Corn Salsa

Ingredients:
4-5 roma tomatoes chopped
2-4 green onions - chopped
1 can sweet corn - drained
1 can white corn - drained
1 can black eyed peas - drained
1-2 avocado - chopped
1/2 cucumber - chopped
1 minced garlic clove
1 cup fresh cilantro - chopped
1 pkg Italian dressing - prepare as directed (homemade better than bottled)Instructions:Combine all ingredients above. Pour in dressing and stir. Let it refrigerate for at least two hours before serving.

Healthy No Bake Cookies

Ingredients:

3 cups oats

1 cup coconut

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/4 cup nonfat dry milk powder

3/4 cup natural sugar replacement

1/4 cup light corn syrup

1/2 cup skim milk

1 TBS vanilla

measure oats and coconut into a medium bowl and mix together*Bring cocoa powder, dry milk, natural sweetener, corn syrup and milk to a boil in a medium saucepan*Continue to boil 1-2 minutes. Remove from heat*Pour how mixture over oats and coconut mixture and mix well*Drop by spoonfuls onto wax paper and allow to cool. Transfer to an airtight container and refrigerate

Makes 36 Cookies

Decrative Candles

What You Need.

candle/candle jar

Ribbon

Buttons

Paper

Stickers

Glue Dots (love them)

Anything you have in your craft drawer

Just design and create it's so easy and inexpensive

Conversation Box MP3 Player

Conversation Box MP3 Player

Materials needed:

Box of Conversations hearts
Pink or Red construction paper
String
2 chocolate kisses
White paper (or contact/sticker paper)
Glue stick or tape
Mini pony bead (optional)
Clear tape

Instructions:

Cut construction paper to wrap around conversations box, like a sleeve
Create headphones… cut and tie string into a "Y", to hide the knot at the center of your "Y" string the mini pony bead to cover… tape the ends of the headphone string to the "kiss" tag at the top of each chocolate Kiss…
Wrap the construction paper tightly around your conversation heart box, crease (don't stick together yet?) now unwrap and find the appropriate place for your "headset" to plug in… tape the string to the inside of the construction paper… and now you can wrap the paper around and use glue stick or tape.

Type out songs on white paper cut out for screen, cut out a circle for controlls

Romantic V-day Ideas or For Any Occation

It’s not easy to come up with creative and easy ways to celebrate Valentine’s Day every year. The good news is it doesn’t have to cost a lot either to make the day special for both of you. Here’s some great ideas to create a memory this Valentine’s Day, not with your pocketbook but with your imagination.

Not Your Typical Box of Chocolates. Empty a box of chocolate (either into your mouth or onto a plate...) Then cut out paper hearts to fill each section of the box. On each cutout, record something about him/her that you love. Be specific, "The way you smell when you come to bed at night," "The way you take care of me when I'm sick," or simply "Your recipe for pancakes." Another Variation. Write down cherished memories of your life together. Fold the cutouts, place them in the chocolate box, and top with a red satin bow. The time you spend coming up with these ideas will contribute to your own romantic mood, and what he thinks is a plain box of chocolates will be a gift they will keep close to their heart forever. And, you can add to the box each year.

Get a Little Dippy. It’s fun, it’s messy (in a good way) and it’s delicious – making chocolate-dipped fruit. Tie on your aprons and melt some chocolate chips in a small pot inside a larger pot of simmering water. Stir in some butter until the mixture is smooth. Then twirl strawberries or seedless tangerine sections in the chocolate and set on a wax-paper lined cookie sheet. Your decadent dessert will be cool in a few minutes and ready for you to enjoy together.

Time by the Fireplace. Before the kids go to bed, have fun roasting marshmallows. After their lights are out, host your own indoor picnic, complete with a bottle of your favorite beverage and chocolate-covered strawberries. Start Reading Together. Give your sweetie a gift of a book in which you are both interested in. Starting Valentine’s evening, read a new chapter each night before bed. This cozy tradition will allow you to spend some quality time together and often makes for thought-provoking breakfast conversations.

Make a CD of the Songs Special to Your Relationship. Include "your song," songs from your wedding, songs from favorite movies and songs you know your sweetie loves. Add a personal note and leave it on their car seat to find on Valentine’s Day. This way they can play it on their car CD player on their way to work or out doing errands.

Have a Scavenger Hunt. Write a few poems or romantic quotes, wrap candy kisses inside, and hide them around the house. Each note should be a clue to finding the next one. Make sure the final clue lands your sweetie someplace you want to end up for the entire evening.

