St. Patrick's Day Muddy Buddies

Source:  frugalmomeh.com

 

 

 

Ingredients:
4 1/2 cups Rice Chex® cereal
1/2 cup white chocolate chips
1/4 cup peanut butter
2 tablespoons butter
1/3 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup green candy-coated chocolate candies
1/4 cup Lucky Charms Marshmallows
Directions:
Place cereal in a medium sized bowl and set aside.
In a small microwavable bowl, microwave chocolate chips, peanut butter and butter uncovered on High for one minute and then stir until melted and smooth.
Pour peanut butter mixture over cereal and stir until evenly coated.
Place half of the cereal mixture in a seal-able food storage bag  and add the powdered sugar.
Shake the bag until well coated then spread the cereal out on a baking sheet and allow to cool for 15 minutes.
Stir in green food coloring into the other half until you achieve an even bright green color.  Spread the cereal out onto another baking sheet and allow to cool for 15 minutes.
In serving bowl, mix both cereal mixtures along with the chocolate and marshmallows.
Store the muddy buddies in an airtight container.

*This makes a pretty small batch - enough for it to be an after school snack for my kids, and that's it.  Next time I would double it.
*In a medium sized bag of M&M's, I only was able to get about 1/4 cup of green M&M's.  I'd rather have fewer M&M's though, then have to open 2 bags just to get enough green ones.  2 open bags of M&M's - and I'd eat both bags!

Dublin Coddle

Source:  simplyscratch.com

An Irish, one-pot collaboration of bacon, pork sausage, potatoes and onions.

Yield: 4 to 6 depending
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
Total Time: 2 hours

Ingredients:

10 strips Applewood Slab Bacon, cut into 1-inch pieces
1-3/4 pound (about 5) quality Pork Sausage
4 small Yellow Onions, sliced
2 tablespoons minced fresh Parsley
3-1/2 pounds Russet Potatoes, roughly peeled
Kosher Salt
Black Pepper
2 cups low-sodium Chicken Broth

Directions:

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.
Place bacon into a 5-quart Dutch oven and heat over medium to medium-low until cooked and crispy, about 18-20 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the bacon to a paper towel lined plate.
Sear sausages for 3 to 4 minutes on both sides. Transfer to a cutting board and slice into thirds.
Remove the pot from the burner and layer, onions with a pinch of salt and parsley, bacon, sausages, more parsley, potatoes and then a few pinches of both salt and pepper and the remaining minced parsley.
Pour broth over top, cover and place back onto burner. Bring liquids to a boil before transferring pot to preheated oven for 1 hour and 30 minutes or until the potatoes are fork tender.
Remove and ladle into bowls with a little of the broth abd serve immediately with crusty bread.

Cut 10 strips of thick, slab bacon into 1-inch pieces.

Place the bacon pieces into a large 5-quart Dutch oven and heat over medium to medium-low.

In the meantime peel 3-1/2 pounds of russet potatoes. I like to leave a little skin on so it looks rustic.

 

Slice each potato into 4 to 5 slices depending on the size of the potato. Keep them on the large side so they don’t turn to absolute mush in the oven. Place those into a bowl and move right on.

Finely mince 2 tablespoons of parsley.

And slice up 4 small-to-medium-ish or 2 good size yellow onions into rings.

And buy GOOD pork sausage. I stopped by my favorite butcher/market because they carry all different kinds of sausages and picked up their house-made rustic version. But, feel free to use your favorite!

Once the bacon is cooked and crispy……use a slotted spoon and transfer the bacon to a paper towel lined plate. You know the drill…To give the sausage a little color, lay them down into the hot bacon fat…

Browning on both sides until deeply golden.

Remove the sausages to a cutting board…

Remove the pot off of the heat so the browned bits stuck on the bottom don’t burn.

Cut each of the sausages into thirds.

Layer in the onions, a pinch of black pepper and a sprinkle of parsley.

  

Next add in the bacon ...Sausages and another sprinkle of parsley…

Then lastly add the potatoes, a pinch (or two) of both kosher salt and black pepper and the remaining minced parsley.

 Cover with 2 cups of low-sodium chicken broth…

Cover and bring the liquids to a boil before sliding into a preheated 300 degree oven for 1 hour and 30 minutes.

*  I used only one onion.

* I used 6 potatoes.

* I cooked the bacon and sausage in a frying pan, then layer it all in a crockpot like the recipe calls for.  I then cook it on high for 4 hours.  

* This was 2 thumbs up from almost everyone in the family - Logan would only give this one thumb (the peel left on the potato turned him off!)  Doesn't need to be only for St. Patrick's Day!  YUM! 

  

Oreo Mint Truffle

Source:  thriftynorthwestmom.com

 

 

Top with whipped cream mixture. If you happen to not like mint you can opt out of the mint ingredients and use vanilla instead.

 



 

Ingredients:

1 package of Oreo Mint Cookies or Girl Scouts Thin Mints

1 small package JELL-O Chocolate Pudding

2 cup cold Milk

2 cup Heavy Cream

¼ cup Powdered Sugar

1 tsp Mint Extract or 1-2 drops of Peppermint Essential Oil (optional in case you don’t like mint – you could also substitute with vanilla)

Green Food Coloring

Directions:

Make pudding according to package directions. Place in refrigerator.
Place in refrigerator.

Whip heavy cream until it begins to peak. Add powdered sugar and continue to whip.  Add mint and 6-10 drops food coloring and continue to whip until peaks form.Place in refrigerator.

