Hamburger Cookies - A "No Bake" Recipe

It's been a busy summer, and for the most part on our down times we're ready to just unwind with some swimming, playing, and and other summer activities. But occasionally we get inspired to tackle some new projects. 

In the last few weeks we've been invited to several barbecues. I used to make these fun and easy "no bake" cookies with my mom as a kid, and they are the perfect treats to bring to a barbecue! 

Even better, while they are super cute they are also a "No Bake" recipe which means you don't have to run your oven in order to enjoy them. Perfect for hot summer days. 

Christmas Tree Quesadilla

With just a few days to go until Christmas, the energy and anticipation are both on high at our house. I find during these times one of the best things to do is add quick, small bursts of fun into our day to help keep everyone distracted.

A few years ago I came up with these pretty simple Christmas Tree Quesadillas. They are perfect for a fast dinner or lunch in the lead up to Christmas. And they add just a small dose of fun to keep people positive.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

The season for pumpkin flavored treats is almost over, as the winter holiday baking season is fast approaching.

But, before it goes I wanted to share one last yummy treat. (Although I have to admit I love these enough to make them all year round.) I was introduced to pumpkin cookies several years ago through our Farm-to-School program. Over the years I've made a few tweaks to settle on this final recipe.

Nutella Teddy Bear Snacks

We always love finding fun ways to create snacks. We invented these Nutella Teddy Bear snacks one night after dinner, and they've become a big hit since then.

What's fun about these is they can be used either as a dessert or an after school snack!

Everybody's Favorite One Bowl Brownies

This is one of our family's all time favorite recipes, and luckily it's one the easiest dessert recipes I know. If we're asked to bring a dessert to a potluck, but we don't have a whole lot of time to be in the kitchen, this is usually my go-to recipe. I used to think of them as my "Book-Club Brownies" as they were perfect to make on a week night and have ready to go the next night when my book club would meet. (Or sometimes I would even make them up the afternoon of the meeting.)

But I should warn you, they are still very much a TREAT recipe. There is nothing low-fat/low calorie/low-sugar about this recipe . . .

Banana Split Dippers

For the most part on weeknights we try to have fruit for dessert. But every once in a while we like to switch it up with something a little fun. This quick and easy dessert was still mostly fruit based . . . with some extra yumminess thrown in.

In fact, this dessert had all the makings of a banana split . . .  without the ice cream. Perfect for the fact that "Banana Day" is coming up on April 20th! We're pretty excited that Witty Hoots decided to host a "Quirky and Unusual" Blog Hop to celebrate the upcoming day.

20+ Rainbow Recipes For All Times of the Day

A few years ago we discovered Rainbow Pudding Cups, and somehow they have become a St. Patrick's Day tradition for our family, even though they are not at all traditional to the holiday. But we also enjoy making them at other times of the year, because they are just so fun and colorful.

This inspired to search around the web and find even more creative, fun, and colorful Rainbow Recipes. In fact, we've found over 20 of them for you to enjoy and spread across the day!

February 2016 Goal: Use the Slowcooker on Busy Nights

So somehow January flew past me. Even though I chipped away at my January Goal of Decluttering and Organizing, the busy pace of a usually quieter month meant I just didn't get as far as I wanted to. (Although happily we did make some progress  with cleaning out toys, clothes, and several cabinet spaces.) As I've discovered in the past with this goal, sometimes this is one that takes a few months of focus to really make a difference.

When times get busy though, it helps to focus on ways I can find some balance in an otherwise chaotic spell. For February I'm deciding on one simple way I can create a little more balance within our busy weeks: use the slow cooker more.

In the past I've loved using our slow cooker, especially in the winter. But for some reason this winter we haven't been pulling it out as often. Yet I know that when we get home from a busy day at work or I find myself headed out to an evening meeting the slow cooker can be a true sanity saver. 

30+ "Go-To" Recipes From Moms for Moms

If your family is like our family, you're finding yourself pretty busy these days with the holidays approaching. Every weekend is pretty full with different celebrations, and the weekdays are blend of trying to stick to routine but balancing interruptions.

It's during busy times like these that I feel like I resort to those tried and true recipes that I love and know pretty well. I know my kids will enjoy them and they won't take too long to put together.

So with that in mind I asked some of my favorite mom bloggers out there what are their everyday "go-to" recipes.

Apple Nutella Blossom Snack

Now that Big Brother is an official kindergartner, it means I need to start thinking about real after school snacks. His busy and long day mean that he arrives home pretty hungry. On the first day of school I treated all of us to this yummy snack: Apple Nutella Blossoms.

For quite a while now this has been an easy weekday dessert, 

but it also makes a great afternoon snack!

