Mini Carrot Cakes

I'm back! Having a baby is an amazing experience, but it took me a while to feel normal and capable again. Baby Thomas is almost 3 months old now and he seems so big already. I love him so much!

Born February 27, 2013 at 8:08 pm

Our family of 3! James, Cami, and Thomas

Okay now to get to the point... a Dish & Serve post! Courtney from baxtronlife.com is behind this wonderful experience. Check out her blog, she is very down to earth and blogs about a variety of things. Courtney, thank you for finding a way to do a Dish & Serve and for taking so many great photos, too! Courtney's words:

Our little family loves to spend time cooking and baking together in the kitchen. When DeAnn from the S.I.P. Project asked me to share a recipe for her Dish & Serve series on her blog, I was delighted. Now, since we've been away on an extended business trip in Alaska, it wasn't a matter of finding a great recipe to share, it was figuring out who to give the treats to once they were made. Luckily we've become friends with two other business travelers who work for my husband's company. Since one of them isn't big on sweets, we decided to find out what kind of things the other one would like --- carrot cake was her choice, and Zion loves cooking cupcakes, so it was easy to decide on making mini carrot cakes!

After we got our cupcakes cooking in the oven, it was time to make a delicious cream cheese frosting. Now, anyone who makes frosting from scratch will tell you that it is no easy task to do by hand. Since we don't have a hand mixer up here where we are staying, I used the next best thing --- my strong husband! After much elbow grease and a slight variation on the ingredients to make it easier, we finished our delicious frosting.

We taste tested a few of the cupcakes to make sure we weren't going to be sending over any disasters to our friend, and then packed up several to bring to her. We knew she'd love them and couldn't wait to see her reaction!

She was thrilled to receive some home made goodies, especially since she has been away from home much longer than we have been! I loved seeing Zion proudly hand over the cupcakes she had made.

I loved the pictures, but loved Courtney's adorable little girl helping her daddy make the cupcakes even more. That is just too sweet. Courtney, great job capturing the surprise on the face of the cupcake recipient! I am wishing I had a carrot cupcake now! Please email me if you have a Dish & Serve experience you would like to share, I would love to post it! Cami at dish.n.serve@gmail.com

Mini Carrot Cakes (Variation of recipe from paleomg.com)

Prep- 10 min, Cook- 20 min, Serves- 10-12

Ingredients
For the carrot cupcakes

3 large carrots, shredded (about 1.5 cups worth)
1 cup almond flour/meal
2 eggs, whisked
¼ cup Virgin Coconut Oil, melted
1 tablespoon raw honey
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon nutmeg
½ teaspoon ginger
¼ teaspoon cloves
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon baking powder
pinch of salt
¼ cup chopped walnuts (optional)
¼ cup raisins (optional)

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Put your shredded carrots in a bowl, mix in almond flour, follow with remaining dry ingredients except for raisins and walnuts.

Whisk your eggs in a small bowl, add honey and vanilla and stir until mixed.

Add egg mixture to other ingredients and mix together.

Fold in raisins & walnuts if using.

Place cupcake ingredients into a muffin tin lined with paper liners . Should fill 10-12 muffins depending on size.

Bake for 18-20 minutes.

Easy Mixer-free Cream Cheese Frosting (Recipe from spinachtiger.com)

12 ounces whipped cream cheese (1 1/2 containers)

5 tablespoons pastured butter, softened

5 1/2 - 6 cups confectioner’s sugar

3 tablespoons of heavy cream 

2 teaspoons real vanilla extract

Cream butter and cream cheese together.

Add in confectioners’ sugar, one cup at a time until about 5 cups have been added.

Add in heavy cream and vanilla.

Add an additional 1/2 to 1 cup of confectioners' sugar

Beat until fluffy.

Manicotti for Lunch?

This Dish & Serve is brought to you by one of my bestest friends since the 7th grade! That's a long time people! This is Renae, she now lives in FL and she had a great experience with her first Dish & Serve, she even decided to do another one! That means in the near future I will post her second Dish & Serve all about beautiful *pink* PB cookies. Yeah, you have got to see that one! This is how Renae chose to Dish & Serve:

I work at a local bakery with two other people. We are always extremely busy and hardly ever have any time for breaks. I usually take my own lunch each day and on Fridays, dinner because we usually work from 9 am to 10 pm.  My two co-workers most of the time go get fast food, or order Domino's pizza which is right next door on a daily basis. I decided that they should have a home cooked meal! I took them a homemade manicotti dish and also took some frozen garlic break since that is what I enjoy with my manicotti! They were really appreciative :) 

Manicotti Recipe:

Manicotti Shells (7 shells, feeds 3-4)

Marinara sauce (1/2 Jar)

Ricotta Cheese (about 3/4 of a small 15 oz container)

Cream Cheese (1 block)

Shredded Mozzarella Cheese (1-1.5 cups)

Pepper, garlic salt, Red Crushed peppers

Flat serving tray

Boil Manicotti shells, see directions on the box.

