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Jessica Acs. Crazy Happy Chaos

Jessica Acs. Crazy Happy Chaos

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Recipes

New kit giveaway – and 7 days of tutorials starts today! plus 2 new cookie recipes!

June 1, 2009 by Jess 101 Comments

Happy Monday! Let’s get started with a brand new giveaway for this week : )

This week, up for grabs is the newest  kit – just launched – Cherry Sundae. It’s full of the new line: Cherry Hill by October Afternoon. I am absolutely in love with this entire line – the colors and papers are fantastic!

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To be entered in the draw, leave a comment here by Thursday at midnight and I’ll have random.org select a winner on Friday.  My question for you today is: What is your latest obsession? (can be scrapbook related or not) : )

7 Days of Tutorials!!!!!

Starts Today!

For the next week, I will post a different tutorial each day – I’ve got some fun ones planned for you 🙂 – lots of great gift ideas too! Today I have an easy tutorial for a great gift to make as well as a couple yummy recipes for you.

Recipes first! here we go…  (I’m sure it’s no secret, but I love to bake, and I’m not always so good at following recipes. I prefer to branch out on my own and create my own recipes sometimes. Both of the recipes below are my own creations)

Peanut Butter Cookies

1 cup peanut butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/4 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp caramel or vanilla extract

mix eggs well, add sugar then peanut butter, and mix well again. Add baking powder, extract and then flour. Drop spoonfuls onto greased pan, then press with a fork. (tip: spray the fork with cooking spray before pressing into cookie dough – this way it won’t stick to the fork!)

bake at 350 for 10-15 minutes or until done. (if you like the cookies chewy like Brent does, take them out at about 8-10 minutes (depending on your oven, but before they start to brown. If you like them crunchy, wait until the edges of the cookies turn golden brown)
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I made these cookies this morning as a treat for Brent and I also wanted to use them as part of today’s tutorial, hehe. It was so tempting to help myself to these yummy looking cookies but since I am on a special detox diet right now, it means no sugar or fun stuff. boo….. So I quickly came up with a new recipe for something yummy that I can eat -and they turned out wonderfully! So for all you who might be on special diets or if you’re allergic to certain things, try this out – so easy, quick and delicious!

No bake egg-less, flour-less sugar free protein coco balls (I wonder how many other words I can fit into the title….)

1/2 cup oats
1 tbls pure cocoa powder
1/8 cup chocolate protein powder
1/4 cup all natural almond butter
bit of unsweetened applesauce
1 tsp caramel or vanilla extract

Mix oats, cocoa powder, protein powder, extract and almond butter together until well mixed. The mixture should be crumbly. Add a bit of unsweetened applesauce so the mixture is the consistency of dough (something you are able to roll into balls). If you add too much applesauce, add some more oats in.

Once well mixed, roll the dough into small balls and place on a wax paper covered plate. Place in the freezer. This is my first time making these so I’m honestly not sure how long they will keep in the fridge or freezer. I can tell you that they won’t last long in mine! I’ll probably have them all eaten up by tonight, lol.

cocoaballs

Tutorial time!! Today’s tutorial is on an altered Paint Can.

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This is a fun project to transform a paint can into a gorgeous container for giving as a gift. Fill with home made goodies like cookies, scones, biscotti, or fill with candies, little gifts or even a small mini album. This would make a great end of the year gift for teachers – have your child make a card to attach to the paint can for an added touch.

paintcan1

You will need:

– 1 Paint Can (please use a NEW one for this project, especially if you will be filling it with food related items): you can go to any paint store or home depot and just ask for a new empty can – they usually only cost a dollar or 2.

– Claudine Hellmuth Studio Multi Medium (if you don’t have this, try using mod podge)

– Foam brush

– patterned paper

– book paper

– embellishments, stickers

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1. Liberally brush on the multi medium (I used gloss for this project – this stuff works great for so many things!), and stick on random pieces of the book paper. (I ripped it into various sized pieces). Brush over top of the paper with the medium as well. Continue untilt the entire paint can is covered.

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2. Cut 2 strips of paper (I used lined paper by Scenic Route) so they measure 6 x 12″. Wrap each around the middle of the can and glue down. (so it fits as a band around the entire can)

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paintcan6

3. Now cut 2 strips of paper 12 x 1.5″ out of a patterned piece of paper. (I used one of the new Cherry Hill papers from October Afternoon)

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4. Wrap those strips around the middle of the lined paper and glue down.

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5. Cut a circle out of a piece of patterned paper to fit the top of the paint can, then trace a CD and cut the circle out of another piece of patterned paper.

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6. Add whatever title or saying you’d like to the circle. I also inked the edges of mine with Jumbo Java ink.

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7. Stick the circle onto the front of the paint can – be sure to use a strong adhesive here (I used medium glue dots)

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8.  If you’d like to add a tag, an easy way is to use a journaling card. This one is also part of the Cherry Hill Line. I added some felt Thickers to the front of it, then punched a hole in the upper left corner and then attached it to the paint can handle with some lace.

paintcan12

All done! Now you can fill it with whatever you can think of! Of course today, mine is filled with cookies : )

cookiesincan

cookieswithlid

Check back tomorrow for another fun tutorial: lots more great gift ideas coming your way! : )

One last thing for today: I want to say a big Happy Birthday to my sweet niece who turns SEVEN today! Where does the time go? I’m very excited that I’m going to get to see her in 3 weeks!

