Pinterest Recipe Test: Mug Mac 'n Cheese

I LOVE mac 'n cheese! So one day I got a craving, but didn't want to make a big recipe of it and I was feeling lazy (hey we all have those days!). Plus in an effort to eat healthier I have purged the house of all boxed mac 'n cheese and Easy Mac. To Pinterest I went looking for a single serving of mac 'n cheese. I found the following recipe for mac 'n cheese in a mug: 1/3 cup whole grain pasta, 1/2 cup water, 1/4 cup milk, 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese. Tried putting it all in the bug and putting it in the microwave. The result was an EPIC FAIL!! I had water, milk, and melted cheese all over the microwave plus the pasta was dried out. So I played around with the recipe a little to find the perfect balance, and I came up with the following:

Mug Mac 'n Cheese
1. Put 1/3 cup whole grain pasta and 1/2 cup water in a large mug. Microwave for 2-3 minutes. Put a paper towel down since there will be some water than bubbles over.
2. Stir in a little bit of butter (to taste) and 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese. Add a splash of milk (about 1-2 Tbls) to make as creamy as you like.
3. Enjoy!

Here are some pictures to go along with the instructions.

So it doesn't look like the Easy Mac or Kraft box mix, but it's healthier and tastes SO much better! What's your favorite thing to make in a mug?

My Garden: April 2014

It's spring! That means time to start working in the garden. Weeding, planting starts, weeding, planting seeds, MORE weeding. Between the weather being unpredictable and a busy schedule I haven't had much time to get out. Here are a few picture of what my garden looks like so far.

My rhubarb is coming up nicely thanks to the leaves and rabbit dropping I covered it with in the fall.

Chives as always growing in the corner of the raised bed. Had a chance to pull weeds around it.

Pansies coming back from last year!

White an yellow primroses also coming back from last year!

The raspberries are starting to grow, and also trying to take over! I've been pulling many raspberry shoots from where I don't want them. Also, don't mind the dandelions trying to take over the raised bed right now which are the same ones as last year. This year I promise to tackle them and actually plant something in the raised bed!

First thing I did in the garden was transplant all of my strawberries into this cool tower that my Dad built last year. Got the idea from Seattle Tilth and original post about it can be found here. I can't wait for my strawberries to grow in here!

See?! I did plant something in the raised bed. Leeks and garlic have been growing here all winter. Can't wait for fresh leek and potato soup!

How are your gardens doing so far this spring? I love to hear from you!

Teaching Pre-K: Winter Sensory Fun

Wow! It has been so busy, and crazy that I haven't had time to blog recently. I apologize for that!

Anyways, these are three of the winter sensory projects we did in my classroom. All of them were ideas I found on Pinterest; my favorite place for lesson plan ideas.

It seems I have forgotten to take a picture of the first one: snow paint. Found here. My students loved using a paint brush or their fingers to paint a snow storm, snow man, or snow angel.

The next science experiment/sensory project we did was snow slime! It surprised me which kids loved it and which ones were a little unsure about it. Eventually they all got into it, and had a great time. I think my assistant and I had just as much, if not more, fun playing with it as well! You can find the recipe here.

This week we made indoor snow with corn starch and shaving cream.  It made a huge mess, but the kids had a great time pretending to make it snow and making 3D snowmen. I liked the smooth texture that it had. Little did we know it was going to snow for real the next day! You find the recipe here.

Hope you enjoying these fun indoor winter activities. As always I love your feedback and comments!

Pinterest Project: Clean Makeup Brushes

I don't wear makeup everyday, but I use it often enough that I should clean my brushes more than I do considering they touch my face. I've been on the look out for a quick easy way to clean my makeup brushes, and I think I've found it! Thanks to a friend who pinned this link on Pinterest. :)

I decided to try it right after I read it. And guess what? It TOTALLY works! My makeup brushes are now clean and drying as I write this post.

Of course I took a few pics to show y'all.

The ingredients: 1 cup warm water, 1 Tbls white vinegar, 1 Tbls liquid dish soap

This is what it looked like after I swirled my brushes around in it. GROSS! This picture doesn't do it justice...it looked like weak chai.

