::Carrot Cake Bars with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting::

I tried these out today and they were SO easy. Such a great fall/Thanksgiving type treat. Since I'm not really a huge fan of pie, I'm pretty sure these bars will be making it to our Thanksgiving dinner.

Ingredients:

Bars::
1 box (1lb 2oz) carrot cake mix
1 cup butter or margarine, softened
2 eggs
3 Tbsp milk
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp maple flavor

Icing::
1 pkg (8oz) cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup butter or margarine, softened
2 to 3 Tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
4 cups powdered sugar

Directions:
1. Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray 15x10x1-inch pan with baked spray with flour.
2. In large bowl, beat bar ingredients with electric mixer on medium speed until well blended. Spread evenly in pan.
3. Bake 15 to 18 minutes or until top is evenly golden brown and bars spring back when touched lightly in center. Cool completely, about 2 hours.
4. In medium bowl, beat cream cheese, butter, milk, vanilla and cinnamon with electric mixer on low speed until smooth. Gradually beat in powdered sugar, 1 cup at a time, until smooth and spreadable. Spread frosting evenly over cooled bars. Store covered in refrigerator.

::Fruity Peanut Butter Pitas::

While we're out holiday shopping, I like to have something healthy for McKayla to snack on. She seemed to be getting bored of the usual dried fruit, etc. To make it a little more fun and even something I might snack on myself, we carry these around...

1/4 cup peanut butter
1/8 tsp each ground allspice, cinnamon & nutmeg
1 whole wheat pita bread, cut in half
1/2 medium apple, thinly sliced
1/2 medium firm banana, sliced

In a small bowl, blend the peanut butter, allspice, cinnamon, & nutmeg. Spread inside pita bread halves; fill with apple & banana slices.

*There are times we might not have apples around, so just bananas works fine.
*We use a lot of peanut butter, so when we have about half of a jar left, I just double the spice amounts in the jar and mix up the whole thing, this keeps us in a good supply for a while.

The mix works fine on plain bread, but bread doesn't travel as well inside my purse...lol.

::Pulled/Shredded Sweet Pork::

So, I'm not a huge fan of anything sweet on any type of meat, but I know my friend Jessica (who is such a cute & sweet mommy to 3 precious children) absolutely LOVES the sweet pork salad from Costa Vida. I must admit, I'm a fan of the steak and chicken...so, in my search for the perfect "knock-off" of their ranch dressing, I came across this for her. Figured some other people may be interested as well.

Ingredients:
4 lb pork shoulder roast (the more fat, the better)
1 cup of Pace Picante Sauce (medium works best, but mild is fine)
2 cups brown sugar
salt & pepper to taste

Directions:
1. Remove pork roast from packaging, rinse well under cool water.
2. In a separate bowl, mix picante sauce & brown sugar. Wisk together until sugar is mostly dissolved.
3. In a crock pot or slow cooker, place the roast in the cooker & cover with picante sauce mixture.
4. Place on medium heat, cover & simmer. Check every hour or so to rotate roast in the juices. The roast will eventually produce enough juices to make the right consistency, do not add water.
5. Once the roast is fully cooked, it will begin to fall apart. Use a fork to separate meat into smaller segments. Cover & continue cooking.
6. After 8 hours, continue to shread the meat until no chunks remain.
7. If appears to have too much liquid, turn the slow cooker to low & leave with lid off to simmer off excess.


So, that's it for the sweet pork...I've found a few things that make putting it together in a salad taste very close to the Costa Vida made one. To put together your salad:
1 head romain lettuce
1 can Bush's black or pinto beans
3 cups sweet pork
Pico de Gallo (see below)
Tortilla Strips
Cilantro Ranch Dressing (see below)
6 Flour Tortillas
Place a warm tortilla in a bowl or on a plate. Place approximately 1/3 cup of warmed sweet pork & 1/3 cup of warmed Bush’s beans on the tortilla. Place lettuce over the meat & beans. Sprinkle ¼ cup of pico de gallo over the salad as desired. Drizzle with cilantro ranch dressing and top with a healthy amount of tortilla strip crunchies. Serve and enjoy.

Pico de Gallo
1 cup diced tomatoes, seeds removed
1/3 cup diced red onion
1 jalapeno diced
1 Tbsp minced garlic
2 limes, juiced
1 Tbsp cilantro
Salt & Pepper

Mix all ingredients in bowl, stirring well. Chill.

Cilantro Ranch Dressing
(my personal favorite!)
1 pkg Hidden Valley Ranch buttermilk ranch dressing (prepare according to package directions)
2 tomatillos (they look like green tomatoes, you can substitute 3 Tbsp prepared salsa verde-found near the regular salsas)
cilantro-about 1/4 of a bunch
2 cloves garlic
1/4 cup lime juice
1/8 tsp Tabasco

Peel tomatillos & cut into fourths. Clean & rinse cilantro & remove large stems. Pour prepared ranch dressing in a blender, & add cilantro leaves, tomatillos, garlic, lime juice & Tobasco. Blend until cilantro is finely chopped. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or until dressing has thickened.

