Golden Graham Smores Bars

The summer heat is still upon us so I was looking for something different in the way of a no bake dessert. I have a list of ideas but they all sounded boring the other day when I was looking for some sweetness.

I didn't find anything to fulfill my sweetness craving until I needed to help put a snack together for Vacation Bible School week at my church!

I love it when I can take things out of my pantry and put them together for a yummy snack that even involves chocolate! I also love the fact that my kids are old enough that they can make this snack without too much adult supervision in the kitchen.

Golden Graham Smores Bars

3/4 cup light corn syrup

3 tbsp. butter or margarine

1 pkg(11.5 oz) milk chocolate morsels

3 cups miniature marshmallows

1 tsp. vanilla

1 pkg. Golden Graham cereal (9 cups)

• Grease 9x13 pan.
  
  
• Heat syrup, butter/margarine, and morsels to boiling, stirring constantly.
  
  
• Remove from heat, stir in vanilla
  
  
• Pour over cereal; toss until coated.
  
  
• Fold in marshmallows, 1 cup at a time.
  
  
• Press in pan with buttered back of spoon. Let stand 1 hour.
  
  
• Cut into 2 inch squares.
  
  
• Store loosely covered at room temperature up to 2 days(if they last that long!).
  
  
• Makes 24 squares.

Overall this takes about 10 minutes to put together. If you get the items on sale like what I did, the cost to make these bars is about three dollars! Not bad!

This post is linked at:

• Friday Feasts at Mom Trends!
  
• Food on Fridays at Ann Kroeker!
• Foodie Friday at Designs by Gollum!
• Frugal Friday at Life as Mom!
• Family Recipe Fridays at Vanderbilt Wife!

Chicken Taco Salad

We are not much of a salad family. I don't make many pasta salads or green leafy type salads. Usually our "salad" consists of a plate filled with raw carrots and a bowl of ranch dressing!

However, my favorite salad is my homemade chicken taco salad! When I make my Taco Bar night I always try to make more chicken taco meat than what we will need so that I can use it for a leftover lunch or two during the following days. I love the fact that making this salad I am using leftovers and it doesn't require much in the way of heating up! This salad tastes great cold or warm.

Chicken Taco Salad

3 boneless/skinless chicken breast, cooked & cubed

2 TBSP taco seasoning

1/4-1/3 cup mild taco sauce

Combine altogether. The taco sauce I use instead of water so that the chicken doesn't taste dried out.

To make the salad:

Layer the following on a plate:

• tortilla chips or crushed taco shells
• chicken meat
• shredded cheddar cheese
• shredded lettuce
• diced tomatoes
• Sour Cream or Ranch dressing(for the adventureous type)

Enjoy!

My kids love it when I stick each of the toppings into a bowl or plate for them to make my own salad bar on the counter for them to make their own salad. It gives them a bit more control of their plates when they fix them and not me. They seem to eat more and are less picky when they can make their own plates.

This post is linked at:

• Ultimate Recipe Swap at Life as Mom!
• Recipe Swap at The Grocery Cart Challenge
• Friday Feasts at Mom Trends!
  
• Food on Fridays at Ann Kroeker!
• Foodie Friday at Designs by Gollum!
• Family Recipe Fridays at Vanderbilt Wife!

Grilled Pizza Rolls and Wavy Carrots

Despite last week's events, I did try to make the best of things in the kitchen and find ways to still cook things without having an oven.

One of the things that I did was use our gas grill more. Our grill normally gets used to cook just the usual hamburgers, chicken, hotdogs and the occasional pork chops. However, this past week I cooked Totino's pizza rolls on it!! I have read about others grilling whole pizzas so I thought doing the pizza rolls would be no different.

I preheated the grill for a couple of minutes. I put the pizza rolls on a cookie sheet and placed it on the grill to cook. I should have turned the heat down to low when I put the pizza rolls on the grill however, I waited to turned the heat down to low after turning them once. As you can see from some of the pizza rolls, I left the grill on high for a bit too long, but the pizza rolls were not burnt just a bit extra crispy.

They took a little bit longer to cook than what they do in the oven but the results were met with two thumbs up from each of the family members.

The other thing I did this week was use a kitchen tool that has been sitting in the back of the utensil drawer collecting dust!

I use my Pampered Chef crinkle cutter and made some carrot sticks for a snack. My daughter came into the kitchen while I was cutting them up and asked what I was making. I told her "carrot sticks". She looked at me and said those are not carrot sticks they are "wavy carrots"!

