Mini Cheesecakes

It’s almost Christmastime! Are you ready, readers? I hope so. We had our department Christmas lunch today, Taco Salad. Delicious! My assignment was to bring a dessert, so I chose mini cheesecakes. These were the easiest thing in the world, so I wanted to share the recipe. Here’s what they looked like right after I mixed the ingredients and put them in the fridge:

Looking good, right? I thought so too. *wink* So then I left them in the fridge overnight, and in the morning, I covered them with cherry pie filling. I would have liked to use raspberry too, but there was not a single can of raspberry pie filling to be found. My only options in the store were cherry, apple, and mixed berry, so I went with cherry. These are them with cherries:

Yum! So for those of you who’d like the recipe, here it is:

No-Bake Mini-Cheesecakes

1 pkg (8 oz) cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup sugar

1 tub (8 oz) Cool Whip whipped topping

12 Nilla Wafers or 12 Oreos

1 can pie filling (your choice)

Beat cream cheese and sugar until well blended. Gently stir in whipped topping. Place muffin cups into pan, place wafer or Oreo in bottom. Spoon cream cheese mixture into muffin cups until full. Refrigerate for 1 hour. Spoon pie filling onto each cupcake. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

 

These are really good, but they lose their shape, so the muffin cups look a little crazy. Still good though!

Miscellaneous Monday

Well kids, its down to the wire. Christmas is in 6 days. I know what you’re wondering, ‘Vieve, have you completed your Christmas shopping yet?’ and the answer is no. But I’m close, I’m so close! I think I only have 2 people left to buy for, and 1 person left to finish the gift on (it’s homemade with love!) and THEN will I be finished. And after I do, I will throw a party for myself. And I will rock around the Christmas tree, at the Christmas Party Hop. This year was a lot less stressful for me than last year, for some reason, and for that, I am enjoying this year a little more than last year. My Christmas spirit is relatively here, and so far, I’m not completely dreading Christmas, which is a nice change! I hope all of you guys are feeling the same way.

I was recently watching The Polar Express (I love this movie) and as all the kids are in the North Pole, about to receive the first give of Christmas, I couldn’t help but think of how inaccurately this movie is representing things. These kids are at the north pole, standing around, chatting, with no coats on, just in their pajamas, and no one is cold? I mean, I’ve never been to the north pole, but I’ve researched the weather up there. And while during the day, it’s not too cold (it ranges in the 20s!) at night, which is when all the kids are there, it’s only 4 degrees! There is no way those kids are there, just hanging out and being totally fine while it’s that cold. Yes, I’m looking too much into children's movies. This is how I roll.

Yesterday, I finally broke down and made these treats that I found a recipe for on the side of the box of corn flakes. It seemed like a pretty easy recipe, so it didn’t take that long to make, woo hoo! I followed the recipe to the letter – I want to specify this. So I baked them, and took them out, and let them cool. As I was transporting the treats from the pan to a tupperware, they fell apart like crazy. The bottom half completely separated from the top half, leaving me with just a weirdo half of food. So to remedy this, I had to wrap the treats individually, so that they at least would travel well.

So there’s my treat, wrapped in the plastic wrap. I didn’t even eat any last night, because I was so mad at it (that’ll show it!) but someone else ate it, and told me it was good. And here’s what the treat actually looks like, without the wrapping.

And there it is. I don’t even want to share the recipe, because I don’t think anyone should ever have to make this monstrosity, at least not until I figure out how to fix it, I don’t know if the Corn Flakes people have never made this recipe, or just forgot to include something, because this is not what it looked like on the box.

I am a child-care provider

On Wednesday night, I had a friend of mine call to ask what I was doing the following Saturday night. I don't really speak to this person a whole lot, so I was a little hesitant in telling my plans. (Which were...nothing.) So of course, he jumped on the opportunity to ask if I could see it in my heart to babysit his 2 children. Since I had nothing to do, I agreed to do so. And after I said yes, he asked if I could possibly find it in my heart to have them stay overnight. This made me step on the brakes a little. So I told him I'd have to talk to Husband, and I'd call him back.

I called Husband, and we talked about it, and he said, "Well, whatever you want to do, I'll back you up on." Gah this isn't what I wanted! I wanted him to make a decision for me, since I didn't want to make it! So finally I decided that we could do it, we could have these children sleep over. And don't worry, I did warn my friend that we don't even have any beds here, but he assured me that they'd be ok sleeping on the floor or couches. I was told that they'd be over on Saturday afternoon, these 2 children, ages 8 and 10 (one girl, one boy).

