Halloween Pops

I saw this idea on Women's Day, Oreo Dipped Pops , and decided to make them to fit into a Halloween theme.  I used white chocolate bark and added food coloring to make it orange and deocrated them with orange and black sprinkles.  The kids are going to love eating these decked out Oreos on a stick! 

So as if Oreo cookies aren't good enough, I dip them in chocolate and add sprinkles! 
That should have been enough...it should have been, but it wasn't.  Why you ask?  Because I'm in love with peanut butter.  I figured, why not spread peanut butter on the Oreo's before dipping them in chocolate...sounds simple...a perfect idea, perhaps?  Not. So. Much.  It was a mess!  The heaviness from the peanut butter made the sticks fall out of the cookie when they were being dipped in the chocolate. Spreading the peanut butter on the cookie broke a lot of them.  Just one disaster after another.  It was quite sad.  Again this is why other people make up recipes and I follow them. 
These are the 'lucky ones' as I like to call them that sort have survived the whole process... Even though they weren't as pretty as the others, they were totally worth the mess!  YUM-O! 

Carbs done right!

We don't eat a lot of carbs in our day to day meals, so when I'm craving bread, I make it a worthwhile treat! And what better way to eat bread than to have it drenched in butter, sugar, cream, and rum! Mmmmm...bread pudding!  I have to say, I never ate this dessert growing up in the Northeast but when I met my southern grown husband :) and found out it was his favorite dessert, I knew I better find a good recipe!  The recipe I use today comes from my MIL and it has become my favorite way to eat carbs!

Dry out the bread in the oven at 350 degrees for about 8 or 9 minutes.

Into the oven it goes!

The sauce is totally my favorite part!  How can you go wrong with butter, cream, sugar...and than a splash of rum!  

He LOVES to watch things bake in the oven!

Perfection!  Can you see the ooey gooey moistness?!  It's awesome even without the rum sauce!

Bread Pudding

* 1 loaf french bread; cubed and dried out in the over (8 or 9 minutes at 350)

*1 quart milk

*4 eggs, beaten

*2 cups sugar

*1 Tbsp vanilla

*1 Tbsp nutmeg

*1 Tbsp cinnamon

*4 Tbsp butter

*1 cup raisins (optional)

Mix all ingrediants together and pour into 3 quart casserole dish.  Bake 1 hour at 350 degrees.

Rum Sauce

*1 cup heavy cream

*2 sticks butter

*1 cup sugar

*1/4 tsp salt

*1 tsp. vanilla

*2 Tbsp. rum (optional)

In saucepan, simmer cream, butter, sugar and salt until it begins to boil.  Remove from heat; stir in vanilla and rum.  Serve warm.

Candy corn and a wreath...Yes! It's true!

This is just the cutest thing in the world!  And if you are like me, decorating for holidays is something I LOVE to do, but it's not always as budget friendly as I would like.  This wreath is the perfect combination of affordability and fun!  I will make this soon, I'm just a little on the cautious side right now.  Being that we are in the worst drought in forever, the creepy  crawlers have been making their way to places they should never go, like my house!  Me and my bug guy are the bestest of friends lately, as it seems I call him on a weekly basis to come take care of some buggy situation.  Yikes! and Yuck!  I'm not found of bugs.  Since this is made of sweet, yummy candy I do not want the bugs to get any ideas that my house would be a good place to stay for the winter :)
I did find the foam wreath's at Hobby Lobby, and when my husband attempted to take me there yesterday, we quickly discovered that they are closed on Sunday.  Great for them!  I'm always in support of a business closing to allow time for worship and family! Now I just need to convince my husband to take me back sometime soon.  I also need to make my way over to Michael's this week for a glue gun...which I have to say, I'm a little excited about ;)  (It's the small things in life)  Just to clarify, Hobby Lobby is in an area that I will not drive too which is why I have to rely on my husband but Michael's is in a much better area and therefore I have no issues bringing myself and my two kiddos.
Here is the link!  I'll post a picture once mine is created!  Happy Fall decorating!
Candy Corn Wreath

Am I the last one on Earth to make these?!

I really think I am....the last one to make these, that is.  As we were preparing the kids for nap time, I mentioned these 'quick oat cookies' to my husband, and he proceeded to tell me all the ingrediants that went into them.  Ummmm, what?!  He knew exactly what I was talking about and I didn't even say much!?  That's a rare occurance!  So I ran into the kitchen (literally!) and began putting these together.  And hello! Anything that can be made and cleaned up in less than 15 minutes is a friend of mine!  I mean come on!  I had these things cooling on the tray and my kitchen spotless and the kids weren't even half way through nap yet... it's already the perfect cookie for me!  Not to mention they have peanut butter - that's right I said it!  Peanut butter!  End of story...I'm sold. Doesn't take much for me to fall for a cookie...did I mention they are no bake??! 
The recipe I used was found here --> no bake oatmeal cookies  from the Girl Who Ate Anything, but I'm sure these are posted all over the blogging world.

