Out with the Old and In with the New

After 15 years of being married we finally bought some new living room furniture and it is oh so comfy, or at least that is what the husband and kids tell me. We have purchased a few new recliners over the years but have never bought a new couch. With kids, you ( I ) just hate to buy something brand new for them to spill juice on, get sick on, pee on and what-not while they are growing up. (Come on, it happens to everyone no matter how much you try to prevent it...an occasional accident.)

We didn't buy just one, we bought two!

It looks so different now, but lots of comfortable seating for everyone.

All I need now is a little free time, a blanket and a good book or movie to read or watch.

Peanut Butter Iced Brownies

These are soooooo good!

During the days of the funeral a family friend brought these to us. By the time I got to them there were only 5 of them left and that's only because I had to threaten that there had better be at least one of them left for me.

They were scarfed up in no time.

I had to ask the lady that made them for her recipe and to my surprise they were a box brownie mix with some chocolate chips added.

It's all in the icing!

I actually could have eaten the whole bowl of icing and chucked the brownies but I didn't. I made them yesterday and took over for our Sunday dinner.

Peanut Butter Iced Brownies

1 box brownie mix

1/2 cup oil

1/4 cup water

2 eggs

1 cup chocolate chips

1 stick butter

1/3 cup milk

1/2 cup peanut butter

1 tsp. vanilla

1 box of powdered sugar

First of all you need to stir together the brownie mix, oil, water, eggs & chocolate chips.

Pour into a greased 13X9 and bake for 30 minutes at 350°.

Let these cool completely.

In a saucepan, mix the butter, milk, peanut butter & vanilla.Stirring constantly, let it come to a full boil.

Remove from heat and add powdered sugar.

Stir well with a whisk till all powdered sugar lumps are gone.

Pour over brownies.

Bet you can't eat just one!

I'm Still Here!

I have received several emails from some great blogging buddies asking Where Are You?

So I figured I'd better hop on and give you guys a little update as to why I have been missing in action.

Most of you know from previous posts that my mother-in-law was recently diagnosed with liver/pancreas cancer. We were told that she probably had 4-6 months to live. We went to visit her a few weeks ago and were heading back down Friday evening to spend another weekend with her.

However, Friday morning my SIL called me and said that Hospice was in that morning and said they felt she only has 2-3 days left. My husband came home early from work and we headed straight down. We spent 4 hours with her that day until she passed away peacefully that evening with all of us around her. We spent several days going through the motions of the have to-do things and eventually came back home on Wednesday.

Now that we are home we have been busy catching up on things and trying to rest & relax so I haven't had the time to get on here at all. I hope to spend a nice relaxing weekend and get my thoughts in order so I can try to get back to a bit of normalcy. (If there is such a thing :)

I've also got lots of catching up to do on all of your blogs.

Have a great weekend and hopefully I'll be back on Monday!

Creating a Plan- Homeschooling Curriculum

The kids have been out of school for about two weeks in our county. We have all been taking it easy, enjoying being able to stay up at night and sleeping in when we all should be up and moving. I however, need to get back to a routine before all is lost. I have so much to do and when I sleep in I lose too much valuable time.

What do I have to do?

Well for starters, I need to be getting two separate school agendas figured out. I feel that it is much easier to gets the kids homeschooling curriculum figured out ahead of time instead of waiting till the last minute. This way I can be more relaxed and spend good quality time teaching the kids instead of being in a hurry to gathers all my lessons, thoughts, crafts, etc. at the last moment.

On top of all the school planning that lies ahead of me, I would also like to spend some fun "ME" time doing some crafts and hobbies that I enjoy before we go back to the old grind of school in the fall.

Since I'm talking about school, I'll tell you that last year I used the ABeka History book for 3rd grade and we loved it. I am able to obtain county textbooks to use for our schooling but last year I was really surprised when I began reading them. The lessons skip around so much that I, as an adult, was very confused. After a short time of using them I decided to chuck them and go with the Abeka books.

This year I chose to buy many of the Abeka textbooks for my Kindergarten child and 4th grader. I have already received them and am very excited to get started on them.

Along with the ABeka books I use some of the county textbooks, lots of ideas and materials from the Internet, library books, Scholastic Workbooks as well as everyday experiences.

I have found out in the past year that the more hands-on activities that I can do with the kids, the better they learn. I try to take any subject and find a way to have the kids get into the subject and be a part of the lesson and then they create a long lasting memory which they will remember much better than just sticking their nose in a book with worksheets and tests.

If there are any homeschoolers out there reading my blog, then I'd like to ask you which you find easier?

1.) Planning ahead of time

2.) Just taking it one day at a time

Do you have a favorite curriculum that you use?

