Organized: the pantry

 In preparation for the big move (hopefully happening in the next week or so) I have been going through the house and organizing random stuff. My plan is that it can just be moved right over into whichever closet/drawer/shelf it needs to be in without having to really go through it again. 

Anyways I just had to share with you my new organized pantry!
(I had given a sneak peek in my insta-pics, but I wanted to share more.)

Although it will be perfected at the new place, I am just so happy with how it turned out! I used my cricut with the vinyl paper to label all my containers. It was so easy and looks great! (I used the Close to my Heart Art Philosophy cartridge)

Have a closer look.

The above containers I got at Dollarama and below I reused baby 'puff' containers (you know those really soft baby cereal snacks, we went through a ton). I had been using these unlabeled for the last 8 months or so...it is sure nice to not have to look in every single one to find what I'm looking for!

The spice rack lazy suzanne was a wedding gift and the small jars on top are from Dollarama. The big serving platter (dubbing as my bread bowl) was a  wedding gift as well and I like it too much to have it stored somewhere for only special occasions. The glass containers with the stainless steel lids are also from Dollarama and the red containers are Tupperware.

Looking forward to seeing it all at the new house.

Happy Thursday!

Why am I covered in Feathers?

 This is a scheduled post as I should be now hanging out with my sister and her lil ones. 

I have left my girlies (with my wonderful mother and father in law) and took a short plane ride to be with my mom and sis for the Breaking Dawn Pt.2 movie tonight! Yay! 

(Hubby has also went on a trip to Oklahoma to watch a couple hockey games and play golf with a friend, lucky guy!)

 Anyways I had a quick couple of minutes (literally) to share with you some cookies that I had made and have taken with me for the par-tay tonight. Aren't they cute?

 (I used the same recipe that I used for S's pirate cookies.)

...and just for fun, I saw that picmonkey offered a 'vampire' editing option for halloween. 

So I did up our group pic from the Eclipse movie night out. 

(Checkout my layout from that night HERE.)

Kinda freaky...but hey all in the name of Twilight!

So excited for tonight!

Happy Friday!

Pinned.Made.Yum.

 The hubby has been very thankful for Pinterest lately. I've been making lots of recipe's that I've found on there. I thought today I would share a few of them with you!

 Pictured above is a cake mix cookie dip (think dunkaroos, yum!). This recipe, Funfetti Cake Dip comes from Eat Yourself Skinny. I love how she has the calorie count for everything and all of her recipe's look awesome (check out her recipe box)! I brought this as my potluck snack for the scrapbook retreat a couple of weeks back. A lot of the ladies loved it!

 Now moving on to some main course options:

 Below is Chicken Alfredo Rollups which come from MMM...Cafe. I have made something similar to this before using spinach and ricotta cheese, but I found this to be easier/less messy/tastier! Paired with a side ceasar salad = a great supper for the whole fam!

Below can either be for a meal (which is what we had it for) or as a snack. Baked Zucchini sticks from Eat Yourself Skinny and Cheesy Quinoa Cakes with a Roasted Garlic and Lemon Aioli from Spoon Fork Bacon. I have now made the zucchini strips twice (the kids don't care for them but I think they are awesome!) and I love the Aioli that goes with the Quinoa cakes, so yummy.

 

These Slow Cooker Herbed Chicken Drumsticks from Make Dinner Easy were just that... easy! And the flavor was a change up from the usual, so that was nice.

 This next one I've got to thank my wonderful sister for. She pinned it, made it, and told me how incredible it was (and it IS incredible!). I was pretty skeptical of a bread that can be made from scratch a couple of hours (rising time included) before being served at a meal, but it worked. Try this Quick French Bread recipe from Keep Home Simple the next time you think fresh bread would be complimentary to your meal. (The recipe makes two loaves and my sis said that they freeze well too!...I didn't try freezing we ate these up pretty quick.)

 There are other recipes that I've tried but never got pics of (or they were flops)...

