homemade poopourri spray

i'm one of those types of people who loves my home to smell good. whether its spic-n-span clean (yeah right!) or a complete tornado, i like it to smell good. and i've been on the hunt for something that smells good. all the time. and i've been through the gammit of home smelling products. plug ins off the grocery store aisle, candles, scentsy, room sprays, the list goes on. and then the essential oil realm really started happening on both my facebook & pinterest feeds. 

corn dog muffins

when it comes to normal, ben usually parallels your typical 3 year old boy in everyway. with the exception of two things. potty trainin, which hasnt happened in this house just yet (thank the lord for pull ups going up to 5t) and eating habits.

we got a great eater for a child. he very rarely complains about what we're eating at meals & usually gobbles it down like i haven't fed him in a few days. he eats from sun up to sun down & it doesn't matter where we might be, he's always starving.

until it comes to your typical kid foods.  mashed potatoes? you can forget it! mac and cheese? its touch and go. scrambled eggs? yeah heck no? hot dogs? oh please, save your trouble for someone else. even this child rarely eats french fries as a side dish like typical children. while i could imagine all my dreams coming true with endless french fries at places like chick-fil-a, ben eats a few and then hes done.

and while this should elate me as a mother (it does, i promise,) it makes mealtimes & parties sometimes difficult because yeah hes the weird kid who would rather have a cheeseburger than a hot dog.  challenge accepted! and by that i mean, i was determined to find a way that he could enjoy them on the rare occasions when, well, that's what's on the menu.

corn dog muffins:

1/2 cup melted butter or margarine
1/2 cup sugar
2 egss
1 cup buttermilk (no buttermilk? make your own!)
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 cup cornmeal
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt
all-beef hot dogs, cut into 1" pieces (our favorite are oscar mayer selects angus all beef or hebrew national hot dogs)

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Grease mini muffin pan with nonstick spray and set aside.

Mix together sugar and melted butter. Add in eggs. Stir in the buttermilk. in a seperate bowl, combine flour, cornmeal, baking soda & salt.

Add half the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and mix well. Add remainder of dry and mix well.

Spoon a tablespoon of batter into each muffin cup.

Then place a hot dog piece into each cup.

Bake at 375 degrees for 10-12 minutes or until cornbread is slightly golden brown.

Cool for a couple minutes before removing from pan and serving.  Enjoy with ketchup, mustard or another favorite condiment.

Yield approx 40 muffins.  Also reheats great for leftovers.

tools used for this recipe below: (amazon affiliates)

mini muffin pan: https://goo.gl/bTbEyD 

pyrex 8 cup measuring cup: https://goo.gl/5s3pwV

where i've been sorta + a southern staple

it's a funny thing, this blogging business.. whenever i don't blog for awhile, i get all the feels and miss blogging tremendously. and i tell myself to get back to it, make a schedule and start posting regularly. then life happens, i get sidetracked and my blog goes untouched for months. and i see/read all these blogs that have some kind of direction & well mine tends to be a place for my scattered thoughts, favorite things & life happenings...that's probably more of what i am at a standstill. it's what to write that people want to actually read & keep coming back for.

crockpot pulled pork sandwiches

while many people out there still find being a stay at home mom as something glorious, there's days i can agree with them. not having to wear a bra to work is basically all i've got. because i mean my boss screams this horrible high pitched squeal that would make a deaf person's ears bleed. & here recently we've decided that getting up wayyyyyy before anything cool is happening in the world. unless you consider starbucks or walmart a happening place at 6am.

and while i had planned to make taco salads for dinner yesterday, life took over when i opened the fridge and realized, holy crap, i have two pork roasts just sitting in there, waiting to be eaten. well cooked then eaten.  so at that exact moment (well after realizing i needed to cook it before my hamburger buns molded), dinner had been redecided to pulled pork sandwiches. and if i get off on any wild tangents please forgive me....its been a cup of coffee & sweet tea & dr pepper kind of day.

i stumbled across the idea while walking through winco looking for silk almondmilk coffee creamer a few months ago & while the lady heard me talking to myself looking for the creamer we got onto the conversation of pork roasts after she heard me previously talking to my mom on the phone about all the things i could do with a pork roast. still with me? or did i lose anyone back at silk almondmilk coffee creamer? which by the way, they do not carry at this moment. sad day, it really is, because then thats another stop which yeahhhhhhh....the generous winco employee (should have gotten her name!) introduced me to winco's pulled pork seasoning over in the bulk department, which i'm pretty sure is my favorite department of that place.  so some seasoning, a pork roast, buns and few other items & dinner was a go!

pulled pork sandwichs - crockpot style 

1 - 3 pound (or so) pork roast
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup ketchup
1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
2 ounces pulled pork seasoning - (bulk department with all the other seasonings)
Hawaiian hambuger buns (any bun is fine, but they were mighty tasty on these)
BBQ sauce, optional
Sliced Pickles, optional

Place pork roast in crockpot.

Mix together brown sugar, ketchup, vinegar & seasoning in a small bowl.  Pour oven pork roast.