Chocolate Streusel Bars

I found this recipe while going through old cookbooks from my Mother-In-Laws last weekend. This was just a clipping that she had torn out but there were several of them and they all contained Sweetened Condensed Milk so I'm thinking it probably came out of a recipe booklet by Eagle Brand Condensed Milk.

As usual, I was missing one ingredient, the Sweetened condensed milk, so I made my own homemade version from powdered milk and they worked out great. These have a yummy cheesecake layer sandwiched between two layers of a cocoa crust.

Chocolate Streusel Bars

1 3/4 cups flour

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa

1 cup cold butter or margarine

1 (8oz.) cream cheese, softened

1 (14oz.) can sweetened condensed milk

1 egg

2 tsp. vanilla

1/2 cups chopped walnuts, optional

In large bowl, combine flour, sugar & cocoa.

Cut in butter until crumbly.

Reserve 2 cups crumbs.

Press remaining crumbs firmly into a greased 13X9 pan.

Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.

In large mixer bowl, beat cream cheese until fluffy.

Gradually add in milk.

Beat in egg & vanilla.

Pour over crust.

Combine walnuts & crumb mixture; sprinkle on top.

Bake 25 minutes or till bubbly.

Cool.

Store covered in fridge.

Having Fun with Graphics

I spent the weekend getting over that nasty flu bug that I had last week. Yuck! I haven't been down like that in a long time and I hope it's a long while before I get anything like that again. Katie & Gage both have it now but it seems to be very mild compared to what I had, which is wonderful. Now I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that the other two don't get it.

What did I do while I was sick?

Slept, slept and slept some more but on occassion I got on the computer.

I decided to check out some different graphic sites. I am amazed at the awesome graphics & clip art that these very talented artists can make. I could spend hours on here looking through hundreds of websites. In the end I picked a few that I really liked. Now comes the hard part. Getting those graphics to load on blogger and making it all look RIGHT.

I still have much to learn.

I also have much to do so I better quit blabbing (blogging, I mean) and get busy. Let me know what you guys think of the new header.

A little under the weather

I've been feeling a little (better yet, a LOT) under the weather for the past few days. It seems I have caught a nasty flu bug of some sort. So I just wanted to let you all know that I'll be back to posting in a few days when I'm feeling better.

Homemade Rice Mixes

I have been experimenting lately with rice, one of my not so favorite childhood side dishes. Growing up I don't remember my Mom ever making a box of Rice-a-Roni and I'm thinking that might be why I have never liked rice. It is blah, plain and boring unless you are going to jazz it up a bit with spices and flavor.

To start this out, my oldest son kept coming home from my Sister-in-Laws house and telling me that he just loved this rice that she made. Well I finally figured out what he was talking about. She made Rice-a-Roni and he loved it. So I began buying it and serving it at dinnertime and all but one really liked it.

However, the box stuff is full of salt and other "garbage" so I decided I would try to make my own with out all the salt but still have lots of flavor.

Here is my first attempt. My family really liked it but I still think it needs some more pizazz so I will continue tweaking this as time goes on.

Homemade Beefy Rice

32 oz. beef broth

1/4 tsp. black pepper

1 tsp. seasoned salt

1/2 tsp. Mrs. Dash Table Blend

2 cups Jasmine rice

Place broth, pepper, salt and Mrs. Dash in a large pan.

Bring to a boil.

Add rice.

Cover with lid and bring to a boil.

Turn heat down to a medium heat, heat and let simmer till done.

We're Back !

We left Friday morning to visit my Mother-In-Law and returned last night. I have been so busy trying to catch up on laundry and other stuff that this is the first chance I've even had to get on the computer for any amount of time. Boy, do I have lots of catching up to do.

Not a whole lot though to post about so I thought I would just share some of our pictures of the kids having fun this weekend. The picture at the top is of Katie and Gage in the truck on the way to Grandma's. Gage is just his usual happy, smiley self and Katie just woke up and is about to say, "Are we there yet?"

These are a few of the pretty flowers that I saw as we were walking to the playground.

Here is Mark, Logan & Cowboy. Logan made it to the end of his riding trail. Just beyond those weeds is a drop off into a little creek.

Gage decided to hangout at the playground so we all followed.

This is a picture of my Niece along with my two youngest rugrats, Katie & Gage.

Cowboy even decided to have some fun. He did this not only once but twice. He was not pushed either! He went to the top with the kids and then Mark coaxed him to slide down.

That's all for now. Hopefully I will get more time tomorrow to sit down and catch up on all of your weekend posts that I have missed.

Off to bed!

Night!

Baked Cornflake Chicken Tenderloins

Here's a quick and easy supper idea that everyone likes here at my house. Including my lil' picky eater! He just had to have ketchup with it. I sure hope he grows out of this stage but I'm not counting on it!

This recipe made enough for our family of 5 to make two dinners out of it so you can cut it down to fit your needs.

