Strawberry Cupcakes

Now that the VDay hype is over and I've bored you to death with all of those projects, I can tell you my recipe for my cream cheese icing I use on my strawberry cupcakes. 

One of these days I'll learn how to make strawberry cupcakes from scratch (because that would be delicious) but for time's sake, the ones from the box will do. This is probably my favorite boxed cake mix.

They aren't kidding about the moist part, either. I also discovered that if you cook them for the lowest amount of time it recommends, they are typically more moist. Nobody likes dried out cake.

Now, for the part that really matters, the cream cheese icing. I don't think there is any icing that goes with strawberry cake better than this one. And did I mention it's super easy?

Ingredients:

1 stick of butter (1/2 cup)

8oz package of cream cheese

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 cups of confectioners sugar

*3 cups is a rough estimate, I always just judge by stiffness (for piping)

Beat the butter and cream cheese in a bowl

Mix in the vanilla

Mix in the confectioners sugar a cup at a time

If you want to make them pretty, I typically pipe the icing with the large open star tip. Then I add some of the pretty sprinkles I got on sale after VDay one year. Lastly, I stuff my face (after I take pretty pictures of them).

Now, go make some cupcakes and eat 1 (or 2 or 3). :)

Creamy Tomato Cajun Chicken Pasta

This Valentine's, I was delegated the task of making VDay dinner. (Not sure how that happened)

I figured some kind of pasta would be appropriate for a VDay meal, but spaghetti is too easy and too...blah.  So I searched and searched for some kind of cajun chicken pasta recipe (because that's always my favorite at restaurants), but I could never find one I just absolutely thought sounded delicious. I wanted something with a creamy tomato sauce and none of the ones I came across were actually "creamy" ....they all had big chunks of tomato in them. Yuck. So, I kind of combined different recipes and kind of just winged it. And this is how it turned out:

Here's what you need:

1 box of farfalle (bowtie) pasta

5 skinless, boneless chicken breast tenders

2 tablespoons cajun seasoning

1 red bell pepper

For the sauce:

1-14oz can of tomato soup

1 cup of heavy whipping cream

2 cloves of garlic

Salt and Pepper to taste

Here's how to make it:

Cook the pasta according to box and drain

Cut the chicken tenders into strips

Toss the chicken in the cajun seasoning until fully coated

Julienne the bell pepper*

Saute the chicken for 5-7 minutes on med heat (no pink left)

Toss in the bell pepper strips and saute for another 4-5 minutes

*(For the non-cooking-savvy people like me, julienne = strips)

To make the sauce:

Add the tomato sauce to a saucepan and heat on med heat

Mince your garlic and add to pan

Once this comes to a boil, add the heavy cream

Stir continuously so it doesnt burn

Add salt and pepper to taste

Once heated thoroughly, remove from heat to let thicken

I didn't start my sauce soon enough to have it thicken before serving, so our sauce was a little runny. We also decided the sauce was a little bland and might be better with something such as a red pepper spice to give it a little more flavor.

Pour some sauce over your noodles, add the chicken and peppers, then sprinkle some grated parmesan on top, and voila. Dinner is served.  I also made garlic breadsticks (from the frozen section) and caesar salad (from a bag).

I also made dessert (which I mentioned in my last post but couldn't tell you what it was).

I made none other than the fiance's favorite:

German Chocolate Cake.

I wish I could say I made it from scratch. But all the recipes I found looked way too time consuming and stressful. So I stuck with the box. I cooked it according to instructions, but to keep my cake moist, I always cook it for the least amount of time the box says to.  After cooling, I iced it. I normally just use the German chocolate icing, but since it's not exactly my fave (and we were both eating it for dessert), I also used a tub of milk chocolate icing. I iced the bottom layer and the sides with the milk chocolate, then iced the top with the coconut icing. My type-A personality led me to piping 2 layers of chocolate icing around the outside. Just so it didn't look quite so pathetic.

And there you have it, my "homeade" VDay dinner. Beats going out to eat on such a busy night.

What did you do for Valentine's?

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Between all the sweets from my classmates, coffee, and facebook, it has been exceptionally hard to pay attention in class this morning. I can officially show you all my VDay projects I've been working on since I finally distributed them today! But first, I wanted to show you my valentine's "mantel" ....since I never really got around to doing that and I'm kinda proud of it.

I made the topiaries last year and I got the little bears from Hobs Lobs during their VDay clearance on year.

