Oatmeal Bake

This recipe was given to me by my sweet friend Holly, who is a much better cook than me! 

 I had this Oatmeal Bake at her house one morning and could not get enough.  

My kids LOVE this stuff!

Oatmeal Bake

3 cups of oats

1 3/4 cups of buttermilk (you can substitute with 3/4 cup yogurt and 1 cup water)

1/2 cup of coconut oil

4 eggs

1/2 cup sugar, maple syrup of honey

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp cinnamon

2 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup shredded coconut (this gets left out in our house)

1/2 cup chocolate chips mixed in batter plus 1/4 cup to sprinkle on top before putting in oven

Soak oats and yogurt covered on kitchen counter overnight.  I
n the morning, beat oil, sugar and eggs until glossy.  
Add baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and vanilla, beat.  
Stir in oats and chocolate chips.  
Pour into a greased 9x13 baking dish and bake at 350 for 20 min.

You can add anything to this recipe: chopped apples, raisins, pecans, bananas, 

dried cranberries, white chocolate, etc....

Two of My Favorite Party Drinks

We will just call this the week of recipes since I seemed to start it out that way on Sunday.  Below are two of my favorite party drinks.  They were both served at one of my wedding showers and the Front Porch Tea was a hit at our wedding reception.  Hope you try them out for yourself!

Coffee Punch

1 Cup of Instant Coffee

1 1/2 cups of Sugar

3 Cups of Cold Water

1/2 Gallon of Blue Bell Vanilla Ice Cream (or your favorite brand)

1/2 Cup of Cocoa

1/2 Cup of Boiling Water

1 Tsp of Vanilla

1 Quart of Whipping Cream whipped

Combine coffee granules, cocoa, sugar, and boiling water. Blend until smooth.  

Stir in cold water, vanilla and milk.  

Fold in whipping cream and ice cream (ice cream must be thawed prior) 

and whipping cream.

*This will make a lot.  Have a huge punch bowl ready or several plastic pitchers*

Front Porch Tea

1 cup sugar

2 cups of boiling water

2 family sized tea bags

8 cups of water (not boiled)

1 12oz can of frozen Minute Maid Lemonade Concentrate

1TBS pure vanilla extract

1 TBS pure almond extract

Peach Slices

Dissolve 1 cup sugar in 2 cups of boiling water to make syrup.  Set aside

Add 2 Family Sized tea bags to 2 cups of boiling water and steep for 5 minutes

In a large pitcher (1 gallon) mix sugar syrup, 2 cups of brewed tea and 8 additional cups of water.

Mix in 1 12oz can of frozen Minute Maid Lemonade Concentrate (thawed)

Add 1 TBS of pure vanilla extract and 1 TBS of pure almond extract.

Stir well and chill in refrigerator.

Serve over ice and garnish with fresh peach slices if desired.

*Makes 14 8oz servings*

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

My Favorite Crock Pot Discoveries

I use the Crock Pot a lot!  My work days are 12 hour shifts plus one hour commutes to and from.  It is important to me that my family has a hot healthy meal even on the nights that I don't get to eat with them.

I also use the Crock Pot on days that I don't work.  It saves me from having to rush home to put dinner on if we are out.  It saves me from heating up my entire house.  It usually means I have less clean up after dinner.

I have an oval Crock and a round Crock made by Rival.  They are nothing fancy.  They are both 8-10 years old but they work great!

Here are a few things I do in the Crock Pot that help save me TIME!

• Baked Sweet Potatoes: Wash them and put them on HIGH in your Crock for 4-5 hours. (You might have to experiment with your crock as every one will heat differently)  No foil needed!  They come out soft and beautiful.  

• Baked Potatoes: Wash them and put them on HIGH in your Crock for 4-5 hours.  (You might have to experiment with your crock as every one will heat differently)  No foil needed!  They come out soft and beautiful.  

• Spaghetti Sauce: Tuttorosso Crushed Tomatoes in Thick Puree with Basil, 1 can of diced tomatoes, 1 cup of water, 1 T sea salt, 2 T Olive Oil, 4 T dried Italian Seasoning, 3 cloves of minced garlic.  Put it all in the Crock and simmer on low all night or all day!  (Add cooked ground beef or sausage if you like).

• Crock Pot Lasagna: Line bottom of Crock with no-boil noodles (may have to break them up to fit the shape of your crock).  Then layer your favorite ingredients: Ricotta cheese, shredded mozzarella, spaghetti sauce, no-boil noodles....and so on.  Cook on HIGH for 2-3 hours or LOW for 4-5 hours.

• Baked Chicken: Put a whole chicken in the Crock.  Season with garlic powder, sea salt, black pepper, paprika, and onion powder.  Put a few pats of real butter under the chicken skin for extra flavor.  Cook on HIGH for 4-5 hours or LOW for 6-8 hours.

• Chicken Pot Pie: 2 cups of shredded baked chicken, 1 can of cream of chicken soup, 1 cup of peas and carrots, 16 oz of sour cream.  Mix all together and put in crock.  Top with crushed crackers (I have used Ritz and Saltines: both are great).  Cook on HIGH for 2-3 hours or LOW for 4-5 hours.

• BBQ Pork:  Pork Roast or Loin of your choice.  Pour one bottle of BBQ sauce, 1 cup of Zesty Italian dressing, and 1 T of Liquid Smoke into the crock on top of the Pork.  Cook on HIGH for 4-5 hours or LOW for 6-8 hours.  Shred for BBQ tacos, BBQ sandwiches, or pair with your favorite sides.

