Mini Pineapple Upside-Down Cakes

They could have been prettier, but they tasted AMAZING!! This recipe made 2 dozen.

Mmmmm Mini Pineapple Upside Down Cakes!

Ingredients:

2/3 cup packed brown sugar
1/3 cup butter, melted
1 can pineapple tidbits
1 (18.25 ounce) package yellow cake mix
3 eggs
1/3 cup vegetable oil
12 maraschino cherries
 
Directions:
In a small bowl, combine the brown sugar and butter; mix well. Spoon into 24 greased muffin cups(grease well, otherwise they stick and fall apart). 
Drain pineapple, reserving the juice. Place one cherry and 5-6 pieces of pineapple in each muffin cup.
In a large mixing bowl, combine the cake mix, eggs, oil and
add water to reserved pineapple juice to make 1-1/4 cups ; mix well. Spoon over pineapple, filling each cup two-thirds full. Bake at 350 degrees F for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
let sit for 2 minutes then invert onto wire racks to cool.
Eat while still warm!

Following Skip To My Lou in their

Easy/Cute Kids Birthday Gift

This cute gift is what my 6yr old decided she wanted to give her best friend for her Birthday.  Saydi and her sister had received the same thing for Christmas and they use it almost daily.  Easy to personalize, good price and best of all NOT ANOTHER TOY!! We bought a magnetic whiteboard for about $7, Saydi picked out a pack of bright whiteboard pens with magnetic backs (the markers can stick to the board for storage) and erasers on the tops. I called my good friend Jodi from http://www.signsbyjodi2.blogspot.com/ and ordered a sticker with the name of her friend Tenleigh in her favorite color green (I chose the olive green).  The sticker was only .75 cents, we stuck it on and voila!  A personalized cute Birthday Gift! 

Wordless Wednesday

Homemade Eggrolls

Stumble-Tumble-Tuesday

To start out I used my Ninja to chop up my uncooked chicken breast. 1 full breast, then browned it in a pan, and chopped all my veggies finely again in the Ninja.  I didn't measure, just added a bunch of stuff.  I used about 3 regular sized carrots, 1 yellow onion, 3celery stalks, 1/4 of a cabbage, 1 1/2 cups of bean sprouts, and a clove of garlic. I also like mushrooms if I have them on hand, but you could use anything you want in yours, pork, other veggies etc.

I then sauteed/steamed all the veggies with the chicken after they were chopped up.  I also added garlic salt, seasoning salt, and soy sauce. After the veggies were tender I took an egg-roll wrapper, placed it on a plate scooped about 3-4 TBSP of the mixture onto the wrapper, I tried to keep it diagonal so the mixture was sideways on the wrap and it looked like a diamond facing me.

I folded over the two points into the center and dabbed them with water and stuck them to each  other. Flipped the bottom over the top and tucked it under the mixture then continued rolling it up until the end point where I again dabbed it with water and stuck it to itself to keep it together.

These are the end result after frying them in a pan with about 1 1/2-2 inches of oil.  I just browned them on all sides until they were golden.  Since all the ingredients inside were already cooked, it didn't take long.  They were sooo yummy! If you decide to make some and have some questions since I didn't take enough detailed pics of the folding process I'd love to answer any questions you might have!!  These were really easy and they might seem intimidating, but really are not at all.  Try making some today!

Twitter Hop Thursday

Welcome to Twitter Hop Thursday, hosted by Simply Stacie, The King’s Court IV, Little Yaya’s, Kelly’s Lucky You and Dear Crissy.

Would you like more Twitter followers and be introduced to more neat blogs and businesses out there? Come and join us!!

1. Add your Twitter to the MckLinky (you only have to add it to one and it will appear on all).

2. Click on the Twitter for the four hostesses and follow each of them on Twitter. We will follow you back.

3. Follow as many people on Twitter as you like, but make sure to leave comments with links so they’ll know where to follow you!

Spread the word and add this MckLinky to your blog! Write your own post or copy and paste this one. Below the MckLinky box, you’ll see “Want to be a part of this Blog Hop? Click here for instructions and code”. Have fun Twitter-Hopping along!

We have selected a Twitterer of the Week from last week’s entries and the lucky winner is @LindasLunacy! They will be in the #6 spot! We will choose next week’s winner from everyone who participated today.

Please only add your Twitter url. All other entries will be deleted. Thank you!

Best Birthday Present EVER!

I hope you can see what is inside this wonderful treasure box! To some it may look like a box of junk tools that needed to see the trash can years ago, but to me and my hubby this is worth gold!  My sweet/amazing Mother-in-law put this shadowbox together for my husband Lloyd's Birthday.  My Father-in-law passed away from cancer just over 2 years ago. The items in the box are all family owned items.  The hammer belonged to my Brother-in-law who passed away at the age of  12.  The knife was my FIL's, the padlock was the lock my FIL kept on his locker during his school days.  The wrench used for the farm equipment and bit were used on the farm while Lloyd was growing up, and the pliers were famous fencing pliers used by my FIL putting up his own barbed wire fences for his cows.  Last but not least the handsaw belonged to my Husband's Grandpa, you can see he carved his initials into the saw HM, it was passed to my Father-In-Law and now to my Lloyder.  This beautiful box full of memories has a place of honor in my living room on a shelf.  I don't think many women would allow a box of tools in their living room, but to me it is a VERY special box that deserves a place of honor in our home.

'I can do it with a smile'

My friend had posted this video on Facebook about Gabe Adams of Kaysville UT, adopted as a baby from Brazil. It's truly amazing to see. I HAD to share it.

(Apparently this video is a few years old--he's 11 now.)
I just wanted to cry when I saw this young boy. He is such an inspiration to everyone!! 'I can do it with a Smile' is his motto, if only everyone had the courage and strength that Gabe has. I hope you were inspired as I was by this amazing story.

Wordless Wednesday

Picture Mat Make-over

This is our family picture, I've always used the white mat that came with the frame.  Just recently I realized how bad it looked with the rest of my frames on the wall.  I love the frame, and didn't want a bigger picture in it, so I decided to give the mat a make-over.

I used some leftover paper from my squares project, cut and glued it to the mat and voila!  Much better!! I also changed the color picture to black and white (since my other pics were all b/w).

This is the set-up on my wall.  I bought the 3 metal frames from Walmart several years ago, when my 3rd daughter was born I tried to find the same frames, but they no longer carry this exact frame.  So when we put up the pictures I decided to go a little more eclectic and put my oldest in a different frame since her pic was landscape. My parent's gave us the name pictures for Christmas.  I LOVE it! One day would like to find my own pics of all the letters so I could give them for gifts.  I think they're so adorable!