No-Bake Cookie Recipe

HI!
Two days ago, I made the family... ok, myself... some no-bake cookies.  I was craving something sweet yet with some nutrition to it.  Oatmeal is good for you!  Peanut Butter is good for you (well.  the all natural kind, which I used)! Cocoa is even good for you... ANTIOXIDANTS PEOPLE! Hello.  Ok. Ok.  So the butter and sugar are a bit much... BUT STILL!  Probably the healthiest junk food I could have made myself.

Well.
I was tweeting about this yummy goodness and Suzy from over at It Walked On My Pillow declared that her recipe doesn't include Peanut Butter.  I was shocked!  A No-Bake... WITHOUT PEANUT BUTTER!  That's like Hot Chocolate without the Marshmallows.  Somethings missing, ya know?  For her sake I wanted to share a very simple, very common recipe for No-Bake cookies... WITH PEANUT BUTTER!  Because Chocolate and peanut butter = best food combo EVER.  Don't even argue.

No-Bake Oatmeal Cookies!

1/3 C. cocoa
2 C. sugar
1 stick butter
1/2 C. milk
3 C. quick cook oatmeal
1/2 C. peanut butter
1/2 tsp vanilla

First thing you will want to do is lay down a long sheet of wax paper.  This is where you will put the cookies to set.  Next you will take the Oatmeal, peanut butter, and vanilla and dump them in a large bowl that is heat safe. Then you will bring the first 4 ingredients to a boil while constantly stirring.  Once mixture has reached a boil, boil for 1 minute.  After that minute is up, pour this into the bowl with the oatmeal, peanut butter, and vanilla.  Stir well.  Then you can either use a regular spoon or I like to use a small ice cream scoop and drop spoon fulls at a time onto the wax paper to set up.  It takes about 30 minutes to set enough to eat... but generally it takes about 1 hour to cool and set.  I'm usually impatient and help myself after about 15 minutes.  GET IN MY BELLY!

Well.  There you have it.  A tried and true recipe for No-Bake cookies.  Enjoy!

My Life is Going Crazy.

Most of you follow me on twitter and already know this, but I will tell the story here, for my record and for your entertainment factor.  March 21st I was expecting a visit from Auntie Flow.  Well.  When she was a no-show, and she is NEVER a no-show, I decided it was time to consult the All Knowing, Ever Seeing, Magically Magic, Tell-you-your-future, Plastic Pee Stick.  This is what it said in two lines...

Well, isn't that a dandy.  Most of you know that Dave and I weren't planning on having anymore kids.  I never thought I would ever see a positive pregnancy test for the rest of my life.  Yet, here it sits.  On a counter top.  Telling me I'm pregnant.

I admitt.  My first reaction was less than glamorous.  I didn't cry.  I just pouted, and pouted, and pouted some more.  See.  I know that there are many women who struggle with fertility and more than likely despise people like me, who really could live happy without seeing a BIG FAT POSITIVE result on a fortune telling pee stick.  While I really wish I could give my fertility away, I can't.  Just like, I can't help but react the way I did upon seeing the results.

Now in denial, because you will agree, the line is very faint, right?  I mean.  HCG horomone is pretty exclusive to pregnancy, especially the amount that would cause a test to show even a faint line, but still.  I had to take one of those fancy digital ones.  I mean this is the year 2011.  Analog is the way of the dinosaurs.  Digital is where it's at, and it will tell me in a clear easy to read typed font.  Oh yes.  It will tell me clearly Pregnant or Not pregnant...

Meh.  Pregnant.  Yup.  BUUUUT!!! You will be pleased to know, that since taking this test I have actually grown a little bit of excitement, nay, I say even a little bit happy???  I mean.  It's early.  I am 4 weeks 5 days along.  EDD 11/29/2011 RIGHT AFTER MY MOST FAVORITE of holidays, Thanksgiving.  See?  There is reason to be joyous.  What a great time of year to have a baby? right?  Well.  Still.  I am only 4 weeks and 5 days.  Most people wait until their 14th week to tell a living soul that they are expecting because of the high possibility of miscarriage in the 1st Trimester.  I, however, have never waited to tell anyone.  I have always been the one to take the test and tell everyone.  No exception with this one OBVIOUSLY! ha.

