Hot Chocolate Stirring Spoons

Here’s how this post was originally written: It’s almost the end of 2012! Can you believe it! I can’t believe how quickly the year has flown by! The kids only have a few days left of school, so I only have a few days to finish putting together the Christmas presents for their teachers!

Clearly I didn’t find the time to edit photos, and actually create this post until today, but I had a lot of fun putting these together and I think it would be easy to do these as a Valentine’s Day gift for friends or teachers!

On my massive Christmas shopping weekend, I found some adorable hot chocolate canisters at Costco. I picked up three packages and tried to come up with something yummy and homemade to go with them. After perusing my favourite inspirational website  I found the perfect thing! Hot chocolate spoons!

My friend Alana mentioned to me that she used her mini Crockpot to melt the chocolates for her Peanut Butter Balls.

Since I wanted to use more than one type of chocolate, I put a few glass jars into the crockpot, put a couple of inches of water into the pot (being extra careful not to get any water into the jars, it’ll make the chocolate seize up and die) and in 20 minutes, voila! A whole bunch of kinds of chocolate, perfectly melted and ready for dipping!

For my Hot Chocolate Spoons, I gathered up a bunch of ingredients I already had on hand – all I had to buy was the plastic spoons! I used semi-sweet chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, butterscotch chips and milk chocolate chips. 

For the toppings, I used micro-mini marshmallows like these, Christmas coloured sprinkles, Heath bar chips, and mini chocolate chips.

Once the chocolate was all melty and smooth, I got to dipping! The trick with these babies is to swirl the plastic spoon around in the jar until it’s completely covered, then tap the excess chocolate off of the spoon using the inside of the jar. I had a cookie sheet covered in wax paper to use as the resting plac e for the spoons. Once they were dipped, I would sprinkle them with a little bit of goodness. 

 
My girls liked the look of the white chocolate with Christmas sprinkles and the semi-sweet chips with the micro marshmallows the best! 

I put four of the chocolate spoons into a plastic treat bag, wrapped it with a pretty tie. I put the chocolate spoons with the hot chocolate canister and some super-delicious Toblerone Shortbread and wrapped them up all pretty. I had the girls each write a card to their teachers and they were all ready to go!

It would be so easy to switch these hot chocolate spoons to use them for Valentine's gifts by using hot pink heart shaped sprinkles or even crushed candy canes for red and white color.  I hope you have enjoyed these quick and easy gifts for teachers, neighbours and friends. Sorry that I didn’t get around to posting them until after Christmas!!!

I’m hoping to link this post up to a couple of fun link parties:

A Bowl Full of Lemons

Six Sister's Stuff

Delightful Order

Think Tank Thursday

Simple Living Lesson # 7 – Time

Anyone who knows me knows that I L-O-V-E my lists. I create a list every week of our menu, our to-do’s, and our activities. Recently I set up a planner for my little blog, to help me plan posts and what projects I have in the works. If you know me, you probably also know that I am the Queen of Over-Scheduling. I think that I am physically incapable of saying no to people.

photo source

This week’s challenge was examine how I spend my time. I had to examine which relationships I need to spend more time on, and what I could do to make the biggest impact on my time, my happiness and my peace of mind.

Obviously the relationship that means the most to me and makes me the happiest is my relationship with my husband and with my sweet little girls. In order to make sure that we can spend the time we have together doing the things we love, I need to make time for just us.

One of my New Year’s resolutions is to learn how to and actually practice saying no. I find myself booking our weekends full of events and parties and plans. The plans are for fun and exciting family things, but sometimes I feel like it’s just too much packed into two little weekend days. We don’t get enough time to just be ourselves, with each other.

I know that the only thing standing between me and being able to live a simple life is, well, me. Sometimes I need a reminder that time should be spent with those you love, doing things that make us happy. In that vein, I’m planning a day out, just the four of us - a snow day, ice skating on an outdoor, mountaintop pond and some yummy hot chocolate. I can’t wait.

How do you spend your quality time?

White Chocolate Macadamia Crinkle Cookies

Hello all! I am back with another of my test recipes that turned out successfully! When we were in Hawaii, we bought a few packages of macadamia nuts to bring home. I knew that I wanted to make cookies with them, and I found the perfect recipe. 
 
I found the recipe in a Taste of Home specialty cookie magazine. A few tweaks turned this into a pretty delicious batch of cookies, if I do say so myself! I brought a test batch of these cookies to my daughter’s school to let the other moms give me their opinions and they were gone lickety split!