 Here are some more favorites:

- Cowboy Casserole from The Cutting Edge of Ordinary

- Cheesy Vegetable Chowder from Lulu the Baker

- Honey Spice Chicken Thighs from Budget Bytes

- Buffalo Chicken Garbage Bread from Finding a New Life Through Food

- Slow Cooker Mediterranean Chicken from Happy Home Fairy

All of these recipes and more are on my Yum board on pinterest. Feel free to follow along!

On a related note, this could be true....

Source: ohmyfreakingstars.blogspot.com via Justine on Pinterest

Homemade Bread

A couple of weeks ago I guest posted over at One Dog Woof. I was lucky enough to be a part of her 'Party in my Tummy' series. Just in case you missed it,  I thought I would post it here as well!

  

I must admit, instead of being in the kitchen I would MUCH rather be playing with the girlies or craftin. I do think my kids deserve some good homemade eats though (checkout our favorite oatmeal chocolate chip cookies) and I don't mind a baking day. I'm a huge fan of quantity, if I'm going to be making a dozen cookies I might as well make 8 dozen...especially since they freeze well. So with that in mind...

I thought I would share with you the bread recipe that I use on a regular bases, this recipe yields FOUR Loaves.

This recipe is in a cookbook that my grandma made me (my aunt's recipe) and it is marked 'good recipe for beginners'. So if you've never baked your own bread, nows your chance!

Here we go!

The Ingredient Line-up:
All Purpose Flour*
Whole Wheat Flour (Optional)*
1 Tablespoon Salt
1/2 cup Sugar
2 Tablespoons Fast Rising Yeast
4 cups warm water
2 beaten eggs
1/2 cup canola oil
cooking spray, or something to grease the pans


* amount will vary for the flour. Total amount is usually around 8-11 cups. I usually do half all purpose and half whole wheat. In this post I will be using all all-purpose flour.


note: To make bread (or cookies) I use my Bosch mixer. But I'm sure any mixer would work the same(ex. Kitchenaid). You could do it by hand but it would not be as 'easy'.

Let's get started!

 -Mix 4 cups flour with the salt and sugar; add yeast.

-Make a well (which is easier if the mixer is not in the middle of the bowl), add the water, beaten eggs, and oil.

 -Mix really well and then add an additional 4 cups flour, mix again.

-Keep slowly adding flour until the dough is neither really sticky or stiff. (I usually poke with my finger if it comes out 99% clean, it's good. The stickier the dough is, the harder it is to work with. The stiffer the dough the denser the bread) 

-Form the dough into a nice bun shape and place in a large bowl; cover with dish towel; let rise (it should triple the size) approx. 15-20 minutes.

 -Once risen punch down. Cover, let rise again(20 min). punch down, cover, let rise (20 min).

-Meanwhile grease four loaf pans.

 -After letting it rise in the bowl three times,  seperate into four loaves and place them into the pans. Let rise again, this time for 45 minutes.

- Preheat oven to 350.

-Once they've risen, put them in the oven. Bake for 45 minutes, until the crusts are golden brown.

(My little helper telling me the stove is hot)

- When finished, let them cool on cooling racks, out of the pan.

-And the last step: cut yourself a slice and enjoy some of your warm homemade bread with some butter. Yum!

P.S. This bread freezes really well, I usually keep two loaves out to eat right away and throw two in the freezer!

I am no expert in the kitchen but if you have questions about any of the steps feel free to leave a comment below.

Thanks so much ChiWei for having me, I LOVE reading your blog and I am so glad I was able to contribute to your Party in my Tummy series!!

easy.quick.yummy.

 

 Is it snack time? 

How about some Crescent Roll-ups?

If you happen to have a tube of crescents in your fridge this is such an easy, quick and yummy snack. It's so versatile too, you can use whatever filling you want!

I have tried pepperoni and cheese filling dipped in pizza sauce, suggested by the lovely Becky B.

And my friend Amy over at Love on High Heat has gone all fancy and tried Buffalo Chicken Blue Cheese & Roast Beef Provolone. (Her food always looks ah-mazing, I think I should hire her as my personal chef, interested Amy? haha.)