So, now you all know.  It's the beginning of a new adventure on my blog.  God willing that I carry this baby full term to delivery and the baby is perfect and healthy, you will be getting "How fat is Amy getting?" updates... ok.  Not really.  I will probably be doing a weekly or monthly feature on it.  Fun stuff.

Well. That's that.

Have a HAPPY happy week.

Love.

Healthy Chili Tex Mex Style

I love me a good hot bowl of chili.  The way that I make chili is very healthy.  Well, at least I think so.  It's also rather delicious, so I thought I would share my recipe.  It's so simple.

1/2 lb ground turkey (you can use a whole pound if you like)
2 cans of pinto beans (drained and rinsed)
1 can of black beans (drained and rinsed)
1 can of Fire Roasted Diced Tomatoes and Green Chili's (I have only found this in the Great Value or Walmart Brand of Tomatoes, but if you can't find this, Rotel will do just fine)
1 can of tomato sauce (6 oz.)
2 tbsp Chili Powder
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp minced garlic (I love garlic so I tend to add more than that)
1 bundle of fresh cilantro
1 lime
1 bundle of green scallions.
Cheese

The best way to make this chili I find, is to bring all the ingredients together on the stove then dump into a crock-pot to simmer all day.  So good.  Anyway.  Here is how I do things.

First brown your meat.  Once your meat is browned add the Fire Roasted Diced Tomatoes and Green chilis and tomato sauce.  While that is heating up with the meat drain and rinse your canned beans.  After they are thoroughly rinsed dump them in the pot with the tomatoes and meat.  Begin to add your spices; chili powder, cumin, salt, garlic.  Add a cup or 2 of water.  Bring to a boil.  Now  you can either put a lid on this and let it simmer for 30 minutes, or if you have planned for it to cook all day, dump the contents of the pot into a crock-pot and let cook on Low or Medium Low setting until you are ready to eat it.

While the chili is cooking mince up your cilantro, slice your lime into wedges, and chop up your scallions.  Set them aside in seprate bowls.

When serving the chili, it should be topped with shredded cheese (unless you are lactose intolerant like my husband), cilantro to your liking, and green scallions to your liking.  Squeeze the lime on top of all this and you have a delicious blend of flavors that hopefully will have you saying mmmmm with every bite.

We also like to eat our chili with tortilla chips.  We either use Baked Tostitos or some all natural ones.

The Best Valentines Day EVER!

Well.  We did it!  We went and got Waffles.  It was a group thing.  We even had the kids.  It turned out to be the best place to go!  Everyone was packing into the steak houses and Italian restaurants so The Belgian Waffle and Pancake House was all ours.  After about 30 minutes we were the only people there!  It was awesome!  We laughed so hard that Liz had a hard time eating her waffle ha ha ha.  Brendan was HILARIOUS!  The restaurant gave the kids these Styrofoam cut out things and Brendan stuck his in syrup and then stuck it on Nate's shirt.  It was so funny. He also had the most hilarious things to say ALL NIGHT!

Danielle will appreciate this: At one point I asked Lindsey what Valentines Day means to her and Brendan interjected "BACON!" ha ha ha... Then a bit later he had some bacon pieces, and while moving the pieces like a mouth sang "I am bacon, I am bacon, I am bacon!" ha ha ha.

I brought my big girl camera but forgot to grab a memory card.  FAIL! ha ha ha.  Oh well.  So you are stuck with iPhone pics.  Sorry! ha.  Poor people on Instagram got a rare bombardment of photos from me this evening. Sorry.

Ok.  Here we go.  Valentine's Day in Photograph documentation.

It was funny because their waffle description says "served at room temperature with melted butter and hot syrup" ha ha ha.  I questioned this room temperature thing and the waitresses thought I was making it up or something... then I showed them and they were so confused.  The waffles were served warm for the record. ha.  Time to edit the menu?  I think so.

Meet my brother Anthony!  He is awesome.  He never gives real smiles for the camera, he has done this for as long as I can remember.  I love him though.  He has this way of making a bad day good and a good day better.  I love him for that.

This is Liz.  You may recognize her from her blog Liz Lemon.  She is such a cool person.  I met her through my brother because they are really good friends.  If you don't follow her blog you should.  She is awesome!

