Day 27: Outbacks Potato soup

1 30oz. bag of frozen, shredded hash browns 

3 14oz. cans of chicken broth

1 can of cream of chicken soup

1/2 cup onion, chopped

1/4 tsp. ground pepper

1 pkg. cream cheese {don’t use fat free.  It WON’T melt!!!}

In a crockpot, combine everything EXCEPT for the cream cheese.  Cook for 6-8 hours on low heat.  About 1 hour( I recommend like 2 hours- and stir well) before serving, add cream cheese and keep heated until thoroughly melted.  Serve with cheese, sour cream, bacon bits, green onions, or whatever else you think would be good!!

Day 26: FIRST Haircut

A huge THANK YOU to Miss Kelli for coming to the house and doing Deklans first hair cut!!!

Before

AFTER!!!! he had some trouble sitting still!

Day 25: Growing up :(

Hes growing up so fast :(

Miss Sassy Pants

Day 24: Gluten Free Cookies

• 2 cups creamy peanut butter
• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon  salt

we added m& ms

Directions

1. Heat oven to 350° F.
2. Using an electric mixer, beat the peanut butter and sugars on medium-high speed until fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes. Reduce speed to low and beat in the eggs, baking soda, vanilla, and salt.
3. Roll heaping tablespoonfuls of the dough into balls and place on parchment-lined baking sheets, spacing them 2 inches apart. With a lightly floured fork, press the dough to a ⅜-inch thickness, making a crisscross pattern on top of each cookie.
4. Bake, rotating the baking sheets halfway through, until the edges are set, 10 to 12 minutes. Cool slightly on the baking sheets, then transfer to wire racks to cool completely. Store the cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days.

Day 23: The sneak

For days now my dear son has been playng around the chairs in the dining room. We thought nothing of it- till at last his motive was discovered!!

My dear lazy husband who was supposed to install a baby gate at the bottum of the stairs  a loong time ago has instead been laying one of my dining room chairs on its side to keep Deklan from going up the stairs. Little did we know Mr sneaky has been practicing with the chairs in the dining room  so he could one day( today in this case) make his escape through the chair and up the stairs. Thanks to his loud mouth sister he was caught quite quickly ...............dad will be installing the gate like right now!!!

Day 22: Snickerdoodle Bars

You will need:

2 1/3 cups all purpose flour

1 1/4 teaspoon baking power

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup of butter/margarine

1 1/4 cups granulated sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

3 eggs

1 teaspoon of vanilla

- Filling-

1 tablespoon cinnamon

1 tablespoon sugar

-- but I used as much of both and I wanted

-Glaze-

1 cup powered sugar

1-2 tablespoons of milk

1/4 teaspoon of vanilla

Step 1-

Heat oven to 350° F. Spray or grease  a 13x9-inch baking pan with cooking spray. In small bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside

Step 2-

In large bowl, beat butter with electric mixer on high speed until creamy. Beat in sugars. Gradually beat in eggs and vanilla into sugar mixture until combined. On low speed, beat in dry ingredients until combined. 

Step 3- I skipped this step and just put all the batter in and sprinkle the cinnamon and sugar on top

Spoon half the batter into pan; spread evenly. Sprinkle cinnamon-sugar mixture evenly over batter.

Dollop teaspoon size amounts of remaining batter evenly over cinnamon-sugar mixture.

Step 4-

Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown and toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool completely, about 1 hour

Step 5-

In small bowl, stir glaze ingredients until smooth and thin enough to drizzle. Drizzle over bars. For bars, cut into 6 rows by 4 rows.

NOTE: The glaze added a lot of sweetness( its very sweet on its own)- personally I will make it without next time!

Day 21: Hot Tub Time

 Above- Dek all ready to try the hot tub out! From the steam the pictures didn't turn out well- but the kids had a blast anyways!!

Day 20: Apple Butter

Not the greatest picture sorry!! The commissary had huge bags of apples for 99cents. They weren't bad but not good enough to just eat so I thought I could so make something with them. My bestie mentioned apple butter so I thought I'd give it a try!


So I started with about 

10- 15 apples
1 cup of apple cider vinegar
2 cups of water.