How Time Flies

Wow...it has been FOR.EV.ER since I"ve blogged anything for you guys. Sorry! LOL, here's what's going on: McKayla had a great Halloween. (I'll be posting pictures soon!) She chose to dress as a bee! She was adorable. We went to Safe Trick-or-Treating down Main St. Her bucket was completely filled. It was actually spilling out and I had to put some of the larger items into my purse. Later that night, she went to a few houses in our neighborhood. I'm not sure, but it doesn't seem like a whole lot of people participated this year.

Here's something new, in order to further our childrens' education, McKayla's teacher has sent home a list of "homework" assignments that will need to be completed each week and turned in before Friday of each week. Since they are only 4-years-old, she's allowing them to turn in things late. Thanks to her for that, since I work full-time and have my own homework to trudge through. Here's how it is...she sent home a list of things they will be learning each week. This week, the color white and letter G. It is up to the parents to come up with something for the child to complete and turn in each week. I have been racking my brain to come up with fun things to help her out. I know this is the chance to involve her in several crafty fun things, but I just can't think of anything "kid-friendly" enough for her actual weekly assignments. If anyone has any suggestions on things, please please please let me know.

This week, we celebrated white by talking about all the things that were around our house or that she could think of that were white. I scoured the Family Fun website and they had a recipe for Snow Play Dough! To better illustrate the counting, I helped her measure and count each ingredient. She loves the dough! It's great, it looks just like snow would...if it were meant to be brought inside. She spends hours playing with it and forming snowflakes and snowmen. I'll be posting the recipe later tonight along with a few pictures!

::Easy, No-Bake Cheesecake::

Okay, I haven't posted in forever! This is the time of year our family has always started thinking of treats and yummy stuff to make for the upcoming holidays. We almost always start baking the day after Thanksgiving for treat trays to give to friends. So, I'll post a few of our tried and true recipes from years past as well as a few new ones.

This cheesecake is one I came up with while looking for treats to make for my friend's daughter's blessing. It was spring, so something light and refreshing really seemed to be what I was looking for.

No-Bake Cheesecake

Ingredients:

1/2 cup sugar

8 oz cream cheese

8 oz whipped topping (Cool Whip)

1 tsp vanilla

graham cracker crust

topping of choice

Directions:

1. Blend cream cheese. You want it softened, but not really at room temperature. Beating it in a bowl for a while after removing it from the fridge makes it perfect.

2. Add in whipped topping, sugar, and vanilla. Mix until well blended. You'll be able to see a slight difference in color from the whipped topping to the cream cheese, so it'll be pretty easy to tell if you haven't whipped enough.

3. Spoon into crust and chill for at least two hours.

4. Top with whichever topping you choose and serve.

My Variations:

::To make these easier to handle on a buffet table, I used Nilla wafter cookies instead of a graham cracker crust. I put one wafer (flat side down) on a sheet pan and used a 1 Tbsp cookie scoop to put the cheesecake mixture on each wafer. Then, I topped with strawberry topping.

::You can also use a different extract other than vanilla. I suggest lemon.

::If you like a chocolate cheesecake, you can use a chocolate cookie crust or sprinkle in mini chocolate chips into the batter.

Please let me know of any variations you come up with! This is the best recipe when you want a quick cheesecake fix or are in need of something quick, especially if you need to make a lot! I doubled the recipe and still had left overs after filling 4 sheet pans and going through 2 boxes of Nilla wafers.

Hello

Okay, I've been slacking a big...again. Again, I have so much homework, I'm failing to keep up on much else. Sometimes, I get bored of visiting the same places and I'm always looking for new places to take McKayla and give her new experiences. I've come across a great website, that tells you about a lot of things going on here in Utah. I apologize to those of you that are not here...maybe your state has a similar website. Sorry, it's short...but this is our go-to place to find something new.

::Italian Pasta & Beef Bake::

Ingredients:

1 ½ cups uncooked penne pasta (6 oz) – Any shape is fine

½ lb lean (at least 80%) ground beef

1 can (15 oz) Italian-style tomato sauce

1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes with basil, garlic and oregano, undrained

1 jar (4.5 oz) sliced mushrooms, drained

½ cup shredded mozzarella cheese (2 oz)

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 350ºF. Spray 8-inch square (2-quart) glass baking dish with cooking spray. Cook and drain pasta as directed on package.

2. Meanwhile, in 12-inch nonstick skillet, cook beef over medium-high heat 5 to 7 minutes, stirring frequently, until thoroughly cooked; drain. Stir in tomato sauce, tomatoes and mushrooms. Heat to boiling. Remove from heat; pour into baking dish.

3. Add cooked pasta; stir gently to mix. Spray sheet of foil with cooking spray; place sprayed side down on baking dish, and seal tightly.

4. Bake 15 minutes. Uncover; sprinkle with cheese. Bake uncovered 5 to 10 minutes longer or until casserole is bubbly and cheese is melted.

I serve this with a side salad (usually Caesar) and some garlic bread. It makes a pretty rounded meal. Just another way to satisfy the spaghetti craving without the rut of plain old spaghetti each time. On occasion, I use bulk sausage instead of hamburger. It kind of depends on what’s on sale.

=Water Colors=

McKayla loves to paint...with any type of paint. The downfall, is that she can use up an entire strip of watercolors in less than a week. This can get pretty costly. I buy a few during "back to school" season, and put a few in her craft bin. We also save a few to give as gifts with some paper and brushes to friends. Since it's starting to get a little cooler and outside time is getting limited, I started coming up with ways for her to play indoors and not drive me crazy. This is quick, easy, and cost effective enough for her to use for hours.

