Headband Holder

They say necessity is the mother of invention, and boy did we have a necessity here at our house.  On our main floor, we have a tiny half bathroom under the stairs.  It is the only bathroom on that floor, so is used for guests and family alike.  It came with a beautiful pedestal sink.  Pedestal sinks can be lovely, but there is zero storage.  If you have three little girls and zero storage, you are in for a world of hurt.  If you have three little girls with zero storage, AND a ton of hair AND about 5 billion hair accessories, you are in for a world of chaos!  One day I got a little portable plastic tower of drawers, which helped immensely!  Combs, brushes, and hair ties went in the top drawer, while fingernail polishes went in the second smaller drawer. We put all of our headbands and bows in one of the larger drawers.  Only trouble was, pulling a headband out on a busy school morning meant they would tangle together and the drawer could not close.  

The next person to grab a headband or bow would dig to the bottom and the whole mess would fall all over the floor.  We would come home from school and the bathroom looked like a complete disaster after our morning rush. It's hard standing at the sink trying to wash you hands, while trying traversing a sea of pokey headbands.   I had seen on Pinterest the idea of making a headband holder out of either an empty oatmeal box container, or a roll of paper towels.  Some of these things were crazily decorated, and a little on the gaudy side. Okay a LOT on the gaudy side.  Not only did I not want to gift wrap a roll of paper towels, I didn't want to eat 12,000 bowls of oatmeal just to empty my pretty full container of quick oats.  Suddenly.. it HIT me.  I knew EXACTLY what was a perfect head band size. Though it's original intention for use was no where near close to what I was going to use it for... but enter in the tubular toilet paper holder!!

I ran to the store and picked up one of these lovely stainless steel toilet paper storage towers for under $10.  It turns out this was the absolutely PERFECT size for headbands.  I immediately pull out by drawer of tangled headband-ness and went to work.  Look how beautiful it turned out!

A headband tower you can be proud of!

Well of course I put them in rainbow order!  Not only is it pretty, but functional.  The girls can quickly find the color that matches their outfit.  To top it all off, you can still use this thing for toilet paper storage if you want.  We actually put our flat iron and our curling iron in here to free up even more drawer space.  We also kept the brown and black headbands in the drawer (in case you were wondering about them), now that there was plenty of room.

Check out our headbands now!  It sits nicely on the back of our little stack of drawers looking all organized and easy to get to!  I so love this idea more than the other options that were out there. It's really given our tiny bathroom not only a pop of color, but solved one of our daily getting ready issues with organization!  Hooray.

Oven-Roasted Fajitas

As soon as I saw this recipe idea for oven-baked fajitas on Pinterest, I knew I wanted to try it.  What is more appealing than tossing a few simple ingredients into a pan, throwing it into the oven, and poof, an hour later, you've got yourself a Mexican fiesta?  Sounds like a win-win to me!!  But would it actually work?  Well, think of me as your Pinterest recipe testing guru, and I'm here to report... it worked DELICIOUSLY!!

Oven roasted fajitas - you're gonna wanna make these!

Okay, so in the original recipe over at Budget Bytes, they made their own fajita seasoning, I just stream-lined it a bit and used a pre-made packet of seasoning.  First you are going to need just a few simple ingredients:

1 medium onion, cut into slices
1-3 bell peppers (green, orange, red, yellow) sliced into strips
2-3 large chicken breasts, sliced into thin strips
1 packet fajita seasoning
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 lime
salt, pepper, or seasoning salt to taste
cooking spray
a 9x13 or even better a 10x15 pan
flour tortillas for serving

Get out your veggies... (full printable recipe found at the end of the post)

I LOVE the pops of color and flavor bell peppers add to food!

Slice them up into long strips and throw them in a glass pan that has been sprayed with cooking spray

The whole purpose of oven baking these fajitas, is to give them a nice, roasted flavor.  They will need a lot of room for air to circulate, so I started these out in  a 9x13 pan, but then realized the peppers and onions were rather crowded.  I then switch things out to my larger 10x15 pan, and that seemed to be more conducive to roasting.  Slice up the chicken into thinner strips.  I find this the easiest to do if they are still partially frozen.

