Kid Approved Quinoa Mini Pancakes

As part of our New Years Resolution, we promised ourselves to eat better.  We are doing just that! (And by we, I mean "I") My three year old is the pickiest child I have ever seen, so I am bound and determined to disguise his horrible eating habits with more nutritional look-alikes.

Quinoa is a high protein grain often substituted for rice. It packs a powerful punch in these delicious and satisfying mini pancakes! I absolutely love them, and my hard to please son did too! Woop woop!

Ingredients:

1 C. Flour
2 tbsp Sugar
2 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp Salt
Dash of Nutmeg
1 Egg
1 C. Buttermilk
1 tsp Vanilla
1 C. Cooked Quinoa
2 tbsp Butter, Melted

Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and dash of nutmeg in large bowl.  In a separate bowl, combine egg, buttermilk, vanilla and butter. Wisk together and mix into dry ingredients. Fold in the cooked quinoa and mix well. Heat your pan/griddle over medium heat. Spray with cooking spray or melt 1 tsp butter for cooking. Pour on desired size pancakes and cook until bubbly on top. (Edges should start getting dry) Flip and cook until done.

These go great with blueberries inside, bananas on top, and with all kinds of syrup. We often use raw local honey instead of syrup as a healthier option. Enjoy!


Bless This Damn Mess ;-)

Slimming Lunch Smoothies

I SWEAR by these. I make one in place of one meal every day. Usually its easiest for me to make it at lunch. I have been drinking a smoothie a day for about two weeks now and can already tell a difference in many ways. It revs up my energy levels, I have lost four pounds (most around my "muffin top"), my hair seems flawlessly healthier and my body feels healthier too. I have never stuck to any kind of "diet" in my life because, well, I hate them. I am STILL not sick of these.

I buy the frozen unsweetened fruit. (blackberries, blueberries, strawberries, raspberries) This can look a bit pricey, about 10.00 a bag, but when you think about it, its lunch for a week. Not too bad. Bananas I like fresh. Strawberries, when in season, are also much better fresh.

Recipe:

3 tbsp ground flaxseed
3 tbsp oats
1 C. Plain nonfat yogurt (can use greek)
1/2 C. Blueberries
1/2 C. Blackberries
1/2 C Raspberries
2 C. Fresh Spinach (grinds down to nothing)
1 Banana
1/2 Fresh Avocado
1/2 C Fruit juice/Milk/Water

Add any fresh ingredients first, then add frozen. Add some juice, water or milk to thin it out a little.  Add one or two ice cubes on top. If using all fresh ingredients, add a bit more ice. No one wants a warm smoothie. These are very easy and you can use whatever fruit you like. Add whatever veggies you want. I use flaxseed in mine because its packed with fiber and nutrients you need. Yogurt is good for your gut, so I toss some of that in there too. The oatmeal maintains my hunger longer.
Enjoy! I am enjoying mine right now! :-)

7 Reasons Why I Wish I Had a Daughter

           See this picture right here? This is exactly why I need a daughter! This is totally something I would say. Never in a million years did I think that I was going to have TWO boys. (I say it like I have twenty.) It just wasn't in the cards, or so I thought. I have four older sisters. FOUR. I mean, my Dad was cursed or something. Then I came into the world, my beautiful little self, all wrapped up in a cute blue blanket. My dad turned to the nurse and said "It's a girl, isn't it?" The nurse smiled and said "Yeah, sorry, we ran out of pink blankets". My poor Dad!

          Of my four sisters, three of them had kids. All girls. Six of them to be exact. Six nieces. And I have two boys? Did the curse switch right on over to me? Who knows. But there are so many reasons why a woman who has only boys wants a daughter. Here are mine.

1.) So I can play barbies. Ladies, if you aren't playing barbies with your kids...you aren't doing it right! So fun. I really have no idea who invented the millions of damn little green soldiers, but you can NOT play with them. I have tried! Dumbest toy ever. And have you ever stepped on one? SHIT. Worse than lego's!!

2.) TEA PARTIES!! I mean sure, I could probably get away with having a tea party with my son. Until his Dad finds out about it and leaves me. (He wouldn't really do that.) You see, in order to have a tea party, you have to dress up in your finest wardrobe. I'm talking feather boas around the neck, huge fake clip on earings, rings galore, hair all up in a crazy mess, tutu-s, the whole nine yards.  Invite over some teddy bears, maybe the barbies down the hall. Ask them if they would "like one lump or two" of sugar and you my friends...have yourselves a party!

3.) Hair. HAIR. Girls have hair. Boys do not. (Or in my opinion, Should NOT...no offense to all you weird Moms out there with boys who look like girls!) Long pretty locks to dress up every day. Sure, it probably gets old. Mothers of daughters probably cringe at the thought of having to "fix her damn hair" every morning, but I wish I could.

