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Thursday, December 24, 2009

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.




Monday, December 7, 2009

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