Brown the meat, season with pepper, garlic salt, and crushed red peppers to liking.In a separate bowl mix ricotta, cream cheese and half the mozzarella (save some for the top!). Once the meat is done combine it with the cheese mixture.

Stuff the shells with your creamy delicious mixture, Easiest way to stuff is get a large ziploc bag, cut a small slice off the corner andput your mix in the bag. I have also used a spoon or butter knife but takes longer!

In your flat serving tray, spread some marinara sauce to cover the bottom. Place stuffed manicottis in a row, cover with marinara sauce and top with shredded mozzarella cheese! Bake in the over until marinara sauce is boiling. 

I know this recipe is delicious, Renae sent it to me over a year ago and I had to try it! Thank you, Renae for sharing your experience and this great recipe!

 How will you Dish & Serve? Contact me at dish.n.serve@gmail.com

-Cami

Week 5 SIP Summer Camp - Tray Favors

If you have followed my blog long enough you will know my SIL Keri. She is one of the most gifted artists and story tellers I know *just ask her kids about the alligators that pull their van* that one was from a while ago but it's stuck with me. Keri is truly just a joy to be around. I see all the fun stuff she does with her kids and it's fun to see them grow and will be neat to see who they become because of their fabulous mom. Don't get me wrong her kids drive her bonkers as much as the next mom but that's just part of having kids! This service idea is really perfect in so many ways, please read on and you will see what I am talking about.

I once saw an object lesson where the teacher made a tall, beautiful red velvet cake with cream   cheese frosting. She talked about love and service and specifically the attitude with which we serve our families. She asked if anyone wanted a slice of cake and of course I raised my hand along with the rest of the group. She cut a beautiful large slice and placed it on a plate and then handed it to the girl sitting next to me. She gave her a fork and a napkin and asked if she needed anything else. She talked about how we all want to serve others with love and happiness. Then she turned to me - "You still wanna slice?" I said yes and in the next second her hand was digging into the cake and she was pulling off a chunk of frosted red crumbliness. She dropped it onto a napkin and handed it to me without another word. Everyone in the room was laughing, shocked at her abruptness and coarseness. Then she talked about how we tend to serve our families - giving them what they want but doing it begrudgingly. That image of her hand digging into the cake will forever be in my memory, along with the lesson that if I am going to do nice things for my family, I need to do it lovingly.
I think the same lesson applies to service in general. We should find joy in service because we are serving God as we help others.
Knowing all this, and feeling strongly about all of this, I still find it challenging to actually involve my kids in service, and to teach them how to do it without complaining.
My kids are the ones who fight over who gets the tall green cup, who sits next to mom, and who watches cartoons in the rocking chair. I am the mom who likes to sing out nice little quips like, "when we're helping we're happy," or "let us oft speak kind words to each other," just hoping that my small reminders will magically turn them into nicer people. They fight often enough that when they do treat each other nicely I find myself wondering what their ulterior motives are, but I am nonetheless relieved that maybe a little of what my husband and I are trying to teach them is getting through.
While I do hope that they learn from example that it's important to serve others, I think it's also important to actually give them chances to serve. So I was happy to find a small way that they could actually help other people in need. My women's group at church just did a service project for Presbyterian hospital. We made receiving blankets, collected books and magazines, and made tray favors. Tray favors are simple little notes with "get well" sentiments on them that go on the food trays for patients in the hospital. The service coordinator at Presbyterian said that sometimes they get tray favors made by children that they put on the trays of children in the hospital.
Perfect.
So for our family night this week I printed out some simple notes and then had the kids draw pictures on them. We talked about how I put notes in their lunches sometimes and how it makes them happy to find the notes at school. They all agreed that the kids at the hospital would be happy to get little notes, too. Our notes said, "Hope the rain brings some flowers," "Get whale soon!" "Here's some sunshine for your day," and "Feel better soon."
Jacob loved drawing octopus and whales


Beau colors better with his tongue out.

