Spiritually Speaking

Spiritually Speaking

Spiritually Speaking

Summer Fruit Salad with Creamy Lime Dressing

I know what your thinking. Does it sound something like this? "Come on Alisha, Its not summer yet!!"

Well here in Dallas it is starting to get into the low 80's which mean summer will soon be here. I for one can not wait and to celebrate the glorious coming of sunshine, warm weather, parks, swimming pools, day trips to the zoo and family vacations. I decided to share with you my most requested, most favorite recipe ever! I must admit this is NOT my recipe. But I will be the first to claim it if anyone at the neighborhood pool party asks if it is. So shhhhh this is our little secret, and everyone else who loves Betty Crocker.

Creamy Lime Dressing

1 package (8 oz) cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup frozen limeade concentrate, thawed

1/4 cup powdered sugar

1 cup whipping cream, whipped

Fruit

3 cups cut-up cantaloupe

1 quart strawberries, quartered

2 ripe medium mangoes, seed removed, peeled and cut up

2 cups blueberries

2 cups cut-up honeydew melon

Mint leaves, if desired 

 

Here is where you can find the original recipe, thanks to my dear friend Betty. And yes this font is small so that you come to my page to find the recipe not hers :) 

 

Love ya!

Alisha 

Spiritually Speaking

April Book Club

As you know this year we decided to read books that are being made into movies. I recently saw the trailer for The Giver and thought straight away I needed to read that book.

So with that in mind, this months book club read is The Giver. I can't wIt to read it. 

Have you read it before? What did you think? Have you seen the trailer for the movie? I can't wait to hear what others think of this book.

Alisha x x

Easter Vinyl Design

I love to create new designs on my Silhouette. There is something so rewarding to me about designing something beautiful to put in my home. This past week I decided to design one of my favorite Easter Story quotes for a frame on my entry way table. "Here comes Peter Cottontail" 

I found a couple cute fonts I really liked on 1001freefonts.com and threw this together. 

I bought this frame at a garage sale for $0.50 and had some left over scrap booking paper I used to put behind the glass. I love this. What do you think? 

I have started a store with all my vinyl designs. Just a way to subsidies my income a bit so let me know if you'd be interested in buying this design. 

Happy Easter!

Alisha x x

Spiritually Speaking

Spiritually Speaking

Spiritually Speaking

March Book Club

This month for book club we are reading Wonder by R.J. Palacio. Im very excited to read this especially after reading the synopsis:

"August Pullman was born with a facial deformity that, up until now, has prevented him from going to a mainstream school. Starting 5th grade at Beecher Prep, he wants nothing more than to be treated as an ordinary kid—but his new classmates can’t get past Auggie’s extraordinary face. WONDER, now a #1 New York Times bestseller and included on the Texas Bluebonnet Award master list, begins from Auggie’s point of view, but soon switches to include his classmates, his sister, her boyfriend, and others. These perspectives converge in a portrait of one community’s struggle with empathy, compassion, and acceptance."


I look forward to hearing your thoughts on this book.

Alisha x x

  

Keep Calm And....

Today is the one day of the year when we are all given a get out of jail free card. You can pinch people with no consequence, well kind of. As a child I LOVED this day. As a parent I dread it. Waking up to one child pinching another straight away or the fear that some child might not see my children's "hidden" green and pinch them. 

Even though St. Patricks Day is not my favorite holiday I still like to decorate for it.  This year with all the Keep Calm signs being so popular I decided to make this one. 

Thanks to my silhouette it was super easy. 

Happy St. Patricks Day!

Alisha x x

Spiritually Speaqking

Spiritually Speaking

German Chocolate Frosting

Over the years I have come to realize one very important thing in life. Something which has changed my way of thinking, my way of cooking and most importantly my way of enjoying food. That's making things from scratch. Everything just tastes so much better when it's homemade. For this reason I'm going to share with you one of my most loved recipes.

I love German Chocolate Cake and this recipe is a real winner. This past weekend we had some friends over for dessert and this is what I made. All 4 of us are trying to be very good and loose a few extra pounds but this cake was definitely worth indulging.

