French Vanilla Cupcakes…..Yummy!!

Sorry it’s been so long since I’ve updated, it’s been a crazy busy month. I had a few projects I wanted to share for Valentine’s Day, but never got a chance to finish them up in time to share. I’m currently trying to come up with some ideas for St. Patrick’s Day. I’ve never decorated for St. Patty’s Day so I don’t have anything yet to put out, but this year I’d really like to. It’s kind of an over looked holiday, it’s pretty evident by how hard it is to find decorations for it. I checked at places like Walmart, and could only find cards and shirts. They have seemed to skipped straight to Easter. I found a few items at a Michael’s store, that I hope to incorporate into something cute.

Anyways….. about the cupcakes…lol. Yesterday I made some cupcakes for a fundraiser for my son’s Cub Scout pack. I think they turned out very yummy. I used my favorite cake mix, French Vanilla by Betty Crocker, and some Duncan Hines whipped cream cheese frosting. I colored them green for St. Patty’s Day. When I used this cake mix, I like to use the directions for the Classic French Vanilla Cake. Some of the boxes have the other directions for the Classic but not all of them, so I’d thought I’d share it with you. The main differences are: instead of 1 1/4 cups of water, you use 1 cup of milk. Instead of 1/3 cup of vegetable oil, use 1/3 cup of butter or margarine, softened, and instead of 3 eggs, use 4. The only other difference in the recipe, is decreasing the baking time by 1 minute. To me, the cake has better flavor this way. I think next time I make this I’ll color it purple, my favorite color…lol.

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My Favorite Comfort Food…. Shepard’s Pie

On a cold and dreary day I like to fix something that is warming and comforting for dinner. There are many versions of Shepard’s Pie but this is my favorite way to make it. My kids love it, although my daughter claims to not like the green beans, kind of strange since she usually has two helpings of it. Guess it must not be too bad…lol. This recipe is really easy to make, other than it dirties quite a few dishes in the process (the only draw back). One of these times when I make it I’m going to try doubling the meat and green beans mixture then freeze half of it. Then the next time I make it, it should cut the cooking and prep time in half, I’ll just have to remember to get the meat mixture out in time to thaw.

Storm’s Shepard’s Pie

1 lb. ground beef

5 cups instant mashed potatoes (10 servings)

8 oz. shredded cheddar, or colby jack cheese

2 14.5 oz. cans french style green beans

1 cup brown gravy

1. Preheat oven to 375°F. Brown ground beef in large skillet then drain.

2. Prepare brown gravy, and mashed potatoes according to directions on package.

3. Combine ground beef, brown gravy, and the 2 cans of green beans in a 9.25 x 13.25 (3 quart) casserole dish. Season to taste ( I usually add some dry chopped onions, garlic salt and pepper.) After stirring the mixture, spread it evenly in the pan.

4. Cover the meat mixture with the mashed potatoes (I also like to season the mashed potatoes with some garlic salt, and sprinkle a little bit of cheese as I’m mixing the mashed potatoes.

5. Sprinkle cheese on the top of the mashed potatoes. Then bake for 20 min. or until heated through.

6. Let stand for a few minutes before serving, will be piping hot. Enjoy!!

Makes at least 8 servings….. we always end up with leftovers. It is one of the rare times I actually enjoy the leftovers. :)

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Valentine’s Subway Art Printables

With Valentine’s Day only a few weeks away I thought I would make up some subway art printables. I had a lot of fun creating them, I love playing with different fonts and styles. They are set at a pretty high resolution so they should print out nicely. I just printed them out on plain white paper, to see how they’d look in a frame, and I think they turned out great. If you want to use card stock paper, it might work a little better.

Click on either picture below to download the full size image.

If you would like to share these on your website, please link back.

They are for Personal use only.

Please do not claim them or sell them as your own!!

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That Time of Year again...

It's that time of year again, a time to reflect on the previous year, and make goals for the new year. I’ve personally decided to stay away from making New Year’s resolutions, because for me, I’ll think about them for a little while, but then they become forgotten. This year I’m opting for setting goals (using a different term ... lol) to see if I can better accomplish the things I want to do. I having been thinking this last week on the things I want to see happen for this new year, with the fresh start that a new year brings with it. Most of the goals I’m setting for myself I feel are attainable, with a little bit of work on my part. I’m not going to kid myself in setting goals that I know will go in one year and out the other ...lol (pun intended). So, let’s make the list....