Rus enjoyed this activity because he said he could color like a kid and no one would know.

We made about forty tray favors in all.


A few days later we were able to deliver them to the service coordinator at the hospital. She said she would take them up to the children's ward that day and that they would be so happy to get their notes! My kids beamed and told her all about the ones that they colored.
When we got in the van my son Jacob said, "I'm glad we did that, Mom. It makes me feel good inside." Bekah and Beau agreed.
Success.
So check around...while I know it can be challenging to find ways for your children to help others, I know that there are opportunities out there, and the effort is wonderfully rewarding.
Thank you DeAnn and the SIP project summer camp for getting our family involved!
Keri Payne

A huge thank you to Keri for this weeks SIP Summer Camp post!

Have you missed any of the previous weeks? Scroll down and check them out! Also it wouldn't hurt my feelings if you left some comment love or if you wanted to show your support for The SIP project by sharing on Pinterest or Face Book or if you wanted to follow on Pinterest or Face Book, or just follow my blog. Next week I am going to start doing some giveaways that will only be announced on my Face Book page...just a little incentive to get over there and hit the like button! Now get...

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Buck wild family photos and service project

This is the first family photo session I had with a family I had never met before. I met the Buck family for the first time the day of the shoot. They are a fun and easy going family...nuff said...I mean just look at their pictures you will see it too! Oh... and my watermark was on the fritz...grrr...so I just typed it out.

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Here is what Misty says about her project....

 "Why did I choose the project I did...

I chose do do some type of paper crafting because that's what I know. I feel like I have a talent for it and I wanted to be able to share my joy of creating something with my hands with others. I wanted to work with the ladies at the beehive home so that  I could help them make something useful and pretty that they could then share with others-spreading the joy.

I feel that I was the one blessed by these wonderful women. They are so sweet. I couldn't help but smile and smile when I was teaching them...how could you not when you keep getting called "my love" by Lillian.

Doing this project with the ladies of the Beehive has made me want to craft with them even more. Their eyes light up. They share their day with you. I feel so blessed.

Honestly, I think that my personality usually leads me to service but this did take me out of my comfort zone a bit. This wasn't my typical class and I had to think more about the ladies abilities and what they would actually be able to do on their own and prepare ahead of time. I didn't want to make the cards FOR them wanted them to feel a sense of accomplishment from making something with their own hands and it required a lot of thought and preparation for each project. (My cards can tend to be very detailed :))

I will definitely be going back to the Beehive home to make cards with my girls. I am also making more of an effort to make cards for other worthy causes.

I'm so happy I participated in this project. I got to meet and get to know women I otherwise would never had crossed paths with. They have enriched my life and made me a better person. That includes you DeAnn.

After doing this project I feel more at ease with getting ideas together and offering my "services" to others that I may not be familiar with. I learned how easy it is to bring happiness to another individual by a simple act. I'm glad that I was able to use my surplus of paper and stamps goodies to help brighten another's day. I saw a quote today that said "Earth without Art is just Eh". How true that rings for me. I love to surround myself with things that my mom, my friends, my husband and children have made for me. It makes the world a better place for me. I feel like having something handmade by someone else is like having a little bit of that person with you. In that way this type of service has come easily for me. Which in turn makes me think that I should look for other ways to serve that will help me grow and that I may not see as so "easy".  Thank you for this wonderful opportunity with the S.I.P. Project. I am now more aware of the "little things" I can do for others."

 

I just want to give a shout out to my sis-in-law Keri for being my assistant she was a HUGE help!

I put this gem on my Facebook page and asked what YOU think their little thought bubbles should say...so if you haven't "liked" my Facebook page, you SHOULD or you might miss out on other fun stuff!!!

Thanks for stopping by and don't forget to take a second and leave some comment love :) Cause I love you and I love to hear from you :)

Young family photo's and service project

This is why I started The SIP project, for putting together posts like this. Which hopefully encourages everyone who reads this to realize we all have time for doing a little good. It's easy to set the bar too high when it comes to doing good, so high we can't reach it and get discouraged and never do much of anything. Small acts of kindness is where is starts. "The great acts of love are done by those who are habitually performing small acts of kindness." The SIP project is a way for people who participate in it to be pushed a little out of their comfort zones in finding meaningful ways to serve. I am pretty sure I can say with real certainty that all who have participated come away feeling empowered knowing they can make a difference. Alright I will step off my soap box...

