I thought it was time to share another failed recipe. I bake often. That doesn’t mean it always works out though!
I attempted to make The Recipe Girl’s Nutella Swirled Banana Bread. This is one of those times when my “I don’t follow recipes” attitude failed me. I didn’t do something right as shown below in my poor attempt of Nutella Swirled Banana Muffins.
Please, make this bread. Please, follow the recipe.
PS – when made correctly, The Recipe Girl version is DIVINE.
I was at Chandler’s baseball game and I saw this vision from heaven.
It was a little girl. About eight years old.
She was running and jumping, her shiny brown hair swinging in the wind.
She looked just like Chase. The sparkling eyes. The perfect freckled face. The dimples. Oh my heavens the dimples.
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| The ever adorable thing we call Chase. |
I sat there and thought what a gorgeous little girl we could make. Did we mess up? Should we have tried again for a girl?! What have I done?!
And then she turned to the other little girl she was playing with and said,
“I am SO over you.”
And then she rolled her eyes.
And huffed loudly.
And swung that hair like it was weapon as she walked away.
I looked at Chandler, spitting in the outfield.
I looked at Chase and Charlie, punching each other in the face on the playground.
And all those thoughts went away.
The end.
When you read the ingredients you are going to think, WHAT?! But I am telling you this is the best “salad” you’ll ever eat!
Snickers Salad
Ingredients:
4 Snickers candy bars, chopped
1 tub cool whip
3-4 medium sized granny smith apples, diced (and spritzed with lemon juice to keep from turning brown)
Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl. Chill before serving.
Done! How easy is that?! A great dessert for your next picnic!
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| Sprinkle some extra apples and snickers on top for a pretty garnish! |
Enjoy!
This post linked to:
Beauty and Bedlam’s Tasty Tuesday
A Southern Fairytale’s Mouthwatering Monday
Thank you to Yahoo! Mail for sponsoring this post about staying connected. I was selected for this sponsorship by the Clever Girls Collective, which endorses Blog With Integrity, as I do.
A long time ago in a galaxy far far away Matt and I shared an email address.
*gasp* I know
We were so 1999.
As time went on I decided I needed my own email address. I wasn’t sure who or what I’d be emailing about *gasp* (yes, we shall be gasping a lot during this post) but I knew I wanted my own. I was tired of reading Matt’s emails about Fantasy Football. So I joined Yahoo! and my love affair with email began.
It was easy to see how emailing made my life easier in a practical way. But what I didn’t expect was how much fun it would be! And also? How much it would affect my marriage…don’t worry, in a good way!
Matt began to email me during the day while he was at work. I’d wake up and there would be an email from him and my morning was instantly exciting!
Remember when getting an email was exciting?
Related: I am old.
Actually, I still get excited about getting an email.
Also related: I am a nerd.
Anyway. Email. Love affair. Stay with me people.
It began as a little hello here or there, a list of things that we needed to talk about, a reminder about picking up milk on the way home. But as the days went on, the emails between us became so much more. Flirting and silly bantering became a fun way to keep in touch throughout our day.
As a stay at home mom, emails from anyone felt like “Oh thank God there are real humans out there!” but emails from my husband were sweet reminders that even though he was terribly busy at work, he always had time for me. My love affair for email totally started a fresh love affair with my husband.
To this day we email each other daily. It gets me through the day. I love it. I love him. I love email!
All for different reasons, of course. Just thought I’d clarify.
The video below is so sweet and pretty much sums up what I’m talking about!
Yes, we have also sent a lot of I’m Sorry emails. But they always end with me sending Matt pictures of us in a slide show! Wait, no they don’t. I’m such a slacker.
So tell me, who else has some good email love stories? I want to hear them!
Right after I go send my husband an email…
I’ve talked about it before, but I’m back to it. I’ve been thinking lately about my kids’ mistakes. As a parent you want to protect your kids, to help them along as much as possible. But I am finding that fixing their every mistake is only hurting them in the end.
My job as a parent isn’t to catch my child every time they fall, it’s to make sure when they fall, they know what to do, how to respond and how to get back up again.
This is my latest parenting technique I need to work on.
What will my son learn from more? Me bringing him his boots (that he forgot) so he can play outside at recess or letting him sit inside alone for recess? Me nagging at him “Don’t forget…don’t forget…don’t forget!” or letting him forget and feel the natural consequences of that irresponsibility?
Through the reading of my favorite parenting book, Parenting With Love and Logic, I am realizing that letting my kids deal with their own mistakes is what is best for them.
The price tag on mistakes right now is low. But one day they will be high. I want to teach them how to handle failures and mistakes now, while the price tag is small and we are here to remind them to put their hands out in front of them so they don’t land face first.
I don’t want to remain a rescuer/helicopter parent. It’s not healthy for me or for them.
What do you think about fixing kids mistakes?
*Note: Amazon affiliate link included*
This is a quick and easy recipe for a bread that can be enjoyed as a snack or as dinner on night when you need something, well, quick and easy!
