Some Fun Munchies

Hi Friends! 

Happy Thursday to you! It's been a busy one being in full Mom mode all week around here. My daughter was sick the first few days of the week and today my kids are home from school due to a snow/weather day! It was rainy last night and then it got really cold and icy and started snowing overnight. So school was canceled and the kiddos have been having fun. One of their cousins even came over to hang out.  But thought I'd take a quick minute to pop in and say hi and share a couple of fun recipes I made on New Year's Eve. 

As I mentioned in an earlier post - my son had friends over on NYE and my daughter had one of her friends sleep over. I made several goodies and a couple of them were recipes I tried off of pinterest. They turned out great and were really yummy! 

One of the recipes was for these mac and cheese pretzels.

I had a bowl upstairs by the cocoa station for us and Annie and her buddy. And Aaron's friends had a big bowl downstairs. I have several recipes pinned for different flavored pretzel snacks - and the basic premise is using butter flavored oil  (like for popcorn) and adding seasonings to it. In this case I added a packet of cheese from a box of mac and cheese and some garlic powder. You then pour that mix over a 15 to 16 oz bag of pretzels and stir every 15-20 minutes for about 2 hours or so...until all the oil is absorbed. And that's it! Very easy.  For the pinterest recipe for these pretzels click here.

Here are a few other kinds of pretzels you could make too, that I also have pinned. Just click on name under each photo to link to recipes.

Whiskey Pretzels (with brown sugar and butter)

Garlic Ranch Pretzels

On NYE I also made these pizza sliders and the kiddos loved them!

Click here for this recipe. 

Hope you all had such a fun and yummy New Year too! 

I've been back to healthier eating now - but some treats now and then are always okay, right? ;) 

Happy Homemaker Monday

Hello my dear wonderful Friends! Happy 2018 to you! 

Isn't the thought of a bright shiny new year always a comforting one? Like in Anne of Green Gables where her regular mantra was that each day starts brand new with no mistakes in it (yet... Lol). Well that's kind of how I feel about a brand new year. Fresh clean slate with endless potential. Sounds beautiful to me. ;)  

It's so nice to be back in this space and feeling back to "real life". I hope that you had a very blessed holiday season and that your new year has been starting right already! Our new year has already begun with a lot of hockey and right now a sick little Pumpkin. Annie is home from school today and has been fighting a belly bug since this weekend. She seems better today and hopefully will be able to play in her hockey game tonight.  My break was wonderful and filled with lots of family time, fun food, games, movies, and rest.  Including just yesterday I spent the day with my best girlfriends for our annual Christmas exchange (we always do it in January). We have been making this happen for 29 years! Pretty awesome. I love them so much and we always have THE BEST time!! 

I just wanted to mention that now that I'm back to real life - I haven't forgotten that I wanted to do a giveaway for my belated blogaversary. I will plan to post details and prizes for it by the end of the week or early next. So check back for that and how to enter! So grateful for all of you and love doing something fun as a thank you for sharing this space with me. Now on to the week ahead...

THE WEATHER OUTSIDE IS:

We have had such a cold snap (well below zero most days) for weeks! But it's a down right balmy 30's and sunny today! We're at least in for several days of weather like this - but then by the weekend back into single digits. Brrr and boo!  Is it Spring yet? Ha!

ON THE BREAKFAST PLATE THIS MORNING:

A bowl of honey nut chex cereal. Coffee. 

RIGHT NOW I AM:

Listening to the tv in the other room as Annie is resting on the couch and watching it. She loves HGTV just like her Mama. ;) Working on my weekly planner and this post

AS I LOOK OUTSIDE MY WINDOW:

The sun is shining! Ruby is out running around in the snow. It's been so cold for her and her sweet little paws lately that she often only spends a few very brief minutes out there. So she is loving this warm snap right now too, and spending extra outside time

AS I LOOK AROUND THE HOUSE:

Very BARE! It always seems so empty after the Christmas decorations come down. We took down the majority of what was left this past weekend. I haven't put out a lot of replacement "filler" yet, and will need to go shop my house a bit later and see what I want to put out for decorations right now. I know I have a few valentine's things so I know I'll throw some of that out for now. 

