Frozen Grapes

I got the recipe for candied grapes from my friend Kristie. They are super simple.
1 box grape jello
Grapes
pour jello (powder) in a ziploc, pour grapes in bag, shake. Now the fun part. Put them in the freezer for a couple of hours or days. These are yummy sweet and sour snack. The kids love them. They are a great snack on a hot day.

Oreo Torte

Cookies n Cream Torte
1 package devil’s food cake mix
1 1/3 cups water
½ cup vegetable oil
3 cups eggs
6 Oreos ( I used generic of course) crushed
12oz cool whip thawed
1. Heat oven to 350. Grease two round pans
2. Beat all ingredients together
3. Bake 27-33 minutes, let cool
4. Fold cookies into cool whip
5. Layer cake, cool whip, cake cool whip and then sprinkle the top with crumbled Oreos

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Muffins
1 – 1/4 cups quick-cooking oats
1 – 1/4 cups milk
1 egg
1/2 cup vegetable oil (I used melted butter)
3/4 cup brown sugar (packed and divided)
3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup nuts(I used walnuts – but pecans would be wonderful also)
1 – 1/4 cups flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
In a medium bowl combine the oatmeal and milk; allow to stand for 15 minutes. Grease or line muffin tin with paper liners.
Stir egg, oil, 1/2 cup brown sugar, chocolate chips, and 1/2 cup nuts into the oat and milk mixture.
In a large bowl combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add the oatmeal mixture to the flour mixture, stirring until just moist.
Fill each muffin cup 2/3 fill.
Combine the remaining brown sugar and nuts, sprinkle on top of the muffins.
Bake for 20-25 minutes.
I copied this recipe from Melinda at Chocoalte Lady Dishes

Captain crunch chicken tenders

I learned about this chicken strip recipe from My Little Life. Such a easy recipe. It is the basic chicken tender only instead of coating in bread crumbs you crush up a box of Captain Crunch and coat in it. My children are in love. They could not eat it fast enough. I thought it was a little too sweet but they loved it.

Black Bean Brownies

I can not believe I forgot to take a picture of this. I guess I was trying to be sneaky. Let me just say my son has not eaten a fruit or veggy in over 10 years so this was a BIG thing.
1 can black beans (rinse them, put back in the can and fill with water to coat beans, then put in mixer and puree them)
1 box brownie mix (no oil or egg or water)
mix together and bake according to the box
They must be good because each of my children ate four before I stopped them and even Michael asked if I would make them again.

home made poptarts

I know I have done this before but this time we made our own pasty shells and WOW so yummy.

We have made home made poptarts several times. I have bought pre made pastry shells and cut them which are quick and easy but pricey. This time I made Pioneer Woman pasty dough. These freeze great and then you just plop them in the toaster.

strawberry jam or any other flavor you like. Our favorite is to coat in butter and then put brown sugar on them.
1. roll out dough and cut into squares
2. i put my dough on parchment paper and then put jam on top of pasty, layered with another pastry
3. bake 350 for 10-12 minutes
4. i took them off the parchment paper as soon as they come out of the oven so that the jam that had come out of the sides would not have time to harden
5. I did add a powder sugar icing to the top
These turned out better than I thought. I can not wait to get moved and re try them and try to freeze them

Cakes

I wish I could find the blog that I found this idea from to give proper credit, SHOOT I just remembered maybe it is on my blog somewhere. I will make you a deal the first person to find it will when a camera strap cover for FREE. Okay, I love making these cakes because they come out so pretty. But honestly they are pricey to make. That is until this week when my friend Amber made a smores one. This one is cheap and easy
1 yellow cake mix
1 can chocolate frosting
1 package of graham crackers
1 pack of mini marshmallows
a little bit of chocolate syrup for the top.
ooh so yummy. The next one I want to make is with colored licorce (how do you spell that) and then put jelly beans on the top.
Do you have any ideas of cute cakes that could be made without busting the budget

Cooking

Hello! Hello! Anyone out there? Okay I am going to assume you are wondering what I do every day. Some days we do school some days we sleep (just teasing). Some days like today we spend the day in the kitchen. I love to cook; I love to cook for other people. Once a month or so I am given the joy of making breakfast for our church which is about 60-75 people. Since tomorrow is a busy day I thought I would get it done today.

