new obsession

My sister sent me this link for homemade chocolate soft serve. It's the kind that is actually healthy for you. After all, it's made of frozen bananas, milk, vanilla extract, cocoa powder..... and that's it. No sugar, no cream, nothing else. You can follow her recipe, but I usually add more milk and it takes a little bit of love to get it creamy (I have made in Cuisinart and the blender). Maybe a total of 5 minutes. So easy and delicious.

I'm serious.... make it today. Immediately. Right now. Or as soon as your bananas are frozen.

Enjoy!

summer

I never imagined that summer time would equal less blogging time- but it does. My hands and feet have been busy with three little ones all day, every day. It's hard to catch up. But I guess it's totally worth it because in a snap of a finger we will be back to routines, being divided in our days, and a more structured life.... so I am learning to enjoy our carefree days together. It's bliss.

another mix and match recipe

Here is another mix and match recipe. My hubby wanted a homemade chocolate peanut butter ice cream pie for his birthday. So I mixed and matched recipes to make it perfect!

(sorry for the super lame picture....we ate it so fast I forgot to take a better one)

Chocolate Peanut Butter Ice Cream Pie 
original recipes from here and here.

Ingredients
1 box Oreo Cookies
6 tbsp melted butter
2 cups half and half
1/4 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
1/2 cup sugar
pinch of salt
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 bottle hot microwavable hot fudge
1 pack of Reese Peanut Butter Cups

Directions:

1. Finely crush about 25 Oreos in a food processor. Mix with melted butter and spread in the bottom of a 9" round pan for the crust. Freeze.

2. Meanwhile, in a large sauce pan, combine the half and half, cocoa powder, sugar, and salt; whisk. Heat the mixture until it comes to a full boil. Continue to whisk. When the mixture starts to foam remove it from the heat and add the peanut butter, whisking to blend thoroughly. Refrigerate the mixture until it is completely chilled. Finish by following the directions on your ice cream maker.

3. Scoop the ice cream on the frozen crust. Drizzle hot fudge on top. Crush remaining Oreos and cut the Peanut Butter Cups into pieces and sprinkle on top.

Enjoy!

New recipe

Lately I have been mixing recipes together.... it's kind of a new thing for me. After all, I'm not a skilled cook. But I have been really trying to keep everything homemade, and that means substituting for canned or processed foods in one recipe with something from another. So far so good and I have made two different dishes doing this, which means I kind of have my own recipe to share! Now that's a first.

(image from myrecipes.com)

Chili Hash Brown Bake
Original recipes from here and here.
(Substituted can of sloppy joe sauce and can of chili with beans for the real thing)

Ingredients
1 1/2 pounds lean ground beef
1/4 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped green bell pepper
1 tsp garlic powder
1 1/2 tsp yellow mustard
1 cup ketchup
4 tsp brown sugar
salt to taste
ground black pepper to taste
1 (15 oz) can chili beans
1/2  (30 oz) package frozen shredded hash browns (about 4 cups)
2 cups shredded cheese

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. In a medium skillet over medium heat, brown the ground beef, onion, and green pepper; drain off liquids.

2. Stir in the garlic powder, mustard, ketchup, brown sugar, and chili beans; mix thoroughly. Season with salt and pepper.

3. Spoon chili mixture into lightly greased 13 x 9-inch baking dish or 10-oz ramekins. Top with frozen hash browns.

4. Bake, covered, at 425 degrees for 30 minutes; uncover and bake 10 more minutes or until browned and crisp. Sprinkle with cheese, and bake 5 more minutes or until cheese is melted.

Note: Our chili beans were a little hard so next time we will make sure they simmer a little bit, after reading reviews when I added the cheese I mixed the cheese with the hash browns, and next time we are going to try grating our own potatoes instead of using frozen hash browns at all!

Enjoy!

a favorite blog post... mother's must read

This is one of my favorite blog posts... ever. I just love Lil Blue Boo. This post is all sorts of awesome.

http://www.lilblueboo.com/2012/07/why-ill-never-tell-you-how-to-parent.html

Enjoy!

sad cowboy

I like to call this image "The Saddest Little Cowboy in Town." We were in a parade on 4th of July and little man was mad at me for trying to take his bucket of candy to give to kids on the parade route. That was its intended purpose after all. But he wasn't having it. While this little crying tantrum, which included throwing other things out of the wagon, may have stressed some moms out.... I felt the need to catch it on camera so I could smile over it forever. I just love him to pieces, tears and all. And the best part was when he covered his face. It's hard being a two and a half year old.