YUMMY

Can you tell

 

that they are FAKE?

Snow Day Continued...

Today was a snow day. 

I love snow days...

I made some home made chicken noodle soup and rolls

 

I also made snow ice cream and berries

And continued all day to check on this guy 

He calls himself Nanuk the North in his puffy jacket LOL
 

While he took care of all the snow... 

Oh and in between all of this I cleaned and watched the snow fall in our yard!

 

 

Brunch...

My friend Meghan over here at Unintended Housewife inspired me to have a brunch!

Since moving into our new home, I really enjoy having people over.

This time the invitees were my mom and dad.

I served brunch!

I did not worry if the house was clean enough...

for once!

I just called and told them to come over for 11am

I served scones with cream and jam

A breakfast casserole

A lime fruit salad

Coffee ~ Tea ~ Juice

Easy peasy!!

Really... it was

I had the scones in the freezer and warmed them up in the oven

Whipped some fresh cream

Made a egg, sausage and hash brown casserole and left it overnight in the fridge

Cut up some fruit and added some fresh lime juice, honey and poppy seed

That is it ... oh and I woke up at 10am, turned on the oven and set the table!

My dad voted that we do this weekly... no one seconded him!

But I may just call and tell them to show up again soon!

Chicken Wing Dip

I have been making and tweaking this recipe for a few years now

and

each time it is devoured within minutes wherever I take it

The basic ingredients are

cream cheese

red hot sauce

blue cheese dressing

cheddar cheese

chicken

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Depending on how this recipe is prepared will vary the flavor

I wanted to double this recipe for 2 small parties we were going to this week

I did not want it too hot because there were going to be kids at the party who really enjoy it

I also used canned chicken breast because I was in a hurry to make it

This time I used all items purchased from Aldi

2 ~ 8oz cream cheese blocks

1 cup of cheddar cheese shredded

1 bottle of blue cheese dressing

3/4 bottle of red hot sauce

2 large cans of chicken breast

I mixed all together in my mixer and placed it in a baking dish

I baked it at 350degrees for 20 minutes

I am serving it with celery sticks and torn italian bread

COOKIES...

One day ~ Four Women ~ 10 different kinds of cookies

Peanut Butter is show above using a classic peanut butter cookie recipe

My Aunt ROLLING and Rolling nut roll cookies.. just like Gram always did... she looks exhausted!

Here they are all powder sugared up!

These are my favorites... Nut cookies with jam

Mom with her new apron!

Italian White "S" cookies with pink glaze

Pepper Cookies waiting to be dunked in white frosting

Butter Spritz trees

Peanut Butter Chip

Working HARD for NO money ~ just cookies!

Peanut Butter Hershey Kiss

 

Okay... enough... look at the messyness of baking :)

Nah... only 2 more kinds to go...

but only a picture of 1... my moms famous chocolate chip cookies

The other one we ended up making was a classic snowball... nut cookie

So here is the chocolate chippers and a big glass of milk...

oops... sorry I drank the milk!

O Christmas Tea Pictures

I invited the ladies I love over for a tea party today in celebration of Christmas

Here are some of the pictures from the event

I asked my friend to make me  a few cookies and here is what she did for me

She blew me away!  Oh wow were they YUMMY too!!!!

I transformed the hutch into a tea cart LOL

On the top I put the glasses for the cranberry punch

The second level was the tea cups

The third level was the punch in the soup tureen :)

Along with a basket of assorted flavored teas ~ sugars and lemons

Here are the two tea pots of irish tea that I made

Here is the one three tier of goodies

Scones on top

Second level is assorted tea sandwiches

Next level is buckeyes and truffles and Susies cookies

PBJ for the little girls

Crock pot full of asparagus cream soup

My Godmother and my Mother in Law

My mom wore her hat!

She looks like Madeline :)

My Goddaughter and her sister and their Nana, My Aunt Kathy enjoy their first tea party

Notice all the bling on the girls!!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We all had so much fun!

There was hardly anything left at all which makes me so happy!

In addition to the tea favor 

I put everyones name in a pitcher and gave away 3 decorated Christmas Trees

My Aunt Betty, Cousin Joanne and friend Melissa won

The tree can be seen in the pic behind the little girls!

I would highly recommend hosting a tea party and will definitely plan one again possibly for the spring time

It's somebuddies birthday...

and I made HIM and ice cream cake!

Well sort of

I went to Aldi and I bought ice cream sandwiches and layered them in my glass casserole dish flat against the bottom

 

I left them out a bit too long because as you can see by now they kinda melted 

Anyway 

I then broke up 8 snack size Reeces PB cups and layered them

Ummm... YUM!

So then I took Moose Tracks Ice Cream

And layered the whole thing on top ... trying to smooth it out as I went along

I then took more Reeces PB Cups and squished them down on top of the moose tracks

Then just for the fun of it... I did this 

Yep... I drizzled and plopped melted peanut butter all over the top

and I was done

NOT done

I then took a chocolate easter bunny from the freezer and chopped him up into pieces all over the top

 

Okay so now I am done

Oh and this last pic was taken AFTER the cake had been in the freezer overnight so the chocolate looks a little white but I assure you all it is okay!

