Apple-Cinnamon Oat Muffins

It’s been a long time since I’ve written a post! It was one of my New Years goals to blog more and here I am on the 29th of January writing my first post…better late than never right?

I want to share these yummy muffins I made a couple weeks ago. They are apple cinnamon muffins, they are both yummy & healthy!

Ingredients:
•2 cups old-fashioned oats
•1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (I think I’ll use whole wheat next time just to make them a little more healthier)
•1/2 cups brown sugar
•2 tsp baking powder
•3/4 tsp baking soda
•3/4 tsp salt
•1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
•1 cup buttermilk (I never have buttermilk on hand so I mixed some lemon juice & regular milk together)
•2 Tbsp vegetable oil
•1 large egg, beaten
•1-2 medium apples, shredded or chopped (I had a little of both shredded & chopped)
•1/2 cups walnuts, chopped (I left this out)

Here’s what you do:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees & grease a standard muffin pan.

2. In large bowl combine the first 7 ingredients (the dry ingredients)

3. In a medium bowl, beat the buttermilk, oil & egg until well blended then stir in your apples. Add the apple mixture to the flour mixture & stir just until the flour mixture is moistened. *It will be thick & lumpy* Stir in the walnuts if you want to add those.

4. Scoop into muffins pans (I used an ice cream scoop & that worked great!) Bake 20-25 minutes or until the muffins begin to brown & you can insert a toothpick and it comes out clean.

5. Remove muffins from pan & serve warm with a big glass of milk!

Even baby Thomas enjoyed these muffins!

I had quite a mess to clean up afterwards, but he seemed to enjoy them

My next post will hopefully be SOON & will be about the awesome freezer breakfast burritos I made!

Crock Pot Banana Bread

I think I’ve mentioned how much I love my crock pot before but that can’t be said enough…I LOVE my crock pot.

Tonight we had dinner from the crock pot then after dinner I decided we needed some banana bread (since we had some brown bananas sitting on the counter) Of course I did not want to turn the oven on to make bread so I decided to head to the crock pot again & let me tell you it was the right choice! Our apartment stayed cooled and we just had a yummy night snack

I had a flour issue that completly destroyed the kitchen so my “simple” banana bread turned into a huge mess…

I don’t normally make THAT big of a mess but this bread was worth it!

Ingredients:

• 2 cups flour
• 1 TSP baking soda
• 1 TSP salt
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 3 ripe bananas (large), mashed
• 2 TBSP + 2 TSP milk
• 1 TSP vanilla
• 1/2 cup nuts if you prefer (I left them out because I didn’t have any on hand)

Crock pot goes to HIGH. Grease a meatloaf pan (or other metal pan that will fit in your crock pot). I used a medium meatloaf pan and it worked perfectly. Combine flour, baking soda & salt in a small bowl. Add nuts if you want. In another bowl, cream together butter & sugar, then add eggs. Mix in the milk and vanilla. Mix throughly then stir in mashed bananas. Slowly add the flour mixture and stir until combined.  Add the fixins to the meatloaf pan and put in the crock pot with the lid on for 2-3 hours. Mine stayed in about 2.5 hours. Don’t open the crock pot for at least 2 hours. Mine has a clear lid so I was able to peak through to check on it.

Here’s what my finished product looked like: (I don’t claim to be good at photographing food :p)

It was moist and delicious BUT Jacob thought it was missing something so I threw together a glaze of powered sugar, milk & vanilla to pour on top of the pieces. I’m assuming since he had 3 pieces, the glaze was the icing on the cake (literally).

 

-hillary

 

 

Here’s a preview…

Here’s a little peak at what is going on inside our apartment:

Maybe tomorrow I’ll have a full post on all the exciting re-arranging that has been going on!

-hillary

 

 

Time for Football!

Whew it’s been a WHILE since I’ve done a post! Tomorrow, I will let everyone know what I’ve been up to during all this time.

It’s time to finally enjoy some football; the Tennessee Titans first preseason game is tonight @ 9! So I made a little festive pizza to get us ready for the game.

I thought it turned out pretty cute, and it couldn’t have been any easier! I took a store-bought crust and even store-bought pizza sauce (I know I should have made my own), then threw on some mozzarella cheese. I arranged the pepperoni in the shape of a football and cut little strips of Swiss cheese to look like “lace” on the football!

It’s almost game time! Go Titans!

-Hillary

Keeping up with Thomas’ first year

I have tried twice to complete Becky Higgins Project Life. If you don’t know what it is, it’s an easy way to record your day-to-day life. Here is a link to the site: http://beckyhiggins.com/products/

I always just start forgetting about it after about 3 months so I have two albums with about 3 months worth of pictures in them. When I was pregnant I decided I would do this for Thomas’ first year and I am determined to finally finish an album! So far I have all the pictures in up until today! Still waiting on the journaling cards that match my album to be back in stock.

Here’s a peek inside, all the pictures are in just no journaling yet; keeping up with it in my planner for now:

My other project for the day was a chicken-wire frame I’ve had in my closet for 2 years! I spray-painted it black, put some vinyl on it & got some black clothes pins; this is what I ended up with:

Now I can easily change out pictures of my cute little man!

 

-hillary

Sweet Baby Thomas

I have always heard about how fast children grow up but my goodness I never could have imagined how quickly babies actually grow! My little man has gone from this:

to this:

in just 11 weeks!!

He is already 13.5 pounds wearing 3-6 month clothes & size 2 diapers!

