Pumpkin Patch Treats

 

Soccer season is over and we just had an end of the season soccer party for String Beane's team.  My job was to bring a dessert.  

I really did not want to make another trip to the store for any ingredients.  So I just pulled something together with what I had on hand.

I think they turned out cute.

I used Duncan Heins chewy fudge brownie mix and made brownies in a muffin tin.  Then I frosted them with the famous Crisco butter cream, tinted green.  And I stuck on a pumpkin candy that we had left over from Halloween.

Then I used some Pillsbury sugar cookie dough and made the cookies, according to the package.  Slice and bake.  I had some orange frosting, Crisco style, left over from Halloween.  I piped on the frosting in a swirl and then used some of the green frosting to pipe leaves and vines.

The little soccer team loved them.  I loved them too.  It was a win, win.  And a great way to use what I had on hand to make something special for my String Beane! 

I am linking up again at Metamorphasis Monday
and these other awesome parties!

Gobble up the Left Over Candy

We have a pill of Halloween candy lying around here.  A bunch of what we got was chocolate candy and candy that contained String Beane's allergens.  So, Mr. Homegrown and I have been "secretly" eating some when we thought the other wasn't looking.  There are candy wrappers stuffed all over the office and our cars!  Who are we kidding? 

I needed to do something to stop the maddness of the candy.  I saw a couple cute ideas on Pinterest that I decided to morph together.  It worked out great! 

First up was to get rid of some of the candy!  I found this recipe for Candy Bar Shortbread Squares and I gave it a try.  They turned out so good!  I was glad I had a plan to give them away. 

Ingredients



1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature (not margarine!)

3/4 cup packed light-brown sugar

1 teaspoon kosher salt

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

2 cups assorted chocolate candies or roughly chopped candy bars (12 ounces)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl, beat butter, brown sugar, and salt on medium-high until light and fluffy.

With mixer on low, add flour in three additions

and beat until combined (dough will be crumbly).

Press dough evenly into an 8-inch square baking dish.

Bake until golden brown and firm, 25 to 30 minutes.

Scatter chocolate chips on top of shortbread.

Bake until soft, 1 minute.

With the back of a spoon, spread chocolate evenly over shortbread.

Scatter candies over top and press down gently.

Let cool on a wire rack 30 minutes.

Refrigerate briefly to set chocolate, then cut into 16 bars.

Here is a close up of the yummy goodness.

Now I had to come up a way to get these out of the house without breaking the hearts of three little Beanes.

That is where the cute idea for the Neighborhood Thanksgiving Turkey came in handy.  Click over and grab a free printable of this adorable activity.  My little Beanes liked the idea of a surprise attack on one of our neighbors!

I bagged up the Candy Bar Shortbread in clear bags and tied them off with a green ribbon.  Then I printed off the Neighborhood Turkey printable.  Then, String Beane and I snuck over to our neighbors house when they weren't home and left the treat on their doorstep.

I will love watching all of the Neighborhood Turkeys make their way around our neighborhood. 

This was such a fun activity!  And a great way to dump some of the extra candy.  How do you get rid of your extra Halloween candy?

I am linking up at Metamorphasis Monday

and all of these other awesome parties! 

Menu Plan Monday November 14

Last week had some good meals and some not so good.  Some were no fault of the recipe.  I tried a new recipe, Popover Pizza Upside Down Bake.  The recipe sounded delish.  The pics looked great.  I tried to make it with no milk and bombs away!  Leaving the cheese out was no biggie, we are used to that.  Popover batter made with soy milk is a no go.  I do think that this would be wonderful if you made it according to the original directions.  Next time I might try this using a crescent roll topping or something.  Potential is there.  I also tried another new one with the Homemade Spaghettio's and Meatballs.  I used too much red pepper flakes for our tastes.  But I think I will try this one again too.  I think, now that I have made it, I can adjust it better for our family.  Everything else was a family favorite so it went well.

