S'mores Oatmeal

It has been getting a *little* cooler outside, and it makes me wanna bake and eat oatmeal. I don't care much for oatmeal but I have been doing a lot of experimenting and as long as I have some sort of chocolate in it, I am happy. Last night I saw marshmallows, chocolate chips, and oatmeal in the pantry. So I decided that I would try to make s'mores oatmeal in the morning.

It turned out really tasty and is about 300 cals for a serving :)

All I did was use old fashioned oats, added 1/4 cup marshmallows(leave a few out to top the oatmeal with), stirred till they were melted, added 1 tbsp chocolate chips(leave a few out for the top), then topped with the leftover choco chips, marshmallows and added a crumbled animal cracker on top. I would have used 1 square off a graham cracker if I had any but they animal cracker worked :) 

Yesterday, we went to get Ray shoes for fall and winter. I am not a huge fan of Kmart but they do have good sales on shoes. We got 3 pairs for him and boots for myself for only 50.00! Also, I discovered that my child wears size TEN. Talk about big feet! He is only 2.5! He has been doing so well with potty training. Within 10 days he was staying dry at naptime and pooping on the potty. It feels weird not having to wash cloth diapers anymore. He uses pull ups(cheap off brand of course) for bedtime.

David goes to the field tomorrow for a couple weeks so we won't be getting to the pumpkin patch till he comes home for a weekend. Then he goes back out for 3 weeks and will be back in time for my birthday :)  

Our plans to go to Tuscon in December will probably not be happening, as money always gets tight around this time of year. We *might* get another chance before we leave El Paso. Which is hopefully soon. 

Time to go do some laundry and spend time with the hubby before he leaves. Have a good day all!

Hobbies...A List.

So my hubby has been trying to find a hobby. I started running off ideas to him and realized that there are probably a gazillion(okay maybe not that many)hobbies that one can do. I decided to start a list here for anyone that may be searching for one :)

1. Painting
2. Drawing
3. Scrapbook
3. Cardmaking
4. Make Candles
5. Crocheting(my personal fav!)
6. Knitting
7. Sewing
8. Make Soap
9. Woodworking
10. Baking
11. Cooking
12. Breadmaking 
13. Make Jewelry
14. Learn how to build a computer/upgrade a computer
15. Do book reviews, movie reviews, restaurant reviews
16. Write a novel
17. Build model airplanes, boats, etc
18. Make a comic book

I will add to this list as I think of ideas...or if anyone wants to contribute, shoot me an email!

Homemade Cinnamon Rolls!

Mmmmmm! These were so delicious. Don't mind the glaze...I was too lazy to take out my mixer to whip the frosting. These things are damn tasty but are a bit of work. Worth it in my opinion!

I found the recipe here. My husband LOVES Cinnabon so I knew he would love these. There are a couple things I messed up on but they STILL came out amazing.

Pictures of the process for comparison if you decide to try these :)

The dough before it rose

The dough after it rose

Slicing the roll...I was gonna take a picture of the rolled out dough with all the luscious cinnamony goodness but forgot amidst the drooling :)

After rising a 2nd time and ready to go into the oven

Enjoy!!

I don't know if it's just my oven or what, but a few of these were really doughy on the bottom. This has happened to me before with canned ones so any advice would be greatly appreciated! 

Now onto my latest crochet endeavor:

An Angry Birds hat for my Godson! Took awhile and had me cussing a few times but well worth the finished product!

Back to enjoying my wine and to watch hubby play Resident Evil! Goodnight all!

Pepperoni Rolls

This pay period has been quite long, and when that happens our kitchen is pretty bare. So one needs to be creative :)  I had Hormel Turkey Pepperoni Minis and some American cheese. I also ALWAYS have yeast. I buy the jar and keep it in the freezer(a tip from my brother!) so it lasts how ever long I need it to. Anyways, the idea popped into my head to make some sort of pepperoni bread. I decided to use THIS recipe for dinner rolls and tweaked it.

I added the pepperoni in the middle(about 5 pieces), then some cheese. I left a couple without cheese on purpose. 

My little guy was of course helping mommy :)

Then I pursed the top of each roll to cover the cheese and pepperoni. Cooking spray went on top, along with basil and oregano, followed by a little bit of shredded cheddar. 

12 minutes later....

