Candy Bling!

It's Wednesday, so that means it's Works For Me Wednesday at We Are That Family. Today I'm sharing some candy bling that will work as a fun valentine.

I was strolling along in Hobby Lobby on one of my many visits there, and spotted this little plastic heart that opens up for $.99. Valentine immediately came to mind. I filled it with Valentine M&M's and tied on coordinating ribbon and added a bow for a cute and easy necklace. Fun and different. However, I would suggest maybe putting a couple pieces of clear tape so it won't pop open easily while little hands are touching it. My daughter thought the candy bling was super cute!

If you don't want to give it in as a necklace, you could always tie on a bow or embellish it however you like.

Funfetti Cookies

The other day Laci and I decided to try out a new cookie recipe, Funfetti Cookies. I like to try out cookie recipes and find new favorites, although I have had some major flops. This one was one of the good ones. I think it is also the easiest and quickest cookie I've ever made. Well, aside from refrigerated cookie dough, but I don't really consider that "making" cookies. Laci and I mixed these up in a matter of a few minutes. These do let you cheat a little by using a Funfetti cake mix. You can also use the Funfetti frosting with sprinkles to top them with. I didn't have that so I just used vanilla frosting and sprinkles I already had. This was Laci's main job. Frost and sprinkle. Mmmmm. They are very good. A party in a cookie! It's really like a sugar cookie with sprinkles in it. Tasty! Although, I think next time I will roll them in sugar before I bake them and see how that turns out. Enjoy!



Funfetti Cookies

1 Funfetti cake mix
1/3 c. oil
2 eggs
1/2 can Funfetti Vanilla Frosting

Heat oven to 375. In a large bowl, combine cake mix, oil and eggs; stir with spoon until thoroughly moistened.(I used my mixer) Shape dough into 1- inch balls; place 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets. With bottom of glass dipped in flour, flatten to about 1/4 inch thickness. Bake at 375 for 6-10 minutes or until edges are light golden brown. Cool 1 minute; remove from cookie sheets. Spread frosting over warm cookies. Immediately sprinkle each with candy sprinkles from frosting. Let frosting set before storing. Store in a tightly covered container.

Pinewood Derby 2010

This past Saturday Trent was in the Pinewood Derby. This was his last Derby since 11 yr. olds can't compete. The two weeks before it he worked hard on his car with some help from dad.Although, Will is insistent that Trent do as much of the work on it as he could. This is no "daddy did it" car. He cut and painted and even had a hot rod motor sticking up out of the front. It was a pretty sweet car! It was fast too! Trent got second place in the Webelo division and his car was voted Judges Choice! Way to go Trent! He brought home his trophy and it is proudly displayed on his desk. I love this picture of him smiling from ear to ear. He was so happy to place this year. You rock!

Valentine Teacher Gift-- Germ Free

If you're looking for a cute, different and useful Valentine for a teacher, try this embellished bottle of Germ-X. Teachers are always in need of this, so I'm sure it will be well received and the fact that it's super cute won't hurt either.

I've seen this idea all over blog land so I don't know who to give the credit to, but again, it's not my idea. All you do to is start with a bottle of Germ-X or Purell.(I like the Germ-X better because the bottle is clear and the Purell has a green tint to it)Peel off the labels as shown below. You'll be left with the sticky label stuff.


Use some Goo Gone to wipe off all of the sticky. You can find this in the paint section at Wally World. It will be with the wall paper remover and things like that.


Then embellish with some cute Valentine stickers and tie on some ribbons. Ca-uute!

A nice, clean Valentine!!

Brother & Sisters

Just some pics I took of the kids the other day. They were playing and being silly in the living room and Laci said,"Mom, take some pictures of us in the chair." So I did. I love it when all three of them play nicely together. I have to capture those moments! My two cutie girls and handsome boy.