Saturday afternoon, here they come, and introductions made. (I should also point out, we had not ever met these kids. Woo!) We did a little tour of the house, and what did the kids zero in on? Our workout equipment. So of course, they start climbing all over the elliptical and the treadmill, and trying to work out. After a lecture about safety, we all just kinda hung out downstairs for a bit, and then the parents left. We let the kids work out for a while (they just wanted to...weird) under our supervision, and then we came upstairs. We watched a few minutes of TV, then the kids kept wanting to work out. They would go down, and we would listen to make sure everything sounded ok, and would go down to check it out every few minutes to make sure no one was dying. Then we got dinner - pizza of course, and then off to a movie. We let the kids choose, which meant we saw Alvin & the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked. It wasn't too bad, actually, I kind of enjoyed it. Those dang cute chipmunks!

After the movie, we came home and played MarioKart for a while. Well, the boy and I played MarioKart, I think the girl worked out more (what the heck, kids?!). So finally at 11, I was getting tired, so I told everyone it was bedtime, and off we went. This morning, we all woke up, and had breakfast - pancakes. We had to specially make the pancakes for the gal, she doesn't like thick pancakes. And for her, the definition of thick is anything over the thickness of a crepe. Finally at about 10, the parents came to get them, and our night of being parents was over, thank goodness. It's not that it was tiring, its just that they really mess up your schedule, kids. Maybe it's different if they're your own though, you don't have to worry that much about entertaining them.

There were a few funny things. I actually call Husband husband in real life, so at one point in the evening, the boy forgot his name, and yelled out 'Husband!' since that's all he could remember, it was funny. And the amount of sugar they ate...crazy. Of course, it's probably not a good idea that I gave them all the sugar, but they seemed ok still. But we survived, none worse for the wear. And I could be open to babysitting in the future - except I think I should tell the kids that really, I just want to watch movies...it's so much more low key!

Foto Friday

This entry was supposed to be yesterday, but time sort of got away from me, so here it is today! Yesterday, the 15th of December was National Cupcake Day. As everyone knows, I think cupcakes are the best. I can’t quite explain why I heart them so. They’re just perfectly sized cakes, individual, so you don’t have to share unless you want to. I’ve been to cupcake places in a few states, I just like to try them everywhere. Sometime in my life, I’d like to have visited a cupcake place in every state. I know, I have humble goals. Anyway, Chelle and I celebrated by going to The Cocoa Bean Cupcake Cafe and getting a cupcake, yesterday I (as well as her, by coincidence) chose to eat the Party in My Mouth cupcake. So good!

How delish does that look? It was delish too,

Now, on Chelle’s blog at the beginning of November, she dared people who blog to write an entry every day, to celebrate National Blogging Month and on there, she says that if you accept the challenge, a cupcake courtesy of her would be yours. Of course I took the challenge, and challenged her right back, with the same reward. So naturally, I blogged every day, as did she, and yesterday, we bought the cupcakes for each other, for our reward. And of course, Chelle was amazing and wrote me a tiny note on my box she gave me:

I wasn’t going to put the box on here at first, since it’s my box and for my eyes, but I decided to share with the world.

Thanks to Chelle for buying me a delish cupcake and writing me such an awesome note!

How are People Vegetarians When Meat is so Delicious?

Recently, I was reading an article in Runner’s World about taking one day a week to not eat any meat. ‘Meatless Monday’ they called it. Their claim is that the average American eats 8 oz of meat daily, which is about 45 percent more than the USDA recommends. Going meatless for one day a week will cut down on that a little, and you can cut back on your saturated fat while incorporating other proteins into your diet. So, being a runner, and always on the lookout to be a little healthier (while not cutting down on my treats that I love), I decided to join the Meatless Monday Movement. And since Husband is a (former) vegetarian, he’s the perfect guy to help me with this. It’s not that he’s morally against meat or anything, its just that he finds it healthier to not eat meat. But sadly, since we met and married, he’s started eating meat again since I do. Sorry, Husband.

Anyway, so last night was our first go at it. We decided to have veggie burgers, which I’ve had before – just the kind you get at the store. They’re not too bad, actually, they don’t really taste like meat, but they were pretty tasty. Husband decided (pretty last minute, actually) that he’d be making veggie burgers from scratch, with black beans. I was really really hesitant to try these, but I was going into this with a really open mind. So I parked myself into a seat, and watched Husband put them together. The whole time, I kept thinking, this is totally not something I would eat. He mashed all the beans, added green peppers, onions, garlic, mushrooms, some other ingredients and smushed them all together. Then he made little patties and cooked them. (I wish I had thought to take a picture last night of the burger, but of course, I didn’t) Of course, to make them taste ok, I added cheese, lettuce, all the regular things. So I put together my burger, and take my first bite.