Let me introduce the super awesome Young family. We were in a bit of a rush to get their family pictures taken before their oldest son Josh left to serve a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Canada. It wasn't an ideal spot but for being last minute I am really happy with how they turned out. It was really cold too, they were troopers though. There little guy like most two year olds  hardly sat still...no really. As you can see this first picture really captures that. 

And he's off....

 

Here is what the Young family did in their own words. "On December 23rd our family headed out right after a huge snow storm with another family (The Colsons) we had invited and made our way to the Beehive Home in Edgewood New Mexico.  The Beehive Home is a retirement center for the elderly in our town.  Between the two families we had enough children to play the parts of Mary, Joseph, an angel, three wise men, and two shepherds.  Larry Colson (father) would have played the piano but one of the residents of the home really wanted to be involved, so she played while Larry directed.  Shawn Young (father of the Youngs) was the narrator and read the account of Jesus' birth from Luke in the King James version of the Bible.  The two mothers and the children sang the Christmas songs that went along with each part of the story.  Our goal was to share our love of the Savior and our joy of the Christmas season with the residents.  Afterward, we were able to pass out gifts from another group that were not able to make it to the home earlier in the week because of a huge blizzard.  Women from the Edgewood Relief Society of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints had made beautiful lap quilts for each of wonderful people living there.  They had also made and filled stockings with things like lotion and socks. Passing these out to the residents gave all of us an opportunity (especially the children) to be able to talk to the men and the women and wish them a Merry Christmas.  This was a wonderful time to get to know them give them the opportunity to share little pieces of their history with us. 

Our family chose to serve at the Beehive Home for different reasons. First, because it is pretty close to our home and we wanted to do something that could be on going. We plan to visit the home once a month.  Also, we have never lived close to grandparents and this gives our children an opportunity to be around elderly people and have "adopted" grandparents.  Sometimes older people can be intimidating to children and we would like ours to be comfortable around those who they may not think they have anything in common with.  

We are grateful for the opportunity to serve. We are so happy that this project pushed us out of our seats and made us think about ways that our family can contribute.  Sometimes we get so busy with our own lives, we forget that we have things that we can give and in return we are blessed."  


                                                     Photos from their service project.

Here is what the Young family did in their own words. "On December 23rd our family headed out right after a huge snow storm with another family (The Colsons) we had invited and made our way to the Beehive Home in Edgewood New Mexico.  The Beehive Home is a retirement center for the elderly in our town.  Between the two families we had enough children to play the parts of Mary, Joseph, an angel, three wise men, and two shepherds.  Larry Colson (father) would have played the piano but one of the residents of the home really wanted to be involved, so she played while Larry directed.  Shawn Young (father of the Youngs) was the narrator and read the account of Jesus' birth from Luke in the King James version of the Bible.  The two mothers and the children sang the Christmas songs that went along with each part of the story.  Our goal was to share our love of the Savior and our joy of the Christmas season with the residents.  Afterward, we were able to pass out gifts from another group that were not able to make it to the home earlier in the week because of a huge blizzard.  Women from the Edgewood Relief Society of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints had made beautiful lap quilts for each of wonderful people living there.  They had also made and filled stockings with things like lotion and socks. Passing these out to the residents gave all of us an opportunity (especially the children) to be able to talk to the men and the women and wish them a Merry Christmas.  This was a wonderful time to get to know them give them the opportunity to share little pieces of their history with us.

Our family chose to serve at the Beehive Home for different reasons. First, because it is pretty close to our home and we wanted to do something that could be on going. We plan to visit the home once a month.  Also, we have never lived close to grandparents and this gives our children an opportunity to be around elderly people and have "adopted" grandparents.  Sometimes older people can be intimidating to children and we would like ours to be comfortable around those who they may not think they have anything in common with. 

We are grateful for the opportunity to serve. We are so happy that this project pushed us out of our seats and made us think about ways that our family can contribute.  Sometimes we get so busy with our own lives, we forget that we have things that we can give and in return we are blessed."   

If you wonder why there are only pictures of two of their kids it's because it got too cold to do the rest. I will being taking the rest of their kids pictures soon.

Thanks for stopping by! I am flying by the seat of my pants you are welcome to join the ride! If you would like to participate in The SIP project or have any ideas for me I hope you feel comfortable leaving your thoughts via commenting or e-mail. I love hearing from you :) Every comment makes my day.