Breakfast

Pretty sure I just invented the most delicious breakfast ever.

I scarfed it down so fast I didn't get to snap any photos.  But it wasn't super photogenic anyway.

Raspberry Coldstone-style Yogurt Breakfast:

Ingredients:

• 1 single-serving sized container of Vanilla yogurt
• 1/8 cup fresh raspberries
• 1 tbsp white chocolate chips
• 1 graham cracker, broken into small pieces

1. This is super ridiculously simple:  Dump the yogurt in a bowl, then top with raspberries, chocolate chips, and graham cracker pieces.  ENJOY!

Seriously...  So good.  I know it doesn't seem like much but I think it's my favorite breakfast I've had in a long time.

Bento Friday :)

Yeah!  I always feel so accomplished when I manage to crank out a bento for my kids.  Especially when I do it without us having any other plans to go anywhere or do anything.  Today was one of those days.  I should really make an effort to make them a bento lunch at least every Friday - we'll see how that goes.

The table is set! :)

A's lunch

Corn, grape tomato, cheese "candy", hot dog flowers, strawberries, fruit jelly, and teddy onigiri

C's lunch

She had the same.  :)

On the side, for dessert, each girl had a matching container with Chex "Muddy Buddies" in it - a favorite snack around here.  If you haven't had these you are definitely missing out.  :)  They each had a cup of chocolate soy milk, too.  Yum!

photo credit: http://thegalwaygirl.com/

Muddy Buddies:

9 cups Chex cereal (rice, corn, wheat, or a combination - all work fine)
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup peanut butter (I use Simply Jif creamy)
1/4 cup margarine
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1. Measure cereal into a large bowl with a lid.
2. Put chocolate chips, peanut butter, and margarine into a 1-quart microwavable bowl.  Microwave this on high for one minute, then stir.  Microwave on high for another 30 seconds, or until mixture can be stirred smooth.  Add in the vanilla and stir to combine.
3. Pour the chocolate mixture over the cereal and fold together to coat the cereal.
4. Measure powdered sugar on top of the coated cereal, then put the lid on your bowl (seal it carefully otherwise you'll have a powdered sugar explosion), and let your kids shake it like crazy till the powdered sugar has completely coated the cereal.
5. Enjoy with caution - this stuff's dangerous.

Waste not!

This afternoon I got a hair crossed and I purged my kitchen.  I went through my cupboards, fridge, and pantry and got rid of five and a half big garbage bags full of...  Junk.  Boxes and boxes of long-expired cereal, expired canned goods, forgotten half-full packages of crackers...  Embarrassing.  Also realized by emptying out the entire contents of the pantry onto the kitchen floor and countertops just how big of a hoarder I had become.  I had EIGHT packages of angel hair pasta in there.  (We're down to seven now as I used one of them for tonight's dinner - made this and it was incredible!!  Substituted the meatballs - my kids won't eat them - and marinara sauce with 2 cups of spaghetti meat sauce I had made from scratch and frozen in batches a few weeks ago and it was seriously SO good.)

My newest "thing" is to quit buying in such excess - only buy what we need and use what we already HAVE as often as possible.  Now that the space is freed up significantly I can actually see what is available.  I cooked this for lunch and it was definitely a hit.  I had all of the ingredients on hand!  Substituted [defrosted] frozen baby broccoli florets for the fresh and used regular carrots instead of the baby variety - chopped both in my Pampered Chef choppy thing.  My house has stayed remarkably clean the past couple of weeks.  I deep cleaned the girls' toy room again yesterday and got rid of a garbage bag full of outgrown and/or broken toys (the fourth such bag since January 1)...  I think it's safe to say I am officially spring cleaning.  I feel like I'm just trying my hardest to get all of our things in order as early as possible since we actually have some advance notice for this move.  Our previous two moves were both done on about 30 days notice (and they were utter CHAOS!), so this time I feel like I am trying to do everything possible to be prepared for the transition.  And that means cleaning out the closets.

M came home from work this evening, did a double-take at the overstuffed bags lined up against the kitchen cabinets and said, "What is THAT??"  It took both of us and a shopping cart to get them all downstairs to the garbage room after the kids went to bed.

I have fluttered along with the FlyLady for several years now but I think I am just now beginning to finally embrace the beauty of flinging.

Delicious spaghetti sauce - in our case enough for three meals!   Spaghetti the first night and two batches in the freezer (one that I used for the spaghetti pie...  I'm telling you, my kids DEVOURED it and they usually don't like spaghetti sauce at all.)

Ingredients

• 1 (28 ounce) can stewed tomatoes
• 1 (28 ounce) can crushed tomatoes
• 1 pound lean ground beef
• 2 yellow onions, chopped
• 2 green bell peppers, chopped
• 5 cloves garlic, chopped
• 2 tablespoons white sugar
• 1 tablespoon dried basil
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. Blend the stewed tomatoes and crushed tomatoes in a blender. (I used my immersion blender and did this step in my slow cooker's crock.) In a large sauté pan, brown the ground beef with the onions, peppers, garlic. Drain and then add into crock pot with tomatoes. Add sugar, basil and oregano, and cook on low for about 4 hours. Season with salt and pepper before serving.

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Bars

We had a really awesome Halloween.  It was a blast!  We all dressed up and went trick-or-treating and our costumes were quite the hit.  I am so fortunate to have a really cool husband who not only humors my ridiculous requests but also enjoys participating and isn't completely mortified to walk all over the base wearing a snug green jumpsuit.  What a guy!!