This is Hannah and Nate.  Hannah is fantastic and Nate is such a laid back cool guy with a huge heart.  Where these two are involved it's sure to be great times had.  Glad they shared my Waffle Valentines Day with Dave and I.

The kids.  I  love Bren's face here.  They both were having such a fun time.  It took me several shots to get a decent picture because Lindsey gets so awkward in front of the camera... maybe one trait she borrowed from my brother, ha!  Bren was seriously cracking us up all night!

Awe!  Dave and I.  :)  Thanks Hannah for snapping this.  Every time I do a self portrait of Dave and I, I chop off a portion of Dave's face. ha ha ha.  Hannah saved the day.  Love him.

My waffle.  It was sooooooooooooooooo yum.  :)

There was a small debate between Nate and Anthony over which is better.  The HTC Evo or the iPhone 4... What do you think?

Our waitress was awesome!  She talked about liking White Russians (the alcoholic beverage) which had us laughing and talked about how awesome the cooks are for like 5 minutes.  So funny, but I guess you would have had to have been there.

Anyway.  It was great times.  It will go down as one of my favorite Valentine's Days EVER! 

How was your Valentine's Day?

I Want Waffles for Valentines Day.

image source

This is what I say to Dave.  I say.  I want to eat a waffle for Valentines Day.  A Waffle.  With butter.  And Syrup.

So... this is what we will do.

I am excited about Valentines Day.  Are you? What are your Vday plans?

The Emotions of a 7 Year Old

My daughter's emotions were running high today. We were watching Wheel of Fortune, it has become a nightly thing, and she comes down and sits on the couch. She said "I think I just want to be downstairs right now." I look at her and say "ok." Not thinking anything of it. Then next thing I hear is a few little sobs. I look at her and she is crying! ha ha ha. So I ask her "Lindsey, What's wrong?" She continues to sob and blubbers out "I can't get my Tinkerbell skin to show up on my game!" (skin being a decorative wallpaper sort of thing that I added onto her game online)

We tell her to go upstairs and cry it out. She does. Then a bit later while we were watching The Biggest Loser, Bren traipses downstairs and hands me a piece of paper saying "this is for you."


I immediately had my husband read it just because I couldn't believe what I was reading! ha. It was heartbreaking and hilarious at the same time. Am I mean for thinking this? ha. I couldn't help it!

Well. I called her downstairs and had her cuddle with me for the remainder of The Biggest Loser. I think she will be ok.

P.S. I told Dave I was going to blog about this and Lindsey said "I don't think I like everyone knowing what I write" Bah ha ha ha. Sorry Lindsey. It was too good to pass up. MOMMY LOVES YOU!

The Proper Way to Eat Peanut Butter M&M's

Yes there is a right and wrong way to eat Peanut Butter M&M's and I am going to show you the right way because the wrong way should be a no-brainer.  Now.  If you have a peanut allergy, or if you hate peanut butter... this post will be very dull indeed.  However, if you are, like me, in love with the magical mixture between chocolate and peanut butter, you will want to pay very close attention.

First thing you need is a bag of Peanut Butter M&M's un-opened.  The pictured m&m's are "fun size" which is fine and good for the wee little appetite, but more than likely you will have a normal sized bag.

Second thing is to heat up said bag of Peanut Butter m&m's.  This can be achieved in a number of ways.  Here are my recommended methods of m&m heating.

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A.  Easiest and fastest is stick the unopened bag of PB m&m's in the microwave for 10 - 15 seconds.

B.  Not so easy and Not so fast but effective is to warm the delicious candy through body heat. You can do this by sandwiching the bag between your warm hands or... thighs... yes.  Thighs.  You could try sitting on them too, but I don't recommend that method.  Body heat warming can take up to 30 minutes for your m&m's to reach the desired warmness.

C.  Place unopened bag of PB m&m's on the dash board of your car on a sunny day or with the defrost on.  Now obviously this method is only effective if you are running errands or taking a road trip.

Last.  Once your m&m's are properly warmed.  Open bag.  Enjoy.  The result is ooey gooey Peanut Butter and Chocolatey goodness rather than the stiff cold not so creamy alternative when they are room temperature.  Blech.  

You're welcome.