Chocolate Chip Cheese Ball

So I generally don't do experimental recipes for other people but man I was so busy this week and this recipe looked so amazing, I just had to try! I had grabbed some mini chocolate chips on clearance so I was dying to make something chocolatey! I stumbled upon this gen of a recipe and let me tell you it was a complete hit! My boss ate half the ball himself!

Chocolate Chip Cheese Ball

1 450g package of cream cheese
1/2 butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup mini chocolate chips
3/4 cup pecans, finely chopped

Beat the cream cheese and butter together.
Add the sugars and vanilla extract.
Add chocolate chips.

Let the mixture sit in the freezer for 1 hour, then form into a ball and roll in the chopped pecans.

It goes great with graham crackers or chocolate wafers! Look out! It's going to be a hit!

$411 Raised for the SPCA!

We did it! The first National Cupcake Day I participated in was an amazing success! $411 raised for an amazing cause!

I had about 120 cupcakes baked myself topped with vanilla icing and little royal icing paw prints, then some of my coworkers baked me a few more dozen.

We set up shop on February 23rd at 11am, I was mentally prepared to be there as long as I had to, to sell all those cupcakes WELL, 3pm came and we had one single cupcake remaining and my last generous customer swooped it up! I was completely blown away by the generosity of my customers, most of them didn't even want a cupcake ( I was set up in a store next to a 24hour GoodLife...) when they found out the money was going to the SPCA the donations were pouring in!

I can still accept donations until March 14th at www.nationalcupcakeday.ca Search: Nicole Hubley


I am super excited for next year! As this was my first year I learned a lot along the way! So grateful for my friends and coworkers who helped me fill in the blanks with whatever I forgot!

Next year...
I will definitely be doubling up on the cupcakes!
Posters- Banners and Balloons!
A nice big donation jug
Incentives for customers to donate pet food
Possibly a puppy...
A CHAIR. I make my living on my feet but I am always doing something, so standing and chatting for 4 hours was a little rough on the legs!

Dollar Shave Club Review

So for a birthday gift for my Dad I signed him up for the Dollar Shave Club for $6.50 +hst a month my Dad is now going to get razors straight to his door.

I love subscription boxes so much, I've been getting an Ipsy bag since September 2014 and it just makes me so happy!

I was expecting around the same sort of delivery from the Dollar Shave Club, they'd charge my account at the beginning of the month and Dad might get his razors around the middle to the end of the month.... WELL I put the order in on February 1st expecting him to get his first delivery in March... 6 days later (Feb 6th- the day before his birthday) it arrived! I was absolutely amazed!!

Overall Dollar Shave Club has just blown me away, the blades are fantastic quality (both my mom and brother now want one now too)
- There's 3 options for any budget (I went middle of the road at the $6.50 option)
3.50 per month +HST    6.50 per month +HST     9.50 per month +HST    .
- There's an option to only get it every other month if you're not too hairy.
- FREE shipping! (I pay 4.95 USD in shipping for my ipsy bag...)
And my favorite part...
- Everything is in CAD!! I cringe every month looking at the conversion rate on my credit card from my ipsy bag!! It's so satisfying to see exactly what I'm going to spend!

I really hope you give them a shot, men and women alike will benefit from this subscription box every month!

February Ipsy Bag Review

So for the first time I did a video review! I wanted to bring a bit more personality to my reviews! Also below I have my regular written review.

So the bag itself is absolutely adorable

Pink to emanate the season, and it matched almost all the samples this month!

First up is my full sized product this month which is the Emite Make Up  Professional Eye Lash Curler. I had never used an eye lash curler before... I kept pinching my skin- However! It gave my eye lashes an adorable curl.

Second we have from City and Color Cosmetics Creamy Lip stain. Pink of course! It's nice, I'm not used to wearing pink but it went on smoothly and it seems to stay on nice.

Next up is ModelCo Blush Cheek Powder... Also pink... I've never worn blush before... It was very very pink- I tried the blush and the lip stain at the same time- My goodness! I looked like a Barbie!

Alright! Next up is Eva NYC Up All Night Volumizing Spray. The spray is super soft in my hair and it gave my hair some adorable volume, especially since I had just gotten my hair thinned out the day it arrived- so the volume was welcomed. I'm looking forward to trying it after a shower and wet hair.

Last up is Mitchell and Peach Fine Radiance Face Oil.

I've used Mitchell and Peach products before and I just fell right in love with them. So the directions on this is to massage 2-3 drops into the skin- it was a little tricky getting the drops out- but once I did, the oil smelt absolutely amazing!

So my favorite product is a toss up between the face oil and the eye lash curler, but considering the eye lash curler kept pinching me....

Getting the Ipsy bag makes my mailbox so much more interesting! I'm really looking forward to next month's bag!

Happy Belated Valentine's Day everyone!!!

BBQ Chicken and Bacon Pizza

So in the midst of a snow storm we dug every possible edible thing out of the fridge and created a delicious BBQ Chicken Pizza! I made my homemade garlic pizza dough.


