Valentine's Foods - Heart-Shaped Pizza

This year, Valentine's Day falls on a Friday...the perfect night to take your valentine on a date!  For our family, Friday night is typically movie night, and we usually have pizza for dinner while we watch the movie(s).  So I decided to make us a pizza shaped like a heart.

I used pizza dough I got fresh from the Publix bakery and shaped it into a heart.  It kept trying to shrink out of shape, so I quickly put it in the oven to pre-bake the crust for 3-5 minutes at 400 degrees.

Then I spread some pizza sauce over the crust.  You can use the toppings of your choice, and I decided to use thinly sliced bell peppers and onions, sliced black olives, and pepperoni.  After spreading the toppings over the sauce, I sprinkled plenty of cheese over top.

Next, I baked the pizza for 15-20 minutes until the crust was golden brown and the cheese was melted.

Heart-Shaped Pizza

Ingredients:

Pizza Dough

Pizza Sauce

Shredded Cheese

Toppings (i.e. pepperoni, sliced black olives, bell peppers, onions, etc.)

Steps:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2. Shape dough on baking pan. Prebake dough for 3 minutes.

3. Spread sauce and toppings and cheese on dough.

4. Bake for 20 minutes or until cheese is melted and crust is golden brown.

Valentine's Foods - Spinach and Berry Salad

I love strawberries on my salads, and I have found that balsamic vinaigrette dressing is the one of my favorite salad dressings on salads with berries. This salad is so easy to throw together and is ready to eat within 5 minutes. Just slice some strawberries and toss them on top of some spinach along with some blueberries and chopped pecans and drizzle with balsamic vinaigrette dressing.

Spinach and Berry Salad

Ingredients:

-Fresh spinach leaves

-Sliced fresh strawberries

-Fresh blueberries

-Chopped pecans

-Balsamic Vinaigrette Dressing

Steps:

1. Place strawberries, blueberries, and pecans on top of spinach. Drizzle basalmic vinaigrette dressing over top and enjoy.

Valentine's Foods - Heart-Shaped Fruit Kabobs

Want an easy and healthy snack for Valentine's Day?  Why not a fruit kabob with the fruits cut out in hearts.

All I did was cut some watermelon, cantaloupe, and honeydew into slices and use my heart-shape cookie cutter to cut them into hearts.

Then I pushed a bamboo kabob stick through 5 hearts to make a fun fruit kabob.

Heart-Shaped Fruit Kabobs

Ingredients:

Watermelon

Cantaloupe

Honey Dew

Steps:

1. Cut slices out of the fruits.

2. Use cookie cutter to cut hearts out of slices.

3. Arrange on kabob sticks.

Valentine's Foods - Heart-Shaped Meatballs

Meatballs are not just for spaghetti.  They are also a delicious appetizer served with the sauce of your choice. For a delicious Valentine's treat, try these meatballs made by forming them in a heart-shaped cookie cutter.

When making these, I decided to use my regular meatball recipe and make a triple batch, so I could make these heart-shaped meatballs as well as regular meatballs to freeze for quick, easy meals in the future.  First I made the meatball mixture by mixing together ground beef, ground sausage, Italian breadcrumbs, egg, onion, and garlic.

Then I used a cookie cutter to form the hearts.

Like I said, I made these early, and also made regular meatballs.  Since I was making these early, I placed each of the meat balls on a wax-paper lined baking sheet and put them in the freezer.

Once they were frozen, I moved them into a gallon-size Ziploc freezer bag, labeling the bag with the date and cooking instructions.

When I wanted to cook them, I put them on a baking sheet directly from the freezer and baked them in a 400 degree oven for about 30 minutes.

If not freezing, form your meatballs and place them on a baking sheet and bake in a 400 degree oven for 20-30 minutes or until browned and cooked through.

Heart-Shaped Meatballs

Ingredients:

1 lb ground beef

1 lb ground sausage

½ cup Italian breadcrumbs

1 egg

½ onion, chopped

1 Tbsp. minced garlic

Steps:

1.  Mix together ground beef, ground sausage, breadcrumbs, egg, onion, and garlic. 

2.  Form into hearts by pressing meat into cookie cutter. Place on a baking sheet.

3.  Cook for 20-30 minutes at 400 degrees until cooked through. 

TO FREEZE:  Can freeze on wax paper lined baking sheet and store in gallon size bag before cooking and then cooking directly from freezer. (Add about 10 minutes extra cooking time.)

