Project 31 - Pumpkin Coffee Cake

I highly recommend you make this coffee cake this fall!  It is by far my favorite fall recipe!  I have made it twice (once for a MOPS meeting and once for home) both times it has been eaten up quickly!

For the flavor this cake has, it is really easy to make.  The recipe can be found on the blog, Pretty. Good. Food.  For my gluten-free friends, if you go down through the comments on the recipe, it has ideas for making it gluten-free!

A couple notes:
*I used store brand cake mix, but there is a catch.  I find that it tends to have some lumps in it, so I pour the mix into the bowl and break op the lumps with my pastry mixer, but a whisk or even fork will do the trick as well.  That way you don't have lumps of dry batter in your cake.
*I prefer to make this cake the day before to make sure that the glaze has a night to really soak into the cake. 

I only took a picture of my cake before the glaze:

I promise though when I poured the glaze on it actually looked close to the picture on the pin! :)




Happy eating!!

Project 30 - Nutella croissants - YUM!!

I found inspiration for this one based off some of the Nutella recipes I have seen on pinterest as well as the cinnamon butter croissants.  I thought why not combine parts of the two ideas, and I came up with a very yummy breakfast/snack. 

Let me just preface this with I use a lot of store brand products, especially when I am doing a recipe that combines ingredients to work together, instead of something having to stand on it's own.  I figure that I will not be able to tell a difference when it is mixed with something else.  It saves money too! :) So for the croissants, I took just store brand crescent rolls and rolled them out into the small triangles.  I spread some store brand nutella on top of those, and some I rolled up and others I added some pecan pieces before rolling.  I brushed some egg white on top of all the rolls and baked them according to the package directions.  Results - a delicious breakfast treat that was heartily enjoyed by my children and myself. :)

I was able to keep the extras in the fridge and reheated in the microwave the next day, and they were just as good! :)  Quick and easy for a fun breakfast!

Project 29: Travel toy storage

I found this just in time for our trip down to Frederickburg to see family this summer.  It's about a 5 and a half hour drive, so having things for the kids to do is a must, along with snacks.  The kids are both in boosters now, so they have a little more freedom to move around and get things on their own.  I decided to make some fun hanging fabric pockets for the kids to be able to store their toys and snacks in without having to grab it from a bag on the floor (not good for kiddos who are prone to car sickness) or me having to turn around and hand them stuff from the front (also not good for a mama who can also be prone to car sickness).  I found these super cute fabric car organizers on blog, Just Sew Sassy.

 

(image from pin on pinterest)

 

I had just enough fabric left over from my son's pillow mattress to make him one, and enough in my fabric stash for a girly one for my daughter too. :)  Gotta love projects that you have to buy nothing for!!

 

I followed the directions pretty much as written, but instead of using fusing or interface, I just stuffed a piece of cardboard that I cut from some extra boxes in the garage to give the back some strength  (hindsight, probably wouldn't do it again b/c now I can't wash them). 

 

This project was one of my more challenging ones as I have said before, I am definitely not a seamstress, and I have never had any kind of formal (or informal) training on how to sew with a sewing machine.  It took a little more time, and I had to really pay attention to be sure i wasn't sewing any of my pockets closed! :)  Here are some pics from my assembly process:

 

Got all my squares cut out!

 

 

Ironing the small square in half then ironing a seam.

 

Sewed in the seams then pinned the pockets together.

 

 

Sewed all the pockets together and added the ribbon strap and edge to the top.

 

 

 

 

 

 

All finished!  The kids loved using them, and I love that when the trip is done I can hang them on the back of the playroom closet, so it's easy storage.