Lemon Cake with Chocolate Frosting

I made this cake for my kids to take over my ex husband's house for his birthday. They brought us a piece & it was YUMMY!!! So good & you know it doesn't have all the chemicals that are probably in the box mixes. I made it in a bundt pan & drizzled the chocolate sauce over the top & looked fancy too!

Lemon Cake:

3 cups flour
1 tbsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
3 cups sugar
1 cup butter (room temp)
1/2 cup shortening (room temp), I used butter flavored shortening
5 large eggs
1 cup milk
6 tbsp lemon juice
1 lemon zested

Spray flour cooking spray on bundt pan

Add all ingredients together & mix until blended. Pour batter into pan. Bake at 350 degree's until center comes out clean, about an hour. Cool in pan.

Chocolate Frosting:

2 3/4 cups confectioners sugar
6 tbsp. butter
5 tbsp evaporated milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
6 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder

Add Dry ingredients in bowl. Beat other ingredients in until blended. You can change texture by adding more sugar or milk to taste. Pour over cooled cake (which is popped out of pan right side up). Enjoy!!!

Garden veggie tomato soup & pasta

I served this with honey beer bread & was delish!!! Everyone loved it & used up garden veggies.

Put onions cut up on bottom of cooking sheet. Put cut up tomatoes on top. Roast 350 degrees 20 minutes. Add garlic, 2 cloves chopped to top, salt/pepper & some cooking sherry. Continue roasting until tender. Put roasted mixture into food processor with some rosemary seasoning & crust bread. Blend until chunky/soupy. Pour into dish. 

For pasta i sautéed corn & cherry tomatoes with butter & broth. Season with salt/pepper & add chopped fresh basil. Add cooked pasta, toss & add shaved parmesan cheese. Serve with homemade beer bread, or crusty loaf & real butter. Enjoy! 

Quick Garden veggie dinner

Bisquick 1 1/4 cup

2 eggs 

1/3 cup parm cheese

1 cup milk

Salt/pepper

Rosemary/garlic seasoning

Zucchini cut up

Tomatoes cut up

Onion cut up

Put cut up veggies bottom of baking dish. Add remaining ingredients put on top. Bake 350 degrees 35-40 minutes. Serve with salad with veggies from the garden! 

Quinoa bean chili

Got this recipe off of pinterest & tweaked it a little.  

Bag of quinoa chili cooked

Can of corn

1 large onion chopped

Can of black beans

Can of kidney beans

Tomatoes in olive oil & garlic

1 can tomato paste

Chicken orveggie broth 

1/2 tsp.Cayenne

1 tsp. Cumin

1/2 tsp Paprika

1 tsp. cocoa powder

2 cloves garlic crushed

Plain greek nonfat yogurt

Shredded cheddar cheese

Sriracha sauce to taste

Cook onion in olive oil. Add all other ingredients except sriracha, yogurt & cheese. Add broth so it can simmer for about 20 minutes & flavors meld. Put in bowl, top with dollop of yogurt, sprinkling of cheese, sriracha. You can add cilantro if you wish. Healthy & delicious served with crusty bread, totinos chips, etc.

Scrapbook paper cards

Just an idea to make that card special, homemade.

Decoupage glass magnets

Clear Glass stones

Modge podge

Paint brush 

Craft paper

Magnet

Glue

Cut craft paper to size of stone & modge podge on bottom. Cut magnet to size of stone & glue to bottom. Let dry.

Washer jewelry

Take washers (hardware) & paint with nail polish, or decoupage scrapbook paper onto. Then put a layer of dimensional modgepodge. Do this for both sides of washer. Then put on string with a few beads for embellishments & tie. Wallah, a colorful bohemian style necklace! 

Coaster revamp

I got these coasters free at target with purchase. Wasn't thrilled about design, so decoupaged craft paper over old design.