I love finding fresh ways to do things to save on heating up my kitchen and re-energizing a veggie into a fun snack.

This post is linked at:

• Fearless Fridays at Home Ec 101!

Two Delicious Summertime Treats

Been working in the kitchen today, stirring up some delight summertime treats!!

First up is fruit salad! I love this time of year when there is many fruits that are in season fresh to choose from to make a tasty colorful fruit salad!

This one is made up of 1 lb strawberries, 1/2 cantaloupe, and 1 can pineapple tidbits in its own juice.

I just cut up the strawberries and cantaloupe and then drained the juice off the pineapple in a bowl to reserve it and dumped the pineapple in with the strawberries and cantaloupe. Then I took pineapple juice and poured some in on the fruit rather than using sugar to keep the fruit fresh!

Secondly, I made up a layered pudding pie! OH this is sooo easy especially if you just grab an already made graham cracker crust from Aldis for 99 cents!
First I mixed up a box of instant Oreo pudding with a can of evaporated milk. Using evaporated milk makes it rich and creamy and not thin and watery! Then I spread about 3/4 of pudding in the bottom of the crust.

Then I mixed up a box of chocolate fudge pudding with a can of evaporated milk and poured about 3/4 of it on to the Oreo pudding in the crust! Oooopss forgot to take the picture before I started the next step!

Then I took an 8oz container of Cool Whip topping and spread that on top of the pudding layers! Then I had an open bag of mini chocolate chips hanging around in the fridge so I sprinkled some on top of the Cool Whip!! Ahhhh a yummy chocolatey no bake summertime treat!! Easy to whip up if you are in a hurry to a cook out or just looking to have some thing for that sweet tooth!

This post is linked at:

• Tasty Tuesday at Balancing Beauty and Bedlam!
  
• Tempt My Tummy Tuesday over at Blessed with Grace!
  
• I am Blissfully Domestic at Blissfully Domestic!
• Ultimate Recipe Swap at Life as Mom!
• Friday Feasts at Mom Trends!

Peanut Butter Freezer Bars

Right now in the Midwest we are enjoying comfortable temperatures that do not require us to turn on the air conditioning. However, it only lasts as comfortable until you need to turn on the oven to cook or bake. Then in order to bake or cook with the oven you have to turn on the air conditioning just to survive the extra warmth. Instead of turning on the oven to bake treats for my kids, I turn to my selection of no bake delights to keep up with the sweet tooth until the cooler weather/snow arrives back in town.

Here is a recipe for one of those no bake delights that mixes my two favorite things---chocolate and peanut butter! Sorry I don't have a picture of this creation!

Peanut Butter Freezer Bars

1-1/2 cups milk
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 package(4 serving size) instant chocolate pudding
12 graham crackers

1. Mix milk and peanut butter together in a mixing bowl.
2. Add pudding to peanut butter/milk mixture. Stir mixture until smooth.
3. Spread a thick layer of pudding on a graham cracker. Top with another graham cracker.
4. Put crackers into a covered dish. Place dish in freezer.

Makes 6 bars.

Notes: This recipe is very easy to make a double or triple batch of bars. The last in the freezer for several weeks before the graham crackers start to go soggy. I have used several flavors(oreo, devil's food, chocolate fudge, & vanilla) of instant pudding to make this delight.

Wanting to add some more variety to your no bake dessert selection??

How about trying some of my other no bake desserts:

1. Banana Pops
2. Lemonade Ice Cream Sandwiches
3. Peanut Butter Toffee
4. No Bake Cheesecake
5. Layered Pudding Cups
6. No Bake Cool Whip Pudding Pie
7. Haystacks

I am always on the look-out for other no-bake easy desserts (something other than ice cream sundaes or popsicles) for the warmer months! What are your favorite, easy, summer time desserts??

This post is linked at:

• Tasty Tuesday at Balancing Beauty and Bedlam!
  
• Tempt My Tummy Tuesday over at Blessed with Grace!
  
• I am Blissfully Domestic at Blissfully Domestic!
  
• Recipe Swap at Our Chaotic Life!

Perennial Plant Exchange

This year I was able to expand my flower gardens for free through a plant exchange that my hubby's co-workers do every year.

How it works is they plan a day in the spring that they bring into work plant clippings or seeds and exchange them for other plants or seeds that others have brought from their gardens. Basically they share the wealth of the plants that they have thinned out or divided or just do not want any more.

