Homemade Chocolate Bar Recipe Chocolate bars will always remind me of waiting in line at the grocery store as a kid, if you stare long enough, one might magically happen to land on the conveyor belt of groceries, right? Now that I'm older I enjoy overpriced candy bars with fun things like potato chips in them. Candy bar maker Using the Pampered Chef snack bar maker I can ...
Green onion dip recipe
Green onion dip recipe We love green onions, so naturally we planted a ton of them in our garden. Well, we're not eating them as fast as we thought we would, and we keep forgetting about them. We'll be sitting down half way done with dinner, looking out at our garden and that's when we think "oh yeah, green onions would have been great on this." Moral of the story, I'm ...
Pineapple Mango Coconut Smoothie Recipe
I just read in a magazine that if you buy a nice blender it deserves a home on your counter so you'll remember to use it. Well, we have a nice blender the Pampered Chef Deluxe Cooking Blender and it's been used at least once a day since we bought it. My husband and I have been planning our morning smoothies the night before, it's serious business. Last night we planned on a ...
Tropical Mixed Berry Smoothie
Who doesn’t love a good smoothie to start your day? Smoothies are so filling and they’re packed with good nutrients. This recipe makes a batch for the whole family. I’m obsessed with the deep purple color it turned into. When I was picking out yogurt for smoothies I decided to try using Chobani’s coconut yogurt as a base for some fun tropical smoothies. This is one of ...
Sheet pan roasted vegetables with beer braised bratwurst
I love roasting vegetables on a sheet pan, and recently discovered how much better they cook on a Pampered Chef Stoneware bar pan. I simply dice some of my favorite vegetables, put them in a bowl, coat them with a little bit of olive oil, lemon juice, lemon zest, minced garlic and a little bit of salt and pepper. Sometimes I'll add protein like chicken to the top, but I ...
Baked Pizza Ziti Recipe (weeknight meal for picky eaters)
I need easy go-to meals to survive the week. I love cooking, but sometimes you need to throw together noodles, sauce, and cheese and call it a meal. I used my homemade marinara recipe for this particular batch, because the pandemic has been keeping me away from Trader Joe's pizza sauce. I started with al dente ziti, then normally add in pizza sauce, browned hamburger with ...
How to meal plan for real moms and real life.
How to meal plan for real moms and real life. Meal planning is a sanity saver. It saves me from asking myself, "Crap, what's for dinner?" at 2 in the afternoon. It saves us money at the grocery store. It saves me from having a pantry full of dusty canned goods. It makes you feel like your life is a little more put together, even if it isn't. It helps you avoid pizza three ...
Decadent Apple Cinnamon Pancake Topping recipe
Can I tell you a secret? I hate pancakes. They're just ok, and because I don't love them I only eat 1 or maybe 2 if they're small so I'm always starving right after breakfast. I'm just not a fan. This makes AJ and Aliceana so sad. So when we were binge watching Queer Eye with a box of Kleenex very nearby, because oh man that show makes us cry a lot. In one particular episode ...
Venison Stew recipe
Living in Wisconsin venison is something that we grow up with, so we were thrilled this year when AJ got two deer on opening day. This was also the first year that Aliceana went on the journey out to the woods, the biggest take away is that she has a hard time staying quiet for that long, and she's not great at whispering. Anyway, venison is an incredibly lean meat, and we love ...
White Chocolate Oatmeal Craisin Cookies
My grandma is basically the reason why I know how to do more in the kitchen than heat up hot pockets. Lately, she's been absolutely obsessed with The Pioneer Woman's recipe books. We've been her guinea pigs, taste testing every new meal she comes up with. That's not what I'm here to talk about though, I'm here to talk about her amazing oatmeal raisin cookies. One of my ...
Slowcooker Ham and Cheese Pasta, the best ever comfort food.
This recipe is one that has been a family favorite for, well for as long as I can remember. It’s one of the very few things my mom could cook, this and the best ever Rice Krispie treats. I’m pretty sure anyone that can boil pasta can make this one, and that’s the beauty of it. Well that and the fact that it’s probably the best comfort food in the history of ever. It’s perfect ...