White Chocolate and Oreo Cookies

Doesn't every good day involve a picture of some delicious cookies?  Well actually, it probably involves the actual cookies, but this is the best I can do ;)  We spent some time at a friend's house on Sunday and I wanted to bring a delicious treat, so of course I hit Pinterest for some inspiration.  There I found the really delicious recipe for Cookies and Cream Cookies from Six Sisters Stuff.  Now, I will first tell you that I totally took the easy way out and use a pouch of sugar cookie mix. Next time, I'll definitely make them from scratch, as there was definitely a taste difference.

Overall, these cookies were delicious, and I highly recommend making them. Here's the recipe:

2 1/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 (4.2 ounce) package Cookies 'n Creme pudding mix
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 bag white chocolate chips
15 Double Stuffed Oreo cookies, very coarsly chopped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream butter and sugars, add pudding mix until blended. Stir in the eggs and vanilla. In a separate bowl, combine the flour and baking soda with a whisk then add it to the butter mixture. Stir in the chocolate chips and Oreo cookies. Drop cookies by rounded spoonfuls onto greased cookie sheet. Bake for 10 minutes in preheated oven until cookies tops barely have a touch of brown. Makes 3 dozen cookies. 

I love these cookies because every bite has either a white chocolate chip or an Oreo in it- so delicious!

Work.Clean.Sleep.Repeat.

That is what our life has been lately. 

Not that I'm not grateful to have a great employer, an up-for-sale house that is busy with showing activity or a bed to collapse into at the end of the night, but sometimes it would be nice to take the day off, leave the dishes in the sink and just play all day. 

It's been a goal of mine to regularly blog, and unfortunately my side interests have taken a back seat the all the business of life. I hope to be back soon.  I miss you little orphan bloggy!

Pinterest inspired wall art

I am so super excited about this project! My friend pinned this but there's no way I'd pay that amount for something so simple so I set about to make a knockoff at a fraction of the price.  As it turns out, all the supplies for this were found in my garage so this was another free project!

I started out with a 24 inch by 24 inch thin board, although canvas would probably work better.  I also had some chipboard letters I'd ordered from Stampin' Up a couple of years ago, some leftover white spray paint and some brown ribbon.

This project was just as easy as it looks!  First, I measured out where I wanted the letters, then used spray adhesive to adhere them to the board.  Just to be on the safe side, I also used a thin layer of hot glue, but maybe I was just being paranoid!

After the letters dried, I gave it a good couple of coats of white paint.  As you can probably see, the color I had originally painted this wood shows through, but since it coordinates with our master bedroom where this ultimately will live, I don't mind.

When that was dried, I used a paddle bit to drill two small holes in the wood and dug up some brown ribbon to tie it with.  I'm not sure that is the best ribbon for this project, but we'll see if it grows on me.  For now though, I am glad to cross this off my list of Pinterest inspired projects.

Here's a few pictures!

Have  a great week!

Linking to these parties

Most.Amazing.Chicken.Ever

As we continually strive to live within a budget, one of the most cost effective ways I've found to feed a family of 5 is to do freezer meals.  Once every 6 or so weeks, we load up the kids and head to Sam's Club for an afternoon of sampling food and stocking up on meat.  I buy several packages of each type and cut of meat, then spend the rest of the afternoon preparing the meat to freeze for later use.  I always marinade the meat before freezing, and today I want to share with you the most amazing chicken marinade recipe I've found to date, as well as some tips that produced the best chicken I've ever made.  This recipe has a secret ingredient that I ordinarily wouldn't think to cook with but it works in this recipe.  That secret ingredient is....

My husband has an aversion to anything vinegar, including regular, apple cider and balsamic, but he gobbled the chicken right up without a second thought.  Yep, it's that good! One thing to note, this recipe makes a lot of marinade so I'd suggest either reducing this down or even better, doing two meals at once.

Vinegar Chicken Marinade
(recipe modified from allrecipes.com)

You will need:
2 whole/roaster chickens

1 egg
1 C. vegetable oil
2 C cider vinegar (OR 1 C regular and 1 C cider vinegar as I did)
2 tablespoons salt
1 tablespoon poultry seasoning
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

Preparing the marinade:

Rinse the chickens inside and out, blot dry and set aside.  Crack the egg into a bowl and whisk until beaten.  A bit at a time, whisk in the oil.  When fully blended, whisk in the vinegar, salt, garlic powder, poultry seasoning and pepper.  Divide the marinade into two freezer bags, place one chicken into each bag, squeeze out all the air then seal. 

Cooking the chicken:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  I prefer to roast my chicken in a glass casserole so that I can easily baste with the juices.  If you want to put any herbs, vegetables or lemons into the cavity of the chicken, do so now.  I only had red onions at the time, so I stuffed those inside, then covered the chicken with foil.  Roast at 350 for about an hour then remove the foil, baste the chicken all over with the juices and let cook for another 20 or so minutes.  At this point, mine was okay but please use a meat thermometer to be sure. 

Once I removed the chicken, I let it sit for a couple of minutes to allow the juices to redistribute.  When I did, I noticed that the skin wasn't as browned as I like, so I stuck the chicken under the broiler for about 5 more minutes.  It bubbled a bit, but didn't actually crisp, so if you like crispy skin you could probably leave it under there longer. 