4.) Movies. I could sit down and watch Cinderella or Tangled or the whole damn collection of princess movies. No joke. Ask my Husby. He knows. I'll be on the couch trying to con Raylan into watching Tangled, "Say you wanna watch it, Raylan. Tell Daddy thats what you wanna watch!". He does and my husband will glare over at me, smile, and say "This is Mommy's favorite movie...". Haha!

5.) Pretty in pink. I love pink. I love purple. I don't mind blue's and red's and such, but I miss pink. I used to love dressing up my nieces when I would watch them. Searching their closet for the prettiest dress they owned. That's the stuff.

6.) Bedrooms. My boys bedrooms are "totes adorbs". (Totally adorable) I painted one blue and one gray. Raylan has his decorated in everything sports. The bedding, the walls, even his big football bean bag chair. I love it. Greysons is decorated in blues and grays. Baby themed yet, given he is only 5 months old. I just sometimes wish I could decorate a room in obnoxious pinks and whites with feathers and zebra prints, enough to make a grown man say "Holy shit, it's like hello kitty projectile vomited on every damn surface in here!". Yeah...that sounds about right.

7.) Because I am one. I get the girl thing. I understand them better, most of the time. I really have no clue what I am doing with my three year old half of the time. I never took care of a boy child at this age, not for long amounts of time anyway. Should he still be sitting on the potty or standing? Hell if I know. Is he supposed to "push it down" when he sits? Hell if I know. Is he really supposed to go around killing imaginary things with the toy guns I never should have bought him? Hell...I just don't know. I know what girls can do and should do. I am one. Easy enough.

Will I ever have a girl? Probably not. At this rate, I am not sure I want three kids. I know I damn sure don't want a mini van. Are these 7 reasons- reason enough? There are plenty more reasons, but these are the most adorable. A girl can only dream. But I sure do love my boys. They are sweet little devils. I wouldn't trade them for anything in the world. I have learned so much from them and will continue to for the rest of my life. The End...

Bless This Damn Mess ;-)

Valentine's Day Eggs & Toast

Valentine's Day Eggs & Toast

Such an adorable idea! My husband hates eggs (oddball) but I would love it if someone made it for me. (Even though I just did, not the same! Just sayin'!) And saving the cutouts and putting jelly on them is very favorable with my three year old! This was pretty easy. If you know how to fry an egg, you can make this easy peasy!

Ingredients:

2 eggs-Separated
3 pieces of toast
Butter
Salt/Pepper as needed
Jelly/Jam (optional)


First off, do NOT just dump the egg into the heart shaped toast. It will not look this if you do, so chillax a little. Toast one side of your bread on your pan or griddle, then cut out your desired shapes. Toasted side up, place bread back on griddle and slowly pour the egg white into the shapes. Take your egg yolk and gently set into the middle of the heart shape with the egg white. Fry until sunny side up. Fill letters (optional, just the heart toasts are adorbs!) with egg white, cook thoroughly and serve hot! Walla! Breakfast made with love! So damn cute. Enjoy!

Cinnamon Roll Pancakes

Cinnamon Roll Pancakes

Oh what can I say about these delicious circular flap jacks of love. These were not as easy as I expected them to be. The recipe I used needed some tweaking big time...but in the end. OH my peas, they were amazing. Enough jibber jabber, there are starving people in Wisconsin that need to make these. ;-)


Ingredients:

PANCAKES

4 C. Flour
2 tsp. Baking Powder
2 tsp. Salt
4 tbsp. Vegetable Oil
4 Eggs
1/4 C. Milk
Dash of cinnamon
Small dash of nutmeg

CINNAMON FILLING

6 tbsp. Butter, melted
1 1/2 C. Brown Sugar
2 tbsp. Cinnamon

CREAM CHEESE GLAZE

4 oz. Cream Cheese
1/2 C. Butter
1 1/2 C. Powdered Sugar
1 tsp Vanilla
Small dash of cinnamon

First things first, make your cinnamon filling. Melt butter and stir in your brown sugar and cinnamon. Some people may use piping bags to put it in, but I am no Betty dang Crocker. I use a zip lock bag. Once mixed, pour it into the bag and stick it in the fridge until you are ready for it.

Next, I prepare my cream cheese glaze JUST so its almost ready when the pancakes are hot. You dont have to yet though.

Mix up the pancakes. Dry ingredients in one bowl, wet in the another, then combine. Feel free to use a mixer for this if you want.

