Easy Mini Frozen Yogurt Pops Made From Recycled Creamer Cups

These little yogurt pops were very easy and great for little kids who like to make a mess with the larger popsicles. I had a bunch of old creamer cups laying around and I didn't want to throw them away because I knew I would want them for something because of how many I had. Using them for these yogurt pops made them the perfect size for little almost-two-year-old mouths, and they're really no bigger than a lollipop, and are much healthier (and cheaper!) than buying the artificially flavored popsicles.

So let's get started!

What you need: 

Real fruit yogurt, you can use fruity store bought or use a big tub of plain yogurt and blend up your favorite fruits for a smoothie flavored pop

Creamer cups

Popsicle sticks, lollipop sticks, skewer sticks.. here I used what little bit of toothpicks I had left and just cut off the pointed edges.

A spoon

What to do:

 First make sure you clean/rinse out the creamer cups pretty well

 Fill up your cups as much as you can, without going overboard

Tap the cups on a hard surface a couple times to flatten out the yogurt and release any air bubbles. This insures the yogurt is packed nice and tight and will freeze solid.

 Repeat those steps for every cup you are using.

 Next, take your sticks and insert them into the centers

 If you packed them down well enough their sticks should stand up straight without falling over or being lopsided.

Then freeze 'em! A good hour or so should get the job done.

With them being creamer cups, they should pop out quite easily, you might have to give the bottoms a little push, but they all popped out fairly easily for me.

Please don't mind my one speck of nail polish left.

My daughter loved them soo much she kept running away from me because she didn't want to share!
This is also right after she had fallen down and was crying, so I thought it was the perfect time to make her feel better with some yo-pops. =]

 Enjoy!

My Favorite May Products!

So I've noticed I have a lot of "favorites" I go through from month to month, normally based on the season or at the moment weather. Some are products, and some are just items or things, but right now, this post is based on the products I have completely adored this past month. Maybe you'll love them too! I'm also doing a post for "mommy favorites of the month" too ;D

First on my favorite product for May:

 This shampoo is awesome. It has argan oil which is great for your hair, or at least certain types of hair. There are a lot of complaints about it, but they are all from people with very thin or very straight, or very thing and straight hair. I have thick curly hair which this is actually made for. So before you try to make complaints about a product, make sure you are using the right product best for you.

The things that pulled me in about this product is, sadly I must admit the color. It is my favorite color this month (I'll get to that in the other favorites blog) so when I saw the color I had to check it out. I haven't heard much on argan oil except for that it is really good for revitalizing hair. And hey, it in nice big letters it says argan oil! It is also paraben-free, and SLS free. For those of you that do not know, added parabens and sulfates completely strip your hair of it's natural oils. Those natural oils help keep your hair the way it's suppose to be, soft, shiny, and for me keeps my hair curly and not like a fizz ball. The sulfates also create a lot of extra suds, and I was very surprised by how suds-ey the shampoo was by itself without the sulfates!

The bottles are claimed to be made from recycled post consumer risen, the dyes compostable and are from renewable sources. And that is pretty good for me =]

As for the product itself, it's awesome. It makes my hair very curly, not like other "curling" brands do.. It doesn't make my hair feel overly soft which is also good because when my hair is baby booty soft my hair likes to not curl and does a poofy wavy thing that I can't style in anything other than a ponytail. It also has a UV protectant for hair which is great for summer, especially for me right no-w since I've been letting my hair just do it's thing for the season. Oh yes, by the way, it might be May but it is 80-90 degree weather so it's basically summer.

Along with my hair, I've really been letting my hair go naturally curly for the summer. I don't like my hair weighed down by stiff products in the summer, and I don't use heated appliances on my hair as much in the summer. I hate the stiff feeling of mouse and of gel in my hair, so when I saw this product I had to try it. It says it is a "waving spray" without the crunch. I almost felt like this product was made specifically for me! It does EXACTLY what I want it to do. After my shower I towel dry my hair some and spray this in it and I'm good to go. My curls are nice fluffy bouncy beach curls and that's it! Now it does leave a little crunch once my hair fully drys, but a good scrunching gets rid of that.

