Origami Stars

I have been slacking on posting, I know, but hopefully I can get back on track now.

One of the things on my list for the summer was to make an origami star table topper- so that is what I did last week. It didn’t take as long as I thought it would. I split it up, I made about 30 stars one day, 30 the next day, and about 50 the last day. I only had to make them for about an hour a day (including getting everything together, cutting the strips out, folding them all, and popping them into stars)

These are the strips and three different stages: the first tie in the paper, the middle of wrapping it, and the un-popped star.

These are some of the stars all finished.

This is kind-of the finished project… not all the stars are there, I made about 50 more stars so the bowl is much more full.

I am not using this as a table topper… I just stuck it on the shelving unit in the bathroom 🙂 It brings some colour to the room.

One of the best things about this project- it was CHEAP! The glass bowl I got at Walmart for $1.97 (CNDN- obviously), and the stars are made out of 10 sheets of construction paper… which came from a 200 pack of construction paper I got for a dollar at the dollar store =D

Happy Mothers Day.

I haven’t uploaded my camera recently, so I’m not going to be doing a food post, I’ll do some catching up tomorrow. Just thought I’d say Happy Mothers Day to all the mothers, mothers to be, and can’t-wait-to-be mothers. Have a good one!

Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies

Om nom nom nom nom.

I found this recipe while stumbling- it is from Betty Crocker. I made them for dessert after the bacon bowl dinner. They were on my list of things to do this summer, as were the bacon bowls- so it was nice to be able to check both off at the  same time 🙂

The cookies are SO easy to make- you use Betty Crocker’s sugar cookie mix, green dye, mint extract, and chocolate chips (and the egg and milk that is required for the cookie mix).

I love the way the dough looks, I kind of wanted to stop right there are eat it- but I have a thing against eating cookie dough (unless is it in Cookie Dough ice cream)… so into the oven they went.

And this is how they came out… delicious. Eat them warm!! They are so much better when warm (I only know of one cookie that isn’t better warm, and that’s oreo’s!)

Bacon Bowls!

Yes, you read that correctly. Bacon bowls, as in bowls made of bacon. I found them while stumbling, on a blog called ‘Not Martha’

These were on my list of things to do this summer. For dinner I made the bacon bowls, a quick salad, steak, and sweet potato fries. I put the fries in the bacon bowls. The bacon bowls are not the way to make things healthy- but they are definatly cool.

I had to improvize because I didn’t realize that you need jumbo muffin tins in order to make the bowls, so I put little metal ramikans over a normal muffin tin before covering them in tin foil. Then I had to weave the bacon over them, and bake for about 15 minutes at 400.

This is the empty, finished bacon bowl. I let then cool on the tins before pulling them off.

Dinner: BBQ steak, Salad (strawberry, iceburg lettuce, cucumber, and raspberry poppyseed dressing- maybe a bit too much dressing), and the bacon bowls with sweet potato fries.

There’s a close-up of the bacon bowl in action. I wish my sweet potato fries had been a bit crispier, but if I let them cook any longer they would have burnt. They are coated with vegetable oil, salt, garlic powder, pepper, cayenne pepper, and a bit of cumin.

Yumm, yumm, and check that of my list 🙂

Super BLT Clubs.

I started the day off with a smoothie, yumm. Nothing special, just some strawberries, a banana, and a few splashes of the Strawberry-Pineapple juice that Chris and I made the night before. So SO so easy to make, and perfect for an early morning refreshing breakfast.

This is my smoothie, small, great colour, yummy, and took all of 30 seconds- Thank you magic bullet and premade fresh fruit juice 🙂 ❤

 

On Tuesday’s I go to placement, even though my school is finished I have decided to continue going to Placement in order to become more comfortable in the classroom. I do not think that the 40 hours they made us do this year was nearly enough, so I still go on Tuesdays. (OH, BTW I am in school to become a teacher… that’s what I mean by placement in the classroom)

Usually when I go to placement Chris and I just grab Subway at the mall, but this is getting too expensive for me so I planned an easy similar dinner- we didn’t have homemade subs, we had Double Decker BLT Club sandwichs.

