Bride-To-Be Cupcakes

One of the girls from my Boot Camp is getting married today, so I brought in Bride-To-Be cupcakes to yesterdays class (I know sugery treats to a workout class kinda taboo, but it's a special occasion)!

I'm posting about these because I think they turned out super cute and...Yummy! I tried more cake variations from my Cake Doctor and I HAVE to share the recipes with you!

Just testing out the water...LOL Greg don't freak out it's a joke (I know you will be reading this love ya)!

One of the flavors were Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, Oh yeah thats right a little bit of heaven.

Ingredients:

Cupcake Liners

1 package plain yellow cake mix

1 package vanilla instant pudding mix (3.4 oz)

1 cup milk

1 cup vegetable oil

4 large eggs

1 tsp.vanilla

1pkg frozen chocolate chip cookie dough (I bought the roll in the refrigerator section)

Mix all the ingredients together except for the cookie dough. Pour 1/4 of batter in each liner, cut the frozen cookie dough (I cut how you would cut it to make cookies and then cut in half, but...maybe it could use more lol). Place a piece of cookie dough on top of each cupcake and push down into the batter. Top each piece of cookie dough with a little extra batter to cover the dough. Bake 23-27 minutes, Top with icing of your choice! Yum!

With my left over chocolate cupcakes I made "I'm Sorry" cupcakes for my co-workers.

Buttermilk Devils Food Cake (A really moist and yummy choc. cake recipe)

Ingredients:

1 package plain devil's food cake mix.

3 tbs. unsweetened cocoa powder

1 1/3 cup buttermilk

1/2 cup vegetable oil

3 large eggs

1tsp. vanilla extract

Mix all ingredients, pour into prepared pans, bake 28-30 minutes and then lick the spatula (my favorite part lol). I hope you enjoy these recipes as much as we did!

God is Good!

Wowzers, after looking for 6 months and pretty much sending my resume everywhere our great god answered my prayers...and got me a brand spankin' new job!I am so excited, I am going to be teaching again woo woo!Well, subbing, but it's all the same, I got hired at Merryhill Private school as their site substitute (which means I will be going to this amazing school everyday). They have three teachers going on maternity leave, so I'll be just plug right in when their off having their lil love bugs. I am already falling in love with private schools lol, small class sizes, children coming from caring homes and a wonderfully close nit community of teachers and students -LOVE IT!My first placement probably will be in Kindergarten...and these kids are amazing!In order to even start Kindergarten they need to already know their letters, sounds, numbers and how to write their name (they are so capable, this should be expected of ALL kiddies)!When I was there yesterday they were already writing sentences (only 2nd month of school people).

Sad news is I feel horrible for quitting the after school program on the same day one of my other co-workers did. OUCH! Timing was horrible on this one, but I know it's best. And since I have to start at 7:30 each morning, no more boot camp :( ...I am going to miss the workouts (don't want to see my progress digress!)and more importantly the friends I have made-but hopefully we will still do movie nights and keep in touch.

Orzo and Feta Pasta Salad

Today, I made a super yummy pasta salad that Greg and I have become addicted to. We pretty much make it after every Costco run because we can get huge containers of Feta cheese and Kalamata olives for next to nothing- then we snack on it all week!We got this recipe from Claudia, and I love how little ingredients there are and they are o' so delicious together.

Here is the actual recipe, but as you could of guessed I usually add more cheese, olives and parsley then what's asked-just keep adding until it looks like enough!

Combine all the following ingredients, toss gently together:

16oz plain feta crumbles,1package orzo pasta,cooked,drained, cooled;1 container cherry tomatoes (I don't do tomatoes so I omit these), 1 cup pitted,kalamata olives (I slice ours in half), 1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley, 1/4 cup olive oil. 2tsp fresh squeezed lemon juice, add salt and pepper to taste.

And there you have it-YUM!

A Friends Footsteps...

My friend Keely came this weekend, and we had a relaxing fun filled girly weekend... having some much needed catch up time. It's funny how you don't realize how much you miss someone or something (friends) until you get them back for a bit and have to say bye again. Keely's one of those friends that no matter how long you haven't seen them in awhile when you do it's like you never have skipped a beat...and she is the type that even if you almost kill her by your terrible city driving skills she still smiles and laughs to make a joke to make ME feel better!
She got here sat, then are adventures begun. Lunch ...after a wild drive around the city.

We went to old town Sac where there was gold rush days, lots of vendors, people and horses. We tried on some silly stuff in stores...



Gave HOBO the monkey a dollar, boy he loved himself some suckers lol

Ice cream...it's a must!

The capital behind us.

Breakfast at the Tower Cafe, so GOOD a must try. I have been wanting to go here for awhile to try their famous frenchtoast... alot of other people had the same idea, but so worth the wait!

Pictures while waiting for a table.

Ok, the french toast is actually made out of french bread! Imagine that lol It's soaked in a custard for awhile before cooking and served with whipped butter. SOOOO yummy (I printed off an "imitation" version of it) and probably will give it a try next weekend, I am alreay craving it again! P.S the waitor made fun of me because I ordered apple juice (he asked me if I wanted it in a sippy cup) it's ok I got him back though when I asked him to cut my french toast into bite size pieces lol ;) There is nothing wrong with a 25 year old ordering apple juice right?...lol

We went to Fremont park where they were having a chalk it up event it was really cool to see all types of artwork all made with chalk! Here is a welcome to Sacramento one, we went to all the places shown other than Vic's Ice cream... that's next on my list of things to try.

So talented!

This was at the bottom of a drawing and Keely and I fell in love with this qoute.It described what are weekend was all about!

Bike ride along the river, we even saw a deer-it was a perfect night!

Pizza before she left.

Keely, I had an amazing time! Thank you so much for coming to visit me. You are very special to me and my sanity please know that I am always here for you and know the same of you to me. Come back anytime! Thanks for the great talks and hang time, love ya xoxo (p.s you will get everything you deserve out of life; love, happiness, support-someone as special as you has too!)

Short and Sweet.

So, I will keep this Birthday post short and sweet. Greg finally admitted that he is tired of me having to take pictures of everything lol. SO, in hopes i'm not boring you all too with the specifics of everything i'll keep this one simple.

Came home from bootcamp to flowers and pancakes. YUM!

Per my request, Greg made me chicken tacos mommy style. Umm double yum! (p.s I had already scarffed down one whole taco by the time Greg was done making his... lol Greg did good).


We went to Rick's Dessert Diner,...as the name suggests only desserts sold here-triple yum!

Thank you to everyone! I had an amazing birthday and every card, text, email, facebook post, call made me feel VERY special and blessed to have so many wonderful people in my life! xoxo