Teacher Christmas Gifts

For teacher gifts this year I wanted to do something quick and easy.  Between school teachers, aides, and primary teachers we had 6 to buy for.  So I headed out to Bath & Body Works and picked up some cute Christmas apple-scented soap.  Then I headed over to Crafts Re-designed for these adorable printable tags.  The kids cut them out and we tied them on with some (homemade) bakers twine.  I think they turned out cute and hopefully it's a gift their teachers will enjoy. These would be great for neighbor gifts, too.  I think I'll make a few extra to have on hand!

I wanted to do a little something more for Cailyn's 3rd grade teacher.  So in addition to the soap we made some personalized cards for her to use.

I got some lined scrapbook paper and ran it through the printer to put her teacher's name on.  Then I got to use my favorite border punch.

I put them all together, added some ribbon and a few festive pencils and it was good to go!

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Christmas Pizzas & Dough Recipe

Every Friday night in our house is pizza & movie night. So for the holiday season I decided it would be fun to do some festive pizzas. I made my regular pizza dough and just shaped it into a snowman and a candy cane. The kids thought it was great! We sat on the family room floor and ate it while watching The Santa Clause. I love making memories with my family. :)

(Please excuse the terrible state of my pans! :P )

Breadmaker Pizza Dough 

(adapted from food.com)

Ingredients

• 1 cup water
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 teaspoon garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon italian seasoning
• 2 teaspoons parmesan cheese
• 2 teaspoons active dry yeast
• 2 teaspoons parmesan cheese

Directions

1. Add all ingredients to breadmaker in order listed by your manufacturer.
2. Set breadmaker on dough setting.
3. When cycle is done, form crust on a pizza pan which has been lightly greased and sprinkled with cornmeal. Brush the dough with olive oil and sprinkle with garlic salt.  Using a fork poke a bunch of holes all over the dough (this helps to keep it from bubbling).
4. Bake 8 minutes at 425 F until light brown.
5. Add sauce and toppings and cook another 10 minutes until cheese is bubbly.

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Chocolate Coconut Fudge Bombs

I am your typical woman... crazy about chocolate and also coconut and couldn't find a good recipe for fudge that included both, so I decided to make one and then I entered it into Nestle's Recipe contest recently, which announces the winner on December 20th next week. Wish me luck, and I decided to share the recipe. Hope you like it like my family & co-workers do.

Bottom & Top Layer  (repeated twice ) 

“Nestles Fudge Recipe”

1 ½ C Sugar

2/3 C Nestle Carnation Evaporated Milk

2 TBSP butter

¼ tsp Salt

2 C miniature marshmallows

1 ½ C Nestle Toll House Milk Chocolate Morsels

1 tsp vanilla extract

Middle Layer

1 C evaporated milk

1 C sugar

24 Large marshmallows

1 14oz pkg. coconut

Combine sugar, milk, butter and salt in medium, heavy duty saucepan. Bring to a full rolling boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. Boil, stirring constantly, for 3-4 minutes.  Remove from heat.

Stir in marshmallows, morsels and vanilla extract. Stir vigorously till blended. Pour into 9x13 pan lined with foil for easy removal, and cool in fridge. To make fudge thicker, you can pour into 9x9 pan.

Combine the 1 Cup milk and the sugar in a medium saucepan. Bring to a rolling boil and boil for 1 minute. Stir in marshmallows until melted, then add coconut: pour over cooled layer of chocolate fudge.

Let cool in fridge.

Prepare another batch of the “Nestle Fudge recipe” and pour over the top of the coconut layer, cool and enjoy.

Using Nestles recipe and a new version of coconut center of my own and my family loved it

as much as I did.

-Buff



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10 Food Tips You May Not Know!

1. Bananas- when you get home from the store, pull them apart. They go bad faster if they stay connected to the stem.

2. Block cheese- when you buy blocks of cheese, wrap them in aluminum foil. It stays fresh longer and NO MOLD!

3. Peppers- peppers that have 3 bumps on the bottom are sweeter, when peppers with 4 bumps are better to cook with and are more firm.

4. Ground beef- add 1tsp of water to ground beef when frying it up. it helps keep the grease separate from the meat when you cook it.

5. Garlic- when cooking, for a light taste of garlic add it at the beginning stages of cooking and for a stronger taste add it to the recipe at the end

6. Chocolate Chips- adding your chocolate chips into the flour of your recipe prevents them from sinking to the bottom of your cake and keeps them separated

7. Frosting- when you buy frosting from the store, put it in your mixer and mix it for a few min. It will DOUBLE in amount and it will go further. **You will eat fewer calories and less sugar per serving!! Always a good thing!

8. Eggs- to make creamier and richer scrambled eggs, you can add a few spoon fulls of cream cheese, sour cream, or heavy cream as you beat them up!

9. Flour- by putting a bay leaf in your flour container or taping one to the top of an unopened bag of flour, you will NEVER have weevils!

10. Mushrooms- to keep them fresh and lasting longer, place them in a brown lunch bag when storing them in the fridge!

-chelz

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Wants to Join in the Fun!

 Ok my little girl asks me each week if she can do an outfit too and I have always said not now. Today I gave in!

White shirt- target
Sweater- target
jeans- old navy
boots- target.com















-chelz


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A Little Plaid

I've been trying to go a little out of my comfort zone when buying new clothes. I wanted a button down shirt for a layered look so instead of just a solid white I decided to go a little bold and go with this purple plaid. What do you think? Can I pull of plaid?

Plaid shirt: Target
Sweater: Target
Pants: Kohls
Shoes: Discount Shoe Factory
Necklace: Macys
Bangles: 99 Cent Store







I am loving layered necklaces!

And this is maybe my favorite part of my outfit.  I got a set of 4 bangles and then a set of 2 pearls & a bangle.  All for only $2.  I get so excited about good deals! :P















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What I Wore Wednesday - Chelsea

Layers, layers, layers! I love the layered look. I also love playing with different color combinations. I am really loving navy blue with teal together.



Cardigan- target
grey shirt- walmart
white shirt- tj maxx
belt- target
jeans- nordstrom rack
shoes- discount shoe factory
red purse- local store here
necklace- 99 cent store!

blue purse- Forever 21 (last summer)

necklace- 99 cent store!

What color purse do you think works best with this outfit? I'm not sure which one I like better and would love to know what you think!


-chelz




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