 Rinsed with warm water, reshaped, and drying on a folded towel!

Now that I know a quick, easy way to clean my makeup brushes I'll hopefully do this more often. Let me know if you try it, or of you have another quick way to clean makeup brushes.

Update: I thought that the brushes might smell like vinegar the next time I used them, but I can now report that they're scent free! (I told you I don't wear makeup often so it was almost a week after I washed them.)

Two New Additions

There are two new little additions to my family. My cousin-in-law had her TWINS last week!! That means I've been hard at work making lovey blankets for them to cuddle, and hats to adorn their adorable little heads.

I got the idea for the lovey blankets from a woman I follow on Instagram and this pattern on Ravelry. They have an elephant themed nursery so I'm going to make an elephant head from here (which I also found on Ravelry) to put on the lovey blankets instead of the lamb like the pattern. I was watching the last episode of "Smash", sniff sniff :( , while working on them the other day.

The hats are a Tunisian crochet pattern and yarn that I found buried in one of my yarn bins. I totally forgot that I had bought that yarn to go with the free pattern from the shop along the LYS Tour two years ago. It's still cute none-the-less, and I can't wait to see how it works up. It was a pain to wind since the beads can't fit through a regular ball winder; so I had to wind it by hand off of the swift.

I'll post pictures of the finished projects in a few weeks. What are your favorite projects for babies? What projects are you currently working on? I love to hear your feedback!

This is How My Garden Grows (May 2013 Update)

I have been so busy lately that I have been horrible at weeding my garden, and planting seeds this spring. Thankfully rhubarb doesn't take much care so I already made a rhubarb pie!

The raspberries are trying to take over the whole garden area. I've been pulling shoots out of every section lately. The bees are busy pollinating, which is what I like to see! There are already too many berries starting to grow that I can't count them all. :) In the picture, don't mind the patch of dandilions that currently occupy the raised bed.

This year I'm trying out those Topsy Turvy tomato growers. I hope that having them in a sunnier spot will produce more red tomatoes instead of being left with a bunch of green tomatoes in the fall. A bonus is that while out for a walk around the neighborhood a couple weeks ago, I found a table with FREE tomato starts! I'm Dutch, so anything free is awesome!

Another new addition to my garden this year is the strawberry tower. I got the idea when I was on a field trip to Seattle Tilth with my pre-k class. I figured it would be easy enough to DIY so I drew a mock up on Google SketchUp first, and then handed the plans over to my Dad. Thanks to Stacy for the strawberry starts to put in it! I'll transplant the rest of my strawberry plants after they finish producing fruit this summer.

Last but certainly not least, is my flower bed. Which has actually been getting more attention lately than the garden. I noticed dahlia shoots coming up so I weeded around them. I had to cut/pull out some of the vinca ground cover to give the dahlias and iris more space to grow! I aslo took out the sticks that were supposedly supporting them as they grew, and replaced them with tomato cages since I won't be needing those this summer. A nice addition of rabbit poop fertilizer, and they're growing wonderfully. Now if only the slugs would stay away from them. :(

I'm hoping that blogging about my garden gives me more motivation to finish weeding so I can plant more. What have you planted in your garden this spring? What would you like to grow in your garden?

Birthday Cupcakes

So I settled on baking mocha cupcakes with raspberry buttercream for my Dad's birthday.

I used the mocha cupcake recipe that I found here from Pinterest (of course!). 

 

The raspberry buttercream I adapted from my "taste. Cupcakes" cookbook. I found it at Sam's Club, and originally bought it solely for the Advocaat buttercream recipe; which I will post at another time. Anyways, here is my version of raspberry buttercream.

Raspberry Buttercream Frosting
Yields enough to frost 12 cupcakes

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
2 1/4 cups confectioners (powdered) sugar
3-5 Tbls. seedless raspberry preserves or jelly

Using a stand mixer or a hand mixer, beat the butter until it is creamy. Sift in the powdered sugar and beat until smooth. On low add in the raspberry preserves until desired taste and color is achieved. Either spread or pipe onto cooled cupcakes. Enjoy!

