Recipe Review - Easy Pad Thai

Happy Monday!!! I wanted to post something today, because Wednesday I'm having a guest blogger, and you will NOT want to miss her post!!!!

So. This is a recipe for easy pad Thai. (In case it's been too long, just click on that last part of the sentence to go to the recipe. :D )

Mine looks different because I don't like scallions, AND because I know what I like for garnish, etc., on my pad Thai. :D

It was an extremely easy recipe, and tasted really yummy. The main thing about making pad Thai - or almost any Asian recipe! - is to have all your ingredients ready to go before you start cooking. It goes REALLY fast!

OK, my friend, have a wonderful and blessed day!!! Don't forget to check back Wednesday morning! :) Hint: there's a giveaway involved!

The Best Ever Waffles

Welcome to Wednesday!

This is going to be a quick one, friends! :)

For Christmas, we did a waffle bar for breakfast, along with a casserole. I made all the waffles and froze them individually in the weeks leading up to Christmas; this is one of the recipes I used. (I wanted different flavors, so this is the "plain".)

This recipes is called "The Best Ever Waffles" from Food.com.

These were a MEH for me. I'd never call them the "best ever". They were rather mediocre, honestly. I won't be saving the recipe - there HAVE to be better ones out there. :)

Another recipe in the world you DON'T have to try! You're welcome. :D

Have a wonderful day, friends. :D BE BLESSED!!!

Pecan Sticky Buns from ABM Sweet Dough

Hi! I'm trying something new today; I wrote down some things I noticed while making the recipe, instead of trying to remember what issues I may have had during cooking. :D

Today's review is a recipe of Pecan Sticky Buns from an ABM sweet dough recipe, from With a Grateful Prayer and a Thankful Heart.

First, this isn't like my sweet dough recipe; it uses water and powdered milk. Mine uses half water, half milk (and 've been known to use half-and-half instead of skim milk... :D) I used this recipe, but added approximately 1-1/2 teaspoons of vanilla extract. I just like that extra richness in the dough.

Second, it was too dry. I ended up adding almost 1/4 extra cup of water to the bread machine during the mixing process. It came out perfectly, but I really had to watch it for the first part, to make sure I'd added enough/not too much water.

It made a really pretty dough. The other components came together well, but I was really unsure about the filling; it's ALL dry. There's nothing to keep it sticking to the dough. And sure enough, even though I patted it in before I rolled and cut it, it almost all fell out when I cut them. So, I dumped it all on the top (which became the bottom) of the rolls.

They came out of the pans quite easily. I like the fact that it made two separate pans; eight rolls at one time is more than enough for our household. I put the second one in the freezer; I'll let you know how it thaws, but I expect it to be as good as fresh.

This is a YES, PLEASE for my husband! :D He really liked them, thought they had a lot of flavor. I still think there's something lacking, but I'm not sure WHAT. However, since he's the one that will eat them... :D

When I do these again, I'll use what is basically my own recipe now, with the tweaks I added. If you try them, do let me know what you think!

Have a wonderful week! Be BLESSED!

Quick and Easy Mason Jar Frittata

Happy Monday! Thanks for stumbling across my blog today! :)

Today I'm reviewing this review for Quick and Easy Mason Jar Frittatas from Target.com - who knew they had recipes?!?!

I made these a few months ago for our Bible study; I use that and my turn at hostessing Stampin' Up! parties to try out new recipes, since most of the ones I want to try aren't things we can eat around here. :D But these ARE something I can eat - and they earn a YES, PLEASE!!!

These frittatas are SUPER easy; I made them up the night before, and just cooked them off that morning. They were TASTY!!! Everyone oohed and aahhed over them - and who doesn't like something in a cute mason jar? :D I loved being able to make them ahead. Perfect for entertaining, OR for regular family!

These also reheated well enough that I could make up a batch and keep them in the fridge for a week's worth of breakfasts.

Let me know if you decide to try them! Have a wonderful day - BE BLESSED!!!

Butterscotch Chip Cookie Cake

Happy Friday! :)

Do you have someone who loves cookies? Then you NEED to make them this Butterscotch Chip Cookie Cake from Bake Your Day.