Ingredients:

1 Tbsp whiet vinegar

1 Tbsp baking soda

4 Tbsp corn starch

1 Tbsp corn syrup

Food Coloring

Directions:

Mix together the vinegar and baking soda. When it stops foaming, add enough food coloring to make it as dark as you want. Add the corn starch and corn syrup and mix well. Store in small containers.

::Chocolate Chip Cookies::

I'm pretty sure I've tried just about every chocolate chip cookie recipe I've ever come across and none of them have ever really worked for me! I don't know what it is. I can bake almost anything else with minimal failure. However, chocolate chip cookies (which should be the simplest things) seem to elude me. Until...I came across this AMAZING recipe. The cookies come out incredibly soft and have a lot of give. Pretty much, it takes a lot of effort (even for me) to screw these up!

Ingredients:
4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking soda
2 cups butter, softened
1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
2 (3.4 oz) pkgs instant pudding mix*
4 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
4 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips*
2 cups chopped walnuts (optional)*

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350ºF. Sift together flour and baking soda, set aside.
2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, and sugar. Beat in the instant pudding mix until well blended. Stir in eggs & vanilla. Blend in flour mixture. Finally, stir in chocolate chips and nuts. Drop by rounded spoonfuls* onto ungreased cookie sheets.
3. Bake for 10-12 minutes. Edges should be golden brown.

Using the 1 Tbsp cookie scoop this yeilds about 10 dozen cookies! Great for parties or cookie exchanges.

*My Hints*
*You can use any flavor of pudding mix for the recipe. Try changing it up, but I almost always use sugar-free vanilla. Some have suggested chocolate, which sounds fine to me!
*Not many people I know like the taste of semi-sweet chocolate chips. I like them fine in this recipe, however, to switch up the pace a little, I will sometimes substitute with M&Ms.
*Also, I think 4 cups is a little excessive. I add my desired chocolate pieces in 1/2 cup increments to the batter until it looks right to me. Usually about 3 cups for M&Ms and maybe 3 1/2 if I use chocolate chips.
*I am not a fan of nuts in cookies, I know it says "optional" but, ick.
*I almost always use a 1 Tbsp cookie scoop to make these cookies. You can use larger if you'd like or even a teaspoon, I'm not so great at that.

Oops

Yet again, I have fallen off the blogging train... I'm SO sorry! This is horrid of me. In all defense, the only time this happens is when I have an over-load of school work (just a hint to any of my professors!). I P.R.O.M.I.S.E. to post at least a few recipes tonight. I'm also taking this time to apologize that I rarely post pictures of the items. Really, I just forget to take pictures while I'm actually making a recipe. Oops. I'll try to do better, however, it does leave a certain sense of mystery as to what the finished product should look like. Ha, those cook book photos always disappoint when my item doesn't come out as stunning. HA!

PS...Welcome to any new readers that may come my way from Jessica's super adorable blog!

::Overnight Taco Fiesta Chicken Lasagna::

Ingredients:
2 cans (14 1/2 oz each) diced tomatoes with green chiles, undrained
1/2 cup thick/chunky salsa
3 cups cubed cooked chicken
1 can (16 oz) refried beans
1/2 cup sour cream
12 uncooked lasagna noodles
3 cups shredded Colby-Monterey Jack cheese (12 oz)
1/2 cup chopped green onions
1/2 cup sliced ripe olives, if desired
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

Directions:
1. Spray 15x12-inch sheet of foil and 13x9-inch (3 quart) glass baking dish with cooking spray. In large bowl, mix tomatoes, salsa and chicken. In medium bowl, mix refried beans and sour cream.
2. Spread about 1 1/4 cups chicken mixture in bottom of baking dish. Top with 4 uncooked noodles, breaking to fit if necessary. Spread with half of bean mixture and 1 1/2 cups chicken mixture. Sprinkle with 1 cup of the cheese, and half each of the onions and olives.
3. Repeat noodle, bean, chicken and cheese layers once. Top with remaining 4 noodles, chicken, onions, olives and cheese, and half each of the onions and olives. (Be sure top noodles are covered.) Cover with foil; refrigerate at least 8 hours or overnight.
4. Heat oven to 350ºF. Bake covered lasagna 50 minutes. Uncover baking dish; bake 18 to 22 minutes longer or until bubbly and hot. Let stand 10 minutes before serving. Sprinkle with cilantro. If desired, garnish each serving with sour cream, chopped tomato and shredded lettuce.

**If you don't have cans of tomatoes with green chiles, you can substitute a 4.5 oz can of chopped green chiles and plain canned diced tomatoes.

::Chicken-Tortellini Soup::

Ingredients:
6 1/2 cups water
3 cans (10 1/2 oz each) condensed chicken broth
1 can (10 3/4 oz) condensed cream of chicken soup
2 cups cubed cooked chicken
1 cup chopped onions (2 medium)
1 cup sliced carrots (2 medium)
1/2 tsp dried basil leaves
1/2 tsp dried oregano leaves
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 pkg (7 oz) dry cheese tortellini
1 bag (9 oz) frozen cut broccoli, thawed
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese, if desired

Directions:
1. In 5-quart saucepan or Dutch oven, heat all ingredients except tortellini, broccoli and cheese to boiling. Stir in tortellini. Reduce heat; simmer uncovered 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
2. Stir in broccoli; simmer 5 to 10 minutes longer or until broccoli is crisp-tender. Sprinkle individual servings with cheese.

