heart shaped pizza

Ebens favorite food is pizza so for valentines day we decided to make heart shaped pizzas. After we made a big pizza for hubby and I; hubby used the left over dough so Eben could use our heart shaped cookie cutters to make his own pizza.

He had lots of fun cutting out the dough and more fun eating the pizza.

Chocolate Chip Muffins

The other day I was really craving chocolate chip muffins so I started search Google for a recipe and found this prefect treat in the first hit! After reading the recipe it seemed pretty delicious basically a cake with chocolate chips but then seeing that the recipe had over 350 reviews (all good) I was sold and made the recipe right away.

The recipe can be found here the only thing I did different was I didn't add a whole bag of chocolate chips from the reviews it seemed like a lot so I didn't add that many. Our family LOVED these muffins they taste better then store bought muffins. All they were missing (says hubby) was large sugar crystals on the top!

Hope you enjoy this recipe as well as we did!

Second hand shopping

So this week me and two friends had the great idea to pack up the van (3 adults and 5 children) and head to a local second hand shop that is about 25-30 minutes away. They only reason we decided to go to this Frenchy's was because they were having a special day where once you get to the register you get to pick a ball out of this box that has a discount on it from 25%-100% off your entire purchase.

So here we are in the van with all the kids I got stuck in the way back with two kids, the middle row had 3 kids and my lovely friends sat comfortably in the 2 front seats.

The kids were so well behaved there. Its a good thing they have a play place for them. I filled our stroller up with lots of things and prayed the entire time to get a big discount.

When it came our turn at the register I drew a ball with 50% off so I got this stuff below (~26 items)for $23

New toddler jacket
New toddler snow pants
toddler shirt
2 pair maternity pants
skirt
3 maternity shirts
14 baby onies/pjs and cute little brown girl hat....just in case.
3 books
1 movie

So days like these usually happen at our second hand stores about once every 3 months or so. They are great days to take advantage of. I mean I was able to get all this stuff for ~ $1.00/ item!!!

For more frugal ideas check out life as mom

chef hat and apron

Since I love to bake and cook I have someone around the house who just loves to get up on a big chair and help mommy. So for Christmas I thought I would try to make him a little chef hat and apron so he won't get as dirty while cooking with me. I really love how the chef hat turned out (Thanks to my cousin Pamela!!). I followed a free pattern found at you can make this; the pattern called for making the hat out of double weave cotton which is just a stronger cotton so it stands up like a real chef hat but since I found the cotton at a discount store $1.99/yard I just used iron on interfacing to make the hat stiffer. Then Pamela helped me and sewed the pieces together. And thanks to my mom for her patience as I dug through a basket filled with different styles and colors of letters we finally found EBEN to put his name on the front of the hat.



To match his little hat I made an apron for him as well. You can kind of see it here its the colorful alphabet and numbers. I looked a bunch of different patterns and designs on line and just gave it a shot. He really loves to cook with mama now and gets excited to put on his special cooking wear!

For more works for me ideas head on over to we are that family

Homemade Blizzard

So I am not really back to being 100% normal as I am still not able to meal plan again. So I will just tell you what I have been making. Here is my first little pregnancy creation. A homemade score blizzard.


1-2 cups ice cream
1 crushed up score bar
a little bit of milk

let ice cream get a little soft by letting it sit on the counter for 10-20 minutes. Add just a little bit of milk to it and stir it all together with a spoon. Add in the score bits and enjoy!!!

These were pretty tasty and if you want it to be a little harder you can put it in the freezer for about 20 minutes. Also I read that you can add some chocolate syrup if you would like.

If you enjoy homemade blizzards please share you recipe with us!

Valentines

Readers please forgive me for being gone for long. Some of you probably don't know but Baby #2 is on the way and for the first trimester nothing much has been happening around the kitchen or the craft room. I have been just trying to make it through the day! I didn't think anyone wanted to read much about eating white toast with peanut butter or cereal.

But now that I am starting to regain some strength and energy I have been getting back into the swing of things.

This is my little guys first year in a little "pre-school" type class so I needed to make some valentines for him to take to his friends.


Mr. Monkey (who is now the little guys bestest friend) has the butter fly valentines which can be found over here at skip to my lou


and the flower can be found here.


For more great valentine ideas check out these links


The long thread

And here

And here at the mother load


And for more frugal ideas head on over here.

Curried Chicken

This is the best curried chicken that we have ever had!!

Hope you enjoy.

Curried Chicken

1. In a plastic bag, shake chicken pieces in flour, paprika, salt and pepper. (It's supposed to be a whole chicken, cut in pieces with the skin, but I usually use boneless, skinless thighs or breasts as well...you just don't cook it as long.)

2. Fry coated pieces in oil to brown on both sides, remove the chicken and place in a baking pan.

3. To the chicken drippings, add the following: fresh, crushed garlic, one diced red or green pepper, one small diced onion, 4 tablespoons of curry powder or paste (I use medium hot paste), 4 tablespoons flour, 1/4 tsp of cayenne (or more, to taste), 2 cups milk, 1/2 teaspoon thyme, 2 tablespoons brown sugar, 1/4 teaspoon ginger, , 2 cups chicken broth, 1 teaspoon lemon juice.

Simmer sauce to a gentle boil and just thickened. Pour over chicken and bake at 350 degrees until tender. Nice over coconut rice.