First Ever Blanket! COMPLETE!

Finally finished a blanket I have been working on for 8 years+. I would show it spread out but it's long and it's ugly because I didn't know what the heck I was doing, it has an hour glass shape to it because I didn't chain at the end of each row (beginners mistake that I didn't know about til 3/4 done with it and I wasn't about to pull my stitches out). But it is finally done and my yarn bin has more room for yarn!!!! :)

Portobello Mushroom Pizza

I love pizza and I love mushrooms.  I was looking for a low calorie recipe and this came to mind.  Portobello mushrooms are some of my absolute favorites!  So I found this recipe and fixed it, and it was DELICIOUS, but next time I'm going to add some Italian spices to it to make it taste even better!

Mine definitely doesn't look like the one below, but that was my first time cleaning a mushroom lol.

You know what? It isn't that hard to make healthy pizza. Pizza would always be pretty healthy if we chose not to put 1/2 pound of cheese on every slice.

Here on Snack Girl, I have featured English muffin pizzas, Triscuit pizzas, and even made over afrozen pizza to get readers to try a healthier version of pizza.

Well, do I have a solution for you. Make the pizza in a portobello mushroom cap!

Why would you do this?

• only 22 calories of crust
• tastes meaty and goes great with sauce and cheese
• you don't have to make crust!

Yes, this is SO easy it is ridiculous and the taste is phenomenal. Now, the down side is that in my neighborhood a portobello mushroom is running about $1 each. But keep in mind the health benefits.

You are eating a 22 calorie mushroom instead of a load of crust (and it is gluten free)!

In the recipe below, I used diced fire roasted tomatoes to fill the caps. I like them because they already have some seasoning and they have texture - as compared with pizza sauce.

Also, I used fresh mozzarella because I love the creaminess. Feel free to use any cheese or tomato combo that you have in the house.

Kids will love making these and you can make them ahead to reheat later.

Portobello Mushroom Pizza Recipe

(serves 4)
4 portobello mushroom caps
1 15 ounce can diced fire roasted tomatoes
4 ounces fresh mozzarella cheese (thinly sliced or grated)

Preheat oven to 350. Spray rimmed baking sheet with non-stick spray. Clean mushroom caps with paper towel and remove stems. Spoon 1/4 cup tomatoes with or without juice into cap. Layer mozzarella cheese over tomatoes. Bake in oven for 20 minutes. Serve with a knife and fork.

Serve hot or room temperature.

115 calories, 5.9 g fat, 6.9 g carbohydrates, 9.8 g protein, 1.7 g fiber, 200 mg sodium, 2 PointsPlus

Directions from http://www.snack-girl.com/snack/portobello-mushroom-healthy-snack/ and by no means do I take credit for this recipe.

String Art

This was a very time consuming project and took a lot of time, effort, and TONS OF PATIENCE!  And I had gotten several ideas from Pinterest that ended up turning into one project.  I used a regular corkboard from Michael's because it was cheap and did the job and could use push pins because I'm on a budget.

The first part "LOVE" I got the font from a statue that I had seen on my trip to Maine...

I was actually going to do this but I didn't have space for it and couldn't get my "O" to turn right.  But I basically went on Word and made the font really big (as big as I wanted) and printed them out and cut them out and place them where I want.  After I had them placed I began to put push pins around them with a little space in between them.  Then I went on to do the heart.  Now North Carolina was a little more difficult to do because I couldn't find anything big enough and then when I did I couldn't print it out all on one sheet.  This is where I found this program called GIMP - The GNU Image Manipulation Program (http://www.gimp.org/).  It allowed me to make the image print into 3 different sheets of paper.  I used a tutorial called 

Screen Print an Image Larger Than 8.5 x 11 ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ciY6e60Pt-8&feature=player_embedded#! )which showed me how to use the program (he used it for screen printing but it worked for this project too!).

Some of the process.  I used different color string for each.

The idea for the state I got from http://theharpsterhome.wordpress.com/2011/12/12/heart-in-ohio/

That part is where I used the GIMP program I mentioned above.

And the heart I got the idea from this picture, I couldn't find a tutorial on it on the link and it was in Portuguese.

But basically I just have to wrap the string around a bunch.  North Carolina was the hardest especially with where I live being on the far western side of the state.  Just play around and find out what works best for you :)

Puffins! (Pancake Muffins)

I hardly ever eat breakfast foods (even for breakfast), but one night I got a craving for pancakes but didn't really feel like dealing with a pan and spatula that night.  So I got online and started searching for a recipe for pancake muffins.  I found several but this one seemed to sound the best... and boy was I right! :)  I used cupcake wrappers because it was so much easier to get them out of the muffin pan.  And instead of Bisquik, I used Krusteaz Belgian Waffle mix because I think it makes so much better pancakes!

The two on the bottom right I put chocolate chips in, they were delicious!  I love chocolate in my pancakes and waffles.  And the one to the left of them I added syrup per my dad's request, which made it soggy and I do not recommend doing so lol.

I love syrup, if you couldn't tell.

The Magic PUFFIN

2 cups Bisquick or Pancake mix of your choice
2/3 cup milk
2 eggs
3/4 cup syrup
Toppings – chocolate chips, bacon, sausage, blueberries, cranberries, bananas, nuts, etc.

Preheat oven to 350°.

Mix Bisquick, milk, eggs, and syrup together and pour into muffin pans with cupcake liners. Fill each cup half way, and top with your favorite topping. Bake for 14-15 minutes or until a toothpick, inserted, comes out clean. Makes 17-18, normal sized, puffins.

