Hawaiian Lava Flow

I've never been to Hawaii, but I have heard lots of good things about Lava Flow drinks via Pinterest. So this recipe is for the non-alcoholic version, which was good for me because I made these before I turned 21 ;) This recipe has a lot of good tips that I recommend using if you want it to turn out pretty and yummy. Next time I think I'll try adding a banana when I blend the strawberries. Also, I think this would be pretty awesome with some Malibu rum. This recipe makes a LOT so we cut it down for just a few drinks. She has great tips on making it have the 'swirled' look. If the strawberries don't come up the sides of the cup when you add the white coco lopez mixture, try adding more water to the strawberry mixture. Also, you can try swirling the strawberries around the edges of the cup before adding the white mixture.
If you love pina colada's, you will love this recipe for sure. It was fruity and delicious and introduced me to coco lopez: the best thing ever. If you haven't used coco lopez, it's a coconut product that comes in a can and you can find it in the mixed drink section (right next to the pina colada mixes). This drink would be good for adults or kids as a yummy summer drink.

Click here for the recipe.

Red Lobster Garlic Cheddar Biscuits

OMG I love these things. I loved them at Red Lobster, and I love this recipe. They are cheesy and soft and soo good. It's such an easy recipe (7 common ingredients) and they're pretty much fail proof...and trust me. If there was a way to fail at them, I would have. I prefer to make these compared to regular dinner rolls because they have so much more flavor. I highly recommend that you try these if you love Red Lobster's. Couldn't get enough of them!

Click here for the recipe. Seriously...try these. And vote for my next project on the right ===>

Instant Oatmeal Packets

I used to always eat cream of wheat and oatmeal and I thought this is a great idea: to make your own oatmeal packets. This is so much cheaper and makes more packets than they have in the oatmeal boxes. You can also adjust them to have whatever ingredients you like and there are less preservatives. Yay!
I made mine with regular oatmeal, a dash of salt, brown sugar, and cinnamon. All you have to do is add milk or water and any choice of topping. I think I will like it even more when I pick up some fruit to put in it (such as bananas, apples, or blueberries). I also would like to try adding some pumpkin puree to it after it's cooked because pumpkin oatmeal is just the best!
If you have any more suggestions similar to this to save money, let me know! I love hearing about how people make their own laundry detergent and Mod Podge. I'm always looking for more ways to save money!

 Do you like my new snail and mushroom pepper shakers? =D





Click here for instructions to make this on your own.

Styrofoam Wall Art

I love the look of these diy canvases. My apartment living room was looking a little empty so I decided to head to Hobby Lobby (like always). I picked out 9 pieces of scrapbook paper that I liked and some foam board. This is the big, cheap foam board that kids use for presentations. I cut the board to be the same size as the paper and glued it on with spray adhesive. I tried using regular Elmer's glue but I didn't like how the paper looked bubbly. I didn't put ribbon on the edges of the canvas, like it says in the directions, but that would definitely make it look more finished. This was one of the easiest projects I've ever done and it really brings color to your room, especially if you live in an apartment where you aren't allowed to paint the walls. Love it!

Click here for the directions.

Chicken Cordon Bleu

Mmmm I love chicken cordon bleu. I really wanted to make chicken kiev, but Austin said he wasn't in the mood for butter-oozing chicken that day. So this recipe was pretty easy to make. I had all of the ingredients but cornflakes so it's really cheap, too, which is great for us college kids. One thing I always have issues with, however, is remembering to let chicken thaw! I never have a meal plan so I hardly ever take chicken out of the freezer. Well that was my main downfall in this recipe. I tried to thaw the chicken as fast as I could and pound it out really thin (so I could roll it). It didn't work so well so our pieces of chicken looked GIANT on our plates and it took a really long time to cook all the way through. This was my first time using cornflakes for coating on chicken breast, but I think I'll keep doing that! It's yummy and crunchy. By the way...the sauce for this recipe is delicious. I can never stop laughing at my terrible photography skills in this blog. Everything always looks so much worse than the original! Haha.

