Gluten Free Lemon Bars

 



I found a conversion table for making gluten free flour and I wanted to try it out. For example if you need 1 Cup of regular flour then you would use 1/2 cup Brown Rice Flour, 3T Potato Starch and 1T  Tapioca Starch, and 1/2t Xanthan Gum. Happy to say it worked and these bars are the best, I had my good (gluten eating) friend Vanessa over today and she loved them! So, here is the much loved recipe:
Preheat oven 350.
In a food processor pulse together:

Above GF flour mixture

1/4 C Powdered Sugar

 3T Almond Meal (I use Trader Joes)

1/2 t Cinnamon 

1/8 t Salt

Add in the two below remaining items and pulse until mixture resembles course crumbs  

2 T Butter (Cut into small pieces)

2 T Safflower Oil

Press into an 8X8 lightly greased glass baking dish and bake for 25 minutes or until crust is lightly browned on the edges. Reduce heat to 325 degrees.

In a bowl whisk together:

3/4 C Sugar

2T White Rice Flour

1/2-1T Grated Lemon Zest (depending on how "lemony" you want your bars to be) 

2 Eggs

1 Egg White

Pour batter on top of baked crust and bake 325 degrees for 22-25 minutes. Let cool completely and then refrigerate 30 min. Remove dish from refrigerator and cut into squares, serve cold. (I topped with whipped cream) Store remaining (if there are any) bars in airtight container in refrigerator.

 

P.S

I haven't been crafting much lately :( It turns out I have low Iron for some reason which makes me insanely tired, cold all the time, and losing my hair at a faster rate then just shedding!? So I am now getting Iron via an IV treatment once a week for 4 weeks. Two treatments are done, and just two to go. Can't say I feel "so much" better..but maybe it will take till the 4th treatment. I also found out my dearest and only sister has breast cancer (she's only 3 yrs older than me!) She will be heading to surgery in the next week or two to have a double mastectomy. The hardest part is she lives about 530 miles away :( I am trying to take part in this awesome group called "A Documented Life" project on FB, so as soon as I get my butt in gear and get started on that I will post. Until then..

Happy Creating,

melissa

 

 

 

 

Big Paper Sack Scrapbook

I spent the past 3 days at a B&B for a fabulous scrapbooking weekend. I worked on a couple pages, and completed this book. I wanted to see how a big paper grocery bag would work to create a big "album". I love using the smaller paper lunch sacks, but have a ton of big bags in my closet! I co-worker just had a baby boy they nicknamed Gio (cute Italian), so I thought I would make a book for him. I don't much like the soft blues of usual boy baby lines, so I went with Simple Stories Snap Studio. Archivers is closing [SAD FACE] so they only had a pack of pocket page cards and stickers--no pattern papers to coordinate. It turns out I really like working with coordinating pattern paper..it's SO much easier to create when I don't have to rummage through my papers to find ones that coordinate. I was at a crop, so I brought limited papers and decided to leave the pages white. The book has 10 pages, 2 pull out tabs and 2 3x4 pocket pages. I lined up all the white card stock, 2 pocket pages and two paper sacks and sewed the whole stack down the middle to make the "binding". I left the pages with lots of space so they can fill it with journaling or pictures. Turns out it was just as fun to make as the lunch sack books! :)

happy creating,
melissa  

Date Book



I needed a date/appointment book for work and I didn't want to spend $14.99 for one at Walmart. So I took my old date book from last year and made pages for this year (using white out and a copier). You can find them here
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5EHbpKDNr1mbk5HSFpSYTRtNlk/edit?usp=sharing
I got the binder (Recollection) from Michaels for $6.49 (I had a coupon). My work day is from 7:30am to 4:30pm, so I made time slots for that time frame on Monday through Friday. For Sat and Sun I just did little boxes. On the side margins I created little spots for journaling about the week. "I love..", "Seriously..ugh" and "highlights". I wanted to start documenting a little more about my week..it seems I can't remember what exactly went on three weeks ago! :) I'm planning on going scrapbooking this weekend and one of my projects will be to finish decorating it. I just hope it lasts all year being toted to and from work!

happy creating,
Melissa

Organizing My Craft Stuff

Over the years I've collected a lot of craft stuff. When I'm out and about thrifting I see an item and think "I can make that into  ________ ." Then when I get home with said item, it goes into a drawer. I had so many plans for so many things, and of course no time to go along with those lofty plans.  I cleaned out all my craft items, scrapbooking stuff, fabric scraps and ephemera. I organized all the stuff into bins and made a fabric shelf where I can iron stuff on top. (I got the idea off of the Happy SiL FB page I belong to) I HATE getting out the ironing board every time I need to iron fabric, and I needed a place to store my fabric. I don't have a lot of it, but this space was just right! I want to do a little more sewing in the coming year :) Next I'm going to be making my own date/appointment book. Today is a "cold day" off from school for the kids so, I'll be working on that later on :)

Project Life Cards

I did my first set of homemade Project Life (or pocket page) cards. It's fun working with the small spaces. Kinda takes the pressure off filling the big 12X12 space. I did these for another 2Peas swap :) I signed up for a "Family" themed group and "Holidays" group. For the family themed one I used my Silhouette to cut out the card outlines and then used Amy Tangerine paper to embellish a little bit.  I did the holiday themed ones with Heidi Swaps' Christmas "Believe" paper (which i totally love!). They were so much fun to make.

happy creating,
melissa

Thankfulness Scrapbook Journal Completed!

I made some changes to my original "28 Days of Thankfulness" book. I was at Archivers and got a Heidi Swapp album for only $13. It was just the book and pages, but I thought that was pretty cheap. I even used my coupon so it was cheaper :)  I decided to go with a 3 ring binder so I could put more pages in and I also like the sturdiness of a 3 ring.  I took the pages out of the original book and viola here is what I came up with. I have to say it was much harder to keep it up than I thought it would be. I started out really good, but then slacked off and ended up finishing it this week. It was really fun do to though..it made me really think about what I appreciated in my life and just how darn lucky I am! Now to start on my Christmas projects tomorrow! I have a December journal/scrapbook to make. Although this one will more than likely be a weekly thing..not quite a daily thing.
Happy Creating,
:) Melissa

 

Christmas Tags





I went to my monthly crop yesterday and had a great time as usual! I planned to work on swap tags , swap PL cards  and my Thanksgiving thankfulness scrapbook. But I only got as far as the swap tags :) I signed up for a vintage group and sliver group. Somehow it's a bit more fun for me to make something for someone else in a swap! I bought some snowflakes a few weeks ago at Michaels on clearance..so I planned to use them when I signed up for the silver group! I started out by cutting silver corrugated paper into my tag shape, then adhered it to white cardstock (so the back would be blank white cardstock). I stacked the snowflakes on top of each other and spaced them by using a pop dot. I cut one blue snowflake out on my silhouette and glued that one on top of the stack, followed by a gem on top.  I then printed out "merry & bright" on the same blue paper as the top snowflake. For the vintage tag I used Heidi Swaps Christmas paper stack from Michaels. I started out with numbered pattern background, and added a snowflake/flower shape patterned background paper strip and to the bottom of the tag. I then glued ric rac to the top and bottom of the snowflake/flower patterned paper strip. It reminded me of a Christmas  or winter sweater!  I used plaid pattern paper for a large circle, then I scalloped punched the "25" and glued that on top of the plaid pattern circle. I then cut two strips od music paper and stamped Dec 25 on one and glued them underneath the scalloped 25. I really like how they both came out! I may make a few more to keep for myself. I promise to post next on my Thankfulness scrapbook!

Happy Scrappin,
melissa