We end the Party ... Lemon Fudge, Watermelon Lobsters & a Cool BBQ Invite

We wrap our party with some fun food!  I found a Microwave Lemon Fudge that I have been dying to make and new a BBQ would be perfect.  A watermelon cut into Lobster shapes and of course a FUN invite to pass out to our friends.  And of course the table all done up!

First I made a SUPER easy Microwave Lemon Fudge that I found on Lady Behind the Curtain. OMG is the words ok the initials I kept hearing over and over about this fudge, even the kids loved it.

Ingredients

1-10 ounce bag plus 1 cup of white chocolate chips

1-14 ounce can sweetened condensed milk

2 tablespoons butter, softened

1 1/2 teaspoons lemon extract

candies or sprinkles for decorating

Instructions

1. Line an 8x8-inch baking dish with foil (make sure the foil hangs over the edges so serve as

handles).

2. Spray with non stick cooking spray.

3. In a 4-cup microwave measuring cup, mix chocolate chips, milk and butter. Microwave uncovered

on high 1 to 2 minutes, stirring every 30 seconds, until chips are almost melted.

4. Stir in lemon extract.

5. Pour mixture into prepared baking pan.

6. Sprinkle on sprinkles (optional)

7. Place in refrigerator for 2 hours or overnight before cutting.

ALEXIS NOTE: I used a lemon food coloring to give it a little pop of color. 

Then I found a fun idea to cut watermelon shaped as a Lobster on Simply Suzanne's at Home.

Watermelon

Lobster Cookie Cutter

Mini Chocolate Chips (I ran out so I used regular ones)

Slice your watermelon the width of your cookie cutter.  Use the cutter to cut out the lobster shape.  Add 2 mini chips to be the eyes, I only had regular size so it was a little too large for the body.  I bought my cookie cutter off Amazon.

And for a fun FREE End of Year BBQ found on Becoming Martha. These were so freaking cute.  I saved the photo and uploaded into PicMonkey to add some fun wording.  I used a summer time font I had downloaded from a previous project.

Here is our table all done up!

And some fun shots of the party!

Thanks for stopping by

Don't forget to see the parties I link up to HERE. 

BBQ Grill Themed Cupcakes

Next on my list to make for the End of Year BBQ was some fun cupcakes.  I had so many plans, let's just say they did NOT go as planned so I went to plan B.  I did find a fun idea that ran with and made my own, was these super cute BBQ Cupcakes on Two Busy Blondes.  She pipped chocolate to make the grills, I was pressed for time so I just used some gel and made my grills.  See below on what I did.

What you need:

Cupcakes frosted

Black Gel Frosting (Or make with chocolate)

Candy or Candy Clay for top of grill

I made a batch of Moist Fluffy Vanilla Cupcakes found on Life, Love and Sugar and frosted with my Sturdy Buttercream Frosting.  I used my frosting knife to smooth the frosting down. I used my Wilton Glitter Black gel to make a circle with lines going down to look like a grill on a BBQ.  I had some left over Candy Clay I made to make the items on top of the grill.

Candy Clay:

12 oz Candy Melts (In the color you want)

1/4 Cup Light Corn Syrup

Melt the chocolate until it's smooth, mix in the corn syrup.  Once it's all mixed up and sticking together wrap in plastic wrap (lay it flat).  I found mine had to sit overnight to harden up and work it to what I needed.  A little powder sugar helps it not stick to the counter and mold it to what you want.

For the cupcakes I used brown candy clay to make burgers.  Orange candy clay for cheese, if I had yellow I would have used that instead (I used what I had on hand). I used red, green and orange on a toothpick to look like grilling peppers :).

I made a few fun cupcakes to match the swim theme also!  

Thanks for stopping by

Don't forget to see the parties I link up to HERE. 

BBQ Party ... Flip Flop Cake Pops

This past Saturday we had a End of the Year BBQ at my parents lake front.  WELL it was scheduled for last Saturday, but when I kept checking the weather and it called for 80% chance of RAIN, I called it.  Thank God since Noah may have picked us up for the party too, if you remember Caden's bday party did the same thing.  I think it's a new theme for my parties. 

I of course wanted to make theme things!  I found these Flip Flop Cake pops on Living Locurto.  If you have not been to this site you MUST from free printable's to awesome ideas for food!