Here's the recipe I used for my chicken cordon bleu.

How to Make Anchor and Infinity Bracelets

I can't believe I haven't written anything here in 2 months! It's been crazy with school and work but I'm back now so you don't have to be sad anymore. So you pinners know that the Anchor and Infinity Bracelets are spreading like wildfire...well I decided to make some myself! They are so easy to make once you get the supplies and I've been selling them on Etsy to make some extra cash. They sell like crazy and I have already run out of supplies (more soon to come). But here it goes...here's how you can make them just like mine.

First off you will need leather cord in any color or style. I went for a mixture of braided leather and plain leather. You can get these anywhere! Honestly, I buy mine at Walmart (it's technically suede) and it's so much cheaper.

These are the brands I use.

You need small clasps and jump rings so that you can take your bracelet on and off. You will also need anchor and infinity charms. I buy these on either Ebay or Etsy, depending on how fast I need them. If you buy on Ebay, you can get them for very cheap with free shipping...however they are usually shipping from China so be prepared to wait about a month to receive them. Otherwise, Etsy sellers are usually pretty quick at shipping!

Lastly, you will need these clamp thingys. If you order them online, they are usually called ribbon crimps or something along those lines. Make sure you pay attention to the size, as you need to fit lots of leather cord in these little things. I buy 16mm crimps and they work just fine. Usually the bigger they are, the better they will look.

So here's how you put it together. Start cutting your leather cord into 8" strips. For these bracelets, I needed 8 of the regular leather and one of the braided leather. The bracelet itself will be 7" long, but we'll fix it later. I usually have to iron the strips so that they lay flat. Next, we will put the charms on. I'll try to describe this the best that I can. We'll start with the infinity charm. Fold the cord in half and loop it through one side of the charm. Bring the two ends of the cord through the loop and pull it tight. Do this to the other side as well.

Next, we will put the anchor charms on. The top of the anchor is easy. Just string it through the hole. Sometimes I need to use my needle-nose jewelry pliers to get it through the hole. On the bottom of the anchor, create another loop (similar to the infinity charms) and string the ends through. Like this:

Guess what? You now have all the pieces to your bracelet now, you crafty lady, you. Next, we will measure our bracelets to be 7" long. 7" is the standard bracelet length, but if your wrists are bigger/smaller/kids size, you can adjust as needed. What I do is line up the charms at the 3.5" mark (half of 7") and cut off the ends.

Once you have this done, we will put them in the crimp/clamp. Line up the end of the leather strands in your hand like so, and place the clamp over top. Then, use your pliers to pinch them shut. This may be a little difficult to keep the leather in one place, but I promise it can be done.

Do this to both ends of the bracelet. Next we will attach jump rings and clasps to the bracelet. The final stage! Woooohooooo. Take your handy dandy beading pliers and attach the jump ring to the end of the bracelet. Before closing up the jump ring, you will place your clasp to the jump ring, as well. If you do not know how to attach a clasp and jump ring to your jewelry, click here for some great instructions. The section of the video you will need starts at 1:15. It will end up looking like this:

Do this to the other side too. On the second side, however, make sure your bracelet cords line up when you lay them on a flat surface. If they don't, just trim them to be the same length.

And SHAZAM. You made yourself a bracelet.

Love these things. You can make them for gifts or sell them in your own Etsy store! When you get really good at making them (like me...I'm a wizard at making them. Just sayin') it will only take you about 10 minutes to get through these steps!

Evil Eye Jewelry

So I have been making evil eye jewelry recently to raise money to study abroad in Greece. I'm fairly new to jewelry-making but it's been going well so far! These blue eye beads are supposed to be good luck and give you protection from the "evil eye" (which is considered unlucky and something that causes injury). I love these necklaces so far and I'm just going to keep making new versions of them. If you would like to help me out in my study abroad journey, check out my Etsy shop to buy something! Find me at http://www.etsy.com/shop/ProjectGreece

I also have a new blog to track my progress in raising money for Greece. Visit it here:
http://studygreece.blogspot.com/

Most of our jewelry is blue because it is considered a lucky color in Greece. Have you ever seen pictures of chapels in Greece with blue doors and windows? That is to keep evil out, similar to these necklaces. Pretty neat, right? You should probably buy one so that evil doesn't touch you ;)

Most of our jewelry is Greek-inspired so most of them have this cyan-blue color.