This week is a bit different for us.  String Beane will be going back to Duke on Tuesday and Friday this week for some in office food challenges.  I am excited and nervous at the same time.  We will be challenging pecans and almonds.  If he passes these challenges we will try peanuts in December.  Please keep us in your prayers on Tuesday and Friday.  Challenges are very stressful for me.  I am planning some easy and make ahead meals for this week.  They are all family favorites so everyone should be happy.  We'll see!

Monday

Shrimp Po Boys

Slaw

Potato Chips

Tuesday

Chicken and Wild Rice Casserole

Broccoli

Applesauce

Wednesday

We are going to eat at Chic-Fil-A before church!

Thursday

I am going to use this recipe as a guide to make Chicken Lo Mien.  I will let you know how it turns out.

Easy Egg Rolls

Friday

Spaghetti



Garlic Bread Twists

That is what I have on my menu for this week.  What is on your menu?  I am linking up again over at Menu Plan Monday.  Hop over there and check out what other's are making this week. 



Apple Krispy Treats with Free Printable

I first made these wonderful treats back in September for String Beane to take to school.  He loved them!  He loves everything Krispy Treat and so do I.  So I make them a lot.  Too much maybe.  But I really like the praise from my little Beanes, so I will keep making them.

Aren't they cute?  They are super easy to make and you can customize them very easily for food allergies!   Woot!

Ingredients

6 C. Krispy Rice Cereal
1 pkg. large marshmallows
3 T. butter (I used Flieshman's unsalted margarine)
1 small pkg. Jell-o powder, cherry or strawberry flavor
25 cola flavored gummy candies

Green fruit roll ups

Baking spray
Wax Paper
Red Food Coloring, optional

Directions

Place marshmallows and butter in a large sauce pan and heat over medium-low heat until the marshmallows are melted.  Stir in the jello.  If desired, you can add a few drops of red food coloring (depending on how "red" your jell-o is). Add Krispy Rice cereal and stir well. Spray hands with baking spray and roll mixture into balls (a little larger than a golf ball) and drop on wax paper.

After balls have set for a few minutes, use your thumb to press into the top to make an "apple" shape.

Add a cola flavored gummy candy for the stem.  Cut some green fruit roll ups into diamond shapes and stuff in there for the leaves. 

Makes 25 apples!

I originally saw this recipe here.  I just had to change to a milk free margarine and change up the candies to make it work for us. 

Here is a what the free printable looks like.  Isn't it cute?  Hope on over here and print some out for yourself.

I got about 25 apples out of this recipe.  I used the printable and some clear baggies and packaged them up for String Beane's class.  They loved them.  

I am linking up again with Metamorphasis Monday
and these other Awesome Parties!  Go check them out and link up.

Friday Favorites

I absolutely hate computer trouble!  Especially since I don't know how to fix one or diagnose the trouble.  I am just at the mercy of the computer repair man. 

Luckily, I have found a great guy to work on my computer.  He is very honest and dependable.  It is still a major pain to be without a computer.  I am having to post at my mom's house until Monday when my computer is fixed.

Here are my Friday Favorite Finds, a day late.  I am linking up again at Finding Joy in My Kitchen. 

Dr. Pepper Cupcakes

A dear friend of mine loves Dr. P.  I am going to make some of the cupcakes for her.



Pumpkin Gingersnap Cookies

I think these cookies will go over big with the little Beanes!

Lemon Pull Apart Bread

I think this bread will go over big with me!  Yum-O!

Twice Baked Sweet Potatoes

This looks like a great new recipe for Thanksgiving.

Cereal on the Cob

The name alone is hilarious!  How cute will this be at a school Thanksgiving party?

I hope you are having a wonderful weekend.  I can't wait to see what you have bookmarked this week.  Go by Finding Joy in my Kitchen and check out what has made everyone else's list.