Valentine's Foods - Strawberry Lemonade

My husband and I usually get water when we go to a restaurant, but every once in a while, we get raspberry or strawberry lemonade.  I decided to make my own strawberry lemonade for Valentine's.

First I made a simple syrup by heating water and mixing in sugar until the sugar was fully dissolved and then set it aside to cool while I prepared the rest of the mixture.

The next step was to make the strawberry "juice".  I did this by cutting the tops off a pint of strawberries and cutting them in half, or quarters, depending on the size of the strawberries.

Then I put them in the blender with a cup of water and pureed them.  Then I strained this mixture into a half-gallon pitcher before continuing to make the lemonade.

Then I juiced some lemons (6 to be exact) to get about 1 cup of fresh lemon juice.

I mixed the lemon juice with the strawberry juice.  I then added a cup of cold water and the simple syrup.  At this point, taste it, and add more water if desired to achieve the sweetness/bitterness you prefer.  After tasting it, I decided to add 2 more cups of water, but you may like it a little more sour than I do.

Strawberry Lemonade

Ingredients:

2 cups water

1 cup sugar

1 pint of strawberries

1 cup cold water

1 cup fresh lemon juice (about 6 lemons)

1 cup cold water (more if desired)
Club soda (optional)

Steps:

1.  Make a simple syrup by mixing together 2 cups water and 1 cup sugar over high heat, cooking until the sugar dissolves and you have a clear syrup.  Remove from heat and set it aside to cool while you do the next steps.
2.  Cut the tops off the strawberries and chop in to quarters.  Add strawberries and 1 cup cold water to a blender and pulse until pureed.  Strain into a half gallon pitcher to remove pulp and seeds.
3.  Juice lemons to get 1 cup lemon juice.
4.  Add lemon juice, 1 cup cold water, and simple syrup to the strawberry juice.  Stir until well combined.  Taste for sweetness and add more cold water if needed to achieve desired taste.  (I added about 2 additional cups of cold water to achieve the taste D. and I liked.)
5.  Refrigerate to chill through or serve over ice.

Optional:  Add club soda to make a sparkling strawberry lemonade.

Valentine's Foods - Strawberry and Cream Danish Rolls

I wanted to make a special treat for a Valentine's breakfast.  I decided to do a sweet roll and with a cream cheese base like a danish and use strawberry jelly as well for the filling.   A perfectly sweet Valentine's treat!

I used Pillsbury Pizza Crust for the dough since it would make the process much quicker and easier to make the rolls.  First I rolled out the dough onto a baking sheet.  Then I spread a cream cheese mixture of cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla over the dough.

Then I spread a thin layer of strawberry jelly on top of the cream cheese mixture.

After rolling the dough, I cut it into pieces.  With the dough being so soft, it is a little hard to cut it with a knife.  The easiest way to cut the rolls is to use a piece of unflavored waxed floss.  Wrap it around the dough It was easier to cut the dough by using unflavored waxed floss and pulling it tight around until it cuts a slice off rather than using a knife.

I placed each roll in a greased 9x13" pan and baked it at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes until the dough was golden brown on the top.

Strawberry and Cream Danish Rolls
Ingredients:
1 tube Pillsbury Pizza Crust
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
2-4 Tbsp. strawberry jelly

Steps:
1.  Unroll pizza crust.
2.  Mix cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla and spread on dough.
3.  Spread jelly over cream cheese mixture.
4.  Roll dough and cut into pieces.  I was able to get 8 rolls.
5.  Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes or until dough is golden brown.

Two weeks until Valentine's Day!

Since Valentine's Day is in two weeks, I'm giving you recipes for Valentine's day this week and next week, so you have time to prepare a special meal for your valentine.

This week will have a breakfast, a drink, an appetizer, a fruit, a salad, a main dish, and a dessert recipe.  This week's recipes all include strawberries or are heart-shaped.

Next week will have a breakfast, a drink, a fruit, a vegetable, a bread, a main dish, and a dessert recipe.  Some of the recipes include strawberries, some are heart-shaped, and some include foods that are known as aphrodisiac foods (aka foods of love).  Hope you can feel the love.

The crafts for these two weeks will be fun valentines you can make or put together for others.

Easy Jello Mousse

I love Jello instant pudding, because it is such a quick and easy dessert to make.  I love mousse even more than I love pudding, but if you're making it from scratch it can take forever to set.  However, I found an easy way to make mousse and it's really easy to make and really delicious.

First boil some water and mix in your jello mix.  Pour it into your blender and add cream cheese.  Whip until smooth and then add your cold water and pulse a few times to mix it together.  Then add cool whip and blend just until it is combined and has no lumps.