NOW her's are so professional an amazing looking.  I didn't do the cake pops on a lollipop stick.  They were't all uniformed but I loved how they came out!

 What You’ll Need:

• Blue Candy Melts
• Lolliop Sticks (I skipped this part)
• Baked Cake & Icing. Flavor of your choice.
• Flower Sprinkles
• Candy Straws

Directions

Mix the cake and icing together in a bowl. Shape into a cake ball. Squeeze the middle to form an hour-glass shape.

Once you have your hour-glassy looking shape, you’re going to want to then shape it into your “flip flop” form.  Just smooth the edges and form it to make it look like a flip flop.

Dip in melted candy before it dries place the strap onto the flip-flop.

Next, put a small dot of chocolate on the strap and attach your flower, or decoration.

They turned out pretty darn cute if I say so myself!

Thanks for stopping by

Don't forget to see the parties I link up to HERE. 

Beach Bingo ... End of School Year Swim Party Food

A few weeks back I posted an invite I made for a end of year swim party for the boys and their classmates.  It was originally scheduled for this Saturday but due to a change of Rick's schedule we had to bump the party up to last weekend.  We had a few kids show but it was a lot of fun and really when compared to other parties I do this was VERY low key.  I made a few cupcakes and found food that went with the theme.  We were so blessed one of the dad's actually maned the BBQ and cooked up all the hot dogs, while Rick gave all the kids rides on the Jet Ski and I played life guard watching the kids in the water.

Here is a quick glimpse of the food that we did, the following two days I'll show the cupcakes I made in the theme.  Food was really simple and the food labels were a FREE printable on Hostess with the Mostess.  She was so sweet and had it in a PDF or  JPEG file.  I used the JPEG file and copied into a word document that I then added a text box and added the fun wording.

Cole Helping me get the labels together:

Here is how the table looked:

Food to Munch on:

Cupcake Station:

Hot Dog Station

Veggie Dip

Gummy Circles

 Gum Drops 

Pool Noodles

Gummy Life Savers

Beach Themed Cookies I bought

Cut Fruit

Tiki Punch

If you're looking for the invites I did here is the post.  I'll include a picture of the invites I sent out.

My little munch kin enjoying the day:


And my trial run of my swimsuit and cover up went well I think.
Sorry for bathroom picture it truly is the ONLY mirror I've ever allowed in the house.
And I didn't have time to have someone take my picture.

Hope you have a GREAT day and get the grill on!

Don't forget to see the parties I link up to HERE.

BBQ Cowboy Beans with Biscuits ($5 Meal)

I have another yummy meal that I found on the $5 Dinners Website for BBQ Cowboy Beans with Biscuits.  Now of course everything in here (except the meat) were items not allowed on my diet so I just had to smell and let the boys and Rick's buddy who came over for dinner tell me how it was.  It was a simple recipe to make, didn't take much time and yet again I was close to the $5 mark on the cost and it feed 2 grown men, 2 kids and there was even left overs.  Now I usually make my own biscuits and not use canned but I was running behind so I used the can but either way it is a nice meal for these cold nights!

Ingredients (**I left her pricing next to each, mine was a bit more)

1.3 lb ground beef ($1.93)
2 garlic cloves, crushed ($.10)
2 cups cooked black beans ($.40) Substitute 1 15 oz can black beans, drained and rinsed
2 cups cooked pinto beans ($.40) Substitute 1 15 oz can pinto beans, drained and rinsed
1 cup BBQ sauce ($.75)
1 15 oz can petite diced tomatoes, drained ($.29)
Drop biscuits ($.75)

Directions

1. Brown the ground beef with the crushed garlic cloves. Drain and return to skillet. Add the black and pinto beans, as well as the BBQ sauce, diced tomatoes…and stir through. Let simmer over low heat for 5-10 minutes.

2. Make drop biscuits.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!  It looks like we'll be staying in most of the time for some reason this week is a tight week for money, paid the mortgage and Rick's car payment and suddenly it makes no money ... UGH.  BUT it will get better just have to get threw this week we will be back on track.  Now let's just hope I can make $10 last until next Friday for the whole family ... lol, who needs gas or food right? TEEHEHE.

