Delicious Moist Banana Bread

Who loves Banana Bread?? (Thumbs pointed at chest) This girl does! :)

I admit that one of my weaknesses is a Starbucks Raspberry White Chocolate Mocha & a big ol' slice of their delish Banana Bread. Oh my yummy! And I know caffeine isn't great while you're preggers but last fall I was making a trip there at least 1-2 times a week. My sweet baby boy Carter turned out just fine, I might add.

So tomorrow is Father's Day and I've been on a hard core diet and training program to get myself fit and in shape again since having Carter back in November. Well, I figured Father's Day was a perfect opportunity to indulge just a bit. I searched and searched on Pinterest for an amazing moist Banana Bread recipe that I could surprise my hubby with. I found this recipe from yourcupofcake.com & I have to say that it tastes almost exactly like Starbucks Banana Bread, when it's super moist! Oh man am I impressed.

You have seen the pictures of how mine turned out. I used her recipe to a T except that I baked mine for 1 hour 25 minutes and shut the stove off and let it sit in the oven for another 5 minutes and removed from the oven after that to cool. So please feel free to check out her blog to get the recipe for this delicious bread and ENJOY!!!!!

Yummy Rosemary "Dump Chicken" Spinach Salad

This is my yummy Rosemary Chicken Spinach salad!

I got inspiration for "Dump Chicken" from this website, whenthedinnerbellrings.blogspot.com. She has a ton of Dump Chicken recipes & every one that I've tried has been yummy, I only wish I had known about Dump Chicken when I was pregnant! I took that as inspiration and threw together some spices for Rosemary chicken & put it all in a huge ziplock bag & froze it until I was ready to thaw and grill it up!

So here are the ingredients I used for my Rosemary "Dump Chicken".

Olive oil - 1/4 cup
Lemon juice - 1/4 cup (this helps tenderize the chicken because of the acidity)
Minced garlic (lots of it, I love garlic) I used about 3-4 tablespoons
Rosemary - 4 tablespoons
Paprika - 4 tablespoons
Black pepper - 2-3 tablespoons
Salt - 1-2 teaspoons
1 1/2 lbs of Chicken Breast (about 6 pieces)frozen or thaw

Toss all in a big ziplock bag close it up and freeze! I massaged the bag a little to mix around the seasoning and to make sure it covered all the chicken. I froze it laying flat.

To thaw, throw in the fridge the day before you plan to cook the next evening! I LOVE to use the grill, I cooked mine for about 10 min. Give or take.

For the salad.
Spinach leaves
1/2 teaspoon blue cheese dressing (or Ranch)
A pinch of salt & pepper

Toss around to mix the dressing with the Spinach before adding the chicken and ENJOY!

* Now, keep in mind I didn't measure, a lot of my cooking (not baking) is just sort of thrown together... But it always turns out great! I've learned a lot from my amazing Husband, he is extremely handy in the cooking department. I couldn't cook when we met 7 years ago... I was so bad I screwed up a box of Kraft Mac & Cheese! Haha, I've come a VERY long way. So this is all just estimates of what I used. You can tweak it as you like. I absolutely loved this recipe & I hope you will too!

So although I enjoy baking & decorating cakes/cupcakes etc., I am actually going on a diet... Yay me! I am going on a diet because I had my son 7 months ago as of the 1st of June, I've lost my first 30lbs but I still have quite a ways to go & besides that I have a bikini wearing vacation in Cabo San Lucas that I am going on in July with my hubby and some of our friends! So needless to say, I'm getting my rear in gear! :)

Golf Birthday Cupcakes!

Hola Everyone!

I'm so excited about this baking project I did today for my husband Brandon's 29th Birthday! Let me just say, He LOVES golf! I was trying to come up with a cool idea for some cupcakes to take to his work tomorrow. His actual birthday isn't until Friday May 25th but we will be on a couple day long trip up to Sedona! My hubby loves Slide Rock Park up there, if y'all have never been, I would definitely recommend going! This will be our 3rd time going and our 1st time since we had our son Carter who is only 6.5 months old. Luckily he loves the water so that will be fun!

Ok, so back to the birthday cupcakes! I actually planned on making a large cupcake and some small ones too. The big cupcake mold I got is pretty cool & I got it on Clearance a couple weeks ago at Bed, Bath & Beyond! I knew as soon as I seen it I would use it to bake a cool cake for Brandon's birthday. So here is my tutorial for the cupcakes I made for Brandon's 29th birthday. :) Enjoy!~

Ingredients/tools for the cake!

