Our favorite BBQ Pulled Pork Sandwich recipe

I got this recipe from the Rival Crock Pot Slow Cooker Recipes for All Occasions cookbook and our family loves it!

Ingredients:
1 Pork shoulder roast (about 2 1/2 lbs--we use a bigger one, about 3-4 lbs so we can freeze for later)
1 bottle (14 oz.) BBQ sauce
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 tsp brown sugar
1 medium onion, chopped
8 hamburger buns or rolls (we use hoagie rolls)

Directions:
1. Put roast in crock pot, cover and cook on low 10-12 hours or high for 5-6 hours.

2. Remove pork; shred meat with 2 forks.  Discard any liquid in slow cooker.  Return pork to cooker, add BBQ sauce, lemon juice, brown sugar and onion.  Cover; cook on Low for 2 hours or high for 1 hour.

3. Serve on buns/rolls

Happy Passion/Holy Week!!!

As you may know, it's Holy Week (or Passion Week, whatever you want to call it) and this year the Lord has really put it on my heart to study the way Jesus spent His last week before the Resurrection!  Thankfully my awesomely, awesome friend, Heidi (who happens to be a fellow blogger at: Everyday-Cookies) shared her study of Jesus' last week from last year and I've really been enjoying it!  I can't get enough of it and my notebook is getting crammed full of all my notes!  I've had fun sharing with my kids too!  I never really realized the importance or significance of Palm Sunday and Good Friday and the rest of the week.  The focus has always been on Easter day.  So sharing with the kids about all the things Jesus did has been such a blessing! 

On Sunday the kids & I went to church in the morning and then just enjoyed a mellow family day at home with my hubby!  We worked on Palm Sunday crafts (see picture below)!  We colored palm trees, donkeys and palm branches and talked about what they all signified! 

On Monday we learned that Jesus spent the day inside the temple, throwing tables over of the people selling things and ripping people off and then healed the sick & the lame.  We also learned about the curse of the fig tree.  We talked about how Jesus is the "Bread of Life" and made dough for Braided Easter Bread .  (Click the name to be taken to the recipe.)  I was having issues with the dough rising...ummm, it wouldn't rise!  LOL  I kept it overnight and it finally rose a little bit so I figured we'd bake it anyway and see how it turned out.  The kids had fun dyeing the eggs and braiding the bread.

This was SO yummy!!!  We all loved it!!

How are you spending this special week?

Who woulda thunk it? DELICIOUS!

My friend Theresa made this delicious cucumber water and I just HAD to have the recipe!  Lo & behold, it's a recipe from our Pampered Chef website!  AWESOME!  (FYI, I'm officially a Pampered Chef Consultant!  SOOOO EXCITING!  Who doesn't LOVE Pampered Chef???)  Anyways, this water is beyond delicious and SUPER refreshing so I thought I'd share the recipe!

All you need is:
1/2 cup sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
2-3 lemons (PC listed limes but I used lemons)
1 medium cucumber (I only used about half)
7 cups cold water

Directions:
Place sugar and salt into pitcher. Slice lemons in half and juice into pitcher (make sure seeds don't go in).  Add cucumber slices and water to pitcher; cover with lid. Mix until sugar is disolved.  Refrigerate 30 minutes or until ready to serve. Pour into ice-filled glasses.



Yield: 6 servings 


Nutrients per serving: (1 1/3 cups): Calories 70, Total Fat 0 g, Saturated Fat 0 g, Cholesterol 0 mg, Carbohydrate 18 g, Protein 0 g, Sodium 55 mg, Fiber 0 g

Perfect rainy day dinner!

It was a wonderfully stormy day here on the Oregon Coast and what better way to end the day than with some slow cooker taco chili!  I'll even be nice enough to share the recipe since it was so yummy!
Ingredients:
2 lbs. ground beef
2-15oz. cans tomato sauce
2-15oz. cans diced tomatoes with onion & green peppers
2-15oz. cans whole kernel corn
2-15oz. cans chili beans w/ gravy
2 packets taco seasoning

Directions:
Brown the ground beef on the stove.  Combine beef and everything else (undrained) in the crockpot and cook on High for 3-4 hours.
Top the chili with cheese and enjoy!
To top it all off, my hubby made a DELICIOUS batch of homemade cornbread!  It was a great dinner!

