Happy Valentine's Day!!!

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Don't forget to become of fan of our new Facebook page!

Click HERE to become a fan!

Check out these awesome Valentine's Recipes!

Click HERE for the original Recipes.

And in case you still need a Valentine's Dinner Menu...

Click HERE for the recipes!

Have a LOVE-ly Day!

Valentine's Day Dinner Menu for you and Your Sweetie

Valentine's Day is almost here!!

I hope you are busy making plans to celebrate
with you and your loved one - whether thats a significant other
or just a group of girlfriends you truly love!

I know how nice it can be to go out to a fancy restaurant,
but sometimes its nice to stay in and cook a delicious dinner.
If that's you this weekend, than look no further for the perfect menu!

Why is this the perfect Valentine's Day Menu, you ask?
Well let me say one word.

Chocolate. Yes, Chocolate.

Every recipe in the menu contains chocolate.

I'll give you a moment to soak that in.

Well let's not delay!
I present your perfect Valentine's Day Menu FULL of Chocolate!

Berry Spinach Salad with Chocolate Dressing

I've never been so excited to eat a salad in my life!

Shopping List:

1 bg Baby Spinach

1 container Fresh Strawberries, quartered

1 container Blackberries

1 C Honey Roasted Almonds

Dressing:

1 oz square Dark Chocolate, melted

3 Tbsp Olive Oil

3 Tbsp Balsamic Vinegar

1 tsp Honey

Salt and Pepper, to taste

Method:

1. Assemble salad
2. Mix together ingredients in dressing. Dress salad. Enjoy!

Chocolate Rub Top Sirloin

Shopping List:

2 Top Sirloin Steaks
(Or steak of choice)

1 Tbsp Cocoa Powder

1 tsp Cayenne Pepper

1 tsp Cumin

1/2 tsp Ground Ginger

Salt and Pepper, to taste

Method:

1. Mix steak rub.
2. Coat Steak.
3. Grill steaks or sear in pan with 1 Tbsp Olive Oil over medium heat until cooked to desired wellness. Enjoy!

Red Velvet Whoopie Pies

These are my absolute favorite.
You won't believe how delicious these puppies are!!
And since we are using a box mix, they are super easy to make!.

Shopping List:

1 box Betty Crocker Devil's Food Cake Mix

1/2 C (one stick) Butter, softened

2 Eggs, beaten

1 bottle Red Food Dye

1 container Cream Cheese Frosting

1 C Mini Chocolate Chips

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350. Cover 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. Beat together cake mix, butter, eggs, and food dye. Drop 1 inch scoops of dough 2 inches apart onto baking sheets.
3. Bake 10-12 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool completely (at least 15 minutes).
4. Spread cream cheese frosting on bottom of one cookie and sandwich together with another.
5. Place mini chocolate chips in a bowl and roll whoopee pie so that frosting becomes coated in chocolate chips. Enjoy!

Recipe from Betty Crocker

Tomorrow we is our 1 Yr Blogiversary and celebrate we will! 

I can hardly believe it!

And we will announce the winner of the 

Red Keurig Mini Brewer 

BIG GIVEAWAY!! 

Only a few hours left to enter if you haven't already!

Click HERE to enter!

See ya tomorrow!

Guest Post: Raspberry Chocolate Macaroons

I love when my sister guest posts! 

She always has the best recipes. 

Here recipes are some of the most popular on this blog! 

I knew I had to have her contribute a recipe 

for 1 Yr Blogiversary Celebration Week 

since she has been such a BIG part of this blog from the beginning. 

I asked her to come up with an awesome Valentine's Recipe, 

and she did not disappoint. 

She really loooooves Macaroons so this was the perfect 

Valentine's Day recipe for her! 

Bon appetit!

Raspberry Chocolate Macaroons

Shopping List:

1 C Confectioner's Sugar

3/4 C Almond Flour

2 lg Egg Whites, room temperature

pinch of Cream of Tartar

1/4 C Superfine Sugar

Chocolate Ganache:

3 oz. fine-quality bittersweet chocolate (60-64%), finely chopped

1/3 cup heavy cream

1 tablespoon unsalted butter, soften

1/8 teaspoon raspberry extract

Method:

1.     Pulse confectioners’ sugar and almond flour in a food processor until combined. I don’t have one so I just used a whisk. Sift mixture 2 times

1. 2.     Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Whisk whites with mixer on medium speed until foamy. Add cream of tartar, and keep whisking until soft peaks form.
   3.     Reduce speed and add superfine sugar. Increase to speed to high and whisk until stiff peaks form. (approx. 8 minutes)
   4.     Sift flour mixture over the egg whites and fold the mixture until smooth and shiny. Be careful not to under or over mix the batter.
   5.     Place a pastry bag inside a glass so that you can easily scoop batter into the pastry bag. Twist the bag right above the tip before adding the mixture so it doesn’t start seeping out before you’re ready to pipe!
   
   
   
   6.     Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Evenly space ¾ inch round cookie shells by swirling the batter in a circle and lifting up in the middle. Once you pipe all the shells that will fit, pick up the cookie sheet and tap it against the counter as to release air bubbles and flatten out the peaks formed when lighting up with the piping bag.
   
