Breakfast on the Go

I had previously pinned Kayln's Kitchen Egg Muffin, but when I saw it pop up again, I thought it would be a good recipe for my latest Weight Watchers journey.  I had thought of making it a few times before, but come breakfast time, I was always too hungry to wait.  So, I made the Egg Muffins for dinner last night.

Here's how I changed it up to fit my taste and my WW points.  For my fixins, I added diced ham, jalapenos, bell peppers, and reduced fat Mexican blend cheese.

I used all egg whites in place of the eggs.  I also added some Eskimo Joe's seasoning and garlic salt to the eggs before pouring them on the fixins.

I used double-liners to cook the eggs this time, but I definitely will invest in some silicon liners for the next time.  Despite having sprayed them with non-stick cooking spray, Kelley and I both had a hard time getting the muffin out of the liner without breaking the muffin.  Though the muffins no longer looked like muffins once out of the liners, they were still rather delicious, with or without the Asada Verde salsa that I added to our plates.

I had two for breakfast this morning and discovered that they were actually better when they were reheated.  So this recipe is definitely a winner for me.  After all, it is the perfect idea- make ahead, grab two on my way to work, and all for 4 Points Plus. Breakfast on the Go for an entire week!

4th of July Oreo Pops

For the past four years, we have celebrated the Fourth of July with the Mirandas, and this year was no exception.  We gather at our friends' home for swimming, grilling, and fireworks.  Kelley, my husband, always makes his Bacon Wrapped Stuffed Jalapenos, Arnold grills up some burgers and hot dogs, and I make a red, white, and blue dessert.  This year though, Kelley really wanted me to make the Chocolate Peanut Butter No Bake Dessert instead of a red, white, and blue dessert, so that's what I did. 

Benjamin had a blast helping me crush up the Oreos and the peanut butter cups, and when we finished, we realized that we had some left over Oreos and a light bulb came on- Oreo Pops.  I knew I had pinned some cookie pops and  remembered seeing some ideas for the 4th, so I figured we could whip up some 4th of July inspired Oreo Pops.

Here's how we made our easy, DIY Oreo Pops:

1) I separated the Oreos and laid them out on a cookie sheet.

2) I melted some White Candy Melts the lazy way- in the microwave.

3) I put a blob of melted candy on one side of an Oreo, put a stick in it, and then covered it with the other half of the cookie.

4) I then let the candy inside the pop harden for about 20 minutes.

5) Next, I dipped the pop in another batch of melted white candy.

6) Then the fun happened; Benjamin sprinkled the Oreo Pops with red and blue sprinkles so that we had festive red, white, and blue desserts to take to the party.

After that, we let them set and then stuck the 4th of July Oreo Pops in little red pails that I picked up from the Dollar Spot at Target.  For a spur of the moment dessert that my 3 year old helped with, they didn't turn out too bad.

Our annual 4th of July celebration was a success as were the desserts that I brought; I have to forward the recipes to a few friends now.

Happy Father's Day

What do you buy for the man who has everything he wants?  My husband makes it very difficult for anyone to buy him a gift because he buys it if he wants it, leaving nothing left to be purchased.  Because of this frustrating quality that he possesses, I had to get creative.   Typically, I have no problem being creative; at times, I probably get a little too creativity, but my husband is not what you would call mushy and is not very sentimental.  I had to do lots of thinking.  I wanted to give me something sweet for Father's Day, but I had to make sure that I wasn't just making it because I wanted it.  I had to really think about what he would really appreciate.  So, I decided to go with two ideas that I found on Pinterest, of course. 

First, I pinned this sweet poem from Create.Craft.Love's blog.  She had a free printable of them poem with footprints printed in the background, but I wanted to capture Benjamin's footprints.  So, we took to the front porch.  I let him pick different colors and make different color combinations.   With a smile on his face, he would step in the paint, and then with much gusto, he would stomp on the cardstock. This activity provided much entertainment for both of us and even allowed him to practice naming his colors.   All of this fun left us with several footprint sets to choose from; I let Benjamin make the final call, and he chose the green and black prints.  Next, I printed off Helen Bush's poem "Walk with Me, Daddy" on vellum paper.  I put them together in a frame, and here was present one that we presented to Daddy on Father's Day.

I decided that I also needed to capture some photos of Benjamin at this age to go along with his footprints.  Once I saw the Dad photo collage on Twinkle Toes Bowtique, I knew it was the perfect gift. Benjamin and I headed out to the Stockyards and Botanic Gardens, toting along our wooden letters, D and A.  Hopefully, my husband enjoys it as much as I do. 

