Favorite Recipe: Raspberry Pretzel Dessert Bars

Photo Courtesy of: BeckyBakes.net

So what do you do when you visit the grocery store and it's "buy one package of Raspberries, get two free"? You buy them of course and immediately go to Pinterest to find some recipes involving Raspberries. At least that's what I did. After perusing several recipes, I decided to try these Raspberry Pretzel Bars because well, they involved cream cheese. And whipped cream. COUNT. ME. IN.

Good news: Tom Thumb has the same Buy One, Get Two Free deal going all week!! I might be making another batch.... :)

What You Need:

• 1 1/2 cups crushed pretzels
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 8 oz. pkg cream cheese, softened
• 8 oz. container cool whip
• 6 oz. package raspberry jello
• 2 cups water, boiling
• 24 oz. raspberries (frozen or fresh)

What To Do:

Preheat oven to 325.

Crush enough pretzels (about 3 large handfuls) to make 1 1/2 cups of pretzel crumbs. Combine in a bowl with 1/2 cup sugar and your melted butter. Once well mixed, press into the bottom of a 9x13 pan. Bake for 6 minutes and then let cool.

In a separate bowl, cream together the softened cream cheese and the last 1/2 cup of sugar. Once well mixed, mix in the container of cool whip. Spread on top of the cooled crust with a spatula.

In yet another large bowl, pour 2 cups (2 1/2 cups if using fresh raspberries) boiling water over the package of raspberry jello. Whisk until the jello powder is completely dissolved. Once dissolved, add your raspberries and mix well. Place bowl into the freezer for about 1.5-2 hours, or until the mixture turns into the consistency of an egg white. Pour over the creamy layer. Refrigerate until the jello has set. Best if left untouched overnight!

Sorry for the ugly corner where Greg and I taste-tested this before approving!

I'm Getting Brave

So for about 3 years now, my bestie, Neely, has been trying to convince me to cut off my hair. Well, my friends, I think that time is dawning. My hair is longer than its ever been, its heavy, and I tend to feel like a hippy. Not to mention, since I have oddly wavy hair, it's getting to be a pain to fix every time I want to leave the house. With a hot summer quickly approaching, I think I'm finally going to take the dive. I think I'm chopping my hair off. I think. EEK! I would be lying if I told you I wasn't nervous, because I literally haven't had semi-short hair since 6th grade. I love long hair and think other people's long hair always looks beautiful, and I definitely might regret this upcoming venture, but it grows back, right? Right. It's JUST hair. If I die, it doesn't go with me, so why am I so attached? Because I'm a big weenie. That's why.

So, after perusing Pinterest, here are my new haircut inspirations. Like I said, I'm getting bold!

Love her. Love her hair. 

Who doesn't love Jennifer? And her locks are always gorgeous.

Not sure how I feel about the bangs, mainly because I'm awful at fixing bangs. But I do like the length.

Love the layers in this one. 

Soft and Casual. 

Love this one!

Again, Love her.

Workout Plan: UPDATE!!

A little over a month ago, I blogged about starting a new Workout Plan, and let me tell you, it has paid off.

I committed to waking up at 5:15 every morning to hit the gym before 6 so that I had about an hour to workout and then come home and get ready for work. If you know me, and my undying love for sleep, you know that this was a MASSIVE commitment for me to make. No, but really. Having a new workout plan that was structured for each day gave me a mission to accomplish every morning when my alarm went off and I begrudgingly rolled out of bed. It gave me a routine and direction so that I didn't end up wandering around the gym aimlessly and without motivation.

My goal was to try out this workout plan for a month and see if I was A)seeing results and B)still motivated after a whole month of working out. Well, a month quickly turned into six weeks, and six weeks has now become 7. I've gotten incredibly stronger (I've been able to up my weights on almost every exercise at least twice during the last 7 weeks), and have become surprisingly toned. I've always been chastised for complaining that I needed to workout, but I enjoy being fit and feeling confident after a workout. I know that it's the middle of freezing January, I can say that I would have no shame in putting on a swimsuit where as a month ago, I would have been a bit more hesitant.

If you are looking for a workout plan to boost the downfall of your New Year's Resolution, I will 100% recommend the plan that I posted in December. If you can stick with it, it WILL pay off. Don't forget to reward yourself for hard work too. As a newlywed and recent college grad working an entry-level job, I have no money, so I decided to reward myself by capitalizing on my type-A personality that loves lists and things to check off. I highlight every day that I work out in my planner so that I can look back and feel totally accomplished. If I had spare dollars, I think I would give myself a dollar everyday that I worked out and make a list of things that I wanted and work hard enough to earn and pay for those things!  Do what will motivate you!

Pink Champagne Cupcakes

In honor of Allison Wiley's (now Marble) recent wedding, where I dined on a delectable Pink Champagne Cupcake, I decided that I was going to attempt to make some of my own. Conveniently timed was a birthday in our LifeHouse, so I graciously took on the task of preparing cupcakes to celebrate. This birthday proved to be the perfect excuse to try out the Pink Champagne Cupcake recipe that I found on Pinterest. **These would be a PERFECT treat for any loved one on Valentine's Day!**

Here is a list of everything that you will need:

For the Cupcakes: 

1 Box White Cake Mix

1 1/4 cup Champagne

1/3 cup vegetable oil

3 egg whites

4 drops red food coloring

For the Frosting:

1/2 cup softened butter

4 cups powdered sugar

1 tsp Vanilla

1/4 cup Champagne

4 drops red food coloring

Making the Cupcake Batter

Before You Begin: Gather all of the ingredients above and attach the flat beater (used for all-purpose mixing) to your mixer to mix the batter for the cupcakes. 

