PC#10 - Cheesecake Stuffed Strawberries

Oh me, oh my!  I LOVED these!  These little cheesecake stuffed strawberries were so delicious and super easy to make.  Here's what you need:
1-2 pounds of strawberries
1 8-ounce package of cream cheese
1/4 cup of powdered sugar
1 tsp. of vanilla extract
Simple, Simple!  In the mixer I beat the cream cheese, powdered sugar, and vanilla.

Then I hollowed out the strawberries (oops, forgot to take a picture before I stuffed one).  These were by far the biggest strawberries I've bought all year, so they fit lots of cheesecake.

 Then I used a small spoon to put the cheesecake into the strawberries.  The recipe online called for topping with graham cracker crumbs, but we aren't the biggest fans of crust - so I just didn't include the crumbs. 

They aren't the prettiest cheesecake strawberries, but I think they are the tastiest!

Pinterest Link
Original Recipe

PC#9 - Fruit Beach Ball

We were invited to a friend's house for a 4th of July picnic, so I quickly signed up to bring fruit because I remembered seeing this adorable beach ball on Pinterest.  Well, the recipe calls for you to put the fruit on top of a sugar cookie with a cheesecake frosting.  I thought that only having the fruit would work just fine.  Because I put the fruit directly on the plate, it did roll around a bit, so it doesn't look as perfect as the picture did online.  I also chose to put different fruit than was listed.  I made this the night before, so I didn't want any fruit that would turn colors or get soft overnight.  I included the following fruit in my beach ball:

• raspberries (as the center)
• strawberries
• cantaloupe
• red grapes
• green grapes
• clementines
• blueberries

It doesn't look perfect, but I think it turned out pretty cute!
Pinterest Link
Cookie Beach Ball Recipe

PC#8 - Cream Cheese French Toast

For my husband's birthday I put up quite a few breakfast idea recipes from Pinterest, and he picked out this one.  It looked and sounded great...boy were we in for a shock!  Here's how to make it:
1 bakers loaf of bread cubed
8 eggs (yes, 8)
1-1/2 cups of milk
8 ounces of low-fat cream cheese
2/3 cup of half and half (I used the fat free kind)
1-1/4 cup of syrup
1/2 tsp of vanilla
topping of powdered sugar

So first put the cubed bread in a greased 9 by 13 pan.

Then beat the cream cheese until smooth, then add one egg at a time (mixing well).  Stir in milk, 1/2 cup of syrup, half and half, and vanilla until smooth.  I think this is wear things went wrong!  As you can see in the picture, the cream cheese never mixed well with the other ingredients, creating a clumpy mess.

Pour this mixture over the bread and stick it in the fridge overnight.  It looked quite disgusting.

The next am, take it out and let it get to room temp for 30 minutes.  Then bake in a 350 degree oven for 50 minutes.  Pour the remaining syrup over casserole, and sift powdered sugar on top.

Once the powdered sugar was on top, I thought well maybe this will actually turn out good.  NOPE!  We didn't like it one bit.  It just tasted like super soggy bread.  I LOVE bread pudding, so I thought I could handle something like this, but this went beyond 'soggy-ness' to just plain nasty.  We eat ate a little piece and tossed the pan right in the trash!

Pinterest Link

Original Recipe

A girly-girl...well, almost

The other night I was picking up around the house and came across these shoes by the front door.  This really is what my little 3 year old is all about...dressing girly, acting quite girly, yet having an occasional outburst of being a tomboy.

I promise, I didn't set up this at all!  This is exactly how she left them by the front door!

PC #7: Squishy Play-doh

We had a little time one morning after swimming lessons before lunch, so we decided to have a little fun in the back yard and try out the recipe for gak.  After it was finished, Elie called it squishy play-doh, and the name stuck.  The recipe called for two bottles of glue, but since I only have one child, I figured I would half the recipe.  Here's how we made it:

I used one bottle of total glue (I had two half used bottles, so I just used that)
warm water to add to the empty bottle of glue
blue food coloring
1/4 cup of warm water with 1 tsp. of borax dissolved in it

First, we emptied the bottle of glue in the bowl.  Then I filled up the empty bottle of glue with warm water, gave it a little shake, and added it to the bowl.

Next came the food coloring.  Elie chose blue, and we added about 15-20 drops.

Time to stir!

Then we added the 1/4 cup of warm water with 1 tsp. of borax in it.

I couldn't believe how quickly it started to 'goop' up.  The above picture was about 5 seconds after adding the borax.

This picture was about 20 seconds after adding the borax.

Then Elie grabbed it and the hour of fun began.

How fun does that look?
We played with our 'squishy play-doh' for about an hour, then I put it in a ziplock (I wasn't quite sure how it would work, but I didn't want to throw it away).  It has been over 3 weeks since we made this, and we have taken it out several times to reuse it.  It feels exactly the same today as it did when we first made it.
Pinterest link
Full Recipe