Pumpkin Donut Holes!

One of my kids favorite after school snacks!  They love them so much, they ate them all today!  That won't be a norm, but I love that they love them!  I got the recipe HERE, but changed it, so my recipe is below.

Donuts:
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. pumkin pie spice (if you can't find that or don't have it on hand use: 1/2 tsp. cinnamon, 1/2 tsp. nutmeg, 1/2 tsp. allspice and 1/8 tsp. ground cloves)
1/3 cup vetetable oil
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
3/4 cup canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)
1/2 cup milk

Cinnamon Sugar Coating:
1/2 cup melted butter
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1 Tbsp. cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350*F. Spray mini muffin tins with cooking spray.

In medium bowl combine dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, salt, pumpkin pie spice.  Set aside and combine the remaining ingredients in mixer until smooth.  Add dry ingredients and stir until just combined.

I used to cookie scoop to fill my muffin tins.  Bake for 10-12 minutes or until a tooth pick comes out clean.
Meanwhile, melt butter in one bowl and combine sugar and cinnamon in another bowl.  Let muffins cool for 2 min.  Dip each muffin in the butter and then in the sugar mixture.  So yummy!  I can only handle a few because it's a lot of sugar!  I need to find a way to make less sugar adhere to the donut, but they are good! :)

Marshmallow Popcorn

This recipe isn't linkable because it was just a picture someone uploaded and put the instructions as the caption.  I ended up doing it my own way anyhow (not on purpose, lol!)

3-4 bags popcorn (pop and take out extra kernels) 

1 sticks of butter (1/2 cup) 

16 oz bag of marshmallows 

1 cup brown sugar 

Microwave butter, marshmallows, and brown sugar for 2 1/2 min. Take out and stir. Microwave again for 1 min. Repeat until thin sauce. When done pour over popcorn and mix. YUM!

The difference between what I did and the original recipe is the butter and the amount of popcorn.  The first time I accidentally only used 1 stick of butter instead of 2 and I liked the results better with less butter.  These pics are of the second attempt doing it "right" and I wasn't as pleased.  It was runnier and easier to mix on the popcorn, but it made the popcorn mushier and stickier.  I made them the first time for all my friends and neighbors for Christmas and got raving reviews, so I know it's not just me ;)  I also felt the need for a bit more popcorn, hence the 4th bag.

OH SO YUMMY! Enjoy!

Homemade Lip gloss!

So easy and fun!  Petroleum Jelly and Kool-Aid!  Found the idea HERE.

What you'll need:

1 tub petroleum jelly (vaseline)

1 pkg of kool-aid drink crystals - whatever flavor you want, or you can make a few

lip gloss containers

labels printed out on sticker paper

scissors or 1 inch paper punch

Directions:

1. put about 1 cup vaseline in a microwave safe bowl

2. heat the vaseline in the microwave in 30 second increments, stirring between each heating. It took me about 5 minutes to melt each batch of vaseline. It will be liquid when it is fully melted. It will be very hot! Make sure you wear gloves or oven mitts and make sure children are being supervised.

3. take out of microwave and stir in kool-aid drink crystals until desired colour is reached - I used the whole package for each batch. Stir until the crystals are completely dissolved.

4. if starting to solidify you can heat again for another 30 seconds - skip this step if it is still liquidy

5. pour into your lip gloss containers and leave to solidify - a couple hours

6. repeat this whole process if making more flavors

7. print out labels on sticker paper

8. using either a 1 inch punch, or scissors, cut out the circle labels and attach to your lip gloss container

9. give to all your favourite people, but remember to save a few for yourself too!

I found these containers on ebay. I believe you can also find them on Amazon.

 I got the 5g and would even go as big as the 10g next time.

Starting to get liquidy after a few minutes of stirring.

 Almost done!

Clear and ready for the Kool-Aid!  It only took about 5 minutes for me, but others were saying it took them longer!  Spoon the melted lip gloss into the containers and let cool.  Add a cute label and Wah lah!

Washer Jewelry

I am really excited about my most recent project.  I found the idea HERE.  It cost me under $5 to make all 3 necklaces and I think they turned out great!

Items needed:
1 small washer
1 larger washer (you pick the sizes you want)
white glue
Mod Podge (mine is homemade)
scrapbook paper of your choice
beads, jewel etc. to decorate
Cording for the necklace strap
(I also ended up using glitter puffy paint)

  Good old washers from the hardware store

I traced the washers on the back of the scrapbook paper so the lines wouldn't show. Making numerous circles ended up being in my cards because I needed extras to play around with and see what I liked best. 

