Creativity, Cooking-Style!

Recently, I was put on a strict renal diet to help reduce the strain on my transplanted kidney, and lower my phosphorous, potassium and sodium levels.  I also need to watch how much protein I consume.  You know what foods that leaves? Not many!  And definitely no pre-made or pre-packaged foods.  It's pretty much fresh foods only, that I have to prepare myself.  Have I ever mentioned that I don't particularly like cooking?

Here's the strange thing, though.  This new diet is making me have to be creative with my meals.  I like things that make me have to be creative.  In fact, I LOVE them! So I'm actually finding that this diet isn't too bad.  I do miss bacon though...

I thought today I'd share one of my new favourite recipes.  I adapted this from a recipe we got several years ago from a family friend in order to make it more kidney-friendly.  I've included the original ingredients in brackets so you can make this recipe either way.  However, I do highly encourage you to try my version - it's really good, if I do say so myself!

Honey-Glazed Snack Mix
5 cups Crispix (5 cups Crispix)
5 cups air-popped popcorn (2 cups mini pretzel twists)
2 cups plain goldfish crackers (2 cups peanuts + 2 cups Cheerios)
1/2 cup melted margarine
1/2 cup honey

Mix cereal, popcorn and crackers in a large roaster or baking pan.  In a large measuring cup, mix together the melted margarine and honey.  Pour over the cereal mixture and stir until everything is coated.  Bake in the over at 300 degrees for 10 minutes.  Stir, and then bake for another 10 to 15 minutes, stiring every 5 minutes, until cereal mixture is glazed and honey mixture has been completely absorbed.  Spread mixture on waxed paper and allow to cool.  Break into pieces and store in an air-tight container.

Note 1: If you can't find Crispix cereal, corn or rice Chex will work just as well.
Note 2: The first time I made this, I did a straight-across ingredient swap (i.e. 2 cups of popcorn for the 2 cups of pretzels).  After I added the goldfish crackers and the cereal, I realized it wasn't nearly enough popcorn, so I added several more handfuls.  I'm not sure how much popcorn I actually ended up with though.  5 cups is only an estimate, and you may find that you need more to have a balanced mixture.  You may also need to add a little extra butter and honey.

Jen

Memories of Mexico, Part 1 - Mixed Media Ornament

I was inspired to make this by an article in the latest issue of Cloth Paper Scissors.  In the article they made round collaged ornaments on paper mache ornament blanks; I wanted to do a mixed media-type of ornament on the same type of blanks.  But Michaels didn't have any when I went there, so I went a slightly different route.

I started with a package of four, thin, wooden oval shapes, like this one:

 My dad very kindly drilled holes in all of them for me.  I started working on the back first, painting it with two thin coats of light blue acrylic paint, letting my oval dry between coats.  Then I added two washes of dark blue water colour paint to give a watery effect.  Next, I printed clear labels with my Dymo labeller and pasted them on the back.  Finally, I finished off with two coats of Mod Podge to seal it.  Unfortunately, you can't really see the watery effect in this picture, but believe me when I say it looks really nice! Here's the end result of all that:

 

To do the front, I started off by "painting" the surface of my ornament with clear-drying Elmer's glue and gluing it to the back of a piece of Creative Memories water-print patterned paper.  I turned it over and smoothed the wrinkles out of it, and then set a couple of cookbooks on top of it and left to dry for a few days.  The weight of the cookbooks really helped smooth out the remaining wrinkles.  The next step was a wash of dark blue watercolour paint and two washes of dark teal watercolour paint to give the blue-green look of Caribbean water.  I did sort of a hit-and-miss approach with the watercolours so that they blended together.  Then I put on two coats of Mod Podge to seal the paint.  Then it was time to decorate! I started by gluing teal braid made from embroidery around the edge of my ornament using Krazy Glue (the kind my dad has comes in a bottle with a nifty little brush that was perfect for this task).  Next I glued on the shells and the metal word charm.  The final step was a hanging loop made with clear beading thread.  Here's the finished product:

 

As with most of my art projects, it doesn't look anything like my initial vision, but I absolutely LOVE how it turned out! I have three ovals left, and I can't wait to make some more ornaments!

 

Jen

 



New Photo Albums!

Greetings again!

I've added a new feature to the blog - photo albums! Here you can see additional pictures of all the projects I post, plus pictures of some of my other projects that don't get their own posts.  Here's a sampling of some of what you'll find:

 

 

Take a browse, and if you see something you like, feel free to leave a comment!

 

Jen

 



Valentine's Topiary

Since we're only a few days away from Valentine's Day, I thought I'd show off this little item that I made last year - my Valentine topiary. 

The pattern for the star is based on a candy dish pattern that I found in the plastic canvas group I belong to on Facebook.I painted the dowel white and the pot pink, and then gave both of them a coat of Mod Podge to make them shiny.  The band around the rim of the pot isn't glued on - it fits so tightly that there was no need to glue it.  You can't really see it, but the diamond in the middle of the band has a heart-shaped button like the one in the middle of the star.  The finishing touch was the burgundy, pink and white braid tied in a bow around the dowel.  The dowel is glued into half a styrofoam ball glued into the bottom of the pot and then topped with a bag of clear glass marbles.  Even though it's intened as a Valentine decoration, it's a perfect year-round accent in my pink bedroom!

Jen

Welcome to My Creative Mess!

It's 2013, and time for something new! Welcome to my new craft blog, dedicated to all things crafty and creative! I'll be sharing some of my own creative projects, links to some of my favourite websites, I may even occasionally have a guest blogger.  Anything I can think of to help stir up your creative juices!

So grab your favourite beverage, sit back and be prepared to make a creative mess!

Jen