This year we trade some daylilies for....

TWO mini Hostas

an Autumn Joy Sedum

this gigantic Hosta!

We also got some shasta daisy seeds so that I can start some more plants.

I love this concept of the plant exchange because I am able to fill in holes in my flower gardens and get some variety of plants rather than just dividing or thinning out the plants to compost them or having to buy new seedlings.

Have you done this concept before with a neighbor or friend?

Glimpse of my Flower Garden!

Other than having seasonal allergies and dealing with Cottonwood "air floaties" getting stuck to everything, I love this time of year when everything is green and blooming!!

I have a rose bush at the front corner of the house that was left at the house by the previous owners--It is HUGE--like 6 feet tall! and every year we get dozens of roses in two different blooming periods(once late spring/early summer and then late summer/early fall) Here is the first bloom!! It is sooo fragnant!
Here is another bloom on that same rose bush! At last count there was 15 blooms on this one bush!
Here is one of my dianthus plants that I have on my porch in a pot. I planted this last year! It was in the annual section of the greenhouse!! Guess I have a perennial on my hands!
Here is a mini daylily with its first and second bloom of the season! I have two of these plants in my garden and both of them are going to be blooming like crazy this season! The other plant hasn't started blooming yet but there is about 10 shoots with at least 4 buds per shoot on it!
This is newly acquired to my yard! My hubby put this sloped circle in for me this year in a spot in the yard where he could not get grass to grow. It is hard to see in this picture without clicking on it to make it bigger but in the middle there is a Colorado blue spruce seedling. We got that free at one of the local nurseries this year with a coupon that we got after purchasing our Christmas tree there. All the flowers in this area are annuals--zinneas, marigolds, verbanas, and vinca impatients, basically something to fill in the area with color while the pine tree grows. We still need to get some mulch to put in this area so when I water the soil doesn't erode away.

So this is a glimpse of six different areas of flower gardens that is in my yard! I am better at keeping up with flowers than with veggies! Do you have a flower garden? If so, what is in your flower gardens?

Camp Wannalaffalotta

Are you looking to take a break from the school books this summer or maybe just looking to keep the kids busy with activities so that you don't hear "Mom, I'm bored!"???

I have just the place to go every Monday starting on May 25th!!!  Head over to Life as Mom, where Jessica will be posting activities to do with your kids. They'll work around a theme and include crafts, storybooks, activities, games, and food.  She is planning on having more activities than you can do in a day so pick a few or pick them all and stretch it over the week until the next theme is posted!

She will be posting Camp Wannalaffalotta every Monday until Labor Day!  So make sure you stop by her blog to find fun summertime activities to do with your kids!

Summer Blues or the "Mom, I'm bored!"

Summer is coming! Which means our children will be on summer break and inevitably they will come to you saying that they are bored!

Here is a list of 13 free or low cost things that you can do with your children to help combate the summer boredom blues:

1. play board games together
   
   
2. go for nature walks--we have several area parks with nature trails.
   
   
3. bake goodies
   
   
4. visit grandparents(or if they are too far away, visit to a nursing home or senior assisted living center)--my parents live twenty minutes from us and they live in on an acre of land, which is great for exploring!
   
   
5. pretend we are at the movies---stick in a movie and do up some popcorn.
   
   
6. play hide n' seek
   
   
7. read books together--don't forget to find those different summer reading programs like at the public library or at your local bookstore like Barnes & Nobles.
   
   
8. brush up on the Math facts by quizzing each other. It always seems that my kids do a "data dump" when it comes to Math facts so we play the game who can get the most facts right in 2 minutes. :)
   
   
9. if we do any traveling, I like to make up a backpack full of goodies for them to do on the trip. I use some of the many ideas over at Mom's Minivan as well to fill the pack.
   
   
10. do a craft project together.
    
    
11. when stuck inside due to the weather, using our imagination to play games from tea parties to hide n' seek to I spy. An article of ideas to have fun indoors.
    
    
12. create an obstacle course or water park or a carnival in your backyard and together with your kids have a fun afternoon playing at the "park".
    
    
13. work in the garden.
    
    
    

These are just a few things that you can do to help keep the "Mom, I'm bored!" saying at bay. There is also a few more suggestions here!

I am always looking for more ideas! I would love to hear what are some things that you do with your kids to keep the boredom at bay??

This post is linked at:

• 3 Moms Thursday Thirteen at Happy to be at Home!
• Frugal Friday at Life as Mom!