Zebra Birthday Cake

We've all seen those crazy awesome cakes on Pinterest that we wish we could make, but know it'll never happen in a million years.

Well, for my daughters' joint little family party Wednesday night I attempted one of the easier of those cakes and Thank Heaven it turned out great! 

It was a pain in the butt to make, but my girls were amazed by it's awesomeness and I earned the "Best Mommy Ever" award for the night. I consider that well worth the pain-in-the-buttness.

^See the joy on their faces? I just love that. It's what makes the tediousness, money, mess, and cleanup all worth it :)

********************

So what you'll need is 2 cake mixes. It doesn't matter what brand kind you use as long as they are two different colors. You can also use food coloring with white cake and make a multicolor zebra cake which is super fun, but at my house we try to stay away from a lot of artificial colors and dyes except for special occasions. I use Duncan Hines because most of their mixes have no dairy. This time I chose Classic White and Devil's Food for black (brown) and white stripes.

 I forgot to take in between pictures... sorry :/

Make the cake mixes as it says on the box, adding water, oil, and eggs in the appropriate amounts and mixing well.

 So this was when it had been in the oven for a few minutes. (I forgot to take a before the oven pic... pregnancy brain!) 

My center kind of ended up on the side, but hey, it was my first try! lol So basically what I did was use a quarter cup measuring cup and started with chocolate. I added a quarter cup to the center of the prepared pan. (sprayed and floured) Then I poured a quarter cup of white on top of the center of the chocolate layer, and then another quarter cup of chocolate, repeating the pattern till about half of both mixes were in the pan.

By then there was quite a bit of mix in the pan and I didn't want to cake to be too big for the pan. Every few pours I picked up the pan and dropped it gently onto the counter to make sure the mix wasn't getting to high up that I couldn't add the next layer. I hope that makes sense!

Since I had leftover batter I made half chocolate half white cupcakes.

 ^This is what the cake turned out looking like when it came out of the oven. Pretty nifty looking. And these below are what the cupcakes looked like baked. They kind of look like I added chocolate chips or something, but I didn't :)

 I was BEYOND excited (almost as much as my girls!) to cut the cake. Not only was my pregnant self excited to get a slice of that delicious goodness, but I really wanted to see if the center had turned out as pictured in the other zebra cakes I'd seen.

IT TOTALLY DID!

I was so happy, and my girls thought it was the coolest thing since non-dairy cookies they could actually eat. What a great end to a fun Birthday Day!

Chicken Enchilada Casserole (dairy- free & low carb options included)

Per the request of my mother-in-law, here is my Chicken Enchilada Casserole! Dairy free with a low carb option. Can't get any better than that. And it's easy, yummy, and quick too! NOW, you can't get any better than that! So whip this up for dinner and enjoy. Happy Cooking :)

Tortillas: (I prefer low carb whole wheat tortillas, but for my family I use Tortilla land brand that you buy the dough and cook it yourself. They are SSOOO much yummier than the regular pre-made ones you buy in the package.) Cook them.

1-2 cans of canned chicken, depending on your casserole/family size. I prefer chicken, but you could cook up some ground beef, or use shredded pork as well. Make sure it finely shredded, cooks better that way. Toss it with a bit of extra virgin olive oil and salt and pepper to taste, not too much though.

I think I used about 12 whole tortillas for this recipe and it fed my husband for days. (My kids won't eat the veggies and I made a smaller low carb one for myself) Rip them up in random pieces and lay them out in a layer on the bottom of your casserole dish. There's no need to spray or butter your dish.

For this particular casserole I used green chile enchilada sauce, I prefer the regular kind for myself though, mild. Spread a good layer on top of the tortillas. I used almost an entire can for one casserole. Spread it around evenly over the tortillas strips.

The next layers are the chicken and the cheese. Nice and thick with the cheese if you can. I only had one package of vegan cheese so my cheese layer isn't as thick as I would have liked it to be. In my opinion, the more cheese, the better!!

Sprinkle on some diced ripe roma tomatoes and chopped purple onion. This layer is optional, but my hubby LOVES both veggies, so I just had to add it.

Repeat those layers (tortilla strips, sauce, chicken, cheese, veggies) as many times as you would like, or till your casserole dish is almost full. Top the casserole with chopped veggies and cheese. Cover and cook about 20 minutes, then uncover and cook another 15 minutes to make the cheese a little crispy. Vwa la! In about 40 minutes you have a yummy dinner for your family. Enjoy :)