These were the best looking from my batch. Note to self: get piping tips for better results! I also got to use the DIY Cake Stand that I made in this post. :)

I love to hear your feedback! Please comment if you try this recipe. Or what have you baked lately?

Pinterest Recipe Mash-up: Mini Maple Bars

Last weekend my best friend made mini doughnuts from tube biscuits then filled them with banana cream and topped them with a chocolate ganache. So I decided to try my hand at these easy-peasy doughnuts for the church potluck this weekend. I used the doughnuts from biscuits from here, and the maple glaze/frosting from here. I added an extra teaspoon of mapleine to the glaze because I thought it needed more maple flavor.

My test batch...these didn't last long though! 

48 doughnuts all fried up! It only took an hour to cut, shape, and fry them.

44 doughnuts ready to go to the potluck! Yes, I ate the "ugly" ones that weren't presentable enough. :)

No surprise that all of these got eaten at the potluck, and I got a lot of compliments on them. Have you tried baking anything from Pinterest lately?

Valentine's Day Crafts

I love February and Valentine's Day! Everything is decorated in pink and red with hearts. There's so many craft ideas on Pinterest that there's not enough days in February to do them all. So here are a few of the crafts the Frogs have been working on.

We learned about symmetry when we made these glitter paint hearts for our bulletin board.

Crayon melting on a hot plate is always fun! It's also an easy craft when the other teacher is sick, and you're by yourself at the last minute.

These are the simple heart flower Valentine's I made for the kids with the help of my Cricut. :)

I made heart chains to decorate the classroom.

Pink bubble prints were a hit! Note: poke a hole with pin so if they try to drink it they can't, but it still blows bubbles. :)

These TP tube heart stamps were a hit as well. Sadly, they didn't hold up too well after this one got done.

Simple yet cute hand print Valentine that the kids gave their parents.

Pipe cleaner and Cheerios bird feeders were another favorite project. One girl reported back the next day that the birds were eating the Cheerios.

 What crafts did you make for Valentine's? I love your feedback!

Learning How to Knook

No, it's not the e-reader from Barnes & Noble. It's a special crochet hook with a knitting needle on the other end. For me it's the combination of two of my favorite hobbies, knitting & crocheting, into one awesome craft! With a little help from a kit I got at JoAnn's and watching a few YouTube videos I have gotten the hang of how to knook.

Pictures are always helpful so here are a few of my new adventure:

This is the Instagram picture before I even opened the kit

Figuring out the knit stitch

Figuring out the purl stitch and making stockinette

Starting my first project: spa cloth from the booklet that comes with the kit

Super excited to be using scented cotton yarn! (Sorry it's sideways)

Finished spa cloth!! (Again, sorry it's sideways) Working on more to add to my Etsy shop. :)

So far I'm enjoying this combination of knitting and crochet. It's also a great conversation starter since hardly anyone knows what it is! My next knook project is a toddler hat for a friend's 12 month old. What knitting or crochet projects are you working on?

Christmas Cards

Think of it this way; this post isn't late, it's giving you great ideas for next Christmas! I had a lot of fun using my new Cricut, an early Christmas present thanks to Black Friday, along with stamps to create our Christmas cards this year. We sent out/hand delivered about 50 cards this year; so I decided to make five designs and ten of each design. So here's the big reveal of my original designs:

This was my first Cricut trial. I cut out the circles and stamped the wreath on them. I made some of them green because I ran out of red card stock. Oops!

 

 

As I got used to the Cricut I got a little braver. I cut out the ornaments and the saying. I started cutting out red ornaments, but realized that blue might look nice too since it matches the ribbon. I like both of them, but I'd love to hear what you think!

I gave the Cricut a rest on this one, and went with a simple stamped card. This stamp set from Stampin' Up is one of my favorites! The dragging on the edges helps it pop off the background paper a little more.

This is another simple stamped card. I love this swirly tree stamp, and the bling in the middle gives it an extra pop.

These adorable penguins were by far the most work! I used the Cricut to cut out all of the pieces, but had to glue all the tiny pieces on by hand (that was 20 penguins total!). But looking at it again it was worth the effort because they're adorable. :)

I hope you enjoyed these designs. What Christmas cards did you make this year. Did I inspire you to get a head start on next year?