When it was browned enough for my liking, I took it out, let it sit for about 5-10 minutes more then sliced into it.... oh man this meat was delicious!  The meat was flavorful and juicy and retained a bit of the tang of the vinegary marinade.  I usually don't eat white meat because I think it's too dry, but I tried some yesterday and this marinade has made a white meat believer out of me! 

I hope you try this delicious, economical recipe for yourself!

Linking up today at Sugar Bee Crafts

And just like that.... it's the end of September!

This month has definitely gotten away from me in so many ways.  I started falling behind and eventually stopped the 30 day Mom Challenge I started this month, my master bathroom mini-redesign is half completed, I have two loads of laundry that have been waiting to be folded for at least a week and a half now and I haven't clipped coupons or gone grocery shopping in a really long time.  On the plus side, we've been playing outside a lot more, I've been having fun experimenting with new hairstyles for ZJ and we've gotten a lot of reading and snuggle time in :)  I really don't see things slowing down at all as we move into fall, my absolute favorite season and start winding up for the holidays.  That being said, I still have some goals for the month of October.

1. Finally finish my master bathroom.  I'm thinking some sort of wall stencil... maybe like this 

  2. Install (preferably inexpensive) board and batten on the wall in the kids room. We all know how fabulous B&B is, not to mention how easy and relatively inexpensive it it, right?  I've been chomping at the bit to get to Lowes or HD to pick up my supplies! 


3. Figure out how to redesign my blog.  I'm just tired of it looking so plain.  So we'll see if we can pretty it up a bit!


Now I'm off to do a craft project inspired by something I saw on Pinterest.  I can't wait to finish it- I'll post pics when it's done!

Days 13-16: 30 Day Mom Challenge

Day 13: Don't criticize your child today. 

I have a really helpful trick for those days when I feel I might lose my patience or say something I will later regret.  I think of my grandma.  Now, this isn't meant to be the brag that it's going to sound like, but I'm pretty much her favorite relative.  (I'll pause here for your laughter!) 

Sweet Grandma is always telling me, and other family members, how great of a mom I am, how much patience I have, and how she admires that I work full time then come home and manage to raise three adorable, well behaved kids.  All of those things are really nice, and even partly true ;)  In reality, I sometimes lose my temper, get upset and want to lock myself in my happy place have and ignore the craziness of every day life.  My trick to squash those not great mom moments is...... pretend Grandma is in the room, and then react accordingly.  So easy, right?  It doesn't always work, but there have been times when the kids were behaving badly and I almost reacted just as bad, but I had the thought "would I be embarassed to have my Grandma see me raise my voice/throw something/lock myself in the bathroom/etc?"  What does this have to do with not criticising?  A whole lot actually.  The only times I really feel the need to "criticize" the kids is when they aren't meeting exactly what I wanted in my own mind. 

It's two minutes after we're supposed to leave for school and no one has their shoes on?  So easy to get mad and say "you guys are so slow, just do as you're told."  But with my little trick, I "Grandma-tize" it, the task gets done and we're all happier for it. 

Day 14: Remember that being a mother is a gift.  This was a great reminder- I have wonderful kids who are all healthy, well behaved and really bring honor to their parents.  I love these sweeties!

Day 15: Be firm when needed but never harsh.  Another great reminder!  We have noticed that when we are quieter in our disclipining, the overall tone of the house is lighter and quiter.  If that's not motivation to avoid harsh or loud speech, I don't know what is!

Day 16: Picture what you want your child to be like at age 25.  Mother with that in mind today.  Okay... here's where I've failed.  Usually, I have an idea of what the challenge for the day is.  Friday for some reason was really crazy and I didn't even get on the internet all. day. long.  That might be a first for me! Because this one is so important, I really don't want to blow it off so I'm going to table this one for another day when I can really think about and enforce it.

Let's hope I stay more on top of the second half of this month than I did the first half!

Pizza For Grown-Ups

I have what I think would be best classified as a pizza obsession.  There's something about pizza that makes it perfect to eat at any time.  The only problem with this love for cheesy, melty, saucy delicious pie is that it's a little pricy.  About a year or so ago, I got a bread machine and started making my own dough.  I'll be honest and say it's been hit or miss since then so I won't post a dough recipe at this point, but one thing I have learned.... use the proper flour!  Bread flour is ideal but in a pinch, all purpose flour will do.  What I have done well with is toppings.  I've tried 3 cheese (mozzarella, cheddar and Parmesan), cheese and pepperoni, sausage and mushroom, Mexican (corn salsa, black beans, shredded chicken and shredded cheddar) and make your own for the kids, but on Sunday night, I made what I think is my favorite so far. 

Behold my "Grown-Ups Only" Pizza!  (please excuse the poor picture quality, I was in a hurry to dig in!)

I suggest pre-baking your crust to crisp it up a bit, then layer on your toppings:

Classico Alfredo Sauce mixed with minced garlic
Sprinkling of Oregano, Sage and Basil- don't skip this step this REALLY adds something!
Shredded Chicken (from my freezer cooking day)
Chopped Red Onions (I used raw, next time I'll caramelize them first for a different taste)
Sliced Fresh Mushrooms (just say NO to canned mushrooms!)
Thawed Chopped Spinach (next time I'll use fresh)
Shredded Mozzarella cheese

Pop this in the oven and when it comes out, you'll have a pizza loaded down with  melty cheese, creamy garlicky sauce, slightly sweet red onions and juicy chicken.  Let the kids have the plain cheese pizza, this is one for grown ups only!

Enjoy!