Easter Wreath

This craft is fun, cheap, and so cute! Here is what you will need:

Small plastic eggs (I got mine from the dollar section at Target and it was enough for 3 wreaths)

Easter Grass

Paper plate with center cut out (or cardboard box)

A sheet of Tissue paper 

Felt or sheet of foam

paints 

Glue (regular or hot glue)

First step is to give your child some paints to decorate their eggs. I used 5 small eggs for one wreath.

Next step is to cut out the middle of a paper plate but I didn't have any at the time so I just cut a circle out of a box I had and then cut the center out of it!

 Then have your child paint the plate.

While they are painting you can prep the leaves. Just cut them out of felt or foam and paint in the center to make it look more like a leaf. I had the kids pick out all of the different colors they wanted. You will need one leaf per egg so in ours we had 5 leaves.

This step is optional. I just thought it looked cute with a little flower on one side. I made three little fans out of tissue paper. Any kind you have laying around is fine. As you can see, the tissue I used even has christmas trees on it! Cut a little square and fold it like an accordion. 

Next glue the side and fold together. You can see it makes a fan shape. I made three of these in the same color.

 Now, this next step is after all the different pieces are dry. I used a hot glue gun and did this myself but you can choose to use regular glue and let your child help. Or there is always the cold glue guns, I just don't have one. Glue on the Easter grass however your child wants it (one color or a design).

 You can leave it shaggy or cut off the excess. I chose to cut the excess off.

Now it's time to glue the different items on to your wreath. First is the flower. Glue all three of your tissue fans close together to make a flower.

 Then add one of your leaves in the center.

 Then add one of the dried painted eggs.

 Glue the rest of your leaves around the wreath.

 Then add an egg on top of each one.

 And there you have it, a cute easy wreath to decorate your house for easter!

A few more of my paintings

Just for fun, I wanted to show you guys some of the paintings I have done for my friends children! I love doing these! Most of the time I paint in a 2D form and keep it simple with the colors!

This first one I really love! This is of a girl I used to nanny. She was changing up her room and the striped pattern on the painting was like one side of her new bed sheets! She loves to sing and act so I had a little photo shoot with her and chose my favorite shot. I turned the photo black and white and then pulled out one layer to be painted on the large canvas! 

My friend Karen is having a little girl and she mentioned on Facebook that she wanted this wall decal online. I was like, DON'T spend your money! I will paint it.... A couple hours after I painted it, I gave it to her! Wall decal websites are good websites to get ideas and then paint them yourself on a canvas! The ideas are already so simple and really cute!

 LOVE this one! I did this for a good friend when she was having her beautiful baby boy! They named him with his initials matching his fathers business. Mike, the Horn Dr., has such a great business fixing and making horns in the local Kansas City Area. You really need to check out his website. If you are ever in need of a horn, he's your man! BAC Horn Doctor, by the way my husband designed his website and does a lot of his horn videos!

This last one is soooooo cute, I had to add it! It is of my son and his best friend! As you can see, I changed a colored shot to black and white. Then I tried to pull out a few layers to paint....This one was a little more complicated, but turned out SO CUTE!

No matter your skill level, I hope this inspires you to get a canvas and just try to paint something on your own! It's so fulfilling!

Healthy Banana Cream Pie

March 2nd is National Banana Cream Pie Day! I found this out this morning so I couldn't help myself to pull some healthy ingredients together and make one! Here is what you will need:

Crust:

1 cup of almonds

1/4 cup dark Chocolate (chips or bar)

3 graham crackers

2 Tablespoons Coconut oil (use butter if you don't have)

(you can make it simple with just almonds or just graham crackers)

Filling & Meringue Top:

2 or 3 bananas

3 eggs

2 cups of almond milk (or regular milk)

2 Tablespoons cornstarch

1/4 cup maple syrup (or other sweetener)

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 cup sweetener (sugar, maple syrup, agave, stevia, etc) to make Meringue

First you will make your crust. I used my food processor but you can use a coffee grinder if you don't have one. Blend together Almonds and chocolate. When it looks like first picture add graham crackers and coconut oil and blend just until all mixed together.

 I had my little sleepy head help push the ingredients down to the bottom of a pie pan.

Next we will make the banana cream.

You want to separate two eggs, yolks and whites. If you haven't done this before what I do is let the white run into a bowl while holding the yolk in half of the shell, as pictured. Transfer the yolk back and forth from the two halves of the shell and most of the white would fall into bowl below! Now mix together two egg yolks, 1/4 cup maple syrup, and 2 Tablespoons cornstarch.

 Add milk and yolk mixture to sauce pan and cook on medium heat for about ten+ minutes, stirring constantly until it's kind of like pudding consistency.

 I added the custard mixture to my food processor (or blender) and blended it with two bananas. The third banana I cut up and put along the bottom with the crust. I heated the banana and custard mixture for five more minutes on the stove then added it to my pie crust.

To make meringue, all you need is three egg whites and 1/4 cup of sweetener. Blend together until peeks form.

 Add to the top of the pie and bake for 10 minutes in a 350 degree oven.

*A tip, if you aren't serving right away, would be to leave out the Meringue topping and just cover and refrigerate. When ready to eat just whip up some fresh whipped topping (Blended heavy cream and sweetener until thick). 

Easy, Healthy, & Fast Breakfast Muffin

My mother in law called me up one day and told me about this EASY morning muffin you can make in less that a minute in your microwave!!! She saw it on the Dr. Oz show! What makes it even BETTER is it is supposed to help you lose tummy fat AND it should keep you satisfied till lunch! How AWESOME does this sound!?! How could I not try this out!?!

