Chicken with Rice and Tomatoes

Something quick that I cooked up for dinner.

1/4 cup Zesty Italian Dressing
4 small boneless skinless chicken breasts
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 can diced tomatoes, undrained
1-1/2 cups of rice, uncooked
1 cup water
1 cup Mozzarella Shredded Cheese
1 fresh tomato, chopped
2 Tbsp. chopped cilantro

Heat dressing in large skillet on medium heat. Add chicken and garlic; cover. Cook 5 mins on each side or until chicken is browned on both sides.  Remove from skillet; cover to keep warm.

Add canned tomatoes, rice and water to skillet; stir. Bring to a boil; simmer, uncovered on low heat for 10 mins, stirring occasionally.  Return chicken to skillet; top with cheese.  Cook, covered for 5 mins

Top with fresh tomatoes and cilantro.

Enjoy!

Canada's Baking and Sweets Show

This past weekend was the first ever Baking and Sweets Show in Mississauga at the International Centre and I had a chance to go opening day. It was a great day spent, especially for all you baker lovers out there, very inspiring. I left there with a sugar rush and came home with a bag of goodies.

       

Banner Cake Topper

I wanted to show you how to make the cake topper from my previous post. It's super simple to do. What you need:

Ruler
Sissors
Toothpick
2 Tall Lollipop sticks
2 Long pieces of embroidery thread
Scrapbook paper of your choice
Glue gun

Start by measuring and cutting 2 inches in length and 2cm wide from you Scrapbook paper and fold them in half evenly. I cut out 20 of these flags for my topper, 8 for the top and 12 for the bottom. Perfect for a 9" round cake.

If you find that the fold is not even, just simply trim the paper to get an even look.

Place your scissors on the side of the fold and cut towards the center, do this for both sides and you'll end up with these small flags.

Position your flags and place the thread in between them.

Using the toothpick, get a small amount of glue and place it in between the flaps of the flags, press down to stick.

 And you'll end up with this.

 Tie both threads together and hot glue it to one end of the lollipop stick. Make sure it falls into a swag. You don't want it looking tight and straight.

And this is how the finish product looks.

Pink ruffled cake

I wanted to make a cake for my two best friends for their birthdays. What better than a pink ruffled cake...so chic! Excuse me for the messiness, it was my first time. I used a Swiss meringue butter cream frosting. Yum!

I also made a banner as a cake topper to give it that finished look. 

Calamansi cupcakes

The idea of calamansi cupcakes came about to me when I was reminiscing about my vacation to the Philippines in 2009. I was in Boracay with friends and I tried a calamansi muffin at a small cafe called Real Coffee and it was delicious. Calamansi is a citrus fruit, kind of tastes like a combination of a lime and orange. I found this recipe and I just had to try it. Yummy. I used a homemade cream cheese frosting instead of the one on the recipe.