Okay, I kind of lied. I wanted to do it today because I will be busy tomorrow but also because my hero was home today to help me and I love working with him.
I want to tell you about this wonderful recipe we have (well pampered chef has). Take a white cake mix and pour in a bowl (no egg or oil or water, just the cake mix) add a can of pie filling. Mix and bake according to package. So today we made a blueberry with white cake mix, cherry with white cake mix, peach with white cake mix, and apple with white cake mix and cherry with chocolate cake mix. And then since I had my hero here we made 150 JUMBO cinnamon rolls. Thank you, Pioneer Woman. Then I made 6 pie shells with egg casseroles and one 9*13 egg casserole. I will also have French toast sticks and sausage. I think it will be enough. Part of the cinnamon rolls are for a friend and part are for my freezer. I cleaned as we went and can now wake up to a clean kitchen.
Do you have any quick and easy recipes? If so will you share?

Rice Krispy Treat

Ingredients:

•3 tablespoons butter or margarine
•4 cups miniature marshmallows
•1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
•1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
•5 cups rice cereal
•1 cup candy corn; divided use
•Halloween sprinkles
Directions:

1.Line a 9 x 13-inch baking sheet with aluminum foil or parchment paper and spray with non-stick cooking spray.
2.In large saucepan, melt butter over low heat and stir in pumpkin pie spice; add marshmallows and stir until completely melted; remove from heat and stir in the vanilla.
3.Add rice cereal and stir until well coated; fold in 3/4 cup candy corn. (It helps to spray your stirring spoon with non-stick cooking spray.)
4.Using a spatula sprayed with non-stick cooking spray, press the mixture into the prepared pan. Press remaining 1/4 cup candy corn into the top of the rice cereal bars and top with Halloween sprinkles. Cool for 2 hours and cut into 18 bars.

I got this recipe from She knows It has just enough pumpkin taste to make it yummy.

Pumpkin Rolls

Ingredients
1 cup milk
1 1/2 cups pumpkin puree
1/2 cup white sugar
1/4 cup butter, melted and cooled
2 teaspoons salt
1 (0.6 ounce) cake compressed fresh yeast
5 cups bread flour
Directions
1.Warm the milk in a small saucepan until it bubbles, then remove from heat. Let cool until lukewarm.
2.In a large bowl, combine milk, pumpkin, sugar, butter, salt, yeast and 2 cups flour; stir well to combine. Stir in the remaining flour, 1/2 cup at a time, beating well after each addition. When the dough has pulled together, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, about 8 minutes.
3.Lightly oil a large bowl, place the dough in the bowl and turn to coat with oil. Cover with a damp cloth and let rise in a warm place until doubled in volume, about 1 hour.
4.Divide the dough into four equal pieces, divide each of these pieces into four pieces and then divide each of these 16 pieces in half to make 32 pieces. Form each piece into a round and place on lightly greased baking sheets. Cover the rolls with a damp cloth and let rise until doubled in volume, about 40 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
5.Bake in preheated oven for 10 to 15 minutes, or until golden brown.
I found this recipe on allrecipes and it says Karen Rummer submitted it.

Pumpkin muffins

Did I tell you I bought 195 pounds of pumpkin a couple of weeks ago. I love pumpkin muffins. I have some goals this week. Pumpkin cookies, pumpkin cheesecake (after my epic fail the last time) pumpkin butter to give to friends (already have some done). Maybe pumpkin fudge. I have already made tons of pumpkin bread and muffins and even pumpkin muffins.
I have tried several recipes for muffins and have loved most of them. Today I decided to go to one of my favorite cookbooks. Do you have a favorite cookbook. I love my MOPS cookbook. I found a recipe for pumpkin muffins that was submitted by my good friend Tammy who I have not seen in years. So today I made pumpkin muffins and thought about my friend Tammy and how we use to go walking. It was a comical act because normally we would push a double stroller and have kids running around too. We both babysett. Tammy kept Michael while I deliver Faith. Bless her heart I do not know what was going on with Michael but every time he went to her house he broke something. I felt so bad. It is hard to believe that we have gone from MOPS to her having a child in college. Anyways, I guess I should give you the recipe because it is a great one and easy to make into bread instead of muffins.
5c flour, 4c sugar, 4t soda, 1t salt, 2t cinnamon, 1t cloves, 1 c oil, 1 large can (or 2-16oz cans, I used 4 cups of my own) pumpkin, 1/2 c nuts (I did not add nuts)
1. sift dry ingredients together (oops, forgot this part)
2. add oil and pumpkin
3. it makes 18 jumbo muffins or 3-4 loaf pans
bake at 350 for 20 minutes.
oh man, these are yummy. I can not wait to have them for breakfast. They are also going to make great Christmas gifts. I like to make them in jumbo pans.

