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Wednesday, March 30, 2011

S'more Cookies

Just so you dont get the wrong idea... I hate camping... but S'mores are yummy!
  This is a recipe I got from marthastewart.com (you gotta love Martha!) This cookie is a little on the dry side, but then again so are graham crackers so its a good fit!
S'more Cookies

1/2 cups old fashioned rolled oats
1 cup flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 baking soda
1 cup butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 egg
Chocolate chips
Marshmallows (about a dozen, cut in half)

1) Preheat oven to 350
2) In a food processor pulse oats until finely ground. In a bowl combine flours, cinnamon, baking soda and ground oats. In the bowl of an electric mixer cream together the butter and sugar. beat in Egg. Slowly add flour mixture and mix until just combined
3) Drop dough by the tbsp, 1 inch apart, onto baking sheets. Top with Chocolate (martha uses a semi sweet chocolate square... I use milk chocolate chips, about 8 per cookie) Put marshmallow half onto of the chocolate and bake for 11-13 minutes.
Martha bakes the cookies and chocolate before adding the marshmallow and then broils the baked cookies with the marshmallows on top... but I kept on burning the marshmallows so I tried putting them on and then baking them and it worked great for me!

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Chicken Taco Salad...and a kid craft!

Ok, so Im sure most of you will read this post and be like "Well Duh! You've never done that before?" But this was a first for me and I loved it!
  I love Mexican food! (well ok I love all food!) I have really been craving Tacos lately, but I dont have ground beef in my freezer and since Ive been trying to use stuff up I have made sure I havent been buying any either. So Yesterday for dinner I was supposed to put a rub on my chicken... but as I was staring at my pantry I couldnt decide on a rub and my taco seasoning kept on catching my eye... so I thought Why not? I made up a thicker version of Taco seasoning. I think mine calls for 1 cup of water to 3 Tbsp of seasoning... but I just added enough water to make it into a paste. Then I poured it over the chicken and baked it in the oven. Then I cut it up and put it on top of a salad. MMMMMMMM... it was really good! You should try it!
   I have also been trying to make more crafts with my kids... mostly Ive just been trying to keep the TV off more. So yesterday we made one that was really fun and CRAZY simple. All I did was trace and cut out their hands and then let them color on Tatoos. (ok I lied a little... I like Owen color on the paper before I cut out his hands as I didnt think my 19 month old could stay on his little hands too well!) But then we taped them to the window in their bedrooms. My Boys loved it!

Monday, March 28, 2011

Weekly Menu... a bit delayed

I know I try to post this on Sunday... but Im a bit behind this weekend. Sorry!
Ive also decided to try and make one meal a week that is jaxon's choice... which should be interesting!
Monday - Chicken with a rub or some sort and Scalloped Potatoes
Tuesday - Hot Dogs and Fries (yep... J mans choice!)
Wed - Boston Pizza (hooray gift cards!)
Thursday - Chicken meatballs and Penne
Friday - Tortilinni Soup
Saturday - Japanese Grilled Chicken and Rice and Corn
Sunday - Leftovers
  Im super excited for the Chicken Meatballs on Thursday... they are a new(ish) item at M&M meats and I cant wait to try them out!

Saturday, March 26, 2011

The Perfect Present...

Jaxon loves books (yep... thats my son!) We are constantly reading books. He is also super smart. Which means he memorizes alot of his books. So new books are always a highlight in his life because he doesnt know whats coming.
  We got a super cute book from Jaxons little buddy Krysten. Its called Smash Mash Crash There goes the Trash. This is such a great boy book! Its all about two pigs who love watching the garbage truck come and eat up all the trash. There are only a few words on a page which means its a great book for nights when Bedtime is later then normal. But its loud, and dirty and there is a garbage truck. Every boys dream! It even rhymes which is a good thing in any kids book!
  All in All its a super fun read!

Thursday, March 24, 2011

favors

I love doing party favors. I think they are super cute and a great way to thank your friends for coming to the party and celebrating the big day with you! This year was tough because I had to make 36 favor bags and I didnt want to spend alot of money. So here is that I did. I made these super cute boxes out of brightly colored cardstock. I drew some circles on them because Jaxon LOVES circles. Then I filled them up with some super cute goodies. I wanted to keep with the swimming theme so I found Lifeguard rubber duckies, sea creature fruit snacks and then just since they are Jaxons favorite, some kool aid fizzers!

