Teacher Appreciation Week Day 1 and 2

Next week is Teachers Appreciation Week. I am in charge of it for my daughters school and I finally had a chance to go shopping yesterday to buy everything.We have 26 teachers in my daughters elementary school and I wanted to have some fun with it. I made of list of some of the ideas that I liked and then with school credit card in hand, off I went to Wal-Mart ( it is so much fun to shop when you aren't using your own money lol) Here is what my dining room table looked like when I got everything unloaded.

Each day I am going to share a new idea with you. I am sure you have seen a couple of these ideas a million times ( but I am going to show you anyways!) but there may be a few new ones in the mix
Since I didn't get to share an idea with you yesterday I am going to share 2 with you today. These are 2 of the more common ones. This will be the gifts I deliver the first and second day.
The first day I am taking in donuts. This is such a easy and cheap idea and I am sure any teacher would love to get some breakfast ( ecspecially if it is chocolate!)

For day 2 I am sending in bags of unpopped popcorn. Again I am sure you have seen this before but I still think it is a cute idea!

Check back tomorrow for another idea. I will also be sharing some ideas for teacher assistants this week also.

Pork Tacos

I went to Kroger the other day and they had a pork butt roast on clearance so I picked it up not knowing what I was going to do with it. The next day I decided to make it and make pork tacos with it.
I put the pork in the crockpot with a jar of salsa and a package of taco seasoning. Add the amount of water on the taco seasoning packet. Mix up well and cook on low all day. When ready to eat, shred pork with 2 forks. Serve on tortillas with your favorite toppings.

Smurf Party!

Life sure has been busy here lately. I am looking forward to summer and things slowing down some!
Last week my youngest daughter Katie turned 5. She really loves the smurfs so that was the theme of her party, Now if your kids are into smurfs you know that it is impossible to find anything with them on it. I lucked out and found a tablecloth and plates at Party City. As for the cake, it had to be made at home.
The day before her birthday she got to have a party at Preschool. Our local Kroger store had smurf rings so they put them on top of cupcakes for me. Everything that is sent in to preschool has to be store bought.

For her game I took in a pinata

It was so heavy that when Katie hit it , it fell to the floor....oops lol

It was okay, we put it on a chair and the kids still loved hitting it!
The Saturday following her birthday we got to do a party at home. I think she had a good time!

Next year she can start having friends over for a party...that is always a lot of fun.
Saturday I am hosting a Mother /Daughter banquet for Girl Scouts. We have a rock star theme going on. I will have lots of pictures to share for that one.

Taste of Home Cooking Show

I am not sure how aware all of you are of Taste of Home but they are awesome. They publish cook books and magazines with recipes that we the readers send in. Every now and then they have a cooking show. I have been three times now, with the last time being last night. It is always so much fun. They cook numerous dishes and give away a ton of prizes.
Here is how the night went last night:
When we arrived we got a bag full of goodies

There were also a ton of coupons and offers from vendors that were there. We ended up with 2 boxes full of the Swanson Flavor Boost.

Once we got our bags we moved  into the hallways that had vendors in them. We sampled cupcakes, signed up for giveaways and even got to try some chocolate.

Next we moved into the auditorium for the show. We had a great chef for the night named Eric Villegas. He was so funny and really kept the show going.

He made 10 different recipes and of course at the end of the night they gave them all away. As you can see the stage had door prizes on them to. Both Stephanie and I won. She won a bag full of groceries that were donated by Kroger

I won a $25 Kroger gift card. We had some other friends with us who also won. Some of the other prizes given away were fresh herbs, bbq tool sets, casserole dishes and hanging baskets ( and that is just to name a few) Tons of Taste of Home cookbooks were given away of course.
If you aren't familiar with Taste of Home I encourage you to check them out. They make recipes that you will actually make and that your kids will eat. If you ever get a chance to attend a cooking show with them you will want to do it. Just be prepared to leave hungry!!!

Taste Of Home

Freezer Friday (Chocolate Chip Banana Bread)

 It has been a busy week and I haven't gotten a lot accomplished. Here is a recipe that I made awhile back. It can be frozen and thaws very nicely. There will be no post on Monday. I am going to Kentucky with Stephanie to house hunt. We will be back sometime Monday afternoon. Look for a fun post on Tuesday of all the houses we got to see ( and any trouble we can get into lol) Have a great weekend!





Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter
4 very ripe bananas -mashed
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 eggs
1/2-1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350. Mix all dry ingredients. Mix butter, banana and eggs. Mix both together and our into 2 greased loaf pans. Bake 40 minutes.