When our girls had filled up their question mark blocks, we headed home where I'd left dinner in the oven.  Dinner in a Pumpkin (minus the green onions - due to the typhoon, we're having a green onion shortage at the commissary) was a bigger hit with the adults than the kids, but still a hit regardless.  I threw together dessert in a flash and put it in the oven while we picked through candies, ate dinner out of a pumpkin, and greeted the later batch of trick-or-treaters.

Dessert, though, is what I REALLY want to talk about.  Oh.  My.  Heavenly.

When I found this recipe on GourmetMomOnTheGo.com and tried it out, I knew I had found something special.  I tasted it and the only word that came to mind was, "Magical."  That sounds ridiculous, I know, but try it and you'll understand.  As my tastebuds exploded into sugary, creamy bliss, I recall thinking that this could be SUCH a versatile recipe.  And it was the first recipe that came to mind when I was thinking about desserts for Halloween.

So, I "Autumned" it up a little bit.  And wow, was it GOOD!


Pumpkin Cream Cheese Bars

Ingredients:

• 2 cans Pillsbury Crescent Roll Creations seamless dough
• 2 8-oz packages cream cheese (I use Neufchâtel), softened
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup solid pumpkin puree
• 1 tsp cinnamon (or pumpkin pie spice - I actually use Pampered Chef's "Cinnamon Plus blend" - LOVE that stuff!)

For the topping:

• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1 tsp cinnamon

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350º.  Spray a 13x9" pan with cooking spray, and press one package into the bottom of the pan.
2. With a hand mixer, beat together the cream cheese, 3/4 cup sugar, vanilla, pumpkin, and 1 tsp cinnamon until smooth.  Spread this mixture over the top of the crescent roll dough.
3. Unroll the second can of dough and spread it over the top of the cream cheese mixture.
4. Combine the remaining sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle over the top of the crescent dough.
5. Bake, uncovered, for 20 minutes.
6. Allow to cool before cutting and serving - the cream cheese mixture will be ultra melty and gooey and a big mess if you are too impatient like I am!

I shared this post at MySweetCreations for Sweet Sunday.

Banana Oat Mini Muffins

Breakfast, breakfast.  I've been on a muffin kick - mini muffins particularly.  It's something about fall, I think.  This morning when A woke up and saw me transferring these muffins from the pan to a cooling rack, the conversation went a little like this:
A:  Mommy, why are you always making muffins?
Me:  Because they're delicious and they're easy and fun for breakfast.
A:  Well, I don't like muffins any more and I don't want them for breakfast.

Insert a sad face here.  She did manage to choke one down and enjoyed it, but I think I'll have to lay off the muffins for a bit so that she can have a muffin break.  Le sigh.

Oh well, these actually turned out quite well and I'm happy with them.  I'll be saving the recipe for later on when A is past her muffin hiatus.  We got about 3 dozen muffins out of this recipe.


Banana Oat Mini Muffins
Ingredients:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 cup rolled oats
• 1/4 cup Splenda
• 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1/3 cup applesauce
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 mashed bananas

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400ºF.
2. Combine flour, oats, sugar, Splenda, baking powder, soda, and salt.
3. In a large bowl, beat the egg lightly.  Stir in the milk, applesauce, and vanilla.  Add in the banana and combine thoroughly.  Stir the flour mixture into the banana mixture until just combined.
4. Lightly grease a mini muffin tin and add the batter to the cups, filling them almost to the tops.
5. Bake for 12-15 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

I love cookies, but these are my all-time favorite.  When we were living in Southern California, we frequently shopped at the nearby Ralph's grocery store.  It's on the spendier side - especially compared to the commissary on base - but everything in there seems so colorful and fresh and awesome, so shopping there seemed like a special treat.  Plus, I really like shopping in grocery stores with "ambiance" - it's something about the lighting - and Ralph's was chock full of it.

Our favorites there were the freshly baked daily croissants - my husband had their baking schedule memorized and would get there just in time to bring home fresh, piping hot croissants - and their pumpkin chocolate chip cookies.  The pumpkin chocolate chip cookies were available year round - even in the heat of summer I could satisfy my pumpkin obsession and if I went home and sat in front of a fan while indulging in the cookies, I could pretend it was fall.

We were so sad to leave Ralph's territory and leave these delicious, soft and flavorful cookies behind.  In fact, I was so attached to these cookies that when we passed through California en route from Texas to Okinawa, I made sure to pit stop at Ralph's and bought a couple dozen of them to bring with us.  For the first week in Okinawa, my husband and I carefully rationed the cookies out to each other, savoring every bite.

Then, one day I got a phone call from a friend in hysterics.  She claimed that she knew how to make the Ralph's cookies!  Impossible!

She was right, though, and the cookies are amazingly easy.  And incredibly satisfying.


Pumpkin Chip Cookies
Ingredients:

• 2 boxes spice cake mix
• 1 large can pumpkin pie mix
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1-2 cups chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400ºF.
2. Combine all ingredients in a large mixing bowl with a hand mixer.
3. Drop heaping tablespoons of dough onto cookie sheets about 2"apart.  I line the sheets with parchment paper and use a cookie dough scoop.
4. Bake for 12-15 minutes in the preheated oven.
5. Allow to cool several minutes on the cookie sheet before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

Yep, that's IT!  Pretty cool, right?  These are a must try for the season, trust me.  Be prepared to share, though!  When we made these yesterday morning, I ended up with a grand total of 82 cookies.  That's a lot, even for me!  ;)

I shared this post at MySweetCreations for Sweet Sunday.