Recipe: Easy Three Ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies

There is nothing better than the classic peanut butter cookie and a glass of milk. Here is a recipe using three ingredients that will make you very happy!

1 cup sugar
1 cup peanut butter
1 egg

Mix together. Plop on a cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for about 12 minutes.

Seriously, it's that easy.

I use a cookie dough scoop to make mine nice and round. But you could just use whatever spoon you have! I then use the crisscross fork trick to flatten them down. If you are making them into the ever popular peanut butter blossom cookie, just leave them as a round ball and after baking, squish a Hershey's kiss on top. This recipe also works perfect in a cookie press!

My biggest cookie making tip is not to over cook them! Take them out just before they are done and let sit on the cookie sheet for a minute before transferring to a cooling rack. This lets the sugars crystallize and the cookie will harden but still stay soft inside!


Enjoy!

Linked to:

 

The Stages of Underwear Laundry...Oh How Times Have Changed

Stage One:

Young and single. Thin. Rested. If you are not rested, it's for fun reasons. Reasons that are worth being tired over. You do laundry when you think about it. Your underwear are colorful and fun. Probably cheap because that's all you can afford. But who cares.

Stage Two:

Newly married. Not as thin but you are too in love to care. Rested. So very rested. You do laundry once a week. You always wear your prettiest underwear first. If you are wearing granny panties your husband knows to bring you chocolate and keep his distance.

Stage Three:

Married with young children. You eat leftover french fries for dinner. Thin is no longer a word you even think about. Rest? What is that? You do laundry every single day to no avail. You wear whatever underwear are in the drawer. Your husband does not notice what underwear you are wearing. He's just happy he's wearing some. Even if they are turned inside out so he can get an extra day out of them.

Stage Four:

Married with older children. Attempting thin. Not happening because when you're over 30 your metabolism goes on vacation. Rested once again. It's about freaking time those kids sleep through the night. You do laundry two-three times a week. You wear underwear in whatever order you feel like BECAUSE YOU CAN. Your husband happily wears clean underwear once again. He knows that if you are in pretty underwear it means nothing. It's probably just laundry day because that's really the only reason those underwear even make it out of the drawer. But he doesn't complain. At least they are on you once again.

Stage Five:

I'm not in this stage yet but I imagine at this point laundry and underwear no longer rule your life.

Which sounds like a great stage to aim for.

I'm happily in Stage Four right now. It's not too shabby. Nor are my underwear.

Which stage of underwear laundry are you in?

We'll Be Back After These Messages

Today I'm going to pick up my new laptop! Hooray!

Last night we stopped at Best Buy and there was a great little Dell laptop on sale. My dear husband has been scouring the Internet for days trying to find the best one at the best price. We thought we had found one online but did a quick stop at Best Buy just to check. And whammo! Great deal!

So we were all set to buy it and the sales guy says, "Let me check if we have it in stock." Gee, maybe you could have checked that BEFORE you sold us on it?

They did not have any, of course. But they would sell us the two week old floor model for 10% off! You should have seen my husband's face. It was like he won the lottery.

So after asking for a rag and wiping the laptop down to make sure there were no scratches and checking practically every inch of it over (and also after lots of eye rolling and huffing from the kids...and their mother) we bought it!

He then discussed some very important matters with the Geek Squad where it appeared he was very much at home.

If I were in charge of buying it I would probably have spent way more money because I'm so clueless. But it would have only taken five minutes.

On the way home he stuck his head out the window and yelled "I just saved $150!! Wooooo!" And then took parts out of my broken laptop to bulk up his old slow one. He then calculated how much money that saved him. I believe he did a dance in celebration.

I love my geeky cheapskate husband. He gives me so much entertainment.

So in your house who would have been the one taking an hour to inspect every laptop in the store and who would have just taken whatever so you could go home and eat ice cream?

Please tell me we are not the only family who is this weird.

They Tuck Me In At Night

I am usually the last one to bed in our house. The boys, of course, go to bed early on school nights. Matt gets up way before the sun to get to work before I've even opened my eyes. I stay up and enjoy having the tv to myself. I let myself zone out and into the land of television where the problems of the day belong to someone else.

Every night before I go to bed I have a routine. It's pretty much the same thing every night.

I fill the coffee maker with liquid gold and set the timer so it will percolate at just the moment Matt will need to set up his caffeine IV.

I start the dishwasher after making sure no one put the plastic bowls on the bottom rack.

I make sure Matt has a lunch ready for the next day. (Yes, I'm the wife that makes her husband's lunch for him. Shut up. I like him.)

I brush my teeth and remove the crusty make up off my crusty face.

I go into the boys' room and check on each one of them.

First is Charlie. He just turned seven. But don't tell anyone. I've decided he won't be growing any older. I pull his three pillows up off the floor, making sure they are not laying on the heater. We don't need to be starting the building on fire. I pull his covers up over him. He kicks them off. I lean over and kiss his warm forehead. I take in his smell. It's usually that of wet dog but I still breathe it in as deep as I can. I pray that he will find his place in this family, in his school, in this world. I pray he sees how special he is. I pray for peace to fill his heart. I pray that he will stop wiping his nose on me.

Next is Chandler. He turned eleven in December. I pull his headphones out of his ears. When I look at him I still him as that chubby baby with cheeks so big you'd think you could pop them with one squeeze. But there he lays. Limbs long and gangly. Face narrow and looking so much like his father it physically hurts my heart. (In a good way. Just clarifying.) I pray that he will keep his tender-hearted kindness in the midst of an unkind world. I pray that he will be strong and stick up for himself and what he believes in. I pray for passion. I pray for peace to fill his heart. I pray that he'll let me kiss him in the drop off lane at school for just a little longer. Mostly I pray that his eyes won't get stuck when he rolls them.

