Do your thing.

 

 

"Do your thing, Do it unapologetically.

Don't be discouraged by criticism.

You probably know what they are going to say.

Pay no mind to the fear of failure.

It's far more valuable than success,

Take ownership, Take chances, and have fun.

And no matter what, don't ever stop doing your thing."

 

 

 

Homemade Ornament and Delicious Breakfast.

Hello Everyone!!

Happy Friday! Hope you all had a great week..

 

Today was a good day, I finally got to make some Homemade Salt dough Ornaments that I have been wanting to make for a long long time.. I know I have to make it before Christmas so finally today was the day!

 

But before that, Had an Amazing breakfast with my boys, Decided to just cook something.

The first time I had this Biscuits and gravy at my Mother in-law I fell In love right away and it's hubby's favorite so I had to know how to make it. We only make it usually on cold days like these. It's so easy to make!

 

 

Ingredients:

• 1 lb. Breakfast Sausage
• 1/3 Cup Flour
• 4 Cups whole milk
• 1/2 tsp. seasoning salt
• 2 tsp. Black pepper.
• 8-10 Biscuits

 

Directions:

• Crumble and brown the sausage over medium-high heat until fully cooked
• Reduced the heat to medium-low.
• Sprinkle half of the flour and stir until sausage soaks it all up and add the rest of the flour.
• Continue to stir and cook for another minute
• Turn up heat to medium-high heat and pour the 4 Cups of milk.
• Add in seasoning salt and pepper.
• Stir consistently until gravy is thick. (Once the mixture starts to boil it will thicken very quickly. It will take 10 minutes or so. If the gravy gets too thick, add a little more milk)
• Add more seasoning if needed. Serve over warm biscuits.

 

Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

Hand Print Ornaments

 

 

Later that day me and little man did something artsy, I think he had fun! He didn't want to stop.

I let him play with the leftover dough, it was kind of messy but love seeing him having so much fun!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What you need:

• 1/2 Cup salt
• 1 Cup flour
• 1/2 Cup of water
• a rolling pin
• a cooking sheet with parchment paper (optional)
• something to cut handprint size circle with, like  bowl or a glass
• a straw (for the ribbon hole)
• an offset spatula if you have one

 

Directions:

 

• Making the dough is really easy, First mix it in a big bowl with a big wooden spoon. At first your dough will seem to watery but it'll clump up right away. If it stays too moist add a little flour until it's the consistency of play dough or water seems too dry. but usually these measurements work out just right.



 

• When your dough is a nice big clump, flour up a clean surface like your table or cutting board and get ready to roll.

 

• Roll the dough until it's about a quarter inch thick.
• Once you have your dough rolled out. use your circle cutter to cut circle. You should be able to get four or five ornaments out of this recipe and some leftovers for little hands to play with.
• You can roll the dough out again and again to make sure you get the most ornaments.



• After you have your ornaments cut, use the straw to push through a small hole that you will use for your ribbon string later. Wiggle your straw around a little so the hole is nice and big.

• Now the fun part, Hand pressing! You might have to do this step a couple of times if your child is over excited and wants to grab and squish the dough. Not too hard and not too soft but just hard enough to leave a small imprint.

 

• Gently lay your ornaments onto your cookie sheet. A very think metal spatula will be great for lifting them if you have trouble with the ornaments being too malleable. Parchment paper is handy too but not required.

• Preheat your oven to 250F bake for two to two and half hours. You'll know the ornaments are done when they feel nearly solid in the middle. When they are done, remove from the oven and let them cool.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now time to paint!

All you need is acrylic paint, brushes and ribbons

 

 

 

 

 

This is definitely a must do Christmas tradition, it's really easy.

 Hubby did the painting part, I just didn't want to mess it up, and he did an awesome job!

 

xo-Jen





Last Days of Fall

 

 

 

"Fall has always been my favorite season.

The time when everything bursts with its last beauty,

As if nature had been saving up all year for the grand finale."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stop Worrying

 

 

 

 

"Do you know what happens when you decide to stop worrying what other people might think of you? You get to dance. You get to sing. You get to laugh loudly, paint, write, and create.

You get to be yourself.

And you know what? Some people won't like you. Some will laugh or mock you or point your flaws.. But it just won't bother you all that much."

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

Saturday FunDay

 

 

 

Had a Fun day today! We went to Hubby's Christmas Party... We only stayed there for a little bit, It was so hard to get little man to get out of that place.

 

Watching him smile and have so much fun was the highlight of my day, I don't really see him have this fun so much! I think we need to start taking him to places like this.

 



 

 

After that we went to Pizza Inn for Lunch, Heard a lot of good things about it, and I love trying restaurant I never been to, I wish we went here a long time ago!