I didn't have cocoa powder (do people actually have this as a standard in their pantry?  If so, I guess I'm really missing out on other recipes that call for this ingredient!) So I went to a great site for baking substitutions The Joy of Baking.  I replaced the cocoa powder with 1 oz of unsweetened chocolate (Ok, I'll be honest, I used semi sweet because that's what I had) and 1/8 tsp baking soda...worked like a charm!  I love easy substitutions!
A perfect after nap snack... and good thing because I hear one crying now!

Cucumber salad

So much for Fall!  Here in Central Texas the thought of a cool brisk day in September is just that, a thought.  Wild fires are burning thousands of acres around these parts and summer keeps rolling on.  Cucumber salad was something my mom always made in the summer time to go as a side to hamburgers and hot dogs on the grill.  These days my hamburgers are lean turkey burgers and my hot dogs are fat free turkey dogs, but cucumber salad has remained unchanged.  Since cucumbers were on sale at my local grocery store, I picked up a few.  (good thing after eating all those cake truffles!)  It's an easy recipe but best of all it's healthy. The cucumbers get a zesty taste without adding calories or fat - which means I can do some baking later on ;) 

Recipe Ingrediants
* 2 large cucumbers (or 4 small ones)
* Salt
* Apple Cidar Vinegar
* Sweet onions
* Paprika

1. Thinly slice the cucumbers and put into bowl.  Sprinkle graciously with salt and put in the refrigerator overnight. The salt will draw out all the water from the cucumbers and make them soft so it's important you use enough.
2. The next morning, rinse the cucumbers under water to wash off the salt and squeeze the water out.
3. Cut up an onion and add to bowl.
4. Use enough vinegar to almost cover the cucumbers (if the vinegar taste is too much for you, you can always dilute it by draining some out and adding water).
5. Sprinkle enough Paprika where it makes the vinegar a nice orange color.
6.  Chill & enjoy!

Hope Fall comes soon around here!

Cake anyone?!

Where has the week gone?!  I mean I know it was spent dealing with sick children, doing enormous amounts of laundry, trying to keep my house semi clean, and thinking of budget friendly ways to decorate for Fall but other than that... :)
I've lacked in my posts but not in my baking!  I don't know why I didn't make these sooner as I knew they would be amazing the moment I saw the picture!  (okay, okay, MAYBE becuase peanut butter wasn't an ingrediant ;) but that shouldn't have stopped me!)
I have to say that my husband is a sucker for raw cookie dough, any kind really, in fact it doesn't even have to be cookie dough....he eats any dough...it's really a little disturbing.  So, when I read that these were like eating cookie dough I just knew it was the dessert for him!  I was right!  There were only a few left for him to bring into work (and that was after I doubled the recipe)! These were down right tempting and incredibly easy since there was no baking involved.  Totally thinking that this is what I'll be making for my cookie exchange in December....but I'm thinking red velvet cake and green food coloring in the white chocolate bark..YUM!

I LOVE sprinkles! putting them in the truffle made it the perfect 'icing' on the cake LOL get it?!   I ran out of sprinkles so there wasn't any on the outside but it's on my grocery list to get more for the next time I make these.  Which I'm thinking will be very soon!

I found the recipe on Sweet Escapes (but I believe they got it from The Girl Who Ate Anything...you know how the blogging world goes) cake mix truffles.  We orginally thought that the white chocolate bark was going to be too sweet as we submersed the delicously doughy cake balls into the bowl of melted goodness but it surprisingly turned out to be the perfect coating!  That's why other people come up with recipes and I just follow them ;)  Asking my husband to wait until they were cooled in the refrigerator for a an hour was pure torture for him, but he held up well (I gave him a taste test to hold him over)!  What can I say? These were out of this world awesome and you really can't eat just one!

I've seen a lot of posts on cake balls for the holidays...if you make these around Halloween, use orange food coloring for the coating and put some popicle sticks in them... truffle lolipops!  Perfect to tie an orange bow around and hand out to your neighbors.

Heath Peanut Butter Cookies - You decide

I had this bag of Heath bar candy in my pantry and they were calling me to use them.  Lucky for me, the recipe on the back of the bag called for peanut butter (my fav! Thanks Hershey!) in addition to the Heath so I figured I couldn't go wrong.  Now, I have to say that I only thought the cookies were marginal but at the request of my husband, the recipe has made it to the blog.  Apparently he thought they were more than just "good" and his co-workers shared the same belief (of course, I sent the cookies into work with my hubby), so here it is!

