the Conscious Cleanse......interrupted.

As I type this post this morning, I have already served up yogurt smoothies to my kids  and packed my husband's lunch (a terrific sandwich, btw).  Normally, I would have been munching on Quaker Oat Squares while doing all of this, but today it's just lemon water before I have my smoothie.  

I love the Conscious Cleanse - in fact, this is round 2 for me.  I did it back in September with my business partner (we co-own Style Spies, a fashion consulting/styling business) and blogged about it HERE.  But doing the cleanse with kids and a husband who are not cleansing is pretty tough.  I know with a cleanse there are so many challenges.  Life gets in the way, right? 

Just this weekend, we celebrated my husband's birthday.  I managed to do purification for one day (Saturday) but yesterday, his actual birthday, was a bust.  I didn't eat horribly but it wasn't cleanse friendly food necessarily.  Here are my confessions:  I ate an egg white omelet for brunch, black beans on the side with goat cheese.  For dinner I had a delicious salad (cleanse friendly), but then a couple pieces of goat cheese and red pepper flat bread, and tilapia tacos.  I did not eat the shells but instead ate just the fish and slaw.  Yummy!  Oh yeah - I had a few bites of his chocolate gelato that they served him.  ;-)

Saturday afternoon, I had to make a cake.  Argh.....who doesn't like cake batter and frosting?  It was a zebra cake that the kids picked out at the store......here it is before going in the oven....

and here it is being served yesterday afternoon!

Did I have a lick of batter?  Yes.  Did I have some frosting?  Yes again.  And here we are today, ready to get back on track.  Heading to the gym for a Fit Bar class at 9:30, drinking my lemon water, and making a smoothie here in about a half hour.  Go ME!  

I do want to share with my fellow cleansers my go-to's from the recipe book and elsewhere - since I've done this before I already have my favorites:

Breakfast: 

Better than Yogurt Chia Pudding

Hearty Love Smoothie

Lunch/Dinner:

Curried Carrot Soup

Cold cooked Salmon with brown rice or quinoa

Snacks:

Apple

Banana

Kalamata Olive Tapenade w/ gluten free crackers

Kale Chips

Joy Balls

Almond Butter Balls

One thing I REALLY want to do but just haven't yet is get a Spiralizer.  

What is that you might ask?  It turns your vegetables into slivers, making them pasta-like.  So much more fun to eat and create recipes around them this way, right?  In fact, there is a blogger I found who blogs only about recipes based around the Spiralizer.  Her blog is called 'Inspiralized,' and it's cute, clever, and informative.  Lots of great recipes.  I knew I liked Ali of Inspiralized when I read her 'welcome' info.  Here's what she says:  

"I'm Ali, your typical girl in her twenty-somethings looking to fit into her skinny jeans without having to give up the good stuff. "

Don't we all want this for ourselves?  I think so.  Thanks Ali for inspiring me.....I think i'll be purchasing a Spiralizer and getting into this pronto!  

So yeah - cleansing is hard, life does get in the way, but you can always get back on track.  I feel so healthy and clear when I cleanse, I sleep well, I am inspired to be a better me, a better Mom, a better business-woman, all of it!  

Cheers to week two of the Conscious Cleanse all - stay strong and make sure to forgive yourself for a little swipe of icing.  ;-)

Cake Pop Tutorial

Since I made cake pops for Gemma's birthday last summer, I have become somewhat of a basic cake pop extraordinaire.   I can make them quickly, I have the equipment, and know the steps.  I only lose one or two pops due to breakage these days (a lot less than when I first started), and I can sprinkle with the best of 'em.  MAYBE for Gemma's 2nd birthday this summer I'll attempt making them look like something - right now I'm thinking Elmo cake pops as she LOOOOVES 'Melmo.'  

How cute are these?  Courtesy of Bakerella, of course.

For now, however, I thought I'd take ya'll through the steps of making basic cake pops if you're so inclined.  It took me a few tries the first time to get everything right, and if I had someone giving me these tips it wouldn't have taken so long!  