Whatever Wednesday ( Brownie Journey-Brownie Quest Session 2)

• We are well underway with the Brownie Quest Journey at this point. I have a lot of things happen and didn't get this posted very quickly so I do apologize. This is how our meeting went:
• The girls arrived and signed in. We had a a lot of girls absent at this meeting due to all the sickness going around.
• We opened the meeting with the Pledge, Promise and  Law
• For our first activity we talked about the Family Stars the girls had worked with their families on at home. We took a moment to pass them around the table so everyone got a chance to see.
• For our second activity I had the girls guess what the name of the key that we just discovered was. It took them a little bit of time to guess it but good clues will help them a lot!
• The girls then did page 52 in their books
• For our third activity we played a game called All Aboard. This is a team building activity. What I did was bring in a large tablecloth . I put it in the middle of the floor and told the girls they had to stand on it. Once they were on I made them get off and folded it in half. We kept doing this until they no longer could figure out a way to get all of them on it. You can make up your own rules on how to do it ( such as they can't talk, etc). They had a great time doing this!
• We went back to the table and talked about how this involved team work.
• We created a Brownie Troop Agreement and then the girls did page 53 in their books
• To end the meeting we talked about Healthy Living ( pg 62 in leader book) and talked about the pictures shown on pages 54 and 55 in the girls books.

Tasty Tuesday (Snickerdoodle Dessert Bars)

Tonight is going  to be a very busy night in my house. We have to register my youngest daughter for Kindergarten next year and I have to work the PTO table. After that my husband is taking her to "dad's Nite" at preschool. It is 2 hours long and they will get to spend some special time together. One of things you do for "Dads Nite" is to take a  snack to share with everyone My husband works crazy hours so Katie and I did it. My husband loves snickerdoodles so we made the into bars.They are so soft and chewy. I am sure they will be a hit in your house to
 




Snickerdoodle Dessert Bars

2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups packed brown sugar
1 cup butter, melted
2 eggs
1 Tablespoon vanilla
2 Tablespoons white sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 9 x 13 inch baking pan.

2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

3. In a large mixing bowl, beat together the butter, brown sugar, eggs and vanilla until smooth. Add the flour mixture to the egg mixture and beat until well blended.

4. Spread the batter evenly in the prepared pan.

 5. In a small bowl, combine the white sugar and cinnamon.

 6. Sprinkle the mixture evenly over the batter in the baking pan.

 7. Bake for 25 - 30 minutes

Stephanie here

Hey everyone I haven't been on here for a while.  And I probably will not be on here a lot in the next few months.  Mindy will be covering for me.  I lost my husband on March 21st.  He was in a wreck and never regained conciseness.  So I have had a hard year and a half first our son now my husband.  My other 2 boys have been such a blessing to me coming home to help with anything and everything I need.  I have a lot to get done in the next few months.   Sorting through stuff, Selling my home, packing and buying a new home in Paducah KY.  Mindy is being such a great friend through all of this even though I am going to be moving away from her. 
We will be making a trip to Paducah next weekend to look at homes.  My family and his are all there except are boys but they are young and just starting out in the world as men.  So you never know where they will end up.  I am going to miss them very much but I know we will visit a lot and I think I need to be surrounded by my Parents and Scotts parents during this time.  So please understand if there is not a lot of blogging this next few months.
Belove is a picture of my wonderful husband and the dog that I got for moters day last year.  She was the daughter he never had. 

Stephanie

Peanut Butter Tasty Kakes Chess Pie

 

 

Here is a pie using Tasty Kakes. If you have never had a Tasty Kake you have no ideas what you are missing. They are so yummy!

 

 

 

 

Peanut Butter Tasty Kake Chess Pie

6 packs (2 cakes in each pack) of Peanut Butter Tasty Kakes

1 unbaked pie crust

1/2 c. butter, melted ( not margarine)

1/2 c. sugar

3 eggs

1 tbsp. cornmeal (or almond flour, or flour)

1 tbsp. vinegar

1 tsp. vanilla

Chop up the Tastykakes into quarters. Put all the pieces in the unbaked pie crust.

In a bowl, whisk together the butter, sugar, eggs, cornmeal, vinegar, and vanilla until smooth.

Pour over the chopped up Tastykakes. Use a rubber spatula to prod the cakes, making sure all of the pieces are coated. Use the spatula to smooth down the top of the pie so that it's an even layer.

Bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes until golden brown on top. Let rest for 5-10 minutes before serving.

 

 

 

Original recipe was found here

Roasted Carrots

My mom made these for Easter and they were really good!


Roasted Carrots

2 pds carrots, peeled and sliced
olive oil
garlic powder
parmesean cheese

Lay cut carrots out flat on cookie sheet. Drizzle with olive oil. Sprinkle with garlic powder and parmesean cheese. Mix well. Spread flat again. Bake at 350 for 1 hour.

Chocolate Eclair Cake

This is such a simple and easy dessert to make. My family loves it. I think we make it for almost every holiday!

Chocolate Eclair Cake

1 box graham crackers
milk
1 container milk chocolate frosting
1 lg box vanilla pudding mix
1 cup cool whip

Layer graham crackers on bottom of a pan. Break crackers if you need to to make them fit.\

Mix pudding mix according to package directions.

Add 1 cup cool whip and mix well.

Pour half over crackers.

Repeat another layer of cracker and pudding. Top with one more layer of crackers. Melt frosting in microwave for 1 minute. Pour over top layer of crackers and spread out evenly.

Refrigerate until frosting sets up.