Yogurt Pops

It's been SO super hot here the past 48 hours, I'm so glad I have these sitting in my freezer!  This is my first experiment with yogurt pops.  They seemed like such a great idea so I thought I'd give them a try.  

I mixed organic vanilla yogurt with a bit of greek yogurt and then picked the fruit.  I had a fruit cup of peaches and a little peach yogurt so I threw that into a batch.  Depending on how many popsicles you're making and how big your popsicle moulds are will determine how much yogurt you need.  

The second batch was organic vanilla, greek, with fresh blueberries.  

While I do love blueberries, next time I think I will puree them into the yogurt, like a smoothie, and then pour it into the moulds.  Giant frozen blueberries weren't awful, but...

It's official, I'm hooked.  I can't wait to make more, and create more flavour combos....come to think of it, I have frozen pineapple and mango....tropical yogurt pops anyone?

End of the Year

This week marked the last day of dance classes at my studio.  Even though our show was on father's day weekend, we still had a week of classes following the show.  I always let my kids have fun, talk about what their favourite part of the show was, and they get to make up dances on their own.  I love to see their creativity...or lack thereof....

Here are some pictures of my students from the last week of classes

My students are truly crazy.  They came up with this "cheer"/"chant"....I'm not sure if I should be flattered or embarrassed!   Then I have to remember that I am their teacher and I may or may not encourage this type of crazy behaviour!

These are my two intermediate jazz dancers.  This is my second year teaching them and they are so sweet, not to mention growing into two strong little dancers!  They got me this super cute, rhinestone, owl iPhone cover for an end of year gift. Bling bling!

This is one of my teen lyrical classes.  I've taught some of these girls for a couple years, but I'm loosing them to another teacher next year :(  So we celebrated at Menchies.  Twist my rubber arm!

And this is Nat.  I, along with the other competitive teachers, selected her as our studio's most improved dancer!  We selected her in early May but we weren't going to give out the awards until our year end show on June 15th!  It was the hardest secret to keep!

Look at that smile!!!! She is just beaming and I am SO proud of her and can't wait to see her continue to grow and improve!

I love my students, but I am happy I have a solid 2 weeks off until I'm back in the studio for our summer intensive!  I've been busy already with my time off, so stay tuned!

Salad Sunday- Not Your Average Chicken Salad

I finally got around to shopping for groceries this past week and was so excited to eat real food.  It's been a busy spring for me with dance competitions, preparing for recital, and then a whole recital weekend, but I'm done teaching...well until July 8th.  So I have time to prepare real food!

Not Your Average Chicken Salad

1 boneless, skinless, chicken breast

salt and pepper

2 stalk of celery, halved length wise and then shopped

1 tbls sun-dried tomatoes, in oil

Miracle Whip (or mayonnaise) to personal preference

So you can grill or fry your chicken breast.  I cut mine in half so that is was thinner and could faster and more evenly.  Season with salt and pepper as you cook and flip the chicken.

While that's cooking, dice up your celery and toss it in a bowl.  Once the chicken is cooked and cool enough to handle, chop it up and throw it in with the celery.  Add in your sun-dried tomatoes and toss with Miracle Whip.  That's the secret ingredient-sundries tomatoes!  So great.  Mix until thoroughly combined.

Serve on a flour tortilla with fresh romaine lettuce and salt and pepper!  YUM!

Make sure to check out our previous 30 Days of Salad posts by yours truly and some other fabulous bloggers

Salad Sunday #1- Caprese Salad

Salad Sunday #2 - Jill from Envirocraftiness

Salad Sunday #3 - Christina from Everyday Tastes

Salad Sunday #4 - Halsey from Spunky Junky

Baby Shower Gifts

One of my very good friends, Andrea, is super pregnant right now.  In fact by the time I get around to publishing this, her little bundle of joy might have joined us already.  She graciously invited me to her baby shower and I so desperately wanted to make her something meaningful.

Early in her pregnancy she mentioned she had wanted a boob hat for her new born, so that when she's breast feeding it will still look like an exposed breast!  We share a somewhat wacky sense of humour :)  

So, of course,  I made her one.

But the piece de resistance?  My first baby blanket ever!

I used a pattern from Garner Studios.  I followed it pretty much to the letter.  But because I crochet tight, I made it a bit wider and a bit longer then the pattern called for.  Oh, and I didn't do the entire border pattern-it was just too big!  Here is everything altogether.

And then, because I was pressed for time (and didn't have time to properly wrap it or even make a card!), I wrapped it all up in the blanket.  I added in a soft fabric book that I picked up along the way called "I Love You"

The bunny was a big hit at the shower.  Actually the whole gift was.  People couldn't believe that I had made the blanket AND the bunny.  I know that bunny was passed around and everyone had to rub it to their cheek to feel how soft it was.  I was so pleased that it was so well loved by both the mama to be and the shower guests! I can't wait to meet Andrea's little one.  I'm guessing it will be a girl, but only because I can't imagine her with a boy!  I guess I'll just have to wait and see....but not much longer.