Do you have a favorite cake recipe? Id love to hear it. Cake is my weakness so actually maybe I don't want to hear it but then again a cheat day is OK from time to time :)

Cake Ingredients:

1/2 c. water
4 (1oz) squares German Sweet Chocolate
1 c. butter, softened
2 c. white sugar

4 egg yolks
1 tea. vanilla
1 c. buttermilk
2 1/2 c. cake flour
1 tea. baking soda
1/2 tea salt
4 egg whites

Frosting Ingredients:

1 c. evaporated milk
1 c brown sugar
3 egg yolks
1/2 c. butter
1 tea vanilla
1 c. chopped pecans
1 1/3 c flaked coconut

Directions:

Cake:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour 3 - 9 inch round pans. Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside. In a small saucepan, heat water and 4 ounces chocolate until melted. Remove from heat and allow to cool.
2. In a large bowl, cream 1 cup butter and 2 cups sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in 4 egg yolks one at a time. Blend in the melted chocolate mixture and vanilla. Beat in the flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk, mixing just until incorporated.
3. In a large glass or metal mixing bowl, beat egg whites until stiff peaks form. Fold 1/3 of the whites into the batter, then quickly fold in remaining whites until no streaks remain.
4. Pour into 3 - 9 inch pans Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Allow to cool for 10 minutes in the pan, then turn out onto wire rack.

 Frosting:

In a large saucepan combine evaporated milk, brown sugar, egg yolks, butter and vanilla. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until thick. Remove from heat and stir in pecans and coconut. Let cool to room temperature before spreading on cake.

If you don't have time to make the cake, which really doesn't take long to do. Then go ahead and buy a box cake. But please for the love of everything in this world please never buy store bought frosting. This recipe is so easy to make and is absolutely gorgeous! You wont be disappointed! I PROMISE!

Love,
Alisha

Spiritually Speaking

Homemade Wall Clock

For the past few months I've been searching for a cute clock to match my bathroom colors which are Yellow and Grey. I've found a few things but I really wasn't happy spending over $30 for a clock which was going in my bathroom so I was holding out. And then I was walking through Michael's the other day and saw these bad boys:

This one was on sale for $2.24 because it was a little broken. I thought to myself, that would make such a cute clock. So.... I bought a clock kit :)

First I measured length and width to get the exact center.

Next, I drilled a hole right in the center of the board.

Then I painted the whole board yellow and left it to dry for a day.

Next I used my most favorite piece of craft equipment in the world, my silhouette, and cute out some cute numbers in grey vinyl and put them on the board.

Finally I added the clock kit. I bought mine at Michael's for $7.99 and used a 50% off coupon too making it $3.98. The instructions to add the clock kit are in the back of the box. Very simple.

Lastly I hung the new clock in my bathroom. I love it. It was so easy to create and I keep getting loads of compliments. 

Love,

Alisha

Spiritually Speaking

Rice Pudding Recipe

When we moved to the USA we knew that there would be  a number of things that we would miss from the UK. Many of those things I just cant replicate. The beautiful country side, the amazing architecture, the History that you are surrounded by and of course our lovely family and friends all of whom I miss terribly. There are some things which I can replicate though, all of which seem to be food items which I must admit are not good for my diet.

One of the things which my husband misses the most, at least when it comes to food, is Ambrosia Rice Pudding. I'm certain they must put some addictive ingredient in this stuff because its pretty much A-Maze-Ing! At least that is what my lovely hubby would tell you.

So I set out on a mission to make the best creamiest rice pudding I could. And this recipe is pretty good. Not quiet Ambrosia but pretty good.

3/4 cup uncooked white rice (for creamier pudding use short or medium grain rice)
2 cups whole milk, divided
1/3 cup white sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg, beaten
1 tablespoon butter
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Sprinkle of Cinnamon

In a medium saucepan, bring 1 1/2 cups water to a boil. Add rice and stir.
Reduce heat,cover and simmer for 20 minutes until cooked through.