It was so weird! It just tasted like a bean sandwich. Which maybe some people like, but I’m not all that into beans, so I was like, weird. I finished my burger, of course, because Husband worked so hard on it, and because I was going to do this Meatless Monday – no matter what. By the time I was finished, the taste had sort of grown on me, so I was used to it. And I’m not saying I’ll never eat a veggie burger again, I just think that the next time, I’ll make sure the beans are smoother…the stuff is mixed together more, and maybe mix something else into it, so that its just a little more delicious. Or I’ll buy the pre-made ones at the store. To celebrate my healthiness, and that I finished the whole burger, I ate a caramel apple covered in Butterfingers. So essentially I converted all my healthy points of eating that burger into eating the caramel apple. Delicious!

This is my thought on vegetarianism:

Because I sure didn’t.

Miscellaneous Monday

Ha ha I’m the laziest, all I write is Miscellaneous Monday and Foto Friday. Oh well. Today as I was watching 12 Dates of Christmas off of ABCFamily, there’s a part in it where the main guy is leaving a message for the main girl. So she walks into her apartment, and hits play on her answering machine so that we all can hear what the message is. When this happened, I wondered, do people still have these types of answering machines? I know people have voicemail, because now almost everyone has a cell phone, and rarely do people have solely land lines that they rely on anymore. So my question is, outside of movies, who has these types of answering machines anymore? Anyone?

We decorated the second Christmas tree on Saturday night. I chose silver and red for the colors for it. When we finished, and looked at the tree, all I thought was…meh. Like, it looks good and everything, don’t get me wrong, it just seems…empty. But like, all of my ornaments are there and it’s a pretty full tree, but its just not grabbing me like my upstairs tree was. Here’s a pic, just so’s you can see:

So there it is. It’s a nice tree, and I am really digging the pine scent that’s going on all throughout the house, I just wish I loved it decorated a little more. Chelle gave me some decorating tips to do, to make the tree different and better, so I’m going to attempt those later, and see if it works. I’m also debating on putting on red garland, to see if that helps. I’ll decide later, I’m sure, but so far, that’s what it looks like.

Husband has a brother (Austin) on a mission. I haven’t met this brother (since our courtship/engagement was only about 6 months) but he comes home in about 3 weeks or so. We’ve chatted once or twice on the phone (just for a sentence or two, when he’s called home on Mother’s Day/Christmas) and we’ve emailed back and forth just a little, and from his emails, he’s a pretty funny guy, so I can’t wait to meet him. So this weekend, Husband and I were doing a little Christmas shopping, and we passed by this sign to meet a teddy bear named Austin! Of course I had to take a picture of it, so that I could claim that I met Austin early!

I think I’ll send this email to Austin, to let him know that we’d met.

Advent Calendar

Growing up, I had an advent calendar every Christmas. For those of you don’t know, advent calendars are used to count down the days of from the 1st of December until Christmas Eve. You have a thing that looks like:

And on the package (even though you can’t really see it) there are 24 little doors, numbered, that you open every day. So on the 1st of December, you open the little door with the 1 on it, and you eat the candy inside. Sounds pretty easy, right? I always loved these.

So now that I’m married, I totally spaced that I needed to get one. You see, before, my mama always got them, and just gave them to me, and I happily ate all 24 pieces. But it wasn’t until PJ said something to me about her calendar that I was like, dude I haven’t even bought mine! So I went to the Target post haste, and alas, no calendars there. I checked all the local Maceys, (with mama’s help to get the south end of the valley) and alas, there are none to be found! I was so sad about this. My first year without an advent calendar, what to do? But then…Pops came through!

*this picture turned out a little weird, color-wise* 

There it is! My very own advent calendar. Apparently he got it online, and its a way fancier one than I’ve ever seen. The ones I’ve gotten have been like, these little thin chocolates that you pull out of a plastic calendar. This one has little poems on every door, and the chocolate is a little wrapped present and its delicious. So thanks Pops! I’ll enjoy every one of these chocolates for the next 2ish weeks.

Foto Friday

A month or so ago, my Aunt posted this picture on her Facebook page. I really liked it, and now I’m (finally) posting it on here.

