Red Velvet Truffles and Mini-Blueberry Pies

Since Aaron and I will not be able to come home for Christmas this year, we decided to try to do as much as we can the two of us as we would do with family at home. This of course includes Christmas dinner and cinnomon rolls on Christmas morning.

Since we both love sweet treats the first thing I planned was desert. Because we are trying to lead a healthy lifestyle I wanted to make sure that our portions were going to be right. So insted of making a big truffle cake and one or two reguler pies I made small induvdual truffles and mini-pies :) I got the recipies from a blog called Bakerella, she has all sorts of sweet treates posted and I am excited to try more of them. ;)

Here are the recipies and some pictures of my creations :)

Red Velvet Truffles

1 Box of Red Velvet Cake Mix

1 Can of Cream Cheese Frosting

2 Bags of Chocolate Chips

Bake the Red Velvet Cake as directed on the box, let cool for 30min to and hour.

After the cake is cool, crumble it into pieces in a large mixing bowl. Then mix in the whole can of frosting. You may want to do this with your hands, it is eaiser but really messy.

Then form quater size balls and place on cookie sheet. Let them set in a cool place, I had the most luck with the freezer.

In the meantime melt the chocolate chips in a doubble boiler. Then dip each cake ball into the melted chocolate and let them cool on wax paper. You can top them with somthing if you like, I chose to keep them nice and chocolatey and smooth.

Mini-Blueberry Pies (filling)

4 C. Blueberrys (fresh or frozen are fine)

1 C. Sugar

3 Tbs Cornstarch

1/2 Tsp Cinnomon

1/2 Tsp Nutmeg

1 C. Water

2 Tbs Lemon Juice

Pie Crust (eaither two rolled Pillsbury ready to use or your own recipie enough dough to have a two crust pie)

Mix dry ingredeants in sauce pan, add water gradually and bring to a boil.

Add Blueberrys, cook 3-4 min or untill syurp is clear and thickend. Remove from heat and add lemon juice and corn starch.

I cut the crust dough small enough to use a muffin pan for my induvidual pies. (make sure you grease muffin pan) After you place dough in pan, fill with pie filling, not to full or they will overflow. Then decorate the top with lattice top, cutouts or a second crust. I baked mine for 10min un-covered then an additional 7min covered with tin foil.

Life for the past few months

Hi everyone!

Sorry I have been away for so long! A lot has happened in the past few weeks.

First, Aaron and I went to Disney World. Aaron, my Aunt Deb, and I had it all planned as a surprise to my other Aunt and her family. We had to plan and keep secrets for months! It was hard, but we pulled it off and the surprise was such a great success! We had a blast spending some wonderful time with family!

Not more than a week after we got home, my Grandfather passed away. We took and emergency trip home to MI for the memorial. Such a sad time turned into such a blessing. We got to share wonderful memories of Grandpa as a family. It was a reminder of what we have and what to be thankful for.

Then Thanksgiving came, since we had used the remainder of our vacation days to go home to be with family, we had our own little Thanksgiving. This included sleeping in, eating a HEALTHY dinner and watching movies together...spending quality time together :)

We also found a great new hobby...Hiking, we love it! At first we started slow, once up Kennesaw Mtn. Making a few stops along the way. Now we are able to go up the mtn at a steady pace stopping once half way then at the top. On our Thanksgiving venture we decided to be brave. We hiked Kennesaw Mtn AND Little Kennesaw Mtn. Yes, that is right two Mtns in one day. Needless to say we were exhausted.

We are still on our venture of trying to be more healthy and active. I read about someone starting a program called Couch to 5K. I looked into it and we have decided to give it a try. It is a way to ease your self in to a running routine. We are on week one and are "enjoying" it so far. We are realising that we really like being outside and being active together. I am lucky to have such a wonderful and encouraging husband!!

Well that turned into quite the update :)

Patty

Healthy VS. Un Healthy

Since Aaron and I have been making a conscious effort to be healthy I have noticed some things.

Like grocery's. When I grocery shopped before my budget was at least $20 less before we started buying more produce, whole grains, and less processed foods. Since America is constantly on crash diets and complaining about obesity rates and look at the stores! It is cheaper to buy Little Debbie products than it is to buy fresh fruit!

Also, Gym memberships. $40 a month! Workout videos are $15-$20 a piece. These just are not prices that my Dave Ramsey budget can work with.

The "diet" or quest to change lifestyles is going. I am down 6lbs total and am working towards a achievable goal. Drinking more water, trying to exercise regularly and eating in more and out less.

We are getting closer to that special event and I am so excited! I cant write it hear for fear the people that we are keeping it secret from are reading this. But no worries it is worth the wait!

Patty

Domestic?

Recently I have been told I am a very domestic wife. I suppose it is true...I really like domestic things. I like to cook, clean, organize, decorate and be creative about life and house stuff. So I guess I am writing this to let everybody know that I am ok with being domestic and I really enjoy it. :)

So m most recent "Domestic" venture was making homemade preserves. I made Strawberry and Peach Cinnamon. So far the strawberry has been a hit and I am going to serve the peach cinnamon tomorrow, we will see which wins the cake. :)

Mom and Dad Jones come down next week and we are so excited to have some family around! Mom Jones is going to teach me to can with the "water bath method" I am just using freezable plastic containers now. They work for temporary uses but not for storing purposes.

I will post some pictures and some reviews of the preserves soon.


Patty

Grocery Shopping Day!

Today is Thursday which means it was grocery shopping day. This can be overwhelming for me because of the planning that goes into it. I have been "Meal Planning" since we have gotten married. This is a huge help because it makes shopping alot more organised and it does not take nearly as long because I know what I need going into it.

I have also recently started cuponing. I buy two Sunday papers and clip doubble coupons and this cuts down on the grocery bill usually between $10 and $40 depending on what I am buying that week. They obviously dont apply to things like produce and meats, but dryed goods and housewears are always included. :)

We also recently cut out Direct T.V. (satilite) so we have been using the library alot! We can get all sorts of movies and T.V. shows whenever we want them. We have gotten hooked to the show Alias, we both watched a few episodes of it when it was on air. We are on Season two and there are 6 :) It is a great way to relax togeather after a long day. :0)


Patty

New Blog

This is it, the first post of Aaron and I's blog. I have created this so we can keep in touch with our family and friends online. Well I guess I can start with a few pictures from over the past year since we have been married and living Georgia.

We moved to Atlanta.....

Had lots of "First's" (this is our first Valentines dinner married style)

Had our very first Christmas southern style. This is the only time it snowed in GA, and that was all the snow wer got. It melted in about an hour.

We started our own Family Traditions. We dyed eggs on Easter.

We took lots of road trips. This is Aaron driving eaither to MI or to PA. I don't remeber which.

We celebrated 1 year of marriage! 8-8-08 ;)

Thats all for now. Sorry the pictures are alittle out of order but I am still new to this. I am sure I will get better with time.

Patty