Once you have the circles cut our glue them on the front of the washers.  When they are dry use your Mod Podge (equal parts white glue and water, mixed) to paint over top of the paper.  Put your smaller washer on top of the bigger one (I used extra white glue for this step just in case the mod podge wasn't strong enough.)  Then decorate as you wish. 

 Here is my homemade mod podge.  I used 1 tbsp. water 1 tbsp. white glue, knowing that this isn't something I'm going to use all the time.  I didn't even end up needing it, because while I was looking for a few things I found my glitter puffy paint and decided to use that in place of the mod podge.  It made a huge difference in the end result!  My girls are going to be so excited!

Christmas Ornaments

So, I decided this year for my kids' ornaments (they get a new one each year) we were going to make them!  And what's more fun than paint and hand prints?  Especially for the older kids that don't ever seem to do hand prints anymore!  HERE is where the idea came from.

 I didn't do what she said to do, just got the idea from her.  These are plastic ornaments from Micheal's  and I put fake snow in them.  Then each kid picked the color they wanted and we made hand prints.  I wasn't as organized as I had hoped because I forgot about the glitter until it was too late!  They turned out cute, but I think they need a little something, so I'm going to have to spice them up a bit later (I'll add pics when I do.)  And getting Bronx to do his (14 months) not such a success!  I think I'm going to try his again with a different color (lime green this time, something else next time.)  He really didn't want to open his hand and he hated the feeling of the paint! LOL!

Not super great pics because they were hanging to dry, but I'll get better ones later when I've added some fun to them!

Slow Cooker Lasagna!

I made this recipe once before and to me it was a bomb.  Justin said it was fine, but I thought it was flavorless and mushy.  So, HERE is where I got the recipe and this is what I did to make it yummy...

1 lb. ground beef

2 large cans Spaghetti sauce (26.5 oz. each) mine was garlic and onion flavored, but when I tasted it, you couldn't tell.

8 oz. package lasagna noodles uncooked

4 cups mozzarella cheese

2 cups cottage cheese (16 oz. container)

onion and garlic to season meat 

 Seasoning the meat in the original recipe was a side note, I feel it must be done!

I used about a half and onion and 1 tbsp. minced garlic, but to each their own on this, it just needs some flavor!  Once browned add the sauce.

 I forgot to take a pic with each layer, and then my flash wouldn't work :P

Spray with cooking oil and then put 1/4 the meat sauce in the bottom of the dish.

Layer 1/3 of the noodles to cover as best as possible.  Then mix up the cheeses and put 1/3 on top of noodles.

 Continue with this pattern until you end with meat sauce on top

 Cook on low for 3 hours

 Let stand 10 to 20 minutes (with lid off) to set.

Enjoy! 

*Note, I am using a 7 quart slow cooker, so that is why I ended up needing so much sauce!  Next time I will use my smaller slow cooker to do this, because we didn't even eat half.  But, this time it was yummy because I didn't use tomato sauce like the original recipe said and I cooked it less time and used a lot more seasonings.  So to do a smaller batch I'd say 1 can of spaghetti sauce would do, but have an extra one on hand just in case.

Chicken n Dumplings in the Slow Cooker

This is one of our new favorite recipes for the slow cooker!  It's so good that I'm going to have to double it for my big family so that we actually have some leftovers!  YUM!  I found the recipe HERE.  That recipe calls for the grands flaky refrigerator biscuits, but those aren't in my budget and I don't really care for them to begin with, so here is what I did. 

Total cooking time 4 hours on high (the original recipe calls for 4-6 hours on high, but I find that the chicken is dry if you cook it that long.)

2-3 Large boneless skinless chicken breasts 

2 tablespoons butter

2 cans cream of chicken soup

1 can chicken broth (I always use water and chicken bullion because it's cheaper and easier on my storage space.)

1 onion diced

1 tablespoon dried parsley
1-2 cups frozen veggies (we always add extra peas, yum!)

Dumplings:

2 cups Bisquick (I would have used my Jiffy Mix, but I was out.)

1/2 cup Milk
Mix Bisquick and milk together to form dough.  Powder your hands with some Bisquick flour and roll out dumplings.  I usually make mine about the size of a small bouncy ball.  I make them ahead and put them in the fridge just so that when it's time to put them in they are ready.

 Put the chicken in the bottom of the slow cooker and the butter on top (I was doubling it, but it ended up being too much chicken)

 Pour the cream of chicken soup and chicken broth on top

 Add the veggies and mix a bit and cook on high for 3 1/2 hours

 Shred the chicken then...

 Add the dumplings

After I put the dumplings in I try to cover them with sauce.  (these look extra big because they start to expand right away, but I made them about the size of a small bouncy ball.)  Place the lid back on for 30 minutes and serve.