Raspberry Lemonade Cupcakes

These are my most favorite summer desert. And why not take advantage of the fresh berries right!

Here's what you'll need

1 white cake

1 cup raspberries

2 block cream cheese

1 small tub cool whip

lemon zest or lemon extract

yellow food coloring

powder sugar

Bake cupcakes according to box let cool completely

While cupcakes cool make filling

Raspberry filling

1 cup raspberries

1/2 block cream cheese

1 cup cool whip

Fill cupcakes with a frosting bag, and a large enough tip for seeds to pass through.

(I use the simple method of a gallon freezer bag, simply snip off tip of bag) Fill your cupcakes until they look "bloated" try not to overfill this will cause your cupcakes to crack on top scrape excess filling from top of cupcake

Frosting

1,1/2 blocks of cream cheese

about 1 lb of powder sugar (mostly to taste)

and about 1 tsp of lemon extract. Add more lemon if not lemony enough

Frost cupcakes making sure you cover the hole you made filling cupcakes



Yummy!

Turkey Tacos

 I realize Turkey sounds a bit odd for tacos but let me explain... A many few years ago I (like when I was 5 or so) I decided I was no longer a meat eater. This continued for most of my life until I begn dating Corey. His family was totally flabbergasted by this and every time we ate together they tried to convince me to eat meat! After I found out I was pregnant with Abe all I wanted to eat was Meat! AAAHHH!!! This was so beyond something I could do, but the further I went into my pregnancy, the more I realized I could no longer fight the longing for a good burger. So I caved! I enjoyed every bit of burger, fried chicken, and Sunday Roast I could. Then after baby I was back to no meat, just the thought of it made me gag. As we began raising our littles I decided that not cooking meat was just not fair for them or my sweetheart but alas, I could not bring myself to cook Hamburger. A friend turned me on to ground turkey as a substitute, and I have not looked back!

So now you see, if you have not tried Turkey you should. It is not only healthier for you, but it can take the place of hamburger in most situations and taste just as good.

Turkey Tacos

1 Lb ground turkey

1 can tomato sauce

1 small can green chiles

1 packet taco seasoning.

(I always add a little more chili powder because thats just how I like it!)

In a skillet cook turkey, add a dash of salt and pepper to taste.

I like my meat really crumbly so as it cooks continue to break up the meat

Add sauce, seasoning and chiles turn pan to low so it simmers

Allow meat to continue cooking until most of liquid is cooked down making sure you stir so sauce coats all meat

Add your favorite taco fixins' and enjoy!

"Pod" Pie

You know how sometimes your littles pronounce something completely wrong but you love it so cannot bring yourself to correct it... That's the deal here. My son is now 8 and for whatever reason he calls pot pies, pod pies. I love this so much and I giggle out loud every time he says it! The best part is this happens to be one of his favorite things to eat, and has been asking for it for two weeks now! It is one of my yummiest recipes but I am not the best crust maker, so not my favorite to cook. However last night I gave in and finally worked it into our menu. I hope you love it as much as we do! Oh, and I have to give credit where credit is due, so Thank You Adrienne for introducing this to me when I had Penny! It is now my favorite to share when mommies come home from the hospital!

 Either use Pillsbury crust, or make your favorite crust and set aside

1/3 c butter

1/3 c onion chopped

1/3 c flour

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

1 1/2 cups chicken broth

2/3 c milk

2 chicken breasts

2 c frozen veggies thawed

Cook chicken breasts (I have grilled, and boiled mine and both are delicious) and cut into bite size

Heat oven to 425

Melt butter and cook onions til tender. Add flour, salt and pepper. Stir until well blended. Gradually add Broth and Milk. Finally add chicken and veggies. Bake for 30 to 45 minutes (until top of crust is golden brown and inside pie is bubbly. Let stand for 5 minutes then serve.

Just a side note, make sure you let stand or your pie will be too runny and you'll lose it trying to serve!

Blossom Bracelet

The girls have been really into bracelets these days, and I was inspired with the Friendship Bracelet Swap over at Ruffled Sunshine. Thanks so much for the inspiration! I have so many scraps that are the length of Fat Quarters, so I tore them into three strips and braided them, then sew a loop at one end and sew across the other to make sure your braid doesn't unwind. I added one of my current favorite super easy peasy flower with a fabric covered button for accent and Ta-Da! There you have it, a super happy bracelet!

The braid fits aroun twice and you could wear them around your neck as a little choker style pretty!

Use a second fabric covered button for a closure

What a Deal!

Today I headed to Target to do a bit of school shopping. I ended up leaving with a cart full of awesome deals.

11 Notebooks

2 boxes of crayons

1 pencil box

3 pairs of scissors

Eraser pack

2 Boxes of markers

1 ice cream maker

4 bags of rock salt

7 bags of ice cream mix

All this cost me only 38 BUCKS!! I saved 47.00$ WOO HOO!!!

