Making Christmas Cookies

We LOVE decorating sugar cookies at Christmas time! It's been cold around here so what better way to warm up then baking. All the kids helped me prepare this batch. They all come running when it involves sugar! ha! Even though the cookies may not be the best looking, they were so yummy. Making memories is what it's all about

Christmas in the Kitchen

It's starting to look more like Christmas around here. (I'm going out of town for Thanksgiving dinner so I don't have to worry about cooking at my house.) I can start to begin making candy treats for family/friends. It's never to early since my days ahead are jam packed full of other holiday activities, works and school. Any chance I can get to get a jump on my homemade gifts saves me a lot of stress.

Treat bags of muddy buddy mix. They are great anytime of the year, but we made them for Christmas this time.



Pretzel Hugs ready to be a gift for someone.



In the candy dish, more holiday favorites.



And if the sugar treats don't keep up my energy, a Gingerbread Latte from Starbucks will! Yum!



What homemade treats do you make around the holidays?

Dinner Menu Planning

I'm a Mom that is busy, busy, busy! When the kids get home from school, I have to hurry cook dinner for them and then I'm off to my night job. I started planning our dinner menus when I needed to get more organized. This way I knew what to shop for that week and everyone knew what was going to be for dinner that night.

Here is my fridge where I keep it posted.



It's just a wipe off calendar.




I also have my kids school lunch calendar on our fridge as well. They are always asking what they are having at school that day. Then it's a question to either buy lunch or pack a lunch.



So that's my set up for basic dinner planning in my house. I wish dinner cooked itself, but it doesn't. Ha! This is as close as I can get to that for now. :)

Hot Chocolate & Coffee Station

In my house we drink a lot of hot beverages. So much so that I wanted to create a place in my kitchen that was set up for a quick cup of joe or hot chocolate. My kids love this idea. In the morning if I don't do it, they can make themselves a hot chocolate to go. I put out travel cups, packets of chocolate, sugar packets, and flavored creamers. All they have to do is pour in some hot water from the tea kettle. I decorated penny jars that I found at Walmart with some Halloween ribbon. I think I'll keep changing it for the season. I've filled one with single serve creamers and the other with hot chocolate packets. It's the pefect solution for the Fall weather and cold mornings we wake up to.





Pumpkin Spice is back! It's my favorite holiday flavor. Found this flavored coffee the other day. I have the creamer too so it's even twice as good.



These hot chocolates are for more special occassions but I'm loving them. If I want my hot chocolate served with a kick, I add coffee instead of hot water. My own little Starbucks cafe. Ha!

Yard Sales & BBQ's

Our weekend started out by going to the movies. The kids saw Toy Story 3 and loved it. I think every kid in town was there to watch it as well. The line was long outside and the theater was packed. It's funny how after each kid I've had, there seems to be a new Toy Story movie that comes out. For instance, when Brittany was born in 95 the first movie came out. Then in 2001 when Jared was born, the 2nd movie came out. His room was completely decorated in a Toy Story theme and even had a Buzz Lightyear birthday party. Now with the 3rd child here there is a 3rd movie. I find it funny that it just keeps coming back in style. It's a good thing I still have all the toys for the new little ones to enjoy.

Saturday I put out all my junk and had a yard sale. I did it alone and boy was it a lot of work. Thankfully the kids helped me entertain Maddie while I took care of the buyers. I had a great turn out. Thanks in part to my advertising in and around Walmart. I practically live next door and they just stopped at my sale on their way there. I almost couldn't stop the people from coming even though I was planning to rap it up around 1pm. It just gets so hot and we had a birthday party to go to that afternoon. I finally got everything back in boxes about 4pm and then had to race to a Cousin's 16Th birthday party BBQ. He thought he was getting a car poor kid. He got a car, it just was a Hot Wheels one. LOL That was a mean joke, but he doesn't even have his drivers license yet, so he can wait a little longer.





Maddie loved being able to crawl around in the grass while we were outside most of the day. She charmed my yard sale customers and I think I made a couple of extra sales because of her. Ha!




