Recipe Box Keepsake

Recipe Box Keepsake
My daughter asked for a recipe box for Christmas, which she plans to fill out recipe cards as part of her Young Woman Value project. I found a bamboo recipe box at Bed Bath and Beyond. As my gift to her, I made scrappy dividers out of scrapbook paper, made labels, printed out recipe cards, bought stickers, printed out quotes, made a few layered recipe cards as note cards, etc. It turned out so darling! I cannot wait to make my own recipe box keepsake! 

Dividers Templates
I found the blank divider templates from Free Printables Online. I made my own labels  using a chalk board background paper and used I'm Bored font.
50's Kitchen Card 

These are the note cards that I made and I wrote a note on the back.  I got the complete kit for free. The 50's Kitchen Cards are from Paper Craft by the way they have many beautiful other free cards to download!

Recipe Card Printables
I collected a bunch of free recipe cards from many websites, which I printed out on white card stock paper. I also found some recipe cards at Hobby Lobby and Walmart. Here are some of my free printable recipe cards favorites: Cookie Exchange Cards, Kokeshi Doll Cards, Colorful Recipe Cards, and Black and White Cards.

 Baking and Cooking Cheats
I found a wonderful printable of baking and cooking cheats from Thrifty Homemade Days, which I cut out and put on paper from Paper Craft's  50's Kitchen Cards set. 

Supplies: Recipe box, scrapbook paper, divider template, embellishments, scissors, paper cutter, and glue stick  I used 12X12 Hopscotch double sided paper pack and baking stickers came from Walmart. I collected baking/cooking quotes, Julia Child Quotes, Baking Theme Stickers by Victoria Thatcher and random vintage images from Pinterest. I basically put the chalkboard quotes in a couple different journal card templates and printed them out on sticker paper. Here is my Recipe Box Pinterest Board with some pins for inspiration in making her recipe box.  The project was so easy and fun to make!

My Little Monkey Baby Shower

On April 20th, 2013, my nieces and sister in-laws threw me a fun BOY monkey themed baby shower. Since my nieces were both expecting babies soon, I helped them out with some details of the party such as using my digital skills in designing decorations, game printouts, and invitations, which they all appreciated. 
The Baby Shower Invitation

Credits: The papers and clothes line with baby clothes are by Megan Farrow (Studio Flergs). Monkey doodles and alpha are by Kate Hadfield The fonts I used are grumble and FO-Giggles.

Decorations

The decorations included the following: a branch with hanging Monkeys in a Barrel Toy, diapers, and other clipart, Diaper Babies, Diaper Cake, framed ultrasound pictures, banners were made by using a couple templates scalloped circle, onesies templates, and diaper templates, framed boy subway art was from Simple Scrapper, framed "Z" button art, a homemade baby quilt, beach balls, and crinkle baby tag blanket, which were made by my amazing sister in-law Marilee. Not shown in the pictures, there were cute center pieces on the tables (buckets filled with foam, green gems, and sticks with either a diaper, monkey, or onesie clipart on it).

Baby Shower Games

What's in the diaper bag? I got the ----> Template for the purse clip art.

Baby Name Scrabble
Guess how many M&M's are in the bottle
What is in your purse?
Guess Jen's Baby Bump Measurements
Prizes
The prizes were random girly things from the Dollar Store (shower wash, bath salts, lotions, nail stuff, picture frames, candles, hand soap, etc) wrapped in a bag or tied with twine.

Food

My family brought many yummy goodies (finger foods) to eat such as Italian deli rolls, chicken salad sandwiches, tuna sandwiches, fruit platter, and veggie platter. As for the dessert, they served chocolate dipped rice krispie treats, cupcakes, and raspberry swirl rolls. We drank two types of juices or water.
Thank You Favors