White Chocolate Macadamia Crinkles

Ingredients
1 cup butter, softened
½ cup sugar
½ cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp baking powder
6 ounces baking chocolate, chopped
½ cup coarsely chopped macadamia nuts, toasted
½ cup sugar

Instructions

Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Line cookie sheet with parchment paper or aluminum foil and toast nuts for 10-12 minutes, or until lightly browned. Chop the macadamia nuts as large or small as you wish.
Increase heat in the oven to 400F. 

 
In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla. Combine the flour and baking powder; gradually add to the creamed mixture and mix well. Stir in chocolate and nuts. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour or until easy to handle. 

 
Roll into 1” balls. Roll each ball into the sugar. Place 2” apart on ungreased cookie sheet; flatten slightly. 

 
Bake at 400F for 8-10 minutes or until golden brown. Remove to wire racks to cool.

Enjoy!

Menu Plan Monday - Jan 14, 2013

It was a sad day in our house this Sunday... we went through the downs, then the ups and finally the low low downs of the Seattle Seahawks final playoff game of the season. The hubs is a die hard fan and our living room decor even includes Seahawks paraphernalia.

So, after the exciting come from behind game tying touchdown to the uber let down of the final losing score, it's time for the gnomes to go away until next football season. Yay! I get my mantel back!!

To bring some joy to my husband's life, I'm going to make some of his favorite recipes. I am even going to make a roast! I never make roast dinners because I'm not a huge meat and potatoes girl. Oh, the things a girl will do for love.

Monday: Crockpot Pork Roast, yorkshire pudding, mashed potatoes, vegetables in cheese sauce
Tuesday: Parmesan cod and poutine seasoned fries
Wednesday: Pork stirfry with noodles and veggies
Thursday: Stuffed chicken with scalloped potatoes and veggies

Friday: Chicken fajitas
Saturday: Freezer cooking day! Tourtiere for dinner

Sunday: Tortellini with prawns in boursin cream sauce

I'll be linking my menu plan up to Org Junkie's Menu Plan Monday. Check it out for tons of recipes and meal ideas!

2012 Round Up - Best and Most Loved Posts of the Year

I can hardly believe that it’s been almost a year since I decided to start this little blog. Back in Feb 2012 I wanted to participate in I’m An Organizing Junkie’s big organizational challenge. So I started this site and since then have spent many an evening baking, cleaning and organizing, all while taking photos and documenting the fun for all of you to read about it. 
 
In 2012 I managed to put together 164 blog posts! That seems crazy to me, and some weeks it was crazy! Fun, but a little insane. I’m lucky that my husband works evenings, so I don’t have to feel like I’m ignoring him when I sit under my blanket with HGTV on while blogging on my laptop.

I took a look at which posts were the most popular in 2012, and here is my round up of the most-viewed projects and posts from the past year.


Beef Enchilada Bake

An Organized Command Center

Little Girl Room Organizing

My 29 Day Organizational Success

Dr Pepper Cupcakes

Minimalish Rules

Spring Break Spring Cleaning

Tastes Homemade Box Cake Recipe

End of the Year Teacher Thank You Presents

Chicken Macaroni Bake Freezer Meal

Taming the Hair Ties

Linen Closet Loveliness

What do you think? Are any of these your favorites? 

 

Here are my favorite posts from the past year:

 

Secrets of a Happy Marriage

Butter Chicken Lasagne

Half Marathon Highlights

Peanut Butter Chocolate Cupcakes with Fluffy Peanut Butter Frosting

 

Summer of Fun Chart

Turtle Cupcakes

Pasta with Prawns in Boursin Cream Sauce

 

Kindergarten Graduation Presents

Super Amazing Totally Irresistible Chocolate Trifle

I hope you all like what you have seen so far from my little corner of the internet! There are many more fun and exciting things to come!

2013 Resolutions and Goals

Welcome 2013!! Although 2012 was a wonderful year filled with fun, family and adventure, I am looking forward to the new adventures we will take this year.

Do you make New Year’s Resolutions? Last year was the first year that I made some resolutions and actually stuck to them. I resolved to learn to run. And I did. I ran. After nine months of training, the hubs and I ran our very first half marathon!! Funny that it took nine months to train, because that race was just about as painful as a pregnancy and childbirth!
I can happily say that this year I do not need to resolve to exercise more. I am committed to my twice weekly spin classes and three times weekly boot camps, and I love them! This year my resolutions are going to be tough, for me anyway.

Hopefully by putting my resolutions up here I’ll work a little harder knowing that the blogiverse is watching! So far we are almost two weeks into 2013 and I have been doing fairly well with my resolutions.