Now what is one of the most IMPORTANT components of BLTs???

Oh yeah, BACON BACON BACON!

 

Chris and I have been watching EpicMealTime a lot lately- Check them out on Youtube. When I asked Chris to make the Bacon (since, obviously, it’s the man’s job to cook the bacon-duh…. *insert emoticon of rolling eyes, lol*), he just HAD to make it the way that the guys in EpicMealTime do. So it was Bacon strips and Bacon strips and bacon strips and bacon strips.

Chris does his thing with the bacon, but once it it done, it’s my turn. I used a tip I read in the newest Food Network magazine… chopping the bacon up to tiny little pieces (I just magic bullet’ed it for a few seconds), and mixing it into the mayo. Yupp, it’s fantastic. The Bacon and Mayo infuse together to make a combination of delicious GOODness. The best part of this bacon mayo- when you get to eating, the bacon doesn’t pull out with your first bite- heaven.

Then we assembled the sandwiches. Bread, Bacon/Mayo, Lettuce, Deli Turkey, Bread, Bacon/Mayo, Lettuce, Bread. For Chris’s there is an extra layer with Tomato, but I hate them so I leave them out… Yeah I know, then you didn’t have a BLT- but we had turkey in them, so there’s my T- boo yeah!

Oh, and we buttered the toast… Oh gosh, these aren’t very healthy are they??

As a side, I made a macoroni dish that is on my list of things to do this summer. Neither Chris nor I were big fans- I actually didn’t like it AT ALL. I think this is because the sauce has mustard in it, which I am not a big fan of to begin with, I am picky with Mustard, I have to really be in the mood for mustard, otherwise the smell makes me feel sick- strange eh?

Overall, the sandwichs were DELICIOUS, and the Macaroni.. well, it wasn;t even needed because the BLTs wer efilling enough. But at least I can check the macaroni off of my list, and never make again! Not too fear though, because I have tons of other macaroni recipes to go through 🙂

Toasted Ravioli

This was on my list of things to do this summer, but it is one of the cooking side of things. I got the idea from Foodgawker while Stumbling, and than found a recipe for it on Allrecipes.com.

I made this on a day where I worked a split shift- so was at work for a while, came home and made dinner, than after dinner went back to work. I think that in itself shows how quick of a recipe Toasted (or Baked) Ravioli is to make.

What you do: Take fresh ravioli, drench it in mixed egg, then cover in a bread crumb, S&P, Parmesan cheese, oregano, basil mixture. Then spray each side with cooking spray and put on a wire rack over a baking tray and bake for about 8-10 minutes. Serve with Marinara Sauce.

This is the Ravioli ready to be put into the oven. As usual, I did not use bread crumbs- I just smushed up some soda crackers.

Finito. Toasted Ravioli is ready to go. I paired it with a simple spinach salad, since I was short on time.

One thing: I suggest making your own ravioli if you have time. The purchased ready to go stuff doesn’t have a lot of filling and once they were finished baking it was mostly just empty crispy pouches.

Another thing: These would make a great appitizer or finger food for a party!

While the Ravioli was in the oven I decided that we should make some fresh fruit juice. So, out came the magic bullet. Strawberries, Pineapple, water, and a tiny bit of sugar… delicious, fresh, fruit juice. I may have a new addiction- making my own juice 🙂

Paper Bead Necklace

This is a post about one of my ‘Things to do this summer’… Make a Paper Bead Necklace. I found the instructions at http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/2HtnEx/au.lifestyle.yahoo.com/better-homes-gardens/better-blogs/article/-/6949252/make-your-own-paper-bead-jewellery

HOLY TIME CONSUMING! I made my list of things to do this summer in order to keep myself busy in the small town of Copper Cliff, and this one really stuck to that… it took a long time!