Cupid Corn Bark

14 whole Oreos, broken up.
1 1/2 C pretzels, broken into pieces. I used the small stick pretzels
1 lb. white chocolate, almond bark or melts found in the bulk food section
1 C Valintine Candy Corn if you can't find it you can Valintine M & M's

Pink and White sprinkles
Cover a large cookie sheet with wax paper. Spread broken cookes, pretzels and about 3/4 C of the candy corn onto the waxed paper. Place white chocolate in a container and microwave for 1 1/2 minutes. Stir and then microwave for another 30 seconds until melted and smooth. White chocolate melts faster and burns easier than chocolate.

Drizzle the melted chocolate over the cookie mixture, spreading with spatula if needed to coat evenly. Sprinkle remaining candy corn and colored sprinkles over the chocolate while it is still wet. Do not let it harden.

Place cookie tray into refrigerator until set and firm. Remove and gently break bark into small pieces. Store in air tight container.

You can do this recipe for each of the holiday just get candy corn for that holiday and sprinkes to match it easy, fun, and sooo good.

Chocolate Dipped Oreo's

OH MY GOSH!! when I saw these I had to make them for my kids and some for me of course, then I had to share them. I love oreo's and this was a great idea. I think it's self explanitory. However I did find out white chocolate burns quicker than dark, after going through 2 bags of white chocolate chips till I got it right. Have fun decorating you can decorate them for any holiday. Great for teachers, friends, neighbors and even your coworkers. Have fun just don't eat them all :-) yes, it will be hard not too.

You can get the take out boxes at any store, in their sesonal section, Your best bet is a craft store.

CAKE POPS

1 box cake mix, any flavor

1 tub frosting,or ½ C - ¾ C homemade frosting

24 oz pkg candy coating(white or chocolate)

Sprinkles

Lollipop sticks

Bake the cake mix according to package directions. Once it's cool, crumble the cake into a large bowl. Place in a large bowl and stir in half of the frosting container or 1/2 cup of your homemade frosting. Mix with your hands until thoroughly combined and thick like a truffle center. Mix in additional frosting if necessary.Roll mixture into 1″ balls and place on a cookie sheet. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for an hour or overnight.

Melt chocolate in the microwave per directions on package. Dip the tip of your lollipop stick in a little of the melted candy coating and insert into the flat end of the cake balls. Carefully insert the cake ball into the candy coating by holding the lollipop stick and rotating until covered. Once covered, remove and softly tap and rotate until the excess chocolate falls off. Don't tap too hard or the cake ball will fall off, too. Insert in a styrofoam block to harden. Decorate as desired.

Best Ever Fried Rice

Best Ever Fried Rice

1-2 Chicken breasts or 10 Chicken Tenders

6Scrambled eggs

2 Carrots (finely grated)

½ White onion (finely chopped)

¾ cup Frozen peas

½ cup Butter

1-2 Garlic cloves (crushed)or

1 tsp. garlic Powder

2 cups White rice (not instant)

Marinate chicken in soy sauce, if you do not have much time, mix it with chicken before cooking In a large frying pan Cook chicken in small amount of olive oil, add carrots and onions and sauté until clear Add frozen peas and cook until soft. In a separate pan cook rice then add to the mixture In another pan, scramble six eggs, chop finely and add to mixture Melt 1/2 cup butter, add crushed garlic cloves to butter, stir and add to mixture Mix all together well, add soy sauce to taste and Enjoy.

Cake Batter Pancakes

Make these tasty pancakes for your little valintines. and for the big one's too.

Cake Batter Pancakes:

makes about 12 pancakes

What You Need

1½ cups all purpose flour

2/3 cup yellow cake mix

1 Tbsp. sugar

¾ tsp. baking powder

pinch of salt

2 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1-2 cups milk

assorted sprinkles (select holiday themes)

Combine flour, cake mix, baking powder, sugar and salt in a bowl and mix. Add 1 cup of milk, egg and vanilla extract and stir until smooth. You want the batter to look like regular pancake batter; not too thin, not too thick. This will vary greatly on the brand of cake mix you use. Start with 1 cup of milk and add more if needed. I suggest a small taste test as well to see if the pancakes are flavored enough.Preheat a skillet on medium heat (I use an electric grilled and turn it to 250 degrees). Fold desired amount of sprinkles into batter. Pour batter in 1/4 cup measurements onto skillet and let cook until bubbles form on top, about 2-3 minutes. Flip and cook for 1 minute more. Serve with vanilla glaze.

Glaze:

1 cup powdered sugar

½ Tbsp. milk

½ tsp. vanilla extract

assorted sprinkles

Mix milk, extract and powdered sugar until glaze forms. You may need to add a little more sugar or water/milk to reach desired consistency. Mix into glaze and drizzle on pancakes