Trix bark

The pregnant hormones are kicking, but in a good way, well today. I have been feeling quite bakey lately. I don't know why the hormones feel the need to summon the Betty Croker in me, but they do. So those around me reap the benefits.

This week my Big kid Rentals reaped the benefits. I have seen this little treat on a few different blogs around the net over the last few months. Although intriguing I just hadn't gotten around to it. Until the crocker hormone attack of the 22nd week of pregnancy.

Trix Bark.

QUE?, you might be saying. But really, this is so simple and super cool for kids.


Here is how it went down:

I took some simple almond bark and melted it down.

Then after carefully laying out some wax paper, and taping it down so no slidage resulted in a massive mess that I would refuse to clean because Crocker hormones are kicking, but cleaning hormones, not so much. And my cleaning fairy is on vacation. Hmmm, perhaps I have made a mess in the kitchen before... Anyway, back to the wax paper.

I poured out the melted almond bark and spread into into a thin layer. I didn't bother trying to make it uniform or pretty; there really is no need for that as soon we will break it into mis-shaped pieces.

After the smoothing process I took some Trix cereal and spread it out over the almond bark.

Again no rhyme or reason, just littered the almond bark with colorful little Trix balls.

And then its time to wait. I allowed the almond bark to sit at room temperature and harden. I guess it took about an hour or so. You could also place it in the fridge and harden it that way, but then you have to deal with the "Sweat" and that just is more than I care to deal with.

So once it hardened, I broke it into pieces, loaded it up on a plate and served it to my Big Kid Rentals and Baby DIVA. It was quite the hit! And so super easy to do!

Case of the missing cookies

What does one do when they bake 2 dozen sugar cookies to use when making melted snowman cookies for Christmas, only to discover this when returning to fetch said cookies for decorating???

Ooops. Guess I should have decorated immediately instead of waiting a day. H4L and Baby DIVA found my stash!

So instead I made Oreo Truffles and Peanut Butter Balls. YUM!!

Step one: Balls are formed

Step 2: Dunk balls in chocolate and harden in fridge

Step 3: Admire and consume!

Merry Christmas Eve! Enjoy spending SWEET time with you loved ones while stuffing yourself with SWEETS!!

Yummy Summer Food

Its so stinking hot here right now. One can barely breath let alone eat. But you know for some reason we gotta eat to stay alive, or so I have been told. HA! Well I read somewhere, and I honestly I forgot where so to the fabulous person who came up with this treat, I am so sorry I don't remember where I read about your idea, but YOU ARE brilliant. I made your fabulous tomato pineapple salad!

Super delicious.

Slice tomatoes and slice pineapples. Layer them on a plate. Sprinkle with feta cheese and a tad salt and pepper. Eat. Yummy. simple. Light. Cool. and Delicious!

Squash Pizza

It is August! Remember this post? When I told you H4L and were going to eat every single meal in, no trips to the drive thru, not eating out, no donuts. Remember??

Well so far we are doing fabulous! We rock!! And I have a yummy recipe to share with you that we tried. It kept us from ordering pizza, so you know it must be good.

What you need:
1 butternut squash, baked until soft and cut into cubes
2 cups cubed chicken
1 purple onion cut into smallish pieces
minced garlic (you will use as much as feel necessary, we like lots)
butter
pizza crust

Heading in to the Oven

What you do:
Roll out pizza crust and cover with a bit of butter and lots of minced garlic.
Bake in the oven at 400 for about 5 minutes and then remove.
Add the cubed chicken and squash and purple onion in no particular order but evenly placed on pizza crust.
Return to oven and bake for about 15 minutes or so, until crust is browned and crunchy.
Remove from oven, slice up and devour!!

YUMMY! Ready to munch!

Beans Beans Beans the more you eat...

The more you toot! hahahaha

Just kidding. Beans are a fabulous source of protein, and in many cases are super dooper CHEAP. I have been experimenting lately with all forms of bean recipes in order to expand of food consumption options and continue to shrink our food purchasing expenses. This week we worked with red beans and have a lovely little recipe to share!

I will call it Cheap Bean Noodle thingy! HA!

You need:

2 cans red beans, drained but save juice

Bread crumbs

1 egg

spices: i didn't measure them i went by taste

Basil

Paprika

Salt

Pepper

Fresh minced garlic

Oil

2 packages of Ramen Noodles

Shredded Mozzarella

Some red sauce (tomato based that you enjoy)

What to do:

Smoosh the beans all up in the blender, (you may need to add bean juice during this process a little at a time), add the egg and smoosh some more. Then dump bean mixture into a bowl and slowly add in breadcrumbs 1/4 cup at a time until a paste forms. Once a nice paste consistency has formed goo up your hands with some lube (butter, pam whatever) and form the paste into patties. Then sprinkle the patties with breadcrumbs and basil. Hopefully you will have already been heating the oil in a frying pan so you can get started, but if you are like me and didn't then i suggest getting that done now. So once oil is ready place patty in pan and cook until browned. While these puppies are cooking you may go ahead and boil water for the Ramen noodles. If you versed in Ramen Noodles you know they cook really quick, like 3 minutes, so this wont take long. :)

Once you have fried all the Bean Patties to a brownish color and not burned down the house, you can then drain the noodles and begin to "plate" your cheap ass dinner. Place noodles in a bowl. Place a patty on top with shredded Mozzarella and Red sauce. Give a bowl and a fork to each member of your family and VOILA Cheap Bean Noodle Thingy!

It did taste pretty yummy!

Mac n cheese Taco Bake!

Ever get too tired to cook? Ever been at your wits end because that silly toddler is being a stinker and not eating anything nutritious or otherwise? Despite planning and plotting and OAMC, this can still occur. In Fact, this happened to me last week. I was so tired. Baby DIVA was being her Royal Picky Highness, I was not really feeling all the kitchen creative juices that I usually feel and was a tad stumped for dinner. I thawed out some ground turkey meat, and then I pondered. Here is what I came up with:

Boil some water for a package of Mac and cheese.

Heat oven to 350.

Saute a bit of yellow onion and bell pepper, garlic, salt a pepper.

Dump hamburger meat ( I used ground turkey meat) in and brown, then drain and set aside.

Your mac and cheese should be just soft enough now and you can follow the instructions on the box to finalize the mac and cheese.

Dump about 1/2 mac and cheese into a casserole dish. Layer the meat mixture on top, then layer on crushed tortilla chips and shredded cheese (you pick what kind, we used cheddar and Monterrey jack). Repeat this process until all ingredients used making sure to end up with the last layer being tortilla chips and cheese.

Place in oven and bake for about 25 minutes.

Remove and serve with black olives and sour cream, if you please. Without is just as yummy.

Yum Yum!

Not so healthy, but super easy, toddler and husband friendly!

Healthy Dippin'

Totally faked out the kids with a dippin' treat. Gave them sliced veggies, pita chips and a bowl of dip. they went to town. First bite they looked at me a little odd, but then devoured the bowl. so what is this healthy dipping treat?

Pureed Broccoli

Mixed with a tub of low fat cottage cheese, blended well of course, until smooth.

Serve it cold with fresh veggies and/or pita chips. Or anything dipable for that matter!