Lalaloopsy Cake

My daughter turned 6 this past week!  I can not believe where the time is going!!

She requested a Lemon Cake this year as well as a Lalaloopsy Cake so this is what I made for her:

2 Yellow straws and a paper banner with Lalaloopsy's on them.

Fast and Simple and so cute too......she was very pleased.

It was a Lemon Cake with a Strawberry filling in the middle.

The leftover Easter Sixlets were the perfect colors to finish off the cuteness for the top.

BBQ Pork Stuffed Biscuits

Make up these simple biscuits for dinner.  Serve with a favorite side dish or salad for a complete meal.

1 8pk of biscuits

some BBQ pulled pork that you have made ahead of time

mozzarella cheese

preheat oven to directions on pkg of biscuits.  Take each biscuits and flatten it out and then press inside a muffin tin up around the side.  Fill each biscuits with pork and top with cheese and simply cook in the oven for 13-17 minutes until golden brown.  Serve warm!

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Ham and Cheese Casserole (step by step)

Ham and Cheese......yummmmm!

  

Start with some bread.  

It's better to use a good thick bread instead of the cheap sandwich bread.  Butter one side and place the butter side down in your pan.  I do 2 8x8 pans so I can have it for 2 nights of dinner.

Then dice up some ham and place that right on top of the bread. The amount depends on how much ham you like, I use about 2 cups for an 8x8 pan.

 Now dice up your cheese.  You do not want to use pre-shredded cheese for this.  It does not give you the same results.  I use about 1 cup of cheese for an 8x8 pan.  Mix it up.

 Next, butter your bread and place it butter side up.  Then poke some holes in the bread with a fork.  You will then take 1 cup of milk and 3 eggs and wisp those together and then pour it over your bread.

 After you pour the milk and egg mixture over the bread, season it with some garlic salt and my favorite is Salad Supreme from McCormick.  Cover this and place in fridge and let it sit for 6-8 hours before you cook it.  Cook for 40-50 minutes on 350*.  Let it set up for about 30 minutes before you serve it to your family.  They will love it for sure!

 Enjoy!!

Halloween Survival Kits

How are you going to 

SURVIVE 

Halloween???

 I am hoping that some of our friends will enjoy Halloween with the help of these little kits.

I am super excited to give them away and share the spooky feeling of this month with them.

 Decorate the outside of a fun container, then fill it with all shorts of goodies.  Both salty and sweet work well.

Then on the inside I also decorated it with fun spooky names for all of the goodies.  I am sure it will be a fun game to play to match up the names with the goodies as they eat them.
These are the treats and spooky names I used:
bed bugs - Wonka gummy bugs
bat droppings - tootsie rolls
ghost poop - marshmallows
human coffins - Hersey treasures
frog legs - Mike and Ike's
rat eyes - sour cherries
mummy corpses - sour patch kids
skull dust - assorted single drink mixes
vampire teeth - caramel and apple candy corns
twisted twigs - pretzels
fried skin flakes - oyster crackers

I got the idea for using the craft boxes from 
this idea on 
this awesome site.  

Click on over and see all of their other awesome ideas.

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Simple Chicken Cordon Bleu Sandwiches

 Chicken Cordon Bleu is one of my favorite dishes......but making it from scratch makes me tired just thinking about it :)  So I did the next best thing and turned them into sandwiches for my family.

 Here is what I did:

*I flatted out some chicken breasts and then grilled them up using our favorite seasonings (garlic salt, pepper, season all, grill seasoning)
*after the chicken is cooked, let it rest while you get your buns ready
*on a jelly roll pan, I open up each set of buns and place both sides on the sheet.  I then place a slice of provolone cheese on 1 of the pairs of buns (you could use any cheese you like but this is our favorite).  I then place them under the broiler......make sure to watch them carefully because they go fast.  This is to melt the cheese and toast the buns.
*I also warm up some lunch meat ham in a pan on the stove top and once that is ready you can build your sandwiches. Since I flattened out the chicken breasts before hand, I was able to cut them in half which was a perfect size for our buns.
*We loved Dijon mustard on our sandwiches but honey mustard is a good choice as well.

Enjoy!!

Ramen Noodle Burritos

Ramen Noodles.......you know you make them.  

You might even eat them too.

Ok, it's personal confession time for me.  I make them for my kids and I even make them for myself once in a while. Especially now that I am on light bed rest.  

The one thing I HATE the most about them is how messy and sticky they can be when your kids are dropping them all over the floor or they were sticking to their clothes eating them.  My solution to that was to wrap them up in a tortilla that had been warmed up with some cheese, just to contain the mess.  And you know something, they taste even better this way and I do not have to pick them up off the floor (or leave them for a day and then vacuum them up later).  Serve them up with a side of cottage cheese or some veggies and your not so healthy lunch or dinner will not make you feel as guilty.   

**to make them all you do is cook them for the 3 minutes, drain out all of the water, add seasoning mix and your ready to add to a tortilla!!