First of all, I follow Bakerella's book appropriately called Cake Pops.  It was a great buy, let me tell you. The page on 'basic cake pops' is well-worn!

First step is to bake a cake - store bought, my friend.  Bake the cake the day before you actually plan to make the cake pops.  The book says to let it cool - letting it cool an entire day is the way to go......letting it cool and then trying to crumble the cake after only a couple hours will result in messy pops.

Next step (the next day) is to crumble the cake in a large mixing bowl.  Just use your hands, people.  Get messy.  Then, when its totally crumbled, add the frosting.  Mix it up, and mix it well.  

Now, roll out your cake balls.  Sounds lovely, yes?  They should be about 1 inch in all the way around, maybe a teency bit larger.  Try to make sure there are no cracks, because once you put the stick in those will only exaggerate.  Put them on a plate covered with wax paper.  

Then, get out your candy coating.  I use Wilton's (found at Joann fabric stores).  Make sure to use two bags of the Wilton's candy coating, one is not enough to dip the pops.  To melt, microwave according to directions on the package.  There are no tricks there, just don't overdo it or it will harden.  

Now that you have your candy coating ready, grab a pop stick (also found at Joann, near the Wilton candy coating), dip it into the candy coating about 1/2", and then stick it halfway into a cake ball.  Do this for all of the cake balls, and your plate should look something like this when you're finished.  When you ARE finished, put your plate in the freezer.  Yep the freezer.  But only for 15 minutes, tops.  Set a timer so you don't leave them in there any longer.  This is just to chill the pops and freeze that candy coating and stick in place before dipping.

While your cake pops are in the freezer, get out your Styrofoam board.  I get mine in the gardening section at Joann (notice a trend here?), they come in white or green.  Make sure you buy one about 2" in width, and in the rectangular shape so you have enough room for all of your pops.  Now, using a cake pop stick, poke holes in the board about 2" apart, all over.  This is to house your finished pops.....gives them a great spot to dry up, and the Styrofoam holds them perfectly in place.

Finally, the fun part - dipping your pops in the candy coating.  Unfortunately I am not talented enough to take pictures while dipping my own pops, so you get the finished products from here on out.  

However, let me say this - when dipping, the best tip I can give you is to let excess candy coating drip off once the pop is completely coated.  Too much coating will drip off and look sloppy.  Also make SURE the pop is completely coated, especially down where the pop meets the stick.  Any holes holes left will invite cracking in the coating later on.  

As you can see, the cake pop above has sprinkles on it - Griffin requested all kinds of sprinkles for his birthday cake pops this year.  Sprinkling is easy - but of course the sprinkles get everywhere.  I like to pour the different sprinkles into small cups, and do the sprinkling over a plate to catch the excess.  And whatever the plate doesn't catch, call your dog over for clean up duties.

  

1st cake pop of the night

Rocking and Rolling with the gold and silver sprinkles

Almost done for the evening

Lastly, one of the hardest things is displaying your cake pops at the party.   When I first made them last summer, I happened to have a ton of M&M's on hand, so I threw them into one of my square vases and lodged the pops there.  It worked like a charm.  Now it's my go-to.  Sugar, sugar, and more sugar!  A kids birthday dream!  

Finished product at the party this weekend

Stay tuned for party pics from my big 4 year-old's Star Wars themed party.  We had so much fun this weekend, we almost had 'Too Much Birthday.'  (remember that book from the Berenstein Bears?)  It's a great book to remind kids that it's not all about cake and presents!

Star Wars Party Coming Soon.......

This weekend my beautiful baby boy is turning 4.  I can't believe it.  

We went from this:

Griffin at 6 weeks, his 1st smile caught on camera

To this, in just 4 short years.  

Griffin, almost 4, looking almost 10.

I will spare you my tears, and instead talk about what Griffin would like to talk about every second of every day, his STAR WARS BIRTHDAY PARTY!!!!!  Even though the kid has never even seen Star Wars, his library books have told him enough.  He loves it, he can't wait until he's old enough to see the movies, and he likes all the bad guys.  Nice.  