Pudding Paint

I love doing this, even though it drives my OCD crazy and makes me want to keep washing my child...lol. I found this idea on a pre-school site a while ago. Cleaning out our cupboards, I noticed that we had a few boxes of cook and serve pudding left over from a recipe we made. I HATE this pudding. McKayla is not much of a milk drinker, so we're always scrambling to finish a gallon of milk before it goes bad every week, this helps a little.

Prepare pudding according to package directions.

I'm not sure if instant pudding works as well, I do know that the cook and serve types actually set up a little thicker.

After the pudding has cooled, place into bowls. (Pudding is pretty cheap if you buy a store brand, about 88 cents or less-different flavors give a few different color options.)

Spread out some waxed paper and let the kids go crazy. They love it, and they can even sneak a few bites in! I usually do this after lunch.

**To keep myself a little less stressed, I look for discounts in the party section with the plastic table cloths or even plastic shower curtains or liners. I keep these stocked with the art supplies and spread them out over the floor around and under the table and chairs. This allows for the easiest clean up, I can spray it off or when it's totally trashed, I can just roll it up and throw it away. I'd rather be replacing a shower curtain liner from the dollar store than scrub my floors and carpet.

"Sand" Art

Alright, McKayla really likes being able to do sand art projects. She saw some kids this summer using spoons to funnel layers of colored sand into cute bottles. She wanted to do this soon after we got home. I looked at craft stores and found that buying colored sand can be a little ridiculous. I did a little research and figured out a great way to make "sand".

Ingredients:

Table Salt

Colored Chalk

Directions:

Take a small amount of salt and pour it onto a paper plate. Using your desired color of chalk, "color" over the salt. This will break down the chalk and start adding color into the salt. If you find that you've gotten a little carried away with the chalk, you can mix in a little more salt.

You can adjust the amounts of salt and chalk to your liking, there's no real recipe so much.

After mixing salt to your desired amount, you can store in either squeeze bottles (such as the picnic table mustard or ketchup bottles) or, I use small plastic containers with lids.

Kids can now use their "sand" to fill small plastic or glass jars using a funnel and spooning in the salt (be sure to squeeze in a little hot glue to stabilize and take up some room in the bottle, then super glue the lid on-this will prevent mixing). Using the small containers also allows for the kids to sprinkle the sand over glue for art projects.

Have fun! This has a very long shelf life and can be stored for quite a while.

**Since no one is eating this salt, it is fine to use the cheapest salt in your grocery store. I buy the bigger containers and mix about 1/4 cup of salt for each color.

**Watch your dollar stores, you can frequently get a package of 12 pieces of sidewalk chalk for a dollar. If you're at WalMart - it's 88 cents! I raid our box of sidewalk chalk and use up all the broken and small pieces first.

Our Next Project - PLEASE Participate

I love to be able to help out whenever I'm able to. I know that with rough times it can be a little hard to give. Here is a really great cause. I've never experienced the tragedy of having a still born baby or even spending time in the NICU, but several people I know have. This is a quick and easy project and great for teaching kids about providing for others. Spread the word, just a couple of blankets from each person could make a huge difference.

http://kari-youcanmakeit.blogspot.com/2009/09/calling-all-crafters-i-need-your-help.html

(She has a link on this page to the original project page.)

Recipe Break

Alright, so as much as I love baking and cooking up new recipes, I decided everyone (mostly myself) is probably sick of the random recipe postings I've been doing. I think, starting next week, I will post 2-3 recipes by "theme". This may vary depending on my moods, I'm sure. There are a few blogs/websites that I seem to read religiously. These have given me the brilliant idea to share a few tips that we use around our house to make things a little easier and stress-free. I learned a long time ago that you need to pick your battles, especially with children. These tricks help A LOT with keeping my sanity mostly...especially since I'm pretty OCD about certain things. I'll try to keep each "Tip Posting" to a minimum. I can't keep coming up with tricks that often!

::TIPS::

1. If you use the foam hand soaps, save the pumps and reuse them for things like children's body wash. Do this by refilling the pump a third of the way full with your favorite body wash and fill the remaining with water. Shake it up a little and you have foam soap. You can also do this wish your favorite hand soap or dish soap.

2. Hair detangler is a MUST around our house, to cut down on the cost, you can fill your own bottle with 1 part conditioner to 10 parts water. Mix well and pour into your spray bottle. This is great and you can use the same conditioner that you wash their hair with, so you don't get that mix of "smell" in their hair from using 2 different products - yes, I hate that.

3. Use a mesh laundry bag to store bath toys. It can be hung in the tub and the holes in the mesh allow for drainage. I purchased 3 lingerie mesh bags (the ones with zippers) at a local dollar store. Keeping different toys in each one allows McKayla to sort as well as making it easy for me to switch out every now and then.

4. It sounds stupid, but WASH your shower curtain liner and any bath toys together. I put them in my dishwasher on a low cycle. This will increase the lifespan of your liner and toys as well as eliminating bacteria.