These are the pictures I used in the frame.

Benjamin surprised me by being a real trooper during my novice photo shoots, but he had even more fun being the photographer.

  

Daddy loved his present and his Father's Day lunch at Salt Grass. 

It's Puzzling

My Silly Goose really loves doing puzzles.  We spend lots of time sprawled out on the floor putting the pieces together again, again, and again.  Often times he wants and/or needs help with the bigger puzzles, so I was really excited when I came across a fun puzzling idea on Pinterest.  In Mrs. Bushong's 2nd grade class, she had her students practice matching homophones by matching a word printed on a puzzle piece to the correct homophone on the puzzle board.  Taking her idea and Benjamin's love for puzzles, I upgraded a few puzzles of my own. 
I used a train puzzle to make an Alphabet match.  On the back of the puzzle piece, I printed a letter in its capital form.  Then on the matching spot on the puzzle board, I printed the lower case form of the same letter.  Since he can recognize his letters in both forms, he can now complete the puzzle completely on his own without feeling frustrated while practicing matching the upper case letter to its lower case letter.  This really helps when I am cooking because I can put the puzzle on the kitchen floor for him to work on, and that allows him to be in the same room with me (which is really important to HIM right now). 

On another puzzle, I used colors, numbers, and shapes.  My hopes with this puzzle is to allow little Silly Goose to work on sight words or word recognition.

We both have enjoyed this; I enjoyed making them, and he enjoys putting them together with and without my help.


Do you have any other suggestions for what I could put on the puzzles that would be good practice for a three year old?  There are two more puzzles from this pack that are waiting to be used.

The Taste of Hot Wings on a Bun

My little Silly Goose is becoming picker and picker by the day about what he eats, and I am determined to curb this problem this summer before it gets too out of hand.  The way I plan to correct this problem is by actually preparing dinner most nights during the week and sitting down at the table to eat with him.  During the school year, it is so easy and tempting to just grab something easy for dinner, but obviously my laziness is creating bad habits for Mr. Silly Goose.

In order to actually follow through with this plan when school starts back up, I must find recipes this summer that are easy to make and that we all like to eat.  If I can throw it in the Crockpot during the day, that's even better.  So, I decided to try My Kitchen Apron's Slow Cooker Buffalo Chicken recipe.  It was so tasty that the hubby went back for a second one, and that is saying a lot since he is on this whole healthy eating, low calorie kick. 

The original recipe says to serve it on a bun, but I went ahead and took it one step further and piled it on a Hawaiian Bread bun and put a slice of Pepper Jack cheese on it.  This recipe is definitely a keeper.

Here's how it turned out!

Love my mad photography skills? HA!  Maybe I should start pinning some of the photoshop tips I keep seeing on Pinterest.

A Baby Shower

So, these two desserts are not really desserts that I made this summer, but I did make them shortly before school let out for the summer break.  Our librarian is expecting a baby in June, so I signed up to make one of ten chocolate desserts for her shower (she's a true chocoholic). 

The first dessert I attempted to make from my Pinterest Dessert board was the Oreo Puddin' Poke Cake from The Country Cook.  I did not pay attention to the fact that the cake mix needed to be a fudge chocolate mix, and I just picked up regular milk chocolate.  So other than the fact that my cake was a light brown instead of the color of an Oreo, I would say that it turned out pretty much like the picture on her site.  (I do not have a picture because I made the dessert before I decided to start this quest.)  Here's the funny part- I arrived at school on Monday morning so excited to taste the cake only to find out that the shower was the following Monday.  Needless to say, my 7th grade teacher friends had a great dessert that day.  I even gave the librarian a piece of it for her pre-shower gift.  It was going before the day was over, and everyone said  they liked it with the milk chocolate cake.

Image courtesy of TheCountryCook

Because of my goof-up, I had to make a second dessert for the following Monday, so I decided to try something different, why not.  For the real shower date, I clicked on over to Let's Dish Recipes and tried the Chocolate Peanut Butter No Bake Dessert.  Not only was it easy to make, though it did take some time, but the end results were heavenly.  I could be a little bias, but I believe it was the best dessert at the shower. 

Image courtesy of Let's Dish Recipes

Making these two desserts is what lead me to start this blog.  I figured it would be a fun way to keep track of what projects I actually complete from my Pinterest boards while giving me the chance to give my input on my final product.  I will be taking pictures with all future projects so that you, too, can see the end result.