Make Your Own Apothecary Jars

I don't know if you're a fan of apothecary jars, but I think they're so fun to decorate with. I have a couple of them in my bedroom and just added these little babies to my living room decor. I've had my supplies for these for a few weeks, but since we've had frigid temps here in Alabama(of all places) for the past two weeks, I couldn't get outside to paint. So when it got up to a nice 50 degrees the other day, I was all over this project. Love, love, love the way they turned out, seeing as they are handmade from a few different items. I wish I could say this was my sa-weet idea, but it is not.I saw this over at Shanty 2 Chic and just had to try it out. You can see their tutorial by clicking here, but I'll tell you how I made them. So stinkin' easy.


I used an unfinished wooden round base, candle holder and finial. All of those can be found in the unfinished wood section at Hobby Lobby. I also used a medium sized jar that had a silver lid. I spray painted the wooden pieces and silver lid with a few coats of satin black spray paint and then glued it all together with E-6000. All the pieces for both of them cost about $15. Not bad for two custom apothecaries.

Works For Me Wednesday- Baked Potato Pizza

It's Works For Me Wednesday time at We Are That Family, so I'm sharing a recipe for Baked Potato Pizza that works for me! I started thinking about what I could do with the HUGE bag of potatoes that I got on sale. Something different than just mashed and simply baked and I remembered a pizza I had eaten years ago. Although this pizza only uses up one potato, it is something different. My inspiration came from that piece of pizza from Matt B's. A little pizza joint across from campus where my husband went to college. We were still newly married while he was finishing up his degree and would go to Matt B's every now and then. They did have some good pizza! I think my recreation is pretty good if I do say so. The whole family ate it, so that's usually a good sign.


Baked Potato Pizza
1 medium sized potato, washed and sliced thin
1 pizza crust, (from a mix, homemade, pre-made)
1/3 c. alfredo sauce
1 to 1 1/2 c. shredded mozzarella
1/2 c. shredded cheddar
2 to 3 Tbsp. crumbled cooked bacon
chopped green onion, optional

Preheat oven to 450.Arrange sliced potatoes on cookie sheet and drizzle lightly with olive oil. Salt and pepper potatoes. Bake potato slices for about 10 minutes or until tender. Set aside. Spread alfredo sauce onto pizza crust. Sprinkle with about 1 c. of mozzarella and 1/2 c. cheddar. Arrange potatoes on top of cheese. Can sprinkle with more cheese. Sprinkle on crumbled bacon and green onions. Bake for about 10 minutes or until cheese is bubbly and crust is golden brown. You can also spread some sour cream on your piece of pizza as my husband did.

Cool Mint Hot Chocolate

Before I get to the hot chocolate, I just have to follow up with my post from last Thursday and give some props to the Crimson Tide. If you didn't know or maybe you don't care, but they did win their 13th National Championship Thursday night. So, Roll Tide Roll!

Now, to the hot chocolate. We had a fun day, oh I mean weather day last Friday and the kids were home from school. The weather men seemed to think it would be icy or snowy here, but neither happened. Although, it was frigid outside. To warm up we made Cool Mint Hot Chocolate. It was really yummy with that hint of mint in it.

To make it, I simply used instant hot chocolate. I usually add one more scoop than it says on the package to make it really yummy. Now for the mint. I stirred in 2 Andes mints to the hot chocolate. You can use more if you like a stronger mint flavor. Then I topped it off with some whipped cream and stuck in another Andes mint for cuteness. Sip and enjoy!

Made By You Mondays at Skip To My Lou

This is my first time to participate in Made By You Mondays so I thought I would link you back to what has been one of my favorite crafts,handmade flower clips.You can get the tutorial and see the clips I made by clicking here. Enjoy!

Go Bama!

Tonight is the big game. The BCS National Championship game between Alabama and Texas and I AM SO EXCITED! Can't wait until 7 p.m.!! In honor of Bama playing the Longhorns, we had beef for dinner last night(it was meatloaf). Get it. Longhorns-beef. Ha! Ha! Hopefully that's what Bama will be having tonight as well. Win or lose they're still my team. So, in the words of the fight song,"Yea Alabama! Drown 'em Tide!.......... Fight on, fight on, fight on men, Remember the Rose Bowl we'll win then.........You're Dixie's football pride, Crimson Tide!"

