Friday, September 28, 2012

Friday Favorites


Oh Friday, how I have missed you.


I am so glad to start the weekend.  This has been the longest week for some reason. 

I have found lots of good looking foods to try.  Here is a my top 5 favorite.

Tiramisu Bundt Cake
Tiramisu Bunt Cake

Carmel Corn Blondies Recipe | ASpicyPerspective.com #Halloween #Blondies
Caramel Corn Blondies 

Bang bang chicken kabobs 2


















Bang Bang Chicken Kabobs

Chicken Enchilada Spaghetti
Chicken Enchilada Spaghetti


Homemade Fruit Roll Ups

What has caught your eye this week? 

I am linking up with Finding Joy in my Kitchen.  Go check out what everyone else has pinned.



Monday, September 24, 2012

Pirate Party ~ Arrg

Last week I posted about the Princess Party that we had for my Jelly Beane. 

Well, that was a half truth.  Truth is, I really had a Pirate/ Princess party to celebrate Jelly Beane turning 2 and Butter Beane turning 4.

Here is the Pirate part of the celebration.  All of the food for both parties was milk free so it would be safe for String Beane's allergies.
















We had a watermelon shark!  I found the instructions on how to cut this here.  I just refilled the watermelon with seedless grapes and watermelon balls.




We ate on some orange pirate ships afloat on some blue jello.  Ahoy matey!
















 I also popped some popcorn and served it in some sno cone cups I found at Crate and Barrel.

Butter Beane loves cupcakes so I made some Duncan Heins classic yellow cake mix and made him some.  Duncan Heins classic yellow is milk free!  I topped it with some bubble gum flavored icing and a Swedish Fish.

 

We played some games.
















We dug for treasure....
















Wore an eye patch...






















Walked the plank...






















and made the princess walk the plank!

Finally, my little Pirate opened his presents!

He is just about the cutest thing ever!  Don't you think?
It was a lot of fun to combine the two parties and have one.  I only had to clean the house one time!  Bounty!

I am linking up with Metamorphosis Monday, Allergy free Wednesday and these other Awesome Parties.

Menu Plan Monday September 24

We are at the start of a new week!

There are some exciting events happening in the Beane house this week.

My little Jelly Beane will be 2 years old Tuesday.  How did that happen?  It was fast, I tell ya!

We also will be going to our first cub scout meeting on Tuesday!  String Beane is very excited.  Butter Beane will get to go too, so he feels all big boy.

Here is how we plan to feed our faces this week.

Monday
Taco Seasoned Ground Beef
Ground Beef Tacos
Rice
Fruit

Tuesday
Chic Fil A take out!   (Happy Birthday Jelly Beane!)

Wednesday
Marinated London Broil
Potatoes
Broccoli

Thursday

Orange Chicken Stir Fry
Rice

Friday
Chicken Pot Pie
Broccoli
Applesauce

Weekend

Steak Fingers
Green Beans
Fruit


I am linking up with Menu Plan Monday

Friday, September 21, 2012

Friday Favorites

What up?  It's Friday!  Woo to the Hoo.

The weather has been so pretty here, that I am looking forward to spending time outside this weekend.  I don't normally look forward to time outside, but when you are coming off a summer where it was 150 degrees everyday, you sort of get excited about 80 degree weather.

Here are my top 5 favorite finds for this week.


Oven baked chimichangas : I made with ground beef. Delicious and now a staple at our house.
Oven Baked Chimichangas
I think I can do these, sans cheese, and they will be yummy!


Lemon Chicken
This will be on my menu plan very soon.  I love lemon chicken.


Orange Chicken Vegetable Stir-Fry 
I might try this with beef.


Pumpkin Butterscotch Cupcakes with Biscoff Frosting
This recipe is combining all my favorite flavors!


Fluffernutter Blondies 
Who doesn't like fluffernutter?

What are your top 5 favorites for this week?  I am linking up with Finding Joy in my Kitchen.  Go checkout what has caught everyone else's eye.  

Monday, September 17, 2012

Princess Party for the Princess

Let me just start by saying that my two older children are boys.

I was beyond excited to find out that my last child was a going to be a girl.  It is even more exciting to spend time with her every day and see that she is a 'girlie' girl.

She loves to play with baby dolls and all of the accessories.  She loves to clean.  She asks for me to put a bow in her hair and she loves the color pink.  I love it!  And most importantly, she loves princess.  There is nothing in her world that a good tutu and some nail polish won't solve.

She will be two years old next week. {Sniff}.  We celebrated her birthday Saturday with a Princess themed party.


