Giving back to others this Thanksgiving Holiday

The Bellisima Delights family donated their yummy holiday sweet potato pies and volunteered their time with the less fortunate this Thanksgiving. The great people over at FP YOUTHOUTCRY organized their 2nd Annual Breaking Bread with You Ceremony at Military Park, downtown Newark, NJ.

We arrived with a Box of Joe for the early morning volunteers and some clothes for the winter clothing drive. Then we broke out into groups and headed to the streets to spread the word that beginning at 10 a.m. we would begin our Thanksgiving feast for all to enjoy. Before going back to Military Park we stopped by Covenant House, a shelter for homeless teens, and invited them to join us over at the park.

The tables were full and the food was being served throughout the morning with people able to get seconds. Many people left with warm coats and winter clothes before leaving with "take-home packages".

This Thanksgiving morning was great giving back to others. Thank you to all of the organizers and volunteers! Special thanks to Tiffany "The Budgetnista" for the FB invite! We look forward to being at next year's Annual Breaking Bread with You Ceremony.

How Could I Be SO 4getful!?!

So last night was Back to School night at my son's school and everyone was suppose to bring some type of goodies for pot luck desert. Please tell me HOW did I forget?!?! and even worse I wasn't even able to run home quick and bring the cupcakes that I made the other day because I remembered while walking into the school. (not to mention LATE)!!

Nothing really caught my eye except the swirled pound cake that looked ever so moist! I stayed away from it and grabbed a water and sat down.

Next time I will put a reminder on my calendar that alerts me 2 days ahead of time so I can plan it out.

Stormy Treats

I've been meaning to make homemade treats for Storm this whole summer, but who REALLY wants to turn that oven on?!?! Well my cousin Ali was taking a road trip to FL and making a stop at our cousins house in NC, and she has four doggies! Two of them are Boxers, Hailey Rose and Bud, they are the cutest and coziest. I spent some time with them in July. I love bully breeds! So, me being the thoughtful individual that I am, I decided to send Ali with some goodies.

Hailey Rose & Bud

Storm absolutley LOVES them and sits in front of the oven as they bake. She doesn't care to wait for them to cool either, sounds very familiar haha. She has a large container full, so I saved CASH MONEY and made her and the NC doggies happy with peanut butter chicken treats.

Dessert is Served

Well I had surgery 6 days ago on my leg and today was the first day that I finally felt better. So to celebrate I made dinner, a nice tomato and avocado salad and some wonderful cupcakes!

The cupcakes were made with whole wheat flour, brown sugar and applesauce instead of white flour, white sugar and oil. So my guilt while eating them wasn't as heavy! I'm not a big fan of frosting but my butter cream turned out just right.

Delicious cupcakes, bright yellow frosting with chocolate drizzle added the right touch to complete a wonderful day.

To Bake or Not To Bake?

THAT is the question on my birthday evening. I am thinking about perhaps baking some yummy cupcakes for work but more importantly for the teachers at my sons school. This week is Teachers Appreciation Week and they definately deserve some Bellisima Delights from yours truly. They put in extremely long and hours at North Star Academy, and are very dedicated to each of the students education.

I will keep you updated and let you know if they will get treats tomorrow or on Friday.

PS Sorry Mr P no sweet potato pie this time

UPDATE: I didn't make the cupcakes in time for Teachers Appreciation week since I had surgery later in the week. I did make 24 cupcake this week and sent them to school to show my appreciation even though they were late. Half were chocolate and the other half were vanialla stuffed with chocolate pudding. Hope they enjoyed the treats :)

Yummy Muffins!!

All I can say is YUM! Everyone in the house likes them, including Storm of course. I made two kind of muffins from my apple, spinach, parsley, carrot, celery juice that I made this morning for breakfast. The purple wrappers have banana, cranberries and walnuts added while the green wrappers have pineapples and raisins mixed in. The pineapple raisins weren't as "full" looking, I'm guessing from the added juice from the pineapple. Also I made two banana walnut mini loaves.

Time for a Change

I have invested in a powerful juicer and am ecstatic! When it first arrived in the mail, I juiced the whole weekend through and plus more. My energy level was up and I felt great. NOW of course me being one not to waste and always trying to get the most nutrients possible. I have started baking with the juice pulp and it is out of this world! I've been baking  carrot, apple, beet, ginger, celery loaves with some added cranberries and walnuts.  Delicious I must say. I'll keep you all posted on my mini muffins that I'm making this weekend.

Cherry Blossoms in NJ

Well the Holidays are long gone and now it's my favorite season, Spring! The Cherry Blossoms bloomed early this year and are beautiful. If you are in the NJ area, you have to make it a must your way over to visit Branch Brook Park. The park has 4,000 Cherry Blossoms, the most in the nation! Yup right here in my backyard of Essex County.