Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Muffins

Stone is the primary breakfast maker in our house. Through the week, we tend to eat cereal, oatmeal, and toast - easy, fast food. On the weekend, Stone makes us biscuits, pancakes, omelets, and all manner of delicious treats. This morning he was making blueberry muffins. Since he was using real blueberries, we knew that Simon was unlikely to eat them (Simon disdains combining textures). So, I mixed up some chocolate chip and peanut butter muffins to round out the meal. The recipe came from cooks.com and was as delicious as it was easy.

Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Muffins
2/3 cup smooth peanut butter
2 tbsp melted butter
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups self rising flour
1/2 cup milk
1 cup chocolate chips

1. Mix peanut butter and butter in a large bowl. Add in sugar, eggs and vanilla. Mix thoroughly.
2. Stir in flour. Add milk and chocolate chips, stirring until just combined.
3. Spoon by 1/3 cup measures into 12 cup muffin pan (use liners if using a metal pan - I use stoneware).
4. Bake 23 minutes at 350F.

Sexy Mexi Casserole

Sometimes, being pregnant, I decide that I want to eat something weird - like Mexican food and pancake mix. Thankfully, this (unlike my craving for bacon wrapped cheese in chocolate sauce) turned out to be something that everyone enjoyed. 

Sexy Mexi Casserole

1 lb ground chicken

1 red bell pepper, chopped

1 green bell pepper, chopped

1 large onion, chopped

2 cans great northern beans

1 can condensed cream of tomato soup

cumin, cayenne  pepper, and cilantro to taste

2 cups pancake mix + water as indicated by box

1. Brown the chicken in a medium skillet over medium heat. 

2. In a large bowl, combine the chicken, peppers, onions, and beans. Season to taste with cumin, cayenne, and cilantro. Stir in soup. 

3. Spoon chicken mixture into the bottom of a large casserole dish. 

4. Mix 2 cups pancake mix with water per box instructions (do not use the pancake mix that requires you to add milk, oil, etc - use the water only mix). Pour batter over the chicken mixture in the casserole dish. 

5. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes or until pancake topping is golden brown. Serve with sour cream and cheese if desired. 

Crock-Pot Honey Chicken

This recipe was posted at Mmm...Cafe, and I found it on Pinterest. I adapted it just a bit to fit with my family's preference for spice:)

Crock Pot Honey Chicken
3/4 lb chicken, cubed
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup chopped onion
1/8 cup tomato sauce
3 tsp red pepper flakes

Season chicken with salt and pepper. Place in crock pot. In a small bowl, mix honey, soy sauce, onion, tomato sauce, and red pepper flakes. Pour sauce over chicken. Cook on low heat 3 hours. Serve over rice. 

Chocolate and Pecan Filled Cinnamon Waffles

I gave up baked goods for Lent this year. If you are not familiar with Lent, it is a 40 day fast celebrated by Liturgical Christians (Catholics, Methodists, etc). In addition to restrictions on certain days - like no meat on Friday - you are asked to choose something to give up, or fast from, throughout Lent. This year, I gave up baked goods. Each Sunday is a feast day, so on Sundays I am allowed to break my fast and indulge in some baked good. I had seen the idea of making cinnamon rolls in the waffle maker and thought it would be a lovely Sunday feast. However, since this is my one baked good of the week, I wanted to make it ridiculously good. Thus, I kicked it up a notch by adding chocolate and nuts.

Chocolate and Pecan Filled Cinnamon Waffles
1 can (8 count) cinnamon rolls with icing
1/3 cup chocolate chips
1/3 cup chopped pecans

1. Use the bottom of a cup to flatten out the middle of each cinnamon roll. The result should be a flat disk with a slightly raised edge.
2. Place one cinnamon roll onto your heated waffle maker. Into the center of the roll, sprinkle chocolate chips and nuts to taste. Top this with another cinnamon roll. Close the waffle maker, pressing down the lid to seal the "waffle".
3. Allow the "waffle" to cook according to directions for a normal waffle. Remove the "waffle" to a warm oven (200F) and repeat this process with the remaining cinnamon rolls.
4. Before serving, top waffles with any leftover chips, pecans, and the icing from the cinnamon roll can.

Results = ridiculously good

Jeff's Jiffy "Cracker Jacks"

This month's Random Recipe Challenge was to go back to the cookbook you used in your first challenge. I couldn't do that as I got rid of that particular book in the great Fit Two Children Into My House clean up. So, I went to my second challenge - for which I had used Loaves and Fishes: A "Love Your Neighbor" Cookbook. I tried to let Simon pick the recipe for me, but it turns out that my particular three year old has no interest in being random. He completely refused to open the book in any but the tradition fashion (he is also the only three year old I know who enjoys pointing out the spine, front over, end pages, and title page of a book - so really I was asking too much of him if I expected "random".") I did the random flipping and came up with Jeff's Jiffy "Cracker Jacks".

Jeff's Jiffy "Cracker Jacks"
1/4 cup margarine
1/2 cup honey
6 cups popped corn
1 cup peanuts

1. In a saucepan, heat honey and margarine over low heat until blended.
2. In a large bowl, mix popcorn and peanuts. Add sauce and stir.
3. Spread mixture onto a large pan.
4. Bake at 350F for 7-10 minutes.
5. When cool, stir, and it's ready to eat.

Simon and I made these while Stone was away at a Super Bowl party (I have as much interest in watching American football as in getting a toe cut off). I enjoyed the mixture a great deal, as did Stone. Simon, however, objects to sticky food and would not partake.

Cheerio Bird Feeders

These were a great deal of fun and a fantastic way for Simon to practice his fine motor skills. I got the idea from Preschool Playbook.

We started with four pipe cleaners and a bowl of Cheerios (okay, not Cheerios, whatever cheaper, circular cereal we got at Aldi). I put a loop in the bottom of each pipe cleaner to stop the cereal falling off. Simon and I took turns threading cereal onto the pipe cleaners until they were full. We made a counting game of it. I put on five - he put on five. I put on six - he put on six, etc. I put a loop in each end when the pipe cleaner was filled.

Simon, with a bit of a lift, hung the feeders from our deck.

The birds haven't had a chance to get at them yet, since it has been raining all day. I am sure they will enjoy them once we get another bit of sun.

Blossoming Tree Craft

We enjoyed reading My First Chinese New Year several times while Simon was learning about the holiday at school. (Don't even get me started about what a fabulous job his school did - they even had the head of Asian Studies from the largest university in the state come in and give a preschool appropriate talk on Chinese culture. I love Simon's school!) Simon liked the part in the story where the family buys blossoming branches to decorate the house. We made our own fingerprint blossoming tree inspired by Crafty-Crafted.

I drew the "tree" first with brown crayon. Simon dipped his finger in red paint to make some of the blossoms, and then dipped my finger in paint to made the rest.