Pepper Steak and Beach Themed Cupcakes

Recently I made some beach themed cupcakes that I found on Pinterest for playgroup.  There were decently easy but not quite as cute as on Pinterest.  I also made crockpot pepper steak for a second time and it was delicious!!! Here are my thoughts on these 2 pins:

  And  

Beach themed cupcakes

The cupcakes I made with another simple vanilla cupcake recipe.  It really wasn't anything spectacular, not worth the effort to make from scratch instead of a mix... After they cooled I crushed a few graham crackers ( I used my slap chop- LOVE this thing :-) and then poured them into a bowl and then poured blue decorating sugar into a bowl.  You need to crush the graham crackers into really fine crumbs so they look most like sand.  Then I frosted each cupcake and dipped half of it in the graham crackers and then the other half in the blue sugar.  The picture on Pinterest only has sand but I like the idea of water so I added the blue sugar.  Then I cut a piece of gum in half and put a little frosting on the back and stuck it on the "sand" and then did the same with the bears and put them on the "towels".  I also just put some bears standing in the "sand" or "ocean" by frosting their feet and sticking them to the cupcake.  I didn't put umbrellas on because I couldn't find them ANYWHERE (anyone know where to get these??) and I didn't put lifesavers on because I couldn't find a single roll of them and I didn't want a huge package.  I also used sour gummy bears that I found at Walgreens instead of teddy grahams.  I think these 3 things would make these even cuter but as they are, they are decently cute :-) 

Crockpot Pepper Steak

This recipe is relatively easy and for us, cheap.  Now it is made with strips of steak so it can get pricey but we buy beef once a year from family who own a farm (who sadly might not be any more due to high prices of feed :-( ) and while we do pay for it once a year it doesn't get included into our weekly grocery budget because its already there.  So it seems cheaper.  Plus the rest of the ingredients are things we usually have on hand for other things so we pretty much only have to buy the green pepper and occasionally a refill for the other ingredients.  All 3 of us can eat this for dinner with leftovers for hubby to take for lunch so I think its still pretty reasonable, even with the price of streak.  Just think of getting pepper steak at a Chinese resturant for 3 people and it seems more reasonable.  Unlike other crock pot recipes you have to cut the steak into strips, season the strips and brown them before putting them in the crock pot with everything else and cooking them.  So its not a dump and cook crock pot recipe which are my favorites, because I'm lazy sometimes :-) Its still pretty reasonable though and sooo good that its worth the extra work.  The only real tip I have to make this easier is cut the steak when its still partially frozen because it makes it easier to cut.  
We leave out the tomoatoes and onions because I don't like them but I'm sure it would still be good with them ;-)
Here's the recipe:

Ingredients Serves 6

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2 lb beef sirloin steak, cut into 2 inch strips

1 garlic powder, to taste

3 tbsp vegetable oil

1 cube beef bouillon

1⁄4 cup hot water

1 tbsp corn starch

1⁄2 cup onion, chopped

2 large green bell pepper, roughly chopped

1 can (14.5 ounce) stewed tomatoes, with liquid

3 tbsp soy sauce

1 tsp white sugar

1 tsp salt

Directions

1. Sprinkle strips of sirloin with garlic powder to taste. In a large skillet over medium heat, heat the vegetable oil and brown the seasoned beef strips. Transfer to a slow cooker.
2. Mix bouillon cube with hot water until dissolved, then mix in cornstarch until dissolved. Pour into the slow cooker with meat. Stir in onion, green peppers, stewed tomatoes, soy sauce, sugar, and salt.
3. Cover and cook on High for 3 to 4 hours or on Low for 6 to 8 hours.

Enjoy!