Free Stuff!!! Yes, you can get it too!

So, in the world where it seems you have to buy everything- there's always a way to get it for free and that's where I come in. I love getting products from companies and trying them out then reviewing them to see how they work and sharing with my friends and family! It's such a great experience and I normally always seem to find something that I love that I wouldn't have tried before.

 

Here's your chance to do it too! check out smiley360.com and become a member to see what you can get. Missions are emailed to you and then you complete a survey and then get another email telling you if you are going to get that product to complete the "mission". I just started myself, but am looking forward to getting some GREAT stuff! Check it out- signing up was easy and I got 5 smilies just for sharing about it on my Twitter account and Facebook. Share it in multiple other ways and earn even more to get yourself closer to getting a mission! Make sure to complete the surveys they send to your account so they know what you like (and don't like) so you can get the best missions!

http://smiley360.com/672735.cfm

Photography 101

Thanks to a local Groupon deal, I scored a 5 hour basic photography class last evening and spent the entire evening having terms, camera parts and lenses drilled into my head in an attempt to better my pictures for my blog, for future scrapbooks and for my baking adventures. I'm not sure if I even comprehended half of what they were talking about but tried to take as many notes as possible since the two instructors were two of the best instructors and who have done some amazing work in so many places in the world but who have also created Vision Culture which has helped so many women in other countries get out of horrible situations like human trafficking. Anyway, it was a great experience!

Their advice for after the class was to practice, practice, practice so that's what I did today. I know they pictures aren't that great yet and this isn't really related to baking or cooking directly but I wanted to share what I took today along with the info for the couple that taught the class. Their organization called Vision Culture is amazing and a great way to use their photographic skills while sharing stories from around the world.

First my pictures.....

Make sure to check out the couple who taught the class- David and Ally McKay of McKay Photography and Vision Culture.....here's the links to their Facebook pages and


Vision Culture- https://www.facebook.com/NewVisionCulture?fref=ts
McKay Photography Academy- https://www.facebook.com/mckayphotographyacademy?fref=ts

McKay Photography Academy Website- http://www.mckayphotographyacademy.com/
Vision Culture part of their website- http://www.mckayphotographyacademy.com/Vision-Culture.html


Check them out and if interested, check to see where their next classes will be at! They're amazing and passionate teachers!

Spring, where are you? I'll take anything!

With the temperatures rising drastically then dropping to cooler weather, I'm definitely looking forward to when the temperatures stay more consistent and it's starting to show in my cooking!

Like tonight for example....normally I don't want to cook on the weekends, but since it was semi-nice outside with a little breeze, I thought it might be the perfect time to get the grill out. Of course, that means the hubby gets to cook on that then! With hubby taking over the main course of steak, it was up to me for the side dishes. Potato salad reminds me of summer so much, so I thought maybe making a quick potato salad was in order. A quick search on pinterest brought back only a few results and I didn't have many of the ingredients on hand to make what I did find. Of course they weren't very healthy as potato salad is a comfort food- not a health food necessarily. I knew the basics of what went into a potato salad so I decided to try my hand and what took place in about 15 minutes of prep and cooking turned into an outstanding, yummy and soo flavorful side dish. It could have almost been the main dish if the steak hadn't already taken that place! It's definitely a keeper and the hubby made my day when he said that he loved it despite not really liking potato salad normally! 

Try it and let me know what you think!

Healthy Potato Salad

4 red skinned potatos, mine were small/medium and just enough for 2 people- cut into small bite sized chunks

1 cup water....or so, I just put some in to help steam the potatoes.

1 cup plain organic yogurt (I buy Stonyfield plain)

1-2 tsp grainy mustard

2-3 tsp grapeseed oil (you can use vegetable oil as well or even just water as it's mainly for thinning it out)

Paula Deen's Steak Seasoning- it comes in a grinder type thing

1 tsp sea salt

In medium bowl, place potatoes cut into bite sized pieces and water then put saran wrap over top pulled tight and microwave for 10 minutes. I had to do 11 because the 0 and 5 buttons on our microwave don't work :-) Once done, make sure to take off saran wrap and check potatoes with a fork for tenderness. Ours were a little too tender and broke apart easily but maybe 1 minute less would change that.

While potatoes are in microwave, combine rest of ingredients aside from the sea salt. I used a whisk to combine them all together and streamed in the grapeseed oil while whisking to get it all combined well. Add seasoning as you like. When potatoes are done in microwave, drain and add dressing and gently stir. Check seasoning and see how much sea salt you want to add. I just added a pinch since I don't really like salt but the hubby does.

I let it cool for a few minutes before we ate so it was warm and not boiling hot, but I'm sure it would be good cold like normal potato salad too. I put it with steak that was seasoned with the same steak seasoning and some salt before grilling and a simple and local mixed greens salad with some shredded cheese and local tomatoes....it was all soo yummy! Check out the pictures!

Of course you have to have dessert and I made some gluten free chocolate chip cookies earlier today from my brother-in-law's church fundraiser so maybe a few of them will make their way into my tummy by the end of the night....until then maybe it's time for some exercise. Heading out to the local trail sounds like a great idea right now!

Ice Cream Success!

