New Day, New Year

The words to Nina Simone's song Feeling Good, its a new day and new dawn and I'm feeling good, ring so true to me. After losing almost all over our belongs in a house fire in July, I'm finally feeling really good about whats to come this year and I'm truly excited. In a few months we'll be back in our home, I'll share house updates later this week. For me new year is an excellent time to reflect on life and making better choices to lead a happier healthier life. I'm trying not to make resolutions for myself instead, I'm referring them to as my goals for 2013.

Personal Goals 

Walk over 3 miles every single day. I've started doing this in Nov and love the results already. 

Drinks lots and lots of water, continue to skip the soda 

Wear night cream every night after I wash my face

Teat myself to a DIY Manicure and Pedicure 2x a month

Eat Greek yogurt daily

Let go of self doubt 

Follow my heart, and just go for it! 

Host a dinner party to celebrate my friendships

 Continue eating more veggies & protein daily

Attend a live music concert

Recommit to blogging!! 

Invest in myself: take a photography class 

Go on at least two romantic getaways with my husband!

Throw a Housewarming / Homecoming Party for our House!

Create a ultimate workout play list 

Give My Blog a Fresh Look 

Make a two quilts 

Get to know other DIY Bloggers in my area, maybe do meetups?

Take better pictures 

Go on a Two family trips this year

Home Goals 

Enjoy the process on seeing our home rebuilt

Fall in love with our first house all over again

Fill Our home with things we only absolutely LOVE 

Take Risks and have fun

Build a new tree house for Avery

Plant a garden & build large raised garden beds

Install brick or paver patio in our backyard

DIY Paintings for our house: Living Room & Bedroom?
Create a fun kid / aduly friendly backyard that we love to hang out in 

Have an organized Garage

No Clutter!

Today marks my first blog post of 2013, and i'll be back to blogging 4-5 days a week, feeling good :) Are you writing a list of personal goals and home goals you want to do for 2013? What's on the top of your list?

Holiday: Pie, Cookies & Bars

On Saturday morning, I got up early to bake some Holiday treats. I made sweet potato pie, oatmeal cookies dipped in chocolate and peppermint then made Starbucks Cranberry Bliss bars. It was a busy but fun morning and helped me cross an item off my New Holiday Traditions list , here's a reminder of my list.

Holiday Traditions

1. Wrapping Presents Prettier
2. Gingerbread House
3. DIY Advent Calendar
4. Holiday Cards
5. Make an Ornament with the Kids
6. Make Holiday Cookies & Decorate them
7. Holiday Drinks
8. Homemade Peppermint Bark
9. Watch Holiday Movies
10. Holiday Baking for Family & Friends

I shared a few pictures on Instagram while I was baking and thought I'd share the recipes on today on my blog. First up, Sweet Potato Pie.

Sweet Potato Pie
I adapted this recipe from All Recipes.com and made a few changes to up the flavor of the pie. Here's the link for the original recipe. 

Ingredients

1 Large Sweet Potato
1/2 Cup of Unsalted Butter
1 Cup of White Sugar
1/2 Cup of Brown Sugar
1/2 Cup of Milk
2 Large Eggs
1/2 Teaspoon of Nutmeg
1 Teaspoon of Cinnamon
2 Teaspoon of Vanilla Extract
1 9 inch unbaked pie crust

Bake It

Preheat oven to 350 Degrees. Poke several holes in the sweet potato then microwave for 10 mins or until soft. Remove skin from sweet potato. Cut up sweet potato, then using an electric blend sweet potato and butter together, then add the eggs. Next mix in both sugars, eggs, nutmeg, cinnamon and vanilla extract and then milk. Mix until smooth, pour pie filling into pie crust. 

Place pie plate on cookie sheet and then into the oven, bake pie for 55-60 mins or until knife comes out clean in the center. Let cool for one hour, then enjoy. 

Oatmeal Cookies Dipped in Chocolate & Peppermint

I wanted to transform everyday oatmeal cookies into a holiday treat, I decided dipping them in chocolate then white chocolate peppermint would be perfect. I'm so glad made these, they were delicious and chewy and the peppermint and oatmeal, perfection. This recipe is adapted from the Quaker Oats recipe, with minor changes. 

Ingredients

1 Cup of unsalted butter room temp
1 Cup of Brown Sugar 
1/2 Cup of White Sugar
2 Large Eggs
2 Teaspoons of Vanilla Extract
1 Teaspoon of Cinnamon
1/4 Teaspoon of Nutmeg 
1/2 Teaspoon of Salt 
1/2 Teaspoon of Baking Soda 
Optional Mix in Raisins & Chocolate Chips

Bake It

Heat oven to 350 Degrees, line cookie sheets with Parchment Paper (best invention ever, makes baking clean up a breeze) Use an electric mixer and cream together sugars and butter until light and fluffy. Next beat in eggs one at a time until combined. Shift together flour, cinnamon, salt, baking soda, an nutmeg. Add flour mixture in three parts until well blended. The cookie batter should be really thick, here's mine below. It smelled so amazing! Bake cookies 10 - 15 mins. 

The recipe yields 30-35 cookies I wanted big cookies, so I placed large spoonful on the the cookie sheet and made 16 cookies. Cool cookies on cookie sheet for 5 mins then using a spatula transfer cookies to a wire rack. When cookies are completely cool dip them in chocolate let dry for 15 mis then dip them in melted white peppermint chocolate. I hope you enjoy these cookies, they are so good. 

Cranberry Bliss Bars

Thought the magic of Pinterest, I came across this amazing recipe that taste just like the Starbucks versions. I love when the Holidays roll around because I can enjoy these bars. So having this recipe is great and scary since they are so good.  This is the second time I've made this recipe and I made two minor changes to the recipe. This recipe is adapted from Averie Cook, the orginal recipe is here. Quick tip whenever I'm making a recipe and make changes, I also make my notes on the recipe, so I don't forget how I perfected it for my household. This recipe is super easy to make, basically it's like baking one big cookie 

Ingredients

1/2 Cup unsalted butter
1 Large Egg
1 1/4 Cup of Brown Sugar
2 Teaspoons of Vanilla
1/4 Teaspoon of Cinnamon 
1 Cup of Flour shifted
1/4 Teaspoon of Salt
3/4 Cup of White Chocolate Chips 
1/2 Cup of Chopped dried Cranberries

Bake It

Preheat oven to 350 Degrees. Line 8x8 baking pan with Parchment Paper. Melt butter in a microwave safe bowl, let butter cool for a few minutes before blending. Next Blend melted butter, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon and egg until combined. Then slowly mix in flour and salt. Carefully fold white chocolate and cranberries. The batter will be thick, carefully pour into pan, and smooth with butter knife. Bake for 18 - 22 mins, cool pan on wire rack. Here's my batter.

Frosting Ingredients

1 Cup of melted White Chocolate (only melt half, save half from drizzle topping)
4 ounces of Cream Cheese at room temperature
1 Teaspoon of Vanilla
2 Cups of Confectioners Sugar
1/4 Cup of Chopped Dried Cranberries

Frost It

Using a paddle attachment blend cream cheese and melted white chocolate, slowly mix in sugar until well blended then add vanilla. The frosting should be thick. Using a butter knife to frost the top of the bars. Sprinkle the dried cranberries over the frosting. Next melt the remaining 1/2 cup of white chocolate and drizzle over bars. After frosting bars wait 30 mins before cutting and serving.  

I hope you all enjoy these recipes as much as my family does :)