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 :)

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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!

Juice

My amazing husband surprised me with a High Power Juicer for Christmas! I was so excited. I've been wanting a juicer for a long time, and now, I have one :)

He got me a Bella 1000 Watt Juice Extractor and man is it a mean machine! This thing shredded and juiced everything I put in it!

So this was my juicer maiden voyage yesterday:

1 granny smith apple with peel

1 red fuji apple with peel

1 mandarin orange, peeled

1 carrot without greens

2 stalks of celery with leafy parts

1 handfull spinach

2 handfulls blueberries

1 cucumber with peel, ends chopped off

That whole bowl made 2 large glasses of juice. 

I garnished the glasses with a lemon because I'm fancy ;-)

The taste was very interesting, not bad but not delicious, and the texture wasn't very pleasant, but I'm one of those people that has a hard time with certain textures and I think I will just have to get used to it.

My husband loved it.

But of course I was a big girl and finished my whole glass then sucked on the lemon for a minute. I had to use a butter knife to keep stirring it as it wanted to separate everytime I put it down. No biggie there though.

All in all my first juicing experience wasn't bad. 

It was a bit of a pain to clean, but most of the parts are dishwasher safe so I imagine the cleaning process would be lots easier if I had a magic dishwashing machine :-/

And maybe a little TMI, but that drink went right through me! If you're having a bit of trouble going to the bathroom, this is DEFINITELY a good idea! Ok, enough gross sharing! lol

I am definitely going to be trying some different blends. I hear carrots, apples, and pineapples all go really well with mango and celery so maybe that will be my next juicing adventure...

Oh the places you'll go!

It's a Pita Kind of Night

Whole Wheat Pitas that is! Would you expect anything less of me? haha

When I'm looking for a yummy, easy, nutritious dinner to get out on the table in as little time as possible I turn to pitas. Pitas can be stuffed with anything you want, topped with anything you want, baked or eaten fresh, and are enjoyed by people of all ages. So, all in all, it's a winner for dinner ;-)

I prefer my pitas fresh stuffed with meat and cheese and veggies and dressing. Here are some of the things our pita nights include.

Fun and healthy side dishes include, but are not limited to (the sky is the limit!)
Applesauce, Pretzels, and fresh fruit.

Pita pockets, of course. We use Kangaroo brand whole wheat pitas with honey and they are delish. They come whole and we just cut them in half and stuff them.

Shredded chicken! I usually cook some up (with seasonings, cooking all day, starting in the morning) in the crock pot and shred it when it is done, but tonight I just opened up a few cans, broke up the chunks, and added salt, pepper, and olive oil because I was in a hurry.

Veggie Toppings my hubby likes include green bell peppers, red onions, roma tomatoes, and shredded lettuce. In jars next to the fresh chopped veggies I also had jalapenos and banana peppers out as well.

Other dressings and toppings that are great for pitas and lots of salad dressings and vinaigrettes, salt and pepper, extra virgin olive oil, and cheese.

So here's our Pita bar, SO yummy! Check out all that yummy food, it's making me hungry just looking at it :)