My husband and I made these mini chocolate chip banana breads by using a pan that had six bread molds in it. They turned out very moist and delicious! I have been using this recipe for years and cannot figure out where I got from. We have made it many ways (muffins, bread, mini breads, and added optional ingredients).
Chocolate Chip Banana Bread
2 c. flour
1 tsp soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 c. butter
3/4 c. brown sugar
2 eggs beaten
2 1/3 c. mashed bananas
Directions: Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, combine flour, soda, and salt. In another bowl cream together butter and sugar. Stir in eggs and mashed bananas. Add banana mixture to the flour mixture, stir well. Pour mixture in a 9X5 bread pan and bake for 60-65 minutes. If doing banana muffins you can cut the baking time in half, which is what I usually do instead of the large bread loaf.   Optional ingredients: Depending on your mood (sweet, chocolate, or spicy) you may add 1. tsp vanilla extract, 1 c. chocolate chips, 1 tsp. cinnamon, 1/4 tsp ginger, 1/4 tsp nutmeg, and 1/4 tsp allspice.

Happy Hearts Day!

We strive each year to make it a tradition to make holidays an extraordinary day in our household. Earlier this week, little sis gave our house a "heart attack" makeover!  For activity day, she cut out several hearts and scriptures about love. She taped the hearts all over the house and gave each family member a special Valentine.

The following are some of the "love" scriptures that little sister used on her hearts:

1.  A man speaks from good or evil in his heart (Luke 6:45).

2.  Follow the Son with full purpose of heart (2 Nephi 31:13).

3.  As a man thinketh in his heart so is he (Proverbs 23:7).

4.  Offer for a sacrifice unto the Lord a broken heart and a contrite spirit (3 Nephi 9:20).

5.  Blessed are the pure in heart (3 Nephi 12:8).

6.  Man looketh on the outward appearance but the Lord looketh on the heart (1 Samuel 16:7).

7.  I will tell you in your mind and in your heart by the Holy Ghost (D&C 8:2).

8.  He that hath clean hands and a pure heart will ascend to the hill of the Lord and be blessed (Psalms 24:3-5).

9.  Elijah will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers (Malachi 4:5-6).

10. Love the Lord thy God with all thine heart (Matthew 22:37).

Last night while I was at enrichment night with the relief society sisters in my ward doing humanitarian projects, my husband made our girls a delicious
Valentine's Day home lunch filled with fruit snacks, candies, heart shaped sandwiches, carrots, sugar cookie, and lemonade. The girls also printed out some free darling Valentines Day cards (Owl You My Valentine and Friendship Cards).

    

Today my wonderful hubby surprised me with some pretty flowers and a couple boxes of chocolates as my "sweetheart" gift from him!  I started the morning off with chocolate, which is a very essential food group on Valentine's Day!

 

Before the girls left for school this morning, big sis and I did a "heart" hair do on little sis thanks to Pinterest for the creative inspiration! Then hubby made us a yummy "heart healthy" breakfast (pink honey wheat heart shaped pancakes with Nutella, fresh strawberries, turkey bacon, and eggs).

For our Valentine's Day dinner, we made mini "heart" pizzas and one square pizza. We found a fast and simple two ingredient pizza crust recipe from Kidspot Kitchen that doesn't require any time to rise!

Mini Heart Shaped Pizzas

Crust:

1 cup self rising flour

1 cup Greek Yogurt

Extra flour for shaping and kneading the dough

Heart shaped cookie cutters

Toppings: Alfredo Pasta Sauce, Italian Seasoning, Italian style cheese blend (finely shredded), ground sausage, Canadian bacon, pepperoni, green peppers, sliced onions, mushrooms, pineapple tidbits, and olives.

Directions: Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cook sausage in a frying pan, drain grease, and set aside. With small heart shape cookie cutter, cut out heart shapes with the Canadian bacon and pepperoni. Slice some onion, green peppers, and mushrooms.   In a large bowl, combine flour and yogurt and mix to form a ball. Turn out onto a floured surface to knead and roll. Knead the dough for 7-10 minutes. Roll into a pizza heart shape and add sauce, dash Italian seasoning, cheese, and your toppings that you desire. Bake the pizza 15-20 minutes or until the edges are golden brown. This recipe yields one pizza. Enjoy!

Our Thoughts: The two ingredient pizza dough recipe took a lot of time to knead to the right consistency. We added 1/2 to 3/4 cup of flour while shaping the dough into a ball due to it being very wet and sticky.  We allowed the dough to rest for a few minutes after achieving the right consistency. Then we were able to roll it out successfully. The crust was similar to a thin crust soar dough that was golden brown.  We loved the flavor and texture of the crust!  We look forward to trying the recipe again someday in the future!

