A Pre-Schooler's Grocery List

My 4 year old likes to go grocery shopping with me, which is cool.

My 4 year old likes to touch everything in the store and can't be still or listen while in the store, which isn't cool.

I needed something to keep him occupied so I don't have to call a Wal-Mart employee (again) to clean up jars of busted baby food.

Thank you Publix Pre-School Pals! When I glanced through this quarter's flier, they had some ideas for getting your kids involved in the kitchen and cooking. One of their ideas was to give your child a grocery list at the store that they can check off when items go in the buggy. What a brilliant idea! Why hadn't I thought of something like this sooner?!

I easily created the following grocery list in about 20 minutes in Microsoft Word. I then slipped the sheet into a clear sheet protector (thanks to a good friend for the gift!) that he can color on with a dry erase crayon.

Voila!



He is already excited about going to the grocery store...now I just have to remember to grab some dry erase crayons and the new grocery list the next time we head out.

By the way, I did try to put the grocery list up here to share so anyone could download it and use it but I couldn't figure out how to upload it. It is a PDF file from Adobe. If you can help me with this please leave me a message or email me!

Donut Acorns

My son's pre-school did a full Thanksgiving dinner for each of the classes; they provided the drinks, turkey, and dressing, and the classes (aka each parent) brought in sides for their class.

I took homemade mac and cheese but since I love to cook, that wasn't enough for me! Since I didn't want to take the time to make cupcakes, I searched around and found an ADORABLE idea on Pinterest (haven't signed up for that yet?? what are you waiting for??): Donut Hole Acorns! Perfect for a class of 3-4 year olds!

They really were super easy to make and you only need a few ingredients (pictured below)!

small pretzel sticks
donut holes
chocolate frosting
chocolate sprinkles

I used the old fashioned style donut holes because of the darker color...looked more like acorns to me!

So, how easy are these to put together? Just follow these very few steps:

1. Break several pretzel sticks in half for the stems and set aside.
2. Swirl the top of each donut hole in the chocolate frosting (cover the donut no more than half way).
3. Sprinkle chocolate sprinkles onto the chocolate frosting.
4. Stick a piece of pretzel stick into the top.

DONE!

Seriously...how easy is that? And here is the adorable result. I wasn't able to make nearly as many as I wanted to because my jar of chocolate sprinkles was very tiny.

My son's teacher told me she HAD to have one of these after seeing my post on Facebook and I got lots of comments on how cute they were! Some variations are using Nutella instead of the frosting or using crushed up toffee pieces instead of the sprinkles...or a combo of all of them.

ENJOY!

The Many Adventures of Chipper the Elf

My son had such a wonderful time searching for "Chipper," our resident Elf on the Shelf. If you haven't heard of it, please look it up, especially if you have small children; they'll really love looking for their own elf each morning!

Anyway, this was the first year I've really done some fun things with good ol' Chipper (yes, my son named him after his favorite Braves' baseball player, Chipper Jones). He had quite an adventurous season! I documented some of his greatest adventures in pictures!

One morning he was hanging out (literally!) in Mommy's stocking!

Just sitting around on the fireplace mantel.

Chipper landed in the tree one morning.


Chipper must have landed in the wrong spot because he was zip lining one morning!


Chipper brought us a new Veggie Tales Christmas movie.


Being a Scout elf is such a dirty job! Marshmallow baths are always so nice!


Even Chipper remembers what Christmas is all about.


Oops! I guess he made a wrong step and had to stay like this all day!


Mmm...Chipper wanted some Christmas cookies!

Chicken and Dumplings

This is one of my favorite comfort foods. I can remember helping my great grandmother make them for me when we'd go to visit her in Palataka, Florida. She and my mother would cook the chicken in a pressure cooker but I have to admit, those things scare me! I can just see me blowing something up in my kitchen. Because of that, I came up with this super easy way to make a delicious meal (without the fear of blowing up my kitchen!). Recipe and directions are after the picture!


Chicken and Dumplings

1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breasts
salt, pepper, onion powder to taste
3 tbs. oil
2 cups Bisquick
2/3 cups milk
1 - 32 oz box chicken stock
2 cups chicken bouillon

Cut chicken into bite sized pieces, put in a large Dutch oven pot with the oil, season to taste. Cook until no longer pink in the middle. Mix Bisquick and milk together to form a soft dough. Mix 2 chicken bouillon cubes with 2 cups boiling water. When chicken is cooked through, add chicken stock and chicken bouillon. Bring to a boil. Once boiling, drop dumplings in one at a time, maintaining the boil. Boil 10 minutes uncovered and 10 minutes covered.

Enjoy!