Italian Cheese and Pepperoni Bread
Ingredients:
3 cups self rising flour (or you can use regular flour and add 1 1/2 tsp baking powder and 1/2 tsp salt for each cup of flour)
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp Italian seasoning, plus extra to sprinkle on top
1 1/2 cups milk
1/4 cup olive oil
1 egg
1 cup of shredded cheddar cheese, plus extra to sprinkle on top
Pepperoni – as many as you want!
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9×13 bread pan.
Mix together dry ingredients. Slowly mix in the remaining ingredients until just mixed. Dough will be slightly sticky.
Place half the dough into the greased pan. Layer with pepperoni and cheese. Cover with the remaining dough. Top with more pepperoni and cheese and sprinkle with more Italian seasoning.
Bake for about 30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
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| With pepperoni…dip in pizza sauce for an extra side of deliciousness. |
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| Can also be made without pepperoni! |
Enjoy!
This post linked to:
Beauty and Bedlam’s Tasty Tuesday
A Southern Fairytale’s Mouthwatering Monday
You know you are a Mom of boys when you overhear these snippets of conversations on a Saturday afternoon and you are not concerned:
“Give him a rifle, it makes him look more evil.”
“Mommmm! Would you please tell him that this is an alien ship and not a dead human ship!!”
“I am the doctor of master mind powers…everyone better bewaaaaare!”
“Should I be scared of my brother, even if he is a human being?”
“Throw him in the sea of dead persons!”
“Don’t worry, burnt eye balls can be fixed by doctors.”
“Since he’s my brother, I can eat him alive. I’ll start with his cheeks.”
“Eat his brain! Eat his brain! Eat his brain!”
This post brought to you by Legos. The toy that makes my sweet boys turn into evil mind controlling alien ship building cannibals.
Thank you to Procter & Gamble, Kroger and the USO for sponsoring this blog post and the Shake Hands With A Hero initiative. Please click here to learn more about this program. I was selected for this sponsorship by the Clever Girls Collective, which endorses Blog With Integrity, as I do.
My husband, Matt, is an Officer in the Vermont Air National Guard. We are a fairly new military family, (which I have told you about before) though we have a long history of family members who have served. I take my role as a military spouse very personally. When I was asked to take part in getting the word out about Shake Hands With A Hero, I couldn’t have been more excited! I love to do anything I can to support our troops and their families!
Matt was recently given the Family Readiness Coordinator for his unit. He told me that basically though, it’s my job. (Thanks, Honey!) We will be the contacts for all of the family members who have a deployed family member. I am honestly very honored to fill that role.
Matt recently has had to say good-bye to some of his fellow co-workers on the base as they were deployed. It was so very hard for them to leave their families. It brings tears to my eyes just to think about it! Every day as a military family we are reminded of those who serve and think about the day that our turn will come.
What I want to do is encourage you to think more often about the men and women who sacrifice so readily for our country. Here is your turn to take a moment to remember them and show them you care!
Here are the details about Shake Hands With A Hero:
Procter & Gamble (P&G) and Kroger and its family of stores have partnered together to support the USO – an organization that provides an extensive range of programs at more than 150 centers in 27 countries and at hundreds of entertainment events each year to support the morale, welfare, social and entertainment needs of troops and their families, free of charge – in its mission to help American troops and their families. Through the partnership Kroger will donate $250,000 to the USO.
As part of the partnership Kroger and P&G have created an opportunity to let consumers virtually “shake hands with a hero” to show your gratitude to US soldiers in uniform to thank them for their service to our country. The first 50,000 people who visit www.honoringourheroes.com to shake a soldier’s hand will receive a coupon (which will be loaded to their Kroger Plus Card) for $1 off P&G products.
I’d love it if all of you would take a moment to make a couple of clicks and show our troops that we are behind them and thinking of them! Thanks so much!
A big thank you to all of you who so selflessly sacrifice for our freedom and to all of the families who stay behind. Hero doesn’t seem like a big enough word for all of you!
Discussions about health and nutrition are a pretty standard thing around here. I take the job of teaching my kids how to eat pretty seriously. Not because I am obsessive about food and weight, but because if I don’t teach them what to eat and why, they will grow up unhealthy. I want my kids to grow up to be well rounded adults…healthy in their bodies, souls and minds. And teaching them about food is a big part of teaching them to take care of their bodies.
I have taught the boys what words like calories mean. Calories are the thing in food that gives your body energy. But everyone needs different amounts for different reasons. Calories from healthy food? Have as many as you want my growing little men. Calories from junk food like potato chips? Let’s take it easy.
I have also taught them to look at the nutrition labels on pre-packaged foods and at the ingredients list as well. They know how to decipher if I will buy a cereal or not. Is there high fructose corn syrup in the ingredients? How many grams of fiber are there? How many grams of sugar are there?
I think these are great ways to show your kids what you should eat and why. Great opportunities to teach about health and wellness are in your cabinets folks!