I cute the apples into quarters cores and all and boiled them with the vinegar and water in a huge pot with a lid for about 20-25 mins or until the apples were soft.


Then It called for a food mill- but seeing how I don't have one I used (I'm ghetto!) a colander, large bowl and a metal measuring cup and just keep working the apples until all the pulp was in the bowl. The peels and seeds will be left!


Then measure out how much pulp there is and add 1/2 cup of sugar per 1 cup of apple pulp. Once mixed good add

-2 tablespoons of ground cinnamon
-1 teaspoon ground cloves
-1/2 teaspoon of allspice




return the mixture back to the stove and on medium low heat, stirring very often and scrapping the bottom of the pan so no crust forms( so grab a chair a good book to read) cause I stood for almost 2 hours stirring until the apple mix was a dark red and thick!



I then poured the mixture into a canning jar and put the lid on. I left it on the counter until it was completely cooled then put in the fridge! You can make a ton of this of course and can a lot of it for gifts or whatever. Since i knew we would be eating it rather soon I didn't do any of that.


My husband, son, daughter and parents very much approve of the apple butter!!

Day 19- Playing together

I absolutly love when I walk into a room, or in this case the kitchen and Keelie is playing so nicely with her brother. She was even giving him kisses!!

Day 18: Deklan loves Irish Dancing too!

So the more Keelie dances, the more Deklan dances along with her. Granted his kind of dancing isn't exactly dancing- yet! Tonight I was determined to catch him on video, it worked for a few mins then he caught me watching and took off- anyways its cute with Deklan in all his nakedness!!

Day 17: Extreme Couponing!!

EXTREME COUPONER??????.........................................

Nope not this person!! After trying and agonizing, and coupon searching and menu planning and talking with my extreme couponing BFF I thought I had my couponing expertise down and I was headed to the grocery store. Shoot my husband with his secret femme side has been watching the TV shows on couponing. However after 2 hours of wanting to smack my husband, shoving snacks in my tubby sons mouth to keep him happy and a grouchy can't nobody make him happy cashier I was done shopping and checked out.....

and to a huge BOOOOO I saved a lousy $16.14

 There was no way I had failed that bad. And of course my dear husband waits till we get home to tell me that the grouchy cashier I mentioned earlier majorly ripped me off and didn't use half of my coupons...grrrrrr ass! So will I try again? Who knows I may or may not, or I can always stick to being the average coupon clipper who saves a few here and there! You never know what I might do- my mind changes every second of everyday but until then someone find me a personal shopper/coupon extraordinaire!

Day 16: Chore Time!!

    So for the last few mornings Keelie has been getting up and making her bed before she comes down stairs. She always announces that she made her bed very beautiful! This morning she not only came downstairs announcing her bed was made but she was also dressed- quite well I might add. Now that her closet is re-done and she can reach her own clothes her Independence( that's she has majorly always had) has blossomed even more! So with the hint from my mom, Will and I are making Keelie a chore chart and she will start earning an allowance for everyday she does her chores! She is very excited- she has even been helping put dishes away and wants to help clean the house!! So we will see how long her willingness and excitement goes for!

Day 15: Closet Make over

With the help of my dad, home depot( for supplies) and some power tools we remodeled Keelies closet. It was obviousl as soon as we moved in that the kids closets didnt fucntion very well and so this would be our first home improvement project! Keelies closet first and because  I was retarded and completly forgot to take a picture of Keelies closet before we started , I took some of Deklans which is exactly how Keelies used to be!!

 We added shelves in the middle and then lower rods on both sides as well as the top rods so that Keelie could reach her clothes

We also added shoes shelves at the bottum on both sides!

And Last we changes the sliding doors out for bi-fold doors- cause seriously sliding doors on a closet are a pain the a**

Closet still has to be organized but here is the finished project minus the doors, they have to be stained to match!

Day 14- This is a much better walker!