Spray a pan/griddle with nonstick spray and/or use veg. oil before pouring in pancake mix. Heat over medium and pour in pancakes any size you want. Now pull out that bag of cinnamon mix and while its still gooey on top, make a swirl around the top of the pancake. Wait until its nice and bubbly and carefully flip. Cook a little in the cinnamon side and flip it onto a plate. (The cinnamon may burn, carefully wipe out as needed)

For the cream cheese glaze:
Melt butter and cream cheese in microwave, mix in vanilla, powdered sugar and a dash of cinnamon (optional) until well blended and fill the cinnamon "craters" in your pancakes. Serve hot and enjoy! So good! So damn good!


Hope you liked this recipe. There are plenty more to come! Check back soon.

Bless this damn mess! ;-)

Winter Hat

Good Morning everyone! I am almost through my first cup of coffee on this horribly cold day. It's like the damn ice age out there! My dogs stayed out for a whole 2 minutes and I almost died just opening the door for them. What is going on with this weather?!

But have no fear! Amanda's here! I have spent hours searching the internet for the perfect way to stay warm in this terrible weather. ( Not really, it took me two seconds...) I'm pretty sure, I can see one of my sisters making this and another one wearing it. Seriously, have you ever seen such a wonderful hat?

Ugh. So fantastic! Bahaha!

Anywho, I should get to chugging my coffee before the little's wake up. Have a great morning, and stay warm my friends! 

Housewife Rant..

Did you ever have one of those days when nothing goes the way it's supposed to? That would be my house today. I woke up with every intention to bust ass and get all the chores done, make a fancy breakfast for my little, and it just somehow went right down the pooper. But I kept on trying. "Raylan, go to the bathroom"...and he hides in his fort. EVERY TIME.


His fort is a bunch of poles with little balls you stick them into and cover the whole thing with a blanket. Turns out fort in toddler means "flat out raging tantrum" because if you make them leave said fort, well...you get me. Not pretty. SO I pull the blanket off after the fifth time and I start pulling the fort apart. Pole by pole. He watches in amazement. It takes until i'm about halfway through that he really gets upset. "Look what you've done!!! LOOK AT THIS MOMMY!! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!" I softly asked if he was going to go potty again. "NO!" Okay... well only big boys get forts.

I make it half way through my day, getting as much as I can accomplished (without water). The landlord was over fixing the pipes under the house. I realized I had to run and get formula. I live 30 minutes to the nearest anything...this is going to be fun. Run that errand, get back home and I start assembling the damn Pez Woody I got for Raylan at the store. I'm so picky!!! I carefully put one piece in at a time, make sure its all in there good so it works right when you tip his head back. Perfect. Hand it to Raylan, BAM!! Candy flies everywhere.

This picture totally cracks me up! Bahaha! 

Chicken Chili

Chicken Chili

I had chicken chili a long time ago and it was the best chili I ever ate in my life. I had no idea how to make it, so I improvised with what I had and still to this day it turns out amazing. SO easy too!

1 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts

1 package chicken chili seasoning

2 cans diced tomatoes

2 cans ranch style or chili beans

1 can corn

1 small onion, diced

8 oz velveeta cheese

salt, pepper, chili powder to taste

Boil chicken until cooked and set aside to cool. In a large pot, combine seasoning, tomatoes, beans, corn and onion. Let simmer. When chicken is cooled, shred it with a fork. ( You can shred it however you want really. With whatever you want. ;-) Place shredded chicken in the pot of chili and let cook for about 30 minutes. (Gets the chicken nice and seasoned) Cut your velveeta cheese into cubes and throw them in to melt, and BAM! Super delicious, seems like I worked all day on this CHILI! You can adjust all of this to taste, add some bell peppers, fresh tomatoes, etc. I like it simple. Enjoy!

Jalapeno Popper Chicken.

Ooh my goodness. What can I say about this. It's like heaven in your mouth. If you like jalapeno poppers, you have GOT to try this. So good! So damn good! Lets not waste time, you should be cooking this already!

2 large boneless chicken breasts
1/4 C. Cream Cheese
1/3 C. Shredded Cheddar cheese
2 Jalapenos ribs removed, seeded and diced
1 Egg
1 Cup Frenchs' French Fried onions, crumbled (Yeah Baby!!)

Preheat your oven to 375. Grease a baking dish/sheet.

Mix together cream cheese, shredded cheddar and jalapenos in a small bowl. Filet each chicken breast enough to stuff in the cheese mixture. Now stuff 'em good and full. I just ate and this is already making me hungry. I'm such a fatty on the inside. LoL! Once stuffed, mix your egg in a bowl and crumble your french fried onions and place them in another bowl. Dunk the chicken (carefully)  in the egg and fully coat, and then into the crumbled fried onions. Place on baking sheet and bake for about 25-30 minutes or until cooked through.

