Recipe: Tea cookies!!

I LOVE tea!! My background is from England, so I grew up going to grandma’s house for “tea time”!  I love when there are different kinds of new flavors to try etc. I'm terrible at DavidsTea I want to buy the whole store...LOL!

Anyways, I was on Facebook this afternoon only to discover a recipe for cookies made with TEA!!! I am so excited about this! I haven’t made them yet; I was too excited to wait to share this recipe with you, so here it is:

Earl Grey Shortbread (makes ~2 dozen 1-inch square cookies)

Ingredients:

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon Earl Grey black tea leaves, finely ground*

¼ teaspoon salt

½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened at room temperature

¼ cup confectioners’ sugar, sifted

½ tablespoon finely grated orange zest

Directions:

1.       Whisk flour, tea, (cocoa powder, if using) and salt in a small bowl; set aside.

2.       In the bowl of a standing electric mixer fitted with a paddle, beat the butter until creamy. Add the sugar (and zest if using) and beat until fluffy. Add the flour/tea mixture to the mixing bowl, then beat on low speed until just incorporated. The dough will be very soft.

3.       Transfer the dough to a sheet of parchment paper (or plastic wrap), shape into a disc, and wrap tightly to seal. Refrigerate the dough until firm, at least 2 hours or, preferably, overnight. The dough can be refrigerated for up to 3 days.

4.       Position a rack in the bottom third of the oven and preheat the oven to 350° F. Roll out the dough on a floured surface to about ⅜-inch thickness and cut into shapes. Space 1 inch apart on baking sheets lined with parchment. Chill cookies in the refrigerator on a baking sheet for 10-15 minutes or until firm. Re-roll the scraps and cut out more cookies, as above, chilling the scraps between batches.

5.       Bake the shortbread in the bottom third of the oven, one sheet at a time until the edges are golden, 13 to 15 minutes. Let cool completely on sheets on wire racks. These cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for about a week.

*You can grind the tea leaves in a small food processor, spice grinder, coffee grinder, or by using a mortar & pestle.

Fun Things!

I LOVE "Skip to my Lou" they have great ideas, cute stuff, free downloads and more...I get tons of ideas from this site! Their FREE printable calendar is great too, I have it hanging in my office, use it every day and it's oh so cute! lol

They have this super fun idea for Valentines day for kids. I had to share this link with you all. What a great idea for a class Valentines party, Sunday School class or anything really. Just love this! Here is the link:

http://www.skiptomylou.org/2012/01/21/heart-cake-pop-tutorial-perfect-valentine-party-guest-post/

Seems totally easy to do!

Couponing!!

Okay, so I have been positng a lot about cooking and recipes latley, so I thought I'd switch it up a bit and talk about another one of my passions, Couponing!! If you ask any of my family members they will be sure to tell you, how much I LOVE saving money and getting deals...lol. Sometimes too much!

I like to use a coupon binder when going to the store to orgainze each coupon by section. I will later post about it and some "how to's" on how I orgainze it. I find it to be the easiest when shopping.

Anyways, I thought I'd share with you all, where I find my coupons other than in  newspaper inserts. When I first started couponing it was quite a time consuming and difficult task so I didn't really get into it too much as I'm super busy. However, "Extreme Couponing Canada" (on a side note, one of my favorite shows ever) has created an amazing website where you can find all the coupons that are active right now!! It's fabulous!! Before you would have to go on a billion websites (over exaggerating that a bit...it felt like a billion...lol) to find what coupons you were looking for. They have orgainized and gone through everything so you don't have to!! Amazing right?!

Here is the link:

http://www.extremecouponingcanada.org/ 

Check it out!! Have fun saving money!! :)

Recipe: Barbecue Chicken!

Here is the Barbecue Chicken Recipe I promised I would post yesterday... I really like making this with "Grandma's easiest pasta salad ever" recipe...lol. It goes really good together. 

FYI - This is a super easy 5 min prep time recipe too :P 

Ingredients 

3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts halved (again I like using the Lilydale brand from Superstore but any kind it totally fine) 

3/4 cup of barbecue sauce (I use Kraft, again doesn't matter, any brand works great) 

Fresh ground pepper (optional) 

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350F or 400F 

2. In a 9x13 baking dish, lay chicken breast halves in a row, pour sauce over chicken 

3. Bake 20-25min or until chicken is done (every oven is different) 

Enjoy!! :) 

Grandma's Recipe: Easiest Pasta Salad Ever!! :)

I absolutely LOVE pasta salad! This recipe is from my grandma, it is SO easy to make and really good! :)

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients

1 box of multi coloured spiral pasta (any pasta really is fine, my grandma uses this pasta for looks)

1 packet of Clubhouse Pasta Salad dressing

Vinegar

Olive oil

1 1/2 cups of Green Giant frozen peas

1 cup of feta cheese (optional)

Directions 

1. Boil pasta till cooked, drain, and pour into salad bowl.

2. While pasta is boiling mix together in a separate dish the Clubhouse Pasta Salad packet with the oil and vinegar. Directions on how much will be on the back of the packet.

3. Then Mix together with the pasta, the dressing mix, frozen peas, and feta cheese (optional) into the salad bowl!

4. That's it! Done! Super easy! Enjoy! :)

P.S. This goes really good with barbecue chicken which I will post the recipe for tomorrow! :)

Recipe: Slowcooker Chicken and Dumplings

This recipe is so super easy to make and really tasty and filling. One of my fave things to make!

I have changed a few things from the original recipe, so this is my version:

Slowcooker Chicken and Dumplings 

Ingredients:

4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves (I get the Lilydale brand from Superstore :)

2 tablespoons of butter

2 cans of cream of chicken soup (any brand is fine, but I like using the Campbell's brand)

1 very small onion diced

1 can of Pillsbury biscuit dough, torn into pieces

Directions

1. Place the chicken, butter, soup, and the diced onion in your Slowcooker, and fill with water to cover.

2. Cover, and cook for 6 hours on High. I leave it on when I'm at work. When you come home place the torn biscuit dough in the slow cooker and let cook for another 20min or so.

3. Serve and enjoy!! :)

So Worth Watching!

I was hoping that the video would show up here on the blog but here is the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRGc-0GtxM4

This is SO good, is definatly worth listening too. Watched this at a Women's event at my church before Christmas and absolutley loved it! When I found it on YouTube, I was so excited to share it with you all.

Starting Out!

Well....here I go....my very first blog post. I never thought that I would ever make a blog, but here we are in a New Year 2012 and I have made a blog..lol. I will post things about my fantastic job at CLA (Christian Life Assembly) working with and ministering to some the most amazing preteens in the Langley community. Some of my favourite recipes and cooking, organization, shopping (of course) lol, couponing and saving money, cleaning, and all other life's adventures! Follow my blog and comment on my posts! :)

P.S - my posts will probally be short because I don't like writing very much...lol :) but there will be lots of pics. :)