5. Also, put brushes and combs in side of a pillow case-after removing any excess hair (I purchased a separate pillow case just for this purpose on a clearance rack for 25 cents) and wash in your washing machine. Wash on a delicate cycle-I found this out the hard way, without soap. This removes a lot of things that can build up on your hair accessories. Headbands, non metal hair clips, etc can be treated the same way. This is great if someone in your household has had lice and you don't want to purchase all new items. Just wash on warm to hot water.

6. Right now, we have linoleum flooring in our bathroom. Now that McKayla is older, she likes to be a little more independent about getting herself out of the tub. To reduce mess, I place a towel on the floor for her to stand on, we plan on putting in tile soon, so I realized that slippage may be an issue. I found that either a piece of the foamy-time shelf liner or a tub mat (the kind you put on the bottom of the tub as to not slip) underneath the towel does wonders!

So, 6 tips today sounds pretty good. I'll try to keep them all pretty "theme" related as well. That way, it doesn't seem like I'm random all the time. Sorry, I just put things down as they come to my mind...which can be a little weird for others to justify. If you have any tips, I'd be glad to hear them! You can keep to topic or post anything you like, I'd be glad to also mention any tips in future posts as well!

Happy Bathing!

::Peanut Butter 'n' Jelly Muffins::

Often, we are running behind schedule with getting out the door in the morning...for those of you that know me, this is no real surprise. McKayla's preschool does serve breakfast, however, my child thinks she needs to eat about once every hour. Mind you, she's 4 and only weighs in at about 32lbs. Doctors are not concerned about her weight, and tell me to feed her as often as she is hungry. Apparently, they have no idea that she may eat meals like a bird, but she can eat snacks ALL day! I ran across this recipe quite a while ago, and it's great for her to grab on her own for breakfast or as a quick snack when she gets home from school or after playing outside. They travel great and we often take them to parks or the zoo. Feel free to switch up the filling with anything your child might really love. Plain strawberry usually does the trick for us though.

Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2 eggs
3/4 cup thawed apple juice concentrate
1/2 cup reduced-fat chunky peanut butter
1/4 cup fat free milk
3 tbsp butter, melted
1/3 cup 100% strawberry spreadable fruit

Directions:
In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Combine the eggs, apple juice concentrate, peanut butter, milk and butter; stir into dry ingredients just until moistened.
Coat 12 muffin cups with cooking spray (we use cupcake liners). Spoon half of the batter into cups. Spoon about 1 1/4 tsp spreadable fruit into the center of each; top with remaining batter.
Bake at 350ºF for 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into muffin comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack to cool completely.

Yields 1 dozen.

::Chocolate Chip Cookies::

I have been on a quest for a while to come up with a really great chocolate chip cookie recipe. I know, this should be one of the first things I was ever allowed to bake. Here's the thing, I can get almost any other thing to turn out, but chocolate chip cookies continue to elude me. No matter what I do, something always goes wrong with them. Just as I was about to give up for good, I decided to try one more time...here's the recipe I used, which, in case you're wondering, turned out AMAZING! My ultimate aim to have cookies turn out like the type from Subway (best way for me to explain it).

Ingredients:
4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking soda
2 cups butter, softened
1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
2 (3.4 oz) packages instant vanilla pudding mix
4 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
4 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
2 cups chopped walnuts (optional)

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Sift together the flour and baking soda, set aside.
2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar. Beat in the instant pudding mix until well blended. Stir in eggs and vanilla. Blend in flour mixture. Finally, stir in the chocolate chips and nuts. Drop by rounded spoonfulls (I use a 1 tbsp cookie scoop) onto ungreased cookie sheets.
3. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes in preheated oven. Edges should be golden brown.

These will look a little pale when you take them out. Touching them lightly should make an indent, but should slightly puff back out. The note from the author of the recipe states that you can use any flavor of pudding. I tried this with a regular vanilla, but sugar free. They turned out amazing for me. They stayed soft for over a week in a Tupperware container. They were great with semi-sweet chocolate chips, I didn't try them with anything else. Of course, I'm not a huge fan of nuts, so I left them out. We plan on making this recipe again with half M & Ms and chocolate chips...sounds yummy to me! These are pale enough that you could actually add food coloring to them.

::Chicken Cordon Bleu Bake::

I absolutely LOVE this recipe. McKayla will eat everything on her plate whenever this is on the menu.
The recipe does seem pretty large, that's because it actually makes 2 full casserole pans. This is the BEST part. I usually make this at least once a month. First, some great ideas to do with the extra pan of food!
-Freeze the second pan to use on a day you might not have time for a healthy dinner.
-For a smaller family (this makes a LOT), you can actually divide this between 4 square pans.
-I make one full 13x9 pan and 2 square pans, this way, we can use the small ones and have a large one anytime there's extra people around.
-Give the second one away. We take meals to people that have recently had a baby or some sort of illness that may be keeping them from spending time in the kitchen and eating meals.
-Also great if you're having a large family get together, one recipe will feed quite a crowd.


