Green Monster Smoothie

Anyone else trying to be healthy right now?  Yeah, I thought so.  My old roomie from college posted this smoothie from pinterest on her blog and I tried it and need to share now.  Here is the link.  I know you are thinking, "That looks disgusting." but its not.  Its really good and healthy.  Can't beat that.  Just suck it up and try it.

Chocolate Mousse Torte

I got adapted this recipe from a few places.  One as the Best Bites Chocolate Mousse but I changed it quite a bit.  I also got the Torte idea from a Taste of Home cookbook but didn’t use their chocolate mousse recipe.

Chocolate Mousse-

Add a Tbsp. of unflavored gelatin to 3 Tbsp of water and let sit for a minute while you heat up a cup of water to boiling in the microwave.  Add to the gelatin and stir until dissolved.  Let cool off. 

Meanwhile mix: ½ a pint of whipped cream and package of chocolate instant pudding until the consistency of whipped cream.  Then add a cup (or more depending on your tastes) of your favorite chocolate fudge ice-cream topping, a ½ cup of powdered sugar, and your gelatin from above.  Mix slowly until everything is worked in.

For the torte-

Grease a 9 inch spring form pan and line with lady fingers on sides and bottom.  Then pour on the mousse.

We didn’t love the lady fingers so next I would make a chocolate cake first and then put the mousse in the middle of the two layers.  Then top with a ganache or something.  Something to try in the future.

Cross-Stiched Ornaments

You just need ribbon, felt for the backs, twine, many different colors of floss, and cross-stiching material.

Happy Birthday Banner

I saw this at a friend's house.  A sewn happy birthday banner.  I had to make a few.

  Just cut out 15 triangles  each of two kinds of fabric.  Cut out letters or paint on with fabric paint.  I used double sided iron on interfacing to get the fabric letters on the triangles. 

Then I sewed them around the edges to make them secure. 

Then sew two triangles of scrap fabric together leaving the top open.  Turn right side out and pin bias tape to the tops of each triangle in order and sew on each side.  Leave enough on the ends to hang up.

Hand Puppets

Here's a good Christmas craft idea my Mom made us all... Just done felt, ribbon, twine, yarn, and lace. 

Sew around the edges of each puppet leaving the bottoms open.  You insert brown or gray yarn into the donkey before you sew.  Everything else is glued on with a glue gun.  I made the angel hair by winding yellow yarn arond kabob sticks and baking in the oven for five minutes. 

Shepherd

Star

Wiseman

Donkey

Mary

Wiseman

Sheep

Angel

Wiseman

Joseph

Slow Cooked Apple Cider Pork

My roomate used to make us this recipe but with chicken.  You could use either meat.  I adapted it a bit to cook slowly so the pork would be more tender.

Apple Cider Pork

Ingedients:
1 Tbsp. olive oil
4 cloves garlic minced
1/2 of an onion chopped.
4 pork tender loins or pork chops
1 Granny Smith Apple peeled and diced
Enough apple juice or apple cider to cover pork (about 4 cups)
2 Tbsp. butter

Heat olive oil in a pan on medium heat and add pork chops a few at a time depending on the size of your pan.  I used my dutch oven and cook only cook two at a time.  Cook for 2 minutes on each side.  Place finished on a plate to the side until all are done.  Then in the same pan cook onion and apples until onion is translucent and apples are tender (about 3 minutes).  Then add garlic and cook for one minute.  Then put the pork chops back in the pan.  Pour on the apple juice until it covers all the meat.  Place a lid on your pot and cook on low for 1-2 hours until meat is tender.

Super Easy, Tasty Egg Rolls

I love egg rolls.  When I am pregnant I crave them for some reason.  Don't ask me why.  I have never attempted making them before because every recipe I come across has weird ingredients and seems to complicated but I found a super simple one with just a few ingredients.

Super Easy Egg Rolls

Adapted from a Taste of Home Recipe

Ingredients:
  1/2 pound pork sausage
  1/4 cup chopped green pepper
  1/8 cup chopped onion
  1 tsp. minced garlic
   one small package coleslaw mix
   1/4 tsp. pepper
   1/8 tsp. salt
   Package Egg Roll Wrappers (about 16)

Cook the sausage, green pepper, and onion over medium heat in a fairly large skillet.  When the meat is fully cooked add the garlic.  Cook for one more minute.  Drain.  Add the salt and pepper.  Now here you can combine the pork and coleslaw to make assembly easier or you can leave them separate.  I ended up with extra coleslaw so I'm glad I didn't combine the pork mixture and the coleslaw. 

For assembly have a small bowl of water in front of you, the sausage mixture, the coleslaw, and a large area to fold the egg rolls. 

Place about 4 Tbsp. sausage mixture and the same amount coleslaw in the middle of an egg roll.  Fold up bottom corner and then fold in the sides.  You can add a little water to the edges to make the stick better if they are being difficult.  Then fold down the top or roll up the egg roll.  Add a little water to that last seam just by dipping your finger into the bowl of water and dabbing on the egg roll wrapper.  You don't need a lot.

Assemble all egg rolls and then heat about an inch of your favorite frying oil in the bottom of a skillet or fryer.  It should be around 375 degrees or pop when you add an egg roll.  Cook for about 1-2 minutes on each side of the egg rolls depending on how brown you like them to be.  Drain on paper towels.  Serve with Sweet and Sour Sauce.

My package of egg rolls wrappers had more than 16 I think so I doubled the recipe to fill them all.  They store well.  You can even freeze them but reheat in the oven, not the microwave or they will lose their crunch and be soggy and grosse!