When I saw the recipe for this on I Am Baker, I swooned!  I am in no way trying to compare my cake to hers, but I am pretty proud of myself here.  Take one more look at it.


I used I Am Baker's recipe for Basic Butter cream and modified it to be milk free for my String Beane.  I will post the recipe with modifications at the end of the post.  The cake itself, was Duncan Heins classic yellow, strawberry, and devil's food.  They are all milk free.  Just bake them according to the box directions.

We had so much fun playing games.  First we played Kiss the Frog.  I put lipstick on the girls and they were supposed to be blind folded and try to kiss the frog on his lips, but Jelly Beane was not interested in being blind folded.












The children got their fingernails painted and then just played in the yard.  It was great day for a party.





We had some yummy girlie food.  We ate chocolate covered strawberries, mini bologna sandwiches cut out in flower shapes, sugar wafers, potato chips, and Neapolitan Cake.  I also threw in some Ring Pops and candy bracelets for some bling bling.

Everything we ate was milk free so String Beane could eat everything.  For the chocolate covered strawberries, I just melted some Ghirardelli semi sweet chocolate chips and dipped away.  They are milk free.

The bologna sandwiches were made on safe bread and the chips were milk free too.  I used Murray Sugar Wafers.  They are milk free.

To make the Neapolitan Cake, I followed I Am Baker's directions.  I modified her recipe for Basic Buttercream and made it milk free.  It was, hands down, the best buttercream frosting I have ever made!

Here it is:

  • 1 cup butter (I used Fleishmann's unsalted margarine)
  • 1 two pound bag powder sugar (about 7-8 cups)
  • 1 tablespoon good quality vanilla
  • 4 tablespoons milk (I used canned lite coconut milk, chilled)
  • dash salt
Instructions
  1. Put room temperature butter, vanilla, and salt into mixer. Add in powder sugar one cup at a time, alternating with the milk until you have used it all.
  2. If your frosting is too thick you can certainly add more milk. I found that this is the perfect consistency for me to pipe roses using the 1M or 2D tip.
I used a 1M tip to pipe my roses.   

I also used margarine strait from the refrigerator, not at room temperature. I think margarine is so much softer than butter, it works fine to use it cold.

I use some pink food gel to dye some of the frosting pink.  I bought a can of Duncan Heins classic chocolate frosting to do the chocolate layer.  It is milk free and I am lazy.

 
And she blew out 2 candles!

I love how everything turned out.

I am linking up with Metamorphosis Monday, Allergy Free Wednesday and these other Awesome Parties.

Sunday, September 16, 2012

Menu Plan Monday Sept 17th



 Here we go with another week.

We have well child check ups (with shots), soccer practice, dinner with friends, soccer game, a Sunday School party, and a Cub Scout kick off!  Whew!

Luckily, I have some meat in the freezer so grocery shopping is not something that I will have to do.

Here is the plan for this week.

Monday
 Country Club Chicken
Country Club Chicken 

 Tuesday

Goulash
Salad

Wednesday
TPW_0654
Beef with Peppers 

Thursday
Best Lo Mein Recipe | ASpicyPerspective.com
Vegetable Lo Mein




Easy Egg Rolls 

Friday
Dinner at a friend's house!

Weekend
Left overs

What do you have on your menu for this week?

I am linking up with Menu Plan Monday.  Go and check out all of the other menu plans.

Friday, September 14, 2012

Friday Favorites

It is Friday!  Woot! Woot!

I am so thankful that the temperature has settled down.  I don't know about you, but I do not enjoy it when it is 150 degrees outside.  I much prefer the 80 degree weather we have had this week.

This weekend will be full of excitement.  We are having a birthday party for Butter Beane and Jelly Beane Saturday.  I think they will both be so excited.  I mean, who doesn't like to dress up like a pirate and a princess and have people bring you presents?

Here are my top 5 picks from Pinterest this week. 

late-winter-picnic-11
Chicken Pasties
There is a chance that these could be a winner in our house.



 Cilantro Lime Shrimp
This is only mixing three of my favorite flavors.


Grilled Flank Steak
I had to throw in a healthy one.

Peppered-Bacon Twists recipe
Bacon Bread Twists
Who ever came up with this idea is my new hero.


Pumpkin Butterscotch Cupcakes with Biscoff Icing
Biscoff really does make everything better!


Sweetened Condensed Coconut Milk
This could solve a few of my 'milk free' baking problems.

I hope you have a great weekend.  I am linking up with Finding Joy in my Kitchen.



Monday, September 10, 2012

Banana Nut Biscoff Breakfast Cookies


Here is a secret...  I hate to cook breakfast.  H.A.T.E.  I mean, who wants to mess the kitchen up and have to clean before 9am?  Not me.  That is who.