Leave Me Speechless Chocolate Cake With Brown Butter Icing

On Sunday we had the missionaries from our church over for dinner as we do every month. I like to have a nice meal for them when they come and a delish dessert. I made a Leave Me Speechless Chocolate Cake with Brown Butter Icing, a recipe I had found and been wanting to make for a while, and it did not disappoint........them or us. It is so moist and chocolatey(don't think chocolatey is a word. Oh well). The brown butter icing just adds a touch more sweetness to your piece of cake. You know how you eat the entire edge of the piece of cake first because it has all the drizzled icing goodness on it. Or at least that's what I do. It's really good warmed up in the microwave with a glass of milk, too. The icing makes a lot, so I think next time I will half the ingredients for that, but you could always find another use for the leftover. Really. Try this cake.---So good!



Leave Me Speechless Chocolate Cake
1 box devil's food cake mix
3/4 c. chopped pecans
1 c. semisweet chocolate chips
1 (4 oz.) pkg. chocolate pudding and pie filling
4 eggs
1 (8 oz.) container sour cream
1/2 c. vegetable oil
1 tsp. vanilla
Brown Butter Icing
1 c. brown sugar
1/2 c. butter
1/4 c. milk
2 c. powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350. Grease and flour a 10-inch bundt or tube pan. Combine the chocolate chips, pecans and 2 tablespoons of the dry cake mix in a small bowl. Set aside. With electric mixer, beat together remaining cake mix, pudding mix, eggs, sour cream, oil vanilla and 1/4 c. water until combined. Fold in the chocolate chip mixture. Spread in to prepared pan. Bake for 50 to 55 minutes or until cake tester or toothpick inserted in middle comes out clean. Cool in the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Remove cake from pan and cool completely.
In a medium saucepan, combine the brown sugar and butter. Cook over medium heat until butter melts and sugar dissolves, stirring frequently. Stir in the milk. Bring mixture to just boiling and remove from heat. Stir in powdered sugar and stir until smooth. Spoon over the cooled cake. *You can sift the powdered sugar before adding to the mixture to get a smoother icing. I used a whisk and whisked it in to get out the lumps in my icing.

Easy Chicken Parmesan Alfredo With Cheese Biscuits

Let me just start off by saying I really don't know what these pictures look like. They might look totally awful. I know they are of the pasta dish I made, but that's about it. Our monitor is in flashy, flashy mode right now and we have to get a new one, so I can barely see anything on it.

I came up with this simple dish after having something similar at Ruby Tuesday. It's the best thing I've eaten there so I wanted to recreate it at home. I think I came close. Theirs has a parmesan cream sauce and I just used alfredo, but it's all good. I also took a short cut with the chicken and used the Tyson breaded patties. Next time I will add a little dried oregano or basil over the top for a bit more spice. Overall, I think it turned out well and the whole family liked it.
Laci helped make cheese biscuits to go with. Those are always yummy. You can get the recipes below.


Easy Parmesan Chicken Alfredo
1 16 oz. box of ziti
1 26 oz. jar spaghetti sauce
1 jar alfredo sauce
frozen breaded chicken patties( I used Tyson)
oregano
shredded mozzarella

Heat all or some of the chicken patties(according to how many you want to feed)in the oven according to package directions. Boil pasta according to package directions. Meanwhile, heat spaghetti sauce and alfredo sauce separately. Drain pasta. Cut chicken pattie into strips. Layer a serving of pasta, a small scoop of alfredo sauce, small scoop of spaghetti sauce, chicken strips, a little shredded mozzarella and sprinkle oregano on top. ** This will make a lot. I just heated up the chicken as I needed it.

Cheese Biscuits
2 c. Bisquick
2/3 c. milk
1/2 c. shredded cheddar cheese
2 Tbsp. melted butter
1/8 tsp. garlic salt or powder

Heat oven to 450. Mix first 3 ingredients to form a soft dough. Drop by spoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 8-10 minutes. Mix garlic powder and butter ;brush over warm biscuits.