I’ve never really slept with a teddy bear. I’ve had various ones over the years, and when I was younger I tried to sleep with it, but in the middle of the night, I would lose my hold on him, and he would end up on the floor, where I would find him the next morning. I think I’ve only had one bear, since I was about 3, and since then I’ve had like, stuffed animals, but no bears. I still actually have the same bear that I got when I was young. I wish I had thought to take a picture of him, too, but I forgot. He’s a little ratty now, and his eyes no longer glow like they used to (he hasn’t had batteries for years) but he’s still soft and cuddly. Now I sort of sleep with Inspector (whom you all should remember) but he doesn’t really sleep with me so much as he just sleeps on our giant bed where no one touches him so he can’t fall off.

This picture makes me want to get a little bear to keep near me too. And I’d like to equip him with a sword.

Miscellaneous Monday

Again, we have a Monday here where I could probably write a separate blog entry for every one of these, but I just don’t want to. It’d probably take a while, plus how would I have a Miscellaneous Monday?! So here it is.

I decorated one of my Christmas trees yesterday. It sounds like I have a lot of trees, but so far, just 2. This will be my first Christmas being married, so it’s pretty interesting trying to meld together our own traditions/habits. Husband wants a live tree, which I’ve never had, but have always wanted to give a try to. Chelle had a (fake) tree that she was getting rid of, she got a new one, so she bestowed upon me her old one. This is the one I decorated yesterday. We were going to get the live tree on Saturday, but circumstances were out of my hands, so we didn’t get it. Hopefully we’ll get that tree tonight, and get it decorated. I chose to do blue and gold for the tree, and here’s what it looks like:
 

And there it is. I’m proud of it, it turned out pretty good. You can’t really see the star on the top, but it’s a gold star. It’s probably a little small for the tree there, but I don’t care, its what I have.

I had a dentist appointment on Friday, just a cleaning/checkup. Good news, no cavities! But my dentist told me to start using an electric toothbrush, because that would be better for my mouth. (Apparently I have what look to be signs of early gingivitis on one of my back teeth, so this will help. I feel close enough to everyone on here to share that bit of news) So on Saturday, I bought one. I finally opened it last night and it took me about 45 minutes to open it. I first cut open the packaging, then I tried to pry it open, no dice. I got some scissors, and with the way this was packaged, I had to cut, pry something out. Cut some more, pry pry pry. It took me a long time, plus I bled a little from a cut I acquired trying to get that dang thing opened. But finally, finally, I got it opened and used it. It’s a total different experience, using an electric one. Makes me feel all vibratey and weird.

I’ve been watching a lot of Hallmark Christmas movies lately. I love this season because of them. I try not to repeat too many movies, because of how many there are, but there are so many favorites that I do every year. So far, my favorites this year are A Christmas Wish (It was filmed at a favorite diner in Mapleton!), A Princess for Christmas, Trading Christmas, and A Holiday Engagement. I’m currently watching Desperately Seeking Santa. I really like these movies. You already know what’s going to happen, but still, it fills you with such joy when it happens. There are some that I love to watch every year – Recipe for a Perfect Christmas, Snow, Snow 2, Eve’s Christmas, for a few examples. And of course, I love to watch The Polar Express, and all the Santa Clause movies. I love watching the same Christmas movies over and over again.

Foto Friday

Last night, I made Oreo’s for my ward Christmas party (that’s tonight!). I’m in charge of bringing 2 dozen cookies to this fiesta. So I get all my ingredients, and I’m making the cookies, and it’s taking a while, of course, because Oreo’s take a while. When I’m all done with the baking part, before I get to the frosting part, I surveyed all the cookies I had around the kitchen, it was like, 6 sheets full. I was like, dude, I have tons of cookies here, delicious! Then as I kept going, I remembered, all the cookies are in pairs, so that will reduce my cookies significantly. I got all done with the frosting (I used red and green frosting, for Christmas spirit) and put aside the number of cookies for the party. That left me with 4 Oreos. Only 4 cookies left, so I couldn’t even share with anyone like I was hoping. I realize now I should have made like, a double recipe to have deliciousness for all, but sadly, it didn’t occur to me at the time. But don’t fret, friends. Next week, I’ll probably be making treats again, this time to share with everyone. I already have a recipe too, I found one yesterday that I’d like to try. So just hold on for a few more days, and you’ll have something delish too!

* I was going to take the cookies out of the Tupperware for the picture, but that seemed like a lot of work. Sorry for the laziness.