April Fools!

Mmm. Yummy. Grilled Cheese for dinner. NOT!

I saw this on Family Fun's website and just HAD to make it! We (obviously) made ours tonight which was great because I will be working tomorrow so Grandma will be picking up Josh from school and taking him out for dinner. And Josh can never have too many tricks! I just made a box cake - I made it in a loaf pan. Cut it into slices. Toasted them in the oven. Tinted our frosting (mostly yellow with a little red) and cut into sandwiches. Super easy. Super fun.

Chicken and Chips on a stick

So this is def. not the healthiest recipe out there. But, if you have kids it will be one of the quickest eaten meals! Experiment with different chips - BBQ, Sour Cream & Onion, Doritos, any kind will do!

Ingredients:

4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves cut into cubes

1 egg

2 tbsp. milk

2 cups crushed potato chips

lollipop sticks available at craft stores or party stores (Our Wal-Mart had some in the craft/cake decorating aisle)

1. Preheat oven to 350. Grease cookie sheet.

2. Crush potato chips on a plate. In a bowl, whisk the egg and milk together. Dip a chicken cube in the milk and roll in the chips. Spread on baking sheet.

3. Bake for 10 minutes. Turn and bake for 10 more minutes or until golden brown. Remove from baking sheet and skewer on a lollipop stick.

4. Serve with your favorite dipping sauces - honey mustard, ranch or ketchup.

SUCCSESS

I just HAD to blog about our dinner tonight - it was a complete succsess. What did we have? Meatball sandwhiches (or pizza sandwhiches as I had to tell Josh otherwise he wasn't going to eat it!). Not exciting right? But oh, how wrong you are! It was meatball sandwhiches on homemade whole-wheat flax seed added buns with homemade sauce. And in that sauce were tomatoes (duh.), carrots, celery, green pepper, parsley and onions. And he ate it. He said, and I quote: "This pizza sauce sure is good."

HAHAHAHA child it is just veggies thrown in the food processor!!! Here's another quote : "that was the deliciousest sandwhich I ever had."

Point mommy & team veggies.

I wish I had taken a picture but they got eaten before I could. Yum. And I have TONS of sauce leftover for the week and I had enough dough left from the buns to make a loaf of bread. And my house smells so good. Ahh such a good night.

Caramelized Banana Loaf Cake

Josh had so much fun helping me make this cake! I think that mashing the bananas was his favorite! Go to www.rachaelraymag.com/Recipes/rachael-ray-magazine-recipes/sweet-spot-dessert-recipes/Caramelized-Banana-Loaf-Cake for step by step picture directions!

Ingredients:

3-4 large bananas

3/4 cup sugar

2 tbsp unsalted butter cut in 1 piece

1 large egg plus 1 large egg white

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1. Preheat the oven to 325. Grease a loaf pan. Cut the ends off of 3 bananas to fit crosswise in the pans. Peel and cut longwise in half.

2. In a skillet bring 1/4 cup sugar and 2 tbsp water to a boil. When the water has evaporated and the mixture starts turning brown remove from heat and stir in butter. Add the bananas cut side down in mixture and heat on low heat for 1 minute. Transfer bananas cut side down to bottom of loaf pan and drizzle with remaining caramel.

3. In a medium bowl, mash up banana to make 1 cup. Add the remaining 1/2 cup sugar. Beat in the egg, egg white and vanilla.

4. In a large bowl whisk the flour with the baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Add the banana mixture and oil. Whisk until blended. Pour over bananas. Bake until toothpick comes out clean about 55 minutes. LET COOL FOR 10-15 MINUTES!!! Invert on a plate and let cool completely.

Yummy!

THIS WEEK...

Sorry if you all have felt neglected this week! Life has been a little crazy! The store is open (www.shopikeandella.com) and been doing great, I got promoted at work so I've been working much more, Josh is on Spring Break, I'm working on the Autism Fundraiser (if you would like to make something to donate to our Etsy store -100% of procedes will be going to the Autism Society!), and the weather has finally been nice so the hubs has been working his tail off! WHEW! :)

But neglected no more! We are going to start having themed days here.

Mmm Mmm Mondays - check each Monday for a yummy recipe!

Tutorial Tuesdays

Wild Card Wednesdays - you will have to come see to find out!

Trash to Treasure Thursdays - I think I'm really a hippie at heart!

Friendly Fridays - Guest bloggers, lots of link-y love (If your interested in guest blogging let me know! I've got a few people set up already!)

Sharing Saturdays - the 'must make' things I've found this week

Family Sundays - family activities

So this week make sure to check back each day!

later today I'm posting the how to make a caramelized banana loaf!

Tuesday - Picture chart - we use these a lot for special needs children but all children (and parents!) could use them to help make morning / bedtime routines easier!