Menu Monday November 7

The days after Halloween can be tricky.  There is all this candy lying around.  Butter Beane wants some constantly.  All I hear is "I can have candy now?"  I always say "you can pick a piece after you eat your lunch."  He continues to ask about 100 more times during lunch and then finally he has eaten enough to warrant a piece of candy.  The other issue is, there is a ton of candy around here that String Beane is allergic to.  It also happens to be my favorite kind of candy.  Reese cups, Snickers, Twix etc...  Mr. Homegrown and I have been eating it for days.  Our metabolism has slowed down so this is not a good practice.  I may just accidentally throw most of it away pretty soon. 

Meals last week were pretty good.  Some hits and misses.  Pizza shaped like a jack-o-lantern is always a winner.  The Crock Pot French dip sandwiches and Chicken and Dumplings are family favorites and were yummy.  I made the Frogmore Stew for Mr. Homegrown and he loved it.  String Beane loves shrimp and so did Jelly Beane.  This was a definite winner.  The big miss was the Pasta with white beans, chicken and spinach.  Mr. Homegrown said not to make that anymore.  It was okay for me but not a repeater at all. 

On to this week:  Here is what I have planned.

Monday

Sweet and Sour Chicken (recipe to come)

Steamed rice

Tuesday

Popover Upside Down Pizza

Corn

Wednesday

Tutti Fruity Chicken Kabobs

Broccoli

Rice

Thursday

Homemade Spaghettio's and meatballs

Salad for me!

Friday

Breakfast for Supper

Waffles

Sausage

Scrambled eggs

Fruit

I am linking up with Organized Junkie.  Go check out the other menu plans and recipes.  There is a ton of inspiration there.

Chicken and Wild Rice Casserole

I love casseroles.  They are just comfort food.  Casseroles are warm and yummy and delicious.  My favorite casserole is this Chicken and Wild Rice. 

It has a warm and creamy inside and a crunchy top.  It is full of yummy goodness.  And, believe it or not, I can make it milk/dairy free for my sweet String Beane.  We all love eating this meal.  All the little beanes eat it up and, like I said, it is my favorite casserole.  That lands it a spot in the family favorite recipe section! 

I originally found this recipe in a copy of Southern Living.  I will list the recipe the original way and put in parenthesis how I made it milk free.

Ingredients

1 (3lbs) whole chicken

1/2 c water

1/2 dry sherry (I have always just used chicken broth because I don't have dry sherry)

1 celery stalk

1/2 onion quartered

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon curry powder

1/8 teaspoon pepper

1/8 teaspoon poultry seasoning

1 (6oz) package Uncle Ben's long grain and wild rice mix

1/4 c butter (Flieshmann's unsalted margarine)

1 (8oz) package sliced mushrooms

1/2 c green onions chopped

1/2 c sour cream (Toufutti "sour cream")

half can of cream of mushroom soup (homemade concoction of faux cream of chicken soup)

1/2 sleeve Ritz crackers

1/2 of a 6 oz can of French's Fried onions

2 T butter melted (Flieshmann's unsalted margarine)

1/8 teaspoon paprika

1/8 teaspoon garlic salt

Directions

Bring the first nine ingredients to a boil in a large Dutch Oven.  Reduce heat and cover.  Simmer for 1 hour or until chicken is done.  Remove chicken, reserving broth.  Strain broth into a 4 cup measuring cup.  Discard solids.  Cook rice according to package directions, substituting 2 1/8 cup reserved chicken broth for water and omitting butter. 

Bone and chop the chicken (remove skin). 

Melt 1/4 cup of butter in dutch oven and add mushrooms and green onions.  Saute` 10 minutes.  Stir in rice, chicken, sour cream, and soup.  Spoon into casserole dish. 

Stir together crushed crackers and fried onions.  Stir in 2 T melted butter, paprika, and garlic powder. Sprinkle over casserole mixture.  Bake at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes.  Uncover and bake 5-10 minutes or until bubbly.

 It comes out looking like this.

Spoon it onto the plates and serve it up with some broccoli. 

This is such a good dish for cold nights.  Or any night for that matter. 

I am linking up with Metamorphasis Monday
and these other awesome parties!