So recently when we were having a constant overdose of soggy cereal, I began thinking about how to avoid such waste. Every morning that someone ate cereal, half a bowl was getting thrown out because it got “too soggy”.
That’s when a light bulb went off, I think it literally lit up above my head like in a cartoon, actually.
It’s time teach about serving sizes!
I got a little too nerdy granola about it really. But I’m ok with that.
It’s pretty well known that us Americans have that whole serving size thing down wrong. A friend of mine who works at a steak house told me that the kid’s meal steak is larger than the recommended serving size of a steak for an adult. I think that about sums it up.
Teaching kids about serving sizes is not about teaching them to eat so they don’t get fat. It’s about teaching them limits. It’s about showing them how much they need of certain foods and why.
So I took out the cereal boxes and began to show my boys what the serving size was, why it was there and how to use it. Now, they know that they need only to pour a bowl of cereal that is the suggested serving size listed on the box.
They get out the measuring cups (They are practicing math and they don’t know it! Nerd Mom dream come true!)
They then pour only that much cereal into the bowl.
I also showed them where it shows how much milk you should use on the box and they poured just enough milk as well.
Now we know that they are not pouring excessive amounts of cereal into their bowls, thus causing unnecessary waste. And as they grow up, they will know that serving size is something to consider and that it matters!
Money saved, lessons learned.
WIN!
Do you have any tips on how you teach your kids simple lessons on eating right? I’d love to hear them!
I got some great replies to my post from the other day about fixing our kids mistakes. Thanks for that!
Just this morning I had a situation come up where I had to decide…to fix or not to fix. Today, I chose to fix the mistake. I thought it would be good to talk about the times when it’s ok to fix a mistake our kids make and how to do it the right way.
I’m pretty good at talking about mistakes. I make lots of them. 🙂
So Chandler (who is 10) called me this morning. He forgot his band instrument. He asked if I could bring it to him. So I was left with the question…do I fix it?
How do we decide when it’s ok to step in? Here is how I do it:
First – Am I taking care of myself as a priority? I don’t want that to sound like a selfish statement. I’m all about being generous towards others and teach my kids to do so as well. But I also think it’s very healthy to teach our kids that sometimes we have to take care of ourselves before jumping in to help others.
I really don’t want to raise kids who think my sole purpose in life is to run around and fill their every need and desire in life. Rushing in every single time they mess up will teach them this. I will always be willing to drop everything instantly for my kids if they really need me to. But I will also balance that by teaching them (by modeling it!) that they can not and will not always have me at their beck and call.
If I have plans with a friend for lunch, I will not cancel or show up late just to bring my son his instrument because he was irresponsible in remembering it. It wouldn’t be fair to me or my friend. It wouldn’t be fair to my child either in the long run. I would show him that my personal life, my time, it matters and he should respect that as well.
Second – How important is the request? Today the request was of semi-importance. They are preparing for a concert. He has worked hard all week practicing the songs and was eager to show his teacher his progress today and try to get a solo. Which made me wonder why the heck he forgot it since he’s been gearing up for it all week! Anyway, if it was something small, I probably would have said no. But today, I had nothing going on and this was important to him, so I did it.
Third – How often does this mistake happen? If this were happening every week…concert coming up or not…I would have said no. Chandler is a very responsible boy and it is rare that he forgets things. He has only forgotten his instrument one time before this whole school year (and for the record, I did not bring it to him that time!) and because I knew this was a big day for him, I was very surprised that he forgot it. This morning was a bit rushed and because of baseball going late last night, we did not do our usual prep for school the next day. I knew this was a simple oversight, not a regularly occurring case of irresponsibility.
Lastly – Nothing come without a cost! The bottom line to fixing mistakes is that it can’t be for free! I would be teaching him nothing if I just brought him the instrument and never said another word. Take the time to use every mistake as a learning opportunity!
I gave Chandler the choice, yes, I will bring you the instrument, but gas is very high right now and I have to come all the way back to the school, so I’ll need you to pay for the gas. Do you still want me to bring it? He thought about it and I knew he was weighing how worth it this was to him. He decided, yes, he would pay for the gas, he really didn’t want to miss band practice today. (I was SO glad he said yes! Great lesson learned today!)
Get creative with your consequences and remember to make sure that they realistically and practically relate directly to the mistake. Grounding Chandler from tv for the day would teach him nothing about responsibility. That would be a punishment. I am not into punishing my kids. (Well, sometimes I want to but that doesn’t mean I should 🙂 )
Other options could be, I took a half hour from my day to do this for you so now I need you to make up that half hour by doing something for me…extra chores work but I’ve also been known to request a foot rub.
Another option would be since I missed my half hour workout at the gym today I will be going for a walk and I’ll need you to stay here and do the dishes.
See how they are all related to the fact that I took time out of my day (teaching importance of respecting other people’s time) to help him?
So there you have it. The other side of the coin. Yes, sometimes we do step in and fix our kids mistakes. It can be an equally wonderful teaching moment! Just remember the word…SOMETIMES! 🙂