day 187 - chocolate & banana pops

Every once in awhile I actually make something from the Kraft magazine that I get! So instead of just folding over the corner of the magazine and forgetting about it, I actually make something!

This time it was their Frozen Chocolate & Banana Pops.

The only thing I did differently was I used the popsicle sticks that I had bought at Walmart and have never used. It's the kind where you put everything in a mold and then insert the stick. Worked like a charm! The only downside is that only Alyssa and I like them! Oh well, more for us!

day 156 - cookie n’ oreo brownie bar

The Tooth Fairy came!!

Alyssa came running into our room before 7 am this morning holding a twonie and a certificate from the Tooth Fairy! Alyssa was very happy :) It goes to show how times have changed! When I was a kid, I think I use to get a quarter or maybe 50 cents when I lost a tooth. 

Today's mission was to make a new dessert. One that I saw on Kevin & Amanda's blog a few days ago. Her pictures of the finished brownie are amazing!! I can only hope to one day have photos of my desserts look that good. But first I need to make my desserts look that good too! Mine turned out and was VERY good, but it didn't look nearly as amazing as hers! LOL Go check them out, along with her recipe!!

The recipe calls for a chocolate chip cookie batter. I took a shortcut and just used the Pillsbury cookie dough. Worked out perfectly!

Alyssa pretty much did everything. She stirred the brownie batter.

She also put in all the Oreo cookies. Note: more Oreos were added after this photo was taken. The recipe calls for the Oreos to be side-by-side, right up against each other to create a layer of cookies.

She then made sure she licked the bowl :)

 

 The verdict? Very yummy, but very rich! Lots of chocolate in this baby! This will be a once in a blue moon sort of treat to make!

The day was spent just relaxing and enjoying the beautiful weather! 

Although for Alyssa, the combination of waking up at 6 am and playing outside all day had her falling asleep on the couch!

Love how Cayla is checking to see if Alyssa is sleeping :)

day 41 - pretzel hugs

After a VERY rough night, I still wasn't feeling the greatest this morning, but I could tell the medication was working, as my throat wasn't on fire anymore and I could manage to get something other than water down! It was another day spent at home, taking it easy and getting some rest. By mid-afternoon I was starting to feel like I had some energy again! Finally, I was starting to feel human again!

I knew a few things needed to be taken care of after I picked up the girls. The first order of business, Valentine cards for Alyssa's class. Because she was told not to write a specific name on each card, she just signed her name on 17 valentines. I think after two, she got bored! LOL But she made it and finished them all.

Next order of business, a snack to take to school tomorrow for her party! All week, I have been trying to think of what to make. With me being sick, I really wanted to make something that would be super easy and didn't involve any baking! That's when I remembered seeing a recipe for pretzel hugs on Becky Higgins blog. I had just been on her recipe blog a few weeks ago and came across this recipe.

All you need is pretzels, Hershey "Hugs" and smarties or M&M's. I choose to use Valentine smarties.

Place however many pretzels you want on a baking sheet. Place a Hershey "Hug" on each one and bake at 200 degrees for 8 minutes.  The girls helped unwrap each Hug and place on top.

Remove from the oven and place a couple smarties or M&Ms on top, pressing into the melted chocolate.

Voila, you have the perfect snack! You do have to let them cool completely, or do what I did, stick the pan in the snow bank outside :) These seriously are so addicting! I made this batch for Alyssa to take to school and only taste tested one! I am already planning on making more!! Yummy!!!

{cap'n crunch peanut butter cookies}

A month ago, my friend Jen posted a recipe for Cap'n Crunch Peanut Butter Cookies and being the Cap'n Crunch cereal fan that I am I had to give them a try! Back at the end of June I did just that and the verdict...absolutely delicious! I almost had to ask Jason to hide them from me before I ate the entire batch!! In the end I did eat quite a few of them because Alyssa actually didn't care for them!! She's more of a chocolate chip cookie fan :) As for the leftover cereal, that was devoured by Cayla! She would get the box out of the cupboard and sit on the kitchen floor and eat fistfuls of it...just like she did back in March.































Cap’n Crunch Peanut Butter Cookie Stackers

7 Tablespoons softened butter

1/2 Cup granulated sugar

1/2 Cup packed light brown sugar

1/2 Cup creamy peanut butter

1 egg

1 Tablespoon pure vanilla

1 Cup all purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup Cap’n Crunch Cereal, crushed with rolling pin

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a stand or electric mixer, beat the butter and sugars until well combined. Beat in peanut butter until combined then beat in the egg and vanilla.

2. In a large bowl mix the flour and salt. Slowly add to wet ingredients on slow speed. Add in Cap’n Crunch Cereal until just combined. With a medium cookie scoop, scoop dough onto a parchment or silpat lined baking sheet. With the tines of a fork, press gently forming a criss cross shape over tops. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until baked to your liking.

2 1/2 dozen cookies

Day 280 - the worm

I was finally able to capture Cayla's interesting crawling technique on video. We now call her "the worm".

First up I have a picture of her and I together. I waited way too late to take this picture as she'll be 10 months on Friday. The picture is for a layout called "nine in, nine out". I did one for Alyssa too. Basically it's a picture of me pregnant with each of them and then a picture of them at 9 months. So today I finally got around to asking Jason to take a picture of the two of us. This was before I went to the hairdressers and got 2 inches cut off my hair :)






















So now onto "the worm". She starts off from a crawling position...















But quickly goes to her tummy...

Then she inches along using her hands & arms to pull while using her feet and legs to push her.

All in an attempt to get a doll.

Here she is in action. You can see she as reluctant at first, but the doll gets her every time! This time instead of Strawberry Shortcake it was Ginger Snap :) She looks so funny doing her little worm crawl, but she can really go! I really do hope she figures out that crawling on all fours is a lot easier and less wearing on her clothes!!



This afternoon while Jason was at an interview I did some baking! If you call baking around 80 cookies, some baking :)

First I made pumpkin chocolate chip cookies!

This was my first time making them and I think they turned out pretty good! They didn't look exactly like the picture of the ones I found the recipe for, but they tasted good, so that's all that counts! Not only that, Alyssa loved them! Probably for the chocolate :)

I combined two different recipes. Originally I got the recipe from Bakerella.com but it called for self-rising four; which I didn't have, so I looked up another recipe and found this one on the Food Network. The only thing I didn't add was pecans.

After I finished baking 40 of those, I made my all time favourite cookies...Everything Cookies! I LOVE these cookies because it combines so many of my favourite things in one cookie, like chocolate, coconut and peanut butter and oh yeah, smarties!! I made Jason pick me up some smarties the other day and Alyssa and I picked through them to get the most fallish looking ones, like the orange, brown, red, green :) As usual they turned out great!!

Now I have lots of cookies to keep our family & friends moving on Saturday! I am also going to bake pumpkin bread, but I'll wait to do that on Friday!

Day 259 - peanut butter & chocolate

I know fall is in the air because I am in the mood to bake! There is something about the change in temperature that makes me want to bake cookies, cakes, pies, etc! Which is not good for the weight loss, but oh so very tasty and hard to resist :)

The need to bake today was so strong that I had to go out and get the ingredients needed!!
















Which meant walking to Sobeys and Home Hardware!! Jason was at a job interview, so it was just us girls today. I won't even tell you how much I paid for the mini muffin tin!! I believe I got ripped off, but it was the last one and there wasn't another store close enough to go do a price check, so I bought it! The Reese peanut butter miniatures were on sale and I already had the cookie dough at home; which I also got on sale a week or so ago! So it wasn't all bad.

I first heard about Peanut Butter Hide-Aways from my friend Jen. Check out Jen's blog for the recipe she used, as she made her own peanut butter cookie dough and included step by step instructions. This is the second time that she has posted a recipe that I've just had to make!! Although, each time it has involved me buying new stuff!! But each time it has been SO worth it!! Thanks Jen for sharing!

They were super easy to make and oh so yummy!! If you're a chocolate and peanut butter fan than you'll LOVE these!! Because seriously these two ingredients are meant to go together :)

Because I used the premade cookie dough, my steps were a bit different. I used a 1 tbsp measuring spoon to scoop the cookie dough. This was perfect as it gave me the right amount of dough. I rolled it into a ball and placed into my mini muffin tin.

While I was doing that, Alyssa was unwrapping the peanut butter cups. She did an amazing job too! Just look at the concentration on her face! The wrapping went in one pile while the cups went into a bowl.






















I thought it was funny how she neatly stacked every single one of them into piles! Can you tell that she loves to separate things into piles :)

The cookies bake in the oven for about 10 minutes. As soon as they came out of the oven you press a peanut butter cup in the middle. As it cools the cookie deflates and forms a tart shell around the peanut butter cup.

Don't these just look so tasty? I let them cool for about 10 minutes before trying one and oh boy was it good right out of the oven!!! The recipe says it makes 36 cookies, but I only got 24; which worked out perfectly as that's how many the tin held and was the right amount for one package of peanut butter cups, as I let Alyssa eat one because it was broken, so I had just the right amount left over :)

While we were baking Cayla was watching Yo Gabba Gabba on Treehouse TV all the while chewing on a book! Her teeth continue to bother her and keep her up at night!! I really miss sleeping through the night! I knew I was lucky before with her and how good of a sleeper she was, so now after about a month and a half of her waking up at least twice a night, I really miss my sleep!! Yet, I still go to bed way too late!! I guess I like to punish myself :)

everything cookies

These are now one of my favourite cookies! I hadn't made them in years, but already this year I've made them twice! The most recent time was Valentine's Day!


Here's the layout I created, including the recipe.



























Template: Angielicious II by Chrissy W at Elemental Scraps
Kit: Hugs & Kisses colab kit at Little Dreamer Designs
Border: Life 365 kit at WWD
Alphabet: Luv Song by CD Muckosky from The Lily Pad
Font: Pea Carrie Script

And now here's the recipe:
1 cup butter (softened)
1 cup peanut butter
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
3 eggs, beaten
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
2 cups flour
1 1/2 cups oatmeal
1 cup chocolate chips
1/4 cup coconut
1 cup smarties or M&Ms

Note: You can also add chopped nuts & raisins...that's why they are called "everything" cookies. I don't add them, but I am sure it would be good.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream butter and peanut butter until fluffy. Beat in sugars until fluffy. Stir in eggs, salt, baking soda, flour and oatmeal. Add chocolate chips, coconut and smarties (or any other ingredients). Arrange by heaping spoonfuls on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until light brown. Makes approx. 40-45 cookies.