Rainbow Egg Cupcakes

Being in the holiday spirit, thought it was due time to make some rainbow cupcakes! First of all, let me just say that Easter is my 2nd favorite holiday (Christmas is my first). It's the most amazing event in history that we celebrate...Jesus' resurrection! For those that don't know, Jesus died on the cross as a sacrifice for our sins, he was placed in a tomb and 3 days later rose from the dead, just as He said He would do! Because of his death & resurrection, we are now able to join our Lord in Heaven!!!! What an amazing gift that we are all so undeserving of!! HAPPY RESURRECTION DAY!!!!

Today my sweet little Bitty (that's my nickname for my daughter) is sick with some sort of stomach flu. She's thrown up 5 times already and is thankfully now taking a nap. Poor little baby cakes! While she's napping my son and I made these yummy rainbow cupcakes using our Easter cupcake tray. We just used a white cake mix and separated it into 6 bowls and used food coloring:


I then layered the cake mixes in the cupcake tray to make a rainbow:



This is what they looked like when they came out of the pan:


I then topped it with cream cheese frosting and cut it in half to see how the rainbow layers turned out:


Keegan was so excited about it and exclaims, "Mom, I LOVE your cooking!" Awwww...exactly what I love to hear from my kiddos! Have a very happy Easter everyone!!! God bless you!!

Oobleck

If you've never made Oobleck, you are sadly missing out on some FUN! :) To celebrate Dr. Seuss' birthday (March 2nd) I decided to make some Oobleck (read the book Bartholemew and the Oobleck) with my Prek/K homeschool co-op kiddos. They not only liked it...they LOVED it! All the squeals and ohhhhs and aaahhhhs and eewwwwws were priceless! Since it's a gray, wet and dreary day here on the Oregon Coast, my son, Keegan and I decided to make a batch.

All you need is 2 cups of Cornstarch (you can get a Walmart brand for $0.88), around 1 cup of water (you don't want it too watery so add it slowly because you might not need the whole cup) and some food coloring to make it look more interesting!


This stuff is awesome! When you apply pressure it acts as a solid. Try punching it, poking it, etc. It gets hard. Now try gently pushing your hand into it or letting it slide off your hand...it's like liquid! FUN, huh?! Keegan and I played in it for a LONG time and plan on playing with it when my hubby gets home! Keegan asked if we could make it with our Tiger Cubs at the next den meeting! Oh, and this stuff is SUPER easy to clean up! If it dries on your hand or on the counter, it flakes right off or just use water and it rinses right off! Can't beat that! HAVE FUN!

Spring has sprung, Taco Pie and *gulp* Weigh-In

I see signs of SPRING!!! WAHOO!


I took my little sweets to the park today to enjoy the FABULOUS sunshine and totally took the opportunity to get some cute shots in while we were there! Aren't they just precious?!





I also have a recipe that I got from the Pioneer Woman's Tasty Kitchen blog. It's for Taco Pie which may sound interesting but it was so yummy! My son's Cub Scout Pack had their Blue & Gold Banquet tonight so I needed a casserole dish to take for the potluck and this was perfect! Sorry I don't have a picture, it was one of those crazy busy evenings and I was too rushed to even think about stopping for a picture!