 

 

So the weekend has passed and let me just say, the ice cream was a HUGE hit! Since the last post, I finally figured out the flavors- I chose a chocolate marshmallow ice cream and a vanilla frozen yogurt with homemade mixed berry syrup in it. The picture I have for you above, is the chocolate marshmallow with extra marshmallows and homemade chocolate syrup on top for an extra sugar-rush!

Since I didn't use the recipes that came with the ice cream maker book, I did some improvising on the ones I found online and the frozen yogurt with the mixed berry syrup ended up over-churning by the time I got the mixed berry syrup done so it didn't turn out so well. Oh well, it happens sometimes! I forgot to take into account that the yogurt would need more of a gentle touch so it might not have needed as much time in the ice cream maker as the actual ice cream did. That's the way things go and everyone loved the chocolate marshmallow flavor anyway which was soo easy to make so I'm excited to share the recipe with you!

Chocolate Marsmallow Ice Cream   

 (Link to this recipe is actually a Rocky Road Ice Cream Recipe, but I adapted it for me and just made a chocolate ice cream with mini marshmallows. It would be a great base for any flavor of ice cream for sure)

I actually doubled the recipe to fill my ice cream maker, but you'd have to base the number of recipes you need on how big your ice cream maker is. The recipe below is mine, so it's doubled. If it won't fit in your ice cream maker, just half each of the ingredients and it'll be the original recipe.

2- 14 oz non-fat sweetened, condensed milk

1 cup cocoa

4 cups half and half

2 cups mini marshmallows (I just used a whole bag though)

2 cups light cream

2 Tb. vanilla

1 cup chopped pecans (optional- I didn't add them, but you can)

 Mix ingredients, except for marshmallows and optional pecans in a bowl and whisk until well combined. Add to ice cream maker and follow the directions for your ice cream maker for timing. I did mine for about 40 minutes, but my ice cream maker is very old so it varies depending on machine. Once it's done, I scoop it out of the ice cream maker and into another container and mix in handfuls of marshmallows and optional pecans as I scoop the yummy-ness into the container. I froze it for about 2 days before we ate it and everyone raved over it! Definitely a keeper recipe!

I'm definitely keeping this recipe for the summer, but will have to make it healthier for me to eat. Maybe I'll just plan on a chocolate marshmallow frozen yogurt since I can use homemade yogurt for it, so I"ll know ALL of the ingredients in it and feel good about eating it! Feel free to keep this in mind for the future months and come back to let me know your favorite creations and how yours turned out! I'm always looking for ideas!

Ice Cream, Ice Cream, We All Scream For Ice Cream!

Well, with spring upon us and summer following closely behind it we'll start to see more recipes for summer treats including ice cream show up on pinterest and other blogs I'm sure!

I'm getting a head start by making some homemade ice cream for a late family Easter this weekend. We share ice-cream maker custody with my cousin and her husband so we swap it back and forth as we each need to use it so I'll have "custody" of it this week to make some flavorful treats for my family. In my family, I have so many siblings that we each bring something which leaves my parents to provide very few things or just the main dish and the location for our gatherings. 

This time, instead of the normal Easter brunch or big feast, we chose to host a homemade pizza party and ice cream sundae party! I'm in charge of bringing whole wheat pizza crusts for whoever wants them, a gluten-free pizza crust for me and some ice cream or frozen yogurt and a topping so I'm starting to get my creative juices flowing to see what I can come up with. Of course we have a spring picnic on Sunday as well and I'm taking a cake to that so maybe I'll bring some homemade ice cream too since I've got the equipment already!

In thinking of all the flavors and combos that are out there, I've done some pinterest searching and have come up with some ideas for sure! I'm not sure yet if I'll go with a frozen yogurt type thing or a true ice cream- I'll probably done one of each so that there is a healthy alternative for those who want it and if I'm going to go for health with one of them, I might make a banana "ice cream" to go the whole way healthy with it. I've read numerous recipes where you can freeze bananas, blend them up until smooth then add all your mix-ins to make it AMAZING! Of course, if you've been following my blog at all, you'd know that I love to get creative with things, so with the true ice cream, I'll probably go for vanilla with swirls of something in it- chocolate, candies, chocolate chips, who knows what. Either way, I'm sure it'll all be amazing!

Oh, and I can't forget the toppings, so I'll probably take some of my homemade chocolate syrup, maybe make a mixed berry syrup and then maybe some sort of fancy candy chopped into pieces for those that want to go all out! I can't forget the whipped cream so I'll grab a container of that to make it a true sundae. Keep an eye on the blog to see what I come up with as the week goes. I'll probably be making one of the two batches of ice cream either tomorrow night or Wednesday and then another on Thursday or Friday so that I can have it nicely frozen and ready for our gathering on Saturday. I'll plan on the toppings to be prepped on Friday probably so they're nice and fresh and so I can get to the store then so I'm sure it'll be so interesting and a fun adventure! 

I'm always on the look out for ideas- what flavors are your favorites? Do you prefer the basic chocolate and vanillas or are you one for the chunky ice creams? I love the chunky mix-in type ice creams- especially with chocolate chunks, cookie dough, candies, all the large chunky things in it. What's your favorite?