Ok, So I know not everyone has a Kitchen Aid, but any kind of mixer will work! Much better than hand mixing. No one wants clumps in their cake. :) For this I used 2 boxes of Betty Crocker Super Moist Yellow cake mix. I used 2 because I had to be sure I had enough for about 18 regular cupcakes and the BIG TOP cupcake pictured above. 

*These are the ingrediants I used, I modified the cake a little from the box.

*2 boxes of cake yellow cake mix

*1 cup Vegetable oil

*1 cup water

*1 cup buttermilk

*6 eggs

*Note this box doesn't ask for buttermilk but I have made some homemade cupcakes before and it gives it a yummy moist rich buttery flavor. :) So instead of 2 cups of water I just did equal parts of the buttermilk and water. YUM!

Now for the best part of a cupcake: FROSTING! I got my recipe on Pinterest from Glorious Treats, this is her American Buttercream Frosting recipe. Ever since I found this recipe I have used it constantly anytime I make a cake! It is my ALL-TIME-FAVORITE! Here is what you need:

1 cup (2 sticks) Butter (salted or unsalted)

1/4 teaspoon Salt (if using unsalted butter)

4 cups of powdered Sugar

1 tsp Vanilla extract (She says get the best, I used Walmart brand)

2-3 tablespoons heavy cream/half & half or milk (I used Kroger Whipping Cream)

*Now, I do her optional version and use cream cheese! :) It's delish! She says to just add a half block of cream cheese in when you are first mixing the butter.

Also, in this situation with the the large & small cupcakes I doubled this frosting recipe! :)

*In the bowl of an electric mixer, fitted with the whisk attachment, beat butter until smooth.

*Add cream cheese now!

*Add Salt (If needed).

*One cup at a time add in the powdered sugar ( I kept my mixer on a low-medium speed while adding the sugar.)

*Add Vanilla.

*Add 1 tablespoon of heavy whipping cream.

*Add rest of the sugar & keep beating.

*If you need to you can add more heavy whipping cream.

You may need to put in the fridge for a little bit, I usually do for 30-60 minutes before I frost or pipe my cupcakes.

  

The batter is all ready and poured into its molds! The red is large cupcake mold I bought on clearance at Bed, Bath & Beyond a couple weeks ago for $9.99! :) It's all ready to bake, the oven is pre-heated to 350 degrees. I baked the big cupcake molds for 45 minutes and I baked the cupcakes (filled 2/3 to the top) for 13 minutes.

Once it was all finished I let them cool on a baking rack and mixed up my colors in separate bowls and used piping bags to frost all my cupcakes! I use the gel food coloring, it goes such a long way and you get great color saturation.

The Finished Product! Cute Golf cupcakes! I used brown sugar to sprinkle over the white frosting to give the look of the sand box, the lighter green with the white spot is the main part of a golf course and where the ball is & the dark green is the "green", I used a tooth pick as the pole and cut out some craft paper and made the flag & I put my hubby's favorite number 17 on it. The hole is actually a Cocoa Puff! :)

As for what the cupcakes are sitting on, it is just a piece of cardboard cute and covered with the metallic wrapping paper I got for his birthday gifts. You can also use Foil.

Here is the whole shebang! The big cupcake isn't nearly as pretty as I would have liked it to be... I had to frost it first because otherwise there wouldn't have been room to frost the bottom of it with the other frosted cupcakes there without messing it all up.It all started to melt! haha, I was going as fast as possible. The big cupcake says, "Happy B-Day Brandon!".

Needless to say, he loves it & especially loves the golf cupcakes idea I found on Pinterest... It was only a picture that the lady had found on google somewhere so I wasn't able to click on it and get a tutorial or give credit to anyone for it. So I just did it the best I could to replicate a Golf style cake/cupcakes. :) ENJOY!

Let me know if you have any questions!

Corrie

Crafty Reflections: MY GO TO: No Heat Curls!

Crafty Reflections: MY GO TO: No Heat Curls!: Hey everyone!   Check out this link! My little sister(& when I say little keep in mind she is nearly 20), did this great tutorial for long wavy easy NO HEAT curls! What's better than that? No heat damage to your hair & it's a super cute maybe even bohem-ish hair style! Great for those low maintenance ladies or Moms or just whoever wants to try this out! :) Enjoy y'all!

Hi Everyone,
So this is my first blog, I want to do some really cool things, I want to do some crafts & baking/cooking, especially now that I have a baby and my hubby. I will probably throw some other things in like stuff that has to do with frugal living as well. I plan on doing a lot of things on this blog, I will also probably share things that are happening with my family and post pictures of them (I am proud of my family), I will do my best to give you all the best description of any project I have going on as well. I want to share any creative ideas I get as well as share any ideas I have gotten from others and share my version with you .

Thanks for reading and I hope ya'll enjoy!

Corrie