Directions from http://ladywiththeredrocker.com/2012/03/30/the-magic-puffin-its-a-pancake-muffin-hello/ and by no means do I take credit for this recipe.

Hand Warmers

Now for those of you that don't know, I suffer from an autoimmune disease called Mixed Connective Tissue Disease, it causes a variety of problems including arthritis, malaise (ill feeling), muscle and joint problems, and one of the hallmark symptoms is Raynaud's Phenomenon.  Raynaud's is where your fingers and toes discolor (white, purple, blue, red), this is caused by a vasoconstriction (where your blood vessels in your hands and feet get small and don't let blood circulate through causing discoloration) which is brought on by temperature changes, mostly cold.  

In the winter it gets very bad for me, I now have to take blood pressure medication to keep my blood vessels open despite the cold.  So I have to take all measures to ensure that my hands and feet stay warm, I usually get the HandWarmers from Wal-Mart but that can be costly, I found this project and made some and they worked fantastically!  But I would suggest to get some oil to add to the rice, because plain rice can smell not too pleasant.  This was also my first sewing project (with a machine) and I was quite pleased with the end results.

And I HIGHLY suggest to invest in a funnel, my friend that I made these with did not have one and we had the hardest time filling them up.

Directions:

materials needed for one set of hand warmers:
*grab some rice (i used white long grain, because that's what we eat)

*scrap of fabric (it just needs to be enough to fold over to cut out 1 strip (double fold) at 3 1/2" x 6" 
*those strips of fabric cut again in half at 3 1/2" x 3"

to assemble hand warmers:

1. place right sides together for both sets of squares.

 2. using a 1/4" seam allowance sew along one side of your squares.

 **instead of doing each hand warmer separately, *chain* your squares.
to chain your squares sew your first seam and then instead of cutting the threads, place your next square to be sewn. you will end up with a couple of stitches that will not sew onto any fabric, hence making a chain.

this will be helpful is you are doing a lot of hand warmers.

 3. after you have sewn one side on all your squares, you can cut your *chain* like the picture above.

 *here is a picture of all the squares having one side sewn and then had the chain cut.
4. sew three sides of your squares (using the chain method for each side)
5. the fourth side sew your seam and leave a 1 1/2"  opening in the middle of your seam. (back stitch at the opening so it does not rip open for the following steps. 

 6. once all four sides are sewn, cut at an angle your corners making sure you do not cut through the "X" your seams make.
7. turn inside out, and using a pin pull out your corners as much as you can.

 8. for filling we are using rice, so you will want to get your rice and if you have a funnel use it to get the rice inside the opening. (i made my own out of paper shaped into a funnel)

 8. fill up your hand warmer at least 3/4 full.

 9. and hand stitch closed.

WARMING INSTRUCTIONS:
*warm in the microwave for 15 seconds.
*hold in your hands and warm up your digits.
*can also be used as eye packs (freeze them for cool packs, or warm them for warm packs)
*i do not recommend heating them up for longer amounts than 15 seconds as it may cause burns on skin.

Directions from http://www.vanessachristenson.com/2011/12/v-and-co-how-to-homemade-hand-warmers.html and by no means credit myself to creating the tutorial. Just passing along directions to a wonderful craft.

Cross Stitch Project

This project took a while, just because I had never cross stitched before to this magnitude.  Using a canvas is a lot easier than I would think the old fashioned way.  I used a variety of directions from google to use for this and can't remember where I got them, mostly just improvised lol.  But here was my finished project.  It took over a month to make and I don't plan on making another any time soon!

[Virgin] Peach Daquiri

This is something I made up.  I love peaches and I absolutely LOVE Peach Daquiris, but since I am under the age of 21 I am not allowed alcohol so I had to come up with my own twist.  Any time I have a bit of extra money when I go to Olive Garden I order a Peach Daquiri, this came very close to their version!

Ingredients

1-2 peaches, sliced and frozen

1/4 cup water

about 1/3 cup of heavy whipping cream

1 bowl of ice

4-6 heaping teaspoons of confectioner's sugar

Before you start to make your frozen treat you need to peel the peaches.  I found the easiest way to do this is to boil a pot of water, once it starts boiling cut it off then put a peach in for 45 seconds to 1 minute and make sure it all is covered by the water, then transfer it to a bowl of ice cold water (with chunks of ice in it) for 10-20 seconds.  It makes the peaches so much easier to get the peel off.  Once they have all been peeled you need to cut them into slices (whatever you think your blender can handle).  I cut my peaches into 8 slices.  Then I laid them out on a pan and stuck them in the freezer for a few hours.

Once your peaches have been frozen, get your blender out and put in the 1/4 cup of water and 1/4 cup of heavy whipping cream (my dad just uses 1/2 cup of water, but I tried with half water, half whipping cream and it was much better).  Here in a regular daquiri is where you would add your rum, so you can try if you would like.   Next add 4 heaping teaspoons of confectioner's sugar, then add a few slices of peach and 2 ice cubes (my blender can only handle a few frozen things at a time).  Blend until everything is well blended, then add more peaches and ice cubes gradually.  Once everything has been blended, taste and see if it is sweet enough (I don't sweeten the peaches when I prepare them so it may take more).  If it needs to be sweeter then add more confectioner's sugar, and if you want a creamier texture then add more heavy whipping cream.  Once it is all mixed together, pour into glasses and enjoy :)