Yumm! They turned out very tasty. The top of the rolls tasted like Subway's italian herb and cheese bread. I recommend using regular sized pepperoni though and some more cheese. 

Now for my son's fall and Halloween art because I love showing him off :)

Thanks for reading and have a great day all!!!

Halloween Decor

I am in the fall and Halloween spirit! Time to start decorating :)

Awhile back I found a picture that had empty wine and beer bottles with yarn wrapped around them. I decided to try it myself using modge podge. I wish I had a picture because they were really cool looking but my lovely son broke both of them :(

Anywho, I had a couple wine bottles saved and was gonna wrap them in fall colors. Then I saw this awesome idea: spray painted wine bottles that look like ghosts and pumpkins! I didn't have spray paint, but I had orange yarn and black felt. Ding ding ding! Here is what I came up with:

I love it!! The black felt just clings to the yarn, so no adhesive is needed. I am in the process of making a ghost one as well. I will post when it's finished :)  This took me only an hour to do.

Homemade Bread

                       I have been trying to make bread and I finally got a loaf that turned out good!

It's a recipe for Classic Sandwich Bread, and although it doesn't look much like the picture on the site, it tastes wonderful! I don't have a loaf pan so I had to use a rectangular dish. I gotta make sure I buy one! Be on the lookout for some more bread recipes...I am enjoying making it. 

We have started visiting restaurants that we can only go to here in El Paso. We won't be here for too much longer so we are really wanting to get everything in! The last place we went was Kiki's. It's a little Mexican restaurant that serves AMAZING food. We heard about it on Food Network's "The best thing I ever ate". David had the brisket machaca and I had the chicken machaca. It consists of rice, refried beans, lettuce, tomatoes, a cheesy yummy sauce, spicy peppers, meat, and a fried egg on a tortilla. We are gonna miss that for sure!! Chico's Tacos is also featured on that show so we gotta go there soon! 

Baked Potato Bar

It's no secret that I am very frugal when it comes to food. I HATE wasting it. So we have a big bag of potatoes and I decided we would have a baked potato bar for dinner :)  It worked out really well!

To choose from I put out: black olives, pizza sauce, provolone cheese, shredded colby jack cheese, sour cream, real bacon bits, dried chives, parmesan cheese, butter, and nacho cheese seasoning. I always microwave potatoes for 5-15 min depending on how many I have. Then I put olive oil on them and sprinkle the skin with garlic powder(learned from Brandi!) Then I put them in a preheated 475 degree oven or if you don't wanna wait just use your broiler...but watch the skin so it doesn't burn. I like it crispy on the outside.

We had fun putting our potatoes together and here are the finished products:

Ray(on top)had a pizza potato with black olives, shredded cheese, and sauce. David(lower left)had pretty much everything. lol. And I had sour cream, chives(I LOVE chives), bacon bits and cheese. YUMMMMY! 

What do YOU put on baked potatoes?

Julia Child does it right!!

So my hubby and I had the tv on as background noise while we were going about our day and playing with Ray. I noticed that it was PBS and there was an old episode of "The French Chef" on. It caught my attention immediately. She was making omelettes. I know, I know, omelettes?! But seriously the way she did it was fascinating. I watched the entire episode which really consisted of Julia making omelettes the whole time. I decided to try it the next morning and they came out Ahhhmazing! I beg you to try this technique. I now need to buy her book and DVD episodes :)

Here is a video of the episode I watched:

The French Chef...Omelette Show

Aaaand...a picture of one of the omelette's I made:

BON APPETIT!

Sour Patch Grapes

So I have been down lately because we are trying to have a 2nd child and it is just not happening. Well I decided not to stress out about it and take care of myself. So I am starting back at the gym and eating healthy again. I am also gonna make time to get my nails done, my hair cut, etc etc. Anyway, I had a recipe for Sour Patch Grapes on my Healthy Recipes board on Pinterest. You all NEED to make these. Seriously awesome! And simple too! Buy some melon fusion Jello. Roll green grapes in the powder. Refrigerate. Eat. Go make them. Now.

