Gina's Closet

Pink Lemonade Cupcakes

2010-06-02T17:54:00.000-07:00

Although it may be apparent by my posting all the sweet treats here on my blog that I have a major sweet tooth, the truth is, I really don't care for sweets. A chocolate bar once in awhile, yes, but nothing beyond that....no cake, no cookies, no muffins, no cupcake.....

Until now.

Seriously, this cupcake is outta this world good!! How can you go wrong with pink lemonade added to your cupcake?! Then to add the most amazing frosting to it....let's just say I've ate more than 2 and less then 5.

Try it, I pinky promise you will love it!!

Pink Lemonade Cupcakes

9 oz. Frozen pink lemonade concentrate

1 box of white cake mix

3 egg whites

2 tbsp. vegetable oil

Mix together all the above ingredients. The batter will be a little lumpy, but don't over mix it and end up with dry cupcakes like I did the first time I made them.

Spray the muffin tin (or wrappers) with nonstick spray and put into the oven at 350 degrees for 25 minutes.

When the cupcakes have cooled, make icing and ice the cupcakes!

Lemon Buttercream Icing

3 cups + 3 tbsp confectioners sugar

1 stick (softened) unsalted butter

1/8 tsp salt

2 tbsp lemon juice

red food coloring

Add ingredients together and mix on low for about 60 seconds with your mixer until fluffy. I only had neon colors this time around for the food coloring, so 3 drops of the pink neon coloring turned the icing this pretty pink!

-source-

Confections of a Foodie Bride

How to Get.....

2010-05-25T00:25:00.000-07:00

...your husband to do anything for you....

They're called

"Mama's Sweet and Saltines"

{recipe from Home Cooking with Trisha Yearwood:Stories and Recipes to Share with Family and Friends}

40 saltine crackers

2 sticks unsalted butter

1 cup light-brown sugar

8 ounces semisweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 425. Line a large rimmed cookie sheet with aluminum foil and saltine crackers.

2. In a medium saucepan, melt butter and brown sugar together and bring to a boil. Boil for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and pour over crackers, covering them evenly. Put cookie sheet into oven and watch closely. Bake for about 5 minutes, or until just bubbly.

3. Remove from oven and pour chocolate chips over crackers. When chips begin to melt, spread them over crackers with a knife. Transfer pan to freezer for 15 to 20 minutes, or until completely cold. The chocolate-covered crackers will form a solid sheet; break into pieces and store in an airtight container.

{Side note about chocolate chips...the first time I made it as directions said to, but I found it was easier to melt the chocolate while the crackers are in the oven, then pour the chocolate over them. Much much easier this way}

It's Hard....

2010-05-20T14:37:00.000-07:00

...to find the time to blog when there are dockside sitting, ice cream eating, basketball playing kind of days.

Menu Monday's

2010-04-12T03:00:00.000-07:00

Monday {it is Brandon and Dre's birthday's, so these are their favorite meals}
breakfast-french toast, bacon, fried potatoes, fresh fruit and eggs
lunch-turkey sandwiches, kiwis, string cheese and yogurt
dinner-homemade chicken strips, mashed potatoes, corn and biscuits
dessert-birthday cakes!!!

Tuesday
breakfast-cereal
lunch-grilled cheese and tomato soup
dinner-tacos (ground beef and chicken), with spanish rice and beans

Wednesday
breakfast-oatmeal, fresh fruit and toast
lunch-chicken quesadillas and leftover rice and beans
dinner-roasted veggies with smoked sausage penne

Thursday
breakfast-yogurt, toast and fresh fruit
lunch-sandwiches (turkey, pb&j...whatever they want)...and anything else they want within reason
dinner-leftovers

Friday
breakfast-cereal
lunch-hot dogs, chips and fruit
dinner-chicken burritos with rice and beans (this one was a request of Savannah)

I don't make dessert very often, only on a birthday/special occasion or I want to surprise the kids with something. Since Dre and Brandon share a birthday (along with Dre's twin, duh) I am going to make a joint cake for Monday, since we are celebrating with a party the following Saturday with another cake for Brandon.

