Two weeks~ Blessed & Grateful

Last year I had hosted my first Thanksgiving Dinner at our home. 

 We enjoyed it very much & I wanted to share with you the simple yet elegant(if I don't say) table setting and other decor...........

I chose to make a simple banner with the words 

"Blessed & Grateful" because that is what I truly am! 

Seasonal Decor

Large hurricane filled with nuts and pine cones, 

inside a smaller glass container to hold the sticks

Place setting with our menu and a pear 

My favorite part was the cornucopia filled with fresh greens, apples and orange roses

Greens aren't just for Christmas Season, 

add fall colors for a perfect Thanksgiving arrangement

Very simple "kids" table~ printed off some coloring pages as an activity while we ate (can you see they got to the table before I took the photo ;))

Our First Turkey!  With lots of help from my Mom! 

Desserts~ Apple & Pumpkin Pies & Chocolate Covered  Oreo's

How about you?  Do you host or travel to your family for Thanksgiving?  What is you favorite part about Thanksgiving?  

Peace, Love & Gratitude,

Stacy

Decorate it yourself cakes with custom Fondant Pieces!

In the last year I have had the opportunity to create custom fondant pieces for some very colorful and creative parties!  Just want to share some of the photos! 

Buying a professionally decorated cake from a bakery is not cheap.  But baking a cake yourself, with your little ones or buying an undecorated simply iced cake from your store and adding your own fondant pieces most certainly is affordable and FUN! 

2nd Birthday cake for a Berry Harvest Theme store bought cake at Wegman's. 

Match this invitation 

Berry invitation found here

Flower Fondant pieces for Project Nursery at the Plush Event

Polka Dot & Posie Cake for a 4th birthday

Elephant & polka dots for a baby shower as seen on Hostess with the Mostess

Matching invitation~

Barbie silhouette and a flowers for a fun tween! 

My 12 yr old's cookie cake that she designed & decorated!

Store bought cake before 

Store bought cake after - Pottery Barn Kids event with Project Nursery & Fresh Chick Designs

One of my favorites!! Designed & Decorated by Fresh Chick Designs 

Matching invitation ~

Like to make a statement with your cake?  This is certainly an affordable way to do it! 

Check back soon for more photos of decorate it yourself cakes!  

Peace, Love & Fab DIY Mom Cakes,

Stacy

Zucchini Nutella Blueberry Bread

My favorite summer bread that I have made numerous times this summer!  Easy treat to bake to give as a hostess gift for your Labor Day BBQ!

Zucchini Nutella Blueberry Bread

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
¼ teaspoon baking powder
2 tablespoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon coarse salt

1 ½ cups sugar

3 room eggs temperature

4 oz container plain applesauce

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

½ cup canola oil

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 cups freshly grated zucchini (2 small zucchini or 1 large approximately)

1 cup blueberries

Nutella

1. Preheat oven 350

2. Spray your loaf pan wth non stick baking spray

3. In a bowl put the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon and carefully mix ingredients with a dry whisk.
4. In a separate bowl mix together eggs, oil, applesauce, sugar, zucchini and vanilla until very well combined.

5.Gently pour flour mixture into egg mixture and combine by foldng & give a good blend at the end.

6. Take the blueberries with a bit of flour and gently toss (this helps them from falling to the bottom of the batter) and gently fold them into the batter.

Pour the batter into the baking pan. Then drop 3 dollops of Nutella onto the top of the batter and gently with a knife spread through the batter, as the picture shows

Bake for 45-55 before removing from oven test with a toothpick and make sure it comes out clean or alteast dry from the ingrediants not the Nutella.

Enjoy the treat!  I have shared this bread with many this summer & everyone love t and s very surprised to find it isn’t made with butter! 

Peace, Love & Nutella Zucc Bread,

Stacy





Peanut Butter Pie for In Jennie’s Kitchen

This morning I read the story on the blog i.am.mommy, of a fellow blogger, Jennie, the editor of In Jennie’s Kitchen who lost her husband Mikey suddenly.

I lost my father suddenly when I was fourteen, twenty three years ago. When I read Jenni’s heartbreaking post of losing her husband Mikey, I immediately thought of my Mom. Sudden loss of anyone at any age breaks my heart because I know the feeling all too well, and I consistently pray to never have to experience that as a wife & mother.