Kenn likes butterscotch, and I enjoy spoiling him every now and then. :) I had been meaning to make this for him, but just got around to doing so about a week or so ago. He liked it so much that he bragged about it on Facebook. :D

It's SO easy, people! AND I love the fact that you can do just about anything with it - I suspect it will be getting chocolate chips and pecans at a future date. :) It IS very rich, so cut the pieces small. You could throw this together tonight, so the family ( :D ) has something to snack on all weekend!

OK, friend I am outta here! Have a wonderful weekend! Be BLESSED!

Eggs in Hash Brown Nests

Happy Monday! It's NOVEMBER! Where has this YEAR gone, people?!?! I mean...!!!!

Let me just warn you: I'm about to head in to open house preparations full tilt; I will continue to share things as I get a chance, but most of my open house recipes are ones you've seen, or ones I've done for years, so there won't be much new to show you from that. I'll do what I can to try new products and recipes, and read new books, but the next month will be TOTALLY nutso. :D

OK. You've been warned. :D Now, on to today's share: Eggs in Hash Brown Nests, from none other than The Pioneer Woman.

I love watching Ree on the Food Network. She makes me feel like a friend. :) I came across this recipe a while ago, and decided to give it a try last month.

I did NOT make my own hash browns. I like Simply Potatoes for this kind of thing, so that's what I used. I needed to season them more than I did. Also, mine didn't get very crisp on the outside - because I don't LIKE my eggs to get brown. I think, if and when I do this recipe again, I might bake the nests even more than I did.

These reheated OK; I didn't even heat a few of them, just ate them cold - because I didn't want my eggs to be able to bounce. :D And I can see, definitely, serving them with a big ham for brunch - that would be really yummy!

I guess I really can't make up my mind on these; YOU try them and tell me what YOU think! :)

Have a wonderful day, my friend. Be BLESSED! :)

Ooey Gooey Chocolate Insanity Cake - and our winner announced! :D

Happy Monday! Did you have a good weekend? Did you get what you wanted to accomplished? Did you try anything or anyplace new???

I'll announce our winner for Jen Hatmaker's INTERRUPTED in just a moment; let's do the review of this Ooey Gooey Chocolate Insanity Cake from The Slow Roasted Italian first. :D

I followed this recipe to the letter except for one thing: I did half milk chocolate chips, half semisweet. I didn't even half the recipe; I'd already started measuring and combining ingredients before I even thought of it!

Kenn LOVED this cake. It was too sweet for me, and when I make it for him next time, I will NOT put the chips in. It was chocolately enough without them, and they made a hard layer on the bottom of the cake that I thought spoiled the texture of the whole thing. Also, the timing is incorrect for the baking time; it says 20 minutes, but I think I was closer to 45 minutes.

It's an easy recipe, and like I said, Kenn loved it - that makes it a winner in my book. :D

Speaking of winners...

Congratulations, Katherine! You won!!!!

Will you message me your address again? I'll get this ordered for you as soon as I can. :)

OK, y'all, I'm outta here! Have a WONDERFUL day! Be blessed - and leave me a message. I'm feeling all alone out here. :D

Overnight Yeast Waffles

It's FRIDAY! Are you ready for the weekend?!? :) Do you have big plans? I need to make sure I have some cookies baked by the end of day tomorrow; I need them for Sunday! :D

Today's recipe review is for these Overnight Yeast Waffles from Mel's Kitchen Cafe.

This recipe really interested me; one of the things that stops me from doing more breakfast recipe reviews is that I just don't get going well in the mornings. :D By the time I'm able to think clearly, it's later in the morning and I'm HUNGRY, and it's easier to make a peanut butter sandwich than to take a long time making something else. With these waffles, you mix them up the night before and let them sit in the fridge until you're ready to cook. I LIKE that.

What I, personally, didn't like was that they tasted like bread. Waffle-iron-cooked, but yeast bread nonetheless. Kenn liked them - but he likes waffles, and he likes it when we get a chance to eat breakfast together. :D

SO. I am putting this into my category of "Good Recipes to Have", but I'm still on the lookout for a tasty waffle recipe that can sit in the fridge overnight! :D

Have a wonderful weekend! Enjoy your day - and be BLESSED, my friend.

Fresh Caprese Quinoa Salad

Welcome to Wednesday! Are you having a good week? Is your heart breaking over #Ferguson? Mine is. But that's another blog and another topic. Today, I'm sharing with you this recipe for Fresh Caprese Quinoa Salad from Fit Foodie Finds.