Gettin' Fancy on a Week Night

I usually try to make "easy" dinners during the week.  Things I can make during the day and that Ty can heat up when he gets home.  But on occasion I will get a big idea that gets me to make a "saturday dinner" on a week day.  This was one of those times.  I had bought some yellow squash and zucchini at the grocery store and thought it was high time to make it.  

1/2 red onion, sliced
2 medium yellow squash
2 medium zuchinni
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup chicken broth
1/2 cup white wine
salt and pepper, to taste
1 tsp thyme

Wash and slice your squash.  There will be a lot!  Woo! 

Slice your onion.  I used only half and I should have used the whole onion.  But it depends on how big your onion is right?!?!

Saute the onion in a fry pan and transfer to a large casserole dish. 

Then layer your squash as fancy, or not as fancy, as you like, over the onions.

Then you want to combine the garlic, broth, wine, salt and pepper and thyme and pour over the squash.

Cover with foil and bake at 350* for about 45 minutes.  I didn't cover these with foil and the top layer is a little worse for wear.

And if this is too much for you, just fry it up in a fry pan with some salt, pepper, oil and chilli flakes.  You can top with parmesan cheese too!

Old Skool Cooking

This past Christmas my Mum got me one of THE BEST gifts she ever could get me!  The 1979 edition of the Betty Crocker cookbook!  This is the same cookbook as the one my family used when I was growing up! 

My stroganoff recipe, my hamburger soup.....so many of my favourite meals are from this cookbook. Tyler and I had been craving sweet & sour meatballs so I pulled out this classic. And this recipe from Betty Crocker is pretty great.  

I hope you like it as much as I do!

Meatballs                                                     Sauce

1 pound lean ground beef                             1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup breadcrumbs                                     1 tbls flour 

1 egg                                                                1 can pineapple tidbits 

2 tbls minced onions                                     1 tbls soy sauce 

1 tsp worchestershire sauce                          1 green pepper

salt and pepper

Mix the ground beef, breadcrumbs, egg, onion, worchestshire sauce and salt and pepper together in a large bowl - with your hands!  Roll the mixture into balls...I think I made about 18 ish?  

You can choose to pan fry them or bake them.  

I chose to bake them, since I had to make rice, peas and the sauce.  Pop those meatballs on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet and bake them for 25 minutes at 400* F.  Flip them half way through for even browning.

While the meatballs are baking, start your rice.  I made Jasmine, because that's all I had in the house.  Once the rice gets going, start on the sauce.  

Dump 1/2 cup brown sugar and a tablespoon of flour or cornstarch.  Whisk that together and then add in your pineapple (fruit and juice) and the soy sauce.  Cook that until it thickens to your liking, maybe 10 minutes.  Then toss the cooked meatballs in and the chopped green pepper and simmer on low for another 10 minutes.

Serve with hot rice and a veggie if you like.  

As you can see, I made peas.

Do you have a treasured family recipe?  Or cookbook?

New Summery Wreath

I went on a a faux flower binge at Michael's a few weeks back.  All the flowers I bought were already 50%, plus I had one of those magical 15% off my total purchase coupons. It was a happy day!

And I had BIG plans for these flowers.

So here are the flower stems that I started with....

At first I though I could cut off the long stems that I wouldn't have any use for.  Ha ha ha ha!  Me and my crazy ideas.

So instead, I decided I would bend the stems and work them into the wreath.  Well, really because I had no other option.....

So once they were bent I tried to wrap them together, to hide the stems in the flowers.  With only three branches, it took some fancy finagling.  Finagling.  You like that word? Me too!

Once I played around with the layout, I plugged in the glue gun and went to town! I used quite a bit of glue, and I tried to attach the thick wire stems to each other to keep it strong.

Ta da! Ha ha ha, NO! 

This was the skeleton.  

I had put the branches together in the most basic way.

My next adventure was to glue the fringe branches on to the main frame to make sure there weren't any bald spots.

I dressed it up with a burlap bow to finish it off!

LOVE IT! And it's happily living on my front door, welcoming the mail man and anyone else who wanders up those steps!

Instagram!

Ok, I have to admit.  Some days I'm an crochetey old lady inside a 29 year olds body.  Seriously.  I hear things coming out of my mouth and I honestly wonder if I really was born in the 80's.  "Don't move my plants"  "I'll take it, just in case" "*loooong sigh* my back" And if that's not proof enough, I crochet and embroider. 

My old lady ways mean that I am slow to joining the hip new trend of the moment.  I honestly resisted Facebook for like a solid 4 months.... I was going to say that now I do it all...but I don't.  Why? Well because there are some social media sites I like more than others.  And because I'm an old lady.  Remember? 

Facebook-love it!  I'm pretty active on FB so.... Follow Me

Twitter- I'm on it but I don't really care.  And I don't think anyone else cares that I'm on it either, cuz hey, I'm no celebrity. But if you wanna follow me?

Instagram-I like pictures, sign me up!  I signed up for Instgram in  early 2011 but have really only started using it this year.  

I post crazy pictures like this....

and like this.....

Instagram is a super easy way for my to mini blog about my day without having to watermark my pics or write...stuff.  Plus it's cute and I like selflies #truth, oh and #hastags.  Follow me on Instagram

And I love following you back and sneakin' a peak on what you're up to!