Vote for my next project to the right! ------>

Pinteresting Facts.

This is an article about Pinterest. Click on the link below the pic if you're having trouble reading it!

http://mashable.com/2012/02/25/pinterest-user-demographics/

Cheesy Enchilada Stack

Mmm. I love this recipe. Mine obviously looks like it's having some structural issues, but it was still delicious. Basically, you just have to throw some beef, beans, cheese, and enchilada sauce in between lots of layers of tortillas and then bake it. The one thing I might change next time is that I would add some tostada shells or something crunchy. It was a little to mushy for my taste. I also really want to try it with some green chile sauce instead of red. I will definitely make this again. However, I would really like to know how they kept it looking so pretty even after baking it. I mean come on! Mine looks like a big ol' pile of mush.

Here's the recipe: http://www.chef-in-training.com/2011/09/cheesy-enchilada-stack.html

Chicken Wild Rice Casserole

So I really REALLY disliked this recipe. My boyfriend has some kind of weird love for casseroles so I thought I would try and find an interesting one (*sigh* men...). Well I guess I was successful in that this was interesting...but it was SO incredibly bland. It's full of green beans and rotisserie chicken along with water chestnuts and wild rice. It hardly tasted like anything and it made wayyy too much for the two of us. I hated it and I was forced to eat this slop for four days straight because I hate wasting food. Just don't make this, okay? If you really want to make chicken wild rice casserole, try going to allrecipes.com. They're awesome and there's tons of reviews to make sure you don't get disgusted like me.

Here's the recipe if you still feel obligated to make this: http://www.food.com/recipe/chicken-and-wild-rice-casserole-358223

Valentine's Day

I know I'm a little late in posting this, but for Valentine's Day I made a couple recipes from our dear little friend Pinterest. I attempted to do everything heart-shaped and unfortunately the heart cookie cutter I ordered didn't get here in time for V-day :(. So bear with me! I cut all of the dough by hand. So let's start with breakfast.

Breakfast was a really simple recipe for me: buy some pre-made orange rolls and re-roll them. The site I got the recipe from was for cinnamon rolls, but my boyfriend and I just love orange rolls too much so I opted for that.

For dinner, I decided to make pepperoni calzones that were (of course) heart-shaped. I also took the easy road for this one and bought pre-made pizza dough instead of making my own (hey...I had class that day!). These were really delicious - I just wish I would've added more pepperoni to them! Yum.

Along with this main course, I made the avocado/tomato/mozzarella salad from my previous post because it was just so dang good. Also, we had ginger ale with ice cubes made of maraschino cherry juice (so when the ice melted, it made a Shirley Temple).

Finally, dessert! The best meal of the day. For this, I made my boyfriend's favorite: cherry pie...and of course it was heart-shaped. Duh! This was delicious (how could cherry pie not be delicious?) but I used low-sugar pie filling so it lacked the sugary taste a little bit. It was yummy nonetheless.

So happy belated Valentine's Day! (or not if you're single...in that case I apologize for my silly heart-shaped culinary delights. I hope they did not depress you) Good bye now.