Up on the top bunk is my little man, Chase. He is quite possibly the smartest eight year old on the planet. I brush my fingers over his freckled nose. I run my hands through his thick hair. Thank God he got my hair and not his father's. I move all of the stuffed animals off his head. I  pull the ball of sheets from the end of the bed and straighten out all of his blankets knowing good and well in the morning he will say, "Mom, why'd you do that? I like them all messed up!" He might not be my child. I pray for wisdom. He's smart as a whip. I pray he has the wisdom to do really great things with that gift. I pray for peace to fill his heart. I pray that he doesn't trip and fall any more or randomly walk into walls because we are one bruise away from being reported.

I walk out of their room. I always...always...turn back around and look at them. I pray out loud, "Thank you for my babies, keep them safe."

I sneak into my room as quietly as I can. I plug in my phone and turn on the alarm.

I move the dog off my pillow and out from under the covers. I mutter under my breath about the spoiled dog. I crawl into bed and snuggle up next to my husband, trying not to wake him. If needed, I nudge him. Who can sleep with all that snoring, anyway? I breathe him in and take over his pillow. I try not to let my cold toes touch his. I pray that his work will be blessed. I pray that his health will stay strong. I pray for peace to fill his heart. I pray that he won't get mad when he realizes I waited too late to make his lunch because that episode of Parenthood was so good that I couldn't walk away and halfheartedly threw together a pb&j sandwich.

I close my eyes and say thank you.

Each night I tuck my family in. I do the same thing. Say the same thing. Night after night after night.

And I can't sleep unless I do.

Now that I think about it, I think they are the ones who tuck me in at night.

Sweet dreams, everyone.

Parenting Tip: Questions Create Thinking

I haven't posted any parenting advice lately so I thought I'd pass on this little snippet of great insight from my favorite parenting site, Love and Logic.

At Love and Logic® we believe that kids are best prepared for the real world when we allow them to do as much thinking as possible. It's good practice for the real world, and it keeps the monkey off of our backs most of the time. Here's the problem. Do you know kids who like to keep adults doing all of the thinking? Do you know kids who are good at tricking us into doing so? How do we avoid falling into this trap? 


One strategy involves using plenty of questions! The more questions we ask, the better thinkers our kids will become. People who understand Love and Logic also understand that the human brain seeks closure. When we use plenty of questions, children's brains are so busy searching for closure that they have less energy left over for power-struggles. The more questions we ask, the fewer power-struggles we will have. 


 Kids grow the healthiest and strongest brains when they're fortunate to spend time around adults who say things like: 


 "I don't know. What do you think?" 


 "Are you sure that's the best idea?" 


 "How do you think that's going to work out for you?" 


 "Would you like to hear what some other kids have tried?" 


 "Do you think that's going to work out well or ________?" 


 "What do you think you are going to do?" 


 "Which one of these is the best solution to your problem?" 


 "Do you have enough money to pay for any possible damage?" 


 "Is that a wise decision?"


I love this advice. I love putting the questions back onto the kids and not draining myself over their problems.

Try it. You'll like it. :)

Back It Up: A Cautionary Tale

My laptop. When I think about losing it I want to sing "How can I live without you" in my best Faith Hill voice. It is my friend. My confidant. My keeper of all things precious.

Why then, did I not back it up? Why did I let that pack of CDs sit on my desk for a month without transferring my pictures onto them? Why didn't we buy that external hard drive?

Why, God, why?!

I woke up yesterday to a laptop that had given up. The black screen of death. And when we really tried to get it to turn on? A screen full of words and garblygook. Yes. That's a word. I'm distraught. Leave me alone.

So here I am. No laptop. I've been assured that there are geek type people who can fix it or at the very least, get my pictures off it. For a very reasonable price, I'm sure. Eye roll.

But that's what I get. And so today I encourage you...

BACK IT UP. BACK IT ALLLLLL UP.

I wish I was sharing a fun new rap I made up with you. That would have been much more fun.

Until I get it fixed, there may be limited stuff happening here. Which is too bad because I have a giveaway lined up! But don't worry. Our old faithful dinosaur desk top is still going and I just figured out how to blog from my phone.

Technology!

I hope my back it up rap song gets stuck in your head all day. That would make me feel better.

Recipe: Caramel Carrot Cake

A last minute dinner with friends left me looking for a quick and easy dessert last week. I happened to have a couple of cake mixes on hand thanks to a recent sale so that was my easy fix. I had a carrot cake mix and a can of cream cheese frosting. I know, I know, a cake mix AND canned frosting. It's like I don't even know the name of my own blog.

Anyway, looking for a way to spruce the plain cake mix up, I found this recipe from Betty Crocker for Caramel Carrot Cake. I was pleasantly surprised how nicely it turned out considering it wasn't homemade! I did things just a teeny bit differently than they did...

Caramel Carrot Cake

Ingredients:

1 box carrot cake mix

1 cup water

1/2 cup butter, melted

3 eggs

1 jar caramel topping

1 container cream cheese frosting

 

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease or spray pan. (The BC recipe has you make it as a 9x13 cake, I made mine in two circle cake pans so I could stack them all pretty-like.) 

 

Mix together the cake mix, water, butter and eggs. Pour into pan(s).

Bake for about 30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool. The BC recipe has quite a few steps listed at this point. I just poked a few holes in the cakes, covered each layer in caramel, stacked them on top of each other and covered in frosting. Easy! I think next time I will put some frosting in between the middle layer as well.

 

This is just luscious with a hot cup of coffee!

 Enjoy!

 

Linked to: