Update: Cookies....yummers!

OK, so remember the cookie recipe using beans I posted about the other day?

Yup. They were good. So good, in fact, that they were gone the same day. I made two and a half dozen. And I didn't even eat most of them! That means they MUST be good, because normally, Anthony won't eat anything with chocolate in it. But HE ate most of these cookies! They were like a fluffy pillowy cloud of chocolate chip yumminess.



Even the dog wanted some! OK, so that's not surprising, he eats cat poop (I know, ew!)

And just because, I'm going to share with you my most favoritest (is that even a word?! aww, who cares!) curtains. I found them at KMart back when we lived in Biloxi, on sale, and I bought three of them. I love finding things on sale! Don't you just love them?! They make me happy every time I look at them.



Oh, and just in case you were wondering, yes, cake does fix everything.

A new way to look at Food Storage....

Okay, so in a few posts in the past, I've written about food storage. I never paid much attention to food storage growing up, even in my early 20s, it never crossed my mind. Now that I have a husband deployed and two kids that rely on just me, I've started thinking about it A LOT MORE. What would I do if there was a big snowstorm and we lost power, or what would I do if for some reason the base was shut down and there was no way to get food onto the base? Or a whole long list of what-ifs, to most of which people would say, "Oh, well, THAT would never happen", or "Oh, the base will take care of us.....right? Don't you think so (insert name of spouse who lives down the street)? Oh, yeah, they've got all that stuff covered...I think....." What if they don't? What if they can't?

Or, as was mentioned by a very talented writer, (whose name escapes me right now and I REALLY wish I could give credit to!), what about something that happens everyday; you rush through your day to get the house clean, rush and pick up your kids from school, finally get a chance to sit down for a second and start thinking about dinner, and realize....you never took anything out to defrost! So you scramble around, and end up either eating hot pockets or going to the drive thru. If you had canned meat in your food storage, you could whip up a meal just as quickly as if you had defrosted meat earlier. Or you need something last minute for the bake sale at school/church/playgroup and can't get to the store because the kids are asleep already. But you've got flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, baking soda, dried beans (I KNOW, wait!) and chocolate chips in your food storage...wah-la! Most of what you need for chocolate chip cookies. I KNOW! I.KNOW. Crazy! I will be trying this recipe this afternoon. Because I HAVE all that stuff in my food storage! Yay me!

OK, so I hope I've motivated someone to look at their food storage in a different way, because I know I did as soon as I read that amazing food storage article by the amazing author I STILL can't remember...grr. I also loved Wendy Dewitt's vidoes on food storage, if you haven't seen them, go to YouTube and type in Wendy Dewitt and they will come right up. I believe there is a total of about 9 different vidoes, which are approximately 5 minutes or so each. It doesn't hurt that she's really really funny either!

Alright, so my list for this week includes the regular old junk (blech!) such as finish the dishes from the weekend (there's a ton! I don't even know why, it's not like I cooked all that much!), laundry which is never ending, try out these bean cookies, finish valentines for both boys classes, and find a new storage solution for the boys' Matchbox cars, they seem to have multiplied overnight. I really think that when we go to sleep, they all get together and have little Matchbox car babies, because EVERY time I find a BIGGER box, bin or basket for them, a week later they don't fit in the new box/bin/basket. FRUStrating! Anyone have any ideas??

Where Have I Been?

Where have I been? Crazy-land, that's where! Trying to get the house cleaned so I don't come back to a huge mess, trying to find someone to take care of the dog while we're gone, trying to wash laundry with a halfway working dryer, trying to take care of the kids and keep them happy and entertained.....the list goes on and on. I feel like I'm doing a halfway job on everything, there's just not enough of me to go around. Whenever I have a free minute to myself, I find myself thinking, oh, I should be doing this or that, or cleaning this or that. I have to stop myself and just try and relax for a few minutes.


So for Motivate me Monday this week, my list is way too long to even think about. I'll just start with what I want to get done TODAY:

-clean kitchen and wash dishes from making 4 dozen cookies yesterday
-get kids clothes in the dresser and closet
-finish laundry (ha! this will be a miracle if it gets done today, but I'm going to try REALLY hard)
-wrap presents
clean out sewing/computer room-it has gotten very very messy, only because I tend to just throw stuff in there and close the door and not worry about it, lol
-start packing for trip to NY
-drink a few bottles of wine-KIDDING! Just seeing if you're paying attention :) Although it is pretty tempting right now....

So that's my list. We'll see how much of it gets done. I also want to make fortune cookies, but that's at the absolute bottom of my list. I found a neat recipe online to try here :

http://www.ywconnection.com/Refreshments/pageRfortunecookies.html

If I ever get to it, I'll post pics and opinions. I highly doubt that will happen though :p

Well, off to start on my list. We are leaving for NY the middle of this week, so wish me luck getting everything DONE!!!!!!!!

Yummy cookies!

The boys and I went to Airman's Attic yesterday looking for pants for Anthony, all of his long pants now fit perfectly in the waist, but are about 2 inches too short. For those of you not familiar with Airman's Attic, it is a program run by volunteers through the AF that's available to E6 and below. Families donate things they no longer use or need, and you come in and you look for what you need. I only found one pair of pants, but I found this really cool game there:



We brought it home and tried it out, and to my surprise, both boys actually paid enough attention to finish a full game! Then as I was looking through the recipe booklet that comes with the game, I noticed a recipe for peanut butter chocolate chip cookies.....mmmmm...... Well, we didn't have chocolate chips, but we DID have a big bag of M & Ms from Ayden's candy bank.....heh heh heh. So, here's the recipe (I would post a picture of the finished cookies, but I can't find the camera):

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:
1/2 cup unsalted butter, SOFTENED (I used tub margarine)
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup crunchy peanut butter (I used creamy)
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 cups chocolate chips (I used M & Ms)

(Adults) Preheat oven to 350, then cream butter, sugar, salt and peanut butter. Beat in eggs and vanilla. (Kids can do the next steps) In a small bowl, mix the flour and the baking soda. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix. Pour in chocolate chips (or M & Ms!) and mix. Roll dough into 1 1/2 inch balls on a greased cookie sheet, or an ungreased parchment lined cookie sheet. Place balls 2 inches apart, then take a fork and gently press down to slightly flatten the tops. (Adults) Bake cookies for 10-12 minutes, I have no suggestions as to time, I never pay attention to time, I just go by what the cookies look like, lol. Cool on wire racks. Consume immediately!! Makes about 4 dozen.

It seems like you could customize this just about any way you want. They turn out good, not puffy soft cookies, more like thin chewy ones. Normally I'm a puffy soft cookie lover, but last night I was a thin chewy one, lol! And it was so fun to make them with Anthony! Ayden could have cared less, he wandered out into the living room after about 5 minutes ands started watching Diego, but he's probably just not at the age to enjoy baking yet.

Anyway, I was really happy to have found a game that both kids can play and be interested in. And it definitely sweetened the pot that it was free! I may check out the whole line of games, they're called Cranium Bloom games, and I believe they're made especially for preschoolers. I've seen them at Target before. Once I wake up and get my arse in the shower, I think we'll go check them out, I love having a Target nearby! I'll post if I find any good deals!