 I hope your Valetine's Day was filled with flowers, chocolate, hugs, and kisses! XOXO

Creamy Coleslaw

A couple days ago, we made BBQ pulled pork in the crock pot.  For our side dish, we decided to make a creamy coleslaw to go with it.  Here is the recipe we came up with using some things from our garden.  This would be a great side dish with baked chicken, pork chops, BBQ sandwiches, etc.

Creamy Coleslaw

Ingredients

2 c. chopped green cabbage

2 c. chopped purple cabbage

1/2 c. shredded carrots

1/4 c diced green pepper

2 T. chopped onion

1/4 snipped parsley

Dressing

1/2 c. mayonnaise or salad dressing

1 T. vinegar

2 tsp. sugar

1 tsp. celery salt

1/4 tsp. salt

few dashes of ground pepper

Directions

In a large bowl, combine cabbage, carrots, green peppers, onions, and parsley. For the dressing whisk together mayonnaise or salad dressing, vinegar, sugar, celery salt, salt, and pepper in a glass measuring cup.  Pour dressing over cabbage mixture and toss together lightly. Cover and chill.  

A is for Apples: Back to School

On Tuesday, August 21, 2012 was the first day of school for the girls!  We officially have an 8th and 4th grader in our household!  I fought back tears after I dropped off little sister to school (we walked together with our dog Jagger). Big Sis recently got contact lenses.  She is very happy to not have to wear glasses to school any more!  They are growing up too fast! 

In the evening, we made dinner plans with the Sleaper family since Pam was in town from Texas. We shared our favorite treat a sweet and sour apple snicker salad!

 Apple Snicker Salad
1 bag of Granny Smith green apples (10-12 apples)
 1/4 c. lemon juice
1 (16 oz) Cool Whip
2 (3.4 oz) packages of vanilla pudding
2 c. milk
1 (11.18 oz) bag fun size snickers

Directions: Chop the snickers into small pieces, set aside. Cut the apples up into bit size pieces and place them in a bag with lemon juice. The lemon juice will prevent the apples from turning brown and add a refreshing lemon"tart" flavor to the salad.  In a large bowl, whisk together the milk, pudding, and cool whip.  Add the apples then fold the snickers in last. Allow the salad to set up in the refrigerator for a couple hours before serving! Yum!

  Although it was the first day of school, we played like it was a lazy summer day by swimming and boating with the Sleaper family on Utah Lake.  What an A+day!

Frozen Peach Delight

Are you tired of canning peaches? Well, if you have an abundance amount of peaches making a frozen mixture can be a refreshing treat in smoothies, on ice cream, on cake, in oatmeal, on pancakes, etc.

Frozen Peach Delight
25 or more large peaches (the amount is up to you)  
1 (6 oz) frozen orange juice
1 can of water
1 (6 oz) lemon juice
1 can of crushed pineapple, not drained
6 c. sugar
Peel and slice peaches into a large bowl.  In another large bowl mix together all the ingredients and pour on top the sliced peaches.  Mix the liquid mixture well with the peaches.  With a measuring cup, scoop the peach mixture into  containers or zip lock bags. Freeze the mixture. 

Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread

We have zucchinis exploding from our garden as well as squash, radishes, cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes, etc.  It is hard to keep up, but we are very grateful to grow our own resources.  Lately, we have been giving away some of our fresh vegetables to our neighbor.  I have made veggie stir fries,  omelets, packaged the vegetables in Ziploc bags to freeze, and made zucchini bread.  

Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread

This is my most favorite zucchini bread recipe, which we tweaked from an old recipe from my family.  If you like pumpkin spices like nutmeg, cloves, and cinnamon then you would love my zucchini bread recipe.  Additionally, an added bonus is chocolate chips, which my children love the most about my zucchini bread!