ON TODAY'S (& this week's) TO DO LIST:

A lot as always! Several hockey games between both kiddos - and practices. Religious ed class. Volunteer time for me up at their school.  TAlking to my hospice coordinators about scheduling my time as a new hospice volunteer! I will need to shadow a current volunteer for my first several times before I schedule my own regular day each week. Go visit my MIL. Making dinner for my FIL. Annie has a haircut this week too. Running errands, some groceries etc. Yep, back to real life!  Our water is currently shut off (gggrrr) as the city is working on some pipes. But the upside is I guess I can't do laundry right now.  Glass always 1/2 full right?  Should be back on this afternoon

 

CURRENTLY READING:

Just starting Caroline, Little House revisited - a book I received as a Christmas gift from my Aunt. She knows how much I always loved Little House on the Prairie (show and books). It's by Sarah Miller and it's historical fiction about the little house days from the perspective of Caroline - or Laura Ingalls' "Ma"

 

ON THE TV TODAY:

 I watched the Golden Globes last night - Oprah's speech was amazing! This week back to regular shows: The Good Doctor, This is Us, Will and Grace etc. But Amazing Race starting again. Kids Baking Championship I watch with Annie too

ON THE MENU THIS WEEK:

MONDAY: penne pasta, dinner rolls, salad

TUESDAY: meatloaf, au gratin potatoes, mixed veggies (for my FIL too)

WEDNESDAY: sausage breakfast bake, toast, fruit

THURSDAY: chicken and noodles dish, muffins, raw veggies & dip

FRIDAY: ? - maybe out for dinner? 

 

WHAT I AM CREATING AT THE MOMENT

Finally getting somewhere with Legacy box project. Still need to finish a bit in my Grandpa's scrapbook. Also, finally pulling out my old family scrapbooks to catch up on and working on some projects I had left off months again. Getting my mojo back. Not to mention tackling my yearly clean out of my craft space/office and organizing it better. Yay 2018!

NEW RECIPE I WANT TO TRY THIS WEEK:

I will share some recipes from New Year's Eve

TIP OF THE WEEK:

 
Might be handy tip if you have any leftover stale holiday cookies lying around ;) 

FROM THE CAMERA:

Before and after. Always so bare once the tree and "glow" gets taken down

We sure enjoyed lots of cozy time by this over the break. It was SO COLD all through the holidays

Love these pics from my FIL's house. Even though my MIL is in a facility now due to her Alzheimer's  - he is still able and wanting to live in their big old historical home. This was Christmas morning when we went over to open gifts and they were getting ready to check all of their stockings. Don't you love my stinker niece Gracie's face? Lol Can you tell she's the youngest?  :P

Then back to our house Christmas day for dinner where we host all of my Hubby's family. We did buffet style and it was nice and easy and everyone enjoyed a yummy ham dinner with all the extras! After dinner  we did the funny door prize game, per annual tradition, and it's always great for lots of laughs and fun. 

And I love this pic from Christmas with my Mom (kiddos' "Nana") because my son loves baked potatoes - so one of his gifts from her was a bag of potatoes! Lol

And we got my MIL out of the facility for the day to come to the festivities and this photo of her and my FIL sitting on our couch just goes straight to my heart. 

And New Year's Eve friends of ours weren't able to come over last minute - but my son was having a group of his friends over already.. and Annie had one of her besties sleep over. So I still made a fun dinner and snacks and we had a great time ringing in the new year with lots of crazy young people. Lol! 

And now after a season filled with lots of yummy snacks and visits to the cocoa station... I'm back to more hot tea, my intermittent fasting, and better diet habits to be healthier again. I kept my 38 pounds off over the holidays and now i'm shooting for my final 20 pounds to lose and get to my healthy dream goal! What dreams and goals do you have set for 2018??

PRAYER, INSPIRATIONAL QUOTE OR DEVOTIONAL:

I'm linking with Sandra of Diary of a SAHM for Happy Homemaker Monday.