Ingredients:
•1 pound Hamburger Meat
•1/2 cup Onion
•1 package (1 Oz. Packet) Taco Seasoning
•2 cans (8 Oz. Can) Crescent Rolls
•1 bag (9 Oz. Bag) Fritos
•16 ounces Sour Cream
•8 ounces Cheddar Cheese

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Cook meat. Drain, and add chopped onion and taco seasoning packet. Add the water the packet calls for, and simmer as instructed on the taco seasoning packet.
3. Cover the bottom and sides of 13×9 casserole dish with the crescent rolls. Press seams together to make one continuous crust (you may not need all of the second package).
4. Cover the crescent roll crust with a layer of crushed Fritos (I use the larger scoops; you can all use tortilla chips instead of Fritos). Add your meat mixture to the top of your crushed chip layer.
5. Spread sour cream over the meat mixture.
6. Sprinkle cheese over the sour cream.
7. Top with another layer of crushed Fritos.
8. Cook for 30 minutes.

So, now for the bad news...I gained 0.8 lbs this week! *sniffle* Really, I'm shocked it wasn't more because seriously, I've been eating so much garbage and not tracking my points! BAD BAD BAD! The upside is I did workout 3 days this last week so that's probably what saved me the most! This week my goal is to count my points and journal everyday and workout at least 4 days!

Alright, I have a crazy toddler type child running amuck in the house so I need to close this! Have a great weekend blogland friends!

Taco Soup Warms the Soul

This is my favorite recipe for Taco Soup! Granted, this is the only recipe I've ever tried for Taco Soup but why mess with a good thing? LOL

Ingredients:
2 lbs fresh, lean ground beef
1 onion, coarsely chopped
4 oz. can diced green chilies
taco seasoning packet
Ranch dressing/dip packet
2 cans corn, undrained
4 cans stewed tomatoes, undrained
1 can pinto beans, undrained
1 can kidney beans, undrained
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro (optional)
grated Monterey Jack and/or cheddar cheese

Directions:
Chop onions. Brown meat and onions in 8qt stockpot. Add all the other ingredients (except cheese), stir and let cook over medium heat for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Top each bowl with cheese and enjoy! This makes enough for our family to have for at least 3 dinners. I can usually have enough leftover to fill 2 gallon size freezer bags about 3/4 full. To reheat all you have to do is let it thaw out and put it back on the stove til heated through. SOOOO YUMMY!

Lollipop Cookies & Ice Cream In A Bag...OH MY!

Today I watched 2 of my friend Brenda's kiddos so I wanted to plan something fun for them to do to occupy some of their time. I've been wanting to make the Lollipop Cookies for awhile and also came across the recipe for the Ice Cream In A Bag so viola...our plan for the afternoon! I'm going to do this the lazy way and just let you go HERE to check out the recipe for the Lollipop Cookies. Her pictures are way better than mine but I'll add some of mine to spice up the posting anyways! :)





Next on the list is the ice cream!! Again, go HERE to see the recipe and much better pictures. Can you tell I'm totally in LOVE with Amy and her blog?? She has soooooo many great crafts and recipes and what not. Maybe I could start a blog and do every one of her crafts and blog about it like Julie & Julia! LMBO!!! Totally kidding...maybe! Anyways, here are some of our pictures. We added oreo cookies to one of the bags of ice cream and the boys opted to have crushed candy canes in theirs! Both were DE-LICIOUS!! **SIDE NOTE** Make sure you wear gloves when you are doing this fun little project! We didn't at first and our hands were FREEEEEZING and hurting. The kids gave up and I went and got on a pair of gloves and finished them up!

CAKE BALLS!!!

Phew, it's been a busy day for me today! (See the 2 previous posts from earlier in the day.) I saw these red velvet cake balls over on the Bakerella site (LOVE HER SITE)! She has soooo many neat treats that I'm definitely going to attempt! I've never had a red velvet cake before but thought I'd give them a try and if they turned out good then I'd make more for Valentine's Day. Come to find out...I'm not a fan of the red velvet cake! Oh well.



The recipe is really simple, just takes some time because you have to bake the cake then let it cool completely. Then when that's done you have to crumble the cake, mix it together with 1 can of cream cheese frosting then shape into little balls and stick in the freezer for a few hours.