Ingredients

Yield: Two bread loaf pans
1 c. sugar
1/4 c. brown sugar
1 c. vegetable oil
3 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 tsp. cloves
3 c. flour 
2 c. shredded zucchini
1 c. of chocolate chips (we used a variety of chocolate chips from Winco bins such as dark chocolate, milk chocolate, or tiny semisweet chips).
Optional you may add: 
1/2 c. nuts or dates instead of chocolate chips.
Directions
Preheat oven 325 degrees and grease two bread pans with either cooking spray or shortening. With a cheese grater, shred two cups of zucchini and set aside. In a large bowl, cream together sugars, oil, and eggs with an electric mixer. Add vanilla, soda, baking powder, and salt, mix well. Then add the spices, flour, and shredded zucchini.  Lastly, mix in the chocolate chips.  Bake for 60-75 minutes (do the tooth pick method to check if done in the middle).  Cool on racks and then gently remove the bread from the pans. 

Chicken Wonton Salad

Chicken Wonton Salad 

Salad

1 head of Romaine lettuce, chopped

1/2 package of Wontons

1 head of iceberg, chopped

Grilled boneless chicken breasts, cubed

Green onion, chopped

celery, chopped

2 cans of mandarin oranges
Dressing

1/4 c. Rice Vinegar
1/4 c. Sesame Oil
1/2 Canola Oil
1/2 c. sugar
2 T. soy sauce
1 tsp. pepper
1/2 tsp. ginger
Mason Jar with lid
Directions
Make the dressing first. Add the dressing ingredients in a mason jar and shake well.  Put the dressing in the refrigerator to chill while preparing the rest of the salad.  Cut the wontons into thin strips.  In a large pot, add some cooking oil and heat it on medium. Make sure the oil is hot and ready to go.  You could test it by dropping in one wonton to see how it cooks.  I recommend the wontons a light golden brown color not fried crispy dark brown or black!  Allow the wontons to drain and cool off on a paper towel.  Next, grill the chicken on medium heat with some olive oil and cube it into bit size pieces (you may season the chicken how you like it I did salt and pepper).  Chop the lettuce then add chopped green onion and celery, set aside. In two separate small frying pans, toast the silvered almonds and sesame seeds with a little butter.  When they are brown remove from heat and add them the salad.   Next, add the dressing and mix well. Lastly, fold the  mandarin oranges gently in the salad!  Enjoy the GOODNESS!!!

Scarecrow Service Activity

For Activity Day this month, I decided to do a fun scarecrow themed service activity. Here is my simple reminder/invite that I made for my activity girls!

Credits: Paper and "Pick of the Patch" doodles are by Kate Hadfield from The Lily Pad. I used Segoe Print for the font.  We were in need of a fun service activity.  So I decided that the girls could express their appreciation for their school teacher by giving them a delicious fall treat and scarecrow thank you card.  The girls helped me make Scarecrow Crunch and made an accordion card for their teacher.

Scarecrow Crunch

Ingredients:

4 c. Oatmeal Cereal Squares

4 c. Tiny Twist Pretzels

1 (22 oz.) bag of mixed candy (pumpkins and candy corn)

2 (6 oz. box caramel popcorn with nuts

1 (6.6 oz) box of chocolate graham bake snacks

1 bag of Reeces Pieces

Directions:

In a large bowl, combine all ingredients. Serve as desired. Makes 15 Cups.
Here is my cute recipe card that I sent home with the girls and they each took home a bag of treats for themselves too. 

Credits:  Papers and doodles "Pick of the Patch" and "Tricky Treats" are by Kate Hadfield from The Lily Pad. I used Segoe Print and lima bean for the fonts. 
Scarecrow Accordion Card

 inspired by Fun with Scarecrows: Katherine Marie Photography
Supplies:
Paper bag from the grocery store, construction paper (yellow, orange, blue, and black), scissors, glue sticks, googly eyes, and markers.
Directions: Measure out a 3X13 inches size card from a paper bag.  Fold the card four times. Draw a hat, nose, flower, hair, etc with construction paper and cut them out. Glue eyes and paper pieces to the paper bag card.  There should be five squares for the kids to write or draw pictures.

Chicken Rolls

My 12 year old daughter learned how to make chicken rolls at a young woman activity a couple weeks ago.  So, she recently decided to make them for dinner for us and little sister helped her. They are simple to make and very savory.  The chicken rolls were perfect for school lunches.

