Autumn Cinnamon Apple French Toast

This might be the wrong thing to say to everybody.  But, I'm just not all that into "pumpkin".  It's everywhere you turn right now.  You just can't escape it!  If you're a pumpkin fanatic like (everyone) else, this is the best time of year!  But, I have a secret to share with you.  Pumpkin isn't the only fall flavor out there!  Say what?!  Yup... it's true.  Turns out, apple & cinnamon seems to be widely overlooked in the last couple of years (largely due to this pumpkin craze, I'd imagine).

Friday Find: Mint Chocolate

If you know me at all, you know that I have a problem.  It's an addiction, really.  I can't get enough of mint & chocolate together!  It's just so good!  Below are some of my all time favorite Mint & Chocolate combinations!  Feel free to send large amounts of any of these to my door step.  If you're sending any of the ice cream or coffee though, ring the door bell so they don't melt/get cold. ;)

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I found some amazing recipes that I am so eager to try and I wanted to share with you, too!  Thin Mint Brownies.  I am nervous make these because I may never make "regular" brownies ever again.  And that would be a-okay with me!  But possibly not the rest of my family.

Crock Pot Cooking on Vacation

When we're on vacation, one of the biggest aspects for us is finding great local places to eat.  However, when you add two kids to the mix, sometimes a simple dinner out can be exhausting.  Getting everyone back to the hotel room at a reasonable time, showered, dressed, then just sitting through the average wait time to get into a restaurant as well as just waiting to get food to get to the table.

Our solution isn't the most popular with many families that are on vacation (because, hello!?  Don't I cook enough at home?)

Well, when we were packing for our vacation, we tossed our trusty crock pot in the car.  Back when we were just a family of three, we spent nearly 6 months together in a hotel room in Oklahoma (Air Force training) so we got pretty creative with a crock pot!

Our favorite crock pot meal that is super easy for a hotel is our "Chipotle Chicken Meal":

Another family favorite that we ate on another night of our vacation is our Easiest Ever Beef Sandwiches.  We ate this all too easy meal after dragging ourselves back to the hotel after 8 hours in the great outdoors visiting Cumberland Island.  It was so nice to come "home" to a hot and ready meal instead of having to drag everyone back out to look for food.

Chocolate S'more Fondue for Two

My husband and I had our fourth wedding anniversary yesterday.  Most of it was spent catching up on laundry from vacation, putting away stuff and trying to get our lives re-organzized and back on schedule.  Especially with the two little ones and their sleeping!

But, when everyone was finally in bed, we were able to sneak downstairs, make some chocolate s'more fondue and share a bottle of Valley Vineyards Champagne while watching Couples Retreat.  It gave us a few good laughs which, after driving 14 hours the day before, we needed something where we didn't have to think.

Summertime Homemade Popsicles

Over this past weekend, we all went blackberry picking at this great local places that offers them as high as you can mound them in your quart container as well as all you can eat.  We certainly walked away with our money's worth!

Since we have blackberries galore, now, I needed to come up with a way to use a few immediately. I decided to make popsicles.  This is not much of a recipe.  More like, mash some blackberries... Add a couple table spoons of sugar... Freeze.  That's my kind of cooking!!

I filled up a 1 quart pot with blackberries and heated them on low-med while I mashed them up.  Then I added just enough sugar to make them nice and sweet.  I poured the content into a measuring cup with a spout to make pouring it into the tiny popsicle mold less messy.  (The liquid amount of berries turned out to be just around 2 cups).  

Freeze, and you get a delicious, quick, and healthy treat.

Do you have anywhere near you where you like to pick fresh fruit?  What are your favorite things to do with blackberries?  We have all of ours frozen on trays until further notice!

Janice

Personal Sized Tart Cherry Crisps

I went cherry picking with my little ones over the weekend (it was a very fun filled fruity weekend).  We came home with 14 pounds of Tart Cherries.  We only kept 8 pounds (thank goodness) because pitting that many cherries is very time consuming! Three pounds went to my neighbor and three pounds went to my mom.

My mom showed me her very clever way of pitting cherries.  You need a very cheap fork that will be easy to bend.  Fold back the two outer tines at the base with a set of needle nose pliers.  Then, with the two inner tines, fold just the very tips together and forward to create a little hook.

Black Bean & Avocado Salad Recipe

We had a family dinner last night.  It's always so nice to have everyone together and to be able to share a meal together.  My parents made T-bone steaks that they picked up from a new farmer.  They also made mushrooms, peppers and onions for the steaks, and baked potatoes on the side.  My mom asked me to bring chips (which we left on the kitchen counter at home) and some sort of dip.

She reminded me of a certain chip dip that I made a while ago and specially requested this one.  It's really easy to make and almost everybody loves it.

[MORE] Homemade Baby Food

My baby boy loves to eat.  Whoa, does he love to eat!  Luckily, he's not even picky!  In fact, I'm not sure if there has ever been anything he has turned down. (Lucky Momma!)  That really does make my job so much easier!

Jarred baby food is great.  GREAT, people. Not only is it healthy and nutritious but it's just so darn convenient!  Unfortunately, my little man would end up eating me out of house and home if I tried to feed him only jarred food.  That stuff adds up!  So, whenever I can, I like to make big batches of baby food to be able to freeze.  My guy is almost one... so I'm thinking this should be my last batch I'll have to make!

This time around, I made some interesting combinations just to keep things interesting for both him, and I!  Here is the list of what I came up with this time around:

Dinner's Ready: Big Don Pizza

Just popping in today to tell you about what we made for dinner.