Here's original coaster:

Here are my new, better (i think) coasters, just waiting for the glossy/glassy coat of dimensional modge podge to dry:

This is the container it came in. I decoupaged over the store logo. 😜

Gift box re-do

I took a gift box that had a jewelry company name on it & decoupaged right over logo! Now its ready for me to use to give a jewelry gift in. 

DiIY Gift tags

Scrapbook paper

Pencil

Scissors

Modge podge

Small paint brush

I cut pieces of colorful paper to size of business card. Then cut thicker decorative paper to size if top in thin strip. Then modgepodge the strip to the to of the paper. 

I plan on using these for gift tags & they match the decorative clothespins in post below.

Modge podge clothespins & paper clips

Modge podge (i used glitter type)

Clothespins

Small paint brush

Pencil

Scizzors

Scrapbook paper

Trace shape of clothespins with pencil on paper & cut paper to size. Put paper on clothespin & spread modgepodge over top of paper evenly with brush. Do same on other side. Let dry.

I'm going to use these to decoratively hold gift bags together, but they could be used in many ways. You could use holiday themed paper & hang photos on twine with these also when you receive christmas cards. Just some ideas. 

Plastic paint for moldy, scuffed old outdoor chairs

Sorry forgot to take before pictures. Just picture old, white, moldy, dirty looking plastic outdoor chairs. For $3.00 can of spray paint, i made them new & colorful!

Ta da!!! Like the outcome? I do. 

Easiest Dinner EVER!

This is literally my go-to easy dinner, which is pretty healthy, smells delicious & everyone likes. Win-win!

You take a bone in chicken breast, wash & pat dry, spray baking dish with cooking spray, put salt/pepper on top of chicken. Then put some McCormick pinch perfect rotisserie chicken on top of chicken. Lastly top off with a little butter.

I put in oven with chicken a few baking potatoes, scrubbed & stabbed & cook 350 degrees about an hour (or until browned on top & no longer pink). Once literally thrown in oven, you can go do other things. When dinner is almost done, I make up a quick salad. I think the Italian dressing gives additional flavor to the meal. How easy is that?

Before going in oven...spices shown.

 

When done & plated. Wallah!

Healthy Easy egg dinner or brunch

I love this meal because everyone in the family loves it, it's healthy, filling & easy to make. You can make any salad you like, but I paired the egg dishes with oven potatoes & Kale salad with a side of oranges. I like oranges with eggs because the vitamin c helps you absorb the iron in the eggs more efficiently!

For Kale salad, I make a vinagrette with: chopped garlic, orange juice, lemon juice, salt/pepper & soy sauce. Mix as you wish, I used about a cup of each of the juices, 2 cloves or garlic & 2 tbsps of soy sauce. Toss well.

Then I make 2 eggs strata's. I make a vegetable one for the vegetarians in the family & a sausage one for the meat eaters.

Vegetable Strata:

Sausage Strata:

 

For  Veggie strata, Just saute 1 onion chopped, & veggies of choice chopped in olive oil. Example: Mushrooms, asparagus, zucchini, spinach. Saute until tender & season with salt/pepper.

For Sausage strata, saute onion & 6-8 breakfast sausage links cup up until cooked & tender. You could also add bacon if you wish.

In a separate bowl, beat 12 eggs with 2 cups of milk. Grease 2 separate baking dishes. In one dish put veggie mixture, in other sausage mixture. Crumble bread (partly stale) over each dish to cover vegetables. Put about 1 cup of cheddar cheese/parmesan cheese over each baking dish mixture. I like to add some feta too for more delicious flavor!! Then put 1/2 egg/milk mixture in each pan. You can season with more salt/pepper if you wish. 

Bake 375 degrees until solid & browned on the top, about 1/2 hour to 40 minutes.

It's an easy brunch, or dinner! Here it is plated:

I also cooked chopped potatoes, onions in oven which were tossed with olive oil & seasoned with salt/pepper. Delish! Enjoy!