For the party this weekend, I was also told emphatically that he ONLY wanted to invite boys.  NO girls allowed.  I mentioned that I was a girl as was his sister, and he said fine, you can come and so can Gemma, but no other girls.  Whew!  Close call buddy - so close you might not have had a party (as I don't see Joe planning and executing a birthday party on his own).  ;-)

Of course I will do a full round up of the party next week on my blog, but I wanted to give you a sneak peek of some cute things I found on Etsy (of course) that will make the party that much more festive.....

First, a cute banner we needed (Yoda language):

Star Wars Banner from Etsy Shop The Polka Dot Prince

Then, cupcake toppers we wanted:

Star Wars Fondant Cupcake Toppers from Etsy seller Party NV

Finally, a craft we must make:

DIY pool noodle-light sabers we'll be making at the party

Does that peak your interest?  I have found a lot of cute ideas for this theme, so I started a Pinterest board called Star Wars Birthday.......something tells me we might have another one of these as Star Wars never gets old!  

Stay tuned next week for a full party posting......death star cake pops included.

My baby girl is 1

It's been quite a year since July 9, 2010.  I got the baby girl I never knew I always wanted on that beautiful day, Miss Gemma Grace.  Miss Gemma has become the 2nd light of our lives and we are so blessed to call her our daughter.  

Happy 1st Birthday to our baby girl!

On to the party........

Special Birthday Plate by Aedriel Originals on Etsy

A shot of the cake pop display 

Cake pop party favors - wrapped up and set in Jelly Bellies - like a bouquet!

Gemma's invitation, banner, and other printed materials from The Party Dress.  I fell in love with the pink and green alligator theme.  Thanks Kelly!

Me and my birthday girl

All smiles!

Attempting a family photo

Gemma and her best cousin, Sienna (born just 5 weeks earlier)

Enjoying her first cupcake from Sweet Mandy B's.  MMM!

Proud of herself!

I love this picture - she's just gotten her first babydoll.  I hope the first of many!  What a sweet face.

Cake Pop Update

Attempted Cake Pops.  Ended up with Cake Balls.  Sooooo annoying.

I followed every instruction to a tee,  but when it got to the part where I take the cake ball and put the lollypop stick in, then dip it into the candy coating - the cake ball broke apart and fell into the candy coating.  What gives???

My husband and I decided that either A) I need to stick the lollypop sticks into the balls BEFORE I chill them, or B) I need to not chill the pops for so long in the fridge.  The recipe says to chill them for several hours before adding the candy coating - I'm guessing overnight was too long?

Round 2 of Cake Pops is tomorrow I think.  Wish me luck.  If it doesn't work this time - it's Cake Balls all the way.  Because they taste just as good, that's for sure!

Cake Pop Trial

For Gemma's 1st Birthday coming up, I have been searching Etsy high and low for a great cake pop vendor.  Now, don't get me wrong, there are TONS of darling cake pop vendors on Etsy, but most come in at $24/dozen and then $15 for shipping - that's just crazy expensive, right?

Secondarily, I searched around the Chicago area bakeries (Deerfield Bakery, Sweet Mandy B's, etc) and got zilch.  Deerfield Bakery is 'working on them' and Sweet Mandy B's hadn't heard of them.  For real?  Come on Mandy B - I love your cupcakes - cake pops are your next natural step!  Another bakery seriously said - 'oh, you can order them from Starbucks!'  Not so much.  I did find the Cake Poppery here in Chicago, but their shipping fee was astronomical given they are only as far as Midway airport.  You must check their site too though - some adorable ideas!

So finally - I decided that this Mama will be making her own cake pops for Gemma's party.  I can't wait. I found Bakerella.  Aka Angie Dudley.  You MUST check out her website:  www.bakerella.com.

She makes the most darling cake pops imaginable, and she got so popular from her website that she got a book deal - aptly named 'Cake Pops by Bakerella,' which I will be using for my cake pop adventure. 

Mine might not be as fancy as hers, but hopefully they will taste as good as hers!  That's what really counts!