(2 Pizzas)

2 tbsp Active Dry Yeast
2 cups Warm Water
1 tsp Sugar
4 cups All-purpose Flour (plus extra for kneading)
4 tbsp vegetable oil
2 tsp epicure herb & garlic dip mix

Dissolve yeast and sugar in the warm water. Let sit until fermented.
Mix the rest of the ingredients in a large bowl and add the water/ yeast mixture
Knead the dough in a bit more flour then cover and let rise for 30 minutes in a warm place.
Divide in half and press into greased pizza pans.

I combined some BBQ sauce and marinade to make the sauce (amazing!!)
Fried up some bacon and crumbled on top
Cut up a plate full of pre cooked chicken breast
2 cups cheddar cheese
1 cup Parmesan cheese

We popped the crust in the oven for 10 minutes at 375 degrees before adding the goodness. Then baked the pizza for 10 minutes until everything was bubbly and awesome!

The 7 Days of a Chalk Board Mug

People shouldn't let me have these sorts of things!

$9.99 at Michaels Arts and Crafts! Aaaand I had a 40% off coupon!

Magnetic Monogram Frame

I made a magnetic framed monogram today! It's full of bold colours to match my kitchen style and it can conveniently go on my fridge!

Wooden "H" painted and pattern done with a Sharpie
Background scrapbook paper
Wooden Frame

I had a bit of magnet left and I had these silly little thought bubbles kicking around so I made myself some cute quote magnets!

Milani Liquid Eye Liner and Mascara Review

So once again I have to praise Ipsy customer service!! They must know that the majority of their subscribers are avid bloggers because they didn't skip a beat when the wrong product was sent to me after I redeemed my ipsy points. Within 30 minutes of sending them an email to let them know they responded back to me apologizing and promptly got the mascara and eye liner sent. It was in my possession within a week!

So! The products I received for my ipsy points were Milani Mascara Volume Intense and Milani Liquid-like Eye Liner Pencil

The mascara is lovely! Very few clumps and a nice thick black mascara I liked this very very much!! However for the eye liner... When I got it I applied it like I would any eye liner, my signature is definitely my cat eyes!

WELL lunch time rolled around that day and I took a look at myself and I looked like a raccoon!! The liner had smudged all over my eyes! It looked like I had been crying intensely !! I have great coworkers letting me walk around like that....
I tried to fix myself up as best as I could however when 5:00 rolled around I was back to the raccoon look... When I got home I noticed that lovely little picture in the corner of the eye liner packaging... Y'know the one where they have intentional raccoon eyes

So I guess they know the flaws of this liner so they roll with it!! At 23 I feel like I'm too old to be looking like a raccoon intentionally... So I don't think I'll be wearing this eye liner again unless Halloween sparks a plan for me.

Corn Chip Meatballs

So normally my favorite recipe for meatballs takes a 1/4 cup bread crumbs but alas I was completely out :( Didn't even have bread to make my own crumbs!! (Day before grocery shopping) So I improvised and crushed up a handful of corn chips in replacement! It was a delightful experiment.

1 Large Egg
2 tbsp Cold Water
2 tbsp Epicure Cheese Chipolte and Bacon Dip Mix
1 tbsp Epicure 3 Onion Dip Mix
1 lb Lean Ground Beef
A handful of crushed corn chips

The aroma from these cooking was wonderful! My friend thought I was crazy to cook chips into the meat- he just kept envisioning a shard of chip stabbing him!! Haha but it was perfection! I will definitely be making this a normal event.

Cinnamon Apple Sauce

I needed to get the obvious cat smell out of my house! So in my apple sauce this week I added the intoxicating aroma of cinnamon!!

Sweetened Apple Sauce

6 apples, peeled and sliced (I used epicure's ceramic slicer- this is by far my favourite epicure product) It can be ordered Here
3 tsp cinnamon
3/4 cup water
1/2 cup sugar

Combine all ingredients into a large pot and bring to a boil. Boil apples until nice and tender and saucy!

Chocolate Chip Stuffed Muffins

I have been CRAVING chocolate chips lately!! ... Couldn't decide how I wanted to use them however.. For weeks now I've been sitting on a pack of chocolate chips just stumped at what to use them for. Well today we made muffins. Chocolate Chip Stuffed Muffins!!

For 12 regular sized muffins preheat oven to 350 degrees and line a muffin pan with 12 muffin liners.

2 cups of flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/8 cup brown sugar
1 tbsp baking powder (I use epicure's baking powder- it has no aluminum in it!!)
1 egg, beaten
1 1/4 cup milk
1/3 cup oil
1 tbsp vanilla
1 cup chocolate chips

Coarse Sugar for topping

Mix all the dry ingredients into a bowl and create a well in the centre for the wet ingredients. Pour wet ingredients into the well and whisk all together. Gently fold in the chocolate chips last.

Pour batter into the prepared muffin tin (I use an ice cream scoop to pour batter this thin) and bake for 20 minutes.