Been Awhile

Time to finally update! Thanks to Jen for reminding me :)

I think it would be cool to compile a list of really cheap meals. My friends and I are always looking to shave a little money off our grocery budgets. I will start a list and put the recipes on here as often as I can. Also, if anyone has any cheap meals to add or even cheap foods that are versatile, please comment and I will add them :)

So here goes:

1. White Spaghetti(package of spaghetti or angel hair with butter or oil, grated parmesan, parsley, and garlic.) Sometimes I squeeze a whole lemon into it and add some garlic.

2. Brinner(breakfast for dinner)

3. Mac and Cheese with Turkey Hot Dogs. Yea, not a very adult friendly meal but super cheap and easy! I cut the hot dogs into slices and mix it into the mac and cheese.

4. Stuffed Peppers. I am not a fan of stuffed peppers, but maybe you are?

5. Fried Rice. We have this VERY often.(Simply buy some canned peas and carrots, make rice, fry it up in a pan with oil, crack a couple eggs into the pan and scramble them. Then add soy sauce to taste and garlic powder. EASY)

6. Stir Fry. My husband hates stir fry...lol. But he deals with it every now and then since it is so versatile and cheap to make. I usually buy cabbage to put into it because it is so inexpensive and filling.

7. BUY POTATOES. You can do so much with them. I use them a lot for a filling lunch...I just pop them in the oven with some oil on the skin along with garlic powder and use whatever I have on hand to top them with.

8. Suggestion by Jennifer Teope: Take 1 can salmon or 1 can tuna, a box of mac and cheese, and frozen veggies if you please(haha yea I'm a dork) and you got homemade tuna helper :)

9. Cabbage! David hates cabbage, but it really is a great thing to have around. I made roast cabbage with porkchops tonight and with the leftovers I will make pork stir fry. I still will have cabbage left and with that I will make soup :)


I will be adding to this list as I think of more meals. Again, please feel free to make some suggestions!

My Recipe Book

   So I figured I would share with everyone how I store all my recipes.

I got the binder from Dollar General as well as all the page covers, so it was quite cheap. 

I simply find recipes online and print them out, then tuck into the sleeves. Even if I don't know if we will like that recipe, I still print. Then if we don't care for it, I just take it out. 

This works really well for me because I like to have my recipes right in front of me while cooking or baking. The covers protect the paper from getting food all over them, and I can just wipe it clean. 

I also categorize EVERYTHING. My binder is categorized by, Breakfast, Lunch, Snacks, Chicken, Beef, Pork, Vegetarian, Pastas, Sides, Sweets, and Misc.

I <3 my recipe binder!

Stitches and Rice Krispie Treats

Well today has certainly been interesting. It was hubby's turn to sleep in this morning and I was making breakfast while our son played. All of a sudden I heard him freak out so I ran over to him thinking he just scraped himself on something. To my surprise, he had a DEEP gash in his knee about an inch and a half long! Poor guy was bleeding everywhere. I instantly ran to wake David and because he is a Medic, he had some gauze to wrap Ray's knee up in. We instantly left for the ER. They stitched him up and now he is doing great thankfully :) You wouldn't even know he has stitches if it weren't for the big bandage. He is his happy active normal self. This picture is after he got back from riding in his Power Wheels Jeep with his daddy so he looks flushed and tired because it was 102 degrees out :-/

Once we got our little guy to sleep we decided to make some Rice Krispie Treats! Here is hubby helping :)

I love this man <3

Pasta Primavera

Hello all :)

Today I made my version of pasta primavera. That's what I call it at least. I have no idea if it actually resembles real pasta primavera. Anyways, here is what I do:

My original recipe calls for:

*Whole milk
*Fresh spinach
*Cherry or grape tomatoes
*Mushrooms
*Garlic powder
*Onion powder
*Garlic
*S/P
*Canola oil
*Asiago cheese
*Parmesan cheese
*Flour for thickening the sauce

I almost always make a variation. Like today, I didn't have asiago but I had shredded mozzarella so I used that. Also I didn't have whole milk(we almost never have whole milk) or spinach. But I work with what I have.

First I saute the tomatoes, mushrooms, garlic, and spinach in some canola oil. I sprinkle some garlic powder and S/P on the veggies. While I'm doing that I start a pot of boiling water for the angel hair pasta. Then once the veggies are done I put them on a separate plate and pour about 2 cups of milk in the pan I used for the veggies. The measurements are not exact...I usually eyeball everything. I turn the heat to medium and add asiago and parm cheese. Again, no measurements, just taste it. Once it starts boiling, I turn the heat down to low and add some flour to thicken it up along with garlic powder, onion powder, salt and pepper. This time I added the juice of half a lemon and I really loved how it turned out. Oh, and of course add the sauce to the drained angel hair :)

So there you have it. This is pretty versatile. I almost always change it up.