Ingredients:
2 packages (6 oz each) reduced-sodium stuffing mix
1 can (10-3/4 oz) condensed cream of chicken soup, undiluted
1 cup milk
8 cups cubed cooked chicken
1/2 tsp pepper
3/4 lb sliced deli ham, cut into 1-inch strips (to save time, I use the pre-packaged cubed ham from the deli section)
1 cup (4 oz) shredded Swiss cheese
3 cups (12 oz) shredded cheddar cheese

Directions:
Prepare stuffing mixes according to package directions. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, combine soup and milk; set aside. Divide chicken between between 2 greased 13x9 baking dishes. Sprinkle with pepper. Layer with ham, Swiss cheese, 1 cup cheddar cheese, soup mixture, and stuffing. Sprinkle with remaining cheddar cheese.
Cover and freeze one one casserole for up to 3 months. Cover and bake the remaining casserole at 350 degrees F for 30 minutes. Uncover; bake 10-15 minutes longer or until cheese is melted.

To Use Frozen Casserole:
Thaw in the refrigerator overnight. Remove from refrigerator 30 minutes before baking. Cover and bake at 350 degrees F for 45 minutes. Uncover; bake 10-15 longer until heating through and cheese is melted.

Recipes!

I know...I promised to do some major blogging with some great recipes, I bet most of you thought I totally forgot! Well, I didn't. I just had to find enough quiet time to get them on the blog and it took a while to sort through my hundreds upon hundreds of recipes to pick the ones I'll share this time. Hope you're ready cuz here. we. go...

Taco Soup

It's not quite that cold outside yet, but since I've been sick, all I want to eat is soup. This is one of my very favorite recipes! It's really easy and I can put it together the night before and in the morning, set the crock pot on low and it's ready by the time I get home. Plus, leftovers taste amazing. Thank you, Paula Deen! Ha ha...

Ingredients:
2 lbs ground beef
2 cups diced onions
2 (15 1/2 oz) cans pinto beans
1 (15 1/2 oz) can pink kidney beans (red is fine-I can never find pink)
1 (15 1/4 oz) can whole-kernel corn, drained
1 (14 1/2 oz) can Mexican-style stewed tomatoes
1 (14 1/2 oz) can diced tomatoes
1 (14 1/2 oz) can tomatoes with chiles
2 (4 1/2 oz) cans diced green chiles
1 (4.6 oz) can black olives, drained & sliced (optional) (I never do this)
1 (1 1/4 oz) packet taco seasoning mix
1 (1 oz) package ranch salad dressing mix
corn chips, for serving (optional)
Garnish Items (optional): Black olives, sour cream, green olives, cheese, or pickled jalapeños

Directions:
Brown the ground beef and onions in a large skillet; drain the excess fat, then transfer the browned beef and onions to a large slow cooker or a stockpot. Add the beans, corn, tomatoes, green chiles, olives, taco seasoning, and ranch dressing mix. Cook in a slow cooker on low for 6 to 8 hours or simmer over low heat for about 1 hour in a pot on the stove. To serve, place a few corn chips in each bowl and ladle soup over them. Top with sour cream, cheese, green onions and jalapeños.

How Horrible Am I?

Alright, so obviously I'm doing super horrible at keeping up with this. In my defense, I have been sick. I have some kind of sinus infection thing going on and really have no ambition to do much really. So, to make up for my serious lack of will, I have decided to post a series of blogs with recipes--something that will take very little effort until I'm able to get rid of this junk and back on my normal schedule. Trust me, there has also been a serious lack of cleaning effort and my house REALLY shows it.

Sorry to anyone who actually follows my postings...really, I am. I'm sure these next few days will also bring an overflow of notifications that I've updated. Again, I do feel bad.

First Day of School

McKayla is getting WAY too old... Today was her first day of Pre-K. She's in a class of 4 and 5-year-olds. So far, she seems to be enjoying what they've started learning. She says that is lots more fun than the 3-year-old class was. She attends a Day Care/Pre-School. They accept kids early in the morning, feed them, and make sure they get the appropriate rooms for their class. I love them. They are really great with kids and make every effort to make sure the parents are getting the type of care they are expecting.
I can't believe she is already 4. Time goes by SO fast. I will be sure to post the pictures of her later, but I don't have the attachments with me to take the pictures from my camera and put them up. Oh well. Time just seems to go by all too fast.

So Irritated

Alright, I spent hours putting together a slide show that CLAIMED I could post it on my blog. I arranged all the pictures and got everything visually appealing, I selected that I wanted to post this on blogger, and slide.com then gave me a code. I followed all of their instructions and blogger gives me an error every time I try to post the slide show. I'm super sad...I wanted to be able to show off a few of the pictures that Jourdyn took for us. If any of you know a better way to do this, let me know, PLEASE. I'm just not all that fond of posting lists of pictures. It's more fun as a slide show or even a collage.

::This is one of my favorites::

Quick Pizza

This is a pretty basic and really easy recipe. McKayla LOVES pizza. She asks for it on a regular basis. We use this recipe in all kinds of ways. Feel free to make any changes you see fit.

What you need:
Baking Sheet
Aluminum Foil (optional)
Pizza/Tomato Sauce
Shredded Cheese
Any Additional Toppings
Pita Bread

I like to line the baking sheet with aluminum foil so there's less clean up, if you don't want to, or if you have a dedicated pizza pan, feel free to use that. Place pita bread on pan and begin layering. First a small amount of sauce, I will sometimes use a jarred bottle of spaghetti sauce and add in a small amount of Italian Seasoning, if you have a good recipe for pizza sauce, even better. Sometimes, I'm just in it for simplicity. Using a spaghetti sauce with mushrooms or peppers also sneaks in vegetables, just a thought. Sprinkle on a little cheese. Layer on any toppings, McKayla really only likes meats and olives. Finally, more cheese on top, this keeps your toppings from falling off while you're eating it. Slide onto the bottom rack of a 375°F oven. If I'm in a huge hurry, I use the broiler setting on my oven. Take out when cheese is bubbly and turning a light golden brown. Remove from oven and let cool slightly, cut into wedges or any other easy to handle shape. Serve. Sometimes, I put a salad with this and turn it into a lunch or dinner during the week. You can also make a great breakfast pizza with this as well!

