My Busy Thursday!

Well, yesterday was a busy nap time for me.  I got many things accomplished and there is no better nap time than that... except when I am also taking a nap! ;-)

Here is what I got done:

1) I finished a onesie dress for the Little Ladybug... pic later in post :-)

2) I did laundry... exciting right??

3) I made another baby head cuddle toy for my basket for the Heart for the World Auction at church.

4) I made delicious chocolate chip cookie covered Oreos... oh heavens these are good!

Well, it may not sound like a lot when its put in list form... but I think I did pretty good for one nap time sitting! :-)

Here is a picture of the new dress I got done for the Little Ladybug.  I think it is just adorable and it was oh so easy!  It is almost cute enough to use for her Easter dress this year... except I want that to be a fancy poofy dress... so I might have to see if I can modify this simple idea to make it more of a "poofy fancy" dress.



Onesie dress





Details

What do you think?  I made it by basically following the tutorials here and here.  I modified both tutorials a little bit to make my dress.  I basically used the jersey dress directions only I put my seams inside since I didn't use a knit material and it would fray if I didn't finish it off.  Try it out... you will be amazed at the results and will be oh so glad you did! 

And because I know that all of you are just drooling over the thought of chocolate chip cookie covered Oreos (or at least if you are like me you are) I will share how I made mine. 

• I started by making my typical chocolate chip cookie dough recipe... make whatever one you like.  I doubled mine so I could have more cookies in the end.  Keep in mind that each of these cookies takes the amount of dough normally required for two cookies... make sense?
• Then, place a spoonful of dough on your cookie sheet.
• Squish an Oreo down in the middle of your dough. 
• Next, place another spoonful of cookie dough on top of the Oreo.  Try to smooth it out over the top.  If it isn't perfect its okay because the dough flattens itself as it cooks anyways.  I was able to fit about 6 cookies on my cookie sheet.... you don't want to overfill your cookie sheet.



Cookies baking! :-)



• Place in the oven and bake (at the temp your recipe suggests) for between 13 and 17 minutes or until done to your liking. 
• Take out and E-N-J-O-Y!   These cookies are really best enjoyed warm out of the oven with a nice glass of milk... oh its Heaven people... Heaven. 

Next up, a tutorial on how our Little Ladybug's big girl car seat went from the before picture to the after picture :-)

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A Favorite Winter Recipe

At our house winter is the time where we do the most cooking.  We have LOTS of favorite winter recipes and I do try to mix it up every once in a while with new ones.  However, one of the best we have is for Cheesy Potato Soup.  I can not remember where I got the original recipe from... and I do change it up from the original to make it our own.  I thought since this is a favoite of ours and is perfect on a cold winter day like today I would share it with you.  So, here it is... our "Cheesy Potato Soup"

Ingredients

• 3 cups peeled and cubed potatoes
• 1/2 cup chopped celery  (optional... we don't use it)
• 1/2 cup chopped onion  (Optional... we don't use it)
• 1 cube chicken bouillon
• 1 cup water ( We use 1 and a half cups)
• 1 teaspoon dried parsley  (Optional... we don't use it)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 pinch ground black pepper
• 2 teaspoons all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups milk (We use 2 cups of milk)
• 1 1/2 cups shredded American cheese  (We use cheddar)
• 1 cup chopped ham, cooked hamburger, or cooked bacon (We use deli ham)

Directions

In a large pot add potatoes, chicken bullion and water (if you are adding the onions and celery add it now too...).  Season with salt and pepper and simmer until potatoes are tender. 

In a separate bowl mix the flour and milk and blend well.  Once potatoes are tender and the flouer is well blended with the milk, pour the milk mixture into the potatoes.  Cook until the mixture becomes thick.

Now stir in your shredded cheese and meat of your choice.  Stir until the cheese is melted.  Serve while hot! :-)

We LOVE this soup!  Usually we make garlic bread to go with it, but regular bread would go well too.  Sorry for no picture... we ate it all up before I thought to take one ;-)

Rainbowliciousness!!!

Yesterday was a yummy morning!  I was actually kind of excited to get out of bed.  The reason was all because of these lovely little things:

RAINBOW PANCAKES!!!

They were so gosh darn yummy!  You really should try to make some.  I used the recipe from The Idea Room.  To make the rainbow simpy pour the pancake batter into different bowls and add food coloring.  I will tell you that the more food coloring you add to make your colors more intense the better the color will show up when you cook your pancakes.   It was so much fun to make rainbow pancakes... it made a snowy blah morning very exciting! I just couldn't believe that I had not thought of this before... I mean, duh!  Even our little Ladybug enjoyed her rainbowliciousness...

The only suggestion I have for you in regards to the recipe from the idea room is to add a little bit of vanilla to the pancakes... it will make them super yummy! 

Enjoy your rainbowliciousness! :-)

YUMMY



I Am Amazed by cooking!!!

I have been cooking A LOT lately!  We are trying to eat in more and that results in me cooking more.  While cooking, I am also trying to be creative in what I cook so that we don't have to buy as many extras (ie: hamburger buns) when we are grocery shopping.  At first I wasn't so sure I would like doing this much cooking at home.  However, I have been pleasantly surprised in that I am really really really enjoying the cooking I have been doing!

In the last week alone I have tried new recipes at least 3 times and actually made up my own once.  Its fun! 

I made homemade hamburger buns from this recipe: The Farm Girl Hamburger Buns.  They turned out FABULOUS!!!   Here is a picture of how mine turned out... please excuse our "fancy china"... we don't like to do dishes at our house!

To go on those hamburger buns I made homemade BBQ pulled chicken in the crock pot.  It was fabulously easy and tasted good too!  I just put two chicken breasts in my small crock pot and added a little Dr. pepper.  Yes, you read that right... Dr. pepper!  Then I added some wonderful Silver Dollar City BBQ sauce (our favorite!) and some Famous Dave's Rib Rub seasoning.  I let it cook and cook and cook some more.  Eventually it was cooked enough it kind of half fell apart and I half pulled it apart.  That was it... it tasted wonderful on those homemade buns! 

Other new recipes I tried this week that we liked were: baked spaghetti, ham and cheese bow ties, and Disney Boardwalk Bakery's brownie cheesecake!  They were all delicious and I can't wait to make them again! 

I am liking this cooking thing... especially when I can find new recipes that we like!