Our Little Corner of The Mountain

2010-04-10T23:34:00.000-07:00

We had our first snow fall since we moved into our new place. Although it wasn't much, it was enough to have us light the fireplace, make smores in said fireplace,

try to catch snowflakes on your tongue,

to make dirt/snow angels

and to get your first taste of snow.

We love it up here in the mountains....

{at the lake, just minutes from our house}

To Do

2010-03-09T01:10:00.000-08:00

While March is finally here and Spring feels so close, we are in the midst of packing our lives up and moving to a mountain community, where there is TONS of snow still. As a matter of fact, they got a few more inches a few nights ago. So, while I can't wait to pratice cart wheels in our new yard and trace our shadows with sidewalk chalk, those things will have to wait until April. Instead, I get to experience so many new things with my kids with all the snow around us, such as.....
Making snow angles
Have a snowball fight
Go on our first family hike
Use our fireplace to make smores
Build a bird house to hang out on our deck

What is on your to do list for March?

Me

2010-02-09T00:27:00.000-08:00

I have greatly neglected this blog since I started it back up, but things are going to change around here from now on.

See, I have a ton of posts already written (or half written), but I never publish them because I am afraid of upsetting any of my friends or family that may be reading. What was originally started for me to journal my everyday happenings, to talk about my kids and generally say what's on my mind, turned into a "what do I think everyone wants to hear about?" The truth is, life isn't a bunch of rainbows and unicorns...there are some dark rain clouds and rotten apples thrown in there too.

So, this is the new me, blog-wise. No more censoring myself for anybody else. Because honestly, some days my kids make me wish I was single with no kids living it up my 20's in bars and clubs, making out with random guys and waking up with a gnarly hangover. I'm not religious, I have very liberal views, I like to cuss, a lot damn it and I love to shop and gossip.

This is not to say that my life is all gloom and doom, because it's not...my kids are THE most fabulous kids around and I'm going to shout that from the roof tops as often as possible too. You're just going to get the whole gina from now on, not just the everything is perfect gina.

(Also...I don't always use spell check...just sometimes those extra clicks take too much effort and I don't want to do it)

This Is My Year

2010-01-08T00:12:00.000-08:00

2010.

A new year. A new decade. A new me.

I've never really done New Year's resolutions, mainly for the simple fact that I knew I wouldn't stick with them, so why even bother. But I've changed my attitude about that this year. I'm not expecting to be wearing a bikini by summer (although it would be nice, it's not realistic...hello having 3 kids!), instead I have long term goals that can attained by setting short term goals.

I, along with half of the women on the planet, want to loose weight. But instead of saying I will "X" amount of pounds, I am resolving to eat healthier, make better choices not only for myself but for my family and become smarter about where our food is coming from and how it gets to us. I will be the first to admit I am a soda-holic. This is going to be the hardest for me to give up and I will tell you that right now, so I am not putting too much pressure on this goal right now. I need a glass of soda in the morning (it's my coffee, don't judge) and sometime in the mid afternoon/early evening, so I can go without any caffeine in between those two and just make sure I am having water instead. What helps is having a large water bottle already in the fridge each night for me, so I can see how many oz. I drank. Hopefully by starting these baby steps, it will help me get to my larger goal of loosing the jelly belly.

The kids got a Wii from Santa this year and I am looking into getting the Wii Fit. Between Dre's work schedule and homeschooling the kids, I don't have a lot of time to get to a gym. Originally I planned on joining a dance class of some sort (a Barre class, strip class or hip hop class), but since we are MOVING (yes....we are moving and I really think that is what is contributing to my highly optimitic mood lately) it will have to wait until we are settled in before I can join anything. So, until then I am just doing lots of walking/running, squats, just simple basic stuff at home.