Anyways the fillings I used were:

Smore inspired- Graham Cracker, Chocolate, Marshmallow

and

Peanut Butter, Chocolate,  Banana

 The Smore Roll-up

 The Peanut-choco-nana Roll-up

Another perk to these goodies was that S could help put all the ingredients on the crescent and I rolled them up. T watched longingly from her seat, poor baby, atleast she had puffs to chew on.

I put them on parchment paper to make sure they wouldn't stick. There are 8 crescents in a tube so I made 4 of each kind. The smore ones were harder to wrap up because of the cracker edges (I have since been told maybe I should have crumbled up the cracker, duh!). Anyways those ones opened up a bit, but it wasn't a huge deal.

After they cooled we dug right in.

We were lucky because my favorite was the banana peanut-choco-nana and S liked the Smore. Of course we saved a couple for when daddy came home. Although he missed out because they were way better fresh out of the oven! 

Chocolate dipped pretzels

Here is a quick last minute Valentine's treat to make for your kidlets or someone special!

 I happened to have all the ingredients on hand so I thought I would whip these up yesterday. All you need is a bag of pretzels, chocolate baking squares, and sprinkles(optional).

Microwave the chocolate in a bowl for a couple of minutes at fifty percent power.

Stir to make sure it is all melted and then add your pretzels a few at a time, turning over with tongs to make sure the whole thing is covered.

Place on a tray that is covered with wax paper and sprinkle with sprinkles before the chocolate starts to harden. 

 

Place the tray in the fridge to harden. 

When the chocolate is hardened completely they are ready to serve!

I think they kind of look like little chocolate hearts....

An easy peasy, yummy treat just in time for Valentines day!

I also baked a little....

I substituted these for the chocolate chips in this recipe....YUM!

Some Yummies

Eating....that's one of the main parts of Christmas right?

Well just in case you wanted to whip up a treat for tomorrow night, I thought I'd share these yummies I made to take to my mom and dad's this Christmas.

Pictured on the left is Layered Chocolate Peanut Butter Fudge . 

You can find the recipe Here.

Pictured on the right is Peanut Butter Truffles.

I altered this recipe, switching peanut butter cookies for the oreos. 

I also made the Oreo ones and topped them with coconut (sorry no pics ).

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

I don't spend too much of my free time in the kitchen but once in awhile I do enjoy a bake day. I usually try to make my own bread and cookies and sometimes other treats!

Today I thought I would share one of my favorite recipes, Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies. These are a staple in our house. I usually make a big batch and then stick em in the freezer and take out as needed and they still taste awesome!

I changed up a recipe I found in a community cookbook to make these, so here it is:

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients: 1 cup brown sugar

1 cup sugar
1 cup butter/margarine
2 eggs
1 tsp Vanilla
2 cups flour
1.5 cup oatmeal
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
2 cups milk chocolate chips

Cream butter and sugar until fluffy; add eggs and vanilla. Beat well. Mix flour, oatmeal, salt, baking soda and baking powder. Stir into creamed mixture ( I use my Bosch mixer to make these so I just dump in all the dry ingredients without mixing first). Add chocolate chips. Mix until blended. Drop onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes.

Yield: the original recipe said 12 cookies, but with my cookie scoop I can get about 3.5 dozen. So I guess it depends how big you make them!

I usually double the recipe when I make them and I get around 8 dozen to freeze.

Tink stuck around after the party to watch me bake, haha.

My Kind of 'Canning'

Last weekend I decided to bite the bullet and try my hand at preserving fruit (peaches in fact). I don't have the equipment for actual canning but my mom found me a recipe for freezer preserves found HERE. It actually went quite well, below are some pics during the process:

You may recognize Sheldon and Leonard on my laptop from The Big Bang Theory,

I have all four seasons downloaded... I'm a fan.

I was able to get 7 bags out of about 3/4 of a case of peaches (I had been procrastinating thinking it would be a daunting task, so some of the case had been eaten and some had gone bad...oops). I haven't actually thawed one to see if they turned out so I'll keep you posted. I do know that the syrup is tasty!
For my first try I thought this was a pretty easy recipe to follow and the end product looks delicious! This was my kind of 'canning'!

linking to:
tatertots and jello
madamyt
i heart naptime
sugar and dots
someday crafts