork Sammiches (pressure cooker)

Pineapple Pulled Pork Sammiches (pressure cooker) 

We LOVE the mango pulled pork and I was out of the mango so I decided to try something new, with what I had on hand.  Those of you who have made my recipes know, I don't follow recipes and I don't measure..so I am giving you what I used and about how much I eyed it up to be. 

My family LOVED it!  Its our new fav way to eat pulled pork.  Go ahead and make it your own...change up the ingredients or amount of ingredients and enjoy.  ♥

It's amazing what you can do with the staples in your kitchen when you are making a favorite recipe and realize you don't have everything you need.  

What could be better than 10 mins prep time for a meal that tastes like you cooked all day. 

Toss the following into the pressure cooker

1 C ketchup
1/3 C Cider Vinegar
1/2 C packed brown sugar (more or less I am a sugar junkie)
handful of paprika
1 T red pepper flakes (this did not make it spicy so if you want some kick, add more)
4 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
Salt
Pepper
4 T dried minced garlic
1 twenty ounce can pineapple (cubed or crushed, whatever you like) see update at bottom of page
1 cup pineapple juice or pineapple nectar
1/2 cup molasses
3 lb pork butt (shoulder)  Any size is good. Mine was frozen, that's the magic of the pressure cooker

Roll it over in the sauce, and shut the lid

Cook for 75 mins (probably would be done in 60 but I wasn't playing around.
Pull apart with a fork...this will far apart with no effort.

I think this is my new favorite barbq sauce.  I am definitely going to use this on chicken on the grill too.

Update:  I no longer used canned products..we buy pineapple every week in this house for an on demand homemade fruit salad, so I just toss in a cup or two of fresh pineapple cubes and hit the vitamix button on.

Meal Planning

Well my kids are asleep yet and its nearly noon, and I want to plan our meals for the week. I need to paint a chalkboard inside one of my cabinets so they can write in it foods they want so I know when I am making my list. I can't wait around, so I guess I won't get much input from them for the week..luckily they aren't picky eaters and will eat just about anything, but I was hoping for some ideas.

I love www.cozi.com for meal planning because its also a smartphone app. So my calendar, shopping list etc is always with me and I can also set up reminders to be texted to my family for things like Dr appointments, family meals (we have to have some mandatory meals together or we'd never sit down together).  The kids get a little bit annoyed with the texts they get, but whatever.  I am the  mom!


You can type it up on your phone or online on cozi.com on your acct and it will synch to your phone..as you shop, you can check off what you bought and you can have multiple lists...Grocery, Sams, BJ's, Home Depot, Target...and keep a running list for that time you stop in and say..I know I needed something here.
There are also to do lists. Best of all...IT"S FREE!!!  I don't get pop up ads or anything annoying either.

Oreo Cheesecake Cupcakes

I saw a recipe on pinterest for an oreo cheesecake cupcake but I wasn't real keen on the way they made their cheesecake filling. I am more of a Hollywood Cheesecake gal, not so much into the dryer Philly style cheese cake. So...I tweaked it to use my cheesecake recipe, as I like the sour cream mixture baked on top of the filling, not mixed in with the cream cheese.  Makes for a moister cheesecake in my opinion.  They are divine!  Hub and I didn't wait the four hours. We couldn't hold off longer than two.  So yummy.

I will post a pic of them later.  Trust me on this one.

Place 30 oreos in 30 foil lined cupcake liners..in cupcake tins. Use the foil lined, as these are super moist and will "soggify" the paper if not.  Heat oven to 275°F

Mix:
2 -8oz packages of cream cheese (room temp)
½ cup sugar
½ tsp almond extract
1 T lemon juice
1 tsp grated lemon zest
Beat until smooth, scraping down sides of the bowl halfway through beating.

add in:
2 egg yolks and beat until smooth (keep the whites)
Beat the whites until stiffly beaten
fold in stiffly beaten egg whites

Scoop this mixture over the oreos and bake for about 15 mins.


While they are in the oven, in a mixing bowl mix:
2 containers (1lb each) sour cream
6 T sugar
2 tsp vanilla or almond extract
Put this into a gallon ziploc bag to make it easy on yourself. You CAN just spread it on with a knife in a pinch. 

Pull the cupcakes out of the 275° oven, spread a generous portion of the sour cream on top. (or using the ziploc bag, cut corner off and use it as a pastry bag to pipe it on)   Bake another 15-17 minutes until the cheesecake is done.
Chill 4 hours

My boys loved them, asked me to make them everyday.

Mug Brownie! Hot Fudge Brownie Sundae in minutes!

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While I am playing with mugs and mixes...

Same Concept..

1 package of angel food cake mix

1 package of brownie mix

Mix together and put it a jar, the two mixes

To make brownie : 

In a mug, mix

 3 T powder mix

2-2.5 T water

Nuke for 1 min.

It's done! 

While its hot, add chocolate or caramel syrup, and some nuts if you like...whipped cream and a cherry!  

If your out of whipped cream, pour a bit of milk onto it.  

Mug Cake Recipe (big batch for a quick snack anytime) Updated:

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This mug cake is a great way to satisfy your carb sweet craving in no time.

Ingredients:
1 box Angelfood cake
1 Box any other cake
Mix the two together and put into a jar for when you want a quick snack.  ONE of the boxes of cake MUST be angelfood cake.

to make your snack
In a mug, three T of cake mix and two T of water.  stir and nuke for one min.
Bam, its done...
here's my tips for this recipe..I like an extra half T of water in mine and I like to add things to it before nuking..choc chips, broken up oreos...anything you like..and when its done,I drizzle milk on it and stir it up and throw in an extra two broken oreos...Whipped cream is good too, but I only usually get this once before my kids empty the can.  I snooze I lose. lol.

I keep this in a jar on the counter w the directions to make it.  My kids devour it. It's not the most awesome cake I ever made, but its an easy fix for a craving.  Its pretty good.

Warning:  My sink is always full of mugs!  My teenagers (and the strays they bring home)  seem to love this in the middle of the night.

Vitamix Butternut Squash Soup (vegan)

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This little gadget is amazing..it will make a soup from scratch in five minutes.  I was at Wegman's the other day and the vitamix  guy made us this...came home and made it again.

Vitamix Butternut Squash Soup

In the vitamix, throw in:

four carrots
Half red onion
2 stalks celery
clove garlic
half avocado
1/2-3/4 of 20 oz package of cubed butternut 

10 peppercorns
8 oz rice milk
1 T cinnamon
big squeeze blue agave (about 4 tablespoons)
1 tsp salt (tweak it out if you want)
2 cups hot water (approximately, until vitamix is almost full, just hot tap water)

Okay, this is the hard part....turn on the vitamix..and wait 5 mins...
After the five minutes, its ready to pour into mugs/bowls and piping hot.

My son's culinary class made a sauce for drizzling on top of theirs with sour cream, maple syrup and ceyenne pepper.  Also they used a sweet potato to thicken theirs, this recipe uses avocado.

Note, you can totally unveganize this. I have made this many ways.  its great with whole milk roasted red peppers, crabmeat and sauted shiitake mushrooms added at the end to give it body. I also love a fresh hot pepper in it, added during the vitamix blend.  The cinnamon and hot pepper go well together.