Yogurt = Milk, well sometimes.

While making dinner or shall I say, "While scrounging up something for the family to eat" I discovered that we were completely out of milk. So the muffins I had planned on making were out of the question... or were they?

For this yummy recipe just follow the instructions on the back, but instead of milk use 1 small container of yogurt (any flavor).

Hot diggidy dog

Let's here 1 cheer for the first week of school. Hooray!!! I am glad it is over, unfortunately, kindergarten testing is next week. So, no school for my guy. Then we will have the first week of school all over again. I think we are catching on to this bus thing. We haven't missed it since the first day.

I am still trying to juggle school, dance, cleaning, cooking and everything else. The blog, oh the blog, is still here and I am trying to get back into the swing of things. I have a lot of crafts and idea's that hopefully will come together soon.

For now please enjoy this butterfly. The kids and I made these for the lunch the first day of school. I snatched the idea from the Gourmet Mom on the Go. Recipe here.

Mod Podge Some Birthday Cake

I have been working on making homemade Warm Delights with a box cake mix. (recipe here) I thought it would be fun to give as birthday gifts for friends, neighbors and co-workers. So I put this mix in a jar. To make the gift wrapping fun and to re-use what I have I grabbed small jars. You can use half pint or pint depending on recipe size.

Cut a 2 1/2 inch circle out of scrap scrapbook paper. Mod Podged onto a used, but washed canning lid.

I just Mod Podged the edge.

Then covered the top in Mod Podge. (Let's see how many times I can use the words Mod Podge in this post.)

Tie a ribbon with a candle. Include directions on tag.

Microwave cake right in jar.

Let cake cool before adding candle.

Here are a couple of other Mod Podge posts for this month. Click on photo for full post. (The bread box post is one of my favorites. Be sure to check it out if you are new to my blog.)




Be sure to check out other Mod Podging nuts at Xazmin's Mod Podge Mainia @ This Is The Year.

Use your noodle

A couple of nights ago I was late getting dinner going and needed something quick. The kids were already disappointed that we were not going to be eating out, so I needed something fun. When we do go out they frequently order Mac and Cheese which really irritates me. I don't like paying $4.00 for half a box of something sitting in my cupboard at home. So, I decided to to take a cue from my children and serve Mac & Cheese, but make it a little fancier than normal.

I used the packet of cheese from the box.

I bagged the regular noodles. Replaced it with 1 1/4 cup mini bowtie noodles. (next time I will increase the bowties to 1 1/2 cups.)

Follow directions on box.

I served crystal light in fancy goblets.



There you have it. It's the same, but different.

Easy as pie

This honestly is the easiest pie to make and it's the perfect dessert to cool down your hot days.

You will need:

1 can frozen juice, almost thawed (my favorite is limeade)

1 lrg. Cool Whip, almost thawed (you can use reg., light or even fat free)

1 can sweetened condensed milk (you can use fat free)

2 graham cracker crusts

Mix together first 3 ingredients.
Pour into shell.


Cover and freeze until firm.

Let sit for a few minutes before serving.

Eat fast so you can have seconds.

Mmmmm... Cookie....

Last week I had walked into a bakery and left with a Macaroon. It was so good I couldn't stop thinking about it. So I did what any other cookie obsessed women would do... I googled a recipe. The one I found was on Chef Keems blog. Click here for the full recipe and instructions. The only changes I made was to add Hershey's Mini Kisses to the batter.

I gave some to friends. That's part of my evil plan. I figure I most likely I will never loose weight because of my deep affection for food. So instead I am going to chubb up all the skinny gals. If you received cookies from me consider yourself chubbed. If you didn't, just know my plan has backfired since I ate most of them.

I am making another batch tomorrow for a family raffle. I am hoping to find cupcake boxes or something to wrap them in. I will get pictures to share with you.

A hint of mint

I hope you have tried my recipe for pudding and brownies. I posted it a couple of months ago. (here) Well, it's just too good of a recipe to just let it sit around without trying something new.

This time around I used mint brownies and mint pudding.

I do love the chocolate mint combination. Go ahead and give it a try.

Remember to leave a comment here to get entered for my give-a-way. There is only 9 entries, so the odds are pretty good. Please leave an email address in your comment.

Camping Cereal Treats

I not sure about you, but I go camping for the great food. Well, the more I think about it, that's why I do most things. Here are a couple of Melissa camping standards.