Next you melt some almond bark and roll the balls in the melted chocolate and set on some parchment paper to cool and harden. With the milk chocolate cake balls I put them in the fridge then melted some white chocolate and drizzled it over the top of them and sprinkled candy cane dust over the tops. I used the rest of the white chocolate to cover the other cookie sheet of cake balls and sprinkled candy cane dust over the tops. I put both sheets back in the fridge to harden up and viola...all done! :)



Even though I don't like the cake, everything tastes better with chocolate and peppermint sprinkled on top! LOL Hubby says he thinks he'd really like these made with a yellow cake mix so that will be my next attempt!

Yummy Letters

It's been one of those crazy kind of days so here it is, 2pm and the kids haven't had lunch yet. I decided to make up some breadsticks and instead of just doing regular plain ol' breadsticks I decided to spell out my son's name with the dough. I had some extra dough so I made a T for Tatym and a circle and then just some little dough bites.

I just used a regular can of Pillsbury breadstick dough and set the oven at 375*. I greased a baking sheet and made out the letters/shapes and put it in the oven for 5 minutes. After the timer went off I covered each piece with butter, sprinkled some italian blend cheese and some garlic salt on the top and put it back in the oven for another 5 minutes. And of course you can never have to much butter on bread, when it was done I spread a little more butter on the top and served them up to the kiddos! Keegan was super excited about it, Tatym on the other hand could care less! LOL

Mummy Dogs

Keegan & I made some yummy Mummy Dogs for dinner this evening. For those that have never made these, just grab a tube of fridge breadsticks (we like Pillsbury) and a pack of hot dogs. Set your oven to 375* and take one breadstick, stretch it out a bit and then just wrap it around the hot dog and place it on a greased cookie sheet. Line them all up and bake in the oven for about 8-10 minutes or until golden brown. Eat em up! :)

My favorite peanut butter cookie recipe.

It's a FABULOUSLY stormy day on the Oregon coast and as much as I LOVE a good stormy day, I hate that my hubby has to work outside in it! The upside is that he's an RV salesman so there aren't as many customers that come in on a stormy day but of course the downside is...no customers = no paycheck! Eeeek! So, I figured the least thing I could do to show my hubby how much I appreciate his hard work and how much I love him is to bake him some yummy cookies! I feel bad because we're trying to eat better but I LOVE to bake and hubby LOVES to eat what I bake! :O) See, we're a perfect match! Today I decided to make some Irresistable JIF Peanut Butter Cookies! This is by far my most favorite PB cookie recipe EVER!

Ingredients:
3/4 cup JIF PB
1/2 cup shortening
1 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
3 tbsp milk
1 tbsp vanilla
1 egg
1 3/4 cup flour
3/4 tsp salt
3/4 tsp baking soda

Heat oven to 375*.

Combine PB, shortening, brown sugar, milk & vanilla. Beat until well blended. Add egg & beat until blended. Add flour, salt & baking soda (I don't just dump it in, I add a little at a time, using my mixer the whole time.) and mix until blended. Drop by heaping tsp. fulls 2" apart onto cookie sheet. Flatten slightly in criss-cross pattern with tines of fork (I don't do it all the time). Bake for 7-8 minutes. I bake them until there is a little golden brown color on the tops of the cookies that way when they cool, they are still chewy and oh-so-delicious!!

Candy Cane Popcorn

First off, make sure to check out the blog: Skip To My Lou Cindy has so many fabulous crafts and recipes that you just HAVE to try out! I found this recipe for candy cane popcorn and knew I had to give it a whirl! My awesome friend Sara had given us one of those cans that have 3 different kinds of popcorn in it for Christmas, so instead of popping a bag of popcorn, I just had my son fill up a mixing bowl with the butter popcorn from the Christmas popcorn can. I melted a package of vanilla flavored Almond Bark and while I was melting it on the stove, Keegan was all too eager to beat up the candy canes for me in a ziploc bag until there were hardly any solid chunks of candy cane left (about 40 mini candy canes). After the almond bark was melted I added all but about 1/2 cup of the candy canes and mixed it all up. I then dumped the mixture in the bowl with the popcorn, stirred it around until all the popcorn was covered. I then laid out a piece of parchment paper and spread out the gooey popcorn to let it cool and then sprinkled the rest of the candy cane dust over the top. Now, I'm not the most patient person in the world so I opted to put the parchment paper on a cookie sheet and shove it in the fridge to help it cool faster!

