HOMEMADE POPTARTS

 Mix together 3 1/2 cups flour, 1 tsp salt, 1 cup melted butter, and 1 cup plain yogurt.  Knead a  few times                                                   on a floured surface till it all stays together. 

 Get the cutest little boy you can find and have him help you roll out the dough and a well floured surface. 

                    Using a knife cut out to rectangles as best you can.  About the size of pop tarts. 
                                                       You should get 15-20 pop tarts.

   The recipe calls to use 1/2 tsp of jelly.  After enjoying one Cookie Dad & I agreed they needed more jelly.  So maybe a full tsp. would do it.  While making them I was thinking of the different fillings one could put in it.  Nutella?  Custard?  Peanut butter & jelly?   The possibilities are endless!

Find a top that is about the same size and place on top.   Seal the edges with a fork as you would around a pie crust.

                             Bake 350 for 25 min. or until golden brown.  Do your best to hold off temptation and    
                                                wait until cooled before enjoying. 

These were great for little helpers to help make.  Super easy and the house smelled so amazing!  You could freeze them and pop them in the toaster for breakfast, if you resisted temptation from eating them all. 

Hope you get a chance to make them!

Thanks to HeavenlyHomemakers.com for the recipe!

http://heavenlyhomemakers.com/homemade-healthy-poptarts/comment-page-2#comment-67036



HOMEMADE HOT COCOA

 If you have not made hot cocoa yet, I suggest you do so and soon!  Everyone loved it.  It was so creamy.  I used milk, not powdered.

 Here are my little hot cocoa makers.  Jackson's new favorite thing is to pull up the stool and help Mommy in the kitchen.  He does great and I don't mind his help at all.  He enjoys dumping the ingredients into the bowl.  Stirring is a good thing for him.  Abigail, she was just curious what we were doing.

These are the basic ingredients for the Special Hot Cocoa.  (very simple)

Let me know if you make it and how you enjoyed it.

http://amysfinerthings.com/specia-hot-cocoa

I found this at the web page above.  You can go to it or use the recipe below, which is the same.

Special Hot Cocoa

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

2/3 cups sugar

pinch of salt

1/3 cup boiling water

6 cups milk

1 tsp vanilla

candy canes (optional)

add cocoa ,sugar. and salt together in a saucepan.  gently add the boiling water and whisk together.  bring to a boil, stirring constantly.  simmer and stir for 2 min.  add the 6 cups of milk and heat but do not let boil.  take off heat and add vanilla.  serve with a candy cane for a minty touch!

Help!

HELP!

There is some strange black liquid oozing out of my amazing coffee maker.  What is it and how do I make it stop?

Is this going to take over my kitchen?  Its it on its way to my microwave?

Aaaahhhhhhh!

Having Fun

Guss who wants to play Mouse Trap?  

BIG TOP DOUGHNUT CAKE

My Mom gave me the Big Top Cupcake and Big Top Doughnut cake pans for a birthday gift.  Tonight we made the doughnut.  I had a box of chocolate cake mix in the cupboard and a box of Banana cream pudding.  I filled it with the pudding.  Then I just made a simple frosting with cocoa, powdered sugar and milk.  Everyone enjoyed it.  Jackson and Jamison couldn't wait for me to make it.  They looked at the box each day and asked me to make it. Carter, Quin and James each had 2 slices.  It was so easy to make.

Now I need to make the cupcake!

Garlic Focaccia

I made a Focaccia for the first time tonight.  It was super easy.  Bread making is time consuming and this was a breeze!  I over cooked it just a bit.  It still tasted great!  Jamison ate the most.  Carter dipped his in catchup??????? Yuck! http://goodcheapeats.com/2010/01/garlic-focaccia/  Hope you can add this to your menu soon.

What's cooking now?

                                                                    PIZZA QUESADILLAS

3 simple ingredients I already had in the fridge & pantry.  A jar of spaghetti sauce (free from Wegmans), mozzarella cheese, and flour tortilla shells.  Oh, so yummy!

 Here is the way I made them.  Add a tortilla to the skillet and add some sauce, spread all over.  Sprinkle on some cheese and add another tortilla.  Brown on both sides.  Smells like pizza. Cut into triangles and serve.

     
        Here is Quin enjoying one.  I asked him to smile and this is the face he made. Jamison & Kendall are in the back round.  They all enjoyed them very much.

Sunday nights I made a quick snack before the children go to bed.  We have a big meal in the afternoon when we get home from church which we call "linner"  Lunch and dinner combined, get it?    So when we get home from church Sunday night they need a quick yummy snack before bed. 

You could add anything to this just as you would a pizza.

Gonna try it?

Already made this before?

Happy Cooking!

NEW YEARS EVE

Our new traditions began on New Years Eve 2010.  I got this idea from a site I recently found, Life as Mom.  She has some amazing ideas.  I made a goodie bag for each boy to open throughout the night.  Each hour beginning at 8 P.M. they each opened a bag.  It had a small gift inside bought from Dollar Tree.  There was  a total of 25 bags. Seeing I have 5 boys.  I did not make any for Abigail, she just turned one a few weeks ago and  went to bed about 8:30 anyway.  The boys loved it.  They made sure to tell us when the hour came to open the next bag.  It helped keep them busy and happy while we waited for midnight to arrive.

Here is what I had inside.  8 P.M. - punching bag & a bouncy ball, 9 P.M. - candy, 10 P.M. - mechanical crayon & magic grow capsules, 11P.M. glow stick, 11:55P.M. - noise makers.

I found 2 kinds of noise makers.  First was the regular kind you would use for this Holiday,  They spin and click.  The other was a blower that sounded like a whoopie cushion. They were a hit.  My boys like these odd types of things. 

We did the countdown and cheered "HAPPY NEW YEAR"  It was so much fun!  The next morning Jamison asked if he was going to get some more.  This is a tradition that we loved and will continue to do every New Years Eve.