Everlasting Cole Slaw

I got a bag of shredded cabbage at the 99 cent store the other day and I was looking for a way to use it. I came across a recipe that my Grandma used to make when I was younger and it was a family favorite. I'm not a fan of creamy cole slaw, but I do like a good vinegar based cole slaw. I made this recipe tonight and it brought back many memories. It tasted just like how I remembered. I thought I would share this recipe. My Grandma was a great cook!




Everlasting Cole Slaw

1 med. head of cabbage (shredded)
1 green pepper (diced)
1 cup diced celery
1 diced onion

Toss together and then add this dressing

1 cup sugar
1/2 cup vinegar
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. celery seed
1 tsp. dry mustard
1/4 cup oil

Heat together & cool. Add to cabbage and let set for several hours. This recipe keeps well at least 1 week. Enjoy!

Delicious Granola Bar Recipe

Thanks to my friend Sonna for telling me about this delicious recipe of Homemade Granola Bars. After hearing how easy it was to make them and how good they tasted, I just knew I had to try them out for myself. I made the granola bars for the first time today and oh my goodness, they are fabulous! My kids loved them and I had issues with self control to not eat half the pan (it probably didn't help that I skipped eating lunch today).

This recipe will easily be added as a new family favorite for snack time! :)






Homemade Granola Bar Recipe:

2 1/2 cups rice cereal
2 cups oats
1/2 cup raisins (optional-I used dried cranberries & I also added some mini chocolate chips)
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup light corn syrup or honey (I used honey)
1 teaspoon vanilla

Mix cereal, oats & raisins together and set aside. Heat sugar and syrup or honey just to boiling point, add peanut butter and vanilla and stir until smooth. Pour over cereal and mix well. Press into a 9x13 greased or foil lined pan. Allow to cool. Cut & Enjoy!

Note: You can add any fruits, nuts or whatever you like. The possibilities are endless with this recipe!






Kid tested, mother approved! hahaha

Yummy French Toast

I went to the 99 cent store this weekend and picked up a loaf of Texas Toast Bread. I wanted to make french toast this week and I didn't want to pay the grocery store price of $3.58. That's why I love the 99 cent store. They carry lots of items & fresh produce for much cheaper than the grocery store. :)

This recipe is a replica from International House of Pancakes. I got the recipe out of my cookbook called Top Secret Restaurant Recipes by Todd Wilbur.

French Toast Recipe:
Serves 2 (can be doubled)

2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
3 teaspoons butter
6 slices thick-sliced French bread
1 tablespoon powdered sugar

1. Beat the eggs in a large shallow bowl.
2. Add the milk, vanilla, flour, and salt to the eggs. Beat the mixture with an electric mixer. Be sure all the flour is well combined.
3. Heat a large skillet over medium heat. When the surface is hot, add about a teaspoon of butter.
4. Dip the bread, a slice at a time, into the batter, being sure to coat each side well. Drop the bread into the hot pan (as many as will fit at one time) and cook for 2 to 3 minutes per side or until the surface is golden brown. Repeat with the remaining pieces of bread.
5. Cut each piece of toast in half diagonally. Arrange six halves of the toast on two plates by neatly overlapping the slices. Sprinkle about 1/2 tablespoon of powdered sugar over the tops on the toast slices on each plate. Serve with butter and syrup on the side.

Enjoy!

*The kids and I enjoyed this breakfast this morning served with fresh strawberries & blueberries. Yummy! :)

Ranch Oyster Crackers Recipe

We spent Christmas Day at my mom's house and one of our good friends came over and brought these delicious Ranch Oyster Crackers (warning: they may be addicting). I just had to have the recipe. This has to be one of my new favorite snack crackers! My kids love em and I can't stop eating them. So with that being said, I thought I would share the recipe with you all too.



Ranch Oyster Crackers

1/2 teaspoon dill weed
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 box (16 ounces) oyster crackers
1 packet (3 Tbsp or 1 ounce) Hidden Valley Original Ranch Salad Dressing & Seasoning Mix
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder (this is what I use) or 1/4 teaspoon lemon pepper

Instructions:

Place crackers in a gallon-size Glad-Lock Zipper Storage Bag. Pour oil over crackers; seal bag and toss coat.
Add dressing mix and spice; seal bag and toss again until coated. Bake on ungreased baking sheet at 250 for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown (I do not bake mine).