Next get your favorite packet of fajita seasoning and sprinkle it over the whole pan

 
Next, add 2 tablespoons of olive oil

Then mix together with your hands until everything is nicely coated.

Sprinkle on a dash of seasoning salt (or salt and pepper) and squeeze half a lime over the pan, and they are ready to go into a 400º oven.  By the way, the original recipe said to roast them for 40 minutes with one stir in the middle, but since my chicken was not all the way defrosted, I added a little extra time.  I roasted these for 1 hour, and stirred them up at the 30 minute mark (half way through).  When the timer dings, your house will smell so delicious.

  
Add some seasoning salt one more time and squeeze more lime juice over the pan for a nice, bright flavor enhancer.

You can see that along the edges of the pan, the veggies and onions are charred, giving it that restaurant style look and flavor.

After that, you just need some flour tortillas and place some of your fajita filling in the middle, fold it up and you are ready to serve!

These turned out fabulous!

I was worried before I tried this recipe, that there would not be enough "fajita" flavor if the meat was not marinated, but I am happy to report it had a wonderful roasted fajita flavor throughout the meat and vegetables.  We saved the left overs and it made for delicious lunches the next day too.  I will be adding this into our regular dinner rotation now due to how easy these are to whip up, and how awesome they taste.  Try this recipe at home and let me know how you like it. Here is a link to the full printable recipe. Enjoy!!

Heart-Themed Party

Well, as promised.  I am giving you more ideas for a heart-themed party.  My daughter actually planned this for her birthday party when she turned seven.  Her birthday is in November, shortly after Halloween, so pink and red heart-shaped things are very hard to come by in a sea of orange, black and purple harvest items.  Thank goodness she is a planner (a chip off the ol' block I tell you), and told me her idea for her birthday ten months in advance, so I could take advantage of all the 50% off Valentine sales mid February.  This is one of my keys for thrifty party planning.  If you know far in advanced what the theme will be, you can pick up sale and clearance items along the way, all year long.

It was all about heart shaped things at our heart-themed birthday party

Well, the first thing we decided to do was get heart themed party items at the dollar store and of course Valentine's clearance.  They had paper plates, napkins, favor bags and buckets, all for, you guessed it, $1 or less if you hit a sale.  I always buy extra tablecloths to help decorate flat surfaces around the house.  Just cut them to the width you need and you are good to go.  Even these cute, extremely fancy bags were found on clearance.  I will often use the bags or presents found in the theme in the entry of the party to add to the decor.

These little buckets are filled with some garden foam blocks that had been cut into smaller pieces and stuffed with one piece of shiny tissue, a long dowel that had been cut to make many smaller dowels, and a foam heart shape taped on.  I made a few of these and used them as centerpieces around the house.

I used the same tablecloths and matching paper favor bags to add a cohesiveness to the rooms.  The favor bags were filled with clearance Valentine's toys.

I line the favor bags up on the fireplace mantle to help add to the room decorations

Another mention about the decor.  I found on clearance a TON of these adorable heart-shaped ornaments.  I wasn't sure at the time what I was going to do with them... but knew I could use them somehow. You can't passed up $1 for 25 ornaments, right?  Then a thought struck me a few weeks before the party.  What if we put our tree up a month early (it was November) and deck it out with the mini hearts and some pink ornaments we already had on hand? It felt slightly wrong to put up the tree before Thanksgiving, but for this theme it really worked adorably. It made quite a statement as people came in the door.  Plus it was a bonus, the tree was already up and ready to go for the Christmas holiday season.  Oh, and by the way, it doesn't hurt to dress your birthday person in the heart theme as well.

We knew we wanted a heart-shaped cake.   I bought two heart pans in the holiday clearance for mere pennies (score!) But with friends from school, and then our big family coming later in the day, I would need more than one kind of cake.

I had read in Family Fun magazine that year about an easy way to make heart shaped cupcakes as well, using a regular muffin tin and glass marbles.  Click here for a full tutorial on how to make them.

These were a BIG hit with the party goers.