Here are some things Thomas likes at 2 months old:

-EATING (This is his favorite, & he actually gets quite angry if he is not fully fed.)

-When his mommy & daddy sing to him (We must be great singers, right?)

-Watching TV (He’s gonna be a FRIENDS fan!)

-Bath time

-Getting his picture made (or I at least like taking his picture)

-Rocking & bouncing

-Walking outside

-Sleeping! (finally!)

He is generally a happy baby but there are some things that are sure to make him fussy:

-Being hungry (Even the slighest little rumbly tumbly can set him off)

-Getting out of the bath (It’s a race to see how fast I can get him dressed again so he will stop screaming.  Maybe one day he’ll realize he has to get dressed again!)

-His expensive swing! (But he loves the hand-me-down swing at my mom’s house…)

One more picture of my little man:

Have a great weekend!

-hillary

Onesie with a personal touch

Since little Thomas is only 2 months old, Jacob was able to enjoy his very first Father’s Day this year. I had to make a special present for this momentous occasion; I decided on dressing my Tater in a super special outfit. I LOVE personalized onesie’s, but they are so expensive. So I made my own (not the actual onesie just the words on it). This is what I came up with:

I used my Silhouette Cameo to cut out the words; they have great Iron on material perfect for this sort of project. The only trick is you have to mirror the words unless you want your onesie to read backwards

Jacob absolutely loved it, and his entire family “oohed” and “awwed” at Thomas’s new little outfit.  It was the perfect subtle Father’s Day present!

Shadow Box Frame

2 posts in 1 day & finally a post not about food

I saw a cute shadow box on pinterest that showcased babies going home outfit. My little tater has outgrown his, of course, and I couldn’t just give it away so I decided to frame it:

I put his coming home outfit and our 3 hospital bracelets inside. I used my Silhouette to cut out his name and put on the front.

Quick & easy keepsake!

-Hillary

Chicken Alfredo…in the crock pot!

Okay, I LOVE my crock pot! At one point I even had 3. But now I have gotten down to having just one, a really great programmable one. I’m always on the lookout for great crock pot recipes. It’s my favorite kitchen tool to use, especially this time of the year since it’s SO hot, and our oven HEATS up our little 2-bedroom apartment. The crock pot is the perfect solution! So keep your eyes peeled for lots of  crock pot recipe posts!

The other night I decided to try a chicken alfredo recipe that I had stumbled upon on allrecipes.com. It was YUMMY! If you are not a fan of creamy delicious sauce then you probably won’t like this recipe.

(Photographing food is a very difficult thing to do and it probably doesn’t help that I took this picture on my iPhone.)

I altered a few things based on what I had/thought:

Ingredients:

• 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 (.7oz) package of dry Italian dressing mix
• clove of garlic (I used 1/4tsp of minced garlic)
• 1 pkg of cream cheese, softened
• can of condensed cream of chicken soup
• can of condensed cream of mushroom soup (or use real mushrooms)
• 1 pkg of spaghetti noodles

Directions:

• Spray your slow cooker with non-stick cooking spray, this makes clean-up much easier. Throw your chicken breasts in the slow cooker. In a small bowl mix together water & Italian dressing mix then pour over chicken. Sprinkle the garlic over chicken. Then place the lid on your slow cooker and cook on low for 4 hours.
• After 4 hours I took a fork and “cut up” my chicken into smaller pieces, you could shred the chicken if you want, it should be tender enough.
• Combine the softened cream cheese and cream of chicken soup together. (I added 1/2 can of cream of mushroom soup also) Pour over chicken. If you are using real mushrooms add those now. Cover and cook on low for another house.
• Prepare your noodles as directed on the package.
• Serve your chicken and sauce over the noodles and enjoy!

-Hillary

Chicken Parm Pasta Toss

This is a Rachel Ray recipe I found a few years ago and made last night. Normally I stay away from her recipes because as great as most of them look, they normally require TONS of ingredients or ingredients I’ve never heard of before. But I decided to give this one a try. I’m so glad I did because it is TASTY! It makes enough for an army though! The actual recipe says it serves 4, but it could easily serve 6-8 if not more. The original recipe also calls for arugula– I have no idea what arugula is or where you find it at the store so I just left it out completely. Tasted just fine!

What you need:

• 1 lb whole wheat penne
• 3tbsp EVOO
• 1lb chicken breast, chopped
• 2 tsp poultry seasoning
• 2-3 garlic gloves (I just use 3/4 tsp minced garlic)
• pepper
• 1 large red onion
• 2 pints grape tomatoes
• 2 cups basil, chopped (I just use 1/4-1/3 cup of dried basil)
• 1 cup shredded Parmigiano Reggiano cheese (I couldn’t find this cheese so I used Italian cheese)

Cook pasta al dente; before draining reserve about a mug-full of water for later.
Using a large skillet heat the EVOO. Season the chicken with poultry seasoning, salt & pepper; then add to the preheated skillet.

Cook chicken until golden brown then add the onions & garlic, cook about 5 minutes or until onions are softened.

Pour in the grape tomatoes and put a lid on the pan. The tomatoes are supposed to bust open on their own creating the sauce. However I’m pretty sure I’ve only ever had like 2 tomatoes bust on their own so after 6-10 minutes I take the lid off and with a wooden spoon bust open the tomatoes myself.

Add a little salt & pepper then throw in the cooked pasta and the mug-full of water you saved from earlier. Leave it on the burner while stirring everything together then remove from heat & add the basil and the cheese.

Serve with some bread and/or salad and enjoy!

-Hillary