Maple Cinnamon Cream Cheese Spread

A few months ago we participated in the Tour the World by Flower blog hop with our Red Clover Painting Exploration. This time again be participating in A Tour the World blog series, this time focusing on food!

Bloggers from around the world are sharing recipes and project ideas which focus on a key food from their state or country in this Tour the World by Food blog series.

For our post we focused not only on an ingredient our state is commonly known for, but also an all time favorite in our house: maple syrup.

I grew up in a family that made maple syrup, and used it often in almost everything and anything, (moving way beyond pancakes of course!): coffee, fruit salad, oatmeal, cookies, etc. 

One Bowl Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

As we've shared before, the boys love muffins. Banana muffins are usually our go-to recipe as we almost always wind up with overripe bananas in the house. I'm always looking for ways to make them a little quicker and easier, which is why I've come up with this one bowl banana chocolate chip muffin recipe. Fast to make and easy to clean up.

When I make these, I always make them in our KitchenAid mixer, which makes the mixing fast and smooth. It had actually been a while since I made some, but we were pretty excited to enjoy a fresh batch this week.

Homemade Strawberry Shortcake

It's strawberry season here in our neck of the woods, which means it's Strawberry Shortcake time. And to me, nothing says summer quite like strawberries.

I've been playing with our recipe a little bit and tweaked our favorite biscuit recipe to make it a sweeter version for shortcake. 

Pirate Pinwheels

I had to laugh the other day when I asked Big Brother what he wanted to bring to his preschool end of year potluck, and he wanted to bring a whole bunch of "Pirate Pinwheel" sandwiches.

I laughed, because there are some parts of parenthood that you think out and plan for, but there is a whole lot of parenthood that you do on the fly. And because often, planning or no planning, it can all depend on how you spin it.

Pirate pinwheels is one of those moments for us.

Chicken Sausage Kebabs

As soon as the snow melts we pretty much start grilling, it's definitely our go-to cooking method in the summer. We love to our keep our dinners simple, so we can have even more time to play during the warmer weather. This recipe is easy to put together, cooks in very little time, and can be enjoyed by everyone in the family!

I've always enjoyed making kebabs, and love mixing up the ingredients we use. And although I enjoy using other meats, recently we discovered how easy using sausages on kebabs can be. 

Rainbow Pudding Cups

We love making this yummy treat around this time of year. Somehow it's become a family tradition on St. Patrick's Day (although don't worry, we still make the traditional Corned Beef and Cabbage and Irish Soda Bread too.) But every year it's Rainbow Pudding Cups that Big Brother asks for!

What's great about this fun treat is it's easy enough for kids to make almost totally on their own! 

Oatmeal Maple Raisin Cookies

This month we've loved experimenting with different varieties of oatmeal cookies. We've had a lot of fun playing around with our favorite recipe, adding in and taking away different ingredients.

One of the favorite varieties we've come up with is this Oatmeal Maple Raisin Cookie.

It's a cookie with a classic oatmeal cookie taste, except it has a maple twist. We did use a dry, maple sugar in addition to maple syrup. Sometimes this sugar is called "indian sugar" and can be found in baking stores and some larger grocery stores.  

Christmas Fruit Wands

We go to several holiday parties over the course of this month, which can sometimes be hard as our boys can have moments of being picky eaters. It's hard sometimes at a large, busy meal to try and get them to really eat much of anything. So I'm often trying to thing of something I can bring that I know I can get into them easily. The one thing both my kiddos consistently love are fresh fruit and veggies. We like to put a fun spin on the traditional fruit and veggie platters though to match the holiday season.

Last weekend for our first holiday event we tried making Christmas Fruit Wands.

Christmas Fruit Wands

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Last year we had a lot of fun creating our Holiday Veggie Platter for several events. 

This year we know we'll make some of those again, but we also wanted to create something new. 

So we came up with Christmas Fruit Wands. 

Maple Pumpkin Pancakes

A few weeks ago we shared on Facebook how much we've been enjoying pumpkin pancakes. A quirky thing about me is I don't really enjoy pumpkin pie. But I do LOVE all other pumpkin baked goods, and that love definitely extends to pumpkin pancakes.

Maple Pumpkin Pancakes

We shared a recipe we've always enjoyed from allrecipes for pumpkin pancakes. Over the last few weeks we've tweaked the recipe to be our own version with a special ingredient within the batter: maple syrup.

Grilled Kielbasa Dinner

Even though summer is officially "over" we still love to grill as much as we can. In fact, you'll probably find us grilling until there's at least an inch of snow on our deck. 

And although we still enjoy some of the basics, we also like to make some recipes that remind us more of fall. This grilled kielbasa dinner is perfect with all the yummy veggies coming from our fall CSA.