Step 1: Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and line your muffin pan with cupcake liners.

I think its a must that you use "Pink" cupcake liners for "Pink" Champagne Cupcakes.

Step 2: Stir the cake batter and the champagne together until well blended.

Please disregard the empty frame in the background. Yes, we did get it for a wedding present.
Yes, we have been married for 6 month. Don't judge me. 

I left my mixer on the "Stir" setting until they were well blended. 

Step 3: Add the egg whites, vegetable oil, and food coloring. Mix on medium speed for approximately 2 minutes.

Step 4: Distribute the batter evenly to your previously lined muffin pan.

Step 5: As you can tell from the picture above, I made a mess when putting the batter into the muffin pan, so make sure that you wipe all excess batter off of the pan to avoid burning it onto your pan (and a burning smell!) while the cupcakes bake.

Nice and Clean. 

Step 6: Insert the cupcakes into the oven and bake at 350 degree for 17-22 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. **Mine only took 17 minutes**

Making the Cupcake Frosting

Step 7: While the cupcakes are in the oven, it's time to start preparing your frosting! First up, change the flat blade on your mixer to the wire whip in order to ensure nice and fluffy icing!

Step 8: Gather and measure all of your ingredients for the frosting. 

Step 9: Combine all ingredients into the mixing bowl and mix on medium speed for approximately two minutes. 

Yum. 

When your icing is done, it should look nice and fluffy like this.

** This icing actually makes a thick and fluffy icing that is ideally for pairing with a fancy icing bag that allows you to pipe the icing on in a very pretty way. As you'll see as you scroll down, I don't own one of those fancy things, so my cupcakes aren't as pretty as they potentially could be. Oh well. Maybe next time? Today, I was able to master baking a fancy cupcake. Next time, I'll master icing the fancy-schmancy cupcake. :)

Step 10: When the cupcakes are done, pull them out of the oven and insert a toothpick or gadget of choice (I got an awesome "Cake Tester" as a wedding gift and its perfect as we don't keep toothpicks just laying around the house!).

Step 11: Once the cupcakes are deemed done, leave them in the muffin pan for 10 minutes to cool.

Good News, the Cake Tester came out Clean!

Step 12: After the cupcakes have cooled for 10 minutes in the pan, transfer them to a wire cooling rack and let them cool for an additional 30 minutes before attempting to ice them.

Step 13: Ice and garnish those babies however you choose!!!

Ta-Da! All Done and ready to go!

These were super simple and when I was able to finally take a bite of one, I was satisfied with how delicious they were! The original recipe without all my step-by-step pictures can be viewed here.

Enjoy!

A Very Pinterest Christmas

Christmas is here! I love all the décor that is associated with Christmas, whether it’s the lights in trees at businesses or personalized stockings in each and every home. With my new obsession with Pinterest, and DIY products, our house was transformed into a DIY Winter Wonderland. For a tiny budget anyways.

First, and most importantly, there’s our tree. My grandmother lives very close to my parents, and wasn’t planning on putting up her Christmas Tree, so my dad brought it home for us. It’s the perfect size for our tiny little apartment! I chose to decorate with all white, muted metals, and sparkles. Not to mention, I told Greg that I wanted A LOT (slightly excessive amount) of lights and he went to town. Putting all 500 lights on the tree took about an hour and wore Greg out. 5 strands of lights later on an almost 6 foot tall tree might be a bit dramatic, but I couldn’t be happier with the way that it turned out! Props to the hubs for putting up with my ridiculous demands!

All of our decorating garb.

Here’s some shots of our favorite ornaments on the tree. And our oh-so-perfect mercury-glass tree topper!

I'm in LOVE with mercury glass!

One of my projects for decorating our house this year was to make my own tree skirt. I tend to have “boutique” style, so therefore every decorating item that I am drawn to is naturally the most expensive product that I can find. Of course. So thanks to Pinterest, I was able to recreate a Ruffled Linen Tree Skirt out of a painters drop cloth, linen fabric, a glue gun, and some grosgrain ribbon. So easy and I completed it in an afternoon!

You can get inspired and make one too! I found my tutorial here.

Another project that I endeavored on (with TONS of help from my mother) was our stockings. Again, I had seen some burlap stockings on both Etsy and Pinterest that I was in love with. Being that we are newlyweds with two entry-level jobs, we obviously couldn’t afford to pay up to $35 a piece. And naturally, we needed three of them. One for Greg, one for me, and of course one for Moose. I did some research and found several tutorials on how to make them and told my mom we had a date with the craft store and the sewing machine. Again, they aren’t perfect, but I love the way they turned out. Rustic, simple, and oh so cheap! I spent WAY less than $35 bucks a piece! Victory!

Where our TV would be if we had one. But that would require actually watching TV.....

On yet another impulse craft day, I decided to make this CoffeeFilter Wreath just to hang in our house. Again, cost me $7, and I love the way it turned out. It’s currently hanging on the wall in our living room, but I think I might find a new home for it above our bed once Christmas is over. I’m not thrilled with the décor over our bed, so after Christmas, I’ll be crafting to spruce up our bedroom with pillows, a shelf, our monogrammed initials, and a pic of our wedding printed on Metal. Yet, I’m pretty indecisive so this will probably change.

The view of the wreath on the wall in our living room. 

The window that is hung over our piano in our breakfast room. My mom and I found an awesome metal snowflake garland at JoAnn Fabrics for half off!

Again, a close up of the garland.

  

Our own little elf who was so involved in the decorating process. 

I owe a HUGE thank you to my mother. Without her, we wouldn’t have half the ornaments on our tree, our tree skirt, or our beautiful stockings. My mother is creative, talented, and therefore I am greatly indebted to her! Thank you Momma!