I am sure you have heard of Muddy Buddies or something similar like: Monkey Munch, Puppy Chow or Snow Man Dropping.

Here is my recipe:

1 Stick Butter

1Cup Peanut Butter

1 Generous Cup Chocolate Chips (I use Semi-Sweet)

12 oz. box Rice or Corn Chex Cereal

1 lb.+ a little more Powdered Sugar.

Melt 1st 3 ingredients in microwave, 1 minute at a time. Mix well. Pour over cereal. At this point you can put the mixture in a large zip lock and add sugar and shake. I like to leave it in the bowl I mixed it in (if it has a lid), add sugar and secure lid. Turn upside down and shake.

Shake it like nobodies business! When all cereal is covered you are down. It's at this point I put it in a Ziploc bag and then store it in the refrigerator. It is so much better cold!

This bowl of yumminess is Gooey Good Stuff.

6 Cups Crispix or Rice Chex

6Cups Special K or Total or Corn Flakes

1/2 Cup mixed nuts (optional)

1 1/2 Cups Coconut

Mix in a large bowl

Then Boil the following for 3 minutes in a med. pan.

1 1/2 Cups White Sugar

1 1/2 Karo Syrup

1 1/2 Sticks Margarine or Butter

Pour over dry ingredients. Let it lay on a cookie sheet for a couple of hours.

Easiest Dinner E V E R

My friend Suzy gave me this recipe a couple of years ago. All you need is: 1 package of frozen burritos(you can do as many as you want at a time)

1 can of enchilada sauce (size of cans depends on how many burritos you do at once. You can use any kind of burrito.Choose a good brand, if you buy inferior burritos, it will taste inferior. Place frozen burrito in bottom of pan. You can do 10 in a 13x9 pan. I chose a smaller pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Top with your favorite toppings, onions, sliced olives, cheese, sour cream, etc. I keep dried chives on hand just to jazz up my enchiladas.

Serve and enjoy. So cheap. So Easy.

Keep the bottle

I have a great BBQ recipe. The best part about it is you can use up almost empty bottles of Ketchup. It's a great recipe to use ground game meat. The next time you defrost hamburger and forget to use it, quickly whip up this recipe and freeze.

Grandma Weezes BBQ
1 small finely chopped onion
1 lb. Ground hamburger

Brown meat with onion, salt and pepper to taste.

1 Cup water (I add water to remaining ketchup to equal 1 cup. Add water to bottle and swish around to get all of the ketchup.)
1 tsp. Worcestershire
1/4 tsp. dry mustard
3 Bay Leaves or 1/2 tsp Basil

Add to meat and simmer until moisture is absorbed. Remember to discard Bay Leaves before serving. Freezes really well.

I used about 3 almost empty bottles of ketchup for this recipe a couple of days ago. Afterwards I washed the bottles. Now the kids have new tub toys, water guns and/or something to water the plants with.

While searching for a picture of a ketchup bottle, I found this web site. It's a Giant Catsup Bottle fan club. How funny! Be sure to visit the web site and become a fan!

Come back later for a Mother's Day Gift idea for the kids and Dad to make.

Yummy and Easy

Maybe this isn't the best timing for this post. Yesterday I posted about eating better and exercising. Today I post a dessert. Don't leave me yet, this is a lower fat version.

My sister-in-law brought this to a family reunion. It was so delicious.

You will need:

Brownies 13 x9 pan(I used brownie edge pieces)

Cool Whip 16 oz.(I used 8 oz.)

Prepared Chocolate pudding Large box (I used small)

You can cut this recipe in half. Really you can adjust any of the ingredients in the recipe. Instead of a pan of brownies, I saved all the edges from previous brownie parties in the freezer and broke them up to add to this awesome dessert. I know some people actually like to eat the edges, not me too dry. It doesn't matter in this dessert, the pudding makes everything okay.

I didn't have a pretty glass dish so I used a glass casserole pan. Layer all ingredients until they are gone. Cover and refrigerate over night for best results. This could also be made in pretty wine glasses.

I used light cool whip, fat free could be used. When making the pudding I used skim milk. Brownies off course are just wonderful brownies I didn't change the recipe. I am not cray you know. Okay, maybe a little.

Warning: this dessert is so very good!