This is SUCH a yummy recipe!!! Give it a shot! :)

Yummy Gummi Candy

I'm having one of those days where I don't feel like doing any sit down, worksheet school work with my son so I opted to find something fun to do instead. I found a yummy recipe for homemade gummi candy and Keegan thought it would be fun so off we went to get the supplies. I found a package at Walmart that had several different candy molds in it (it was in the wedding supplies/birthday cake making supplies/candy supplies section). It was only $9 and it came with hearts, flowers, automobiles, fruit, party theme, letters, numbers and 1 or 2 more. I'm being too lazy to get up and go look right now! :)

All you need to make one batch of this gummi candy is:
2 envelopes (1/4oz each) of unflavored gelatine (I used Knox brand...over in the jello section)
1 box (3oz) flavored jello (I used generic)
1/3 cup water
candy molds although I'm sure ice cube trays would work just as good




Start by putting 1/3 cup water into a small saucepan, add the jello & gelatine, mix together and let sit for 5-10 minutes.
Place saucepan on medium heat and stir until liquid consistancy.
Let cool for a minute and place in something for easy pouring. You could use a small ceramic pitcher but I didn't have one. I just used a paper cup that I could pinch the end and it worked wonderfully. Pour into candy molds (no need to grease the molds) and place in the fridge for about 10 minutes. When you go to take the candy out of the molds, I just used a toothpick to pull up the edge and then peeled it out. Don't worry about breaking them, they are TOUGH little things!

ENJOY!!!



Keegan chose to test out orange and I tested out cherry and both were really good!

The WORLDS BEST cinnamon rolls!!!

So I've checked out The Pioneer Woman blog a few times (LOVE HER) but I can't remember what sent me over there to check out her cinnamon roll recipe but I'm EVER SO THANKFUL I DID! I've never made homemade cinnamon rolls unless it came out of a Pillsbury tube! LOL Just the whole process of doing one part then waiting an hour, doing another part and waiting another hour...just doesn't appeal to me. Last night hubby had a friend over so they were playing video games and I didn't have much else to do so I thought I'd give the recipe a whirl and hope for the best! Click HERE to be taken to her recipe which even includes pictures which was SUPER helpful for this first-timer! I made the first portion of the recipe and left it in the fridge overnight (which you can either go ahead and make them right away or save them for a day or two in the fridge) and then busted them out this morning. This recipe, at least for me, made 33 rolls so I plan on putting several in the freezer and saving for a rainy day special breakfast and I plan on giving some to my neighbor and maybe some to our family around town. These are by far the best cinnamon rolls I have EVER tasted in my ENTIRE life! DEEEEEE-LISH!!!

Jello Popcorn! YUMMY-LICIOUS! AND a new book!

The last few months the Lord has really been telling me that I need to come up with a schedule for my day with the kids. I was whining or venting one day on Facebook and 2 friends suggested I read Managers of Their Homes by the Maxwells. Managers of Their Chores was also highly recommended so, as always, I'm a sucker for trying out new books, I quickly used my Christmas money (Thank you Linda & Emmett--my inlaws) and bought both books! They FINALLY showed up yesterday...now I'm not the most patient person so really it wasn't that long of a wait, I ordered them on Dec. 26th, they were shipped on the 28th and I got them yesterday, the 4th but to me, that's an eternity! LOL Anywho, I'm about 1/2 way done with MOTH and it's really got me jazzed to come up with a schedule! I'll have more time to do fun things with the kids and actually having them scheduled in will make it a major priority and it will actually get done! I don't know how many times I've thought about taking the kids to the park or something and then end up wasting time on something else and before I know it, it's too late! It will also be nice for my son to know what is planned for any given moment of everyday. I probably won't schedule anything on Sundays because those are my hubby's days off and we just play things by ear on those days! We've scheduled Family Game/Movie nights for every Friday and on NYE we all came up with 12 different family things to do (1 per month for a year) so that will be scheduled in too! Life is going to be MUCH nicer and we'll have a lot more fun too!