Enjoy! :)

My New Chest Freezer

I am so excited to share with you my new Frigidaire Chest Freezer. One of my family members blessed me tremendously by buying this for my family. I am happy to say I got part of my garage cleaned out this week and I was finally able to plug this baby in and start using it.

This chest freezer couldn't have come at a more perfect time! Since we are a family of 6 now, we go through lots of food (4 boys......oh my) and I feel like I'm at the store a few times a week because we didn't have the storage space before.

I have so many plans on how I will be using my new best friend! :) I want to start doing a freezer cooking day twice a month so I can make many meals ahead of time and be able to freeze them so I can pull them out whenever needed. This will help me save some time and not be in the kitchen 24-7 (I always feel like I'm in the kitchen all day with the kids preparing food).



Isn't she a beauty!?!? :):):):)



I love the 4 baskets that come with the chest freezer. This will help me organize better so all the smaller food items won't go down to the bottom and get lost.

Peach Jam

Thanks to my friend Bethany, she was gracious to let me come over and raid her peach tree this past weekend. I wanted to make some Peach jam this week to have something a little different than what we normally use for toast in the mornings. Once I was finished making the jam, I had some peaches leftover, so I ended up making peach puree as well. I love making purees and putting them into ice cube trays. We use these for various other things........ making smoothies, flavoring things like oatmeal & even adding it to the kids ice water to give it a little flavor. There is so much you can do with puree's. I'm looking forward to tasting this peach jam with breakfast tomorrow. The little bit I did taste was delicious! We will see how it turns out. :)


I used the recipe inside the pectin box for this peach jam. I can't wait to try this!

Tackle It Tuesday

Since this week has been a little less busy for me, I decided to do a little bulk cooking yesterday so we can have some meals ready to grab when needed. My hubby was telling me the other day that he has been craving breakfast burritos and he thinks mine are the best (thanks my love). So, I decided to surprise him & make a huge batch so he can just grab them to go on his way to work for breakfast.



My assembly line of burritos. I put egg, tator tots, bacon & cheese inside. OK, so it's not exactly healthy, but very delicious!




I stuck them in freezer bags so it makes it easy for my hubby to just grab them & go. Of course, I told him he must bring my freezer bags back so we can re-use them at least a couple times so we are not being wasteful (the burritos are not that messy). :)




My kids including myself LOVE pumpkin pancakes. I made a batch so we can have a nice breakfast on the mornings I do not feel like cooking.




I wanted to double or even triple the batch, but by the time I got to the end of one, I was pooped. My energy level isn't as good as I thought. This pregnancy is wearing me out. There will be more pancake making later this week! :)

Banana Ice Cream

Boy do I have a treat for you! Not only is this simple, healthy & refreshing tasting with this hot weather, but my boys just LOVED it!

All you do is take 2-3 bananas & cut them up in half inch pieces, put them in a Ziploc baggie or container until they are frozen. Once the bananas are frozen, take them out & put them in a food processor & blend for about 5 minutes or until smooth & creamy. You may need to stop it a few times in between to push it down. It will be the same consistency of ice cream.

Now that's what I'm talking about! You can have a delicious treat & not even have to make a trip to the grocery store! :)




I drizzled some chocolate syrup & put cherries on top just like they were having a regular ice cream sundae. :)

Almond Poppy Seed Bread

I don't know if it's because I'm pregnant and I'm starting to get cravings for certain foods, but I have totally been craving Almond Poppy Seed Bread for the last couple of days. I planned on making it yesterday, but ran out of time, so I made it this morning. I can't wait until the bread cools down so I can dig in. YUMMY!


I made six mini loaves!


Here is the bread with the delicious glaze over top that makes it sinfully good!


Click here if you want the recipe for this delicious Almond Poppy Seed Bread!

Homemade Whole Wheat Bread

My husband has been asking me for a long time to make homemade Whole Wheat Bread. I have tried a few times in the past, but never had any luck in doing so. Well, today I am happy to say my bread turned out so good! Even my boys wanted a slice of bread toasted w/ butter for a snack this afternoon. Not only is this bread alot healthier for our family, it will save us money towards our weekly budget of not buying anymore bread. Thank you Julie (my sister-in-law) for your AWESOME recipe!