So, that moving thing...yay!!! We will be moving to the mountains where the summers it very very rarely goes higher then the mid 80's, with a beautiful Lake just 2(ish) miles away. Living there will be a lifestyle change for us...getting up in the freezing cold winter mornings to shovel our driveway, chopping wood, etc., but we are both up to the challenge and strangely look forward to it (remind me I said this in December...I bet I'll different attitude then). It is a small town with the small town community feel. The vast majority of people lead a very active lifestyle and it's a lifestyle both Dre and I are looking to embrace and get the kids involved with.

Combine the just eating healthier in general (and portion control) and upping my workout regime, I *know* I will be seeing results (I better see some results, lol) soon.

Freezing Bananas....at 2 am

2009-12-11T22:06:00.000-08:00

I am experiencing a pretty sucky case of insomnia lately, keeping me up until 3ish in the morning usually, only to get back up around 7am. Logan is still not sleeping through the night, so operating on only 4 hours of sleep every day is getting to be pretty hard.

My usual tricks of falling asleep aren't working anymore (read a book or watch a little tv) so I find myself cooking, cleaning or working after the kids go to bed. This last Thursday night was no different...I had a BUNCH of over ripe bananas sitting on my counter waiting to be frozen. I was planning on doing it the next day, but hey, I was up and full of energy already, might as well do it then, right?

So that is what I was doing last night at 3 am....but it's sooooo easy and goes by pretty quickly...here, I'll show you....

First of all, there are several ways you can freeze your bananas. The two methods I prefer are these ones:

Peel and slice then mash the bananas, then pour into sandwich baggies to freeze.
OR Peel and slice the bananas and lay the pieces on a baking sheet in a single layer. Put the sheet into the freezer until the slices are frozen. Transfer to a freezer bag and put back into the freezer.

I like the second option for making smoothies with! But last night I went with mashing them. To make it a little easier on me, I measure out a cup of the mashed bananas and then transferred them to the baggies...so now any time I make my banana bread and it calls for 2 cups of mashed banana, I'll just grab two baggies...easy peasy! I wound up with a total of ten cups last night...which I then preceded to put 5 of the sandwich baggies into a large freezer bag, labeled and put into my freezer!

Advent Calendar Activities

2009-12-02T17:57:00.000-08:00

This will be the first year we've used an Advent Calendar, but we are changing things up a bit. First thing is....we aren't doing any sweets or candy with it, but instead we are doing an activity each night of the week. Second thing is....I don't even have an advent calendar. Hopefully before the end of the week I'll be able to either buy one or make one, so in the mean time I have a list that I wrote up that we are going off of.

Here is a peak at our list of activities this year:

1. Watch a Christmas movie with some hot cocoa

2. Write letters to Santa

3. Go walk around a local town to look at Christmas lights

4. Make Christmas cookies and surprise a neighbor or two with them

5. Write Christmas letters to relatives we will not see for the holidays

6. Visit Santa at the mall

7. Clean out some toys and donate them to Goodwill

8. Make some Christmas candy

9. Watch the movie "A Christmas Story"

10. Sleep under the tree

11. Make a gingerbread house

12. Make some reindeer food

13. Read a Christmas story before bed

14. Set out Santa's cookies and the reindeer food

15. Make paper snow flakes

16. Make a count down chain

17. Make some Christmas sugar cookies

18. Make cinnamon rolls to eat on Christmas morning and take a few trays to a few friends

19. Donate old coats to the needy

20. Watch a Christmas movie

21. Write a round table Christmas story

22. Play board games all day

23. Watch a Christmas movie

24. Go to my sister's house on Christmas Eve to eat, make cookies and watch movies and play games!

*I got several (if not most) of these ideas from The Idea Room*

Obviously, this list is not in any kind of order. Since we are homeschooling and lots of things happen during the day that can throw me off schedule, I want to be able to control what we do each day by picking an activity that morning. That way if plans change, the kids won't be disappointed too much.

2009-12-01T22:53:00.000-08:00

Who needs toys when you can climb onto the bathroom sink and use and ice cream scooper to throw water around with?

*please ignore the dirty mirror...that is only 2 days without being cleaned, I promise*