Jan 30, 2015

Strawberry Jello Glazed Donuts


Oh how I love donuts. Which would reason that I love heart-shaped donuts even more. You know what I love even more than heart-shaped donuts? Strawberry glazed ones.

These Strawberry Jello Glazed donuts are so easy to make and they are ridiculously delicious. Like RIDICULOUS I tell you. They are also kind of perfect for a Valentine's breakfast.


Here is how easy they are to make--

First heat up some oil in a large pan. Then grab yourself a package or two of refrigerated Grands biscuits. Next cut them into heart shapes, or just cut a hole out of the middle. Save the holes for, well you know, donut holes.


To make Jello glaze, mix 1 1/2 cups of powder sugar and half a package of 3 oz strawberry Jello.


Whisk in 4 Tablespoons of milk. Mix until it has a smooth consistency.


Now just fry up the biscuits, aka donuts. Fry them for about 60 seconds on one side then flip. Donuts should be golden brown and cooked through. Drain the donuts on a paper towel.

Put the donuts on a cookie rack with parchment paper beneath. Dip one side of the donut in the glaze. You can then dip the donuts into sprinkles. Plain or with sprinkles they are glorious.


Plus, they are so lovely. Can donuts be lovely? I think so.



There ya have it. Not only are these the easiest, but they also might just be the tastiest donuts. Everything is better in donut form.


Now you can check off your list what you are going to make Valentine's Day for breakfast. Your welcome.

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Jan 29, 2015

All That and a Bag of Chips Classroom Valentines


Having a fifth grader makes Valentine's Day a little tricky. Having a fifth grade BOY makes it even trickier. I mean there is still a classroom Valentine's party, but he is a fifth grade boy and showing any kind of ooey gooey emotion is strictly forbidden. He is WAY too cool for such nonsense. Add hearts and too much of the use of the word "LOVE" and well you might as well just get ready for the, "AW MOM! Come on!"

So what is a momma to do?

First I made sure the classroom valentine involved food. Not heart-shaped food, but good old kid-approved snack food. Then I made sure that the actual Valentine was no nonsense and simple. I did make some with hearts, but just in case that was too much love and such I also made some with absolutely no extra signs of love. Geez BOYS!!

Anyway...the last piece of this fifth grade boy approved Valentine was to simply clip the Valentine on the bag of chips with a small clothespin. Luckily I found these really adorable coordinating clothespins at Michaels that were adorable enough for me but subtle enough that the boy did not notice their adorableness.


If you have an older student who is no fuss, these Valentine's are perfect. Here are the printables for you. There is one download with hearts, the other sans hearts. Just click on the link at the bottom. 


I probably should also mention, this is like the easiest Valentine to do ever. Then you will be the mom who is All That and a Bag of Chips. Hehehe. I kind of had to.


I shared some Classroom Valentine's in THIS post. Go check them out for more ideas.

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Jan 24, 2015

Slow Cooker Banana Walnut Oatmeal


Welcome to Slow Cooker Saturday! Today I am sharing a recipe for this Slow Cooker Banana Walnut Oatmeal.

I am trying to get better at eating breakfast. By eating breakfast, I mean eating an actual meal instead of eating part of a banana or a small cup of yogurt. I have never been a huge breakfast eater. Part of that is time, but the majority of the reason is that I have had the mind set that starting off my day with SO much food is a calorie nightmare.

As I have gotten older, I have tried really hard to break this train of thought. After all, it isn't the quantity as much as the quality of what I start my day off with. I have tried to realize that breakfast is actually really, really necessary. Especially if I am fueling my body with good foods.

There is a growing list of breakfast foods that I am starting to really love.

Oatmeal is one of them. Oatmeal is hardy and filling. Plus it is also really versatile. This Slow Cooker Banana Walnut Oatmeal I am particularly fond of because it includes two of my favorite healthy ingredients--bananas and walnuts. Yum. The steel cut oats add a nuttiness that I love. This is a warm and wonderful way to start off the day.

This particular recipe is a slow cooker recipe. You can throw everything in the night before and set the automatic timer to have it all ready for the morning. Or you can make it the day before and store it in the fridge. This Slow Cooker Banana Walnut Oatmeal last for up to four days in the fridge and is easily reheated. Just add a little milk if necessary.

Once the oatmeal is ready, I scoop it into a bowl and I add some fresh slices of bananas, a handful of walnuts, and a sprinkling of brown sugar. Man was this yummy.


Here is to healthy, hardy, and yummy breakfasts. Do you have healthy breakfasts that you make all the time? Please share. Add this Banana Walnut Oatmeal into your rotation. Your family will love it.


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Jan 23, 2015

Taco Pan Pizza


There are two foods that we really really love in our house.

First we love, tacos. Basically we kind of exist on them. We are never far from throwing ourselves a little fiesta. Anytime you can pair dinner with guacamole, salsa, and chips it is a good things. So tacos grace our table frequently.

Another favorite in our house, is probably a favorite in the majority of households with four boys, or kids, or anyone who likes to eat. The second favorite in our house is the oh-so-popular pizza. Sometimes we order in. Sometimes we do take and bake. Other times we make our own. Truth be told, there is even occasionally the frozen variety in full, bagel bite, or roll form.

So when a taco and a pizza fall in love, what do you get?

Well Taco Pan Pizza of course.

Of course.

This pizza is delicious! The cornbread crust adds just the right sweetness and texture. The crust may have been one of my favorite parts. This Taco Pan Pizza was a big hit with the family. I mean I kind of knew it would be because of the you know pizza and taco thing.