Cook on low for 7 hours.  Shred roast with forks one hour prior to eating. Continue cooking in sauce for another hour.

Serve on bun with BBQ sauce & pickles if desired.

& want to keep it crazy budget friendly, serve that on sandwich bread & save yourself the cost of buns..  i got TWO pork roasts from winco for $5 and some change.. #winning one roast fixed enough for 6 sandwiches for dinner last night (we were hungry, what can i say?!), 2 sandwiches for hubs lunch today & then another small container for my lunch probably tomorrow. like it doesn't get better than that.

here's to more winco winning y'all. you can also find their recipe here.

peanut butter balls

here lately i've made it my mission to make something sweet to keep in the house so we aren't tempted to go out for a quick treat - frugal mom at it again.  and luckily i haven't heard any complaints on this.

whether its cookies or brownies, i've put a few minutes aside to keep something around to stifle off those sweet tooth's.  this weeke i'm hooping to make some mini vanilla bundt cakes, but with our little family weekend trip coming up, it may or may not happen. who knows, maybe they'll end up being a road trip treat.

my brother's wife and kids introduced me to the heavenly treat in the photos a few times before, but my little sweet tooth recently had a hankering again for these.. i mean its only been a couple of weeks since i have had one.  and before you convince yourself that they are too complicated to make, just keep reading, because they're the total opposite of that..

peanut butter balls:

• 1 cup sifted powdered sugar
• 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
• 3 tablespoons butter or margarine, softened (i liteally just scooped margarine straight from the container for this & they turned out perfect... impatient much???!
• chocolate chips, for dipping

Stir together powdered sugar, peanut butter & butter/margarine together until thoroughly combined.

Shape peanut butter mixture into balls, placing them onto a cookie sheet lined with wax paper.  This gets messy, so prepare your hands for it.   I made my balls varying sizes, so Ben could have a little one & still think hes getting a lot.

Place cookie sheet in freezer or refrigerator for about 30 minutes so they are good & hard - makes the dipping process much easier.

Once balls are chilled, put chocolate chip into a microwave safe bowl for melting.  Microwave for 30 seconds and stir, repeating until chocolate is melted.

Drop one ball at a time into the chocolate & using a fork coat the ball.  Remove the ball with the fork (letting excess chocolate drip off) & place back on cookie sheet.  While the chocolate is still wet, you can decorate with sprinkles, crushed peanuts, etc if you'd like.  Repeat dipping process for all the balls.

Store in refrigerator until serving.. Enjoy.

crispy, yet chewy sugar cookies

   

i know monday was the summer solstice & all, but yesterday felt like the longest day ever..  maybe it was because our new little four legged family member thinks rising at 630 is a good idea. 630 isnt such a bad thing, unless threenager is awake. then it just makes for a long day in general.

i know for dinner what we would be having, but my sweet tooth lately has been screaming & cookies seemed totally appropriate. we made a yellow cake last week & im pretty sure we just scarfed it down, so i know cookies will yield the same effect, plus it saves me from having to go the store bought route or make a pass through the drive thru mid week for something sweet - since im all about saving those precious dollars for something more important.  i didnt have any brown sugar so i knew sugar cookies were basically my only option (shout out to deborah who told me how to make brown sugar from molasses & white sugar! you're my hero currently)

you'll need:

• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups white granulated sugar
• 1 egg
•  2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• granulated sugar, for rolling

steps:

1. preheat oven to 350 degrees.  line cookie sheet with baking mat or parchment paper.
2. cream together butter & sugar in mixing bowl until fluffy, about 2 minutes
3. add in egg & stir until well combined. 
4. add in flour. salt & vanilla - ball of dough will form.
5. scoop out ball of dough using a dough scooper - if you don't have one a spoon is fine.
6. roll into ball and roll through sugar.
7. space cookies a couple inches apart on cookie sheet.
8. bake for 10-12 minutes or until slightly golden brown.

yields approximately 3 dozen cookies this size.

cool & enjoy!

we gobbled those baked chicken tacos rather quickly last night, so no finished product photos, but i'll share what i have soon.  these definitely found their way into our regular rotation.. speaking of, i have filling leftovers and i haven't had lunch yet.  peace!

chicken burrito bowls

Summetime in Texas will be here in a few short months & I'll be complaining about how miserable I am. I promise that. I hate insane amounts of heat. Mix that with humidity & I'm ready to pack my bags for the North Pole. Don't get me wrong, I love lake days, camping & swimming, but this fair skin girl can only take so much.  But for now, I'm soaking up every bit of this amazing spring that we are having, minus those severe storms, even though I do love me a good rain.

copycat hamburger helper beef stroganoff

back before my domestic housewife, stay at home mom & too many tabs open days, hubs and I lived in a cutesy little one bedroom apartment about 25 miles from where we are now in a happening part of the metroplex. my oven cooked things way too fast & ants loved our apartment no matter if we had food or not. but I tell you this, I made more hamburger helper & box meals than I ever care to admit.  what's your favorite hamburger helper variety?