• White Chicken Chili: 2 cups of chopped/shredded baked chicken, 4 cans of Northern Beans, 2 small cans of chopped green chilies, 4 cups of chicken broth, 1 cup of water, 2 T of cumin, and 1 T of sea salt.  Cook on High 4-5 hours or Low for 6-8 hours.  Ladle into bowls and top with shredded Monterrey Jack Cheese

Pretty much...I put any recipe in the Crock Pot!  I'm serious.  I have yet to try a cake or brownies in my Crock but hope to soon.  There are some great Crock Pot FB pages, websites and good old fashioned recipe books out there.  

If you have a crock pot recipes you love, please share!

Happy Crocking!

Garage Sale Finds

A couple of my friends and I love garage sale-ing!  We nick named ourselves "Garage Sale Gang Moms".  We always go in a gang or together.  And we take no children, no husbands, reusable bags, a minivan, and a pocket of cash.

This really has turned into a great way for us to clothe our children as well as furnish our homes, pick up craft project materials, or score steals on toys and bikes for our kids.  When you can clothe 2 kids for less than $100.00 from garage sales.....YOU DO IT!

We usually do this in the Spring and the Fall.  There are several large neighborhoods in our area that have neighborhood wide garage sales during these times of the year.  We hit them up every season.  Clothes we hardly ever pay more than a $1 per piece and sometimes we score for even less than that.  Just last week I picked up 26 pieces of clothing plus 3 pairs of gently used shoes for my kids for $6.00!  Yep you read that right $6.00!!!!!

Really you can not beat these deals!  Here is one of my "Garage Sale Gang Moms" showing off her latest "crafting" finds!

Do you Garage Sale?  And what has been your best find?

DIY Bow Tie

My daughter selected our "color scheme" for Easter dress this year.  She had to have a yellow and white dress from Old Navy.  I added a navy cardigan to it just in case the weather was a little chilly.  Which put me on the search for yellow and navy for our son.  I was lucky in the navy department.....not so much the yellow.

I searched high and low for some type of yellow bow tie.  I don't know why I thought I would find anything.  I have the same problem every time I try and find a bow tie for my son.  So I picked up materials (instead of wasting more time scouring the mall and amazon) and I made him a bow tie.

This was my second bow tie to make for him.  Last time I put it on a clip but this time I attached it to elastic and I liked it so much better.  Just better for his age (21 months).

Here is how I did it.

Hot Iron

1/2 yard of your favorite fabric

Needle and Thread

Scissors

Ruler

Iron the creases out of your fabric

Determine how "fat" you want your bow tie to be.

I cut 6 inch wide x 18 in long strip of fabric.

(It ended up a little too long)

In the end I settled with a 10 in length strip of fabric.

You will just have to play with it and see what works best for your little guy's size

Next I folded in the edges and ironed a crease

You can see that I did this for the top and the bottom of the long strip

Then I folded the creased edges in one more time and ironed them flat.

This keeps anything from fraying or sticking out of the finished product.

Next I folded the left side of the material into the middle

and ironed a crease on the outer left hand side of the material

I then folded the right side of the material into the middle

and ironed a crease on the outer right hand side of the material  

You want to make sure that material overlaps a little in the middle

I then cinched the material in the middle with my fingers

And ran a stitch from bottom to top

Up and Down, Up and Down all the way across

 Here is what it should look like when you have completed the stitching

Next I cut a slim piece of fabric 

and ironed the edges in as well to prevent fraying

I cut a piece of elastic to secure to the bow tie.

Note: Put your child's shirt on and run the elastic around the neck of the shirt in the manner he will wear the shirt.  Then cut the elastic 1/2" or so shorter than what you measured to ensure the elastic will fit properly and not hang.

Next I stitched from the back side of the elastic through the front side of the bow tie.  

Until it was secure to the elastic

It will not look pretty on the front....but we are about to fix that

Next take your long skinny piece of fabric and wrap it around the middle of the bow tie

Stitch the back side of the skinny fabric like so

and cut off the excess material. 

Your finished project should look like this!

Here is my little man, avoiding looking at the camera.

And here he is on Easter wearing the finished project!

I think it turned out SUPER CUTE!

Hope this project saves you a little time and money next time you are on the hunt for a bow tie!

 

Alive!

Wow!  It has been some time since I have posted anything.  The last 3 months have been a whirlwind.

1. We listed our house
2. We showed it 9 times in days
3.  It sold in 3 days
4.  My husband and I went to Keystone for me to speak at a conference
5.  We closed on our old house
6.  We found a new home
7.  We packed our old house in PODS for 6 days
8.  We lived in our realtor's basement for 6 days until the closing of our new house
9.  We closed on our new house March 12
10. We both continued to work our jobs during this madness
11. My sister and niece came 1 day after we moved in and helped us unpack
12. Our kids spent a week in VA with one set of their grandparents
13. My husband went on a 2 day golf trip
14. We got a lot done while our kids were away
15. I went on an overnight trip with my mom's group to the mountains
16. We planned and hosted our daughter's 3rd birthday
17. Our families both came for a visit to our new house for our daughter's birthday
18. And tomorrow we go to see our baby boy by ultrasound at 36 weeks!

Crazy, I tell you!  But so good.  So blessed. And so thankful.

We never planned to move from our old house, but with the encouragement of a friend, we listed it.  We got close to what we were asking for it.  It appraised for what we sold it for.  The day after our old house closed 3 short sales/foreclosures listed in our old neighborhood.  We found a new construction house that was not under contract (unheard of in our area right now).  God worked out ALL of the details.

Several months ago I posted this verse 


Then Moses said, "If you don't personally go with us, don't let us move a step from this place".

Exodus 33:15

I knew back then that God gave me that verse specifically.  Little did I know how quickly it would become reality for our family.  I have a cute project I am working on to symbolize all God did for us as a family over the last 3 months.  I hope to have it up on the blog before baby boy arrives.