Chicken Bone Bark

Chicken bone you say?   Let's make sure you all know what kind of chicken bone I'm talking about first.  Chicken Bones are a Ganong original and a NB holiday favourite!  It is a delicious pink cinnamon outer shell that surrounds a bittersweet chocolate in the centre.   Growing up with Ganongs in my home town these have always been a favourite of mine and now my kids.  So try to imagine my delight when one of my friends brought Chicken Bone bark to a Christmas party recently...actually all the Chicken Bone lovers went nuts over it.  So I thought I would make some for our holiday treats and share the recipe for all those Chicken Bone lovers out there.

The original recipe is called Kiss my Cookie Bark from Crazy for Crust

Ingredients

1 Bag of Oreo Cookies

1 Package (12 oz) Semi-sweet chocolate chips 

1 Package (12 oz) White chocolate chips

1 Package of Ganong Chicken Bones (crushed up)


Directions

1.  Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.  Coarsely chop your Oreo cookies and put them onto the baking sheet. 

2.  Melt semi-sweet chocolate chips and pour over top of your crushed up Oreo's. 

3.  Melt the white chocolate and pour over top of cookie and chocolate mixture. 

4.  Sprinkle with chopped Chicken Bones and refrigerate until hardened. 

5.  Break apart and enjoy! 

10 x 10 wardrobe Challenge

Last fall I took part in a 10 x 10 capsule wardrobe challenge that was hosted by my friend over at Simply Stylish.  The purpose of this challenge was to maximize the clothing that I already have and find new combinations of outfits with the articles of clothing I picked.     I loved many things about this challenge!  One was that I didn't have to stand in front of my closest every morning thinking "what should I wear today".  All my clothes where hung up in our spare room so I went in every morning, grabbed some pieces and wore GREAT outfits for those 10 days.  Doing the capsule also helped me to learn how to pack lighter for trips and it was helpful to see that we don't need a ton of clothing,  just a few pieces that we love to look and feel great. 

So what were the 10 pieces I chose?  I needed to choose clothing that fit over those 10 days.  We had thanksgiving in there so I like to be some what dressy, and we all know the aftermath of stuffing our faces off with too much food so I definitely need some leggings in their to be comfortable. 

So my capsule wardorb consisted of: 

1. High waisted mom jeans

2. Black leggings

3. Low-raise Jeans. 

4. Denim button up shirt

5. Long stripped and floral shirt

6. Sweater

7. Red flannel shirt

8. Floral sweater 

9. Basic layering sweater

10. Black t-shirt

All of these worked perfect for making outfits that I feel confident, comfortable, fashionable and friendly in.  They worked perfect for being out and about but also for accomplishing many of my domestic engineer task. 

So lets see those 10 days! 

Off to church today so I added my brown heal boots to this outfit to make it look a little more dressy. 

My basic hip mom outfit with my fall hat and fabric high tops. 

I was still nursing a baby at this time so I added my Costal Chew necklace to this basic sweater. 

Off to my women's small group.  These high brown boots are my everyday go to.  And I'm wearing another nursing necklace from Costal Chews. 

I love everything about this outfit!  High waisted jeans, basic black t-shirt, flannel shirt tied up in front and my short brown boats.  

Lets put 2 tops together.  I love the look of a long button up covered by a simple sweater.  For me it's important that when I wear leggings I want my front and my butt covered up (just a personal thing) so I love finding longer shirts that do that.  And I am usually always wearing a hat in the fall and winter. 

Chilling at home and getting stuff done outfit.  And the funny thing is my tween niece showed up and we were twinning!! 

More layering with my denim shirt and my house sweater.  I love to have a sweater that goes with most outfits so when I get chilly I can throw it on with whatever I am wearing.  My favourite boots and a neck warmer made by one of my besties. 

I love look of these outfit.  It makes me feel a little dressy when I pair it with my short boots and a big necklace. 

I am definitely going to do this challenge again with 10 new pieces.  But you know what else; I'm going to get these 10 pieces hung up in my spare room again and have 10 fall outfits to rock!  

Banana Muffins

My kids LOVE taking muffins for school lunches and these banana muffins are 2 of their very favourite!   

Banana Muffins

3 ripe banana

1 cup mayo

1 cup sugar

2 cups flour

1 tsp powder

1 tsp soda

1/2 cup chocolate chips (optional)

Mash bananas in a mixer.  Add all other ingredients and mix until combined.  Fill up your muffin cups and bake at 375 for 20 minutes. 

*These muffins are so moist and delicious.  I put all my muffins into the freezer (once cooled) and the kids take them out the night before while packing their lunch and they are perfect for lunch the next day. 

This 24 muffin pan has changed my life!  I have a few kids who don't like chocolate chips in their banana muffins so I do 12 with and 12 without.

Double Chocolate Banana Bread

1 cup flour
3/4 cocoa
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
3 bananas
1/3 cup melted butter
2 eggs
1 cup brown sugar
2 tsp vanilla
3 Tbsp milk
1 cup chocolate chips

In a large bowl combine all dry ingredients; flour, cocoa, baking powder, soda, cinnamon and salt.
In a large mixer mash bananas and add all wet ingredients.  Slowly add dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until combined, the batter is very thick.   Put into muffin tin and bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes. 

25 summer meals!

Hello Summer!!!   I am so excited that this is the last week of school and next week is our official start to summer.  This year I have decided to scale back my meal plan for the summer after listening to a great podcast by the Lazy Genius on her Summer dinner queue.    So here is my 25 summer recipes that I will be putting into rotation for the next 10 weeks along with a few side ideas that I have for you. 