I am so looking forward to my BUDDY... my HUBBY to seeing his CAKE

He adores chocolate and peanutbutter

I know he will LOVE this cake 

We are having it later today

Oh and not that you asked but I thought I would share the cost of this cake that will serve at least 16 people

Ice Cream Sandwiches: 1.99

Moose Tracks: 2.99

Both purchased at Aldi

2 Packages of snack size PB Cups:

Purchased at $ General: 2.00

We had the PB in the house 

We had the bunny in the house

 Grand Total: 6.98

As compared to an ice cream cake from a local place ... I know I save well over $20.00

Now that is what I call YUMMY!

One mans junk...

I am so excited to join this PARTY... and I want to thank the host Kennesha for hosting it! Click on her name to check out an AWESOME blog

AFTER

My friend was throwing these away

WHAT? they are perfectly perfect...

I knew I wanted to etch them and use them for storage

BUT

I was having such a hard time trying to decide what to put on them... so I decided on our last initial after an HOUR of trying to decide... oh I did other things while I was making the decision... I am obsessed, but not that obsessed LOL

I cut out a J and added one to each jar and I also cleaned the lids and removed the rubber inside the lid I painted the lids black and replaced the rubber I used Armor Etch to etch the J on the glass

You can see the finished jars at the top of this blog

for some reason it will not move down sorry

I added elbows to one and soy tarts to the other

(they will not be stored together though)

I love the ribbon and plan to change it as the seasons change... I just need to remember to tell the hubby that the tarts... although super yummy looking and smelling are not edible LOL

They are coming out of the kitchen NOW!

Thanks for stopping by my home

You are welcome anytime!

Spinach and Strawberry Salad

Okay so I admit I do love Aldi...

I made this dinner the other night and all ingredients were purchased at Aldi

It was "yumolicious" even the hubs loved it too even though he is not into all the "greenery" as he calls it

The ingredients are simple

Spinach

Fresh Strawberries

Gorgonzola Crumbles

Sunflower Seeds

Raspberry Vinaigrette

We also had grilled chicken on it too

VERY simple, very easy to prepare and VERY Yummy!

So do you have a salad recipe that you enjoy?

Essential Eating

I have IR, insulin resistance.

I was told this a few years ago by an RE while TTC

Diabetes runs in my family.

I do not have diabetes yet thank God

but

I do have IR which will eventually lead to diabetes if I don't buckle down

YESTERDAY!!!

I am not a horrible eater but I have a TON of weight to lose and on top of it, it is very difficult for me to lose weight

Everyone says that right?

I have in the past tried almost every diet in the know universe.

The ONLY lifestyle I ever loved and lost weight with and felt awesome doing is called

Essential Eating

I went to a few seminars and even to the cooking class.

Can you say AWESOME!!!!

It worked, it works.

The problem was ME!!!

I love everything about the plan. The food is delicious!!!

The problem, aka ME was the fact that I got LAZY, because the plan takes work.

The food is easy to find but I stopped prepping, I let the fast paced world get in my way~!!

WELL

I decided today that for the next two weeks of vacation I am going to get back into eating essentially

I need time to adjust to this lifestyle so the next two weeks will be just what I need to get focused... I will not end in two weeks but I will have the time to make a plan and some changes

~I am blessed to have this time~

When I eat essentially, it is a modified version of the plan which is what Janie does recommend

I change my bread to Ezekiel Bread and my pasta to polenta and my sugar to maple syrup

and I eat lots of fruits and veggies and chicken and fish and much more!!!

So here I am excited to begin this new chapter in my life, to lose the weight that holds me back and to feel good!

ESSENTIAL EATING by Janie Quinn

I am also going to do some form of exercise which is VITAL as well!!!

I am actually looking forward to seeing my Dr.

The Party

Oh what fun the party was Sunday

Every aspect was a blast from planning to preparing to hosting

We have a pretty large yard so on the patio I was able to put 2~ 8' tables below the pop up tent

Plus there was seating on the driveway and in the actual yard

Although many people seem to enjoy standing and mingling

It was a blast!

Here is the centerpiece

The colors for the party were burgundy and lime green

The napkin in the center had fruit stripe colors

Then I filled the bags with country time lemonade candy and gumballs for weight for the balloon and sprinkled 30 confetti on the the ables with Happy Birthday blowers

The guest of honor, my brother really enjoyed it too

Here is a sample of the fruit martinis that I served when everyone began arriving

They are a combination of fresh watermelon, honeydew, pineapple, raspberries and blueberries in a plastic martini glass with a toothpick sticking out to the side with two neon colored balls at the end to represent the olives

These kabobs were a HUGE hit at the party I made 70 of them with the help of my dad and all but three were gone by the end of the day

The kabobs are super easy and OH SO YUMMMYYY!!!

I will post the how to soon

Here are the cupcakes (my brother and his friends loved the toppers) that I served for dessert along with ice cream cake and fresh cut watermelon