Sargento's Cheesy Winner!

Hello folks!  

We have a Cheesy winner :0)

According to our magical number randomizer.....

Drum roll PLEASE....

Number 2...

That would be YOU ANN!!!

Ladies and Gentlemen, she won her fabulous prize, 

three coupons for free packages of  Sargento's Ultra Thin Cheese Slices with this joke:

 "Two antennas met on a roof, fell in love and

 got married. The ceremony wasn't much, but 

the reception was excellent"

Now THAT was cheesy :0}

Congrats Ann!  I will get your information to Sargento and you should get those coupons in the mail before you know it!!!

Thank you everyone that participated in the giveaway.  Please remember to enter the daily drawings on the Sargento Facebook Page for the chance to win some totally fabulous prizes and to get a little inspiration on how to "Thin to Win"!

Sargento's Cheesy Giveaway

Today I got a hankering for some more of that fabulous Sargento Ultra Thin Cheese after checking out some of the Ultra Thin recipes on their website.  

Here is the recipe I decide to try today:

Mexican Chicken Salad Wrap

1-1/2 cups shredded or chopped cooked chicken

1/4 cup each: chopped radishes {I substituted cucumbers}, Chopped cilantro, and salsa

4 Tbsp. light mayonnaise, divided

2 whole wheat flatbread {I used a pita pocket thin}

2 romaine lettuce leaves

4 slices Sargento Ultra Thin sliced Colby-Jack Cheese, cut diagonally in half

Combine chicken, radishes, cilantro, salsa, and 2 Tbs. of Mayo; mix well.

Spread remaining mayo on the bread.  Layer with lettuce, half the cheese, chicken salad, and remaining cheese.

Yumm!

After snarfing down a whole pocket full of goodness I can tell you this recipe is a totally refreshing change. 

This Sargento recipe beat my normal PB and J

HANDS DOWN :0)

Tomorrow I plan on trying this:

Swiss Veggie Frittata Wraps

Seriously!  I just bought the asparagus :0)

I am a breakfast lover at heart.  I could eat breakfast every meal of the day.  This guy is up for the next meal after the Veggie Frittata:

Bacon, Egg, and Swiss Wraps

Now, just to make this day of YUMMY FOOD even more CHEESY and Delicious, I have a giveaway!!!

Sargento has asked me to find one lucky winner to receive three coupons good for FREE Ultra Thin Cheeses, whichever variety you desire!  It is a pretty magical thing to go to the grocery store, pick out three packages of cheese, slap them down on the checker's conveyor belt and walk out of the store {cheese in hand} having not paid a cent!!!  Seriously, you need to try these fabulous recipes, and you might just get to try them topped with totally FREE Ultra Thin Cheese :0)

In honor of the cheese, to enter simply leave me a "cheesy" comment.  You can tell me what cheese is your favorite, what recipe you love to add cheese too, or even tell me a really "cheesy" joke.  Whatever tickles your fancy.  I will post the winner tomorrow night here on the blog.

Post those comments and don't forget to check in on the Sargento Facebook Page to see what today's "Thin to Win" challenge is and enter the drawing there as well!!!

I can feel it.  Today is you lucky day ;0)

***Disclaimer***I received products and compensation from Sargento Foods Inc. and TheMotherhood.com as part of my participation in this campaign.  While I was compensated, all thoughts and opinions expressed in this post are totally my own :0)

Truvia In My Test Kitchen

A few weeks MONTHS ago a very sweet marketer from Truvia contacted me and asked if I would like to try out Truvia Baking Blend in some of their own tested recipes.  Always up for a baking challenge, I accepted.  This pouch of Truvia Baking Blend arrived on my doorstep along with a fun booklet of recipes to try.  Now that things have finally died down I am super excited to hit the kitchen and see what I can bake up with 75% less sugar!  

You can check out the facts on Truvia baking blend at their WEBSITE, but I will share a couple facts with you.