Pour into a bowl, or individual cups, and refrigerate for 3-4 hours to set.  It is then ready to eat or use in recipes if making something that needs mousse.  I decided to make it for a filling for a cake and used a bag with a hole cut in a corner to pipe it on, and then piped the rest in a cup to enjoy the remaining mousse.

Easy Jello Mousse
Ingredients:
3 oz. jello (any flavor)

1 cup boiling water

4 oz. cream cheese

½ cup cold water

4 oz cool whip

Steps:

1.  Mix jello into boiling water in a bowl and stir until jello is dissolved.

2.  Pour jello water into blender and add cream cheese.  Blend until smooth.

3.  Add cold water and pulse a few times to mix.

4.  Add cool whip to jello mixture and blend just until it is combined and has no lumps.

5.  Pour into a bowl, or individual serving cups, and refrigerate for 3-4 hours or until set.

Craft #3 - Recycling Plastic Grocery Bags for Reuse or for Crafting

This week's craft is a two for one deal!  And both tutorials are all about recycling those plastic bags you get when you go grocery shopping.  

I don't know about you, but whenever I go grocery shopping, I come home with at least a dozen plastic bags.  We like to use them for garbage bags in our small bathroom garbage cans, but I've found that when we stored the bags shoved inside another bag, it took up a lot of space.

For example, the bag pictured above is one of the big bags from Walmart.  I counted the bags inside.  There are sixty (five dozen), but look how big it is.  It may squish, but without squishing it, it measures about two feet by one and a half feet by one foot.

However, when I take a little bit of time, I can fold my bags and store them in a neater manner.  I can fit 11 dozen bags total between these two boxes pictured in front of the bag in this picture.  That's over twice the amount of bags in about half the space.

Want to learn how?

First, lay a bag in front of you, and flatten it.

Then fold it in half length-wise.

Fold it in half length-wise again, with the shorter side on top of the long side (handles).

Starting at the bottom of the bag, fold one side over to the other to form a point.

Continue folding each triangle over itself until you get to where the shorter side ended and you are left with just the handles, making sure there is a flat side lined up with it.

Then take the handles of the bag and tuck them inside the pocket left by the folds.  This will leave you with a triangle.

These triangles can then be stored in a box or some other container of your choice.  The two boxes that I have my bags stored in take up much more space than when we kept them in bags.  In the future, I might paint the boxes or cover them in scrapbook paper or fabric to make them look nice too.


Now, onto Part 2 of today's tutorials:  Making Plarn!

What is plarn?  Plarn is the abbreviation of plastic yarn.  It is made by cutting plastic bags into strips and knotting them together to make a long 2-ply strand.  It can then be used like yarn to crochet or knit projects. I'll share some projects later, but for now, let's learn how to make plarn since it's a great way to recycle the plastic grocery bags that you don't want to save to reuse as garbage bags.  When making plarn, I like to keep the colors separate (a gray ball made with gray bags, a white ball made with white bags, a brown ball made with brown bags, etc.).  The writing on the bags may be different colors, but I keep the main color the same.  You can do a mixture of different colored bags together to make a variegated "yarn,"  but I think that would look best if the amounts of each color were pretty even.

First, start the same way you did when folding the bags by flattening out a bag and folding it in half twice lengthwise.  Then cut off the top where the handles are and the bottom where it is sealed together.  Cut the rest into strips that are about 1" wide.

When you unfold the strips, you have loops.  Start with two of the loops to start making your plarn.

Overlap the loops and reach through one loop and under the other to grab the end of the first loop your are reaching through to twist them together.

Pull them tight to form a knot.  You want to pull tight enough to make a tight knot so they won't come apart, but be careful not to pull too hard or tight because you don't want to stretch the plastic enough that it rips.  I've had that happen to me a few times now.

Then connect another loop to the second loop, and continue connecting the loops to make your long "yarn."
Once you have your long "yarn", you can roll it into a ball.  To do this, I start by wrapping it five times around two of my fingers.

Then I remove it from my fingers, fold that in half and wrap 5 times around it in the opposite direction.

I continue wrapping the plarn around the ball that is forming, switching directions after every five times around.  After using 5 bags worth of loops to make the plarn, the diameter of the ball of plarn was as big as three of my fingers held together.

After I used all 18 gray bags that I had left sitting around, the ball fit perfectly into my hand.  It was almost as big as the balls I get when I wind a skein of yarn into a ball.