Jared helped me cook dinner with a good old-fashioned BBQ on Sunday! We had all the fixin's and I think everything tastes better using the charcoal brickets rather then those fancy gas outdoor stoves. I bought this little BBQ grill last year and it's still going strong. It's just the size for the kids and I.







Brittany wanted to make this Watermelon Cream Pie recipe she found and did all the hard work herself. In true Brittany style, she made them all cute with little faces.





Tomorrow all the Cousins want to go to the big water park so they can enjoy another HOT Summer day together. They always have the best fun.

That was our weekend! Hope yours was great as well.

Happy Birthday Robert

Today is my Brother-In-Law's birthday. He would've turned 36 if he were still here. Just two weeks after my birthday. Every year he would do the same thing, call me old when I had my birthday first. Then when his birthday came two weeks later, he couldn't talk anymore. It was a fun long running joke of ours.

I thought we should bake a cake today. The kids tried to decorate it in Roberts memory.





Here's a fairly old picture of all of us after Jared was born.



I also made his favorite meal enchilada's. He always would beg me to make these when he came over. So in honor of him I made a batch of enchilada's and toastado's to go along with it. A very Mexican birthday dinner because if he were here, we would be having this.



We miss you Robert!

It's What's for Dinner

Want to try the best Chicken sandwich ever? This is what I've been making and everyone just LOVES them. It's fast, it's easy, and delicious.

Start off with a package of pre-cooked Tyson chicken breast fillets. I find they are the best brand.



Next marinate those Chickie's in some Jack Daniels Honey Teriyaki sauce. (and no you won't end up drunk...Ha Ha) The flavor is really good and they make this bag that makes for easy marinating.



Cook chicken in the oven to warm. Add a fresh Kaiser roll to make the most delicious sandwich ever.



Serve with some waffle fries (or whatever you prefer) a nice cold glass of coke and you have yourself a really nice dinner. (Or lunch?)

Must Haves in my Kitchen

I thought I would show you what I must have in my kitchen. These are some of my favorite products and they make my life so much easier. If you haven't tried any of these, you must.

First up, Press & Seal. Much better than Saran wrap and clings on your dishes without any fuss. Reusable and doesn't get stuck together like plastic wrap does. Makes storing left-overs in the same dish you served it in a big help. I hate creating any extra dishes to wash, since I AM the only dishwasher in this house.



Next up, slow cooker liners. I make a lot of meals in my crock-pot and hate the clean up. So you just put this down in the bowl first before you add your ingredients. Cooks the same, just with less mess when it's all gone.



Third, I love pre-cut foil. It dispenses the perfect size and I don't have to mess with cutting. Brittany is always making little pouches of food to cook in the oven, so this comes in handy around here.



Cooking sheets! I am always baking something in the oven on these things. I found a baking sheet that I just love. Most that are sold don't have enough depth on the side edge to catch juices that sometimes run out. The commercial bake ware does make a big difference. They are deeper to catch more and just seem to be all around better. This is what restaurants use in their kitchens. Since I'm feeding an army now, I feel like I need to have more industrial cooking items. I picked up another Oneida one up at Wal-mart the other day.




Well that's all for now. I will be posting more of my favorite products and household items in a future post. Look for that to come soon. I hope you'll try these and if you have, what do you think of them?

Did you know?

Did you know they sell Panda Express sauces in the grocery store now? I just found this the other day. I don't know how long it's been on the shelves, but to me it's new. We don't have Panda Express resturants out here in Kentucky, (at least no where near me) and it's always something my kids and I miss from the West coast. We love their Chinese food and with the new line of sauces, I can try to duplicate it at home.



We made some rice and chicken to use the sauce with.



As you can see we've used a lot of this already. It's sooooo good. My kids even use the sauce to dip their chicken nuggets in. It's going fast. I better get some more and stock my shelves before we run out.



Look for it at your grocery store. I found this in the Asian section at my Super-Walmart.