Ingredients

• 1/2 cupshortening
• 3/4 cupREESE'S Creamy Peanut Butter
• 1-1/4 cups packed light brown sugar
• 3 tablespoonsmilk
• 1 tablespoonvanilla extract
• 1 egg
• 1-1/2 cupsall-purpose flour
• 3/4 teaspoonbaking soda
• 3/4 teaspoonsalt
• 1-1/3 cups (8 oz. pkg.) HEATH BITS 'O BRICKLE Toffee Bits, divided

Directions

1. 1 Heat oven to 375°F. 
2. 2 Beat shortening, peanut butter, brown sugar, milk and vanilla in large bowl until well blended. Add egg; beat just until blended. Combine flour, baking soda and salt; gradually beat into peanut butter mixture. Stir in 1 cup bits; reserve remainder for topping.

3.   Drop by heaping teaspoons about 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheet; top each with reserved bits.  
4. Bake 7 to 8 minutes or until set. Do not overbake. Cool 2 minutes. Remove to wire rack. Cool completely. About 3 dozen cookies.

Not sure about your oven, but the bottom cookies in mine totally got burnt so now I know to only bake one tray at a time :) 

Does it get any better than this?!

It's no secret that I'm not a big morning person, or a big breakfast person.  I'm more like the type of person that says 'give me my coffee and leave me alone until I wake up' haha :) But I have found a whole new appreciation for my least favorite part of the day and my least favorite breakfast item; pancakes.  And you will not believe how amazingly good this recipe is!  Talk about spicing up an ordinary dish into something that's over the top decadant! And the crazy part is, they are SIMPLE to make!  I came across this recipe from my favorite blog site Making Memories with Your Kids (that girl does amazing things!).  The recipe is for Cinnamon Roll Pancakes and you can find all the directions and ingrediants right here --> Cinnamon Roll Pancakes
I didn't have a squeeze bottle handy so I used a pastry bag instead and that worked fine.  I also made the creamcheese frosting (fabulous!) but on the link there are 3 different types of frosting recipes to choose from (she's awesome, right?!) 
Even if you don't like pancakes, these are a must try and trust me, they will not disappoint! 

They have cinnamon sugar swirled in the pancake batter! These looked great even in the pan!

The outcome was pure ooey gooey goodness!

He LOVED them and so did his little brother!

Motherhood - "God is not above these moments"

Motherhood is Application

One of my girlfriends posted this link of FB and when I read it this morning it really hit home for me. It's so easy to lose our patience, at least it is for me, when we are trying to 'do it all' and have everything be perfect in non perfect situations.  God is with us for the amazing, crazy, demanding, ride known as motherhood and this article was a nice reminder that we can turn to him to help guide us through the times in our life when we have reached our last bit of patience (which is daily for me).  God has shown each of us such foregiveness, grace and unconditional love that it's the right choice to show our kids these exact things in to glorify Him, and yes, even when everything is going wrong.
(I believe the kitchen part was written just for me as this tends to be my most stressful part of the day) So, here's to more burned dinners and dishes left dirty in the sink in the hopes of more opportunities to stop what I'm doing and show my children "the grace that God has extended to me and feed my children with it." To "apply what I believe about God's mercy and kindness and suffering towards us and pour it out to them."
I attended a sisterhood event at my church last night and they challenged each woman there to pick something in your life, something that isn't perfect (perhaps something you keep in the 'closet' and never talk about) and change it over the next 30 days.  After reading this article, my challenge to myself will be on a daily basis to to show my children the mercy of God through my actions towards them. I'm not exactly sure what this will look like but as the article stated, "Trust God, give thanks.  Laugh, Believe - and that will feed your children.  Rest in God and your children will learn to."
Happy Tuesday! I hope it's full of many blessed mothering moments!

Buckeyes - An amazing peanut butter treat!

It couldn't have been any hotter today! Really! We broke a record for the hottest day ever. Complete craziness if you ask me; this girl needs some brisk-ness in the air!  In fact, I believe some of my skin may have melted off when I stepped outside to go to church this morning.  So, who in their right mind would turn on the oven for a sweet treat?!  Not me!  But that didn't stop me from 'baking' up something special.  And who could resist more peanut butter goodness? Not me!  So, I stepped into the kitchen and put together some oh sooo yummy, oh soo not diet friendy (but who cares when it's this hot), oh sooo irresistble Buckeyes.  The recipe I used came from Sweet Escapes and the outcome was dinner skipping awesomeness!