Finance -
My biggest goal this year financially, is to pay off all mine and my husband’s debt. Luckily there isn’t a whole lot, I don’t have any credit cards (thank god). Most of the debt we have, aside from our car, is medical stuff. The car will be paid off this year regardless of the other stuff (and I’ll be doing a happy dance when that happens ...lol) If we can attain this goal, then that should put us in a good position for our goal next year to be able to buy a house. That will be our prize.
My other goal in regards to finances, is to continue what I’ve already started last year, to find ways to cut our monthly expenses. I already use coupons a much as possible to help with the grocery bill. I’m not an extreme coupon person by any means, and really don’t plan to be, but I do use enough to garner the name, crazy coupon lady, from my kids. ( In my defense, I think they’d call me that even if I only use them once in a great while.) We’re also planning on cutting cost on our cable bill this year, by making the switch to over the air programming, which is free. 90% of what we watch on tv is on our local channels, and for movies, we have Netflix. I don’t see the point in paying upwards of a hundred dollars for what we can pretty much get for free, or at least low cost for what we use.
My last goal for this year in finance, is to hopefully be able to bring in some income from some new endeavors I plan to try this year. I know the things I’m trying to do will take some time to really start paying off, but if I can stick with it, and not get discouraged, it may be just what I’ve been dreaming of. I’ve set my expectations pretty low, but hopefully with some hard work, and persistence, this goal will be reached before the end of the year.

Health-
Health wise for me, I need to try to take better care of myself. My biggest problem is for what ever reason, I just don’t want to eat anything until dinner time. I know this plays a big factor in not being able to accomplish everything I want to get done in a day. I just don’t have the energy. So I guess I’ll chalk this up to eating healthier, or at least in my case, eating more.
Exercise would be a great goal for this year, but I’m not going to kid myself in believing that I’ll actually do it. I would like to tone up my body some, and I may try to get back into doing some exercises like pilates, but typically that only lasts for a few weeks. I could surprise myself and do more, like go on walks (once it warms up). Well just leave this one as a maybe.

Home-
My goal this year for my home is to continue my quest to declutter and organize my entire house, besides cleaning it from top to bottom. I hate clutter, it drives me crazy. I like to have everything in it’s rightful place, making it easier to find when needed. After living in this house for 4 years we have acquired a lot of new stuff. The old items get placed in a storage room in our basement, which is getting quite full. Once the weather warms up some I plan to either have a big yard sale, or donate at least half the stuff in that room.

Projects-
There are so many fun projects I’ve wanted to do for the past few years. Candle making, soap making, painting, crafts, writing and anything in between. I plan to share as much as I can on this blog as well. So stay tuned for that...

I’m sure there will be more goals I’ll think of later, but if I can accomplish all of this in the coming year, I’ll consider it a successful year. Above all I want this to be a happy year and bring my family closer together. I pray this year will be less stressful then past years, and filled with good memories.

Do you have any goals for the coming year? Please feel free to share. :)

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New Blog, New Year!

Welcome to It's My Life, Storm

I had planned to sit down and get started on this blog, but of course life gets in the way. I finally got around to putting most of my Christmas stuff away, so now my house is starting to look like normal after the craziness of the holidays. I always look forward to celebrating the holidays, but then it's nice to get back to some sort of normalcy.

I guess I should let you all know a little bit about me. I'm a work at home mom, although at the moment it's been hard to get hours to work. I have 2 wonderful children, a 9 year old boy and a 11 year old girl. I have a sweet, caring husband, that drives truck all over the country. I enjoy a number of activities including arts, crafts, reading, writing, cooking, playing around on Facebook and watching my favorite TV shows.

So my plans for this blog is to just write about whatever catches my interest at the moment. It's going to basically be the story of my life. I may write about what I feel, what I want to do or have done, and things that interest me. It'll be a hodgepodge of topics. You're welcome to join me on this adventure. Oh and have a Happy New Year!

-Storm

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