Tuesday, March 22, 2011

SUO Challenge #15 Birthday!


SOooooOOO I won 3rd place last week on SUOChallenges.com!! I hope that I can do better than that this week with the card! I used the Sweet Treats stamp set for this, stamped the cake on watercolor paper and used a watercolor marker with stamp ink to color it. I placed it on a piece of orange cardstock and popped it up with pop dots. I used white for the base of the card, a strip of orange, then a strip of coordinating patterned paper on top, then placed the popped up cake on top of that. I stamped "They say it's your birthday!" in the corner and VOILA! Beautiful Birthday Card! :)

I came in third place for my card on SUO Challenges!!! Yay!! It was was SO much fun to create that card!! Thanks SUO Challenges!

Friday, March 11, 2011

Yellow Circle Wedding Invitation


So, I love weddings. Always have! If my career as a teacher doesn't pan out I will eventually become a wedding planner! I love making things, and planning things, and being creative! My favorite part of all of this is making invitations. If I am stuck with something or having "stampers block" I always go right back to wedding invitations. Coming up with color combinations and themes just makes everything else easier when I stamp. With this particular one I took my On The Spot background stamp and inked it up with a golden yellow stamp pad. I printed out a bunch of different layouts of invitation wording so that I can grab the one that fit the best at will. I chose the double spaced, middle alignment, invitation wording for this invite and stamped the On The Spot stamp over the words. I attached that to the black paper so that there was an 1/8 of an inch border around the white. After that I attached a 1 inch strip of golden yellow patterned paper, and TA-DA! Beautiful wedding invitation!

Potato Soup Recipe

This is a Weight Watchers recipe. I just fell in love with it! It was sooo yummy!

Ingredients (this is for 1 batch, I ended up doubling it for my family):

1 bulb(s) garlic clove(s), large, 1/4-inch-slice cut off top
3 pound(s) uncooked potato(es), rinsed, pierced with a fork (about 6 large baking potatoes)
6 slice(s) uncooked turkey bacon
4 cup(s) reduced-sodium chicken broth
1 1/2 Tbsp thyme, fresh, fresh, chopped
1/2 tsp table salt
1/4 tsp black pepper, freshly ground
6 Tbsp reduced-fat sour cream
6 Tbsp low-fat shredded cheddar cheese
6 Tbsp scallion(s), sliced

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 400ºF. Wrap entire garlic bulb tightly in foil; place garlic and potatoes in oven. (You do not need to put them on a pan; they can go right on an oven rack.)

Bake garlic until soft when squeezed, about 45 minutes; remove from oven and let cool. Continue baking potatoes until tender when pierced, about 15 minutes more; let potatoes stand until cool enough to handle.

Meanwhile, cook bacon in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat until browned, about 6 minutes. Place bacon on paper towels to drain off any fat; chop bacon.

Unwrap garlic and squeeze pulp from bulb with hands into a large saucepan. Peel potatoes and add to saucepan; mash with a potato masher until smooth. Gradually stir in broth, thyme, salt and pepper until blended; place saucepan over medium heat and cook until hot, stirring occasionally, about 5 to 10 minutes.

Spoon about 1 1/3 cups of soup into each of 6 soup bowls. Top each with 1 tablespoon of sour cream, 1 tablespoon of cheese, 1 rounded tablespoon of bacon and 1 tablespoon of scallions. Grind fresh pepper over top if desired.

This soup is very yummy! Don't add more salt than it calls for! When you add the chopped turkey bacon to the top it'll add whatever salt you feel it would need. Tastes just like a baked potato, in soup form!

Thursday, March 10, 2011

New Recipes!

Well since I have been having people ask for a lot of the recipes I have been using (and adapting) since starting Weight Watchers. I got this recipe from WeightWatchers.com and adapted it to make it my own! :)

Enchilada Meatloaf

3 lbs ground beef
2 C Rolled Oats
2 Medium Onions (finely chopped)
1 Tsp Garlic Powder
2- 4 Oz. Cans of Mild Green Chiles (chopped)
2 Lg. Eggs
2 Tbsp Chili Powder
1 Tsp Coriander (ground)
16 Oz. Enchilada Sauce

Preheat oven to 375°F.

Combine all ingredients, except half of Enchilada sauce, in a large mixing bowl; set remaining Enchilada sauce aside. Spoon meatloaf mixture into 9 x 13 pan and smooth top (I made 2 smaller meatloaves in the 1 pan).

Bake for 60 minutes; spoon remaining sauce over meatloaf and cook 5 minutes more. Let stand for about 15 or 20 minutes before removing from the pan. Slice into eight pieces. Yields 1 piece per serving.

(5 pts per slice)





Tuesday, March 8, 2011

It's Yarr Birthday!


Well there is a new challenge out today for SUO Challenges! My all time favorite retired set is Ahoy Matey for sure! I make cards and scrapbook pages with it all the time. It is so much fun to mess around with it and create new things. In this particular card, I made it for a girl so I added some pigtails to the pirate. I used a piece of brown cardstock as the background stamped with the small bird in the coordinating color. I added a strip of light blue behind the map (jumbo roller) and then added the pirate on top after swiping the edges with the brown stamp pad. I love to play around with this set! Its a great one to will summer and spring to come our way! After months of super drab weather, I need some sun and sand!