For more summer protectants, I love this moisturizer. It has a lot of sunscreen.. actually the entire thing smells like sunscreen, but I'm really liking it. I just use this and let it sink into my skin and add a powder. I prefer lighter powders and not liquid foundation for the summer. This moisturizer is very easy on my skin and doesn't make me feel cakey or oily (maybe 'cause it's oil free :p ha) I'm thinking about skipping the moisturizer and powder all together and splurging on a good SPF BBcream but I haven't tried one yet so I'm a little hesitant.

This eyeliner. Oh my goodness. It is from L'Oreal and it is great. It's in the color "espresso" which is very different for me. I've worn only black eyeliner for the past 8-9 years. But I actually kind of like this brown. It's not BAM in your face like my normal eyeliner. I wear cat-eye/winged out eyeliner, so I was a bit hesitant with winged eyeliner in brown...but this really does the job. I can make it nice and bold or sweet and simple or even just dab it on with the tip of the brush and have more of a natural look. It's also waterproof and sweat proof, and I have had problems in the past with waterproof eyeliner chipping or flaking off, but this is very solid, it doesn't get hard or crusty, and is definitely my new favorite.

And lastly are sprays. Any kind of body spray. I think body sprays are much better in the summer than heavy perfumes. Plus body sprays come in so many awesome smells and I think perfumes all kind of have that heavy tart smell that isn't light and airy for summer. Actually I'm so obsessed with body sprays, I tend to put them on every time I pass a bathroom or my bedroom! 

That's it for products..or beauty products basically. I'll do another list of "mommy favorites" and just my regular favorite things this month too. 

~peace~

Pudding Filled "Funfetti" Cupcakes

Oh hello delicious.

Okay...So my phone decided to go on the fritz while I was making these, so all of the picture I took of how to actually MAKE them...kinda didn't save. I will still post the recipes but other than that, just enjoy the delicious looking finished pictures.

For the cake - 
Ingredients:

3 cups flour
1 3/4 cups sugar
1 Tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 cup butter (softened)
4 egg whites
1 1/4 cups milk
2 tsp vanilla
multicolored sprinkles 

-Preheat the oven to 350 and line your cupcake pan with liners.
-Sift all the dry ingredients together into a large bowl.
-Add half the butter and mix with a mixer on low. Add the other half and mix well until it resembles a sandy texture.
-Beat in the egg whites on medium
-Add milk and vanilla and beat on medium for about two minutes.
-Add Sprinkles 
-Pour batter into cupcake liners a bit more than half way full.
-Bake for about 18-20 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.
-Let cool

Adding The Pudding
1 package Instant 5 minute pudding

Follow the directions on your package for your pudding.

-cut a hole in the center of your cupcakes. I used the bottom of a large cake decorating tip. Don't cut all the way through the cupcake. remove the cake that you punched out.
-fill a baggie with the pudding and pipe the pudding into the cupcakes until completely filled.
-Instantly top with frosting (I used a store bought butter cream with food coloring to save time)
-Let chill in the fridge until the pudding and frosting are set

Enjoy!

 

Paper Party Lantern Craft

I recently had a small "Luau Party" of sorts.. that I never thought to get a picture of. I did however get few pictures of the awesome lanterns I made spur of the moment. I was originally going to have these sitting out on a side table but when my almost-two-year-old decided she was in love with them, they needed to go somewhere a bit higher out of her reach.

 

Please excuse the popcorn ceiling and brown wood and powdered blue and very off white door. We just moved in a couple weeks ago and haven't gotten around to painting anything. That will be in another post, it will be too shocking of a change for it to not be!

Anyway, back to the lanterns. Now I had done this craft wayyy back in kindergarten, so I am pretty proud of myself for even remembering how to do it. Since this is a easy craft, it would be perfect for a kids craft or a classroom party craft or even as a game for kids to do at a birthday party.

What you need are:
Cardstock or construction paper

Scissors
Glue
Hole Punch
Ribbon or string (if you intend on hanging them)

Step one! Gather materials. Obviously.

Step two! Fold your Piece of paper in half vertically. Like a take-out menu. So LONG not SHORT

Step three! Start making  about one inch snips all the way up the paper on the folded side, leaveing about an inch to an inch and a half of room at the top. That is where you will glue the two sides together. So do not cut all the way off the paper. Or you'll just have strips of paper ;]

Fourth step! Cut through out the paper. They don't have to be even lines, you can't completely tell once the lantern is completely assembled.

Step five! Open up your folded paper and on one side dab a couple dots of glue.