Chop approximately ¾ of the Oreos and scatter into bottom of container. Top with about 1/4 cup chocolate pudding, then add another small amount of Oreo topping.

Top with whipped cream mixture. If you happen to not like mint you can opt out of the mint ingredients and use vanilla instead.

 

Breakfast Burritos

I've started making and freezing breakfast burritos.  Tyler loves them, and eats them every morning. Derek doesn't really like them - not because of the burrito itself, but because reheating them he gets burning hot eggs, and cold potatoes.  Doesn't seem to be a deterrent for Tyler!  Here's my amounts:

22 eggs
1 cup milk
Whisk together, and scramble

1 bag of cubed hash browns
Cooked

1 pound of bacon, or ham, or sausage
Cooked and crumbled

22 Tortillas

Makes 22 burritos

After cooking eggs, hash browns, and meat, combine it all in a bowl, then you don't have to portion it out correctly. Roll up tortilla, and then roll the burrito up in tin foil.  Store in freezer.  When ready to eat, take it out of tin foil, roll it in a paper towel, and microwave it for 2 minutes.

* I just tried shredded potatoes, instead of cubed.  I'm hoping those heat up better.  

Neighbor Gifts 2015 Style

Oh the neighbor gifts .... They get me every year.  I have done Moose Munch for years.   I think it's a big hit - everyone raves about it.  Maybe they're just bring nice, but I think everyone loves it.  It's fast and easy.   It isn't cheap, and it's super messy.  So after doing it for years, I got bored with it, and also I hate dropping off a little treat bag full of the stuff to a big family.  I feel like I'm saying, "one bite for everyone!"  So I was bored with it, and felt dumb passing it out.
     So I found myself this year looking for something new.  I'm not afraid to do a gift that requires work ... I've got the time, so the work doesn't bother me.  I looked high and low (also known as "Pintrest") for a good idea.  I couldn't find anything I loved.  I need something I can make for the masses, and I mean masses.  I finally decided on hot chocolate spoons.  So I ordered the wooden spoons on Amazon, bought the cute washi tape, bought all the chocolate and toppings, bought the individual ziploc bags, bought the treat bags, made the tags, and got to work.  It was so many steps!   First, tape the spoons (like an idiot, I put the tape the entire length of the spoon.  Then I realized that the tape would then go in their hot chocolate, that'd be bad, so I had to retape every one. Annoying.). Then I dipped and topped them - that was fast and easy.  I did milk chocolate with mini marshmallow bits (which I found at Albertsons- took me 5 stores to find those), Christmas sprinkles, mini chocolate chips, drizzled white chocolate, and crushed candy canes. Then I did the same toppings on spoons dipped in white chocolate.  The dipping was actually the fastest part of the assembly.   Then I had to put them all in individual bags (that I found super cheap at Cash and Carry), then assemble them into bags - specific to families.  Then I had to tie tags on to each bag, with cute ribbon saying to add this to their next cup of hot chocolate.  This was another hang up.  Tyler thought people would be confused - like they would just added it to milk, not hot chocolate. They certainly don't have enough chocolate to become hot chocolate, it's just a fun addition to hot chocolate.  But Tyler thought people would be confused, Derek thought it was dumb we weren't supplying hot chocolate, and then I heard of one friend who got our spoons and was actually confused, adding it to plain milk (after I had adamantly said that no one could be confused).  Then there's the plain number of how many spoons you have to do. I ordered 200 spoons - my thinking being I do about 40 families, and they average 5 people per family.  I was WAY off!  I only got half way through my list.  This year we did 65 families, who average closer to 6 or 7, so instead of 200 I needed closer to 400.  So then I still ended up doing 30 bags of moose munch on top of the spoons.  After it was all said and done, I didn't love the spoons.   Super cute, but too many issues.  Two thumbs down from my family.   Way down if you ask Derek and Tyler (who is extremely opinionated for being a 14 year old boy).

 Too much tape - bummer

    So that leaves me thinking about next year ... I'm thinking a treat bag filled with different kinds of cookies.  If I did 4 different kinds (chocolate chip, peanut butter, snicker doodles, and chocolate with crushed candy canes), I could do 2 of each - giving each family 8 cookies.  And, the best part, I could make them early and freeze them.  I could have them bagged and tagged  and in  the freezer.  I could have them done before thanksgiving!  Gasp!  I think I'd need 11 dozen of 4 different kinds.  I could just bag them in treat bags and tie on a tag with baker's twine - easier than ribbon.  Bring on cookies for next year.

Cinnamon Butter

Source:  food.com

1/2 c. butter, salted, softened
1/3 c. powdered sugar
1 t. cinnamon

DIRECTIONS

1. In a small bowl, with a handmixer, beat butter till fluffy.
2. Add powdered sugar slowly, blending well.
3. Add cinnamon to mixture and blend well.
4. Scoop into a small container-serve immediately or refrigerate.

Strawberry Butter

Source:  divascancook.com

Ingredients

• ½ cup fresh strawberries, diced (make sure they are really sweet and fragrant)
• 2 sticks real butter, (16 tablespoons) softened
• ¼ cup powdered sugar

Instructions

1. In a large bowl cream butter with a hand mixer until whipped and smooth.
2. Stir in powdered sugar.
3. Fold in diced strawberries.
4. Mix until butter is light pink and creamy.
5. Store in refrigerator

*I like the strawberries really mashed, so I like to use a food chopper rather than using a knife.