Well...

Well, since I've been spending every spare minute pouring over crafty ideas, I decided to make myself a little schedule to allow appropriate time to at least work on each project. Sometimes, I'm so excited at the prospect of making this new craft that I kind of push the old one aside. This is a HORRID habit. I know. In order to accomplish this, working full time, raising a child, going to school, and getting ready for Christmas, I'm going to have to allow some things to remain on the back burner and get my butt in gear. These are not fun times for me...I hate the feeling of being overwhelmed with responsibility when really, all you want is a little fun. By the feeling, I mean having to keep on task with myself. So...here goes... This week, I've decided to finish some of the more involved projects I have since I only have classes 2 days a week and it's not alarmingly hot outside, but appropriate enough for me to get some painting out of the way while Miss McKayla plays outside and isn't bugging me with her demands for me to entertain her. At work, we are "spotlighting" a fellow co-worker; my turn will be soon, so I WILL get that project out of the way today. Putting it down in text is like a promise. I must get this done. I'm hoping this "schedule" of sorts will allow me to get something accomplished while still letting me do all the other things in life.
Here is a sort of list of today's goals:
»Finish majority of the spotlight project.
»Sort through McKayla's clothing for anything too small or damaged and move it out of her room/closet.
»File all the paperwork I've been letting pile up on my desk for months.
»Get at least 3 loads of laundry done (may seem like a lot, but somehow, my bathroom floor was filled with water and there are a lot of rags to be washed).
»Sort through craft projects and put them in order of importance/involvement and create some type of timeline in order to complete them all.

Yikes! This working thing is taking up WAY too much of my needed time... If anyone has any suggestions on my lack of time management skills or anything else, please, feel free...

Hazah!

Yikes! It's been a week since I've posted anything. Studying for two finals was crazy. Now that it's over, we can concentrate on doing more fun activities.
I love giving homemade gifts to our friends and family whenever possible. Now that McKayla is a little older, it's more fun to get her involved in the crafts. After browsing through several books and thousands of web-sites for fun ideas, I was still not exactly sure what to do this year. Last night, I went to the fridge to get my daughter some water. There, I happened to glance at all the stuff hanging there... **Lightbulb** I saw a project that I had made with a scrapbook class last year, there was my idea. More to come later...can't ruin any surprises...

::Recipe::

I discovered this recipe one day when I was randomly thumbing through my recipes and for some reason, it stood out a little. I'd had it for a while, but hadn't even attempted to try it before. McKayla LOVES these, as does everyone else that has ever tasted them. I frequently make them as the treat I bring for work parties & treat days. They are actually pretty healthy compared to most cookies and almost taste more like a granola bar. They are SO simple to make, when I was in a hurry, I literally measured things out, and just dumped them into the bowl of my stand mixer, scooped them onto sheet pans and baked them. It's hard to screw this one up, which is great for those of us that don't always have a lot of time. I haven't ever taken pictures while making them since they take honestly less than 10 minutes to throw together. I tried to put all my "hints" in pink, to make them stand out more. I also find that doubling this recipe makes the measuring a little easier, but whatever works for you!

::Oatmeal Cranberry White Chocolate Chunk Cookies::

Ingredients:
2/3 cup butter or margarine, softened
2/3 cup brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cup old-fashioned oats
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 6-oz pkg sweetened, dried cranberries
2/3 cup white chocolate chunks or chips

Directions:
»Preheat oven to 375°F
»Using an electric mixer, beat butter/margarine and sugar together in a medium mixing bowl until light and fluffy. Add eggs, mixing well. Combine oats, flour, baking soda and salt in a separate mixing bowl. Add to butter mixture in several additions (mine usually ends up being about 3 additions-trust me, it's okay to just throw it all in), mixing well after each addition. Stir in sweetened, dried cranberries and white chocolate.
»Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls (I am a HUGE fan of cookie scoops, they're great - each cookie is basically the same size!) onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake for 10-12 minutes (I usually put the first batch in and check them at 9 minutes or so, once I'm sure about the time, I set my kitchen timer to that time and each batch comes out perfect) or until golden brown. Remove from pan and let cool on wire rack.

»Makes approx. 2 1/2 dozen cookies«

Special Hint:: As I mentioned, I love cookie scoops. If you have the counter room, (I use a large cutting board) spread out parchment paper (cut to pan size) or just some wax paper if you prefer. When I'm in a hurry, I put the first batch in the oven and while it's baking, I start scooping the dough out onto the paper. If you use parchment paper, you can scoop enough to fit the sheet pan (mine holds 12 since I use a 1 1/2" scoop) and just slide them onto the pans and right back off onto the cooling rack and there's less clean up. Using the paper trick is also great when you're making a cookie like snickerdoodles that have to be rolled into balls and then dipped. You can scoop them all at once, roll them just a little (since the scoop makes them pretty round) and just dip. Hazzah! you're own assembly line! It's great when kids want to help, but you're worried about their "measuring" abilities with spoons.

