"Gold" Throw Pillow

This has to be one of the easiest projects I've done, but it is by far one of my favorites! Really, I can't take much credit because my Cricut did all the hard work. 

I found this lovely pillow at Walmart of all places! $10! I chopped off the tag (after I bought it of course) and set it aside. Plugged in the iron, set it to the cotton setting and set it aside too. On my computer I went to Cricut's website, designed what I wanted, put the gold iron-on material on the cutting mat, pushed "go" and away it went! After it was done, I removed the unwanted pieces of iron-on and placed the letters on the center of the pillow. Cricut suggests that you iron your fabric on both sides to ensure that the iron-on sticks well, and since I had a premade pillow, I couldn't do that. So instead of using a towel in between the iron-on material and the iron I used a cheese cloth dish towel. Since the dish towel was thinner, the material would get a good amount of heat. WORD OF CAUTION: the clear plastic that holds the iron-on material together WILL take coloring out of your fabric. So be sure to move your iron around by pressing and not sliding and do not hold your iron in one place for too long. Also, you can cut the plastic down close to the wording to lower the risk of fading your fabric in one spot and causing a line...no bueno. You can test your iron-on material periodically by trying to peel the plastic up. If the wording doesn't stick to the fabric, iron a little longer. Once the wording sticks, peel off slowly. As you can see, I used gold wording and its glittery. I was a bit skeptical about using glitter but I was pleasantly surprised to find that the glitter doesn't flake off! No matter how hard I scratch at it! I let the pillow sit for a day before I put it to use just to make sure everything would sit well. It has been beyond sturdy! And I just love how it turned out! :)

Lemon Parmesan Shrimp

Shrimp was on sale at Smith's the other day. So my husband bought a pound and asked me "what should we do with it?" So this is what I came up with an it was a hit!

In a cast iron skillet on medium heat, melt enough coconut oil to generously cover the bottom of the pan. Add a tsp of minced garlic and sauté until garlic starts to turn light brown. Add precooked (pink) shrimp and toss in oil and garlic. (Now here's my secret ingredient- Alpine Touch! It's a Montana seasoning that I've only seen sold outside of Montana ONCE!) Sprinkle Alpine Touch over shrimp, toss, sprinkle again. Then sprinkle 1 1/2 tsp parsley, 1 tsp sea salt, and 2 TBSP lemon juice on the shrimp. Mix all together. Sauté on medium heat until the shrimp have some golden color to them. Turn off heat and sprinkle parmasean cheese over shrimp, toss, and sprinkle parmasean cheese again. Serve immediately. 

We ate them plain...they have such great flavor! But if you desire to serve with cocktail sauce, go right ahead! 

Hope you enjoy!

Fruit Pizza (no processed sugar!)

I wanted to make a good treat without all the processed sugar (not to mention the crash after). So I got to thinking, did some research, and came up with this. And I must say, YUM!

Crust:
5 cups rolled oats (not quick oats!)
1 1/4 cup homemade peanut butter (I'll post a tutorial about the peanut butter later)
1/4 cup Raw Honey or Agave Nectar
Mix together and spread and press on a greased pizza pan. Then place it in the freezer while you run a couple errands.

White stuff (frosting? Not frosting..!)
Its Greek Yogurt! I thought I bought plain but I guess I got Vanilla Honey and I don't regret it! I was going to mix in honey to the plain anyway but my mistake saved me time!
Spread the yogurt on the chilled/slightly frozen crust.

Place any sliced fruit you prefer on top! I did kiwis, strawberries and sprinkled on some blueberries. Then I topped it off with drizzled yogurt! Be sure to keep it chilled until you decide to chow down.

Good luck! I hope you all enjoy it as much as the fam here did!