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Filed Under: Crafts, Daily Life, Recipes, Tutorials

Procrastination

April 7, 2009 by Jess Leave a Comment

That’s my word for today, well maybe even for this week. Today I have been particularly good at it and I usually am when I have something I really have to get done or have a deadline. The good thing is I always get it done, but it usually means right at the last minute or staying up until the wee hours of the morning.

And here I am, writing in my blog, procrastinating again. A little while ago, I had the great idea of making muffins so I created a new healthy recipe….mmmm…they are so yummy!!

Banana Pom-Berry Oat Muffins

2 bananas mashed

1/2 cup applesauce (unsweetened)

1 egg

3/4 low fat yogurt

1 cup frozen berries (I used a blend of raspberries, pomegranite, strawberries, blueberries and blackberries)

1/2 cup splenda

1 cup oats

1 1/2 flour (I use whole spelt flour)

2 tsp baking powder

2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp baking soda

 

Pre heat oven to 375

Mix the mashed bananas, egg, applesauce, yogurt and splenda in a bowl. Combine all dry ingredients in another bowl then add to the wet mixture and stir until mixed. Add frozen berries.

Bake until the tops of the muffins are firm to touch (about 20-25 minutes)

On a completely different topic, I have started taking yoga classes again. I can’t believe how energized I feel afterwards, it’s fantastic! I don’t usually talk about this here, but I have an inflammatory disease called Ankylosing Spondylitis (I’ve had it since I was 19).  Apparantly only 1% of Canadians have this. It’s a type of arthritis which affects the spine and where the spine meets the pelvis. There is no cure and the worst that can happen is that the vertebraes of the spine fuse together – there is no surgery to undo this. Once they are fused they are fused. This is why exercise and yoga type stetches are recommended for people with this condition. Now I have to admit that I have taken my body for granted through my 20’s. I should have made myself continue with the exercises and not continually gone for months without. I feel like I’m getting payback for that now.  The past few months have been really really tough and very painful. I have been living on my anti-inflammatory pills counting the seconds until I can take the next one.  Anyway, enough whining. But if anyone out there has AS, I would love to hear from you and get some advice on what works best for you to help keep the pain down. I start aquafit classes this week as I heard that’s very good for the joints, and of course the yoga is already helping I think (I hope!).  I went to a class today called “Joint Works” as its specially tailored for people with arthritis. The instructor came over to me before the class started and said “Um, the yoga class doesn’t start for another hour…” and I said “I know, I’m here for the joints class” she was surprised but happy to hear that. Turned out I was the youngest one in the class by far!

Anyway, enough about that. Here are a few pictures of the babes that I took today:

Filed Under: Daily Life, Recipes

Cookies and a new mini!

August 3, 2008 by Jess Leave a Comment

First of all, I just have to post this yummy cookie recipe – if you are into healthy eating but still love sweets, you might want to give these a try – I love them so so much! I actually found the recipe on the back of my Oatmeal package, but I modified it somewhat. I will write the recipe here as stated on the package and put my modifications in brackets. 🙂 Enjoy!

cookies.jpg

Oat Cookies

1 cup whole wheat flour (I used Spelt flour)

1 tsp baking soda

¾ tsp salt (I omitted this altogether)

½ allspice (I didn’t have any on hand so used pumpkin spice, hehe)

2 tsp cinnamon (I added more like 4 or 5 tsp – love cinnamon!)

2 tsp ginger (only added 1 tsp – not a big ginger fan…)

2 eggs (I used egg beaters egg substitute)

1/3 cup vegetable oil (I omitted this too and added more applesauce instead)

1 ¼ cups unsweetened applesauce (I added about 1 ½ cups)

¾  cup brown sugar (I used 1 cup of splenda)

1 tbsp grated orange rind

2 tsp vanilla

3 cups porridge oats

¾ cup chopped almonds

½ cup sunflower seeds (I omitted these)

1 cup dried cranberries

 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

 

Combine flour, baking soda, salt, allspice, cinnamon and ginger. Stir well and set aside.

 

Place eggs, oil, applesauce and sugar in a large bowl and beat together well. Add orange rind, vanilla, oats, almonds, and sunflower seeds. Stir until combined. Add flour mixture and stir well. Add dried cranberries and stir until combined.

 

Using about ¼ cup of cookie dough for each cookie, place on prepared cookie sheet and press down with a fork. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until lightly browned.

 

 

I finally got some scrappin done! I stayed up really late last night and made this little mini using a kit from Rose Moka (I am totally in love with all their paper lines!). This mini book is made from a brown Whole Foods grocery bag that I cut up and made pockets out of. They are attached together with fabric pieces and the only other things I used besides the Rose Moka stuff was: some newspaper, ink, glossy accents (of course!), buttons and the number 4 thickers sticker on the cover. This was a fun little book to make!

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Filed Under: Recipes, Scrapbooking/ Mini Albums

Superman Cookies

December 6, 2007 by Jess Leave a Comment

I found these cool superman decorations last month at Hobby Lobby so I’ve been anxious to use them on something.  The best thing about the cookies was the icing – YUM!! Cream cheese, icing sugar, vanilla and butter extract, I am totally making this icing from now on whenever I make cookies, cupcakes or cake – it is fantastic!!!!

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My Mum is in town visiting us for a couple days and my parents took us out for lunch to this awesome French restaurant – it was SO good! We will for sure be going back there again.

I just want to say a quick note about the mini book submissions: I am so so sorry but I haven’t fully decided on which ones to add to my book yet, but I will within the next couple days. This was a much harder decision than I thought – I got so many awesome submissions! This week has just been so busy that I haven’t had a chance to make up my mind yet. Thanks for being patient with me!

Filed Under: Daily Life, Recipes

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