Baked Cornflake Chicken Tenderloins

3 lb. bag of chicken tenderloins

4 cups crushed cornflakes

2 eggs

1 tbsp. water

1 tsp. seasoned salt

1/2 tsp. pepper

1 tsp. Italian seasoning

1 cup cracker meal

1/2 cup whole wheat (or white) flour

1 stick butter

Place cornflakes, salt, pepper, Italian seasoning, cracker meal & flour in a large Ziploc bag and shake it all around.

Mix egg & water in a bowl.

Line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil and spray well with cooking spray.

(This step just makes for an easier clean-up)

Dip tenderloins into the egg mixture and then into the cornflake mixture.

Place on foil.

When all chicken has been coated then I take the remaining cornflake mixture and sprinkle more over the tops of the chicken.

Melt butter and drizzle over top of chicken.

Bake in oven at 350 degrees till thoroughly cooked.

I'm not giving a time here because I cook ours till it is dry ( the way that my husband likes it) and most people would prefer it more moist. So you will have to be the judge on the timing.

Orange Tapioca

I LOVE tapioca but figured if I made plain ol' vanilla tapioca the rest of my clan would say "Where is the chocolate?" Well I'm not a big chocolate fan so I tried to think of a way to incorporate tapioca in something that wasn't chocolate. So here is what I came up with.

Orange Tapioca

2 - (3 oz.) boxes Orange Jell-o

1 cup water

1 cup milk

3 tbsp. Minute tapioca

20 ice cubes

Cool Whip

Mandarin oranges, refrigerated

In large bowl, mix Jell-o and tapioca. Set aside.

In saucepan heat water & milk till it just starts boiling.

Remove from heat & pour over Jell-o mixture.

Stir till Jell-o is dissolved and then let it sit for 5 minutes.

Add ice cubes & stir till mostly melted and Jell-o is thickened.

Remove ice cubes and spoon into small serving dishes.

Just before serving, top with a dollop of Cool Whip and a few mandarin oranges.

Refrigerate any leftovers.

Seasoned Pork Bites Plus an Idea for a Vegetarian Version

This is what we had last night for dinner. The pork was quick to make and flavorful. I just tossed the seasonings in here and there and tasted as I went and it turned out really nice. I could have left some of the liquid in the pan to make a saucy gravy and poured the pork and sauce over the rice but I didn't. Maybe I'll try that the next time.

Seasoned Pork Bites

1 onion, diced

1 bell pepper, diced

1 1/2 tsp. olive oil

4 pork cube steaks, cut into strips or bite size pieces

1/2 tsp. minced garlic or 1 fresh clove, chopped/minced

1/4 cup soy sauce

1 tbsp. brown sugar

1/4 tsp. ginger

1/4 tsp. pepper

1/2 tsp. salt

2 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce

In saucepan, saute onion & pepper in oil.

Add pork and let brown on all sides.

Add garlic, soy sauce, brown sugar, ginger, pepper, salt and Worcestershire.

Add water as this cooks down so it doesn't burn.

Let simmer till meat is thoroughly cooked and serve.

PENNIWIG:) Sometime I will make a vegetarian version of this for my Dad and when I do I will do everything the same except use the Morningstar Farms Chicken strips or whatever they are called.

Easy Hamburger Gravy Plus a Vegetarian Version

You can tell better weather is here. During the summer months the last place I want to be is standing in the middle of a hot kitchen cooking. That is why my recipe posts have all steered towards desserts. I don't mind making cool & easy recipes. I am going to experiment today with dinner so maybe (if it turns out good) & if the rest of the family likes it I will have a new main dish recipe to share.

This morning I will share my recipe for hamburger gravy. This is on the top of my list of comfort foods. Yummy served over fresh slices of bread with mashed potatoes and a veggie on the side.

Easy Hamburger Gravy

3 lbs. ground beef

3 tsp. celery salt

1 1/2 tsp. black pepper

2 tsp. dried onion flakes or 1 small onion, diced

3 cups beef broth

4 tbsp. flour

*This makes enough to feed our family of 5 and have a small amount leftover. You can cut the recipe down if you are cooking for just a few people.**

Brown beef and onion and then drain the grease off of it.

Place beef back in the pan and add celery salt and pepper.

Sprinkle flour over top of beef and cook while stirring for about 2 minutes.

Add broth and let cook till thickened.

Serve this over top of bread or rolls or you could even serve it over noodles.

VEGETARIAN VERSION:

When I make this for my Dad I cut the recipe in half and use a 12 oz. bag of Morningstar Farms Grillers Crumbles in place of the beef. I also use vegetable broth or a vegetable bouillon cube and water to replace the beef broth. If I use veg. bouillon then I usually cut down on the celery salt a bit.