Chicken Rolls

We doubled the batch so we had some leftovers.

Ingredients:

4-5 cups of chicken breast (seasoned with salt and pepper)

1 (8 oz) package cream cheese

2-3 T. chopped fresh parsley

chopped onion (green or white)

Sauce:

 1 can of cream of chicken soup 

1 cup of milk

Crescent Roll mixture:

melted butter

1 package crescent rolls (8 count)

Italian bread crumb seasoning

Dipping roll in butter

Rolls coated with seasonings

Directions:

Preheat oven 375 degrees. Cook chicken on medium high heat add salt/pepper to flavor the meat.  Cut chicken into cubes. In a large bowl, mix together chicken, cream cheese, parsley and  chopped onion. In another bowl add cream of chicken soup and milk.  Mix them well and add it to the chicken mixture.  Flatten the 8 pieces of crescent roll dough out.  Fill full of meat mixture.  Press edges of roll together. Roll them in melted butter and season bread crumbs, turn edges down in butter dish.  Bake for 10-15 minutes.

Mmmmmm!  Enjoy!

Sausage and Vegetable Lasagna

Since we have an abundance of zucchini, squash, and onions from our lovely box garden, John and I came up with a tasty white lasagna!

Sausage and Vegetable Lasagna

1 (16 ounce) package of lasagna noodles, cooked and drained. 

1 pound of mild sausage, cooked

Italian Season (desired amount based on your preference)

1 large white onion, diced

1 medium-large squash

1 medium-large zucchini

3 medium carrots peeled and sliced

2 (16 ounce) Ragu Alfredo Sauce 

1 (24 ounce) cottage cheese

1 (8 ounce) shredded mozzarella cheese

1 (8ounce) shredded parmesan cheese

1/3 cup Italian bread crumbs

Preheat oven 350 degrees. In a large frying pan, cook sausage, diced onions adding Italian Season on medium high heat. Drain meat mixture and set aside. Boil the lasagna noodles in a large pot following the directions on the box.  Stir fry chopped squash, zucchini, and carrots in a large frying pan for a few minutes.  In a large bowl add Alfredo sauce, cottage cheese, sausage, and vegetables. Spray cooking butter on the bottom of the baking dish.   In a 10X15 pan, layer lasagna noodles, meat/veggie mixture, and top with cheeses.  Repeat until desired amount of layers.  Top with cheese and bread crumbs.  Bake for 30 minutes and allow to cool before serving!

Summer Time Recipes, 2011

Every Summer it is our family tradition to eat layered jello and pasta salads since it is too hot for baking!  The following recipes are our most favorite summer dishes, which we take to BBQ's, picnics, and so forth!

  

Ice Cream Jello 

We have done all the colors of a rainbow.  You may do a 4th of July theme of red layer, cream red layer, blue layer, cream blue layer repeating over and over.  We then put a layer of white whipping cream or Cool Whip layer on the top.  We think doing a cranberry theme with ice cream and sparkling cider would be good for Thanksgiving or Christmas.  It is really an easy recipe, just time consuming, but definitely worth it because it tastes so good!

INGREDIENTS:
Jello boxes (suggestions: strawberry, cherry, cranberry, pineapple, blueberry, grape, mango, peach, apricot, orange, lime, watermelon, raspberry, lemon, strawberry/banana, strawberry/kiwi, tropical punch and so forth)
Water and ice
Gallon of ice cream (vanilla)

DIRECTIONS:
Follow the directions on the Jello box for the first layer (adding hot and cold water).  To speed the process up, we use ice with cold water.  Make sure you measure accurately on what the directions say on the Jello box.

Next is the cream layer.  Instead of measuring cold water we substitute ice cream in its place.  The cream layers usually set up quicker than the normal layers.

Then add another regular Jello layer (hot water, cold water with ice). Carefully ladle the next layers in so that you don't put holes in the previous Jello layers.

Bow Tie Pasta Salad

We have an amazing refreshing summer pasta salad recipe. A couple years ago my brother Nate shared this recipe with me and I altered it to my liking! It is so good!

