Happy Halloween 2012

Hope everyone has a great Halloween filled with lots of candy, funny costumes and blinged out spider decor! Unfortunately I'm not dressing up this year, but I will be sporting my new skull scarf and possibly my skull earrings (if I can find them)!

Oyster Crackers To-Go

I have a friend who I don't get to see very often (I think the last time might have been March 2011), so when I found out another friend would be going to visit her I thought I would send one of her favorite treats along for the road trip...oyster crackers! (click here to see how I make them).

Of course I couldn't just send them in a plastic bag, I had to dress them up a bit! I used a quart size mason jar, some left over teal fabric, kitchen string (the same kind I use for pinatas) and I made a simple sticker tag for the top. I love how it turned out and it's more eye-catching than a plastic bag :)

Spiderman Pinata!

I was asked to make a Spiderman look-a-like pinata for a Superhero birthday party! I have to say it turned out pretty good!!!!

I started with just a balloon blown up as much as possible with out getting a funky balloon shape and I think through out the paper mache process it loss some air, but it was still plenty big to put 3 bags of candy in and to end up weighing 7 pounds!

The red crepe paper I fringed a little smaller than the Elmo Pinata since Spiderman isn't supposed to be furry...ha ha. Once all the red was on, I traced/cut out the eyes on plain white paper and glued them on (all glue was in the form of a glue stick).

Then I went to work on the black streamers. To get the streamers thinner, I cut the roll into three strips. When putting the "web" on I would run my glue stick over where the black would start and then stretched and tried to arch the black strips to the next spot and cut/glue them down. As you can see there was a lot of cutting to make them somewhat rounded lines.

And there you have it...the many angles of Spiderman! Now I wonder how long he will last once the kids start hitting him?!?!

October Meal: Chicken and Dumplings

I don't think I can express enough how much I enjoy chicken and dumplings! If I go some where and see it on the menu...that is what I'm ordering :) Elizabeth sent me the recipe that she found and liked over at Bubble Crumb.

I have a fairly small crock pot so I halved the recipe to be on the same side.

I used:

2 chicken breasts
1T butter
1 reduced fat cream of chicken
1/2 can of low sodium chicken broth
1/3 cup of diced onion (maybe even less I just eyed it because I don't like onions)
1/2 T of dried parsley
5 Grands Jr. flaky biscuits

What I did:

Lined my crock pot with a slow cooker liner (wanted to try it out)
Placed chicken on bottom of the crock pot
Added butter, cream of chicken, chicken broth, onions and parsley
I cooked mine for 5 hours on high before adding the biscuits
I pulled apart each biscuit into at least 4 pieces and threw it in the pot
I then let it continue cooking on high for another 45 mins (I lost track of time watching a very boring movie)
When the 45 mins were up I took 2 forks and shredded/mixed it all together then severed myself some in one of my favorite oversized mugs.

I kind of wish I hadn't of thrown out the rest of my chicken broth and added a little more at the end because it got really thick! But I still loved it and I'm looking forward to eating all the leftovers!! Yum!

Click here to go to the original recipe from Bubble Crum

Sweet Potato Chocolate Chip Pancakes

We ate at Cracker Barrel a few weeks ago and I stumbled upon a box of sweet potato pancake mix and immediately knew I had to try them. I didn't have any plans early Friday so I decided to whip up a batch of these bad boys and of course my syrup hating self had to add chocolate chips! I topped them with a few shakes of cinnamon and a few more chocolate chips and then devoured them!! These were really good. I would suggest trying sweet potato pancakes sometime soon! You can also make cookies with the mix...so that might be happening soon :)

Mom's Meatloaf

Ok so meatloaf isn't the prettiest thing to take a picture of...ha ha. It's also probably not the yummiest to think about, but this meatloaf...this meatloaf is awesome! My poor Mom had some picky eaters for children...my brother and I both hate onions and I hate ketchup...so making her meatloaf the way she used to was not an option. Instead she came up with this meatloaf which is awesomely delicious despite it's appearance.

What you need:

1 pound ground beef (we use the lean kind)
1 cup of oats
1 small can of tomato sauce
1 egg
Salt, Pepper, Garlic Powder and Onion Powder to taste

What you do:

Combine all ingredients in one bowl and mix it all together (works best if you use your hands)
Dump the mixture into a glass bread pan and spread it out evenly then press all the sides down a little (it should resemble what a loaf of bread looks like coming out of the oven)
Cover the dish with foil and bake for 30 mins on 350 degrees F
Uncover the dish and bake for another 20 mins on 350 degrees F

Let it cool a bit and then serve it with fluffy mashed potatoes and a veggie! And there you have it...a not so pretty, but very yummy comfort food dinner!

***Nutritional Info***

Serves 6 people

Calories: 201 per slice
Fat: 9g per slice
Carbs: 10g per slice
Protein: 19g per slice
Fiber: 2g per slice
Sodium: 1369mg per slice

*totals came from recipe entered into myfitnesspal.com

Weekend at the Movies

This past weekend was spent at the movies putting money into the economy...you're welcome! ha ha jk :)

Friday - Pitch Perfect

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Hilarious! I loved this movie! It was a-ca-awesome...ha ha. I had been wanting to see this movie for what felt like forever and finally the boyfriend agreed to go with me! That made me "happy happy happy" (Duck Dynasty anyone?!?!) I liked all the different personalities that made up the Bellas, but of course my favorite was Fat Amy. Rebel Wilson owned that character...you go girl!

Saturday - Looper

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This movie had a 94% approval rating and while it was good I don't think it was as good as the rating. Emily Blunt and Joesph Gordon Levitt where almost unrecognizable in this movie. I read an article about the movie that said JGL's mom didn't even recognize him while he was filming. The movie is an interesting concept and the end was pretty good. There were just some slow parts here and there. I guess that's to be expected though with a 2 hour movie.

Sunday - Taken 2

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I don't know why this movie got such mixed reviews?!?! I thought it was really good. Maybe not as good as the first one, but then again are any movies as good as the first one (well that aren't based on books)??? I heard an interesting fact about the movie on the radio...Liam Neeson was given $1 mil to do the first movie, $10 mil to do this one and now there are talks he could be getting $20 mil to do a third one! I would like to get those kind of raises too!! Another interesting thing that happened during this movie...the electricity went out! The movie was at a really intense part and then everything went black thanks to a small storm right on top of the theater. However, I don't think anyone in that audience was going to leave without seeing the end of the movie...ha ha...we were all that invested in the outcome. My advice to you would be to not listen to the critics and go judge this movie for yourself!

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Now for movies I rented a few weeks ago that weren't that great to get their own post...

The Whistleblower

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I feel like this movie could have been way better. This movie was so slow and so non action packed that I can't believe we actually finished watching it. My advice would be to watch the first Taken movie instead of watching this one...they are pretty much about the same thing.

The Reunion

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I hadn't even heard of this movie, but when I found out John Cena was in it I was sold. This movie was better than The Whistleblower, but not by much. It was a pretty pointless movie and another waste of time. Good thing I didn't have anything else I wanted to do that night.