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A Red and White Celebration

In honor of Smart & Final's 140th Birthday I threw together a little celebration.  I'm honored to be one of the #sfsmarties and love Smart & Final, particularly for when I'm hosting parties.  You can view some of the items we purchased for this party table on ThisMoment.

On The Party Table:

Red Velvet Cake - filled with freshly whipped cream and topped with sifted powdered sugar

Twizzlers

Milk (First Street) - Red Straws (First Street) and Party Cups

Yogurt covered raisins

Starlight Peppermints (First Street)

Red Velvet Cookies

Apple and Cheese Danish Bites

Strawberries

Kettle Corn

TIPS:

To decorate I hung a rope above the table and lay folded napkins over the top to form a banner and placed a matching table cloth on the table.  These were from the twins 3rd birthday party.

Glass hurricane candle holders are fabulous for holding party snacks such as fruit and kettle corn.

Small trays can be turned into an instant cake stand by placing it on top of a candlestick holder.

Silicone baking cups are perfect for holding small snacks such as yogurt covered raisins.

When using a boxed cake mix, use apple sauce in place of oil - This tip is from Martha Stewart.

 

Disclosure: This project has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for #cbias #SmartFinal140th 

Week 9: George Foreman 90 Day Challenge

When I weighed in this morning I had lost very little.  To the point that normally this would disappoint me, and have me questionning myself and feeling a little defeated.  But instead I looked at the positive.  I reached a milestone.  For the first time in 5 years I was under 160lbs.   For me that is a far greater accomplishment than I could have even imagined was possible just months ago.  And another thing I realized, is that this time next week, my BMI will no longer be in the 'overweight' range.

Here are this weeks weigh-in and measurement results:

• BMI: 25.0 (overweight) 26.62

• Weight: 159.6 lbs 170.6 lbs

• Chest: 39" 39"

• Waist: 36" 40"

• Hips: 40" 41"

• Overall:  Down 11 lbs and 5"

(red denotes initial measurements and weight)

Normally I would give you a recipe of the week that I tried and loved, but seeing as it's the 4th of July today and there will be grilling and parties and celebrations going on, I wanted to give you a tip instead.

Don't feel like you need to miss out.  Just make some adjustments to what everyone else is eating to enjoy a healthier version.  But please, don't sit at a celebration and look at the food and think that you really shouldn't eat anything because you are 'dieting'.  This is about being healthier and making long term choices with what you eat.

Yesterday we celebrated an early 4th of July with friends.  We did hamburgers and sausages on the grill and I whipped up a few salads.  While my husband was outside grilling the burgers and sausages for the others, I popped a veggie burger on my George Foreman and instead of offering just one choice in hamburger buns, I offered two - regular whole wheat buns and whole wheat sandwich thins too.  We also love bacon on our burgers, and I wasn't about to miss out on that, so instead of frying them, I popped them on the George Foreman and they came out perfectly.  I will never fry bacon again. 

Another tip.  If you are the one entertaining visitors, leave condiments out on the table for those who want them to add them into their own salad.  I also made a leaner potato salad, by not adding items such as mayonnaise or sour cream.  You can view the salad recipes I made on my 4th of July Salads post.

Disclosure: I am one of 10 Brand Ambassadors in the George Foreman Knock out the Fat Weight Loss Challenge. I was sent a George Foreman Grill for my participation in this challenge and will be compensated for my time at the end of the 90 days.

Salads: 4th of July

Three quick and easy salads you can make this 4th of July.

Blueberry and Watermelon Salad

Ingredients:

• Watermelon
• Blueberries

Cut the watermelon into 1cm thick slices.  Using a star-shaped cookie cutter cut out the stars.  Layer with blueberries in a bowl.  You don't want to mix this salad as the points on the watermelon may break.

Potato Salad

Ingredients:

• 2lbs Baby red potatoes
• 1/2 cup red onion (julienned)
• 1/4 cup capers
• 5 bacon slices (cooked and roughly chopped)
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 2 tbs red wine vinegar
• 1 tbs Dijon mustard
• 1 tbs dried thyme
• salt & pepper to taste

Whisk the olive oil, red wine vinegar, mustard, thyme, salt and pepper in a small bowl and set aside.

Wash and then cut the potatoes in half.  Steam them potatoes until just tender when you put a fork into them.  Run under cold water and then set aside until they are cool.  Transfer to a large bowl.  Add the bacon, capers, and onion to the bowl, pour over the dressing and toss.

Garden Salad

Ingredients:

• Gourmet lettuce
• Cherry tomatoes
• Red pepper (chopped)
• Crumbled feta cheese

Served with Champagne Vinaigrette

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and toss.  Serve the dressing on the side for those who may not want to add it.

A Patriotic Parfait

Ingredients:

• Blueberries
• Raspberries
• Vanilla yogurt
• Cool Whip (defrosted)
• Granola
• Flaked Coconut

Whisk equal parts yogurt and cool whip in a bowl.