Wednesday - Napkins

Thursday - Use up those old dryer sheets in this project!

Friday - I've got a guest blogger - you will just love her. I do!

Saturday - My theme this week is Tractors/Farm.

Sunday - An idea to help teach your kids to try to always think positive!

I hope to see you later this week! :) Talk to you soon!

St. Patrick's Rainbow Cupcakes

Me + Cupcakes = L.O.V.E

No. Scratch that.

True love.

I saw these babies on familyfun.go.com and just knew that I had to make them! Hello - the insides are rainbow!!!

They are easy - a little time consuming but totally worth it. I am sending them to school with Josh tomorrow for his class. They will be so surprised when they unwrap them and take a bite! :)

Want the how to? Well you need a box of white cake mix, the ingredients to make it, white frosting, food coloring, and 6 plastic baggies. *I know that the rainbow has 6 colors, but really indigo? For real?

Mix the cake as directed (I used 2 boxes of cake mix and 2 tubs of icing. The first batch of cupcakes came out HUGE and the second more normal. Sorry half of the class. But I did get about 30 cupcakes from using both)

Then I used my big old spoon to pour about 5 BIG spoonfuls into each baggie. (It was about 3/4 full I'd say. There about. No need to be exact)

This was def. just a mommy job. It wasn't bad but man. I can't imagine having a helper for dumping batter into a sandwhich bag. :) BUT the next part is cool! Perfect for kids! You need to dye each batter a different color. Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue and Purple (Violet. Whatever.) Put a few drops in. Seal the bag. Seal the bag. Seal the bag. LoL. Make sure you get the air out, and mash it together in your hands to mix. In the end you will have all of your color baggies.

Pick a color to start with. The first batch I did the traditional Roy B Giv color scheme. But the second time around I started with purple and ended with red. (well as red as I could get). I would suggest ending with a lighter color, yellow would be perfect because it stays that pretty color. Not that it really matters - your putting icing on the top anyways! :) So snip a small corner - small - seriously small - corner and pour a little bit of each color in.

Then layer each color on top. See the picture below. Those were my HUGE cupcakes! You don't need to put that much of each color!!! :) Unless. You like massive cakes and then by all means. Fill away!

Cook. Let them cool. And frost! I frosted ours green with green sprinkles. And I'm running to buy some chocolate coins to put on top of each one! Ordinary cupcakes they are going to think. But ohhh no. Inside is rainbow-y goodness.

WINNERS WINNERS WINNERS

I have winners to announce!!!

BUT...
Before that I need to say thanks to some folks.

First, thanks to the gals at Giggle Junction. They are the ones who make those fabulous I Spy bags. Well, they asked if they could make one for my son. Uhhh yea! And they did and seriously, pictures do not do it justice. It is so stinking cute. And he loves it. And I love it. I've been 'spying' items ever since it arrived in the mail. So thank you! :)

Second, thanks to all the fabulous ladies who helped spread the love about Ike & Ella. If you haven't checked out any of these blogs -- you should. They are wonderful.

http://www.sumossweetstuff.blogspot.com/
http://www.firefliesandjellybeans.blogspot.com/
http://www.brownpaper--packages.blogspot.com/
http://www.thecreativeitchboutique.blogspot.com/
http://www.bridgetbaxter.blogspot.com/

Thanks ladies!!!!

Third, to everyone who started following this blog, joined our mailing list (http://www.shopikeandella.com/), facebooked us and shopped with us. THANK YOU! I had 62 people enter the giveaway! :) Today is the last day for all products to benefit Autism Speaks and we could still use your help to reach our goal!

Without further ado the winners:

1. The Little Miss Jr. Bag - Summer from http://www.sumossweetstuff.blogspot.com/ - Hooray!
2. The Felt Chocolate Bunny - Trina - Woo Hoo!
3. Crayon Wallet - Mommy2Luke2008 - Yeah!
4. Grocery Tote - News around the blogs - Yippie!

Congrats! I will contact you all individually so we can find can get information! Have a great rest of the weekend!

The Month of April...

So 2 things just occurred to me. 1 this is like my 4th post today. Sorry. Yup, you can tell it's my day off. :) (Blogging v. cleaning...hmmm) 2. April is like 2 and a half weeks away. And April is Autism Awareness Month.

Well you know I have to try do to do something special. SO here it goes. I know I've already bombarded everyone out in blog world with my Autism speech but I am planning on opening up an Etsy Store for the Month of April. So I need at least 30 people to help (one for each day) to volunteer to make something to donate, spread the word about their item or just spread the love for us! I don't care what you make (item/pattern/autographed picture of yourself) we just need items!

And if you can think of a fun name for the store that would rock! Craft for Autism is all I've got - not very creative.

I made a goal for $500 - I know we can do it!!!!