1.  Hot dog wraps (or buns) and a side

2. Burgers and a side

3. BBQ legs (or thighs) and a side

Cook your veggies right on the grill

4. Steak skewers over rice

5. Chicks on a stick over rice 

6. Sloppy Joes with a side

7. Sausages with a side 

8. Roast Chicken in the crock pot with potato salad

9. Chicken and bacon Cesar Salad

Lettuce, chicken, bacon, veggies and croutons. Sometimes we serve these in a wrap. 

10. Pulled pork

Cooked in the crock pot

11. Lick your chops

12. Tenderloin ribs

The recipe I use for these are from Looney Spoons

13. Teriyaki pork and pineapple skewers

Alternate pork chunks with pineapple chunks.  Grill and flip often brushing with teriyaki sauce every time and serve over rice. 

14. Campfire supper

Hot dog roast, Spider dogs and this yummy survival bread wrapped around the hot dogs is delicious

15. Tacos (salad and walking tacos)

A mixture of soft shelled, hard shell, salad and walking tacos

Taco salad

Walking Tacos

16. Pork Fajitias

17. Spaghetti and Salad

Sauce cooked in the slower cooker

18. Hodge Podge and sausages

19. Nachos

Going to try on the grill this year

20. Fish taco (fish and chips)

21. Ham and Cheese Slidders

22. Chicken Burgers and a side

(Crispy Baked Onions Rings) 

23. Pulled BBQ chicken (crock pot)

24. Naan Pizza (grilled pizza)

25. STEAK! 

26.  Mexican Salad 

27.  Butter Chicken 

My sister in-laws recipe 

28. Masaman Curry 

29.  Bacon Cheeseburger Sliders

30.  Any combination of Beef Bowls 

Delicious Sides

Grilled Pineapple

Cucumber, avocado, tomato and feta side salad. 

 Roasted Beats, sautéed swiss chard, smashed potatoes and roasted beats all make delicious sides.

Mexican Street Corn

This is such a tasty treat for summer eating but if you don't have any corn on the cob whip together this street corn salad using frozen corn. 

Loaded Potato salad 

 A great side.  Cook up those potatoes in the morning when it is cooler then whip this together right before supper time. 

Skillet corn bread

With a heavy duty cast iron pan this can be cooked right on your BBQ 

BBQ Green Beans

Broccoli Salad 

Spinach, strawberries, goat cheese and candied pecan salad.

For more summer time meal ideas check out my summer eating pinterest board! 

Tips and Trick for summer cooking

Freeze your meat in the marinated.   When I am doing up chicks on a stick I will chunk all the meat up and freeze it right in their marinated.

Use those Crock pots or insta-pots this summer.  No need to heat up your house when you have these kicking around.  You can do everything in the crock pot from roast chicken to baked potatoes. 

I will be doing the majority of my supper prep work in the mornings while its cooler outside and that way we can sit by the lake a little longer enjoying the hot sunny days.  This summer I am doing everything I can do to plug into my kids and this season. 

Guest Room

Welcome to our guest room!  I am so excited to finally share with you this beautiful space.  When we built our addition we knew we would need a guest room for all the wonderful people we love to host, including my parents :)   I love how Micah can visualize a space and make it functional for us as well as the guest that we welcome.    

The paint colour we (or should I say I) choose for the room in called Thunderbird and it is from Benjamin Moore.  Years ago I found this photo on pinterest. and knew I wanted these colours incorporated in my house.  So I knew this colour would match perfectly the Nimbus colour we painted in the addition.  

We purchased this Hemnes Day bed from Ikea.   When folded in it is a twin bed but pulls out to make a double bed.  Also the 3 large storage drawers under the bed are perfect to store games, puzzles and extra bedding.  I also purchased all these spare pillows from Ikea because you can not beat $1.99 pillows.  The cases and the comforter are from a local store called Celebrations.  The two big yellow pillow coverings are also from Ikea (this whole room is pretty much Ikea ;) 

The functional stand up closet is actually a Coat Rack from Ikea but it does the trick in this room.  We have spare towels folded on it, hangers for guest to use and the top acts as a lovely place for some storage space for us.  

Over the bed we added 2 of these wall shelves .  I saw this beautiful piece of art on pinterest and decided to create my own. 

Using picmonkey I created the design to say stay awhile.  I then printed it as an engineer print at staples and cut it to the size I wanted it for this frame that I purchased at the restore.   The frame got a fresh paint job with some of the left over Nimbus paint we had ;) 

I purchased this night stand at a local thrift shop for $8.00!  I came home and gave it a good sanding before painting it with Benjamin Moore Nimbus.   This Nimbus colour is what we painting our new addition and it goes really well with the Benjamin Moore Thunderbird colour that we painted the spare room in. 

I love the look of the old fashion type clock, although when people stay over I always find the batteries taken out!   Also on the night stand I created this print with our wi-fi password and framed it in a simple white frame I purchased at Walmart. 

Now lets talk about that beautiful yellow chair down in the corner!  I have been on the hunt to find a chair just like this and finally found one at...you guessed it.. Ikea!   I waited for a few months for it to go on sale so when it did I purchased it right away to finally finish this room.  

This picture is at night so you can't tell but this room actually has a beautiful view of our lake.  So we put up this folding desk that looks right at the lake.   This is the perfect work space for Micah when he works from home and I tend to head to this room during the kids nap time to read in that beautiful chair or do work myself at that desk.   The shelves over the desk are the same as the ones over the bed.  The decorative boxes are so pretty and so functional for storing stuff in.   The two sided picture frames are excellent for putting my custom scripture art in. 

The last part of this room is the funky mirror that is across from the stand up closet.   Guest love having a place to themselves to do their hair, make up and to make sure they look on point.