Day 126: Simple Steamed Broccoli (success).

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We eat lots of broccoli in this house, as it's the only steamed vegetable my kids will eat.  With the combination of the sugar in the water and the melted butter, I thought they would love this; my husband and I thought it was delicious, but the kids missed the salty taste (I usually mix the steamed broccoli with coconut oil and salt).  I plan to do this recipe again to see if the kiddos take to it on the second attempt.

Ingredients:
3-4 cups fresh broccoli
1 teaspoon sugar
1/4 cup butter (this seemed like a lot to me -- I used half of this)
water

Instructions:
Place the sugar and water in the bottom of pot; insert steamer basket.  Bring water to a boil and then reduce heat to medium.

Add broccoli to basket and cover with a lid.  Steam for 7-8 minutes.

While steaming broccoli, melt butter in the microwave.

Mix broccoli and butter together.

Verdict: SUCCESS!

Day 125: Chocolate Fudge Cupcakes (fail).

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Continuing my project to test how different boxed cakes (besides white or vanilla) taste when using the trick for making boxed cupcakes taste like bakery cupcakes, I attempted a chocolate fudge mix tonight.  For this attempt, I used Betty Crocker's Chocolate Fudge cake mix and eliminated the vanilla (due to my spice cupcake trial with additional vanilla flavoring).  These tasted okay -- but definitely lacked a rich, chocolate fudge flavor, likely due to all the extra ingredients (an additional egg and more butter).  In the future, I would make these according to the package directions.

Verdict: FAIL.

Day 124: Separating Yolks & Egg Whites (success).

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This is genius -- and eliminates my need to buy separated egg whites at the store, which I never think taste very good.  Start with regular eggs and an empty bowl (or two).

Crack a few eggs in the bowl, and then position a (clean and empty) water bottle over one of the yolks.  Make sure the bottle is upright and that you're squeezing the bottle a tiny bit before touching the opening of the bottle with the yolk to remove; release the squeeze once you've made contact with the yolk and quickly turn the bottle right-side up again to contain the yolk inside the bottle.

The first time I tried this I attempted removing more than one yolk (with other yolks still inside the bottle).  I did not have success with this, and ended up with this mess on my hands...all the yolks dripped back into the egg whites while I was trying to "squeeze" up additional yolks.

However, I did have success removing just one yolk at a time, dropping it into a separate bowl and then going back to get another yolk.

Verdict: SUCCESS!

Day 123: Snickerdoodle Cake Pop (fail).

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These did not taste good, mainly because the consistency was weird and squishy :(

Ingredients:

Yellow cake mix (baked according to box instructions)

Canned vanilla frosting (mine happened to be "hot pink vanilla!")

3/4 cup granulated sugar

3 tbsp ground cinnamon

lollipop sticks

Instructions:

Once cake has cooled, crumble it into fine pieces in a large bowl. Add 2 spoonfuls of frosting, incorporating it into the cake using your fingers (this looked like play dough to me...).

Once the frosting is evenly distributed, use a cookie scoop to make evenly-sized portions. Roll and shape the cake into balls.  In a small bowl, combine sugar and cinnamon. Coat the cake balls in the cinnamon-sugar mixture. Serve as is, or add lollipop sticks to make cake pops.

This was my son's face prior to trying the cake pops...

Verdict: FAIL.

Friday Favorite: Water Balloon Basketball.

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We've had a streak of hot days, and the kids loved this water balloon basketball idea.  They would have done this for hours had I been willing to fill up water balloons all day!

The set-up.

Shoot & score!

Verdict: SUCCESS!

Day 122: Foot Soak (success).

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Fact #1: day 122 of 2014 is the day that I post pictures of my feet on the Internet.  Fact #2: feet are gross.  Mine are particularly gross, since I wear sandals most of the year and rarely get pedicures.  With that said, my feet felt -- and looked -- so much better after doing this soak with baking soda and regular salt water!  Go try it!

Before:

Instructions:

Fill a bucket with warm water, and add 1/2 cup of baking soda and 1/2 cup of salt (any kind).  Mix well.  Soak your feet for 20 minutes.  At the end of twenty minutes, use a pumice stone to exfoliate.  When skin starts shedding, return feet back to the water.

After!

Verdict: SUCCESS!

Day 121: Cilantro Lime Dressing (fail).

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This wasn't horrible, but it tasted pretty bland and was very runny; I could overwhelmingly taste the olive oil while eating the salad.  I love cilantro lime dressings, so I'm still on the hunt for an amazing homemade one!

Ingredients:
1 cup loosely packed cilantro, stems removed and roughly chopped
1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice (about 1/2 lime)
1-2 garlic cloves
1/4 cup olive oil
1 1/2 teaspoons white wine vinegar1/8 teaspoon salt

Instructions:
Puree all ingredients in a blender (I used my "Magic Bullet" blender) until smooth.

I then cut up all my veggies for a chopped salad -- romaine, corn, black beans, tomatoes, green onions and red peppers -- and poured the salad dressing on top.

Verdict: FAIL.