If you are interested in helping - making something or spreading the word - please e-mail me. I have a page set up on autism-society.org through 1power4autism but blogger is being silly and won't let me paste the link in here! I'll keep working on it!

Thanks so much you guys are seriously wonderful!

Quick project

Well this was not the project I was planning on sharing with you today, but it was the first one I finished today.

So I'm embarrassed to say this but we have been missing the main remote to the TV for seriously about a month. A MONTH people. (The dog took it under my son's bed in case you were curious). Well I was so happy when I found it this morning that I vowed that we will never lose it again.

Flash forward to Wal-Mart today.

In the clearance aisle they had this tray left over from Valentine's Day. Light bulbs went off. Ta da! Remote holder! I think I paid $1 for it?

I got my Mod Podge (I love this stuff), 2 pieces of scrapbook paper, scissors, a pen and sprinkles. Yes sprinkles, keep reading.

First you trace the paper to fit on the tray, cut it out and then test it out on the top of your tray. I did the press and create a place to cut test.

Trim it up and adhere it with a thin layer of Mod Podge.

This is where the sprinkles come in.

This little bottle of sprinkles is perfect shape for getting out all of those air bubbles. Easy to hold, gets into corners, really lets you smooth it out. And, I had it on hand. And since this tray has all of those circles which, of course, are indented I really needed to smooth it out.

See. What a great job those sprinkles did!

Nice and smooth.

Ok. Finish the rest of the paper. Smooth. And then apply a very thin layer of Mod Podge on top. Dry. I chose not to do the handles (partly because I didn't feel like messing with it. Hey, I'm honest.) but if you want to go right ahead! Seriously, this took me 15 minutes.

Now because I vowed never to lose the remotes again, I put a strip of Velcro on each of the remotes and on the tray. (I think Andy will be excited to have the remote. Tomorrow, I will probably hear something about the Velcro. ) :) BUT they are attached! They have a home. THEY WILL NOT GET LOST AGAIN.

Or so I hope.

You like my canvas? haha.

Quilt: Update

I've had a couple e-mails so just real quick (I have to finish your tutorial!), I got the quilt pattern from Baby Love by Allison Jane Smith. Love it.

And this is what the quilt should look like when it is finished. Please excuse my flash. Yes I did take a photo of the book! I looked online everywhere but couldn't find this picture.

This was my first choice, but I thought I would start with a more basic one first. But this is on my to do list!

Isn't it sweet? It was inspired by what your dream your little boy will grow up to be. LOVE IT.

Quilt tips

First I want to say hello to my new followers! Hello!

So here is my new BIG project. A quilt.

I found one that I want to make. And I ordered the fabric. And it arrived.

And now. Well, here it goes. :)

I've never made a quilt before. In fact, I googled how to make a quilt. (As you will learn, I google everything. And note to Google - you should pay me for saying that I use you all the time. No more spell check - just google.)

So the fabric is in the wash and it will be cut tomorrow! If any of you are quilting masters feel free to leave me some tips!

Other news: the winners of the giveaway will be announced on the 14th (My birthday woo hoo!). That is also the last day for 15% of all proceeds to go to Autism Speaks. Donation will be made in my son's name. So if you haven't placed your order you should -- it's such a fabulous cause!

That's my son right there (on Hundred day!) In case you wanted a face to go with where your money is being donated.

We also added American Girl doll clothes (made to match your favorite Gymboree clothes no less!). I just wanted to put a quick update for you all. I'm thinking up a pretty cool tutorial for all of you for tomorrow so make sure to come back!

GRAND OPENING!

Today is the Grand Opening of Ike & Ella!

http://www.shopikeandella.com/



I am so excited! To celebrate we are donating 15% of all proceeds to Autism Speaks!

And...

We have some giveaways!

1. A little Miss Jr. Purse

2. A felt food chocolate bunny

3. Crayon Wallet

4. Reusable Grocery Tote



How to win:

1. Follow this blog

2. Join the mailing list at http://www.shopikeandella.com/ (join the list and recieve $5 off!)

3. Blog (or post on facebook) about our store opening, the Autism donations and the giveaway! Copy and paste the link to your post in the comments!

Do one of the three things above (Or all three!) and come back here and comment about your favorite thing in the shop! Don't forget to copy your links if you have them!


3 chances to win , 4 fabulous prizes and hopefully at the end of the week 1 big check sent out to Autism Speaks!!!!

Update on the bunny

"The bunny, the bunny, yea I ate the bunny. I didn't eat my soup or my bread, just the bunny." Oh come on. I can't be the only Veggie Tales Mom out there? It's the Bunny Song. That song came to my mind as I was making the Easter Bunnies (From Rack, Shack and Benny - they work in the chocolate factor and their boss Nebby K. Nezzer wants them to bow to the bunny? Anyways. Have your kids watch it. It's cute. Even if you believe in something else, it teaches your kids to stand up for what is right.)