Fold over the other side and hold in place until the glue is either dried or tacky enough to hold itself.

And there you have it, a lantern! You can push down a little on the top while its standing to give it a more bulky look if you prefer the fat lanterns.

Now I was originally just going to have them standing with tea candles in side, but since I needed to move them out of the way, I punched two holes on opposite sides of the lantern and tide a piece of skinny ribbon between both to give it a handle for hanging.

oh I cannot wait to paint these walls...

- peaceful crafting =] -

Best Friend Blues

Well my best friend moved away. Again. The first time she moved.. things didn't end up very well and we became not-friends for about two years. That was all a BIG misunderstanding, and then she moved back and we became instant best friends, like nothing had even happened or changed. But now that she is moving again, I have this horrible feeling we won't remain friends. Or it's just a scare from what happened last time.

Anyway, the day before her going away party, I through her an "I'll miss you" party. Kind of a way to share my "I'll miss you" thing before everyone else. Something a little more meaningful. I will have a DIY up later about some of the decorations I made, but here is what I made for her going away present.

I'm not big into the whole BFF heart necklace whatevers, but I got this amazing idea to make her a BFF charm bracelet. The first charms I made for her were these cute PB&J charms. She got the peanut butter and I got the jelly. This is a picture of them before attaching them to the charm bracelet I made, and before the glaze. They were actually very simple to make. I use to fiddle with polymer clay all the time so I have a lot left over.

These are the finished bracelets. I used a simple chain with a circle clasp and made little pearl beads to accompany the charm so they didn't look too tacky. Now they are girly and cute! Or at least we thought so!

Every time she comes to visit or I go to visit her, I'm going to make another set of matching charms for our bracelets. Kind of a way to keep our friendship alive.

Quick Cooking: Stuffed french toast

If you can make a sandwich, you can make this. It is delicious, and you can opt the fruit for any thing else you like: chocolate chips, nuts, candies, anything.

Ingredients:
-egg
-bread
-pudding/custard mix
-fruit
-vanilla
-cinnamon (optional)

First you want to make your custard to get it out of the way. Since I made this early morning, I used a package of instant custard. It's different than pudding, it's thicker and not as sweet while being very sweet at the same time. I personally think the custard goes better.

Once you have your custard, go ahead and whip up some french toast.. take about 2 eggs and beat them in a bowl, add a little milk, vanilla, and cinnamon for a sweet delicious flavored french toast. The key to a good french toast is 1. the type of bread. and 2. how much you soak the bread. You want a sturdy bread, like sour dough or sliced Italian bread could even work. Simple store bought white bread normally doesn't hold very well. The other key part is you don't want your bread to completely soak. There is a fine line between french toast and bread pudding. Especially if you use a softer bread.

Now every sandwich has two pieces of bread, so make sure you have at least two pieces per person. You can continue to stack your "french toast sandwich" with as many layers as you like, I just used two.

Immediately after your breads are cooked, add you're custard/pudding to one slice of bread. A good spoonful or two covers it well. Add your fillings, I used strawberries because they are the fiance's favorite and I also had homemade strawberry syrup in the fridge I needed to use. Add another spoonful of custard to the top and put on the top layer. 

Add some syrup or powdered sugar and enjoy!

In my opinion it was quite delicious, we also had cheesy eggs and hashbrowns. With as sweet as the toast was, the salty sides made a perfect dish.

Enjoy =]

Quick Cooking: Tofu Pasta

I've been writing this "cook book" for a couple years now, but I'm probably never going to get it published. Procrastination and all that. But I think I can post some of the recipes here to get them out. They are fabulous for a SAHM who needs to cook for herself and little ones, or even just for a two person meal. They are quick, simple, and can be done even with minimal cooking skills.  So let's try this one first..

Tofu Pasta:

Ingredients:
- Thin spaghetti noodles
- Extra firm tofu
- Spinach
- Mushrooms
- 1 tsp diced garlic
- 1 tsp fresh Basil
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- Shredded cheese

1. Bring a pot of water to boil and cook pasta according to package.

Meanwhile:

2. Slice mushrooms, dice up garlic, and cube your tofu - get all of your ingredients cut and ready.

3. Heat a saucepan on medium heat with 1 tbsp olive oil

4. Sautee garlic for 30sec before adding mushrooms

5. Sautee until lightly golden

6. Add tofu and continue to sautee for about two minutes - don't let your tofu get crunchy, just firm and gold

7. Turn down heat and add spinach

8. Add half a cup of the hot noodle water and steam your spinach

9. turn off heat and your noodles should be done.