For drinks I served pink raspberry soda (sold in 2 liter bottles) but for added fun, a few days before the party, I made a ton of heart-shaped ice cubes from some silicone molds I got on clearance.  I made them out of Crystal light strawberry orange banana flavor, but you could use any flavor.  The kids really got a kick out of their heart-shaped ice cubes floating in their drinks.

For food I went pretty simple.  Sometimes our food themes go over the top, but this year it was simple sandwiches, chips, fruits and veggies.  I try to put them on heart-shaped plates, and cut the sandwiches into hearts as well.

For crafts, we had two.  If you have a larger number of kids coming to the party, I have found it is sometimes easier if you have two crafts happening at the same time.  Half the party peeps can do one craft in one room... and the other half can finish a different craft in another room.  If you only have enough money for one craft, I usually make the other craft a stack of free printable coloring pages in the party theme.  Having two crafts at once works well if you are tight on space.  For example, in one room, we had a simple heart sticker craft, with foam letters and shapes.  The kids had a great time designing their pictures.

In the kitchen, we had them make bracelets with heart-shaped beads.

Games! Of course what's a party without games?  We always try to make our theme match the games we play.  We had three great ideas.  The first idea was to play the "Achy Breaky Heart Game".  This was like "hot potato" only we had a heart that was filled with strawberry candy.  We played Achy Breaky Heart as they passed the heart around.  If they passed too hard, the heart would break open and they were out.  If the music stopped when they had the heart, they were out (and of course were heart broken).

They look pretty chipper here...

If you are going to play an elimination game like musical chairs or hot potato, it is good to have a consolation prize.  We said if you got "out" you were able to have a heart sucker.  That way, no one really minds being out, and they are happy to enjoy a small treat while they watch the rest of the game play.

The next game we played was the "Wandering Hearts Game".  This was like musical chairs, only we had foam heart shapes on the floor and they had to walk around and land on a heart when the music stopped.  

Having a fun time in the wandering hearts game

We played "Queen of Hearts" for this song.  My hubby, by the way, had a great time making a CD of music for the party with only songs that had the word "heart" in them.  "You'll be in my Heart", "Heart Breaker", Don't go breaking my Heart", "Heart of Glass", Wild at Heart"... The third and final game we called "Love is Blind".  Players would be blindfolded with an empty bowl and a large spoon, next to a pile of cotton balls.  They then had 30 seconds to try and find the cotton balls, using only the spoon and no hands.  The cotton balls are so light weight, they are hard to feel, so you never know how many are going into the bowl.

Sometimes NONE go in the bowl

 The kids loved this game.

The people that are watching are laughing so hard at the people scooping up mostly air.  A good time was had by all during this game.  I highly recommend it.  Matter of fact there was a few adults who took a very competitive liking to this game!

The birthday girl's aunt Jenny really going to town on the Love is Blind game.

After the games it was cake and present time!

Love this girl!!

The party turned out to be a big success.  I love it when you can plan way in advanced and really get a lot of theme, for not a lot of money.  I also love the challenge of letting my girls pick a theme that is not necessarily a "normal" birthday party theme, where you can easily find plates and cups in the birthday section at the store.  Having a "rainbow" or a "heart party" can be tricky. Working food, games, shapes, and crafts into your theme, while still keeping an end budget in mind can be challenging.   Feel free to use some of these fun heart-shaped ideas in an upcoming Valentine party at work or school.  Enjoy!

Superbowl "BOOM" Cake (Pistachio Cake with pourable frosting)

Well everyone around here is getting ready for the biggest football game of the year, the Superbowl!  You must know by now how much I adore coordinating theme colors into my food selections, so what better way to rev up your team spirit than with a tasty cake in your team colors? 

A Superbowl "boom" cake inspired by the Seahawks team colors

A few months back on pinterest I saw a recipe for a pistachio bundt cake that had a lovely lime green coloring to it.  I wasn't too sure if we would like a pistachio flavor, but tucked that lime green color into the back of my head in case I ever needed a green themed food.  When I realized our home team's highlight color was indeed the color lime, coupled with the fact that I was in charge of bringing a dessert to the party, a light bulb went off.  I could make a yummy lime green cake and top it with Seahawks colors.  Perfect.