Yet another Meatloaf & Potato (but Skinny Style)

As you may have guessed meatloaf is HUGE in this house.  Now to find new recipes is my mission.  PLUS to switch out turkey for ground beef is a huge thing for me.  I found a new website I love that for you weight watcher people she list the point value.  The first recipe I tried of hers is the Barbecue Turkey Meatloaf.  The boys loved it and no complaints on it being turkey.

Key Ingredients won’t let me post a recipe card any longer so I found Smilebox.  Let’s see how this works.

This recipe card design made with Smilebox

Next on the list is a side dish of course and she also posted this Skinny Mash Potatoes which was so yummy!  It was the perfect balance for dinner.

Make a free printable recipe card

So there you have it, it’s been a crazy busy weekend between parties and outings.  My house is a mess and I’m pooped .. lol.  I think I’ll finally make for dinner (it’s been on my list for weeks).  What is on your menu tonight? (Beth I know this puts you on the spot don’t worry about it ... lol, hehe you crack me up my dear)

BBQ time? How about a pork marinate?

Rick wanted something different then the usual that I have been making so I found some pork chops on sale at Winco so I picked them up and had to find something to do with them!  Thanks to Google I found a yummy marinate.  I started the marinate early since it was Tuesday and that is when our friends come for dinner.  Sadly later that day she had cancel and I already had the chops marinating so I had Rick put them on the grill and knew I would use them again later that week.   My little helper Caden had to get into helping to, man I’m telling you when he gets married the lady better thank me for his cooking skills … lol

Have a great Monday everyone, I’m still trying to find the bottom to this thing they call my life.  I need some normal here soon .

35 what will you bring me? Where is my Over the Rainbow?

Well the date has come that I don’t have to change the date on the Elliptical, it’s the small things that make me smile!  Here’s to a year of up and over the rainbow and good things to come.  I think 35 is going to be a good year, hehe can I please have one year of good things .

I’ve been so blessed to have such amazing friends here in the bloggy world I’ve open my mail box to find some great treats for my birthday!  I can’t say it enough, THANK YOU!

Today I plan to work, take the night off of the gym, watch a movie and maybe even pop a little popcorn.  Rick even has the night off so I have a movie buddy tonight.  I really need to get a pedicure also, but we’ll see if that happens … lol.

And next weekend my friend is hosting a BBQ for my party.  And since I love to cook she is have a pie contest everyone is to bring a different pie, isn’t that totally fun!

Have a wonderful Thursday!

Another packed weekend, from concerts to playdates & of course the zoo!

Cole had his last day of school on Thursday so they had a concert Thursday night were all the classes sang all the songs they have sung over the year in church.  It was a great performance and thankfully Caden slept threw the whole time!  Also had to show off the coats my MIL crochet for the boys.

Friday night we headed up to my parents for dinner.  We walked the boys to the park and played Frisbee and of course the toys!  We had to check out the new additions down at my parents waterfront, new sod went down.  Cole made $5 water it all for my dad .

Saturday I worked (yes that is me in my headset with my curlers … lol.  We head right to the zoo thankfully when it opened because it was are only nice days in weeks and it got packed soon!  The Zoo is doing a thing on Poo yup!  The boys loved it, they had video’s of animals taking a poo, oh yeah it was great … lol.  That is the boys putting their heads in the cut out of a man taking a poo.

We visited all the animals and even feed the budgie's, they are friendly birds and will come right up on your hand to eat the stick you of course have to buy for a $1 each.

Then we met up with one of my best friends for a picnic with the islanders group her husbands family is part of.  It was great!

Monday was my mom’s birthday so Sunday I took the boys to Lowe’s to pick out flowers for her.  They even potted them for her.

Sunday night we had dinner at our cousin’s night again, it was a lot of fun.  And Rick took the training wheels off Cole’s bike which we should have done last year but hey he’s my first born .

On a side note my debit card # was stolen over the weekend so when I went to the grocery store spent an hour picking out my groceries and then checked out, around $100 my card was declined.  I was mortified I check the account before we left and Rick’s paycheck was in there we were way good.  The # on the back of my card of course was disconnected and I couldn’t reach Rick.  I wanted to cry so I tried to walk fast out of the store but forgot I had some meat in my cart.  So then I had employees screaming at me to stop as I went outside like I was a criminal! UGH so an hour on the phone I found out what happened.  But they NEVER called to tell me what was going on, which really pissed me off.  Bank of America you really let me down, and embarrassed the hell out of me!