So...I scheduled in some baking time today and Keegan and I looked at one of my new favorite blogs: Our Best Bites and found a recipe for Jello Popcorn (click the recipe name to be taken to the recipe). Both of us were pretty stoked about trying out this new recipe! I just love that Keegan is so willing and excited to try out crafts and recipes and stuff with me! Hopefully Tatym will like it too! I dug through my cupboards and thankfully found 1 box of jello that wasn't sugar-free. I always buy sugar-free but I think I'm going to have to rethink that because I saw another recipe that called for regular jello too! Something about the sugar-free doesn't let it cook the same way! Anyway, we had blue-raspberry which turned out to be such a pretty color:


I didn't let Keegan do much of the stirring on the stove just because I didn't want it to burn...kids are notorious for only stirring one small area of the pan and not getting it all mixed around! LOL I did let him pour in all the ingredients and he thinks that's pretty fun in itself! Easily amused, thank goodness!

Here we have the end product...a yummy batch of blue-raspberry jello popcorn! It really is soooo good!


Keegan (aka, my assistant) enjoying his snack while doing his math! :)

Buckeyes...soooo yummy-licious!

These yummy little treats are a HUGE hit! They take some time to complete but they are SO worth the effort! I've had special requests from friends, asking me to make sure they get some of these!

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups smooth peanut butter (I prefer Jif)
1 stick butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla
3 1/2 cups powdered sugar (about 1 box)
1 package of almond bark for the outside layer

Directions:
Cover a cookie sheet with aluminum foil or parchment paper and set aside.
Mix ingredients together. **I've found that if you cream together the peanut butter and butter, then add the vanilla and add the powdered sugar about 1 cup at a time and mix between cups, it's a whole lot easier to get it blended! Refrigerate for about 15 minutes. While it's in the fridge, melt down the almond bark, making sure you continuously stir the chocolate so it doesn't burn. Next you will dip the PB balls into the chocolate (Almond Bark). I drop them into the chocolate pan and use a spoon or spatula to make sure it gets fully covered in chocolate and then I use a toothpick to pull it out. Place the balls on the cookie sheet. Once the cookie sheet is full, place it in the fridge to harden the chocolate.

ENJOY!!!

The BEST frosting EVER!

The other night our Tiger Cubs celebrated the December birthdays and my wonderful friend Dea (a Tiger Cub mom) made cupcakes. I was at work that evening but when I got home I was surprised to find a cupcake on the stove, saved just for me! Awww....what a sweet hubby! Anyways, as I scarfed the thing down I was just drooling over how yummy the frosting was! Being that it was midnight I opted to wait until the next day to beg Dea for the recipe. She said it's a Wilton recipe so of course I had to whip up a batch!



Ingredients:
1/2 cup solid vegetable shortening
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 tsp. clear vanilla extract (I used regular and it was fine)
4 cups powdered sugar
2 tbs. milk

*makes about 3 cups of icing

Directions:
Cream shortening and butter together with an electric mixer. Add vanilla. Gradually add sugar, one cup at a time, beating well on medium speed. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl often. When all mixed together the icing will appear dry. Add milk and beat on medium speed until light and fluffy. Keep bowl covered with a damp cloth until ready to use. **For best results, keep icing bowl in refrigerator when not in use. Refrigerated in an airtight container, this icing can be stored 2 weeks. Rewhip before using.
*For thin (spreading) consistency icing, add 2 tablespoons light corn syrup, water or milk.
*For Pure White Icing (stiff consistency), omit butter; substitute an additional 1/2 cup shortening for butter and add 1/2 teaspoon No-Color *Butter Flavor. Add up to 4 tablespoons light corn syrup, water or milk to thin for icing cakes

I added food coloring for Christmas baking!