Monday Motivation (breakfast mealplan)

  Let's do another week of breakfast.  Breakfast meal plans are super easy for me.  I usually have all the ingredients for multiple meals, it's one meal that is appreciated by everyone in the house and I like the start of a new day.


Monday: pancakes
https://pocketchangegourmet.com/old-fashioned-homemade-pancakes/

Tuesday: eggs and toast
No recipe necessary! Just keeping it simple. I would even make an omelet but, the little people won't eat that.

Wednesday: muffins
https://www.craftsy.com/cake-decorating/article/carrot-cake-muffins/

Thursday: coffee cake 
This recipe is from my recipe box and doesn't use the Bisquick mix I have seen posted.  It used flour.

Friday: donuts
https://www.lovefromtheoven.com/valentines-day-donuts/


 There you go! That's what will be starting our mornings with! What is your morning plan?

Monday Motivation (Breakfast menu)

  They say breakfast is the most important meal of the day!  Who am I to question that?  So I will just eat it and go on with my day.

  I have found that we can stretch milk by adding hot meals to our week.  The kids don't complain about cereal everyday but a little variety is nice. Thankfully most breakfast items are eagerly accepted.

  This is our breakfast meal plan for the week!

Monday: Waffles
https://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/waffles/f4760054-72a9-4316-9377-f636dd58bc8e

Tuesday:
Egg and cheese quesadilla

Wednesday:
French Toast

Thursday: Muffins
https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/basic-banana-muffins

Friday:Yogurt

  Planning breakfast doesn't have to be hard.  I think it's way easier then dinner plans but, that's not the point.  The point is planning makes life so much easier, offers variety and challenges me with new recipes sometimes.

  A lot of people have a busy morning.  On a slow, easy going morning what do you make for breakfast?  What's your favorite breakfast?

Weekly Menu 8/21-8/24

  This shrimp plate was from a couple a weeks ago but, I may have to put it on the menu again soon.  Everyone liked it.

  This week I guess pasta is the word of the week.  Although one day I'm going to try to make the Zucchini pasta!  I did a run through of my pantry items think I have my ingredients organized for this week and next but, for some reason I'm second guessing myself so we shall see.  I'm not sure I'm feeling the days I have specified but that's ok. The menu is planned and I can switch the days around because the hard part is over.

Monday
Sausage and pasta
https://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/cheesy-sausage-and-penne-casserole/cd8bd617-a2e6-489b-8794-b4a10292e8cc

Tuesday
Meatless
Zucchini pasta
http://www.inspiredtaste.net/29992/garlic-zucchini-pasta-recipe/

Wednesday
Chicken and pasta
http://www.lovebakesgoodcakes.com/2014/04/fiesta-ranch-chicken-pasta-bake.html?m=1

Thursday
http://www.delish.com/cooking/recipe-ideas/recipes/a53698/shrimp-fried-rice-recipe/

  Happy eating everyone! My dinners are planned now off to plan something else!

  If you could have your favorite meal tonight what would it be? Or where would it be?

Banana Peach Non-Dairy Frozen Treat

  Today we are going to try an edible delight! I had a peach last night that was the best piece of fruit I have had in a while. The first bite was so juicy that I knew I was about to enjoy the rest of the fruit for the next 15 minutes.  I dragged the consumption out!  I took a bite, sat it down, came back from another and sat it down until sadly it was gone. No worries though because there were 4 more in the bag and No one else knew how good they really were.

  I have made the infamous non-dairy ice cream with bananas before but today I raised the bar! I added peaches!

2 ingredients and a food processor is all I used in addition to the freezer.

1 frozen banana

1 ripe peach

1. Blend the frozen banana in the food processor until smooth and creamy.

2.  I then refroze the creamy banana for a half hour.

3. Slice up some of your peach!  After I sliced a side I actually only used a tablespoon of the peaches for my 1 banana.

4.   Add your spoonful of peaches to the creamy banana blend together again and add it back to freezer for a couple hours or until it's reached a texture to your liking.

  Your healthy 2 ingredient non-dairy frozen dessert is done! Grab a spoon and dig in.  Now this is only one serving so if you don't want to share eat it when the kids are in bed! Or double the recipe and offer a healthy treat to the kids too.

  How else do you stay cool in the summer if not with a frozen treat?

Chocolate Banana Smoothie with peanutbutter

  I am a breakfast person.  I wake up and I'm ready to eat.  Unlike my kids whom wake up ready to eat but sometimes it's because they skipped dinner based on personal preferences.