Layer your fruit and yogurt mixture in a glass.  Top with granola and flaked coconut.

Enjoy!

Handmade Kaleidoscopes

Today I'm over at Multiples and More showing you how to make 4th of July Kaleidoscopes with your kids.  Come by and say hello.

A Flag Cake

Between Memorial Day and the 4th of July, TASTE OF HOME have partnered with the USO to raise money for the troops overseas to call their loved ones back home.  For every unique visitor to the Taste of Home Flag Cake Recipe, 10 cents will be donated.

Being a military wife, and a lover of cake, I had to get on board to get the word out about this fantastic campaign.  And yes, of course I just had to make the cake. Here are a few tidbits of information.

• Taste of Home will be donating 10¢ per (unique) click, which equals 2 minutes of talk time for service members
• Every $1 raised will provide 20 minutes of talk time for service members and their families
• Taste of Home will be donating up to $100,000 to the USO for this initiative
• The initiative will run through July 4^th, Independence Day

Now head on over to TASTE OF HOME and view their Flag Cake recipe.  Every click helps.

4th of July Celebration

A belated 4th of July post.  Better late than never, right!

We celebrated with friends. It was chaotic but fun.  Picture 3 toddlers and 4 Boxers (as in the dog variety) in the one spot. Together.  For about 4 hours.

The food was fabulous and the company even more so though.

Here's a little round-up of the festive food I made yesterday:

Clockwise:

Blueberry Muffins: fresh out of the oven for breakfast.

Vanilla Mousse Cups: Chocolate cups with French vanilla mousse piped into them and topped with a red velvet cake star and white cake sparkles.  Note: the red velvet stars were made from the excess cake cut off the Star Pops before they were decorated (details below).  I rolled the pieces to flatten them, then used a small star-shaped fondant cutter to cut out the stars.

Firework Fairy Bread:  As most of you who read me regularly know, fairy bread is a traditional party treat  (in Australia) for children (and me). For these I used a star-shaped cookie cutter.

Annie's Fruit Salsa & Cinnamon Chips: The recipe for this is one I've used a few times from One More Moore, each time I amend it just a little to suit the party though.  This time being the 4th of July, I used the following - raspberries, blueberries, Asian pears, and pomegranate seeds with a mixed berry preserve.  The cinnamon chips were made using whole wheat pita bread.

Cherries:  I think these speak for themselves.

Star Pops: Red velvet cake stars, covered in buttercream frosting and patriotic sprinkles and placed on popsicle sticks.

Have I mentioned that I cannot wait for my new camera to arrive so I can get back to taking lovely photographs.

Patriotic Star Cupcakes

All you need to make these bite-sized star-shaped cupcakes is:

• Star shaped cupcake pan - this is the one I used.
• Star shaped cookie cutters (2 sizes) - again I used these by Wilton.
• Fondant (colored in red, white & blue)
• Buttercream frosting (for attaching the stars to the cakes)

This post linked to:

4TH OF JULY SWEETHEARTS

I was recently sent quite a few boxes of Sweethearts.  But not just any Sweethearts.  The new Red, White & You Sweethearts. 

This new line of Sweethearts launched just in time for 4th of July and are to honor America’s troops and celebrate America’s patriotism.

I couldn’t just eat all of the candy that was sent to me.   Instead my task was to share some creative ways you could use Sweethearts, not just for 4th of July, but year-round.

So this is my first idea … I will be back with more over the next couple of days.

Sweethearts Candy

These are super easy to make. 

Ingredients:

• Candy mold
• Candy melts (red, white & blue)
• Sweethearts - Red, White & You
• Vanilla icing

To make:

Follow the directions on the candy mold for making the candies … which is very easy, basically you melt the candy, pour into the mold and set in the refrigerator.

Once set, add a little bit of icing to the top and pop on a Sweetheart.

P.S.  The candy melts and candy mold were purchased from Michael’s.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the company for supporting the troops.  They have teamed up with the USO (United Service Organizations) to send the Red, White & You Sweethearts in care packages to American troops, both here in the U.S. and overseas.  As a military wife, I’m all for promoting companies who support the troops.

*Disclaimer: Sweethearts were provided by Necco.

PINWHEELS

4th of July pinwheels. They came out really well. I'm so happy, I'll be making these for every event now ha ha. The idea for these came from another favorite blog of mine Allsorts. I couldn't believe how easy they were. I modified mine just a little. I used some wooden dowels and then made little holes in the bottom of corks. With my trusty glue gun in hand I put the corks over the wooden dowels to insert the pin for the spinner. I won't give away all of the instructions on how to make the spinner here, instead I hope you'll go on over to Allsorts to check it out for yourself. So what do you think?

The pinwheels that Jay and I made

Check out Flynn blowing on his. He's too funny.