Peanut Butter and Nutella Puppy Chow

This puppy chow is not for your fur legged friend...it's the kind that you put in a bowl, sit by the glow of the Christmas tree light and savor each sweet crunchy bite slowly as you relish in the peace and quiet since your kiddos are snoring softly in their beds. Oh wait, sorry that just might be me??? Anyway, this thing is absolutely amazing!!! I had never made it before so I went to my go to place and I pinned a few recipes on Pinterest, but truthfully there's a basic recipe on the back of the box, but you know me, I don't really follow recipes all that well. This could mean a great big flop or sweet success. The first recipe I made was using peanut butter. I'm not a huge peanut butter fan, but I must admit it was pretty yummy. The Nutella recipe is at the bottom. Here's my version:

PEANUT BUTTER PUPPY CHOW

Gather it:

6 cups of Rice Chex

~ 1 cup of powdered sugar

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

4 large spoonfuls of peanut butter

1 tsp of vanilla

~ 1 Tbsp of coconut oil (you can probably also use vegetable oil or butter)

Make it:

1. Place chocolate chips, peanut butter, vanilla, and coconut oil in a small bowl or even in a glass measuring cup. Melt together in 30 second increments and stirring in between. Mine took about 1 minute. 

2. Place Rice Chex in a large Ziploc bag or a large plastic container with a lid (I chose the latter) and pour melted chocolate mixture over the Chex. Shake it around until all the Chex is covered with the chocolate mixture. No matter what you do, don't melt the chocolate in a large bowl and then dump the Chex into the bowl and mix together...it will cause a lumpy Puppy Chow. How do I know this??? Because that's how my first batch came out. I tried to save a step and not have to wash 1 extra bowl. Unfortunately the kids teachers received lumpy Peanut Butter Puppy Chow, but the Nutella Puppy Chow that it was mixed out turned out perfectly. 

3. Pour half of the powdered sugar into the mixture and shake. Add more as needed until the Chex is coated with the powdered sugar.

NUTELLA PUPPY CHOW

Gather it:

3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1/2 cup Nutella

Everything is the same as above except NO peanut butter 

Make it: 

Same directions as above!

And that's it...now I dare you to not eat it all at once!!!

A basket full of Puppy Chow and a gift car for all EIGHT of the kid's teachers. I had a slight freak out moment when I realized I had 8 teachers to buy for. Parker has 1 speech teacher (his teacher's aide is no longer with them otherwise it would have been 9), 2 morning teachers at his preschool and 2 in the afternoon. Avery has 2 morning teachers and 1 afternoon teacher. 

A gift was also sent out in the mail...

Black Bean Salsa

I've been making this "salsa" forever and it's so yummy! I usually make it when we are having a get together at our house or to bring over to a friend's house. If I make it to bring to a friend's house I usually double the recipe and leave half at our house for us to snack on. If I could get away with it, I would seriously just eat chips and dip for dinner every night. We usually just eat this w/ tortilla chips, but it would also be really good on top of grilled chicken, shrimp, or fish. It's so fresh and light and yet so filling b/c of the black beans.

I brought this over to our neighbor's pool party and it disappeared pretty quickly. I LOVE easy dishes like this that everyone enjoys!

Gather it:
1 can of black beans, rinsed and drained
1/2 cup of frozen corn (I don't measure, but it's probably about this much and it's ok to leave it frozen)
grape tomatoes, quartered (I used almost a whole pint)
scallions, sliced (about a large handful and then some if you like scallions)
2 avocados, diced (I usually prefer to use 2 and diced, but 1 of my avocados was too mushy so I mashed up just the 1 good avocado I had to make it go further)
1 lime
salt
pepper

Make it:
1. Juice half of the lime into a large bowl. Place avocados in bowl and toss in juice to help prevent it from turning brown. If you prefer to mash it then mash it now.

2. Add tomatoes, corn, scallions, and beans. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Add more lime juice if needed.

3. Serve with tortilla chips...and a margarita!

FYI: I've had this with cilantro too and it's really yummy with it, but the cilantro wasn't looking too good at Publix. And it's really good with diced fresh jalapenos too, but I've omitted it since kids have come into the picture. I suppose I could make 2 separate batches...yep...I'll do that next time!

Bananas with Honey & Cinnamon

So I was browsing Pinterest and found a yummy looking snack. I had actually pinned this ages ago and had forgotten about it. Well I was hungry and craving something sweet...I had all the ingredients and it was super easy so I decided to make it. This was so easy and yummy. I don't count points, calories, or anything like that, but this has to be so much healthier than the M&M ice cream sandwich that I was really craving last night...and I maybe pouted a little bit when Kevin told me that they were all gone.

Gather it:
1 ripe banana
sprinkle of ground cinnamon
drizzle of honey (ok, ok I LOVE honey so I used a little more than a drizzle)

Make it:
1. Peel and chop banana into little circles.

2. Drizzle (or pour in my case) honey over bananas and sprinkle with cinnamon.

3. Scarf it down...and try not to think too much about "making" a second dessert b/c you know that your daughter will want a banana for breakfast tomorrow morning.

I clicked on the link, but it took me to a page that wasn't related to the recipe so I can't give due credit...sorry!!! 

cookie...COOOKIES!!!!