   
   
   7.     Let stand for 15 minutes to adjust to room temperature. When putting the sheet into the oven reduce the heat to 350 degrees. Bake for 10 minutes and at the halfway point, rotate the sheet. Repeat until you’ve used all your batter.
   8.     Let cookie shells cool completely. If you have trouble with the shells sticking to the paper spray the hot sheet with water. The steam will help release them.
   
   9.     Pair up like-size cookie shells and pipe the raspberry chocolate ganache onto shells and carefully sandwich together.

Raspberry Chocolate Ganache:

11.  Melt chocolate and heavy cream in a double boiler.

22. Remove from heat and add butter and raspberry extract.

33. Stir and let stand until cooled complete and slightly thickened.

44. Scoop thickened ganache into piping bag and evenly pipe the ganache amongst the macaroons.

Recipe adapted from Martha Stewart

Only a few days left to enter our Red Keurig Mini Brewer BIG GIVEAWAY!  

Click HERE to enter!!

Tomorrow I'll be sharing the perfect Valentine's Day Dinner Menu 

for You and Your Sweetie! See you then!

Valentine's Day Recipes: Cupcakes & Chocolate-y Chili

It's Valentine's Week!  

We have some super fun Valentine's recipes to share with you 

this week including a guest post from my sister Hannah, 

and a Valentine's Day Menu for You and Your Sweetie! 

And all of this while celebrating our 1 Yr Blogiversary! 

On Wednesday we will announce the winner 

of our Red Keurig Mini Brewer giveaway - which means you only 

have a few days left to enter!! 

Click HERE if you haven't had the chance. 

It's going to be a GREAT week! 

Let's start with two awesome recipes that leave your tastebuds feeling loved!

Red Velvet Chocolate Chip Cupcakes 

with Peppermint Frosting

This was the first recipe on my blog I invented myself! 

I was nervous about how it would turn out. 

But I was so pleasantly surprised! 

They turned out so cute and sooo delicious!

Click HERE for the recipe.

Chocolate-y Crockpot Chili 

What is Valentine's Day without chocolate?! 

Ugh. I can't even imagine. 

In fact, this week our Valentine's Day Recipe for You and Your Sweetie 

is going to be chocolate-themed. Yes, you heard me. Chocolate-themed. 

As in chocolate is an ingredient in Every. Course. Yum. 

But this Chocolate-y Crockpot Chili is so good and super quick and easy. 

This week, choose a night you don't much time to spare, 

but still want to feel in the spirit of Valentine's. 

Your loved ones will thank you!

Click HERE for the recipe.

In case you missed our DIY Gift Ideas Post,
click HERE to see some great ideas
including this DIY House Warming Gift!

We will see you tomorrow for a guest post 

from my sister Hannah on some delicious Valentine's macaroons!!

DIY: House Warming Gift

 Happy Friday! 

Today we have another DIY project you. 

I am currently trying to build some go-to gift ideas for friends and family. 

I'm not talking Christmas of Birthday gifts. 

I'm talking about those little gifts that pop up 

throughout the year - Baby Shower, Bridal Shower,
Wedding, Graduation, Hostess gifts etc. 

These gifts I always want to be thoughtful, 

but I don't want to break the bank. 

Recently some friends of ours bought a new house, 

and I went looking for a housewarming gift. 

I turned to Pinterest for some inspiration and settled on a "Jar Gift." 

Here are some examples: 

Baby Jar Gift, Spa Jar Gift, 
Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Mix Jar Gift, Graduation Jar Gift

I decided to create my own Housewarming "jar gift." 

When creating a jar gift, it is important to choose a theme to guide you. 

It could be a color, and type of product, a hobby theme; 

anything you want really. 

But the bottom line is choose a theme to tie it all together. 

Since I was in need of a housewarming gift, 

I choose cleaning supplies as my product theme and lemon yellow as my color scheme. 

Here is what I came up with:

Housewarming Jar Gift

Shopping List:
(The following are ideas, 
but please feel free to choose 
your own products)

A large (128oz) jar

(I got mine from Walmart)

Lemon Pine-sol

Lemon Palmolive Dish Soap

Kitchen Lemon Bath & Body Works Hand Soap

Sparkling Lemon Yankee Candle

Yellow Dish Sponges

Yellow Dish Towels

Lemons

Decorative Ribbon

Another Idea: 

I LOVE Mrs. Meyer's Cleaning Products! 

Great gift idea!

Method:

1. Arrange items in jar.

2. Tie ribbon around the jar

3. Attach gift tag.

4. Gift!

Right now, my go-to wedding gift is one of these 

AWESOME personalized gifts from Richwood Creations!! 

They have BEAUTIFUL stuff and since it is personalized, 

it will be unique for your special Bride & Groom.  

I also love them because all proceeds go to 

Young Life in West Virginia so you can feel good 

about a good product that supports a worthy ministry!

Click HERE to see their shop and check out some of their stuff!

Don't forget, it's almost our 1 Yr Blogiversary!!

And we have a BIG GIVEAWAY going you don't want to miss! 

Win a Red Keurig Mini Brewer! 

Click HERE to enter!

Don't forget to watch the Olympic Opening Ceremonies 

tonight and cheer on Team USA!!