I think they look pretty darn cute on the table with the doughnuts!
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Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Onto the cake

Every birthday needs CAKE. But I am always trying to be creative... so this year instead of cake Jaxon had homemade cake doughnuts at this party. we went with doughnuts to keep with the swimming theme. I thought they looked like Inner Tubes! They are super simple because I have a doughnut maker (thanks mom!) I love that gadget! I made two kinds for the party; a vanilla doughnut with a mint chocolate truffle glaze and a chocolate doughnut with a Raspberry chocolate glaze.

Here is the recipes;
Basic Vanilla Doughnut

1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
9 Tbsp butter, melted
3/4 cup Milk
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla

1)Preheat doughnut maker (if you have one... if not the next recipe tells you how to do it with out one)
2) Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl. Make a well in the center. Whisk in the butter, milk, vanilla and egg until mixture forms a smooth batter.
3) Scoop into doughnut wells and cook for 10 minutes or until golden brown.

I got the chocolate doughnut recipe online from Handle the Heat.
Baked Chocolate Cake DoughnutsFrom Lara Ferroni Yield - About a half dozen Note from Lara: It may seem strange to add nutmeg to a chocolate recipe, but nutmeg is the key to a recognizable doughnut flavor. It’s fine to leave it out, but your doughnuts may taste a bit more like chocolate cupcakes.
1 cup all purpose flour
2 tablespoons natural cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon fine grain salt
2 tablespoons unsalted butter or coconut oil
1/4 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup yogurt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 large egg
Chocolate glaze (see below)
1. Lightly grease a doughnut (or muffin) tin and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.2. Sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and baking soda, and then whisk in the sugar, nutmeg and salt.3. Add the butter, and using your fingers, rub it into the dry ingredients until it becomes coarse crumbs.In a separate bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, yogurt, vanilla and egg. Add to the flour mixture and stir until just combined. Do not overmix, or your doughnuts may be a bit rubbery.4. Fill a ziploc bag with the batter, cut an opening in one corner, and pipe the batter into each cup 1/2 to 3/4 full. It’s important not to overfill, or as the doughnuts rise, you’ll lose the hole.5. Bake for 8-10 minutes, until the doughnuts spring back when touched. Let cool slightly on a wire rack before glazing.Chocolate GlazeFrom Alton Brown
1/4 cup unsalted butter (4 tablespoons)
4 tablespoons whole milk, warmed
1/2 tablespoon light corn syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
1 cup confectioners' sugar, sifted
Combine butter, milk, corn syrup, and vanilla in medium saucepan and heat over medium heat until butter is melted. Decrease the heat to low, add the chocolate, and whisk until melted. Turn off heat, add the powdered sugar, and whisk until smooth. Place the mixture over a bowl of warm water and dip the doughnuts immediately. Allow glaze to set for 30 minutes before serving.

***In order to make the chocolate glaze different flavours I simple used different flavours of Kisses instead of the bittersweet chocolate. It worked great!!!
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Monday, March 21, 2011

Simple is AWESOME

Tomorrow is my little man's Birthday. He is going to be 4! I can not believe it!!! Time as flown by! We had his birthday party this past Saturday. So I thought Id take the next few days to share the party with the blogging world. It was such a fun party!
  Today we will discuss venue! Jaxon loves to swim. He is constantly wanting to go swimming. So I thought it would be perfect to have a pool party. That was until I started pricing it out at the local pools in calgary. EXPENSIVE. But we havwe a little gem just 15 minutes from our house... OKOTOKS! That little town has so many hidden treasures.. this time it was the rec center. I was able to rent the entire pool (yes we had it all to ourselves) for $104.00 and we could invite up to 75 people. They had lifegurads and everything. AWESOME. In calgary I only found places were you spent $100.00 and could bring in 10 guests and you didnt have the pool to yourselves. As you can see this was a way better deal. So we invited a bunch of Jaxons friends and their familes and have a great time. We had invited close to 80 people but of course not everyone could make it so I think that night we had close to 50 people there. It was great. the kids had a blast swimming. Then we headed over to the chapel and have some pizza! It was so easy to plan because I didnt need to worry about games... they had just swam for an hour so then we ate and had cake and that was the end. Wonderful!