In another saucepan, combine the cooked rice, with 1 1/2 cups milk, sugar and salt.
Cook over medium heat until thick and creamy, 15 to 20 minutes stirring regularly.

Mix the remaining 1/2 cup milk and beaten egg together. Add to the rice mixture. 
Cook 2 minutes more, stirring constantly.
Remove from heat, and stir in butter and vanilla.
Sprinkle with cinnamon and serve warm.

Sometimes we like to add mix ins to our Rice Pudding. Some of the things we have added are; fresh fruit, crushed up candy bars, nuts, crushed up cookies, jams, nutella or chocolate sauce. Those are just a few of the mix ins we've added but of course the mix in possibilities are endless. 

Enjoy!
Alisha

March Book Club Read

Have you ever seen a movie and thought wow that would make an awesome book? Or read a book and thought I sure hope they make that into a movie? I have, more times then I care to admit.

This year as a book club we have decided to only read books that are being made into movies. We thought it would be fun to read and then go see the movies. I mean who doesn't need extra Moms night outs?

The first book we have decided to read is Heaven is For Real. I saw this movie trailer not to long ago and thought that is definitely one movie I must see. Then a friend suggested we read it as a book club and I on it. Ive started reading it and find it hard to put down so far. The other night I was laying in bed a sick child next to me and one in her room, knowing that I would be up a lot in the night, reading because I was enjoying it so much.

I will let you know what I think when I am done and Id love to hear what you think in the comments.




For those of you who haven't seen the movie trailer I thought I'd post a link because it looks awesome!

Valentines

Today my two youngest had a Valentines Day Party at our church Playgroup. It was a lot of fun. One of the many things we did was pass out Valentines to our little friends. I knew everyone would be passing out candy and wanted to try to do something a little original. So I sat at the computer and with the help of my Silhouette Cameo made these "cuties".

They were so fun to make and everyone really liked them as well as the idea of giving fruit rather than candy. 

Hope you all have a great Valentines Day!

Alisha xoxo

Indoor Fun With Children

A friend of mine recently asked this question on Facebook, "What do you all do with your small children when its too cold to play outdoors."

I'm not sure about where you are but here in North East Texas we have had an unusually cold winter. Yesterday morning when I took the big kids to school it was -5. Flippin Heck huh!! I mean seriously that's freezing. There was no way I was going to take my babies out in that. So we played.

While we were playing and after I answered my friend with a few things we like to do when its cold and we cant go outside I thought, I bet there are a lot more moms who wonder what to do with their small children when its cold outside. So I decided to put together our top 10 favorite things to do when its cold outside. Its in a random order. My girls are 17 months and 3. Their favorite changes from day to day.

 One thing we love to do is blow up a bunch of balloons and play with them. We play catch, who can keep the balloon in the air the longest, balloon races, draw faces on them and then pretend they are puppets and make a puppet show. Yep, we get pretty creative with a bag of balloons.

 Coloring. Who doesn't love to color?

 Finger Painting. I know this can get a little messy, but with an apron it can a lot be a lot of fun. Just a quick tip too. I put the paper on a cookie sheet so that all I have to do is clean the cookie sheet.:)

 Build a fort and then watch a movie from inside the fort. My little Miss I always falls asleep while watching the movie. But there is nothing better than cuddles from two of my favorite people while in a fort we built.

 Picnic in the living room. Sometimes we even invite all of our dolls and teddy bears.

 Bake and then decorate cookies.

 The all time classic Play Doh. Cant lose with this one. It is fun for hours. My girls never get sick of Play Doh.

 Puzzles. Its fun and educational. That makes this momma very happy.

 Colorful Bubble Bath.

Write letters to our loved ones who live far away. With Family in England, Dubai and various states here in the US writing letters is fun for us and its fun for our families to receive them.

I hope this has given you a few fun ideas to keep your little sweeties busy on these cold winter days. If you have some favorites please share. Id love to hear what you do with your snuggle bugs while its to cold to play outside.

Alisha x x