Ingredients:

1 bag of bow-tie pasta or your favorite pasta shape

1 bottle Italian dressing

1 of each green, yellow, red, and orange peppers, chopped (we used just red this time but it is good with all four peppers)

1 large tomato, chopped

1 large cucumber

1 small pkg. fresh shredded Parmesan cheese

pepperoni sliced in half (amount based on your preference)

Salad Supreme Seasoning (desired amount by taste)

Optional: Instead of pepperoni, you may grill some chicken breasts and cut them into cubes and add a can of small black olives.

Directions:

Boil pasta by following the directions on the package. In a large bowl, combine the chopped vegetables, add Italian dressing, pepperoni slices, cheese, and sprinkle your desired amount of Salad Supreme Seasoning. Mix all ingredients together well. Allow it to chill in the refrigerator for a couple hours before serving. Enjoy!

Ack, Nearly 40 Years Old!!!

On June 10th was my hubby's big 36th birthday! Since we love to try new recipes, you maybe wondering what was on the Birthday boy's menu... Well, we made something delicious of course such as two types of skewers, a fruit salad, and coconut lime rice!

 

Herb Sirloin Beef and Italian Vegetable Skewers

Ingredients:

1 pound of beef sirloin 

2 green peppers

1 white onion

1 package of extra large mushrooms

1 bottle of Italian Dressing

Desired amount of rosemary, black pepper, and tarragon seasoning. 

Directions:

Preheat oven 400 degrees. Cut the vegetables into uniformed sizes around 1 inch squared or cubed pieces. A useful tip when you have meat and vegetables about the same size, you will have even cooking. In a large bowl, soak vegetables in Italian Dressing.  Season the meat with the herbs.  Place skewers through meat and vegetables.  Bake for 15 minutes turning at least once or until desired doneness.  We still had some pink in the middle of the sirloin. 

Bacon-Wrapped Teriyaki Chicken Skewers

recipe by Our Best Bites Cookbook on pages 46 and 117.  Our thoughts about this recipe: Wow, what a kid friendly recipe!  Even my picky eater loved this dish!  We enjoyed dipping the pineapple and bacon-wrapped chicken pieces in the extra teriyaki sauce!  We will be making this dish a lot in our household!  Next time we will marinate the chicken in the teriyaki sauce for a few hours before cooking. 

 Sweet and Savory Coconut Rice

recipe by Our Best Bites Cookbook on page 203. Our thoughts about the recipe: We added a little zesty twist by adding some fresh lime juice, lime wedges, and a little half and half.  The kids gobbled this dish up! We loved the creamy richness of the coconut milk flavor, YUM.

Birthday cakes can be so over rated in our household sometimes! Since my husband is a huge fan of sherbet, I was inspired by Make and Takes to make this fabulous watermelon pie instead of birthday cake!  We made it a little different than the website by just layering the sherbet on top of each other.  It was very easy to make and turned out very well!  What a fun and refreshing summer treat!

As you can tell, he loved his watermelon pie!!!

I made a "reel" cool fishing birthday card and bookmarks for my hubby!!

The Fishin' Birthday Card!

The front of the card says the following: "Happy Birthday Fishin' Fool.  The catch of the day of all the fish in the sea we are so glad we caught you!"

The front and inside of the card looks like this from left to right:

On the left inside of the card says: "Reel Women Fish" and on the right says: "We hope your birthday is fin-tastic!"  I left plenty of space on the bottom for us to write birthday wishes to him!  I used some brown twine to make fishing line on the front of the card and a small sewing button as embellishments.  The card turned out cute if I say so myself!  

The Fishin' Bookmarks

Card and Bookmark Credits: The paper and elements are all by Kaye Winiecki @ The Lily Pad  I used the following fonts: CK Fun and Segoe Print.

In the evening of his birthday, we went on a family outing to Highland Glen Park.  John was able to enjoy a little fishing time on the pond even though he didn't catch anything. The girls feed some ducks and played on the playground. John seemed very content spending time with us, eating good food, and looking at his new home-made bookmarks/birthday card!  What a great day well spent!!!!  I love you, babe! XOXO