Tasty Tuesday: Bridal Shower Foods

September 18, 2012 by · 7 Comments

You might have seen yesterday, that this weekend was Beth’s bridal shower thrown by the bridesmaids and since I’m a bridesmaid (highly doubt you would have missed that by now) I had a job to do. I volunteered to do the dessert part of our spread.

Kate (Beth’s sister) had us all pick what we wanted to do so I chose Cake balls and Oreo cookie balls. I’m on Pinterest so I totally thought it would be doable. I am going to give you the recipes and the how to make said cake balls, and even a few pointers of what they do when they completely fail at 10pm the night before the shower and a race you have to wake up at 5 o’clock to get to!

Kate is also blogging today about the other shower snacks! You can find that information over on her blog! You should totally check it out for any future snacking you would like to partake in and/or some other awesome recipes!

Oreo Cake Balls

1 package of oreos
1 8 oz package of cream cheese softened
White melting chocolate (for your sanity DO NOT buy this kind )
You really should probably buy this kind instead (trust me!)

How to:

Crush the Oreos in a blender, or if you are angry at the world you could pound them with a hammer. Just make sure they are as small as you can get it.

Mix in the entire package of cream cheese. It will end up being a ball of cookie mush.

Ball the mixture into the size you would like and then place in the refrigerator. I would recommend freezing them over night because when they are not hard enough they fall through the sticks and it is a holy annoying mess. You could also just never put them on sticks and life might be easier.

So you might guess, the next step is to place them on sticks and dip them in the melting chocolate and you are done.

Hint: Keep refrigerated until you are ready to serve if they are on sticks they won’t stay!

Cakeballs

Cake Mix
Icing
Melting chocolate (again use the candy melts not the other one)

How to:

Bake the cake using the regular directions. Once baked, let cool and crumble the cake into the smallest pieces that you can.

Mix in the icing- the original way I saw this was to use the entire jar of icing, I think this was part of the reason that these bad boys didn’t work, sooooo in the future I will probably use about half so that they are not as moist (eww I hate that word)!

Once mixed, ball the cake and freeze. Once frozen dip in the melted chocolate and you are done!

Hint: too much icing in the mix, not freezing and only refrigerating, and using the wrong chocolate will give you a holy mess that looks much like the picture! While my cake balls failed miserably, I did figure out how to fix them by using the hints above.

If all else fails you could always get your husband on the phone with every Starbucks that will wait for you to get there before they close and ask them for all their cake balls. Then you can buy melting chocolate and cover them in whatever color you need. See! No one would ever know!

I figured I would include some extra pics of the shower just because it was so cute! Beth also has a super crafty Sister in law (She blogs too- Shocking, I know) Tiffany made tons of cute decoration pieces and snacks as well!

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So there you have it! The showering aspect of our weekend! 🙂  Please be advised we are not claiming cake balls are healthy….we are sharing the recipe and parts of our lives right now with you. Ha. Tomorrow we’ll finally let you  know ALLLL about Tour des Fleurs! 🙂

Oh, and additionally it should be noted that Teal’s Oreo cakeballs were WAY BETTER than Starbucks! Sorry Starbucks! We know we are already kind of a traitor to you with our Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf obsession! Only 10 more days until a CBTL opens in Dallas! 🙂  Ok, that’s all from us for real now.

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Tasty Tuesday: Mini Ham & Cheese Quinoa Cups

August 14, 2012 by · 4 Comments

Thank you pinterest for this recipe find which also lead to a new blog — Iowa Girl Eats!  Not sure how we haven’t stumbled upon Kristin’s blog or her on twitter yet, but glad we finally did!  Not only is she giving her readers tasty recipes to try but she’s also a runner – like us!

Recently I was on the search for some sort of mini quiche, mini frittata, or something of that nature for a baby shower and I stumbled upon the mini ham & cheese quinoa cups. I gave them a test run the week of the shower,  thought they were fabulous and was ready to count them as a part of my contribution to the shower food!

This recipe makes 28 mini cups and calls for –

Ingredients:

2 cups cooked quinoa (about 3/4 cup uncooked)

2 eggs

2 egg whites

1 cup zucchini, shredded

1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese

1/2 cup diced ham

1/4 cup parsley, chopped

2 Tablespoons parmesan cheese

2 green onions, sliced

salt & pepper to taste

To get started preheat that oven to 350 degrees and get going on cooking and chopping up the ingredients!  Follow the instructions on the box of your quinoa to cook it correctly.

My favorite vegetable chopping/slicing contraption!!

Combine ALL of the ingredients into a large mixing bowl and mix it all up!

Grab your mini muffin pans and spray them with a non-stick spray and don’t just lightly spray make sure you really cover the pans with the non-stick spray.  Begin spooning out the mixture into each muffin pan.

I used normal size muffin pans on my first go ’round

The recipe calls for cooking them about 15-20 minutes, but I either have always had the slowest cooking oven in the world or….well, I don’t know what.  I definitely left them in the oven for more like 25-30 minutes, so just make sure to watch the sides and when they start to turn a golden brown you are safe to take them out of the oven.  Give them about 5 minutes to cool then remove the quinoa cups from the muffin pan.

There you go! Cute little delicious Ham & Cheese Quinoa Cups.  Next I’ll have to get brave and experiment with different ingredients!

And here is how the nutrition stacks up on the quinoa cups –

Should also add that these mini cups reheat well. If you were to make them for say a baby shower or something similar like I did the mix does well if you make it the night before, refrigerate and cook them the next day.  Or you could simply make about half the recipe, save the rest of the mix and make it the next day.

Are you a big quinoa fan? What’s your favorite recipe involving quinoa?

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Tasty Tuesday: Mason Jar Salads

June 12, 2012 by · 11 Comments

I am sure you guys have seen these if you are on Pinterest at all, but I really hadn’t paid much attention to them until I got to start actually eating lunch with adults at school again! My friend from work came in with her salad in a mason jar and I wanted to try it! Here it is in steps! I am super excited about this, I used to bring my salads in a plastic bag but this seams way easier with the dressing and everything!

I bought 12 mason jars for less than 10 bucks- I am just using the extra as cups!  Then follow these steps:

  1. Place your favorite dressing at the very bottom: I used Newman’s Own Organic Balsamic
  2. Place something that can be used as a barrier and you wouldn’t mind being soaked in the dressing- I used bell pepper
  3. Layer on what you want! These salads have mushrooms, red onions, cherry tomatoes, craisins, and ½ cup of cooked quinoa
  4. After you have placed in everything you want pile in as much lettuce as you can fit! I used an organic spring mix!
  5. Store and eat. Everything I have found says that they will keep for a week!

Nutrition info in case you were curious brought to you by myfitnesspal

292 calories

58 carbs- if this is too high for you take out the craisins: they have 25 grams

6 grams of fat

7 grams of protein

**Advocare Note: If you make this recipe during your 10 day cleanse you’ll need to count quinoa as your one carb for the day AND for salad dressing you’ll need to use either oil & vinegar or lime juice**

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