PB & J Muffins

     I love baking muffins, so today I wanted to try my hand at making some new ones I haven't done before.  I found this great recipe from My Love For Cooking that I thought I would bake up!  They turned out really good, but I think I would scoop in more jam.

Ingredients:

2 1/4 cups all purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

2/3 cup brown sugar

6 TBsp butter (melted and cooled)

3/4 cup peanut butter

2 large eggs

1 cup milk

about 1/3 cup jam (I used raspberry)

How to make them:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Line muffin tin with paper liners.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, and brown sugar.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the melted butter, peanut butter, eggs, and milk until smooth.

Pour into the flour mixture and stir until just combined.

Fill each cup of the prepared muffin time about halfway up with batter.

Top each with a heaping teaspoon of jam, cover with remaining batter.

Each muffin cup filled to the top.

Bake for 17-20 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean and the top of the muffin springs back when lightly pressed.

Cool on wire rack then Enjoy!

Summer Bucket List: Incredible Ice Cream

     I scream, you scream, we all scream for ICE CREAM!  What better day then today to make our very own vanilla ice cream.  I found a great post on how to do it on Growing A Jeweled Rose.

Here's what you will need:

1/2 cup heavy whipping cream or half and half

1 tsp vanilla

2 1/2 tsp sugar

Ice cubes

6 TBsp Kosher salt

2 Ziploc sandwich size bags

Ziploc gallon size bag

How to make it:

Pour the whipping cream, vanilla, and sugar into a tightly sealed Ziploc sandwich bag.  

Pressing the air out as you seal it.

Then put this into another lightly sealed sandwich bag.

Fill the Ziploc gallon size resealable bag half-way full of ice cubes 

and mix with the 6 TBsp of the coarse kosher salt.

Then put the sealed sandwich-size bag into the middle of the ice and seal the larger bag.

(Double up the gallon size bags as well, especially if the kiddos help out)

To make the ice cream, just start shaking the bag!  

It needs to be shaken for at least 5-10 minutes or until the ice cream forms.

Liam I even played catch with our ice cream bag!

After, what seem like FOR-EV-ER according to Liam, our ice cream was ready to enjoy!

I turned it into a yummy sundae complete with chocolate sauce and rainbow sprinkles!

He was so proud of his special dessert he made.

After a few bites...brain freeze!

Guess he was in a hurry to enjoy his treat!

It turned out so yummy, maybe we can try making chocolate or strawberry next time!

Baked Eggs

      Ok, I don't know about you, but I love me some poached eggs!  Recently, I found this recipe on Use Real Butter for baked eggs, I wondered it they would turn out just as creamy and buttery as poached eggs.  I didn't do the exact recipe from the post, but improvised with what I had in the fridge.

Here's my first attempt....

Baked Eggs with Herb Parmesan &  Prosciutto 

My 2nd attempt...

Baked Eggs with Cheddar Cheese & Bacon

Here's the original recipe..I'm definitely gonna try it next!

Here's what you need:

1 TBsp unsalted butter (softened)

1/4 cup Parmesan cheese (grated)

1/2 tsp fresh rosemary (minced)

1/2 tsp fresh thyme (minced)

1/2 tsp fresh parsley (minced)

8 eggs

4 strips bacon (cooked and crumbled)

1/4 cup kale (sautéed and chopped)

salt & peper to taste

How to make them:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Butter four ramekins.

Combine cheese and herbs in a small bowl.

Crack two eggs into a bowl or cup, taking care not to break the yolks.

Pour the two eggs into a ramekin and repeat until four ramekins have eggs.

Sprinkle bacon, kale, and cheese-herb blend over the eggs.

Finish with a dash of salt and freshly ground pepper.

Bake the eggs for 10-15 minutes until the eggs have achieved desired doneness

(less time for runny yolks, more time for firm yolks)

Serve immediately and Enjoy!

Summer Bucket List: Tubular Tunnels

     I love the warm weather, but sometimes it's just TOO hot to play outside, so today we busted out the  fold up tunnels my mom bought for Liam when he was younger.  

Peek-a-boo, I see you!

A little bigger then the last time he played with these.

Kinley's first time in the tunnels and she loved them.

Kinley and Liam kept crawling after each other.

There he goes...

Look at that smile, she is having a blast!

Silly kiddos having fun, another great activity!

Summer Bucket List: Prickly Plants

     This morning Liam and I made our very own terrarium.  I found this cute little terrarium kit at Michael's with seeds to grow some Venus Fly Traps.  I've never seen them up close and thought Liam would get a kick out of watching them grow!  Plus, it counts as an educational Bucket List activity!

Following the directions, of course!

Hydrating the soil to plant the seeds in.

Time to plant them!

All done!

It can take between 1 to 3 months for them to grow.

Need to keep them in the sunlight and the soil moist.

As soon as we see some growth, I'll make sure to make another post!

Summer Bucket List: Turbo-Tastic

     What's more fun then going to the movies during the summer? And of course with all these great kid friendly movies coming it out.  So, today Liam and I went to go see Turbo with a friend and her son.

I know, I know...you're aren't suppose to bring in outside food or drink, 

but I do anyway.  I made these really cute snack and surprise

goodie bags for the kiddos.  I put some really yummy

Angie's Sweet & Salty Popcorn, Simply Fruit Snacks,

Jammy Sammy, SunMaid Yogurt Raisins,

Tootsie Pop, and some Turbo Racing Vehicles!

They LOVED them!

I just had to get some pictures of Liam with Turbo!

I think he likes his new surprises!

I tried to take a picture of us, but you know how movie theater lighting goes.

I'll just say it was a very cute movie. 

Liam really liked it a lot, me too!

Summer Bucket List: Fun Family Day

     Today, we headed out to the hubby's work for the All American Family Day!  We ate some yummy BBQ from Sparky's, listened to a great band preform, even saw some of the hubby's coworkers get some cream pies in the face, and there was a lot of activities for the kiddos to entertain themselves.  A bouncy house, huge slip 'n slide, firetrucks to climb through, wood craft projects sponsored by Lowe's, and some games to play.  Both kiddos had a great time! Liam loved the slip 'n slide! Kinley so wanted to go down it too, she is such a water baby!  We might need to rent one just for us, that would be FUN!

On our way to the fun family festivities that await us....

(Sorry no pictures at the event, no photography allowed)

After all the fun in the sun, we headed to Caliche's for some yummy cool

frozen custard sundaes.

The hubby tried the Spicy Mango Lemonade.

I went with some vanilla custard topped with Butterfinger!

YUM-O!

Liam enjoyed his vanilla custard with brownie bites on top!

What a great day!

Summer Bucket List: Mighty Museum

     Today, we took the kiddos to the Nature & Science Museum, educational and fun! Another activity to mark off the Summer Bucket List.

This was outside, I thought it was pretty.

Let the learning begin...

One of Liam's favorite exhibits!

Kinley loved it too, she kept saying her version of "ball" 

and kept reaching out wanting to touch it.

So cute!

He loves anything and everything space!

This was really cool.  

It shows the speed of the different planets orbiting the sun.

What a beautiful Amethyst Geode.

Lots of lizards live in the desert!

Look at all those turtles...

Kinley LOVED watching the turtles the best!

Dinosaur fossilized tracks

WOW! Look at that Dimetrodon!

Lots of Rattlesnakes here too!

Had to take a picture of the desert fox!

Liam liked looking all the exhibits, 

especially when daddy picked him up to see them closer.

This T-Rex skull was HUGE!!

AHHHHH! WATCH OUT LIAM! Hehe

We also walked around the Museum of Art,

but I couldn't take any pictures in there.

Overall, it was a great family day out.