After reading through the comment section of the original recipe for this cake, I modified it slightly.  Here is how I made it and what you will need: (full printable recipe found at the end of the post)

Ingredients:

1 box (Duncan Hines) white cake mix
1 3.2 oz box of pistachio pudding mix
3 eggs
1 cup of water
1/4 cup of oil
2 teaspoons almond extract
7 drops of green food coloring

In a bowl, mix together the white cake mix and the pistachio pudding mix.  You want to use Duncan Hines cake mix specifically, because they do not already add pudding into their mix.

Then add in 3 eggs, 1 cup of water, 1/4 cup of oil, 2 teaspoons almond extract and the green food coloring.  

Beat with an electric mixer for 2 minutes until blended together

Meanwhile, grease and flour a bundt cake pan very well.

Pour the cake batter into the pan, make sure it goes in evenly.

With this lovely green color, I'm thinking this cake will work great for St. Patrick's day or for a nice spring-hued cake

Bake in the oven at 350º for 45-50 minutes.  When it comes out, it will look like this:

The one, main trick to ANY bundt cake, is to set a timer for 10 minutes after the cake comes out of the oven.  You will want to turn this cake out on a serving plate while it is still quite warm, or it won't come out of the pan very well.  So with oven mitts and a steady hand, flip this cake out onto a large plate.

Let the cake completely cool on the plate.  Now comes the fun part.  I had seen (again, thank you pinterest), a technique using regular store bought frosting in the microwave.  Heating it up slightly made it a pourable, drizzle-able glaze of sorts.  I had never tried anything thing like this, but for the 3-color vision in my head, I wanted to see if it would work.  First, I split the tub of frosting into three sections.

Two small, microwave safe bowls, and the left over I was going to leave white in the tub.  I nuked the tub for 10 seconds, then took it out to stir.  It was a little thick, so I added 1 teaspoon of milk and microwaved it for 10 more seconds. 

Now the consistency was nice and loose, and I felt it would be a good drizzling thickness.  Holding the tub right over the cake, I dipped in a large spoon, held it up and starting running my hand back and forth over the ring.

 
It is okay if it drips down onto the plate, or inside the ring.  Next, I dyed one of the bowls with blue food coloring and stirred it up.  Using the same technique I did with the white, which was 10 seconds in microwave, stir, add 1 tsp of milk, 10 more seconds, then it was ready to drizzle.

I had so much fun with this I forgot to show the blue layer.  Next came the green layer.  To get a more lime green color, I used the regular green dye at first, but then added a couple drops of the neon green food coloring to give it that oomph it needed to be truly lime green.

Use the same microwave, melting, milk, stirring process as the other two colors and drizzle away.  Here is an aerial view of the cake.  After the three main thick colors, I went back over with the white and did a very thin top layer to bring out all three colors better.

This thing looks like an explosion of color, which is why I decided to call it a "BOOM" cake.

You bring this to a Superbowl party and I promise any die hard fan will go NUTS over this. My favorite part of this cake is the surprise lime green center that no one will be expecting.

Yummy yummy... I should probably serve this with a side of Skittles...

It's hard not to dive right in.  Here's a close up of the ring after a slice has been cut.  The pistachio flavor, by the way, was very mild.  I could almost not taste a big difference in flavor, but it slightly reminded me of Spumoni ice cream you would get after dinner at the Spaghetti Factory.  If you do not have pistachio flavor, you could totally use vanilla pudding and then you would also be free to dye the center any team color you wanted.

The great thing about this idea is, you can pick any colors you want.  I was so surprised that the melting the frosting, turned it into a pourable glaze and really worked pretty awesome.  Especially on a bundt cake where normally your only options are a dusting of powdered sugar.  But I imagine you could do a strawberry cake with different shades of red white and pink for Valentine's day.  You could do orange and purple and black over a chocolate cake for Halloween.  You could do pastel colors for a cute Easter cake.  You could make it any sports team colors.  I fell in LOVE with this idea!  I really did.  Let me know if you make a cake like this and what color theme you used.  For link to full printable recipe, click here.  Enjoy!!