Creative Tips & Ideas
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My Feature Friday for today are the girls, SaRa & KaTe, over at OuR BeSt BiTes.
Sara and Kate are two girls who love to cook! 
They’re wives and mothers balancing home management, part-time work, church and community involvement, and a myriad of other things, just like you! Their goal is to show that cooking at home can be a delicious, fun, and easy way to express yourself and to care for your families and friends.
If you have not been to their site before, you are missing out! They have the most amazing recipes with the most delicious pictures! Reading through each recipe is like talking to a good friend. They give it to you straight and will make you laugh. They always show a picture of the ingredients, which for some reason makes me feel like I can make it. It just makes it look so much simpler!
Enough talk! Let’s get to the good stuff! Here come some of my favorite recipes and believe me it was hard to decide!
I cannot even begin to describe how much joy this recipe brings me! It takes me right back to my childhood days of Rainbow Bright (I actually bought myself a Rainbow Bright paint with water book the other day because I was sooo excited to see her)!
Sara also suggests “If you’re a sports fan, these would be really cool with team colors. How about black, green and brown for a boys camo party? Or holiday color combos are endless…. Have fun!”
Can I crawl through the picture and eat it? What a wonderful combination for the start of summer! My mouth is watering, is yours? This is my kind of “health food!”
Aren’t they beautiful? I so wish I would have found these before Valentine’s! Although, who says we need to have a holiday to express our love?
Are you sensing a theme here? I LoVe dessert! Now that we have had dessert first, we can have dinner. 🙂
I am a big taquito fan, so when they say they have a healthier version that tastes just as great I am in!! Creamy deliciousness wrapped up in a crispy shell. Mmmm!
Have you always wondered how to make these? I have! Well here it is! And did mention it can be prepared beforehand and frozen for the crockpot? Love it!
And to top it all off, I cannot do a feature without raving about the Tips and Tutorials section. This is like the sopping mall of how to’s for people like me who say “how the heck do I pick a ripe mango?“
Here are a few of my favorites:
Are you inspired yet?
Great recipes and tips Sara and Kate! (BTW, I want to name my first girl Kate) You are now entered in to the hall of fame as tippers of the week!
Yep, you heard right! I took a trip down to the hillbilly nation this Mother’s Day! I got a good laugh out of the following and hope you will too!
First off, my hubby was so thoughtful to take my little guy in the morning so I could sleep in. He was up at 6:50 and let me sleep until a wonderful 8:35!! It was amazing, until I realized I had 25 minutes to get ready and get to church. Luckily, I had showered the night before, so we made it on time!!
My church ward wanted to show appreciation to all the mothers in the ward with a small token of gratitude. They had a budget of $1 each. When my hubby told me they were trying to think of ideas for the gift I told him they should do a nice chocolate covered strawberry. I have to admit I laughed a little when I picked up the gift on Mother’s Day. They literally took a flat of flowers and cut them up in to singles. The young men handed me a napkin and said to choose a flower. I actually got out a little late and was lucky enough to be one of the last so they let me take two.
I’m not going to lie, I coveted my sister’s little bag of Chocolate truffles from her church ward. Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate my flowers and plan to put them in a cute little pot soon!
The fun and laughs continued when we got home from church. My hubby let me open the present he got me. It was sitting on the kitchen table in the box it was shipped in. (It’s all about presentation, right? lol) I opened it up to see this.
I said, “Wow honey, I can take it hunting with me.” (Can you imagine me hunting? now, that is comical in itself!) He came over in a frenzy promising that the one he ordered was black. I thought maybe just the picture on the front was off so I opened up the box to find this.
At this point, we were both laughing and he kept apologizing and swearing the one he ordered was black. There was an interchangeable piece that does make it black, but I had to show you the beauty of nature that came out of the box. I was so excited to get a digital picture frame because I have wanted one FOREVER!
I also got a very special present when I came home from Kohl’s on Saturday after an afternoon of shopping with my sis. I walked in with a giant bag and my hubby didn’t cringe one bit and even asked what I got! I pulled out four shirts, two pairs of shorts and a little 3/4 sleeve jacket. I thought I would get “the look.” You know, the you are in trouble, why in the world did you buy all this stuff look. The only thing he said was that since I got a new jacket I had to donate one of my old ones. (He made this rule about clothes after I bought new hangers like five times) To which I justified that it is not actually a jacket, but a 3/4 hoodie that is pretty much just a shirt. 😉
Literally, it is SO easy! Wash, blend, mix and pour. With strawberries at such a great price right now, why not make the yummy taste last all year! There is nothing like homemade jam!
Supplies needed:
4 lb. strawberries
2 Packets no cook pectin (we used Ball brand)
Sugar (says on the packet how much, probably varies by what pectin you use)
Blender
Freezer containers
2. Trim off the green tops and blend strawberries until smooth (or chunky if you like it that way).
3. Mix no cook pectin with sugar. Add liquefied strawberries and stir 3 minutes.
4. Pour in to freezer containers and clear a spot in the freezer. It’s good for up to a year!
We used Ball brand pectin and freezer jars. Don’t let the conversion chart on the pectin packet fool you! It does not use 4 lb. of fresh strawberries per packet, it uses 2 lb. per packet. We have made this mistake two years in a row.