By Invitation Only

Here we go...we all know that I can be pretty bad at keeping up on things, so since I started this blog a little late, we're going to spend the next few days catching up on a few things. Hopefully, I'll be diligent enough to keep up.

McKayla decided that this year she wanted the type of birthday party that Lilo would have. So, I decided that since Lilo & Stitch isn't exactly the most popular thing at the moment (pretty much impossible to find anything with this theme), I would go with an overall luau with hints of her chosen theme. Since I have been working full time and going to school 4 nights a week, I thought I'd better start preparing early. It also helps that as the graduation themed items start heading to the clearance shelves, the luau stuff is proudly displayed. Her birthday is in July, so if I had waited too long to pick up certain items, we'd be stuck with red, white & blue decorations.

I love making cards & scrapbooking. Cards seem to give an almost instant gratification, so I'm much more thrilled with it. I took on the task of making this year's birthday invitations for our party. I found a really cute design online a while back and was longing to put my own spin on it. I didn't even think to take pictures while I was working on these, but I learned by watching a web tutorial, if anyone would like the link, please let me know, I'd be more than happy to post it. The picture above is my own finished product.
I started by shopping around for invitation envelopes. If you're an avid card maker, you'll know that sets are available with pre-scored cards accompanied by matching envelopes, as great as they are, they don't leave much room for additional bulk. Since I often make cards for different occasions, I find it to be much more cost effective to purchase the card/envelope sets. This was a little awkward, so I took a trip to the Xpedx store in Orem to see if I could find anything. Can I just say that I LOVE this store? Ever since the first time I went, I've adored it. You can basically buy paper, cardstock, vellum, etc by the sheet/ream/roll. I was able to purchase an entire box of envelopes (100, I think...I split them up with a couple of people).
After measuring an envelope and deciding how much "stick" I wanted to show, I started cutting down my cardstock. I already had an entire package of brightly colored cardstock purchased at Wal-Mart ($5 for 100 pages). I selected my colors and a few matching papers to use as accents. After cutting down to my needed size, I took a corner-rounding punch (which I also already owned) and rounded 3 corners of each "card".
The fourth corner is punched with a scallop punch (also previously purchased). Obviously, I didn't use the punch for it's actual purpose in this case, I didn't fully line up the punch to make a rounded scallop in order to make a "bite" mark. Since I had used 2 different colors to make the invitations, I used the large scrap pieces I had from each sheet, cut them down and made the stripe across each card and attached with a gluestick. After putting 20 of these together, I decided it needed something to highlight, I dug around in my supplies when I decided what better color to use than white!? I took out my white ink pad and brushed it directly against the edges of the cards, giving them the "frosted-just from the freezer" look.
I stamped on "You're invited" with just regular black ink and a stamp from my collection. Since I already had the scallop punch out, I used it to punch out the blue scalloped circles. I put one "pop dot" (for the purpose of cards, I look for these at our local Dollar Tree locations, you can usually get tons of them for $1) on the back and attached. I used glitter paper to cut out the 4s with my Cricut. I only had small, square "pop dots" available, so I cut a few in half to fit on the backs of the 4s and attached those as well.

I took advantage of the cute fonts on my laptop and printed the information (Date, Place, Time, etc). I cut these apart using a regular cutter and gluing them into the cards with gluestick. While scouring the dollar store, I found 100 popsicle sticks in a package, I was SO excited, we use these for various art projects and knew I wouldn't be hanging on to these forever. To attach the stick to the card, I used TackyTape, a product I also love! For those not familiar with this, it's basically a VERY sticky version of double sided tape. This comes in several widths, I selected the thinest, since I have a few other projects in mind for this. Each roll is about $3, not too bad, I didn't use much on each card and I have a lot left. I cut lengths of about an inch or so and attached it directly to the popsicle stick. When I was ready, I took off the red, protective coating and put in place. Again, TackyTape is extremely sticky, once it's touching, it's stuck...so be careful!
Cards naturally want to pop open a little, even if you've creased them well. To avoid this and give it an extra cute touch, I found a matching ribbon (through a great sale at JoAnn's), I wrapped a length around the stick and tied a square knot. When you slide the knot up, it actually holds the top portion of the card down. I asked people to RSVP and several called or sent texts to me just to tell me how much they loved the card itself!

Oops...

So, I've only just started blogging and already, I have failed to keep up on it. Wow...this cannot be good news. Oh well, hopefully no one will get bored with my serious lack of upkeep. I'll try, really... Anyway, I decided that since I'm supposed to be posting about fun things, I'll be putting up a lot of pictures/instructions on the crafty things we make. I haven't decided which to start with, but I'll have to go through my trillions of pictures. Please bare with me, if I post more than twice a day for the next few days, really...I'm just trying to catch up and not post things that are too far back. Thanks for deciding to join and keep up with us!

PS: This is one of McKayla's 3-year-old pictures.

Under Construction

So...I decided it was time for us to join the world in blogging about our lives. We're not really all that interesting sometimes, but we do have fun a lot.
Since I don't have a lot of time right this minute, I'll be posting pictures & more later!