DIY Easter Centerpiece

I have been on somewhat of a strict budget recently with not a lot of cash for the extras, so I knew when it came to to make an Easter centerpiece for my dining room table I would have to be thrifty. And thrifty I was. This entire project cost me a whopping $0.00!
I had a coupon for free eggs (awesome), I already had food coloring and the flowers came right out of my backyard! Now if you have the time and money you could go more elaborate on this little project but for my budget and the little gathering that will be taking place at my home tomorrow this will work just fine :)

DIY Sidewalk Paint...

How super exciting is this colorful, easy to make, sidewalk paint!? It's almost more fun to make than it actually is to paint. The kids loved watching the mixture turn into their favorite colors!

What you need:
-Cornstarch
-Water
-Gel food coloring
-Muffin Pan or several plastic bowls














I started by scooping a heaping tablespoon of cornstarch into my muffin pan, adding the food coloring then the water. I didn't like the texture so I just kept adding cornstarch and water until it was more of a thick paste.


Send me pictures of the creations your kids make!

DIY Wreath

I am one of those people. I had my Christmas wreath up until just yesterday. I know, super tacky. It's not like I left it up there on purpose I just never thought about it until I was walking out the door. I had a whole evening to myself yesterday so I finally decided to do something about that wreath. I don't have a lot of experience making them so I decided to browse Pinterest for a bit of inspiration. I ended up blending things from several different ones that I liked and now I want to pass along that inspiration.

I got everything from Michaels craft store.

-A simple brown picture frame - $4.00













- Roll of hemp - $3.00
- 2 pieces of felt (To make flowers out of. Link to tutorial) - $.20 each
- Big monogram letter - $4.00
- Choice of paint color to paint your Monogram letter - $.60
- Needle and thread and hot glue gun from home



I just simply started by hot gluing an end piece of hemp to the back side of my frame and then wrapped it all the way around. I cut and glued once I got to each corner.

Arrange your felt flowers (I found a great tutorial here) however you like with a hot glue gun and then hot glue your monogram letter on! Simple as that!

{Almost} Vegan Applesauce Cupcakes with Vegan Vanilla Frosting

I am not vegan but I do love vegan baked goods, so this morning when I wanted to make cupcakes but didn't have any eggs I decided it was a vegan kind of day. For these cupcakes to truely be vegan you need Organic Unbleached Sugar. I only had white sugar on hand so that is why I named this post {Almost} vegan cupcakes. If you use the unbleached sugar, you are good to go.

These vegan applesauce cupcakes are SO YUMMY! There is a perfect mix of spices and apples. I was afraid I would really be able to taste the applesauce and it would be an odd flavor but they turned out perfect! The icing is REALLY sweet but since the cupcakes are not very sweet it is a good pairing. I was not thrilled with the texture of the icing so I'm still on the hunt for the perfect vegan icing, but until then this one will work.

Cupcake Ingredients:

1/2 c margarine (80% fat is best)
1/4 c Organic Unbleached Sugar (** I used white sugar but technically white sugar is not vegan but that was all I had on hand.)
1 1/2 c. Flour
1 t Baking soda
1/4 t Salt
1 t Cinnamon
1 1/2 t Nutmeg
1 1/4 c Unsweetened applesauce
1 t Vanilla

** The original recipe called for 1/4 cup of walnuts, I did not have any but I'm sure that would taste AMAZING in this recipe.

Step 1: Preheat oven to 375 F.
Step 2: Cream margarine until fluffy.
Step 3: Add sugar
Step 4: Sift together dry ingredients.
Step 5: Add to margarine mixture alternately with applesauce, mixing well after each addition.
Step 6: Stir in vanilla and nuts.
Step 7: Spoon into 12 cupcake pans sprayed with vegetable pan spray or use paper baking cups.
Bake 15-20 min.

Frosting:
3/4 cup powdered sugar (**Must be vegan powdered sugar to truly be vegan)
3/4 cup margarine
1/8 cup vanilla soy milk
1 teaspoon vanilla

This is pretty much a one step frosting. Just go ahead and put all your ingrediants in a bowl and mix with an electric mixer or your stand mixture. Play around with it until you get the results you want.

