Baby Cookies

These are very simple.  They can be adapted in so many ways that the combinations are only limited to your imagination!

Below:  Uncooked cookies

Ingredients:

3-4oz sweet potato puree

1 cup instant oats

1 tsp cinnamon

Method:

1.  Combine all of the ingredients until they begin to stick together.  Add more oats if the mixture is runny.

2.  Form into 1 " balls

3.  After placing the balls onto a baking sheet (I used parchment paper for easy cleanup), press with a fork to flatten some.  The cookies really will hold whatever shape they are cooked in and don't expand much.

4.  Bake at 350 degrees for 10-15 minutes.  Essentially, you are just heating them so that the oats absorb the liquid and soften.  The cookies will be chewy.

5.  Store in an airtight container.  As there are no preservatives, I recommend keeping them in the fridge.  They are totally save to carry in a bag at room temperature for a couple of hours, though!

Some ideas for variations:

• Bananas, applesauce or pureed carrots in place of the sweet potatoes
• Add raisins, dried fruit, coconut, chocolate chips, peanut butter, nuts, or honey to add a little something special!  Keep in mind the age of the child who will be eating these cookies as not all ingredients are recommended for all babies (especially nuts and honey).
• Spread in a baking sheet rather than rolling into balls and bake.  Then slice after cooling and eat as granola bars.
• Roll into 1/2" balls and do not flatten for small granola bites

What changes did you make to this recipe?  Comment below!

Below:  Finished cookies

Daddy Treats

I made this for my husband for his first Father's Day this year.  I got part of the idea off of Pinterest, by putting different things in old bottles, but I added all of the photos and labels to personalize it.  I think this project would work well for a great deal of holidays and recipients by changing the ingredients (think of putting in dried herbs for a cook or beading for a crafter).  So, here's how I made it!

Step 1: Buy a 6-pack of something in a bottle.  I chose these Smirnoff cocktails because I wanted to try them (not a huge fan, though) and I also thought clear bottles would be much nicer than the dark bottles beer usually comes in.

Step 2:  Drink all six drinks!  Make sure you use twist-off caps and keep them somewhere so that you can re-cap the bottles.  Once you've finished all of the bottles, wash them with soap and hot water.  I'm sure you could run them through the dishwasher, but I didn't think to do it until I was already done.

Step 3:  Dry the bottles.  I put this as a separate step because you need to make sure they are VERY dry.  I did one bottle before it had dried completely and the candy stuck to the bottom, so I had to re-wash it and get new candy.

Step 4:  Color the caps.  I did this, simply to remove the smirnoff logo.  You could spraypaint the tops, cover them with paper, or color them with a Sharpie, like I did.

Step 5:  Cover the cardboard portion of the 6-pack (I used brown craft paper).  Glue it either with a spray adhesive, or use Mod Podge, like I did.  No matter what you use make sure it is evenly distributed so that there are no bubbles in the paper.

Step 6:  Create labels.  You would want labels that can cover the labels on the bottle already.  I chose to make them as you can see in the photo above.  I also created labels to put onto the 6-pack.  Even though I could have just printed them at home on my personal printer, I was running low on ink, so I took mine to Staples and had them print it.

 

Step 7:  Affix all of the labels.  Again, I used Mod Podge, but you could use spray adhesive as well.  I sealed all of the labels with Mod Podge as well, so that they would be really stuck down.  As you can see above, I added some of the scraps of plain white paper over the small label on the neck of the bottles as well as the large labels.

Step 8:  Gather your fillings.  I did candy for all but one bottle, which I put peanuts in.  I had to end up getting extra Good n Plenty and Reese's Pieces, because they seemed to settle more than the others and took up less room.  Obviously, I chose treats that I knew my husband would like!

Step 9:  Using a funnel (or your hand, like I did), fill the bottles.  Twist the caps onto the bottles.  They will not make it completely airtight, but they will keep the candies from going stale and they will keep anything from coming out if you have to carry the gift anywhere.

Finally:  Place the bottles back into the cardboard 6-pack holder and it is ready to present!

Topped steaks

Tonight I don't really have a recipe since it's just a topping, but I grilled some steaks on this 80 degree Charleston February day! Topped mine with shrimp and parmesan cheese, while I topped Nic's with bacon and parmesan. Paired with green beans and rice! Yum yum!

Lily's Dresser

Progress on the dresser!  This is going into the baby's nursery.  It started as a plain brown armoire that has been mine since I was in middle school.  It is still in great shape, but the wood isn't the highest quality, so I decided to re-finish it in such a way that would look good in the beach-themed room.

First I took all of the hardware off and took the drawer and door fronts off.