Anywho. The Bunny. I went to the store last night. Bought some more brown thread among many things that I'm sure that I didn't need. And made the bunny. I thought the pattern was perfect and I just love our bunny. And I love the fact that the bunny stands up! So take the pattern and try it out!

If you don't feel like making one I am going to sell them in my store at www.shopikeandella.com

And with that being said. The "Official" launch date is going to be Monday March 8, 2010. Check back here on Monday for a giveaway! That hopefully someone will enter! :)

Felt Food: Chocolate Bunnies

UPDATE* I am giving one of these handsome guys away for my Grand Opening of www.shopikeandella.com Find out what else we are giving away! And how to get your $5 coupon! PLUS 15% of all proceeds this week go to Autism Speaks!

So today I had this plan to share with you a pattern to make a felt chocolate bunny. Went to the store to get some brown thread (I ran out yesterday) and came home and drafted up a pattern. Cut it all out and went to get my thread to sew it together - and it was not in my bag.

Grrrr. (That's me angry)

So I decided to still share the pattern with you and since it's so easy to make I would just quick guide you (and hopefully the pattern I made should work without having to be tweaked).

1. Print off the pattern (I would print off cardstock).

Click here!

(And yes, it is upside down. I'm not technical - who knows how to fix it? lol If the link does NOT work will someone let me know!? It works on my computer but I just want to be sure! And if it doesn't you can just leave your email address in the comments and I will mail it to you until I get it fixed!)

2. Trace onto brown felt. Cut out

3. Sew the eye and the leg on each side of bunny. I would put a little bit of stuffing in the leg. Adds a little 'depth' (like that huh?).

4. Sew the long strip around one of the bunny pieces.

5. With right sides together sew the other bunny piece to the long strip leaving an opening for flipping and filling.

6. Flip and fill.

7. Sew shut.

8. Tie a ribbon bow around the neck. Awww!

IF the pattern is working and loading - please feel free to make and share! Link it around - make some for your friends but please don't profit off it. And please send some love my way! :)

And. Have you ever shopped at http://www.fabric.com/ ? I do. I always spend at least $35 to get the free shipping. Well tonight I was about to send in my order (my 2nd one this week!) and I decided to go to http://www.retailmenot.com/ (another little obsession) and guess what I found? Coupons. 30% off a $50 purchase. Guess what 30% of $50 is? $35. So I spent the same amount of money and got an extra 2 yards of fabric for free! Plus my free shipping! Hooray!

Moral of the story: Always check for coupons before you shop. :)

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!

When I was teaching preschool - I loved March 2nd. Really loved it. It ranked right up there with Halloween and Christmas. HAPPY BIRTHDAY DR.SEUSS!!!

And, I'm sorry to say that this year I totally slacked.

We did continue the tradition of having green eggs. And ham. Not green ham but ham none the less. And I did, bring in cupcakes to Josh's class to help them celebrate!

But, I didnt have him in some kind of Dr. Seuss clothing (last year I made a super cool Yertle the Turtle shirt - you know cool not "cutesy").

And if I was a great mom I would have made the cupcakes. And I would have made them to look like this:

HOW FREAKING COOL? Lyndsey made them on her blog Kitchen DoughDough. http://kitchendoughdough.blogspot.com/2009/07/thing-1-and-thing-2-cupcakes.html

Next year, Dr. Seuss, I promise I will be prepared and do something so cool that it blows the hat right off the cat. You have my word.

365 Project .... and your child's artwork

So I just got my camera (as you all know) and I just found this website - http://www.365project.org/

You should sign up! It's a neat way to challenge yourself. And if you are looking for an even bigger challenge - then look at their challenges! You can join a competition - one week it's water, one week it's out in public. The giant icacle on my front porch that is melting is my entry for water. Hey, ice melts into water -- right?! Or join their ABC challenge. 1 photo for each letter of the alphabet! Would be neat to make for a child's book.

SPEAKING of making a child's book...Does your child come home with tons of artwork that you of course, love, but don't know what to do with it all? Do you feel guilty about throwing something away (and do it when your child is not looking and then stuff something else on top of it so they don't see it in the trash?) Am I the only one?!?!?!? Well I started taking pictures of Josh's artwork. This moose is one of my favorites!

Well, so is Frosty. See the flower on his hat? And his corn cob pipe? And the nose? LOVE him.

Well this is what I'm planning. Take the pictures. Upload them to http://www.snapfish.com/ (Well google first - you will find coupons!). Then, have them printed into one of their books. Right now on http://www.retailmenot.com/ they have a coupon for 25% off the photo books!!! I wish I had enough pictures to get one now! :) (P.S. I am also planning on having a book done when my year of pictures is finished! A coffee table book filled with my photography. Cool huh?)