Spring in a Basket

All you need is an iron/metal basket, some mason jars and flowers. Arrange the flowers separately in each jar and voila! You got yourself a beautiful flower arrangement for your home or garden :)

xoxo

BREAKFAST TOAST CUPS

Bored of the old scrambled eggs, pancakes, toast and coffee? Well, me neither, but, how about trying something different? 

I came across a recipe online for these very cute, gourmet looking "breakfast toast cups"that included bacon, toast, cheese and eggs. I thought they probably would require a lot of work and skills, but after more carefully reading the recipe, I realized it wasn't hard at all! So one Saturday morning I decided to give it try...and they turned out perfect! Not only that, hubby LOVED it! 

And then it hit me, why don't more people know about this? It's so easy and yet such a fun, creative breakfast, especially if you are having guests over. Well my dear readers, I decided I would share the love with you, but not only that, I will share the "skinny" breakfast cup version! HOWEVER, if you are not interested in watching your weight, just use real bacon and white bread and you will be fine :)

So here you go:

Breakfast Cups (Skinny Version)

Ingredients (per cup): 

• 1 tsp Butter
• 1 slice of Whole Grain Bread
• 1 or 2 slices Turkey Bacon
• 1 Egg
• Salt
• Pepper
• Parsley (optional)
• 1 Tbp of Reduced fat Cheddar Shredded cheese

Directions: 

1 - Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees
2 - Cut edges of bread slices only leaving the soft part
3 - Lightly butter ramekins and press bread onto the bottom and sides, forming a cup ( the original recipe actually cut a circle on the bread slice by using a cookie cutter, but I didn't think that was necessary unless you really want a perfect cup ). Add shredded cheese to the bottom.
4 - Cook bacon slices half way on a skillet until they are golden, but still pliable (about 3 - 5 minutes). Shape bacons in a circle inside ramekins edges. 
5 - Place cups in the oven for 5 minutes so that the bacon can cook a bit more (see step 7 if you don't like your bacon very crispy)
6 - After 5 minutes, remove them from the oven and crack the eggs inside the cups. Then add salt, pepper to taste and garnish with parsley. 
7 - Places ramekins back in the oven for 10 -15 minutes depending how soft you want the yolk to be. I left mine for 15 minutes since I don't like my yolk very runny. Also, I like the bacon on the crispier side, but if you like your bacon not so crisp, but your yolk harder, you will need to cook your bacon for less time (step 5).
8 - Remove ramekins from oven and let it cool for 3 minutes, then use a fork or knife and remove the cups from ramekins and place them on a plate. They will slide right out!

And that's it! In less than 30 minutes you will have made a breakfast that looks like it came straight from a fancy french restaurant. So easy!

Now, if you are a visual person, I took some pictures while making them for you guys.

Step-by-Step with Pictures: 

Steps 1 - 3 : Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees. Lightly butter ramekins and press bread onto the ramekins sides and bottom. Add shredded cheese. 

Steps 3 - 5 : Cook bacon until golden (about 3 - 5 minutes ) and shape them around the cup inside the ramekin. Place them in the oven for 5 minutes. 

Steps 5 - 6: Remove ramekins from the oven and crack eggs inside the cups. Add salt and pepper to taste and garnish with parsley. Place them back in the oven for another 10 -15 minutes.

Steps 7 - 8: Remove ramekins from the oven and let it cool for a couple of minutes. Then carefully remove cups from ramekins using a fork or spoon. They should slide right out. 

Place the cups on a place and serve!

I hope you like it. I certainly loved eating the results of this week's tutorial ;)

xoxo

INSTAGRAMING

You may have noticed my absence here, but I have not been absent of the artistic world. I have been dedicating my creative juices to another form of art other than interior design and blogging, I have actually been "Instagraming". This week I reached 400 followers on my profile Allthingswhimsical and I'm so excited that I get to share my photography passion with so many people! If you have Instagram on your Iphone, make sure to check out my pictures. If you do not have Instagram, make sure you download it and try it out. You will be addicted, and it is free! Now, if you do not have an Iphone and still wants to check out pictures on Instagram, you definitely can through the website http://copygr.am/ . There you will be able to follow users, like pictures and comment on them. Here is a sneak peak at my feed:

As you can seen, I am very dedicated to the "Earlybird" filter and I use that same filter on all my pictures. There are other cool filters you can use there as well. There also many other web based applications to give the cool effects to your pictures smiliar to the ones in Instagram. Here is an article from TNW with 8 web based alternatives to Instagram, such as PicPlz, Pixlr-o-Matic and Picnik, that gives a full insight into each one of them.

What are you waiting for? Start snapping!