Next, I used the Valspar spraypaint with the stone texture to texturize the doors and drawers.  The color didn't really matter, this was something we had leftover from another project awhile ago.

The next step was to paint the doors and drawers with the same sandy color I'm using for the walls in the bedroom.

Tools:  I used some packs of shells from Hobby Lobby and some liquid nails from Lowes to stick them to the doors.  

Here, I did the layout of the shells and decided how to position them onto the dresser doors.  The last one is the final product after everything was stuck down.  I also sprayed a thin layer of clear spraypaint to seal the shells and make the whole thing a little easier to clean.

I also added the shells to the drawers and sealed them with the clear spraypaint as well.

Here I taped and painted the dresser itself.  It is kind of her to see, because the lighting in the bedroom isn't ideal at the moment.  The photo on the left is the original and the one on the right is after the first coat of paint.

To be continued as I progress...

Nursery Decor

We are currently expecting our first little one!  As such, we are working on decorating the Nursery.  The whole room is being done in a beach theme with a lot of shells!  These vases are going to be used as decoration on shelves or on a bookcase.

The vases are from Dollar Tree, and are actually re-used from another project I did for work a couple of months ago.  The shells are mostly from Hobby Lobby, as is the sand.  I had some random shells from Michael's and I think from Dollar Tree too, which pretty much all got combined.

Wishes in a Bottle

Just a little craft I came up with after seeing some jewelry made with the same idea.  It's a wish bottle!  Save up all of your wishes in this bottle!  The corked bottle came from Michael's and the wish flowers (or dandelions) came just from my yard.  I let them dry out for a day or two so that all the little white parts came off of the stem a lot easier and just fed them into the bottle using tweezers.  Mostly just pretty/for decoration.

Pasta with Lemon Butter Cream sauce

When I was visiting my parents last week, I decided to make dinner one night.  Dinner there isn't the easiest thing, with the various tastes and restrictions in the house.  My husband doesn't eat seafood, Mom isn't a fan of chicken, and Dad will only eat pasta if it has enough other stuff in it to make it a full meal.  I threw this together while picking things up at the grocery store, so I'm sure there are ways to improve it!  I would possibly have added Greek olives and capers, but that didn't come until an afterthought.  Because of the preferences of the family, I made two bowls of the pasta topped with shrimp and two topped with chicken.  You could always mix the two or just use one or the other.  If you want to choose just one, plan your amounts accordingly!

Here you go, hope you love it!

Ingredients (Feeds about 4-5):

3 medium boneless-skinless chicken breasts
12-14 Jumbo shrimp, pre-cooked, shelled, deveined and tails removed
1 1/2 c salted butter
1/3 c flour
1 c milk (I used 1%)
1/3 c lemon or lime juice (more or less to taste, I love acid, so I use a lot) plus 4T lemon or lime juice
1 box uncooked pasta
8 oz crumbled feta cheese (divided per portion)
1 can artichoke hearts, quartered and warmed (divided per portion)
Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

Step 1:  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Step 2:  In a medium saucepan, melt about 1/8c butter over med-high heat.

Step 3:  Add raw chicken breasts to melted butter in pan.  Add about 2 T lemon or lime juice.  Cook breasts on each side for about 6 minutes or until it begins to brown.

Step 4:  Transfer chicken breasts, along with any liquids and drippings, to an oven-safe dish.  Cover and place in oven for about 20 minutes or until chicken is fully-cooked.

Meanwhile...

Step 5:  Add remaining butter to a cold saucepan along with flour and 1/3 c lemon/lime juice.  Melt and combine ingredients over low heat.  If you heat it too quickly, your butter will separate and get kind of gross-looking.  The milk will also not mix in as well later if your butter "breaks."

Step 6:  Bring water to a boil in a medium stock pot (for noodles).  Add pasta and cook 9-10 minutes or until the pasta is fully cooked.  Drain pasta and set aside.  A small amount of olive oil may be added if you are worried about the noodles sticking together.

Step 7:  While water is boiling and pasta is cooking, sauté shrimp in a small saucepan with 1/8c butter and about 2T lemon or lime juice.  As the shrimp are already fully cooked, you just want to cook them long enough to warm them through and add flavor.  Be sure not to allow them to become rubbery.

Step 8:  Remove chicken from oven and transfer to a cutting board to allow the meat to rest 5-10 minutes.

Step 9:  Slowly mix milk into the butter mixture, stirring constantly.  You may want to add less milk if you want a thicker sauce.  Cook only until the sauce is warmed though, being careful not to allow the sauce to boil.

Step 10:  Add pasta to a plate/bowl.  Top with artichoke hearts, feta cheese and shrimp and/or sliced chicken.  Pour sauce over the top and serve immediately.