Like I said I was not thrilled with this texture and was really sweet. I doubled the recipe and then ended up tripling the amount of sugar (VERY IMPORTANT) and that helped some with the texture.




Let me know if you know any really great vegan icing recipes!

Homemade Cashew Butter...

I am the queen of junk food. My weakness is salty food. Put a bag of chips in front of me and its gone in 30 minutes; but recently I have been realizing the harm of over processed food. I bought a cook book called the Eat-Clean Diet for Family and Kids. A lot of this book talks about the harm of over processed foods and encourages you with substitutions you can make in your home and diet.

My friend Courtney recently got me on a kick of toast with peanut butter honey and some sort of fruit on top. It sounds relatively healthy until I started reading this book. Have you ever read the ingredients on the back of a peanut butter jar!? There is a lot more than peanuts on that label. The author of the Eat-Clean Diet says if you can't pronounce the words or there is a long list of ingredients, stay away! She suggested substituting a nut butter for peanut butter and that is where I got the idea to try and make it myself. There are two ingredients in my nut butter vs. the long list of who knows what on the peanut butter label at your local grocery mart.

I chose to use cashews but you can use whatever you have around your house, or whatever kind of nut you prefer.

Since this was somewhat of an experiment I only used 1/3 of a cup of cashews but feel free to make a larger quantity if you wish.

Step 1: Roast your nuts for about 5 minutes at 350 degrees to bring out the natural oils. Then place into your food processor and blend for about 15 minutes.



Step 2: Stop every so often to scrape of the sides with a rubber spatula. Be patient. It does take awhile to get to the right consistency.



Step 3: My cashew butter eventually formed into a ball and that is when I added a small drop of olive oil and blended for another few seconds until it was a creamy consistency. If you are making a larger amount of nut butter use more olive oil. I would just put in a small amount at a time until you have a consistency you are happy with.





Step 4: ENJOY!



I can't wait to try other variations of this. I would love to do something with cinnamon and vanilla next time. Share what kinds of creations you came up with!

Portabella Cap Pizza

The first thing I want to say is YUM! I love everything mushroom and I love pizza so lets just put the two together?! This is another Pinterest recipe and you can find the original here.

If you love pizza but you want to cut out some of the carbs this recipe is perfect for you.

Ingredients :
-Portabella Mushroom Caps (I bought six but between my husband and I we only ate 4)
- Marinara Sauce. I did not measure out how much I used, I just eyeballed it.
- Mozzarella cheese
- Dried or fresh basil
- Red pepper flakes
- Toppings of choice (I used spinach and olives)

Step 1:

Scrape out the inside of the mushroom along with as much of the stem as can get and bake on a baking sheet for around 5 to 7 minutes at 400 degrees.





Step 2:

Spoon your Marinara sauce and top with red pepper flakes and basil. I used dried basil because that is all I had on hand but I would love to use fresh basil leaves next time. Next, add your toppings of choice. I used mozzarella cheese, spinach and black olives.




Step 3:

Turn your oven onto broil and bake until cheese is melted! It should only take a few minutes so make sure to keep a check on them.




**Let me know what toppings and spices you used on your pizzas!

Breakfast is Served!

It's no secret that I'm obsessed with Pinterest. Every meal I plan on cooking this week came off of Pinterest. Here is a super easy and yummy breakfast that can be prepared ahead of time, then just popped into the microwave to warm when you are ready to eat!

Egg Muffins

Step 1:

Crack open your eggs, whisk them and pour them into a greased muffin pan. Fill them about halfway.



**Depending on how many "muffins" you want to make will be the amount of eggs you choose to use. I used 7 eggs and it made 9 muffins

Step 2:

Chop up all the ingredients you like in your eggs. I used onion, mushroom, spinach and cheese. YUM! Put a small amount of your choice ingredients in each egg muffin, bake at 350 degrees for about 25 min. Once they have completely cooled you can put them in baggies and store them in your fridge for tomorrow's breakfast!



Get creative and let me know what ingredients you chose to put in your muffins!