Favorite Recipes - Green Bean Almondine

Ok ya'll, seriously, I am failing as a blogger.  I will do better.  Promise!

So much is happening in and around my world and heart that it would take forever to explain it.  Long story, short: God is awesome.  God has healed my heart and I moved on to better things.  But that's a story for another post.  

I wanted to share with ya'll a delicious, healthy, simple recipe.  It's called Green Bean Almondine and its simply amazing!  Brooklyn, who happens to be the biggest junk food junkie, loves this stuff!

Here are your ingredients:

2 cups of fresh green beans

2 tsp unsalted - extra virgin olive oil butter

1/2 cup chopped green onion/shallots

1/4 cup silvered almonds

(you can buy the almonds whole and slice them yourself or but them pre-sliced like I do)

4-6 cups of water

Put butter in a small saucepan with heat on med-low.

Boil about 4-6 cups water in medium saucepan on high heat.

Add shallots/green onion to small saucepan

Add silvered almonds to small saucepan.  Saute.  I prefer mine a tad bit burnt...I think it adds more flavor.  

Check the water, make sure its boiling real good.  Add fresh green beans and parboil for 2 minutes or until they turn light green.  If you boil them much longer and they turn dark, they lose tons of nutrients that gives them their life force.

 Drain green beans

Rinse green beans with cool water until they are lukewarm.

This is what my mixture in the small saucepan looks like when its done.

Put green beans in your dish, add the mixture from the small saucepan.  

Voila!  The end result!  Green Bean Almondine!  Delish!!!

Enjoy!!!

Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes!

This is what you will need:

Cake mix

Eggs, water, and oil (however much the cake mix calls for)

ice cream cones

frosting

sprinkles

aluminum foil

muffin pan

This is the easiest way to frost them, it looks like ice cream!

Line your muffin pan with foil and poke holes in where each muffin hole is.  This is where your cones will go.

My Rainbow, doing what she does best - being silly.

This is what it should look like when they are in.

 Fill your cones 3/4 full with cake mix batter.  Bake for 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Poke holes in the bottom of the cones with a fork immediately after they come out of the oven to let the moisture out so the cones don't get soggy.

Frost them, sprinkle them - and Viola!  

Thank you to those of you who stayed with me this far.  I will share a little bit of insight with you.  It will be cryptic and you probably will have no idea what I'm talking about, but it will make me feel a little better without giving it all away.  What to say?  Hmmmm....

Well my last post, I briefly mentioned my desire to spill the beans and let Ol' Glory erupt.  Well the good news is that since that post, what was driving me nuts has since been made better.  But the bad news is that because of that, it has gotten worse.  Yes my friends, I am one complicated lady.  I think I drive myself crazy.  Haha!  But in spite of the information, I'm about to go to bed with a smile on my face.  Ah...why are we so afraid of speaking the obvious?  Maybe its just me.  I think its me.  And now I believe I've said too much.  Until next time, my friends...

White Chocolate Dipped Pretzel Rods with Sprinkles

*These were delicious*

Yesterday we made our white chocolate dipped pretzel rods with the hot pink sprinkles Rainbow picked out.  We called them our "Royal Princess Wands" because this is National Princess Week!  

What you need:

1 bag of Pretzel rods

1 box of white chocolate squares

*or*

1 bag of white chocolate chips

sprinkles

Recipe yields about 24 covered pretzel rods

I will be honest with ya'll.  I burnt the chocolate because I got distracted with Rainbow.  Imagine that!  So my batch only yielded about 12 pretzels!  But that's ok because they were amazing!!

You need to melt your chocolate.  Mine called for 2 minutes in the microwave.  Well my chocolate burned at 1:20 so please, watch your chocolate closely!  

Lay out some wax or parchment paper on a cookie sheet and out on the table.  The cookie sheet will be where you place your pretzels to dry, and the paper out on the table will be to sprinkle the sprinkles over.  I was out of wax and parchment paper so I substituted with aluminum foil.  

Cover 3/4 of the pretzel rod with chocolate and allow the excess to drip off.  Then sprinkle with your sprinkles.  

Lay them on the tray, spaced apart, to dry.

The end result!!!

Rainbow LOVED them!

On another note, the kids and I enjoyed a good, lazy, cartoon-filled, Saturday morning.  This is how Rainbow insisted on eating her oatmeal!

Play time for Ladybug...

...Cartoon time for Rainbow...  

...And relax time for Mommie.  :)

Earth Day 2012

What a wonderful, green day it was!  It was absolutely beautiful outdoors today!  

We started two traditions this year for Earth Day that I'm going to do with the girls every year.  

1. Plant something.  2. Make "Earth" rice crispies.

We started the morning off with planting something.  Rainbow was very excited that Grandma was here to join us and help with our projects today!  I purchased the Disney Princess Castle Greenhouse made by Miracle-Gro Kids at Walmart for $9.97 plus tax.  

After we set it all up, we used a medium sized mixing bowl to put the soil from the kit in and mix the water.

Then we filled the cups (a.k.a. Gro-pods) with the soil.  Rainbow placed the seeds in the pods and we covered the seeds with a shallow layer of soil.  

We charted the progress (or lack therof) on her princess "Gro-Chart".  Rainbow stuck the princess stakes into the soil, put the pods into the "greenhouse", and placed the lid.

And this was the final result!!!!

For our second Earth Day tradition, we made our "Earth" rice crispies.  Rainbow loved this sticky, gooey activity!  These were a sweet treat after our hard work planting.  

What you'll need:

3 tbsp margarine or butter

1 10 oz bag of marshmallows

1/4 tsp vanilla

6 cups rice crispies

Blue and Green food coloring

First, add 3 tbsp of butter to large, non-stick pot and melt on low heat.  Then add a 10 oz bag of marshmallows and still occasionally until melted.

After it has melted, remove from heat and quickly add the 1/4 tsp of vanilla and stir.  Then add the 6 cups of rice crispies and mix together.  Separate the mixture into two medium mixing bowls.

Add blue food coloring to one bowl, and green food coloring to the other bowl.  You take a small amount from each bowl and smash it together, rolling it into a ball.  Viola! You have an "Earth"!

The end result was Rainbow approved!

Later today we went to Cabot to visit with Rainbow and Ladybug's Great-Grandpa Baber at the McDonald's play place.  Rainbow had the chance to burn off all of that extra energy from our "Earth" crispies.  Ladybug decided to cuddle with Grandma most of the time, so I captured some photos from that since my Ladybug isn't old enough to join in on all of the fun.  I'm not worried though, she will be old enough before I want her to be.  I'll leave ya'll with some pictures with our time there today.