I couldn’t help but not honor Jenni & her family by making a peanut butter pie today as many of us are as per her request. Also, the area in where I live tragically lost two teenagers last weekend to a horrific car accident, both boys were only 19. The accident was actually right up the street from where we grew up.   I have offered up a lot this past week as a mother, knowing that 2 local Mom’s who are struggling, would do anything for their boys to be here with them. Sometimes it is hard to remember while we live our daily lives to remember that nothing on earth is a guarantee, unfortunately. This movement of making & sharing a peanut butter pie with our loved one's to me, is a kind reminder to never take our loved one’s & family for granted……….

For the Perillo, Coombs & Nadel families, you & your loved one's are all in my family’s prayer today.

God Bless,

Stacy & Family

My peanut butter pie for the one's I love…………..

The pie is a first for me & was short for time so I used this one from the Food Network and modified it a bit.......it was scrumptious for sure~

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup peanut butter

• 1 cup powdered sugar

• 1/4 cup milk

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese

• 1 (8-ounce) tub whipped topping

• Melted Chocolate

• 1 cookie pie crust (recommended: Oreo)

Directions

In large bowl combine all the ingredients except the toppings and crust. Blend with a hand mixer. Gently fold in ½ of the whipped topping; pour into prepared crust and freeze for 2 hours. Once frozen, remove from freeze and put the remainder of the whipped cream on top and drizzle with melted chocolate, re-freeze for 20 minutes.

Thaw slightly before serving and cut into thin slices because this is a rich pie.

You can view many more Peanut Butter Pie Recipes that were used to bake a pie for Mikey here on the Food Network

S’More Brownie Bites

S’Mores Brownie Bites!

Happy National S’Mores Day! Like many s’mores are my favorite summer treat! Like some don’t have the luxury of an open fire pit to toasts these scrumptious treats up! I am sharing with you "my make in my kitchen" s’more treats!

What you need~
Browne mix
Graham cracker crumbs
Marshmallows
Mini cupcake pan
Non stick spray

Pre-heat your oven to 350. Prepare the graham crumbs according to the directions, I used Keebler brand melt the butter and mix in the crumbs. Prepare the brownie mix. Spray your mini pan with non stick spray, fill each one with the graham cracker crumbs to cover each slot. Spoon in your brownie mix like so~

Bake for 14 minutes. While baking cut your marshmallows into four pieces. Remove the brownies after 14 minutes and quickly place the cut marshmallows pieces into the center of the brownie and put back into the over for another 2-3 minutes.

Remove from the oven and let cool n the pan at least one hour. Carefully remove the treats from the pan you may need to go around each one with a knife. When you are ready to serve turn on your broiler and place the treats on a baking sheet. Now for the brownies in the pictures, I cut regular size marshmallows n ½ and placed on top of the brownie. You can certainly use a whole one on each!

Place under the broiler, I love my s’mores to be extra toasty this took me 1 minute and 30 seconds! Remove and serve these tasty scrumptious s’more brownie treats!

Pop them onto a stick for the full effect of roasting your s’mores outdoors!

Enjoy!

Peace, Love & S’more Browne Bites,

Stacy

The Oven is Off! Got out the Blender to keep cool!

What’s in your blender this week?

While 40 of our states including mine with one of the highest heat indexes today has been stuck under what they are calling a heat dome.  So what does that mean no oven on for me! Which by the way is a nice break however; I am having a hard time keeping my little ones entertained!

So I am not baking we pulled out the blender a few times to whip up something scrumptious for us to enjoy!

We thought t would be fun to share what we have thrown together to enjoy our smoothies! 

Here is what has gone in~

(mind my cell phone pics, wasn't planning on posting but figured why not make it fun & share!

1 peach sliced,

6 pieces of pineapple

1 container of strawberries

6 oz Chobani Greek yogurt

slash of orange juice, & a dash of honey

Measure however you wish, you can't go wrong  promise! 

And if you wish add some sugar or splenda to make it sweeter! 

The second one (my favorite)

Watermelon

Blueberries

Strawberries

Peach Chobani Greek Yogurt

Splash of Orange Juice

Again, can't go wrong with how much just make sure you can blend t!

What kind of smoothies do you like to make or order?  Please share, have a feeling we will be making a lot more these next few weeks! 

Peace, Love & Smoothies!

Stacy

Happy Birthday America! July 4th {Free Tags}

I hope you all have a blessed, enjoyable & Happy 4th of July!  Before the weekend kicks off please take a moment and download these tags I created for you!  Any 2 inch punch will work! 

Also, check yesterday's post for sweet & easy treats and

 last year's little family celebration with easy DIY crafts & decor!

Dowload here - July4th Circles
Enjoy!  

Peace, Love & Independence,

Stacy