Both Parker and Avery typically have very healthy appetites. Here's what each kid eats on a typical day:

7:30 am: 1-2 waffles (usually blueberry, no butter or syrup)
              1 spoonful of peanut butter (either eaten from the spoon or spread on waffle)
              1 whole banana
              milk (whole for Avery and 2% for Parker)

9:30/10 am: strawberries
                   string cheese
                   water

12:00 pm: peanut butter sandwich (on 2 slices of honey wheat bread)
               fresh carrots
               apple slices (half of an apple)
               milk

4:00 pm: 1 slice cinnamon raisin bread
              half of a Chobani yogurt (love Greek yogurt b/c it has more protein than regular yogurt)
              water

5:30/6:00: baked chicken
                  rice or mashed potatoes
                  steamed broccoli
                  grapes
                  milk

It's a lot of food, right? I mean, I can't even eat that much and they usually finish everything. Avery is a lot pickier when it comes to veggies - even as a baby she turned her nose up to a lot of veggies. She ate them, but she would make faces. She LOVED fruit and could eat it all day long. Parker on the other hand LOVED veggies. His favorite was peas! When he was about 11 months old we would give him little bits of steamed cauliflower and broccoli and he would go to town. But fruit, was a little more of a challenge. I don't have any issues with Parker eating fruit now - he loves it all! He still likes veggies too. I have to hide Avery's veggies now and then so that means I'm feeding her a few bites here and there...stuffing a little broccoli underneath her macaroni and cheese. It doesn't always work...if she really doesn't want to eat it and she feels/tastes it, she'll spit everything out! Both kids are usually pretty good with meat, but they have their moments where they go through spurts of not eating meat and I swear they've turned into vegetarians. Then they chow down on some filet like they didn't just turn their noses up at it the week before.

Anyway, the past couple weeks or so, both kids have been coming up to me in between meals and snacks saying "hungry" or in Avery's case she signs "hungry" and says "hurry". I think they are going through growth spurts right now. I try to give them nutritious snacks: nuts, applesauce, fruit, yogurt, cheese, carrots...and never have I given them a cookie or chips for a snack! Soooo, why is it that I find my 20 month old after we just had our morning snack with her hand stuck in my pantry (we have a child lock on top), crying for, get this: a COOKIE!!!!

this is how I found her, she was softly asking for a cookie...no cookies down there!

What?!? Kid, I hope you're joking! I don't know that she was actually asking for a cookie cookie. We don't have cookies in the pantry. During the rare times that we do have cookies, Kevin and I usually hide them on the very top shelf and only pull them out after the kids go to bed (hehehe). The other day I gave her ONE mini semi-sweet chocolate chip as a reward for listening and helping clean up her toys, but that came out of the fridge and she said signed "more" and said "more peas. cookie?". So I think she thinks all special treats are cookies. Regardless there aren't really any special treats in our pantry. Hmph! Crazy kid!

When I told her "no cookie" she started to cry and threw a mini tantrum.

she's peristent...I'll give her that much. She's cute when she thinks she's been wronged, she'll start calling out: "Mommy, Daddy, Bubba" over and over again. As if one of us will come and help her and she doesn't eliminate the person who has "wronged" her. Then the shrieking continues and it's not so cute so we ignore her and she usually stops after a few minutes. 

Avery and I have one thing in common: when we're hungry our mean side comes out. Kevin laughed when he realized Avery started showing this "angry" side of her. Laugh b/c he saw it first hand a mere couple of months after we started dating and McDonald's gave me a chicken sandwich when I ordered chicken nuggets, we had already pulled out of the parking lot and stuck in horrendous traffic and driving up to a Seminole football game. He laughed b/c he knew I'd finally get a taste of my own medicine. Sigh! 

Old school yogurt

In the midst of this fro yo craze (and I love me some Pinkberry just like the next person!), I just fell in love with old school regular yogurt. Well Greek yogurt. I've bought regular Greek vanilla yogurt before and topped it with homemade granola (reminds me to make more...), but I've never been a fruit in the bottom of yogurt kind of person. In fact, I don't even like yogurt! I think it's just the taste - I'm not a fan of that tangy after taste that yogurt has. The only time I really ate it was when I was pregnant and trying to get as much calcium as possible and even then I ate the Yoplait Whips and it was like eating strawberry whipped cream (YUM!). Or I'd get vanilla that came with bits of candy or cookie topping (I think Breyer's makes them). Healthy I know! The yogurt and granola thing lasted about 2 weeks.

But ya'll I went to Costco and they were giving away samples of Chobani Greek yogurt with pineapple at the bottom! I about died and gone to heaven in the middle of the aisle between the yogurt and the frozen entrees. I bought a box of 15 cups for about $14 (at least I think that was the price...is that a good price?).

I tasted the black cherry when I got home and it was delicious! I can't wait to try the blood orange...maybe for dessert tonight??? Bonus is that both kids LOVED it! I called it special yogurt since both kids normally just drink the drinkable yogurt. Parker asked for more "special treat"! If he thinks that yogurt that is packed with protein (more than regular yogurt) is a special treat then that's great!

Parker had some black cherry yogurt too and he was a hot mess! lol