The letters are just chipboard letters covered in paper and stickers

The banner I made from cutting hearts out of paint chips. Paint chips = free!

Last night, I got my Betty Crocker/Martha Stewart on and made some sweets. One of the desserts I made is for VDay dinner with the fiance. So, I can't show you that yet. But, for my classmates, I made strawberry cupcakes (from a box, of course) with homeade cream cheese icing. I'll post the recipe another day.

I also made special valentines for my close friends. I saw the idea on some craft blog a while back and I thought it was perfect for med school. Because it's something that we all use everyday to study. It's a little bit cheesy, but that's okay. 

Highlighters!

This weekend, I bought some Samoa girl scout cookies while I was out with the fiance. I know he likes them, so I figured I'd incorporate a few into his VDay gift. I thought up a super cheesy saying to go along with them (since everything else I made was cheesy). I probably wasn't the first to come up with it, but I thought I was funny so I'm going to pretend I did. Don't judge.

 

For all of the gifts, I just packaged them in ziplock bags, rolled down the tops, cut a strip of festive paper to fold across the top and pinned it all together with a wooden clothespin and my handwritten message! I feel like that's enough Valentine's Day stuff thrown into one post to make anyone want to gag. So, I promise I'll stop now. (But mainly because there is nothing left to show you). Hope everyone is having a great day with the ones they love (whether it's a special someone, friends or family!)

VDay Countdown

I wish I could tell you that a lot of exciting things have been going on lately.

But I'd be lying. As usual, I've just been studying my life away.

Our cardiovascular final is this Friday (yippee!), and then we start Pulmonary. I also remember telling you there would be more cardio adventures to tell you about. I was also lying then, I just didn't know it at the time.

I did get to see and hold some hearts. One was normal, while the others were diseased. We had the task of determining out what disease each heart had. That was pretty cool and it helped put all of the stuff we are learning into perspective.

The main reason for this post is because it's February 1st and what better day than today to show you my Valentine's countdown. I used the same tutorial for this one as I did for my Halloween countdown.

Now I just have to figure out what I'm doing for Valentine's. Probably studying, like usual. :P

What are your plans? Do you have a hot date or do you plan on rebelling against VDay?

DIY VDay Canvas

Happy Tuesday! Or not happy Tuesday? There isn't a lot that's great about Tuesdays, I know. The weekend is still too far away. But, something great about this Tuesday is that I finally have another project to show you! 

And yes, it is a Valentine's Day project.

Now, I realize some people don't like Valentine's Day, which I think has to do a lot with the fact that they don't have a significant other to celebrate with, otherwise they would probably like it. But honestly, what other holiday, or any other time really, is it acceptable to decorate with pink and red and make your house all girly. This is not a trick question - there is no other time where this is acceptable. Which is why I take advantage of VDay (and also because it's acceptable to eat an entire box of chocolate by yourself without judgment..I think). But anyways, let me get on to today's project.

And just in case you like it enough to make one, I'm going to do my best to show you how.

What you need:

Blank canvas

Freezer paper

Cricut or Exacto knife and cutting pad

Red paint and foam brush

Pink Ribbon

Hot glue gun

Steps:

Take a piece of freezer paper and cut out "Happy" and "Valentine's" with your Cricut or with a template and an Exacto knife. For the Exacto knife method, see this post. Make sure you cut the words on one line so the whole word is together. Also make sure the slick part of the freezer paper is on the bottom when cutting.

Lay your newly made "stencils" on top of your canvas.

Iron down the freezer paper so it adheres to your canvas. Don't forget the little dots between the letters that have holes!

Then, just like you would a stencil, lightly dab paint over your words. This took two coats for me. You also may have to touch it up a little after it dries and you pull it off, and for that I used a white paint marker.)

For the heart, all I did was make a bunch of little rosettes with ribbon. There are several tutorials for this, but basically, you cut a strip of ribbon (mine were probably 12" each), tie a knot at one end, and then start rolling and twisting from the knot.  Add a dab of hot glue every now and then so it doesn't come unraveled.

I printed out a heart template and traced it to my canvas so my heart didn't turn out lop-sided.

Then I hot glued my rosettes to the heart outline. I decided not to fill in the heart because it would have taken too much ribbon. And plus, it saves a lot of time!

But there you have it! You officially know how to make your own VDay canvas. So, go decorate your house all girly and while you're at it, eat an entire box of chocolate so I can feel better about myself! :)