It is a known fact that many baked goods require sugar for taste and texture, but Truvia has created this baking blend to combine the baked good's need for sugar and your desire to cut it out into one convenient package.  Truvia uses stevia leaf extract and erythritol along with way less sugar to reduce 75% of the calories normally in sugar, while maintaining sugar-like taste and texture!!! 

When figuring out how much Truvia Baking Blend to use in your own recipes, just add 1/2 of the amount of sugar called for.  So, if you are making some yummy sugar cookies and they call for 2 cups of sugar, just add 1 cup of Truvia Baking Blend and you are ready to get baking!

You can substitute Truvia Baking Blend for brown sugar by adding 1 Tablespoon of Molasses per 1c. Baking Blend for that rich brown sugar taste.

Substitute powdered sugar by adding 1 teaspoon of cornstarch to 1 cup of Baking Blend.

Truvia Baking Blend can be used in place of sugar in canning and jelly recipes!!!  That is super exciting.  It holds up well to high heats which makes it perfect for lowering the sugar in your favorite home-canned jam!  Yay :0)

The Truvia Baking Blend has just recently been released in stores.  If you don't see it in your local store, go to customer service and request it!

Now to share my results!  I have to say, first, I was NOT paid to make this post.  Second, the "Caker" portion of my title up there is a rather HUGE part of my name lately.  I will admit, I wasn't super excited to try another sugar substitute in my baked goods, but my whole family was pleasantly surprised by Truvia!

The one thing I will say is don't taste the batter.  It isn't yummy....just one more plus to add to the pro-Truvia list, no more batter tasting.

You can find the recipe I used HERE.

I followed the recipe exactly, other than baking a few less minutes {I always do, even with cake mixes} and was so happy with the cupcake.  The color was deep and rich, the texture light and fluffy.  When you bite into the cupcake there isn't a strange taste common with sugar substitutes.  It was simply less sugary, but tasty.  We are frosting fans around here {Emmers won't even eat cake, just frosting} so I made a frosting I found on Pinterest, slightly modified.

Truvia also offers a frosting recipe I would like to try.  I just had in my mind to try this pudding recipe and had to give it a go first.

For that pudding frosting, it said to mix one box of instant pudding {I used sugar-free} with half of the milk listed and whip, then add one carton of cool whip {I used the South Beach authorized "Lite" version}.  So simple and totally delicious.  That frosting smeared on the Truvia cupcake was heavenly.  My kids AND my husband were asking for seconds.  At 75% less sugar, my response is "SURE!"

Now that I have seen how great the cupcakes turned out, I am excited to try some more recipes!  I  also plan to try some of those substitutions and I will let you know how they go.  Up next, sugar cookies.  I figure if that recipe can work with the Truvia Baking Blend, I am totally SOLD!

Jungle Safari Cake

Beep, Beep!  Coming through :0)

I recently made a Jungle Safari {Musical} Cake for my good friend Jennifer.  She had the theme of Jungle Safari for her piano students all year and ordered a cupcake tower to celebrate the end of the year. 

Here is a shot of the jeep {which ended up looking like a VW bug} before the animals jumped in.

I first made a batch of hard-tack candy to make the windshield and headlights.  I also made some little pieces for the mirrors and lights/license plate in the back.  Super fun.  I haven't made hard-tack from scratch since 11th grade home ec! 

I made the car out of firm cake, covered it with marshmallow fondant {I made myself ;0} and used corn syrup to glue on all the pieces.  The "metal" pieces were all made with grey fondant, then brushed with edible silver pearl glaze to make it shine like metal.

I used chocolate covered donuts for the tires, then added fondant hubcaps.

I love it! 

Here are the cupcakes, safari animals holding music notes.

My Zebra

My Lion

My Funky Monkey ;0)

My Giraffe 

My Burmese Python....OK, OK, it's just a Snake

My Elephant

Then I took the Jeep....

And added animals!  Love it!!!!

I love a well packed car. 

So these happy little musicians are headed to the musical safari party with smiles spread across every face.  I added a couple curlies of wire with music notes to the back for added excitement.