 

 

Their Taco Pizza was one of the best! I had a little bit of everything, Love their selection of salad.. Pasta was good too!

And this was one of the reason why I want to go so bad, If you have been checking my blog or we are friends on Facebook, You know how much I love dessert, I can eat it first or I can just have dessert all day. I know, my sweet tooth is bad! haha oh well, I don't eat like this everyday! haha

 



 

After that we went home and watch Mizzou's game, Too bad they lost, Sorry hubby.. haha!

 

Goodnight! :)

xo-Jen

Red Velvet Whoopie Pie Sandwhich Cookies

 

 

 

 

Hello everyone!

I hope you all had a great week, I'm so happy its Friday I'm excited to spend the weekend with my family.

 

 

Decided to make cookies today, there's so many Christmas cookies I want to make, I wish I have enough time to make all of them! Today I decided to make these, I have been wanting to make this for a long long time. I'm just really worried that it won't turn out good. But it actually turn out perfect. I'm so happy! If you love Red velvet you should try this! Let me know what you think. :)

Ingredients:

• 1 (18.25 oz.) Box of Red velvet cake mix
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil

Frosting:

• 1 (8 oz.) package cream cheese,softened
• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 2 tsp. milk
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 3-4 cups powdered sugar (depending on the consistent you like, thicker the better)

 

 

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
• Mix together the cake mix, eggs and vegetable oil in a large bowl.
• Roll the dough into balls the size of walnuts.

• Place 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets.
• Bake in the preheated oven until the tops start to crack, about 8-10 minutes

• Cool in the pans for 10 minutes before removing to cool completely.

• In a large bowl combine cream cheese, butter, milk and vanilla. Add the powdered sugar 1 cup at a time, mixing well with each addition. If consistency is too stiff, add more milk.
• Spread generous amount of using on the bottom of a cookie, sandwich it with another cookie pressing firmly so that the icing comes all the way out to the edge.

• Repeat it with the remaining cookies. Makes about 15-20 sandwich cookies (depending on how you make your cookies.

Enjoy!!! :)

 

xo

 

 



Cinnamon Bread

 

 

 

 

 

 

I love making homemade bread, There's something about it that makes me happy plus little man love this so much. So I decided to make some today. This made the house smells like cinnamon! I love it! :)

 

 

Ingredients:

(makes 2 loaves)

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups buttermilk
• 4 cups flour
• 2 tsp. baking soda

Cinnamon sugar mix:

• 2/3 cups sugar
• 2 tsp. cinnamon

 

 

Directions:

• Cream together butter, sugar, and eggs.
• Add buttermilk, flour, and baking soda.
• Put 1/2 of batter or a little less into greased loaf pans (1/4 each pans)
• Mix in a separate bowl the sugar and cinnamon.
• Sprinkle 3/4 of cinnamon mixture on top of the 1/2 batter in each pan.
• Add remaining batter to pans
• Sprinkle last cinnamon topping.
• Swirl with a knife.
• Bake at 350 F for 45-50 minutes or until toothpick tester come clean.
• Cool in pan for 20 minutes before removing

 

 

 

 

 

Enjoy!

xo

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

California Sushi Rolls

 

 

 

 

I'm having a major sushi craving right now, I think we need to go to a sushi restaurant soon, or maybe this works for now. Sushi seems so hard to make but if you follow directions and take time its easy!

This is probably the easiest one. The most important thing you need is the bamboo rolling mat, and you can probably find it at any Asian store.



 

Ingredients:

• 1/2 lemon juice
• 1 medium avocado, peeled, pitted, and sliced into 1/4 inch thick pieces.
• 4 sheets nori
• 4 cups sushi rice, cooked
• 1/3 cup sesame seeds, toasted
• 1 sma cucumber, peeled, seeded, and cut into matchstick-size pieces
• 4 crabsticks, sliced lengthwise
• pickled ginger for serving
• wasabi, for serving
• soy sauce, for serving

 

Directions:

• Squeeze lemon juice over the avocado to prevent browning
• Cover a bamboo rolling mat with a plastic wrap.
• Lay 1 sheet of nori, shiny side down, on the plastic covered map.
• Wet your fingers with water and spread approximately 1/2 cup of the rice evenly onto nori.

• Sprinkle the rice with sesame seeds.
• Place the second plastic covered bamboo rolling mat on top and flip the two over so that the rice is down.
• Place 1/8 of the cucumber, avocado and crab sticks in the center of the sheet.
• Grab the edge of the mat closest to you, keeping the fillings in place with your fingers, and roll it into a tight cylinder, using the mat to shape the cylinder.