It really pays to shop the clearance aisles. Now were enjoying delicious Vanilla Ice Cream!

Last Nights Dinner

 WARNING! This is not a low fat meal, but it's YUMMY!!

The commissary had their case-lot sale this week which meant I was able to pick up some of the yummiest steaks. They are little Bacon wrapped filets, and they are delicious!! We grilled them (in the rain, I am still not used to this weather.) This was the easy part! I decided to make Corey's favorite side dishes... Twice Baked Potatoes, and Corn Pudding.

To make the twice baked potatoes you need to plan ahead. Bake your potatoes as you normally would, but remember some of them may fall apart when you are hollowing them out, so it is a good idea to bake a few extra. Unwrap them from the foil and let them cool completely.

Preheat oven to 350

Cut potatoes in half and hollow them out, making little bowls. Put insides in a bowl

Add a bit of milk, (about 1/4 cup)

1 cup sour cream

1 cup shredded cheese

1/2 cup bacon bits

If your mixture seems a little too dry add a little more milk, and do not over mix, this will make your filling sticky and gooey.

Mash all ingredients in with potatoes. Leave them a little chunky.

Fill your skins so they are heaping

Place in baking dish and sprinkle with more cheese.

Bake for 25-30 mins making sure cheese is melted, and they are warm all the way through.

Corn Pudding

This is one of Corey's Grandma Matsons recipe. She was a military wife, and spent many years following her sweetheart from base to base. She picked this recipe up in Kentucky. Grandma passed away this past February and so this dish is a little sentimental to our family.

Preheat oven to 350

Mix in bowl

2 eggs beaten

1/2 c sugar

1/3 c flour 

3 Tbs butter

1 tsp salt

2 1/2 c milk

Put 2 cups frozen corn in a 9x9 baking dish. Pour mixture over the corn and mix gently with a fork.

Cook for one hour or until the top is a golden brown and the consistancy is that of a thick pudding. Check halfway through and mix with a fork making sure you scrape the bottom and corners because the flour settles in clumps.

Enjoy!

Lexy Reigh

Elders

It has been a rainy week here in good 'ol Washington... Surprised? Not me! Fortunately for me this turned out in my favor today. As I was cleaning up the toys in the living room, getting ready for the next wave; my son comes running in and says,

 "Mom! Missionaries"

"Huh?"

"The missionaries are at the door."

    As I open the door, my mind begins racing, has something happened, did I commit to something and forget? As far as I could remember I was good, so as I let them in they ask if we had already eaten lunch. We had, but I told them to come in and I would fix them something anyway. They promptly tell me they don't want me to have to cook something so anything would do.

I remembered the Pork Taco meat that was left over from Sunday dinner. As I am warming up the leftovers, I realize this was an answer to my very own prayers.  After writing my sister an email about the hardships of moving away I was really feeling sorry for myself.  She has also recently moved away,  so we have been swapping sob stories. Of course this only makes me feel so much worse, but I must  enjoy the torture, because our emails tend to be major downers. Anyway, after the elders arrived I instantly began to realize that my hardships are nothing compared to what these young men are going through. The last time we had them over for dinner they told us they usually run out of money which means they run out of food and that was why they had upped their dinner appointments...
SO, wheres the blessing for me in all this. Well, I know service warms the heart, and fills our cups. My cup has been pretty empty lately. Now again I am feeling a renewed purpose and its nice to know you helped someone elses day. I love the missionaries, infact Corey and I cannot wait to serve a mission, we want to serve on a military base because it was the couple missionaries that helped Corey get through the mental strain of Basic Training.
 In their usual fashion as the elders were leaving they asked me if Corey and I had found anyone to teach yet? (They challenged us to find someone by the 10th of this month) I told them we hadn't and in more of a joking manner I told them they should visit my neighbor. We have had a few issues with them and I said they could use the gospel in their lives. After they had been gone about 5 minutes the phone rang... Who do you think it was? The elders. They proceeded to tell me that they asked my neighbor if she would like to come see our church, and to their surprise she said Yes! Crazy!!! I guess it is me who needs the gospel in my life, here she was waiting to be taught and I didn't have the whatever to ask her! Yes I am crying, I cannot believe the everyday miracles that I am too dense to be part of. I truly do love the gospel, and have never had more missionary experiences in my life.

As much as I complain about moving away from Utah, I am so blessed and greatful for the opportunities I have here in the mission field.

This is new!

This is my new and hopefully successful adventure. I have realized that since we've moved I have some free time. In my free time I have been doing tons more domestic wifey stuff, and because I love to write I thought it might be fun to share some of my randomness... I feel like some of what I would like to blog about is not necessarily family blog worthy, so here is my own little space to share. This is where I will share me, all of me... The stuff I like to do, the craftiness I think you might enjoy, and lots and lots of randomness. So, I hope you will enjoy, and if not at least you will have one more crazy on the interweb to laugh at!


Lexy Reigh