If your family like tacos and pizza, then I would highly recommend you make this Taco Pan Pizza. Seriously SOO yummy.


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Jan 21, 2015

Love You Like A Love Song Valentine


Whenever the middle of January roles around I start getting all giddy and lovey eyed for all things Valentines. I start writing out ideas for possible classroom Valentines and I start dreaming up possible ideas for the boys' Valentines shirts.

Guess what!?! It is the middle of January. So I am thinking we should get all Valentine's Day up in here. The first of three classroom Valentines are done.

I need to give mad props to my very favorite one of my favorite songs, since it was the inspiration for this Valentine. Oh Love You Like A Love Song, you were just asking to be turned into a Valentine. I had the idea for the printable sitting in my back pocket, metaphorically speaking of course. Of course. I just needed something to go with the idea. Then I saw these plastic toy whistles at The Mart.

Well if that isn't just perfect, I don't know what is.

So I made up a Valentine with Love You Like A Love Song (get the printable HERE). I taped the whistle to the card with some washi tape.

As simple as you please, one pretty cool non-candy classroom Valentine. I am pretty sure Little's kindergartner teacher is gonna just love that I gave 20+ kids whistles. Best. Parent. Ever.



Now I just need to whip up the other two boys' Valentines. The ideas are in place. The materials are bought. Now I just need to find the time to get them done. Do you happen to know where I can get some of that?

Here are some of our previous classroom Valentine ideas.








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Jan 15, 2015

Superhero Story Stones


Welcome to A Pinteresting Wednesday!

Oh wait, it is Thursday. Well I am going to share these Superhero Story Stones with you today for A Pinteresting Wednesday anyway. So let's just pretend for right now that it is still Wednesday and that I blog more than just couple times a month. I have been a little lame lately...well not lame, but just attending to other things.

I truly meant to get this all posted and wittily delivered yesterday. But well, I wanted to finish my book. So I did. Hehehe.

So now my book is finished. So blogging seems like a good idea.

These Superhero Story Stones make me giddy. I had the idea for these story stones on Pinterest. I pinned it to my For the Kiddos board. (The specific ones I pinned are no longer available, in fact I can't even find what store they came from). Little attended a birthday party recently and the birthday boy liked to be creative and liked to read.

I thought recreating the story stones from my Pinterest board would be a perfect present. I decided to make them even more perfect for a little boy by giving them a superhero theme. That is how these Superhero Story Stones were born.



 Making your own set of Story Stones is easy.

All you need is:

a pack of river rocks
craft paint
fabric and cording to make a little bag (or a little bag already made)

I painted little pictures on the rocks that would coordinate with making up a superhero story. I am not gonna even hide the fact that this was my most favorite part of this project. Could you die over that itty bitty rock Hulk? He is my favorite.



Once I had painted various superhero themed pictures onto the rocks, I whipped up a very simple drawstring bag. I used yellow duck cloth for the outside and a superhero print for the inside.


I drew a red cord through as a drawstring. I also hand painted the tell a story word bubble onto the outside.


Since our birthday boy liked to read, I also threw in a super hero book to complete the present. My boys are now requesting their own story stones.


These Superhero Story Stones were such an easy fun gift to make. They are also so easy to fit any theme. Man the possibilities are endless--princess, animals, cars, farm, ocean, robots, Frozen...I could go on and on.

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Jan 13, 2015

Young Women's Monthly Newsletter Template


For me, pretty much like everyone else, the new year incites a desire to be a little more organized. Or at least to be a little more on the ball. I am currently serving in my church with the youth. I love these girls and I love serving with them. I have served in Young Women's the majority of my adult life. You would think with all the time I have spent serving in this capacity I would always be prepared and on the ball.

False.

One of the things I have always been less than stellar at is providing a monthly calendar for the youth and their parents. This time around instead of a calendar I decided it would be more fun for me to make a newsletter each month. I found a really cute newsletter at Hanging the Ribbon on the Moon. I wanted to make a few design tweaks, so I made my own YW Newsletter Template using Picmonkey.

The template is really easy to customize in Picmonkey. Picmonkey is a free online photo editing program. I tend to go on and on about my love for Picmonkey. If I had to list all of the projects I have used Picmonkey for, well the list would go on and this post would be ridiculously long. So basically, just know I use it for everything.

To customize this template for your own ward, first you need to click on the newsletter above. Save the jpeg to your computer.

Go to Picmonkey and go to the Edit option at the top. Open the newsletter jpeg.

This is what it will look like-


Go to the "T" which is for text.

You can pick whatever texts you want to add in the information. I would suggest using the coordinating fonts, Futura Medium, Geo Sans Light, and Thirsty Script Bold.

First, add in the name of your ward above the Young Women title. I used Futura Medium at size 170.


I used Geo Sans Light size 70 for the date/activity. Stretch the text box to fit the calendar space and then type in the information.


 I also put the month at the top of the calendar box (using Thirsty Script Bold, size 100).

I used Geo Sans Light for all of the rest of the information. I used separate text boxes for all of the individual areas. The font sized varied depending on how much information I needed to fit in the spaces.


I know I am not showing your an actual finished newsletter, but since my newsletter has names and information about my girls I didn't want to share that with the whole world.

Once my newsletter was all done I emailed it to all of the parents. I even got a few compliments on the cuteness of this fun newsletter. I hope you find this template useful and that your world just bursts with cute newsletters.

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