* If you have a large family (or a really hungry one), just double the recipe.

* I use Tastefully Simple Seasoned Salt on my chicken along with the pepper and onion powder but regular salt is fine.

Easy Crock Pot Ranch Pork Chops

I love my Crock Pot. It is honestly one of the greatest inventions...ever. Having two small boys it has been a Godsend lately.

This is the latest recipe I tried (found on Pinterest) so I can't take credit for coming up with it. It was incredibly easy to throw together and turned out so very, very good. My hubby even loved it and has taken the leftovers to work twice; I didn't get a chance to have any more! We don't have pork chops very often (bone in or out) because they are always so tough; these chops were FORK TENDER! I served it with garlic mashed potatoes, a fresh salad, and apple cinnamon muffins (my 4 year old's choice). The recipe and directions will follow the picture!



Ranch Pork Chops

4-6 boneless pork chops
1 can Cream of Chicken Soup
1 packet Ranch dressing mix

Mix the soup and ranch mix together. Place the pork chops in the Crock Pot and cover with the soup mixture. Cook on high 4 1/2 hours or low 6 1/2 hours. Spoon extra gravy over the mashed potatoes (recipe to follow).


*Because Crock Pots may vary in their cooking start checking your chops an hour or so before the cooking time is up!

*If you want more gravy, just use two cans of soup and about 1 1/4 of the ranch mixes!

*Slow Cooker liners by Reynolds are the second best invention ever! It makes clean up super easy!


Garlic Mashed Potatoes


Yukon Gold Potatoes
butter
milk
salt and pepper, to taste
garlic powder

Peel most of the skin off the potatoes and cut them into smaller pieces (makes it easier to cook). Put in a large pot of salted water and boil until fork tender. Drain the water. Mash potatoes. Add milk, butter, salt, pepper, and garlic powder and continue to mash until you get the consistency and taste you desire (more milk and butter and mashing = creamier potatoes).


*I use Yukon Golds because I just prefer the taste and texture of them but you can use any potatoes you want.

*You can also use minced garlic if you want; powder was just what I happened to have on hand.

New Tastefully Simple Catalog!!

Tomorrow is September 1!! Wow...how did that get here so fast??

The new Tastefully Simple catalog starts TOMORROW!!! Let me tell y'all...these new fall/winter products are AMAZING!! I tasted some last night....yum. I put down my anchor and stayed near the Chipolte Queso Dip almost all evening (having to fight with two others over the bits left in the crock pot!). Besides that the Scalloped Potatoes made with the new Bountiful Beer Cheese soup and the Mashed Potatoes made with the new Roasted Onion dip were positively delicious!! And the Amazing Amaretto Chocolate Sauce??? Chocolate and Amaretto, need I say more?

These are just a few of the 26 new products in the catalog this season (along with the standard line of course...Bountiful Beer Bread, Absolutely Almond Pound Cake, Spinach and Artichoke Dip...yummmm). If any of these sound tempting to you, you can browse my site here and order! Hope to hear from some of y'all soon! Don's miss out on these awesome products!!

Come on September!

What's so great about September you ask?

Several things this year!

My precious first born will be turning 4 mid month and I'm wondering how in the world is he that old already??? Didn't I just bring him home???

The new Tastefully Simple catalog comes out either the 1st or 6th and I am very excited! Can't wait for my customers to see what's in store! Check out my site here.

Cooler temps (hopefully). Need I say more? The man on the radio said the high - the HIGH, not with the humidity - will be 100 on Wednesday; I don't want to think about adding our humidity into that!

Fall festivals!!! I love this time of year!!

Our book club is doing something different this month: instead of meeting at someone's house and bringing food, we're meeting at a Japanese Hibachi restaurant to discuss our read for the month (Memoirs of a Geisha). So excited!

We're hopefully taking said 4 year old to Disney World at the end of the month. We took him when he was two but I know he doesn't remember anything. I think he's going to pee in his pants from excitement when we get there!


I really do love this time of year. So many things to look forward to...its just a fun time all around! Really looking forward to the holidays this year!

Wish Folks Would Respond!!

Today's rant: People who won't return phone calls, text messages, Facebook messages, etc, etc.

Don't ya just hate it when you're trying to get in touch with someone in an effort to get some important information and they just will not respond?? There are several folks here recently I've been trying to contact via all forms of available media and can not get one person to get back in touch with me.

Gahhhh!!!

I'm about to throw up my hands and say "Too bad, so sad" when they don't get what they need from me!!!

Really, is it that hard to just respond with a "Hey, I'm busy right now. I'll get back to you"??? At least then I know you care enough.

Bleh.

Rant over.