Did you hear that? It was my apple chips

Tonight I made a delicious treat, Apple Chips! It was a sweet, healthy treat! Yum, yum, yum, yum. :) Anyone who has a sweet tooth and has trouble staying on a diet would enjoy these. Anyone who is trying to give their kids a healthy snack, this is it!!! And they are so easy to make.

Here is the how to:

Ingredients:

2 apples 

(I used Red Delicious)

cinnamon powder and sugar 

(you can use whatever sort of mixture that you want;

I used 1/3 cup of sugar and less than a 1/4 cup or cinnamon)

That's it! 

Now how to do it. Preheat the oven to 250 degrees F.

Slice the apples very, very thin. It is hard. You can see that I had some
trouble with it. But they still turned out great. Also, you can core the
apple to avoid the seeds if you want, but I think that the star center
gives them a little something extra.

Next, I held a slice of apple, one at a time, over the bowl of cinnamon sugar
mixture and used a spoon to sprinkle it on top of the apple. I covered both sides
 of the apple slices. It gives it a better crunch, and I like a nice crunch.

OMG! How good does this look?

You can use lemon juice here to prevent the slices from discoloring. I didn’t need to do that because the chips turn brown with cinnamon and the baking anyways.

Bake them for about 2 hours till they’re dry and crisp. If you can resist eating them all, store in an airtight container. 

Beauty and the Beast theme

How would one capture the Beauty and the Beast theme for a wedding. These are some things that I have found. This is basically just a post of pictures.

Hair is love and hate

I think this style is the one that I would want the most. It is classically Belle. It is also very elegant and stunning. I think that I am mainly wanting curls and flowers; I want to be girly and fair. (Not the fairest of them all, just fair :)). So this is how I would wear it if I wore my hair up.


If I wore it down, any of these would be nice. It would also require me to grow my hair out. Blah. I don't really want to do that...I love how whimsical and soft these ladies look. I think that the flowers reinforce those qualities. I am still undecided on how I would wear my hair, but that's okay because the wedding is a ways away.

                                                                                           

Guest Gifts

I have been searching and researching for what an appropriate and cost friendly guest gift would be and this is what I have come up with so far.

The leaf cookie cutter is my favorite so far. I found a lady on Etsy who was very sweet and said that as long as the order was big enough that instead of selling them for $2.50 a piece, she would sell them for $1 a piece. I am thinking that the guest would range from 40-70 people. So it would be cute and practical. I don't want to give something that screams WEDDING, and I don't want it to be something that people at going to throw away when they get home. This is why cookie cutter seemed like a nice idea. It was defiantly better then some of the other things that I found.

I think that the castle are cool, but I think that they might be a bit too much. I am trying not to go overboard. But I thought that they were cute nonetheless.

I love bird decor. I love, love, love it! Seriously!!! These would serve a purpose as decoration, blend in nicely with the theme, and be awesome take home gifts. They are really stinking expensive though. Ouch!

I thought that the "Dreams really do come true"stamped paper was classy, and I also thought that they would make cute bookmarks. Let's be serious. J.D. and I are both English majors, so a bookmark as a gift would represent both of us, but again, I think that the fairy tale theme would be taken too over the top by this.

The cookies themselves would be too expensive, but what a cute idea! And could you imagine eating the tuxes? Everyone's teeth would be black. That is not very attractive.

And then finally, I saw these and thought awe. That is a nice way to give a wedding themed gift without being obnoxious. They are mint tins, so there would be a purpose beyond just, "Here, have this thing that you will throw away immediately when you get home." It will be thrown away after the mints are gone :)

This is why the leaf cookie cutters are my favorite so far. Also, did I mention that it will be a fall wedding? If not, that is another reason why these would be perfect.

Shoes, Shoes, Shoes

These are all shoes that I found on glassslipper.com. It's so fitting :)

They all vary in price and basically I have no idea what sort of shoe I want to wear. 

Each shoe can be dyed if I want and each shoe has a different quality that I like.

If anybody actually looks at this thing, I would love some feedback!

I have to admit that the shoe below might be the closest to my favorite. I think it continues the simple theme that I have stated over and over again that I want.

Lions, and Tigers, and Cake Toppers, Oh My!

This is the one that I have been looking at on amazon for about a year now, and it is so darling. J.D. and I both love it.

The colors are simple and elegant which is the how I want my wedding to be.

The cost of the figure depends on the sale that is on amazon. At it's highest amount it costs $145, but when it is on it's best deal, it costs $99.

BUT there are other potential toppers or even decorative pieces that I am thinking about.

 

The two figures above are separate, and when they are on sale, they run about $70 a pop. So for you math wizards out there, that would total around $140 give or take a few bucks with tax and shipping.

The figurine above is called, "First Love's Touch." Oh my gosh, how sweet! It is priced most places at $195. I don't think that it is one that I would invest in for the wedding, but I would like to get it someday, maybe as an anniversary gift or something.

This topper is a very, very, very close second to the first one. Obviously, it is Belle and the Beast, in human form, and it is too freaking adorable! They look so at peace together. I love the simple, light colors and their serene faces!

Decisions, decisions.

Oh Wedding Dresses, You are so beautiful!

The dress above is from the Alfred Angelo Disney Fairy Tale Wedding collection. It is Belle's dress design, and I am in love with it. Beauty and he Beast is my favorite Disney movie, and I would die for this dress. The problem is that I haven't tried it on yet, but I plan to do that soon! To take a little romance out of the dress, I am going to list the price, $1,399.

The dress above is Cinderella's dress ($999) from the same line, and while Cinderella is not my favorite tale, I love love love this dress too, but I have yet to try it on. Admittedly, I am nervous that I will finally go to try them on and then hate them both. That would be the pits. Also, the dress is the one of two items that I am willing to spend the most money on (photography is the second).

On a scale of one to ten, this dress ranks at one hundred. It is beautiful, but I can't find it anywhere. :(

My heart is just broken, but I will work with what I've got picked out already.

Three Cheese Eggplant

Oh my goodness. Over the holidays I encountered the most delicious new recipe. While my fiance and I were celebrating Christmas with his family, his sister cooked three cheese eggplant. First off I have to admit that I am not the biggest fan of vegetables. I know that they are good for me, but they just aren't as good as a cheeseburger or an all meat pizza. I like bad food, what can I say? Anyway, she made this dish, and it was the star of all the food. I made it for Christmas Eve dinner, and my tummy was super happy. This made me want to share the recipe with everyone else. So here it is.

These are the recipe cards that I designed on my silhouette; aren't they awesome?

Obviously, the olive oil is not very healthy, so something that you could do is use extra virgin olive oil.

Look at how bright and beautiful these veggies look! I always tweak recipes, and a minor adjustment that I made was to chop up two garlic cloves and garlic press two cloves. I enjoy a strong garlic flavor; it was the perfect little extra. I also used cherry tomatoes. They were cheaper, brighter, and easier to cut up. Just a quick chop, chop, and they were ready to go!

So gorgeous!

And into the pan it goes.

I only used two types of cheeses. I used parmesan and mozzarella cheese. I also used the Aldi's brand spaghetti sauce because it has a better flavor than Prego. Don't you think the cheese sealed it quiet nicely.

Tweety and Sylvester were my little kitchen helpers. Aren't they sweet?

The finished product! It tasted soooooo yummy!!!!

Would you believe me if I told you that it is only 250 calories per serving? Well, it is. And I believe because it has all that veggie goodness.