My family decided to try this salad for our Fourth of July celebration; we all love Caprese salad, so thought this looked delicious enough to try. :)

The truth? While quinoa is really getting a lot of hype right now, I still really have to watch the carbs on it. Even though it's "full of protein", some of it's still high carb, which kind of negates why one would want to eat it in the first place, in my shoes. :D

They salad was really fresh, really easy to fix. I think everyone enjoyed it as a different change of pace, with the texture of the quinoa. HOWEVER. I doubt we'll make it again. As a side salad only, I think we'll probably stick with a regular (or deconstructed!) Caprese salad, and leave the quinoa for another place. It's just a personal preference with this recipe; if you absolutely adore quinoa, you'll probably love this salad! :)

OK, that's if for me for today. Have a wonderful day, friend! Be BLESSED! (And if you didn't enter for the drawing in Monday's post, it's got EXTREMELY low entries right now!)

Bacon Cheeseburger Roll-Up

Happy Wednesday! How are you? Have you had a good summer? Are you ready to roll back into the fall/school routine? Routine. What a nice, safe word that sounds like... :D This year has been all OVER the place at our house, and "routine" days have been few and far between.

SO. Today's recipe is for a Bacon Cheeseburger Roll-Up from Melissa's Recipes.

I made this as an easy take-along dinner for some friends who'd suffered a sudden loss. (This has been a ROUGH year for many of my loved ones. :( ) I wanted to take them something that was easy for me, and easy for them to reheat, since most of the family had just come back from a long trip. I made them TWO of these - they've got four kids, most of them teens or pre-! - and made myself one to do for this blog post. :)

Let's see. The only thing I think I did differently was that I used a little less bacon per roll, but it wasn't a LOT less. The roll turned out to be pretty long, and wanted to break easily. I did wrap and transport both of theirs in one piece, because I didn't want the insides to come out all over the place! :)

This is what mine looked like on the inside. I got about a dozen pieces out of the roll. I ate these two for my lunch that day, and froze the rest - I wanted to know if it would do well if frozen. And YES, it worked wonderfully! I wrapped two pieces in paper towel, and heated for 1.5 - 2 minutes.

I'm NORMALLY a big ketchup person, but I liked the flavor of these without my ketchup this time. The filling - and yes, I know Velveeta's got lots of bad things in it, so I don't use it often at all!! - was really good and quite creamy. The crust held up well to the rolling, even where I was afraid it wouldn't.

SO. This gets a YES, PLEASE! And my friend came up to me Sunday and told me her kids were begging her to get the recipe. :D So let me know if you try it, and what you think of it! :)

Have a wonderful day, dear friend! BE BLESSED!!!!!!!

Jo Mama's World Famous Spaghetti

Good Wednesday morning! :) I hope you're having a great week. It's been a rough week around here; lots of loss of loved ones of people I deeply care about. Please pray for the King family and for the Ingram family. Thank you!

Today's review is for Jo Mama's World Famous Spaghetti from Food.com; we just used the sauce recipe. :)

We're trying to control more of what we eat, where we can do so fiscally-responsibly. And we decided to try making our own sauce; we even froze it in useable portions, so we could use it whenever we needed.

It was a very pretty sauce. We let it simmer in the slow cooker longer than the recipe said; I think our onion was bigger than necessary, and I really felt like it needed to cook into the sauce a bit more. Besides, a good sauce is nice and thick, right? :D

We also didn't add the meat. I wanted to be able to use it for anyone, even vegans or vegetarians. And it freezes flatter without meat. :D

It was a really good recipe. My dad thought it was too "spicy", but I thought it was really good! Of course, season it to your taste. :)

OK, I'm outta here! Have a wonderful day! Be BLESSED!

Review: Organic Coconut Sugar

Happy Wednesday! :D

Sorry I'm really late in getting this to you; I procrastinated for a while, and then had computer issues. But I'm here now! :D

Today's post is for Madhava Organic Coconut Sugar, which I won in a giveaway from Mandy's Recipe Box!

If you've never gone to visit Mandy's blog when I've reviewed her recipes before, you're missing out. Seriously. Her recipes are usually not too complicated, which I love - there are blogs from some people with recipes I'll likely never try. They have too many steps, and too much work for something I shouldn't eat anyway. :D (Friday, I'll review the recipe she posted that made me WANT to try this sugar!)

