Mommin' It Up!

June 6, 2012June 2, 2012

Pin for the Wednesday: Summer Beach Cupcakes

Happy Wednesday! Since I’m out at Hermosa Beach in sunny California today for the Toyota Women’s Influencer Network event, I thought I’d highlight a beachy pin today! It is a great winning pin to kick off your summer with. On Sophie’s last day of preschool right before Memorial Day, I told her we’d make cupcakes to celebrate. So I got on Pinterest to find a summer cupcake idea. Here’s my original pin:

These looked super-easy to me, and I already had cupcake mix and frosting and Goldfish crackers so I ran to Kroger while Sophie was at school and bought some Teddy Grahams and some gummy Lifesavers. I also used some generic laffy-taffy like candy I had at home.

Here’s how our beach cupcakes turned out! I was right, they were indeed super-easy! The kids and I had a lot of fun decorating them and there was nothing to it. I cut the taffy with a knife to make a beach towel and surfboards, and crushed some poor Teddy Grahams to make sand.

I let Joshua and Sophie do their own. They weren’t quite as interested in making them “cute” as I was!

beachpicframe — Sophie's on the left, Joshua's on the right. Surfboards!

This was a fun & tasty winning pin for us! The kids loved decorating them and eating them of course. It was a fun way to kick off our summer.

What have you been pinning and winning with? I’m dying to see! Link up below. There are just a couple of rules:
1) In your post, please link to your original source – the pin you got the idea from.

2) Make sure and link back to our original Pin For the Wednesdays Post here at Mommin’ It Up! (please!)

3) In the Mr. Linky below, leave a direct link to your Pin FTWednesdays post, not to your main website.

4) Totally optional – grab our cute #PinFTW button! The code box is over there in our sidebar.

Don’t have a blog? Just leave your winning pin in the comments!

Show us what you got!

May 30, 2012

Pin for the Wednesdays: Grilling with Cilantro

I loooooooooooove cilantro and in my opinion, you can never have too much – as evidenced by my “Food & Drinks” pin board. Cilantro, cupcakes and pretty cocktails. Those are my three favorite food groups.

I also love to grill, so last weekend I was excited to try out a couple recipes I found on Pinterest.

The first – Margarita Chicken.

The original recipe is from DisneyFamily.com.

Margarita Chicken

Ingredients
zest from one lime
1/3 cup fresh lime juice, from about 4 limes
1/4 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons tequila, optional
2 tablespoons fresh cilantro, chopped
2 cloves garlic, mashed
1 teaspoon chile powder
pinch salt and pepper
2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breast halves, 6-8

Directions
Place all ingredients, except for the chicken, in a gallon-sized zip top plastic bag. Squish to combine. Add chicken, seal bag, and turn to coat. Refrigerate for one hour or overnight.
Coat grill pan (or grill) with cooking spray. Heat pan (or grill) to medium-high. Cook chicken for 4-5 minutes on each side, turning breast a quarter turn after two minutes if cross hatch marks are desired. Serve immediately.

Unfortunately I made this approximately three minutes before I wanted to put it on the grill, so it didn’t have time to marinate. It was still good, but I think it would have been even better if it had had time to soak up all the flavor.

Like I said, I have a thing for cilantro, so I went with this as a side dish.

Roasted Corn with Cilantro Butter

From one of my favorite recipe sites, SkinnyTaste.com. I put all the seasonings on the corn, wrapped each ear in aluminum foil, and grilled them for about 20 minutes. YUM!

So that’s what I’ve been up to… what about you??

There are just a few rules:

1) In your post, please link to your original source – the pin you got the idea from.

2) Make sure and link back to our original Pin For the Wednesdays Post here at Mommin’ It Up! (please!)

3) In the Mr. Linky below, leave a direct link to your Pin FTWednesdays post, not to your main website.

4) Totally optional – grab our cute #PinFTW button! The code box is over there in our sidebar.

Don’t have a blog? Just leave your winning pin in the comments!

We can’t wait to see what you have to share!

May 23, 2012May 23, 2012

Pin for the Wednesday: Ro*tel Guacamole that Rocks!

Welcome to Pin for the Wednesdays! I can’t wait to see your winning pins. You guys wow me with your craftiness and culinary prowess every week! This week I am super-excited to announce that we have our first sponsored #PinFTW – Ro*tel, the zesty tomatoes with chiles we all love to cook with, is sponsoring this week’s Pin for the Wednesdays. Ro*tel wants to help you “Spring into Summer” with some awesome Ro*tel-based recipes that will wow guests at your spring and summer parties. So if you are entertaining or bringing a dish to any get togethers this Memorial Day weekend, you will want to check out Ro*tel on Pinterest. They have some super-yummy recipe ideas, and they asked me to pick a few to try out as I spring into summer. So, my winning pin is from their “Appetizers & Dip Recipes That’ll Make You Flip” board. The original pin is here, “Guacamole that Rocks”.

I loooooooove Guacamole (Emily and I kind of freaked out over some amazing guac we had in Miami recently), but I have never made it! I was very afraid of dealing with the avocados for some reason. Especially after reading Tess’s #PinFTW that was NOT a win, ha ha.) But I conquered my fear this weekend and my dear husband and I made some super-yummy Guacamole that Rocks with Ro*tel! The recipe is so simple, with just a few ingredients: avocados, Ro*tel, lime juice, onion, salt, and ground black pepper. It only took us about 10 minutes to make, and it was FREAKING DELICIOUS!! You guys, it was so so so so so so SO good. I was seriously impressed with both the simplicity & ease of the recipe, and of course, MYSELF. 🙂 Ha, ha.

rotelavocado — the Ro*tel tomatoes gave it such a yummy kick!

This weekend I am helping my BFF Luanne throw a graduation/18th birthday party for her daughter (and our favorite babysitter) Krisha. I’ll be making Guacamole that Rocks again as well as four other yummy party-perfect Ro*tel-based recipes. Can’t wait to let you know how those turn out!

Now it’s your turn to show me YOUR winning pin! There are just a few rules:

1) In your post, please link to your original source – the pin you got the idea from.

2) Make sure and link back to our original Pin For the Wednesdays Post here at Mommin’ It Up! (please!)

3) In the Mr. Linky below, leave a direct link to your Pin FTWednesdays post, not to your main website.

4) Totally optional – grab our cute #PinFTW button! The code box is over there in our sidebar.

Don’t have a blog? Just leave your winning pin in the comments!

If you don’t have a pin to link-up today, then tell us what your favorite thing to make using Ro*tel is! For more Ro*tel goodness, “like” them on Facebook and follow them on Twitter!

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I am being compensated for this post by Ro*tel. All opinions about the recipe and Ro*tel product are my own.