 Oh how I love peanut butter!  Just the smell of it made me want to start eating it right from the measuring cup!  But I continued on and added the PB to my mixer with some cream cheese, butter, powered sugar and graham cracker crumbs...these ingrediants combined equals complete bliss if you ask me!

I hope this doesn't look too ghetto :) I do not have an official double boiler so I just make do with what I have and it turned out perfectly. I also used milk chocolate because it's what I had in the house and my husband likes it better than dark chocolate (which is what the recipe calls for).

All lined up on wax paper and ready to start the dipping process!

 In the refrigerator they went to cool down...

And the outcome was heavenly! I seriously cannot stop eating them. This is by far the best 'no bake' dessert I've ever had!  Happy 'baking'!

Thursday...Thirsty Anyone?

Thursday....ohh how I remember when it used to be 'thirsty Thursday' and the big decision was what frat house we were going to go too and who was going to be the sober one who watched out for the rest of us! My Thursday's are a lot different these days, but I still like to bring back the 'thirsty' every now and than! So today I'm going to give a shout out to my college days and I'm posting my favorite drink...a LIT (long island iced tea).  Though it was more like beer from a keg back in college, this is my current preferred drink.  I think I use this as my 'go to' because I only need one in order to get that ear to ear smile. (you know what I'm talking about!  When you feel good enough to smile that big yet you're still sober enough to walk straight!)  It's a perfect start to a thirsty kinda night!  Happy drinking :)

Ingredients

• 1 ounce vodka
• 1 ounce gin
• 1 ounce white rum
• 1 ounce tequila
• 1/2 ounce Triple Sec
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1/2 cup cola, or to taste
• 2 lemon wedges

Peanut Butter S'more Stuffed Brownies

I made these the other day as my treat for losing 10% of my weight!  After 2 kids, 3 years of marriage, and 3 moves in 4 years the weight tends to sneak up on you.  So I went back to my tried and true diet; weight watchers.  It's worked wonders in the past and it's working again!  Okay, enough of that... the only edit I made to this recipe was that I used Reese's peanut butter cups instead of Hershey bars (I'm a sucker for peanut butter!) and they were fantastic!  My only side note is that it was hard for me to tell when they were baked through so I ended up over-baking them a little...either way, still delious!  And I sent the leftovers into work with my husband the next day...he tells me they were gone in minutes! 
 
The recipe comes from pickey palate.  You can find it here S'more Stuffed Brownies

Back to School - Jitter Glitter

Not sure exactly where this orginated from but it's such a cute idea for those little ones in your life who are about to emark on the new adventure of school!  Since my boys are too little for the 1st day of school jitters, I decided to send this to my nephews who will be going to Pre-K and Kindergarden this year.  Below is the poem and a picture of one that I made (though the baggie of glitter is not in the pic).  I just printed out the poem in a fun color, framed it with solid scrapbook paper and did a larger frame of school themed paper. I bought some crafting glitter at Michaels and put some in a little baggie and attached with a paper clip. In the mail it goes today; I think the boys will enjoy it!

The night before school is exciting and fun. There's always so much to be done.
Your clothes are ready.
Your backpack is too.
Your classroom is full of fun things to do.
There are so many questions going through your mind,
So many thoughts of every kind.
Sometimes teachers and kids get the jitters down deep.
And find it hard to fall asleep.
This magic glitter is a present for you.
It will help you be rested and ready for school.
Just sprinkle a little upon your head.
Tonight before you go to bed.
The glitter will help you sleep through the night
And wake in the morning fresh and bright.
We'll sprinkle some on our heads too
Remember, they just can't wait to begin Kindergarten with you!

Baked Peanut Butter Oatmeal

For some reason, this just looks and sounds delicious! I will be making and eating it in the near future and I'll be sure to let you know how yummy it turned out! 

Find the recipe here: Baked Peanut Butter Oatmeal Recipe

Welcome!

My very 1st post; I'm excited!  Hope you are too!  It's Tuesday, which means the day started off with two screaming kids before the sun started to shine, a husband out the door a little early so he didn't have to deal with the morning choas and me trying to chug my coffee before it became too cold to drink...ahh! I love Tuesdays! Which by the way, are pretty similar to every other week day.  All and all, still grateful for another beautiful day with my family, love, and a little xanax!
Now that you are here; and I'm happy you are, I would like to share with you 2 of my favorite sites...I'll share some specific favorites with you soon but these are good to add to your favorites list:

http://www.makingmemorieswithyourkids.blogspot.com/ - she does great kid friendly krafts and posts fun recipes, some of which I've already made!
http://www.howdoesshe.com/ - the printables are amazing...LOVE them!