Here it is:

Jorge’s Skinny Muffin
Traditional energy bars are often packed with sugar, which can cause a spike and a subsequent crash. These muffins are designed to provide sustainable energy that lasts through lunch, thanks to coconut oil, a healthy fat that’s good for your brain, fiber-rich flaxseed and egg protein.

Ingredients
Makes one serving

1/4 cup ground flax
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp coconut oil
1 egg
1 packet stevia

Directions
Mix all ingredients together in a mug and microwave for 50 seconds. Allow to cool to a safe temperature and enjoy!

You can find this recipe and others by Jorge Cruise on the Dr. Oz website: http://www.doctoroz.com/videos/jorge-cruise-energy-boosting-recipes

Anyone who knows me KNOWS that I had to mess with this recipe!!!! It is a very dry muffin and for most, who actually care about taste, you need to spice it up especially if you are going to be feeding it to your kids as well! By the way, What a GREAT breakfast to be feeding your children before school, it will help them sit still and LEARN! 

Here is the beautiful breakfast my WHOLE family ate this morning!

Let me tell you how I spiced up the recipe and made it for the whole family. First, I am so for using coconut oil BUT I didn't have any at the time. I just wanted you to know that you can still make this with butter or any other substitute... I used Earth Balance (pictured) you just wont get the heath benefits of the coconut oil!

Here is my ingredient list:

1/2 cup of ground Flax seed (another tip is to cut this in half with another good flour for example 1/4 cup of ground flax and 1/4 cup of Buckwheat, Spelt, Rice etc. flour)

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon Cinnamon (two teaspoons is way to much cinnamon)

1 teaspoon coconut oil (or any other butter substitute you have on hand)

1 packet of stevia (or as I used 1 teaspoon agave, maple syrup, or other natural sweetener)

***NEXT ingredients are what help to not make it SO DRY!

2 teaspoons of applesauce

1 overflowing tablespoon of raisins

*Optional: if you are a juicer, save some of your fruit and veggie pulp and add 2 teaspoons (it's really good)!!!!

As above, just simply mix all your ingredients together in a mug and heat in the microwave! I had to add a few seconds on to mine because of added ingredients. So heat for 1 minute 40 seconds!

Eat with fresh berries, applesauce, and don't forget to add a little honey, agave, or 100% Maple syrup on top. Your kids AND you will LOVE this warm morning treat that is actually so good for you! and takes MINUTES to make!!!

Ummmmm.... where did the food go!?! SO GOOD!

Here is a little video of how it looks straight out of the microwave! Try this and comment on what you thought and/or your ideas of changing it up!

* A little tip, and one of our new favorite ways to make the muffin, for dessert you can take out the raisins and applesauce and add 2 tablespoons of peanut butter (nut butter) and a tablespoon of chocolate chips! After it's out of the microwave add some butter and maybe even a little maple syrup! SO GOOD!
*ALSO, after making this muffin a hundred times I figured out that you can add 1-2 tablespoons of milk(soy, almond, coconut, etc) and it won't be so dry and it will still cook up in less than two minutes in the microwave!

I blogged later about a different version of this muffin...Making it into carrot cake! SO good! Check out the post HERE!

Healthy Easy Homemade Lasagna

This is my Homemade Lasagna recipe.  I make it a lot when we are having company over for dinner because EVERYONE is sure to love it. I also make it for friends when they have had a baby or have been in the hospital because you usually get another night of leftovers! It's an all in one meal but you could add a salad and garlic bread depending on how many people you are feeding. This Recipe is pretty easy and you can't really mess it up even if you don't follow the exact measurements! The BEST part about this is NO ONE can tell that there are tons of veggies in it!!!

Ingredients:

Meat Sauce

• 1 lb ground meat (can be substituted with tofu)
• 1 minced garlic clove
• 1 Tablespoon Parsley
• 1 Tablespoon Italian Seasoning
• 1 small can of V8 or 3/4 cup vegetable juice
• 1 lb can diced tomatoes
• 2 6oz cans tomato paste
• Optional: 1-2 cups of raw vegetables (ground up in food processor)

Cheese Mixture

• 1 large 24oz container of cottage cheese (3 cups)
• 2 Tablespoons parsley
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup parmesan cheese

Other Main Ingredients

• 1 lb Mozzarella Cheese
• 1 9oz package of Oven-Ready Lasagna noodles

First thing I do is blend up my veggies! Use whatever you have, this time around I had Carrots, Kale, Eggplant, and Red Cabbage. This made about two cups of veggies AND my husband, while eating dinner, ACTUALLY asked if I put vegetables in the lasagna!!!! He couldn't tell!!!!

Now you are going to make your meat sauce. Cook the meat and veggies in a large pot.

After the meat is fully cooked add the rest of your ingredient and let simmer for 20/30 minutes. Stirring occasionally.

 While your sauce is cooking, make your cheese mixture... just add all ingredients in a bowl, mix together, and set aside.

If you bought Oven ready lasagna noodles, then they can be used just out of the package. If you couldn't find them you will need to cook you noodles (as box instructs). 

Lasagna simply means layers. Pictured below is all of your "layers". The next step is to layer in a regular 9X13 cooking pan. First its Lasagna noodles, cheese mixture, mozzarella cheese, and lastly meat sauce. You will most likely be repeating this three times.

I wanted to show you a few pictures of my layers...they aren't thick and they hardly cover the whole area of the pan. This is ok because it will all cook together and come out perfect!!! You just want enough to make three layers of each ingredient!

Here is what my noodle layer looks like. Normally 5 noodles across and overlapping a little.

Bake at 375 Degrees F for 30 minutes! Everyone in the family will LOVE this dish and beg for more!!!!