10. Do Not Drain Noodles. Add your noodles (using tongs) straight from the pot to the sauce pan.

11. Mix together the noodles with the tofu and veggie combo

12. Sprinkle with remaining olive oil and the fresh basil

13. add to serving dish and top with whatever shredded cheese you like. I use a mixed Italian  which includes mozzarella and it is lovely having melted cheese mixed in.

delicious - happy eats!

Starting A Herb Garden From Seeds

We moved in! This house is huge! Of course there is still a lot of DIY work to be done around the house, including removing the cotton candy pink in the family room and repaint all the fuchsia  turquoise, hot pink, and lavender walls. Oh yea, this is a brightly coloured house. We are gonna wait awhile before actually painting though, just to make sure this house doesn't have any huge problems that all of our paint money would be going to. AND WE FINALLY HAVE INTERNET! I went so long without internet this month, it's amazing. Now I really have the convenience of blogging on the computer in the middle of the house without waiting and waiting and waiting. So far everything is pretty awesome.

Since we can't do anything major to the house yet, I decided I want to start an herb garden for the kitchen. Remember the seeds I started on Earth Day? Well they are huge sprouts now. They are sitting on the windowsill of my kitchen. It made me want to put an herb garden there too, so I got a bunch of plain $.50 pots and painted them, and found some seeds I had from a couple years ago when I wanted to start my own huge veggie and herb garden... that garden didn't really go anywhere since I was 7 months preggo and it was almost summer. I was fat and hot and couldn't bend over... so now I have all these seeds I need to do something with. I only found five packets of seeds, I still have a bunch of boxes (posting a picture blog of the new place later) so the seeds are somewhere in the chaos of cardboard boxes.

Anyway, starting the herb garden.
Starting seeds is always a tricky thing to do, so don't be alarmed if you don't succeed very well the first few times. To make it easier, you need to first gather the RIGHT materials. Such as -

- Seed Starting Potting soil.
- Seeds
- Seed starting pots. nothing too big, and nothing too deep.
- Water (I use a spray bottle for seeds so I don't completely drown them)

These are my little pots I painted. But since I only have five packets, I really didn't need all of them right now.

These are the five pots I chose. I picked the most bright/springy coloured ones...since it is spring.

Make sure you have Seed Starting Potting Soil. This is Very fine and very light. Some even have a little bit of food for the seeds when the sprout. But it is so much easier for the seeds to grow in rather than regular potting soil.

Fill your pot up almost towards the top, leaving about a half an inch of space from the top. DO NOT PACK. Remember, your seeds are little babies! They need to be able to move and grow. I lightly tap down the top of the soil to keep it from being too loose, but that's it

Lightly water the soil, so it's moist, not wet. This is why a spray bottle is helpful.

Now I don't have any seed markers yet. That's probably going to be another DIY blog later, but for now, this picture is the only source of indication of which seed is in which pot.

Now that all my pots have soil, it's time for the seeds. Normally with flower or produce seeds, I like to soak the seeds. This really helps to break down the hard shell of the seeds. Remember, in Mother Nature, those seeds go through a hell of a lot. Breaking down the shell is the equivalent to what they go through naturally.
However- since herb seeds are itty bitty tiny, I didn't soak them, I just kind of cracked the shell a little bit. If you decide to do this, do it GENTLY. Don't completely crush your seed, but just open it a bit with something hard. this allows the water to get to the seed, inside the shell.

Now before actually planting, make sure you do a little research of your seed. They all have the basic concept, but it's still helpful to know what you're dealing with.

sprinkle a couple seeds, no more than 10 in your pot and either cover LIGHTLY with a sprinkle of soil, or just press the seeds underneath the already soil. A couple more spritz of water and you're done.

Place the seeds in a warm sunny place and make sure to keep them moist. NOT DAMP but warm and moist. In a weird way...it's kind of the mother's womb for seeds. But seeds need to be warm, a lot of gardeners say to plastic wrap them to keep the humidity in the pot.

Here are my finished seeds. As long as you do what you're suppose to, The seeds should take care of themselves. It's gonna take a couple weeks for them to start showing but they should do well.