Pizza dough

This weekend are keeping a friends children. Ages 13, 9 and almost 2. I love keeping extra kids. I tend to bake more when extra kids are here. So this weekend I made pumpkin muffins and chocolate chip cookies and we let the kids make homemade pizza's. We make homemade pizza's fairly often. I got the recipe from my friend Becky. The friend who I always call for my favorite recipes. This time we let the kids make there own. It is a easy recipe.
1T yeast warm water 3/4 c hot water
2T oil
2T sugar
1/8 t salt
3 cups flour
makes 1 pizza
15 min rise
450 dough prick 3 minutes
bakes 7-9

Chocolate Chip Cookies

I love blue bonnet chocolate chip cookies. Today I made them but instead of using chocolate chip cookies I used a shaved up hershey bar that a friends son won at boy scouts. The recips is so easy to be doubled. I doubled it and got 9 dozen good size cookies.
2-1/4c all purpose flour
1t baking soda
1t salt
1 cup blue bonnet butter
1 cup sugar (oops had to send my hero out for the second time today to pick up something)
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2t vanilla
2 cups semi sweet chocolate chips (I used 2 cups m&m's and 2 cups shredded hershey bar)
bake at 375 for 12-14 minutes

Pumpkin Butter

Yum, Yumm and yummier is all I can say. Did I tell you that I cooked 195 pounds of pumpkin this fall. YUMMY! My bestest friend (you know my BFF) called me and gave me this recipe. She had tweeked it a little and then I tweeked it a little more. My hero liked it with more sugar.
The recipe is super simple
1. pull out your crock pot
2. plug it in (for those of you who have not had caffeine yet I thought I would remind you)
3. pour 7 cups pumpkin, 1/2 cup apple sauce or apple juice (I used apple sauce), 2t ground ginger, 1t ground cloves, 4t cinnamon, 2t nutmeg and then here is where it gets interesting. Add 2 cups brown sugar or 1cup brown sugar and one cup white sugar. We ended up using one cup brown sugar and probably 3 cups sugar.
4. stir and let set in crock pot for 2-4 hours. We stirred tasted and maybe added more sugar ever 30 minutes or so.

Did I tell you this was so yummy. I have used it on pancakes and toast and biscuits and tomorow I am going to show you how I used it in cookies. Oh man this is yummy. I honestly have made 3 batches of it. It makes a great thank you gift.

Apple butter whoopie pies

I have a new blog I am enjoying. The blog is cookies and cups. A couple of weeks ago she posted a recipe for Apple butter Whoopie Pies. I made them and WOW, my husband said that these are definitely the best ever. I used my friend Melly's homemade apple butter. Then when I ran out of apple butter it dawned on me. I could make these using my homemade pumpkin butter and guess what they were still WOW. This is definitely my favorite cookie of the season. The recipe was really easy to follow.
1/2 cup room temp. butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 cup apple butter or pumpkin butter in my case
1 t. baking soda
1 t. baking powder
1 t. cinnamon
pinch nutmeg
1/2 t. salt
2 cups all purpose flour
Preheat oven to 350
bake 15 minutes, She recommends using parchment paper and I agree. But mostly because I am lazy and do not want to clean a pan.
The frosting is super easy too.
1/2 c. room temp butter
1 t. cinnamon
3 c. sifted powdered sugar
2 T. milk
1 t. vanilla
Cream butter in mixer until smooth.
Slowly add powdered sugar and cinnamon.
Beat until combined.
Add vanilla and milk.

Potato Candy

Have you ever heard of it? Have you tasted it? If not let me just say I am sorry because you are missing out. I was introduced to potato candy by my mother in law. It is so yummy and so easy and cheap. Oh and the best part, it uses left over mashpotatoes.
Mix 3 tablespoons and 1 teaspoon mashed cooked potatoes, 1 tablespoon and 2 teaspoons butter, 1-3/4 teaspoons milk, 3/4 cup and 1 tablespoon and 1 teaspoon confectioners' sugar together. Roll out like a pie cinnamon rolls. Then spread
1-2/3 cups peanut butter over it and roll up like cinnamon rolls. Put in fridge and let chill. Then slice and serve and EAT. oh man this is the yummiest thing ever. No baking or heating the house.

Pumpkin butter

I froze 195 pounds of pumpkin this year and am thrilled about it. I have made a ton of pumpkin butter. I have made pumpkin muffins and pumpkin whoopie pies. I made pumpkin cheesecakes which flopped. Last year I made pumpkin syrup and forgot about it until recently. I also made pumpkin rolls that were awesome.
Today I want to show you the yummiest pumpkin bread. It is so simple and can easily be made into muffins. I love to make jumbo muffins so I do not have to feel guilty about eating 2 (or ten) regular muffins.