WHOLE WHEAT BREAD

5 cups hot water
7 cups whole wheat flour

mix together & add:
2 TBSP salt
2/3 cup canola oil
2/3 cup honey
1 more cup of flour

mix together & add:
2 TBSP Yeast

Add 4-5 more cups of flour. Mix with wooden spoon until you can't stir anymore, then knead with hands. Spray 3 bread pans with a non-stick spray. Separate dough into 3 portions and put them in the bread pans. Cover with a towel & let it rise until 1/3 in Bulk. Bake 35-40 minutes at 350. Enjoy!

Mickey Mouse Toast

Ever since we have gotten back from Disneyland, the boys keep asking "when do we get to go back to Disneyland" when they wake up every morning. It's too cute! They had such a great time and as you can see, it left a huge impact on them!

I bought a Mickey Mouse Toast Press before we left Disneyland so I can make it fun for the kids with breakfast once we got back home. The boys LOVED it and now they keep asking me to make this every morning since! :)

Philly Cheese Steak Sandwiches......YUMMY!

Philly Cheese Steak Sandwiches are one of my family's favorite meals! I made them tonight for dinner and they were absolutely delicious! If you haven't made them before, I recommend that you try this recipe. You can add or subtract whatever ingredients to your liking. My husband doesn't like bell pepper or onions, so I just make his separately from mine. He loves mushrooms, so I just add mushrooms & cheese to his. I did the whole works on mine because that's how I love it!

If you try this recipe, let me know what you think? I'm always open to suggestions or new recipes! :)

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Since I had so much fun decorating cookies for St. Patrick's Day last Saturday at my friend Carrie's house, I wanted to do it again. This time, I invited my friends to come and decorate cookies with me and we all had a great time today. My kids were so excited when they saw the cookies that mommy had decorated for them.

I think this may be a new tradition I might start doing for each Holiday. I didn't realize how much fun it is to decorate cookies. I know my cookies are not professional looking by all means, but practice makes perfect eventually, right?!?! :-)

My mom (Becky) decorating her cookies.

My friend Lindsay. She is super talented decorating cookies & she loves baking too!

My sister-in-law Sandee is here visiting us from Hatcreek. It was fun having her here with us to join in the fun! :)

This was the first time she has ever decorated sugar cookies. They turned out cute!

My friend Laurie was gracious enough to lend her home for our cookie decorating party. She loves baking as well and she does a lot of cookie decorating during the holidays.

Here is a pic. of my cookies I finished decorating. I think they turned out cute! My kids love them and that's all that matters, since it was for them. :)

Cookie Decorating

My friend Carrie hosted a Cookie Decorating Party at her house on Saturday to help us non-cookie decorators learn the techniques and know how to decorate cute cookies. She is the Cookie Pro and she always does such a fabulous job with her cookie decorating skills. I will be calling her the Cookie Master! Ha! (of course, her sister-in-law Brooke is just as awesome too!)

Here is a picture of how my cookies turned out. I think some turned out cute, but others need a little more practice before they will look better. This is my first time ever decorating cookies like this, so I look forward to doing it again soon. I had a lot of fun & I'm already thinking I will be making more cookies & decorating them for Easter. Maybe they will turn out better the next time! :)

Baking, Baking & More Baking

I LOVE Christmas and all the baking that goes with it. I have been busy, busy, busy in my kitchen this past week working on putting together homemade gift baskets for my family & and a few close friends. I hope they will enjoy it! :) Here is a few items I have made so far I wanted to share with you.


Almond Joy candies dipped in milk chocolate drizzled with white chocolate with some coconut sprinkled on top.


Pretzel Rods dipped in white chocolate w/ sprinkles on top.

Pretzel Rods dipped in white chocolate drizzled with milk chocolate.

Every year I make Caramel Popcorn. I got these cute popcorn containers and put my Caramel Popcorn inside and wrapped it with cellophane wrap. It turned out so cute!

Homemade Hot Fudge & Caramel Sauce. Oh my..........are these delicious! Of course, I had to make one for my household. I will definitely start making ours for now on.

Tackle It Tuesday: Pumpkin Baby Food

As I was flipping through my baby food book trying to decide what to make next, I saw a page that involved this: Pumpkin.

So, I took 1 of our pumpkins and cleaned out the inside and cut it up into large pieces to cook it.

I scooped out the pumpkin meat from the skin and put it in the blender to puree it.

And Wallah.......this is how it turned out! :) I must say, "it turned out delicious"! I didn't realize how good pumpkin really is freshly cooked from a pumpkin. My son loves it! I have never done that before. We have plenty more pumpkins to cook before they go bad.