Nature Collage

Since David is back, I no longer have a car during the day and Ray is starting to get antsy. So we went outside with his little elmo bucket, and he filled it up with leaves, plants, etc.

Sorry about the quality of the pictures...my camera ran out of battery life so I had to use my cell. So then I washed everything off since I knew there were bugs on them and I HATE bugs. 

He used a foam brush and modge podge to stick all his treasures on. 

I went over it again with the modge podge to make sure everything stuck. This would work a lot better with flat leaves. But that is not what he collected so I made it work :) 

He loves glitter glue so we added that and here is the finished collage:

I think it turned out quite lovely :)

Now I am off to get some laundry done and clean up a bit. Hopefully pest control comes soon to get rid of these ants that have been bugging us the last few weeks!

Mini Pot Pies/Buttermilk Ranch Dressing

So my internet is finally working well enough to make another post :)

 I recently came across this recipe for chicken pot pockets from, http://www.hungry-girl.com/newsletters/raw/1214 So I decided to try and make them. I got back from the grocery store and discovered that unfortunately I forgot to buy the large egg roll wrappers but had everything else and also had wonton wrappers that were in my freezer. So, I improvised. Here is what I came up with:

Mini Chicken Pot Pies!

                                                                   

The only things I changed from the original recipe is using the wonton wrappers instead of the egg roll wrappers. Then I placed a wrapper into a muffin tin, put the filling in, then added another wrapper on top, squishing it in the sides. Make sure you spray the tin with cooking spray first!! The one without a top is because I was short ONE wrapper...argh!

                                                             

So that is how I made mini pot pies :) I thought they were pretty yummy! And low cal too! I served these for dinner with a salad on the side as pictured. I made buttermilk ranch dressing to go along with it. The original recipe for the ranch comes from, http://www.skinnytaste.com/2012/05/oven-fried-pickles-with-skinny-herb.html. I did not have greek yogurt or white balsamic vinegar so I left those things out. I also added in dried chives. I would recommend the greek yogurt since without it, it's a little runny but not too bad. It still was yummy, and again, low cal! 

                                                      

On another note, my husband is finally back from the field! Came home a little early :) Now to get to work on a baby ;)

Darn you internet!

This morning I made baked kale chips, took pictures and was gonna update my blog. Unfortunately I soon discovered that my internet was down. They are sending a tech here tomorrow to get it fixed so I will have a few things to put up! I am writing from my phone by the way. Speaking of, I keep wanting to get rid of my smartphone and use a regular old cell phone. I spend too much time on it! It's hard to take the plunge though. lol Ray is napping and I unfortunately have quite a bit of laundry to get to, so I had better start :-/ I miss my hubby...he's been in the field for a couple months. Can't wait to have him back! -Jill

Intro

Welcome to my blog!

I got inspired to make this after I made some chocolate chocolate chip banana muffins from one of my favorite websites, www.skinnytaste.com. I often post on Facebook about what I am making for dinner, dessert, etc...sometimes with pictures. So I figured, "why not make a cooking blog reviewing recipes that I make." Well then I got to thinking, "but I also love doing crafts and fun stuff with my son, so maybe I should make a mommy blog." Well THEN I got to thinking, "or I could just make a blog about my life." I am choosing that option as I have quite a bit of interests and thoughts. I suppose you could classify this as a "mommy blog", and that's fine with me. I just ask that you give my blog a chance :)

So, I guess this is the part where I tell you about myself. I am an Army wife to my husband David of 3.5 years and a stay at home mom to our 2 year old son, Ray. Terrible two's is an understatement! He can be a handful, but is such a sweet little boy. We decided to expand our family, so we are currently trying to concieve! Wish us luck! My husband is a family man, and I LOVE that about him. He is just amazing. I couldn't have picked a better man to spend my life with. We are currently stationed in El Paso, TX.

My good friend Megan helped me come up with the name of my blog. So I have to tell her thank you again!

I love my life, my family, my friends.

Thanks for stopping by!!