I really liked this product. It's NOT regular ol' table sugar, but it doesn't taste green to me, which stevia does. I've used it in several recipes, and I can't tell the difference in texture or flavor, which is a HUGE plus! My brother-in-law and two of my nieces were here last week; they have a LOT of food allergies, and do as much clean eating in general as they can. I wasn't here for breakfast, but I heard they happily used it on their oatmeal - and had several helpings. :D

I haven't priced it yet; I keep forgetting while I'm at the grocery. But I think I will definitely be keeping some in the pantry. If all of its claims about sourcing and glycemic index are true, I'll gladly use this whenever I can! Good for me AND good for the planet? Thank you! :D

OK, I'm outta here! Have a WONDERFUL day. Be BLESSED!

Movie Review: GIMME SHELTER

GIMME SHELTER (Click this link for synopsis, more pictures, etc. )

Good morning, friend! Welcome to Friday. It's beautiful here, but cold - wind chills overnight were crazy low for Middle TN! But I was out in it; I got a pass to a screening for this new movie, GIMME SHELTER.

I had seen the trailer on BuddyHollywood.com and wanted to check it out - but Kenn's busy shooting again, and I wasn't sure we'd get a chance to go together. Plus, free is always good! :)

How do I tell you about this movie? :) It's based on a true story. Rated PG-13 for a bit of language and violence, the subject matter - teenage pregnancy and the limited choices these girls have, and the backgrounds they come from - is also not for little ones.

It's got a star-studded cast, with Rosario Dawson, Brandon Frazier, and James Earl Jones to name a few. As an audience, we laughed, we cried, we ooh-ed, we recoiled - it's quite an emotional movie, as you can guess, with the subject matter.

The sets are beautiful - you won't ever question if you're "where you're supposed to be". Costumes, too, show the difference between the "haves" and the "have nots".

The movie was under an hour and thirty-five minutes. I felt like it needed to be a little longer; I have a feeling there were a lot of Brandon's re-connection scenes that ended up on the cutting-room floor, because there just wasn't enough developed there for the ending to make sense - except that, as a movie-goer, you suspend your disbelief. :D

Go see this movie. Take friends with you. Although there are Scriptures quoted by the priest, the movie isn't over-the-top Christian. But it IS a movie that should have us talking!

OK, I'm outta here! :) Enjoy your weekend! Be BLESSED!!!!

Creamy Cauliflower Sauce

 Happy Friday! :) Have you had a good week? Is it cold where you are? It's quite chilly today - and it has snowed a tiny bit today! :) The Weather Channel says it's supposed to spit some more this afternoon, so I'll be sure to gaze out my window often... :D

Today's review is for Creamy Cauliflower Sauce, from Pinch of Yum.

OK, so I was a tiny bit skeptical. Sauce? Really? Out of cauliflower. But I decided to try it, because I like mashed cauliflower as a VERY low carb substitute for mashed potatoes - although I never put gravy on them. That grosses me out just thinking about it! :D

So I cut the recipe in half - I was the only one who would ever eat it, anyway - and went to town. The "sauce" is what you see above; I used it this way, as you see on the left, with some leftover angel hair pasta, shredded cheddar cheese, and ham chunks.

I was pleasantly surprised! It was really good! It gets a YES, PLEASE! - and I'm KIND of craving it now, even! I got two meals out of cutting it in half, but I used a LOT of it. :D I don't like dry pasta. (Oh, and in case you were worried, it's not REGULAR pasta, it's Dreamfields. :) )

It does have a LOT of garlic in it. I might cut that back JUST a bit, but there really wasn't any cauliflower taste to the sauce, which was nice. :) Lots and lots of garlic, like a white Italian sauce might have!

OK, I'm outta here! :) Have a WONDERFUL weekend! Try something new! :) Be BLESSED!

Manicure Monday!!!

Good Monday Morning! I see that no one knew I posted last week - zero hits. <sigh> Well, I'll have to try to be more steady - but one thing about my life is that it's never dull. :D

So anyway. I really loved this one, although I'm looking forward to getting a few new brushes that will hopefully let me control those lines a bit better. I'm  SO bad with straight ANYTHING!!! This is my pin; if you click on that link, it will take you to 23 different tutorials, and I didn't want you to think you were in the wrong place. :)

What do you think?

OK, I'm outta here!!!! The next post will be in 2014. How surreal is that?!?! Thank you for reading! Be BLESSED today!!!!