Carrot Cookies

 I grew up eating these cookies.  They are good. 

Takes me right back to my childhood and fall time too.

**Give them a try**

1 cup white sugar

1 cup shortening

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla

3 cups flour

3 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp salt

1 1/2 cup cooked carrots, mashed

bake 375* 10-12 minutes

( Diabetic exchange: 495 carbs in all.  Take the # of cookies you get and divide that

with 495 and you will know how many carbs per cookie. 

12 carbs for large cookies, 6 for small cookies)

Super Mario Birthday cake

Take a look at this amazing cake!  My cute nephew had a birthday a few weeks ago and this is the cake

that my SIL and brother made for him.  What talent!

My nephew was one HAPPY BOY on his birthday!

Take it from one who ate some of it too....it was yummy :)

They gave me permission to take these pictures and to share this amazing cake with all of you!

My SIL has her own photography blog that I highly recommend you check out.

CLICK HERE to check out Haven Rock Photography.

Breakfast Recipes

Breakfast Smoothies

8 oz skim milk

2 scoops chocolate whey protein (I buy my mine at Sam's Club)

1/2 cup of Light and Fit Vanilla yogurt (any flavor you like will do)

PLUS***  I add a handful of frozen fruit. (rasperries, strawberries, mango) You can mix several together

Mix it in a blender.  Drink right away OR freeze them in these Kerr Freezer jars. (I bought mine at Walmart)

Breakfast Burritos

Whole Wheat tortillas

Make them with anything of the following:

eggs, ham, cheese, sausage, green peppers, onion, olives

cilantro, bacon and so on

Check out this previous post on my burritos for the recipe.

Breakfast Cake

1/4 cup veg oil

1 beaten egg

1/2 cup milk

1 1/2 cup flour

3/4 cup white sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

Combine wet, mix dry ingredients and then add to wet.  Mix well.  Pour into a greased 8x8 pan.  Sprinkle with topping.  Bake 350* 25 - 30 minutes.

Topping: combine 2 T melted butter, 2 tsp flour, 2 tsp cinnamon, 1/3 cup brown sugar

Quiche (we call it Egg Cake in our house)

6 beaten eggs

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup Bisquick

3 cups milk

1/4 tsp mustard

2 cups grated swiss cheese

1/2 tsp minced onion OR fresh green onion

1 small can Deviled Ham OR bacon

Mix together, Bake 350* 45-50 minutes.  Let it rest for 20 minutes before serving

Here is what you need:

For other recipes search Click here

Eat healthier

Everyday, in our house, we live with Type 1 diabetes.  This is different then type 2 diabetes.  There is NO cure for Type 1.  The most important thing I have learned while living with diabetes is that you must educate yourself on what you eat.  Everything that we put in our mouth effects blood sugar.  Do you know what you are eating?  I sure thought I did.....a year ago, but that has changed.

The Mr in the house is the one that "has" diabetes.  He was diagnosed with it over 8 years ago.  We have been married for over 5 years and so I live with it too.  Because I am the one that does the cooking I really had to change a few things.  Frankly, I needed the help too because I needed to loose some weight.  I made most of these small changes last year and I have really learned a lot by doing it.  They are simple, really.  But the side effects have been HUGE!!!!!   My husbands A1C dropped to a healthy range and I lost 50 pounds. (I only gained 10 pounds during my recent pregnancy)  Here are a few things you can do now, whether you have to make a change because of a medical issue or not, to live a healthier life through food.

First, drink more water!!

Second, have a good breakfast.  Me and the Mr are not big breakfast eaters so I make protein shakes and then freeze them.  This way they are ready for those mornings we are rushing off to school, or work or to doctor apts.

LOVE this stuff!!

We also LOVE tortillas in our house.  These are my FAVORITE!!!! 

They truly are good and the kids eat them too.

 I also make Breakfast burritos as well and freeze them.

(the 19 is how many carbs is in one burrito and the 1 unit is so my husband knows

how much insulin to take.  I do this with everything)

Third, MEASURE MEASURE MEASURE!!!

Get a scale, get 3 or more sets of measuring cups and measure all your food.  One, this will really teach you what a portion really is and second it cuts your food bill drastically because you can make 2 or 3 nights worth of meals out of one..  Who doesn't want that?  less cooking :)

Fourth, Learn how to cook.

I have always loved cooking.  I have cooked a lot. 

I have learned how to do it more healthy and I really enjoy it. 

Keep it simple and easy and it's amazing how good it tastes.

(chicken wrap) 

(egg salad sandwich)

I grew up in a house where you ate everything no matter if you were full or not.  I don't believe in that so I don't do that with my kids.  But I do believe in no sweets until you have eaten something substantial.  It's important to fill up on the good stuff before filling up on the juck stuff. 

( If you don't buy the junk stuff your kids won't eat it ) 

If you have respect for food it will respect you in return.

.......that reminds me.....I have a brownie waiting for me in the kitchen  (smile) 

-goodnight-