I made potatoes with mine, you can really use whatever you want. Rice, any veggie, its going to go good with just about anything! OM nom nom. You're welcome!! Enjoy!


Bless this damn mess. ;-)

Pigs Feet Stew

Made ya look!! Ugh. Honestly. What do people use these for that they have more than ONE jar in the grocery store? You know what, no, I don't even care.  It's super gross. But I had to. I have a sister who used to collect everything 'pigs' when she was little. She thought they were the cutest things in the world and I like messing with her. Pigs feet stew. Baha!

Anyway, I hope everyone is having a good day. I indulged in a glass or three of wine last night and can totally feel it today. I woke up, made my coffee as usual, poured myself a cup and OH MY GOD it tasted horrible. I dumped that out, heated up some water for tea and sat back down. Ahhh tea. I could drink tea all day long. So calming....

HOLY CATS this tastes yucky too! I sat there with a weird look on my face as I tried to figure out why everything tasted so crappy. "Oh shoot, I think the wine broke my tastebuds!" Does this happen? Should I google it? What is going on. I dump out the tea, open a bottle of water and chug it down. It hits me! Its our water. I go take a taste from the faucet, sure enough. It was like taking a big ol' gulp of ocean water. ICK! The damn cold broke a water pipe last night and shutting the water off must have done SOMETHING to it. Who knows. We let it run until the salty taste was gone. No one wants to take a bath in that. "Hey Raylan, lets pretend we are swimming in the Ocean today!!" Hahaha. No.


Ahhh bless this damn mess. ;-)

Cup-o-Coffee Cake!

So I like to browse crazy out of the box recipes once in a while and I love pinning stuff on Pinterest, but I do NOT pin it unless I promise to actually make it. There is nothing more unpinteresting than someones whole board of pins that you know darn right they aren't doing. "We know she ain't got time for that!"

That being said... coffee cake. Mmm nom nom nom. It's like a diet coffee cake (not really) and I'll tell you why! Because instead of making a WHOLE coffee cake, you make it in a single serve cup in your microwave! How genius. So, you're welcome. I just saved you from eating a whole coffee cake all by yourself! It was surprisingly light and fluffy and absolutely delish! You know you want some...

1 tbsp Butter
2 tbsp Sugar
1/2 Egg
2 tbsp Sour Cream or Plain Greek Yogurt
Two or Three droplets of vanilla. DROPLETS. Not too much.
1/4 C. Flour
1/8 Teaspoon Baking powder

Crumb Topping:
2 tbsp Flour
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp butter

Step one- Get a cup. Melt the 2 tablespoons of butter in said cup in your microwave. Add the 2 tablespoons of sugar, stir until creamy. Add a half an egg. (Mixing the egg together before hand makes this much easier) Then add your Sour Cream or yogurt. Mix in your little tiny baby drops of vanilla. This crap is overpowering, easy killer! Stir that all together and add your flour and baking powder. Looking like cake batter now! In a separate cup/bowl, squish together the flour, brown sugar and butter with a spoon (or your fingers, whichever you prefer) and scoop it onto your cake batter. Now stick that puppy in the microwave for one minute! Heat ten seconds more, and it should be done (given your microwave temps) If it still looks gooey in the middle. Keep heating at 10 second intervals until its cooked through. (CUP WILL BE HOT) Then chow down! Happy Dessert!

I like to eat mine in my closet, where no one can find me and force me to share. KIDDING. My kid hates cake. Such an odd child.

Bless this Damn Mess! ;-)

First Blog

WELCOME TO MY BLOG!

I have absolutely no clue what I'm doing but I have a lot to say so bear with me! My Name is Amanda. I am a stay-at-home mom of two sweet boys, Raylan (3yrs old) and Greyson (5 mo. old). 

Like those nostrils? I thought you might. I just got a new computer yesterday as part of my Christmas/Birthday/"end of the year bonus" as my husband called it, and needed a photo (obviously) for my first blog! I run and get my phone hoping to take a pretty picture of the way too damn hot of a fire we have going in the fireplace, but lone behold....she's dead. Why is my phone always dead?! Ask Raylan. He will tell you he "died" it. So I go looking through the pictures that my iphone and ipad had synced to the web and find not one, not two, but fifty-five forehead and nostril pictures. There were black and whites, infrareds, you name it! That's flippin' fantastic! What a sure fire way to get a blog going! "Welcome to my sons boogers, how was your breakfast?" In all reality, it was perfect. This blog is about just that. This crazy little mess I live in. Recipes here and there, funny mishaps, and boogers. Stay tuned....theres a lot happening around here! 

Bless this damn mess! ;-)

Amanda