Chicken Salad Attempt #2

I have mentioned before that I am on a quest for the perfect chicken salad. I'm super picky about chicken salad...

I found a recipe, probably on Pinterest, and tried it out. 

This is me excited to be "cooking" for once, yes making chicken salad is cooking to me....

The recipe is:

2 cups of shredded chicken, I used the kind in a can

1 cup of chopped celery (I'm not sure I used a whole cup, I got tired of chopping)

1 Tbsp of lemon juice

(being stalked by a dinosaur, as most things are in this house)

3/4 cup of Mayo but it was a tiny bit dry so I added a big spoonful more

and then 2 hard boiled eggs

Mix it and WALAA!

I believe this recipe is definitely a winner for me, the only thing I might add next time is some chopped pickles, or at least pickle juice.

Here it is in sandwich form... (I'm not the best picture taker)

And dinosaur form...

So that these cuties would eat it!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Brownie

YUMMY!

Just a warning if you are watching what you eat for a wedding, swimsuit season or whatever reason, this may be a bad idea. If you don't care, it's a wonderful idea!

I found it on Pinterest of course and the recipe came from this blog.

It is actually so sweet that I could only eat a little bit (every 5 minutes).

Ingredients for the brownie part:

4 oz unsweetened chocolate finely chopped

1 cup butter, melted

2 cups brown sugar

4 large eggs

2 tsp. vanilla

1 cup flour

Ingredients for the cookie dough:

3/4 cup butter

3/4 cup brown sugar

3/4 cup granulated sugar

3 Tbsp milk

1 1/2 tsp milk

1 1/2 cup flour

1 1/2 chocolate chips 

I hope I don't get in trouble but I totally copied the directions from the recipe girl website...

Directions:

1. Prepare the brownies: Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Spray a 9x13-inch pan with nonstick spray. In a medium glass bowl, melt chocolate in the microwave in short bursts of 30 seconds; stir after each burst and remove from microwave when melted and smooth. Set aside to cool slightly. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the butter and brown sugar. Add the eggs and vanilla extract and whisk those in too. Mix in melted chocolate. Whisk in the flour and mix just until combined (don't over-mix). Spread batter into prepared pan. Bake 25 to 35 minutes. Watch closely and remove from oven when toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let cool completely.

2. Prepare the cookie dough: In a medium bowl, use an electric mixer to combine butter, brown sugar and white sugar. Mix in milk and vanilla. Mix in flour just until combined. Stir in chocolate chips.

3. Spread cookie dough over the cooled brownies. Refrigerate until the dough is quite firm. It's okay to speed up the process and place it in the freezer too. The firmer the dough, the easier it will be to cut into neat squares. Use a sharp knife to cut the brownies. You may need to wipe the knife off with a paper towel in between cuts since the fudgy brownies and cookie dough will tend to stick to the knife a bit. These brownies are best to serve placed inside cupcake papers and served with a fork.

4. If you'd like to add chocolate drizzle on top, melt 1/2 cup chocolate chips with 1 teaspoon of shortening in the microwave; stir until smooth. Scoop the melted chocolate into a zip baggie and snip off the corner. Squeeze the bag to drizzle the chocolate on top of each brownie. Sprinkle additional chocolate chips on top, if desired.

*just an apology, this was so yummy that I forgot to take a picture :( follow the link to the place where I found the recipe up above and look at it there! xo

I Miss You!

I miss finding fun things to do to post but my time is crunched :( 

In an effort to make a little extra money I decided to try to restock my Etsy shop so I thought I would share.

I would absolutely love to have my own store someday, and not just the sad little Etsy one that has no customers. I made up a name for it... Bizantily! It is not a real word but it makes me smile whenever I say it.

So until I have a real one I have this little Bizantily one... please feel free to give any suggestions or comments on how it can be improved!

Thanks gals and here's my link...

Bizantily

Quick Bean Soup

This stuff was brought to work by a coworkers husband... I of course stole the recipe immediately. This is SO easy and SO good!

What you will need is...

1 can of rotel

2 cans of ranch beans

3 cans of minestrone soup

1 can of corn

1 lb of ground meat (beef, venison, turkey, whatever)

This is so simple that you don't need pictures but I'm a nerd and took them anyway.

1. Brown your meat of choice

2. Dump all the cans in a big pot 

(that statement sounds amazingly intelligent doesn't it?)

3. Add your meat to the pot

4. Let it cook for 1-2 hours on low-ish (more intelligence)

and YUMM....

My whole family loves this, which is amazing and it freezes really well so if you don't need so much, just save it for leftovers!

Cream Cheese Pinwheel things...

OK this fantastic recipe is from the best mother-in-law in the world!

So simple, so quick, so delicious

you will need a package of 20 soft tortillas

The middle stuff is...

16 ounces of cream cheese at room temp.

3 green onions, chopped up

bacon bits

the secret ingredient is 1 tsp of Accent...

 I had never heard of this stuff until last night... it's kind of like salt but has amazing flavor.

>Mix it all together with an electric mixer

>spread it onto a tortilla

>roll the tortilla up pretty tight

>then cut the tortilla into bite size slices and put on a plate

I would do them the night before so that they can sit in the fridge over night but it's not necessary

SO Yummy!

The awesome thing about this recipe is you can add whatever you want, it doesn't have to be green onions and bacon, get creative. 

You also wouldn't have to roll them up in tortillas, It can be served as a dip with some crackers.

Christmas S'mores Cookies

I saw a recipe for this on Pinterest but didn't actually read it. I just used my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe and added marshmallows and then baked it on top of a graham cracker.

Here's the recipe for my chocolate chip cookies...

1 c butter flavored shortening

2/3 c sugar

2/3 c brown sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp baking soda

2 c flour

1 c chocolate chips

then I added 1 cup of marshmallows and put the dough on top of half a graham cracker. Baked at 350 for about 9-10 minutes depending on how soft or crunchy you like your cookies.

Now this is what your cookies will look like if you dance too much while baking and forget the baking soda :( So dance responsibly

This is what they're supposed to look like...

You may be wondering why I called these Christmas S'mores cookies... It is because I wore this apron while baking them!

Twinkle Lights!

SO sorry about the 2 month hiatus! I love my job but between that, my boys and myself, I stay super busy! I did some fun projects over Thanksgiving that I wanted to share...

This is my favorite! All you do is get a string of Christmas lights and ribbon. I used a short line with 35 lights and ribbon is almost always half off at hobby lobby!

 The first steps are very important. Put in a Christmas movie, get a snack and some comfy clothes on. 

Now figure out how long you want your ribbons to be, cut, and start tying. 

On the green and teal line I tied a single knot. On the red and green line I did double knot. It's totally up to you.

For some reason I had a little pile of burned out Christmas lights and I saw the cutest idea on Pinterest... I painted on my homemade Mod Podge

 (love this stuff) and then just sprinkled on some glitter, let them dry 

and then put them in a bowl.

 So simple, so cute.

And last I did a little garland out of pom poms...