It took about an hour and a half to cut all of these out. I was originally going to 6 colours, finished my first piece of paper and decided against that right away! My hand was killing by the end of the second colour, and by the end of the third I wanted nothing to do with it anymore, so I let them sit over night.

When I cared enough to give the paper beads any attention, mainly just to get them off my media table, I set up a work station in the middle of the living room so that I could still see the Food Network. Pretty much the only thing I ever have on TV- I have it on right now, Iron Chef 🙂

The beginnings of the beads, I eventually got into a groove and finished all of the beads in an hour.

These are just some of the beads in a bowl. It was at about this time that I realized the paper I was using to make my beads was too thin. The beads all looked the same because the paper was too thin to form into various shapes, even though I had spent so long cutting out the different shapes. I am not letting this bug me as much as it wants to… I still have a cute necklace, and that`s what matters 🙂

This is the finished product wrapped around my wrist a few times as a bracelet. I did not spray them with the gloss varnish spray… but because the paper is so thin, they have stayed together with the glue.

Finito. All finished, check this off my list and move on… This week I am making origami stars and and bow belt.

Part Two: Quinoa Cakes

To go with our Spring Rolls we made Quinoa Cakes and a Lemony Yogurt Sauce. I believe this recipe is from Canadian Living, but I copied it into my Ipad before I got Paprika, and when I copied them into Notes I didn’t copy down sources.

Anyway, we made quinoa cakes. Very much like Quinoa Burgers but with different additives. Instead of a bunch of spices and carrot, there is spinach and other spices.

I didn’t make a very good decision regarding plates… the sauce just looks silly on a white plate… but oh well. I didn’t really like the sauce, but the cakes were good. The sauce was Balkan style yogurt, fresh lemon juice, salt and pepper… and just not for me. I wish I had realized that before I put it all over my quinoa cakes, but hey- now I know for next time!

Well, this isn’t a long blog… but it goes with the Spring Roll one, the cakes were just one part of the meal 🙂

Part One: Spring Rolls

I am a few days behind- for a good reason though. I have been sick (just a common cold) and working (not at the same time).

The other night Chris and I made spring rolls and quinoa cakes. Not to be mistaken with quinoa burgers. But first we made Spring Rolls. I kinda just winged these. Julienned some carrots, orange pepper, cucumber, and celery. Then I got Chris to wrap them in rice paper and we fried them for a bit to get them crispy. Served warm with Sweet Thai Chili sauce.

Chris wrapping the Spring Rolls up 🙂

The insides. Yumm yumm, healthiness.

All rolled up and ready for frying.

Frying- Buh Bye Healthiness.

Finito.

Yumm yumm.

I don’t know why I was always so afraid to try to make spring rolls, I guess I assumed the insides were some crazy list of ingredients, but apparently they are really easy!… really, really easy! And super cheap! a pack of rice paper is about $3, and comes with like 30 papers in it- they last forever!

Chris’s Turn: Broccoli Cheddar Soup

The other night I had to work over dinner time, so Chris made dinner. The plan was Broccoli Cheddar Soup, which is one of our favorites. We originally used the recipe from ‘101 Homestyle Favorites’ but have since then put our own few twists into it.

I think Chris followed the recipe pretty closely, the only change he made was using quinoa flour instead of normal flour. To make quinoa flour, we just put normal quinoa into the magic bullet and grind the crap out of it.

I get kind of nervous when Chris cooks by himself, not because he can’t cook or that I don’t trust him or anything… It’s just my OCD that makes me antsy about not being the one cooking. But, as it usually is, Chris’s meal was very good! Especially after a HORRIBLE rainy day, the soup was just perfect.

Broccoli Cheddar soup is so easy to make, and so quick I love it. It’s a pretty Budget Friendly meal… I mean, other than the cheese which is expensive (not because it’s fancy cheese, but because cheese in general is expensive).