Worthwhile Challenge week 17- Simple and Easy

Here's one that is sure to be a winner with the kids. Seriously easy but actually quite yummy.


Taco-Mac Bake.


Make a box of Macaroni and Cheese according to directions. Then stir in 3/4 cup of sour cream.


Make up a batch of taco seasoned ground beef. I just use the McCormick or Taco Bell seasoning packs.


Layer in a square pan: macaroni, taco meat, shredded cheese. Repeat.


A hit with the kiddos!!


I've got another little something I might share with you later this week that also falls into the seriously simple category, but the girls are playing in the backyard, so I better go keep at least one eye on them!

Chirp Chirp Chirp

I'm still here.

My brain is in "get thru the last month of school" and "Let's go on vacation" mode.

So I don't have much to write about right now.

Unless you want me to tell you how my back is achy. Or that I ran two miles on the treadmill last week. (are those two related?). Or how I think PTO is ridiculous sometimes. Maybe I could tell you that my Denali is broke, and one of our blu-ray players broke. Which means my hubby is a little cranky (those three things are related).

Or I could tell you that my birthday is about a week and a half away. If I told you that, and gave you my address, would you send me a present?

No? Well then. I won't tell you that. Instead, I'll just give you a picture of the girls from Easter.

Worthwhile Challenge Week 16 - Breakfast casserole

If I had been thinking, I would have posted this recipe before Easter morning so you all could try it for your Easter brunch too. Now I guess you will have to try it some other morning!


I was on brunch duty today. My goal was to make it simple, and not have a ton of food or a ton of leftovers. I made a Baked French Toast (the kind you make up the night before....I thought it was a little too custardy though), a fruit salad, Pineapple Dole Whip Floats, and Good Morning Sunshine breakfast casserole.


I loved the breakfast casserole. You can find it here. (Susan Mallery, by the way, is an author of romance novels that I just love. And apparently she likes to cook, because she puts recipes on her blog). For my version of this casserole, I used a pound of crumbled sausage, but you can probably use whatever meat you want (bacon, sausage, ham). Give it a try the next time you have a hankering for brunch!

Baby Shower

You know, when I write my blog posts, I put several spaces between paragraphs. Then half the time, when I publish it, it all gets squished together. Why is that? Anyone know?

See...like there should be a space here. Just thought I'd post a little quickie on a baby shower we threw for Brooke's teacher in the classroom.

It was her 3rd boy so it was mostly a diaper shower, with some other cute things thrown in.

I did a chocolate cake filled with strawberry creme and iced with buttercream/fondant decorations. It was yummy.

Our school mascot is the spartans, so we thought this would be cute. I love my little fondant apple on the onesie.

Then I made these cute little lifesaver pacis. They are glued together with almondbark. Usually I would use the white/mint lifesavers so then you can't see the "glue" but I thought the kiddos would like the regular lifesavers better. I put them on ribbons to make them necklaces. They were the little "party favors" for the kids in the class.

We opened gifts, had our cake, and the kids enjoyed seeing Mrs. Miller. It all went pretty good! And the baby is a little sweetie!

Rise Up - Dance your shoes off

Have you seen any of the videos of "flash mobs".... Where a group of people invade a public place and do some awesome dance/song? My zumba instructor this morning did our warm up to this song, inspired by this flashmob. Go check out the video, and listen to the words. With Easter coming.... well...isn't this the best week of them all to celebrate the fact that we have a saviour who BEAT DEATH and ROSE FROM THE GRAVE so that those of us who believe in him can have everlasting life in HEAVEN? Be inspired. Celebrate Jesus. Is your name inscribed in the book of Life? oxoxoxo RISE UP-Flash Mob video

Worthwhile Challenge Week 15-Pretzel Crusted Key Lime bars

I've been in that vacation mood this week, if you can tell, so when I found this recipe for Pretzel Crusted Key Lime Bars, I knew this was the one I wanted to try this week. Plus I owe my in-laws a dessert and MIL likes Key Lime stuff.


Here's how it's done. Crush 3 cups of pretzels...you don't want pretzel dust but you don't want chunks either. Mix with 6 T melted butter/margarine, 1 tsp kosher salt, and 3 T. sugar. Press into a greased 8" pan and bake at 350 for about 10 minutes.


Let the crust cool a bit.


Then mix together 2 egg yolks, 1 (14oz) can of sweetened condensed milk, and 1/2 cup of key lime juice. Pour into crust, and bake another 15 minutes until set. Cool completely. Drizzle with melted white chocolate, and refrigerate at least an hour before serving.


Before the review, let's discuss key limes for a minute. If you are not familiar with them, they are little limes. like.... the size of.... a tootsie pop. Let me tell you here that I bought 8 key limes (not remembering the exact measurement needed at the time), and those 8 little boogers yielded me maybe 1/4 cup of juice. Not to be deterred, I pulled my plastic lime out of the fridge and topped off the lime juice measurement with that.


So how did they turn out? Looks pretty good, right?


I really liked these (no one else has tried one yet)...they are a great combo of salty, tart, tangy, and a little sweet. I have to say that the white chocolate drizzle is VERY important to help counteract the tartness. I also absolutely will leave the kosher salt OUT of the recipe whenever i make it.... pretzels are salty enough as it is, and with the added kosher salt, it was a little more salty than I like. But yes, I will eat these.


And you know what else? When we were on our last cruise and stopped in Key West, we had Chocolate Dipped Key Lime Pie on a stick. I won't lie to you, I'm seriously thinking about dunking a few of these bars in chocolate too. With that pretzel crust, it'd be a fabulous combination...don't you think? Let me know if you try them!