Wordless Wednesday

Instead of doing a spring trip to a waterpark as I had planned, we decided to do a stay-cation instead and visit the DuPage Children's Museum in Naperville. The kids had so much fun!!

You can see more Wordless Wednesday pics at 5 Minutes for Mom!

Tasty Tuesday - Pumpkin Muffins

We absolutely love muffins at our house! They are so nice to have around for quick breakfasts and snacks. They freeze well and are great to have on hand when we have overnight guests. This is by far our favorite muffin recipe:

Pumpkin Muffins

4 eggs

2 cups white sugar

1 1/2 cups vegetable oil

1 15 oz. can pumpkin

3 cups flour

1 tsp. cinnamon

2 tsp. baking soda

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp. salt

2 cups raisins

1. Beat together eggs and sugar in a large bowl. Add oil and pumpkin. Mix well.

2. In a seperate bowl, mix together flour, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Gradually add to pumpkin mixture. Mix until just combined. Stir in raisins

3. Pour batter into greased or paper-lined muffin tins. I usually use regular and mini-sized. I like to use my 1 tbsp. cookie scoop. 1 scoop for mini-muffins, 3 for regular.

4. Bake at 375 degrees. 18-20 minutes for regular sized, and 8-10 minutes for mini-muffins. Cool on wire racks. This recipe made two dozen regular sized and two dozen mini-muffins.

Check out more Tasty Tuesday recipes at Balancing Beauty and Bedlam.

Menu Plan Monday - March 7

Hope everyone had a nice weekend! Ours was busy...we're painting our entryway/stairway, so we spent some time on that. I had the lovely job of removing a nasty wallpaper border. Ugh. Wallpaper should be banned. Here's the plan for this week:

Monday - Cheeseburgers, Fries

Tuesday - BBQ Chicken Pizza. I use this recipe for the crust, and add chicken, mushrooms, red onions and red peppers. Since it's still so cold (bummer!!), I won't be grilling it, but just using the oven.

Wednesday - Pasta Fagioli Soup

Thursday - Undecided...hubby is taking the day off, and we are planning to go to the Children's Museum. L has parent/teacher conferences and Kindergarten readiness testing....so...hopefully, leftovers?

Friday - Out

Saturday - Chili...might try this recipes posted by my cousin on her blog.

Sunday - Couples Group, so something to share.

I should mention that I finally worked up the courage to make English Muffins last week and they turned out!!! My wonderful husband thinks they actually taste better than store bought. They are definitely cheaper!! I plan to make some again next week and will take pictures then. Baking plan for this week is granola bars!

Check out more Menu Plan ideas at I'm an Organizing Junkie.

Vacation Week Busy-ness

It has been a wonderfully busy week. L was off school on Monday and Tuesday, and it was so wonderful to not have to set the alarm for those two days!! We had a playdate at McDonalds on Tuesday, which was fun for L, but EXTREMELY frustrating for her little brother, who wanted desperately to play with the big kids, but is too small to keep up!

L on Valentine's Day...her most favorite holiday.

Next week *should* be back to normal with more regular posting. I did make two trips to Target this week because they have an AMAZING sale: buy 7 frozen food items, get a $5 Target gift card. I managed to match up some cheap items with a lot of coupons and ended up with a freezer full of chicken and vegetables (and a few pizzas too)!

Menu Plan Monday - February 21

It's the last full week in February, so I'm trying to be creative and make meals out of what I have left in my fridge, freezer & pantry. My 18-month-old is FINALLY starting to eat table foods, so I have the added challenge now of attempting to cook things that he will eat!

Monday - Making a recipe that is on the container of Philadelphia Cooking Creme that I got for $0.50 at Meijer last week. I'll share it tomorrow for Tasty Tuesday if it's good!!

Tuesday - Hard Shell Tacos

Wednesday - Saucy Franks

Thursday - Waffles & Sausage

Friday - Black Bean Soup

Saturday - Chili Mac

Sunday - Couple's Group...haven't decided what we are taking yet.

Check out I'm an Organizing Junkie for more menu ideas!

Wordless Wednesday

Z's first time playing in the snow!!

Check out more Wordless Wednesday pics at 5 Minutes for Mom.

Tasty Tuesday - Cream Puff Dessert

Another recipe out of the family recipes cookbook. I have yet to find someone that doesn't like it!! Tastes like a cream puff but so much less work!!

Cream Puff Dessert

Crust:

1/2 cup margarine

1 cup water

1 cup flour

4 eggs

Topping:

2 1/2 cups milk

6 oz pkg vanilla instant pudding (I used two 3.4 oz packages)

8 oz pkg cream cheese (I use low-fat)

8 oz tub cool whip (Low-fat as well)

Chocolate syrup, if desired

Sliced fresh strawberries, if desired

1.Bring margarine and water to a boil.

2. Add flour and mix well.

3. Remove from heat and cool slightly. Add eggs, one at a time and beat after each.

4. Spread on greased jelly roll pan. (I used a 9x13 pan.)

5.Bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes. (I baked it for a tad longer because I used the 9x13 pan instead of a the jelly roll pan. I would watch it during the last 5-10 minutes to make sure it doesn't get too brown. Don't worry about "hills" or "valleys" that may form while it bakes.) Let the crust cool completely.

6. Mix milk, pudding and cream cheese together.

7. Spread over crust.

8. Spread slightly softened Cool Whip over top, and place sliced strawberries about 2 inches apart. Drizzle with chocolate syrup just before serving. (Not sure why I didn't take a picture of the end result...sorry!)

Check out more Tasty Tuesday tastiness at Balancing Beauty and Bedlam.