Here's the links for these recipes:

Cinnamon Rolls: http://pinchmysalt.com/heart-shaped-cinnamon-rolls/

Calzones: http://blog.craftzine.com/archive/2011/02/recipe_calzone_hearts.html

Cherry Pie: http://www.meetthedubiens.com/2011/01/heart-shaped-cherry-pies.html

Godfather's Cinnamon Streusel Dessert Pizza

Alright so I grew up eating Godfather's pizza and EVERYONE knows that the dessert pizza is always the best part of the meal! So when I found this recipe, I ignored the fact that only two people would have to eat a full size dessert pizza alone and I went for it! The first good thing about this recipe is that I had pretty much all of the ingredients - they're all really common. The only thing I bought was some pizza dough (I'm too lazy to make my own). The pizza ended up being soooo delicious. Next time I think I'll add some kind of pie filling to change it up. My boyfriend said he thought it tasted "too sugary" but for me, there is no such thing! Blasphemy. But if you are like my boyfriend, you should probably try it with pie filling because the icing on this tastes like pure sugar and nothing else. But enough of my mindless rambling...I am in love with this recipe. The end.

Here's the recipe: http://sorumblyinmytumbly.blogspot.com/2011/06/godfathers-cinnamon-streusel-dessert.html

Toilet Paper Roll Wall Art

I was really afraid to make this project because I knew it would take lots of time and it might just end up looking like a project done by a 2nd grader. You know the ones... the art project that mom hangs on the fridge to make you feel special. Well I wanted to actually display this in my living room so it seemed a little sketchy to decorate with toilet paper rolls. I think it turned out great, though! It took a VERY long time for me to come up with enough toilet paper rolls to make it as big as I wanted it to be (the end product of the largest one is 2 feet in diameter). I got a couple weird looks from my boyfriend when I told him to save all of the rolls that he had, but that's okay...he's dating me so he should know all about my random crazy projects. So this is what my final product turned out like. Looks pretty good, if I do say so myself!

This is where I got the idea: http://themayberryhomejournal.blogspot.com/2011/09/diypregnant-brain.html

Follow me on Pinterest! http://pinterest.com/allisonj30/

Redo

Okay so my first attempt at crock pot orange chicken was just plain embarrassing. I decided to give it another try but watch it more carefully. It turns out that the chicken really only need 2 or 3 hours on high in the crock pot instead of 6 (like the recipe says). It turned out fine, but I really didn't enjoy the sauce. It was really tangy and did not taste like any orange chicken I've ever had. Next time I want to make orange chicken, I won't take the easy way out by making it with orange juice instead of real oranges. So I probably won't make this recipe again, but at least I redeemed myself a little as an amateur cook. -_-

A Cup of Coffee Cake in Under 5 Minutes

I was a little skeptical to try this recipe because microwave mug cakes are sometimes pretty terrible...but this one was great. I love coffee cake and I especially love that I could make a single serving of it! It's made with common ingredients that you have in your kitchen so no special trips to the grocery story (great for us lazy people). The one and only thing I would change about this recipe is that I would like to add a cinnamon sugar swirl to the cake batter. Most coffee cakes have this swirl in them, but this one didn't. I will for sure try that next time.

Here's the recipe: http://www.prudentbaby.com/2011/10/cup-of-coffee-cake-in-under-five.html

Remember to vote for my next project on the right! ====>

Penne Pasta with Sun-Dried Tomato Cream Sauce and Mozzarella, Tomato, and Avocado Salad

So let's start with the pasta. This was a really delicious and easy recipe that is pretty much a grown-up mac-&-cheese dish. It's creamy and very cheesy so make sure to eat it while it's hot for the best sauce consistency. I'm definitely going to make this again.

With the pasta, I made a delicious salad with avocado, tomato, and fresh mozzarella. Mine doesn't look quite as colorful and pretty as the original picture because it was a day old, but it still tasted great. The one thing about this recipe that surprised me was when I read "drain the mozzarella". I started thinking, "drain the mozzarella? that must be a typo or something. why would cheese be in water?" Well now I just feel silly. Obviously I'm not very advanced at this whole cooking thing.

Here's the recipe to the avocado salad: http://ashleyscookingadventures.blogspot.com/2011/05/meatless-mondays-mozzarella-tomato-and.html

Here's the recipe to the pasta: http://www.verybestbaking.com/recipes/143190/Penne-Pasta-with-Sun-dried-Tomato-Cream-Sauce/detail.aspx