  I cook/prepare a variety of items for breakfast.  Sometimes the meal is cereal or oatmeal but I'm ok whipping up pancakes, waffles or muffins too.  I also like to make smoothies.

  Smoothies are hit or miss with the kids.  Sometimes I actually win getting fruits and vegetables in them this way sometimes the taste gets them straight out the gate.  I remember making a spinach one but my daughter had seen me put strawberries in prior to the spinach. She asked why is it was green?  I lied and said because strawberries turn green when blended sometimes. Hmmm. She has this hate with green things: broccoli specifically.  I will tell you what. She drank that green drink and it was good. Bye, bye spinach do your nutritional magic!

  Today was a banana smoothie with peanut butter.  This recipe was dairyfree but you could easily change milk in place of my substitute. Skipping the peanutbutter is not a big deal either.

1 frozen banana
1 cup of chocolate almond milk
1 T peanut butter

Blend it all together.   Depending on how many mouths are tempted to drink or try it, I may think it out with more milk.  I like thicker smoothies.

  I find it to be sweet enough based on the almond milk so I don't add any extra sweeter but you could add a tablespoon of syrup or honey.

 
Bottoms up! Try a glass of this to accompany your next breakfast or in place of eating if your in a rush!  Do you drink smoothies what's your favorite blend?
 

Crayon Candles (diy)

  I have posted my box of crayons before.  I can't recall when it started obviously it didn't happen overnight but let me stand back and admire this box of crayons with endless possibilities.

  Thanks to Google and Pinterest we have the ability to type in a project and be provided with images and directions on how and what go make with anything.  Enter my idea to make crayon candles.

  This is an easy craft for you to make.  As you can see from my box of crayons there are a variety of brands in there.  I can not comment on which brand worked better or which didn't.  In my box are name brand crayons as well as generic crayons and those crayons you get from restaurants (I may be a hoarder).  So with that last statement I just said if you want to make one of these you can collect from the restaurants or just buy a few boxes.

  For this project you need crayons, a twine and glass jar.  Choose your crayon color combinations.  I planned on doing a wave of colors so I choose a few colors versus a solid color.

Of course you need to peel them and choose your pattern if your using more then one color.

This is a good easy step for little fingers if they want to help you!

I used a empty clean soup can to melt the crayons.  Reuse at its finest.   Fill a pot with water and bring it to a boil.  Add your crayons to the can.  I  melted my lighter colors first.  You see I'm using tongs to grab the HOT can and then I poured it into the glass jar after it was thoroughly melted.

I used twine that after much research was comfortable with this choice versus buying anything in particular.  You need to prepare the twine wick prior to use.  To prepare the wick you need to coat it several times with wax.  Dip it in wax, let it dry and redip.   

You will need to secure the wick to the bottom of the jar.  I added the wax slowly and held the wick in place until the wax dried.  There are different ways to use this including attaching the top to a chopstick and dangling the wick to the bottom.

After your wick is set continue adding your other wax colors.  You can see my jar was small and I only used 4 crayons per color.

It looks like a candle, works like a candle and in all senses it is a candle.  This is a super easy project to make.  A great personal gift to make for the holidays.  Pick up some glass jars at the thrift store, dollar store or reuse old baby food jars or items you may have on hand.  Make them one color or mix them up.  

I had fun making this project and look forward to making a couple more in different ways and shapes.

#nablopomo 

I tried it!

  

  As some of you know I have been conducting reviews so when I received these

the last time I ordered it only seemed fitting to find something great to try with them. 

My children love chocolate and have been asking for popsicles on a daily basis so I decided to put the two together.

 

I looked up chocolate pudding popsicles and decided on these chocolate-pudding pops!

As you have maybe read I do not claim to be a master chef, I am just an average mom with improving cooking skills that likes to eat!  I bake (can I put pudding in that category) in my opinion better than cook.  I do like myself some desserts.  I would like to say I am getting better and as I acquire more kitchen gadgets the sky is the limit!

The ingredients are very simple and you may have all of it on hand already.

Obviously chocolate is the star ingredient!

  The key to this recipe is patience as you stir the pudding while it boils.  

This is the most important part as you are making pudding and you need your milk and chocolate to thicken.

Is it ready, yet? Nope!

Now? Almost!!

Now? Yes!  The pot comes off the stove top to an ice bowl to cool down before we fill and stick them into the freezer.

Fill, (I will add that while I was filling them I noticed a lonely egg yolk that didn't quite make it into the ingredients- now I'm sure there probably was some importance to this but everything worked and tasted just fine).freeze and

Enjoy!!