Beep, Beep.

See ya later!

Monkey Cake Topper

Please don't judge this project on the photographs alone.  I finally looked at the pics tonight of this baby shower cake topper I made last weekend.  Can you say Blurry!

So please squint your eyes and read on :0)

My sweet friend Stacie gave birth to her sweet baby boy, fourth baby to the family, a few weeks back.  Little Jacob was born super early.  Stacie's water broke at 27 weeks.  She had to spend the week in the hospital until, due to a prolapsed cord, the baby had to be delivered.

The sweet momma has been traveling over 45 miles each way, every day to see her sweet baby.  Hopefully soon she will get to bring Jacob home, but to help Stacie pass the time, we threw her a baby shower!

Somehow I was able to get away with only making the cake....um....I didn't exactly MAKE the cake.  You see, I have had just so many cake orders lately, I cheated and ran to Costco to buy an All American Chocolate Cake YUMM!  I did, however, make this cheeky monkey cake topper.  I was going for the infant photo pose where they rest the baby's head in their hands and snap a few.  It proved to be a little more tricky to position a fondant monkey into that position than I thought {like what on earth do you do with the legs!!!}

In the end though, it turned out darling!  I love, LovE, LoVE the blanket.  It was super easy to make, just on a cardboard piece, and then I just dropped the cake topper on top of my store-bought cake on my way into the house.  Whew!  I love the easy way :0)

Score!!!

Talk about 

           Scoring Big!!!

I ran to Home Depot to grab a board of 1/2" MDF when I noticed that the cull lumber cart was overflowing!

I bought tons.  Each board was $.51 a piece.  Some of the boards, like the 1x12's would have been like $6 for the board, but I got them for $.51 each!

Yep.  Got my shopper's thrill for today.  I paid $20 and came away with 39 boards.

SCORE!

Even this Killer Bee thought my deal was AMAZING.  He had to come over and see my booty with his own eyes.  Keep your stinger to yourself :0P  This wood is mine...all mine.  Now we have the ammo we need for that 4th of July crafter's weekend my friends!  I have been working on the craft line-up all day.  Hopefully I will find some time to paint this week with all the graduating going on so I can show you my fun designs!!!  See you soon.

A "Reel"y Awesome Dad

My Awesome friend Ashley, from Cute As A Fox emailed the other day and said we needed to have a craft party really quick.  Always up for a craft party, Emmers and I were totally in.  I dug out some fishing pole handles I cut last summer, then never ended up using, and we all decided to make them Father's Day gifts.  One of Ashley's sponsors, Elmers Glue, supplied us with paint pens and we set to work.

Lucky for us, I had painted the handles last year too, so we just set them before the kids and let them have at the pens.  Somebody get me a brush!  Apparently I forgot to do Emmalee's Cinderella's hair 

{yes, Hello Kitty Star has changed her name.  She will correct you a thousand times over, so save your breath and just call her Cinderella from now on...she has "lellow" hair and everything!}

Here is a close up of the handles.  I cut them out with my bandsaw.  First I cut this view, notching into the handle up to the reel and angling the handle sides. 

Next I cut this view, cutting the circle of the reel and the front angle of the handle.   

Isn't Morgan a doll!  She is Ashley's girly.  I so love the piggytails...but I am not sure why she is blowing the paintbrush dry :0)  Ashley, are these your craft skills at work here???

I had to snap a shot of this side of the fish.  Aren't those gills like the most artistic thing you have ever seen! OK, not "reel"y, but I do think they are adorable. I think she was actually making her fish look like Nemo, with stripes, but they worked out well anyway :0)

For the pole we used Trendy Tubes filled with swedish fish.  You can buy them at local scrapbook stores {sometimes} or google Trendy Tubes to find them online.

Don't have a band saw to make a custom handle???  Try just a thick wooden dowel.

You can check out Ashley's post for a more detailed tutorial :0)

Have a great day!!!