I love to have breakfast for supper.  That is a delicious meal that we all love in our house.  But we eat it at night.

So I am constantly on the look out for some filling breakfast options that do not really require cooking for breakfast.  So far, I have come up with Sausage Rolls.  They my children's favorite breakfast.  A few weeks ago I ran across this recipe.  It was for Blueberry Biscoff Breakfast cookies.  Breakfast cookies!  Great idea, right?  It was genius sounding on so many levels.  Cookies for breakfast alone was a great idea, but then to have something that was healthy and did not require me to cook in the morning was ingenious.  I tweaked the ingredients to match what we liked and here is what I came up with.

Banana Nut Breakfast Cookies.....pure heaven.

Ingredients
1/2 cup margarine, softened (Fleishmann's unsalted is milk free)
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 cup Biscoff Spread
1 egg
1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 large banana, very ripe, mashed
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup semi sweet chocolate chips (Gharidelli is milk free)

Directions
In a bowl, cream the margarine, sugars and Biscoff until creamy, 3 minutes.  Add the egg and vanilla and mix for 2 more minutes.

Whisk together the dry ingredients and then add them to the wet ingredients.  Beat on low speed until just combined.  Stir in the pecans, banana, and chocolate chips. 

Using a cookie scoop, scoop the dough onto a cookie sheet.

Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes.

Let them cool on the pan for a few minutes and then move them to a cooking rack to let them cool completely.  Store in an air tight container.

 When you wake up in the morning your breakfast will be waiting for you!  

I am linking up with Metamorphosis Monday, Allergy free Wednesday, and these other Awesome Parties!

Sunday, September 9, 2012

Menu Plan Monday

I mentioned in my Friday Favorites about String Beane having his first spelling test.  He made a 105!  He was so excited.  Me too.  I could not wait to pick him up at school to find out how he did.  I am so proud of him. 

I usually don't really recap our menu from past weeks on the new menu plan, but I have to take a minute and give a shout out to the original poster of this Goulash recipe.  I pinned it a few months ago and just got around to making it last week.  String Beane LOVED this recipe!  I have never heard him go on and on so much about how much he liked eating something!  Other than some type of new candy.  String Beane is my child with food allergies.  So to be true, I plan my menu totally around him.  We all eat the same thing, so it is always safe for him to eat.  String Beane absolutely couldn't care less about food if he tried.  It is good that he feels that way, since food allergies are a huge part of his life, but it is sort of a bummer when I bend over backwards to cook for someone who is never impressed.  Enter the Goulash recipe.  When we sat down to dinner, all the little Beanes at well.  String Beane ate and ate and ate the Goulash.  I have never seen him devour anything like it before.  When he finally did finish eating he asked if I could pack the left overs in his lunch box for school the next day.  Let's just say, I recommend the Goulash!  It will definitely make it's way into our normal rotation.


On to this week.  I hope it is just as successful as last week's. 

Monday

Bacon-y Chicken and Rice
Green Beans

Tuesday
County Fair
We will eat Fair Food!

Wednesday
Sweet and Spicy Bacon Chicken
Sweet and Spicy Bacon Chicken
Sweet peas
Mashed Potatoes

Thursday
Pizza using Pioneer Woman's pizza dough.
Corn
Fruit

Friday

Crispy Shrimp Tacos
Rice
Mango

Weekend
We will be having Jelly Beane and Butter Beane's birthday party, so there should be plenty of party food for us to eat for leftovers.

What is on your menu for this week?  I am linking up with Menu Plan Monday.  Go check her out!

Friday, September 7, 2012

Friday Favorites


It is finally Friday!

String Beane has his very first spelling test ever today!  I gave him a practice test yesterday and he got them all right.  I hope he doesn't choke!  I can't wait till school is over so I can find out how he did.

On that topic, does anyone else have trouble getting information out of their children about what happened in school?  Everyday I ask String Beane what happened in school and he says "it was great" or "I don't want to tell you".  I finally started this quid pro quo method in the afternoon.  He tells me about school and I let him have his game boy time.  I think part of the problem is that I used to teach first grade, so I think I do ask a lot of detailed questions, but my goodness, I think he should tell me more about his day!

Any the who, here are my top 5 favorite finds for this week.  I hope you enjoy my picks.


Mini Cinnamon Rolls


Biscoff Granola Bars


Mexican Caramel Krispie Treats


Southwestern Egg Rolls


Deep Dish French Bread Pizza

I am linking up with Finding Joy in My Kitchen