Apple Pudding Cake with Cinnamon Caramel Sauce

It's FRIDAY!!! :D Are you thrilled? Or are you BUSY? (Both works... :) )

Today's recipe is for Apple Pudding Cake with Cinnamon Caramel Sauce from Betty Crocker's website.

I made this dessert for my 2013 Hostess Appreciation Luncheon for my Stampin' Up! hostesses; it's a perk for ONLY my hostesses from the past year. We all get together, I make a homemade-everything lunch, and we do projects that I won't ever teach anywhere else. There are door prizes, and lots of fun, but it's USUALLY the food that wins the day. :D

This year wasn't any exception. This cake. OH, THIS CAKE. It's DEFINITELY a YES, PLEASE! It's easy, SUPER moist, decadent, and did I mention how GOOD it is? :D

Honestly, the cake was good on its own. The caramel sauce put it completely over the top; I felt guilty for even LOOKING at it. :D I did double the recipe and put it into a 13x9 pan. That's the only thing I did differently.

OK, I'm outta here, friends. Have a WONDERFUL weekend! Be BLESSED!

Spanish Rice

Happy Wednesday! Are you having a good week? Sorry about missing Monday; I am still fighting this cold, and I couldn't get enthused about talking about food. :D

So, today I'm sharing this Spanish Rice recipe from About.com.

It is an easy recipe; I'm not a HUGE Spanish rice fan, period - unless it's got lots of cheese sauce poured over it, and then it's something else entirely. :D BUT this is a good, simple recipe. I've ALWAYS had to cook it longer than it says, and it's still a bit crunchy, even then. It carries easily, so it's gone to two different homes as a side to Mexican dishes. It can warm in the oven with the entree and refried beans, so that works well. :)

Overall, it's a good recipe to have - so I am gonna call it a YES, PLEASE! :)

OK, I'm outta here! Have a wonderful day, my friends. Be BLESSED!!!

Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls with Caramel Icing

Welcome back - it's Wednesday! Are you trying anything new in your menus this week? Gotta tell you, there are SO many recipes out there, I could make something new every meal and not run out of ones I really want to try. :D

Today's recipe is from The Girl Who Ate Everything, for Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls with Caramel Icing.

First, I hate to tell you, but I didn't do the caramel icing. Sorry. It was one more step in a too-busy day, so I used some regular buttercream I had left from some cookies. :) It LOOKED good, the icing recipe, but I was DONE. LOL! I made these for a hostess stamping club brunch get-together.

Everyone seemed to LOVE them! :)There was a taste I couldn't identify that I would work on discovering and "fixing" if I make these again - but they were VERY tender, and you could tell they were pumpkin - the dough was soft and pumpkin-colored. :D The recipe made EXACTLY a dozen rolls.

I think I'll give them a YES, PLEASE! With that being said, I'm not sure I'll make this particular recipe again. Maybe. Again, there are SO many recipes for pumpkin cinnamon rolls...!

OK, I'm outta here! :D Have a wonderful day! Be BLESSED!!!

Fluffy Ricota Pancakes

Happy Friday! How are you today? I've picked up a head cold somewhere that wants to stay - but it needs to LEAVE! Oh, well. It's a beautiful day, with sunshine after the storms all day long yesterday.

Today's review is these Fluffy Ricotta Pancakes from The Kitchn.

These were a YES, PLEASE. Since one batch made less than ten pancakes, I had some and put some in the freezer. I've already eaten the ones that were in the freezer; they froze beautifully! They are fluffy, and tasty. They were also pretty easy, thanks to my Kitchen Aid to beat the whites for me. :D

OK, I'm outta here. I hope you have a wonderful first weekend of November! Be BLESSED!

Baked Apples

Welcome to Friday! I hope you've had a great week!

Today's review is this recipe from Skinny Chef for Baked Apples.

I was SO disappointed in this recipe. It's a NO, THANK YOU - even though it smelled heavenly. Yes, I overbaked the apples - I did it in the oven, because I had it on a low temp for banana bread - but that wasn't it at all. The filling was simply not good. So I might play with the METHOD, but not that combo of ingredients again.

I also bent one of Kenn's grapefruit spoons trying to use it to core my apples! :D I found that my melon-baller worked fantastically, as long as I didn't try to force it to do too much at once.

OK, I'm outta here! Another busy weekend coming up. :) Have a wonderful day! Be BLESSED!