 

Cut each roll into 6 pieces.

 

 

 

 

Serve with pickled ginger, wasabi and soy sauce.

 

Enjoy! :)

 

 

 

 

 

Anything is possible.

 

 

 

 

"You can go as far as you think, Imagine and Dream. Anything is possible."

 

 

 

 



Fruit Infused Water

 

 

 

I told myself that I will never try to make infused water because I love my fruit too much just to put in a water, I'd rather make some smoothies! haha

 

But I decided to give it a try today, and I really love it!

 

 

It's a naturally flavored water that is not just easy to make but it's healthy and oh so good! I can't believe it's this good. It's so refreshing and it's good if you want to do some cleansing, or you want to stop drinking soda, juice and other sugary drinks.

 

 

This is how it looks like the next day after leaving it in the fridge overnight, If you have a hard time drinking water just like me these days, infused water is a great way to stay hydrated and enjoy a healthy drink!

 

 

All you need:

• 16 oz. mason jar
• 1 1/2 cup water
• Fruits (I used Strawberries, blueberries and pineapples)
• mint, optional
• 1/4 cup of ice

 

Place the fruit on the bottom of the jar, Pour water and stir fruit around. Press on the fruit lightly to release some of the flavors, add some mind if desired. Refrigerate for at least an hour or overnight.

Add some ice before serving.

 

Enjoy! xo



 



It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

 

 

Happy first day of December everyone!

after dinner last night we finally got to put up the Christmas tree, I have been wanting to do it before thanksgiving but I had to follow my husband's tradition to wait till thanksgiving is over, Something I'm not used to yet since in the Philippines Christmas decorations are everywhere already by September!

 

 

 

 

I had a little helper, I'm so happy to see that he was so interested on doing this.

 

 

 

This is my favorite decoration! I think it's because we got It personalized.



 

We don't have that much decoration, but I know we will be adding more and more every year. :)

 

 

May your days be merry and bright!

 

Happy Holidays :)

 

xo

 

 



Bacon Double Cheeseburger Stuffed Meatloaf

Hello Everyone! How was your Thanksgiving?

We had an amazing time. It's First Day of December tomorrow, Can you believe it? It's crazy how time is really going fast.

It's Sunday and I like to have  a Special Dinner before we get back to our healthier diet, It's been a lot of eating these couple of days but I'm just really in a mood to cook something special for dinner tonight. So I made this meatloaf. It's stuffed and wrapped with bacon, can that be any more perfect?

Ingredients:

• 1 lb. Ground Pork
• 2 lb. Ground Beef
• 2 Cups Bread crumbs
• 1 Cup freshly grated Parmesan Cheese
• 1 Pkg. Bacon
• 3 Eggs Beaten
• 1 Onion Chopped
• 1 Small Bell Pepper, finely chopped
• 1 Carrot, Finely chopped
• 3 tbsp. ketchup
• 1 tbsp. Dijon Mustard
• 1 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
• olive oil
• 1/2 tsp. pepper
• 1/2 tsp. paprika
• 1 tsp. salt
• 8 ounces mild cheddar cheese shredded

 Glaze:

• 1 Cup Ketchup
• 1/2 Cup Brown Sugar
• 1 Tbsp. Dijon Mustard

Instructions:

• Preheat oven to 375 Line a baking sheet or a pan with foil, set aside
• Heat a little olive oil in a large saute pan and cook the carrot, onion, and bell pepper until very tender. Make sure to season the veg with some salt and pepper. Set aside and let cool a bit.
• In a large bowl combine bread crumbs, parmesan, paprika, salt, pepper, eggs, worcerstershire sauce, Dijon mustard, and ketchup. Add in the ground beef and pork and mix together with your hands, not over mixing.

• Form the mixture into a loaf shape on a pan.
• Gently press the center and add the cheddar cheese and just press it to seal.

• Line a flat surface with a foil or wax paper and lay down 8 strips of bacon vertically. Then fold back every other piece of bacon in half. Place a strip of bacon horizontally and peel back the folded pieces over the vertical piece of bacon. Next fold back every other piece of bacon again, starting with the strip that you did not fold back before. Repeat the process until you have created a square weave of bacon.





• Lay bacon weave over the top, tucking them underneath the meatloaf

• Make the glaze. In a small bowl mix together ketchup, brown sugar, and Dijon mustard. Pour 1/3 of the mixture over the top of the bacon with a pastry brush or a spoon.
• Bake for 45 minutes, then pour another 1/3 of the sauce over the top. Bake for another 15-30 minutes, until the meat reaches 160.
• Remove from the oven let rest for 10 minutes. Slice and serve with the remaining sauce.

Enjoy! :)

xo Jen