1. Take a multivitamin. Every day. When I made this resolution, I promptly went to the medicine cabinet and grabbed out the women’s multi-vitamins. Then I checked the expiry date. January 2011. I guess I should have figured since they were prenatal vitamins and my youngest child is almost FOUR! Since then I picked up a new package of vitamins, and now religiously take a multi-vitamin, plus vitamins D, C, and a B Complex.

2. Stop swearing. I’m not gonna lie, I have a potty mouth. It’s bad. There are some really bad words that I say a LOT. I am on day eleven of trying my super-duper very best to stop with the bad language. I’ve taken to given my hand a smack when I slip and let a bad word out. It’s working a little, but I still have a long way to go.... perhaps this resolution will take as long to accomplish as the learning to run took in 2012.

3. Learn to say no. This is probably going to be harder to conquer than the bad language! I am famous for over committing myself and my family to four, five even six parties or events on one weekend. I do it all the time!

OK, now that the resolutions are out there for the world to read, it’s time to establish some goals for 2013!

Photo taken by the amazing Alana Joy Photography

1. I am going to try to consciously spend more quality time with my family. I am extremely lucky to work part time and would love to continue to do so, but I need to spend the extra time that I have with the girls playing games and lying on the floor with Lalaloopsy dolls and Hello Kitty. I am too quick to pack the girls up and cart them along with me to do whatever I want or need to do instead of intentionally spending time playing. So there, I need to PLAY more.

2. I need to make more time for my amazing husband. Without (much) complaining, he gets our little household up and running in the mornings while I’m at the gym. He brings the girls to school every day and oh yeah – he does ALL the laundry. He’s great, and I need to find a way to spend time with him. My husband works an afternoon shift, and we only see each other from 7:30-8am in the mornings and from 10:30 until whenever I fall asleep at night. I need to actually schedule dates for just the two of us. We never go out just the two of us, so I’m hoping that 2013 can be the year of the date!

3. I’m going to keep on keeping on with my exercise, but try to make better eating choices. Hopefully I’ll be able to add more vegetables to the meals I make for the family (if only I could bribe Miss A to eat some of those vegetables!!).

OK, I’ve been rambling on long enough now. Thanks for reading this insanely long post!! I hope that if you made resolutions that you are successful!! 
 
All the best in 2013,

New Year, New Menu Plan - Jan 7, 2013

Eila Bean and her birthday cake for Jesus!

Hello everyone! I’m finally back!! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year. My little family spent the entire month of December having a blast completing all of the items on our Advent activity calendar. We saw Christmas lights in our jammies, we made a birthday cake for Jesus, we watched Christmas movies and drank a LOT of hot chocolate!

My girls decided to leave Santa chips and cheesy salsa - he gets too many cookies!

I was lucky enough to be off work for almost the entire two weeks the kids were off of school. Miss A’s class put on an adorable Christmas concert (though all the songs were about winter, none actually about Christmas), Miss E’s class had a classroom party and I got to hang out and see her play with her little friends and eat snowman cupcakes.

Have you taken down your Christmas decorations yet? After putting ours up mid-November, and having a ton of presents and toys filling the living room, it was such a great feeling deconstructing Christmas. I was really conscious of only putting up the decorations that I truly loved and that had a place in our home this Christmas, so putting Christmas away was really easy!

Sorry for the iPhone pics in this post, I haven't downloaded all of my photos from the real camera!!

Over the weekend, when trying to plan out the menu for this week I decided to clean out and organize our freezers. Mostly this was because I bought groceries and when I opened my mini-deep freeze there was no room for the newly purchased pizzas!

I used the trunk of hubs’ car as my sorting table and pulling e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g out of the deep freeze. As I was going along, I took an inventory on my iPhone of what kinds of food in the freezer. I was surprised to learn that I had four bags of perogies, ELEVEN bags of French fries (I stock up when they go on sale for $1 a bag!) and a few bags of chicken breasts (I thought I was completely out!).

The next thing on the list was menu planning! I printed out a blank January calendar, and started plugging in recipes using ingredients from the freezer inventory! I now have an entire month of dinners planned out and will hopefully be spending very little on groceries this month! I’m also hoping to maybe squeeze in a freezer cooking day at some point this month, but that would be a bonus!!

Recipe for this amazing dish

On the menu this week:

Monday: Perogies and sausage
Tuesday: Teriyaki Chicken Stirfry with Noodles
Wednesday: Lasagne Wednesday
Thursday: BBQ chicken breasts, potatoes and corn
Friday: Butter chicken and steamed rice
Saturday: Dinner out!
Sunday: Tortellini with prawns in boursin sauce

I will be linking my menu up with Org Junkie’s Menu Plan Monday. Come check it out for hundreds of recipes and meal ideas!