Day 13- Chill day at home

Day 12: Red Velvet Cheesecake Brownies

Red Velvet Cheesecake Brownies
Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup butter
• 2-oz dark chocolate, coarsely chopped
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 tsp red food coloring
• 2/3 cup all purpose flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 8-oz cream cheese, room temperature
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Butter the bottom and sides of a 8 inch metal baking pan. Put a long piece of parchment paper in the bottom of the pan, letting the parchment extend up two sides of the pan and overhang slightly on both ends. (This will make it easy to remove the bars from the pan after they have baked.) Butter the parchment.
2. In a small, heatproof bowl, melt butter and chocolate together. Stir until combined and very smooth. Set aside to cool for a few minutes.
3. In a large bowl, whisk together sugar, eggs, vanilla extract and red food coloring. Add chocolate mixture and stir until smooth. Add flour and salt and stir until just combined and no streaks of dry ingredients remain.
4. Pour into prepared pan and spread into an even layer.
5. To prepare cheesecake mixture, beat cream cheese, sugar, egg and vanilla extract in a medium bowl until smooth. Distribute the cheesecake mixture in 8 dollops over batter in the pan. Swirl in with a knife or spatula.
6. Bake for 35-40 minutes, until brownies and cheesecake are set. A knife inserted into the cheesecake mixture should come out clean and the edges will be lightly browned.

7. Let cool completely in pan on a cooling rack before lifting out the parchment paper to remove the brownies.

Day 11: Dressed for Sucess

I asked Keelie to go get dressed for school- her cothes were laid out for her....... this howver is what she came downstairs in( not what i had picked) and said she was all ready for school!

Day 10: Deklan has discovered the walker!!

Day 9- My Awesomesauce!

 

Day 8: Dog Leash hooks

I know I know another older project- I made this for my Aunts puppy Coffy for Christmas to hold her leashes

Day 7: Waffle Cake Desert

                              I have no idea what this is actually called but oh my yum!!!

You Will need:

1- Cake mix of your choice( I used Chocolate) & Ingredients(eggs,oil,water)
2- Waffle maker
3- Ice cream of your choice ( I used vanilla)
4-Whip cream and toppings of your choice ( we used strawberry's, & chocolate sauce)



Directions:
1) Make the cake mix as directed- while doing this heat up your waffle maker

2) Grease waffle maker- I found a spray works the best. Then drop cake mix into the waffle maker just like when you make waffles

3) Cooks depending on your waffle maker- once mine was completely heated it took about 2-3 Min's

4) Once waffle is done it should come out easily then place on plate and garnish with ice cream, whip cream and your choice of topping and ENJOY!!

Day 6: Craft projects

I know these are a bit old( well from xmas)- but Im trying to fill some gaps!!

Day 5- Recipe: Pasta Carbonara

• 
  

• 1 pound dry spaghetti
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 4 ounces pancetta or slab bacon, cubed or sliced into small strips
• 4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, plus more for serving
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 1 handful fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped( we didn't use)
• I also added about 3/4 cup of peas to ours- I mixed it in with the spaghetti

Directions

Prepare the sauce while the pasta is cooking to ensure that the spaghetti will be hot and ready when the sauce is finished; it is very important that the pasta is hot when adding the egg mixture, so that the heat of the pasta cooks the raw eggs in the sauce.

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil, add the pasta and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until tender yet firm (as they say in Italian "al dente.") Drain the pasta well, reserving 1/2 cup of the starchy cooking water to use in the sauce if you wish.

Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a deep skillet over medium flame. Add the pancetta and saute for about 3 minutes, until the bacon is crisp and the fat is rendered. Toss the garlic into the fat and saute for less than 1 minute to soften.

Add the hot, drained spaghetti to the pan and toss for 2 minutes to coat the strands in the bacon fat. Beat the eggs and Parmesan together in a mixing bowl, stirring well to prevent lumps. Remove the pan from the heat and pour the egg/cheese mixture into the pasta, whisking quickly until the eggs thicken, but do not scramble (this is done off the heat to ensure this does not happen.) Thin out the sauce with a bit of the reserved pasta water, until it reaches desired consistency. Season the carbonara with several turns of freshly ground black pepper and taste for salt. Mound the spaghetti carbonara into warm serving bowls and garnish with chopped parsley. Pass more cheese around the table.

Day 4- Visit to the Zoo!

Keelie with her friends Byrd and Tori