Spicy Ranch and Goldfish Snack Mix with Love

Tonight was one of many amazing nights with my family. When life seems to be passing by so fast and nights I only speak 5 words to my husband because we are just in passing...nights like tonight is when I sit and think that God has a way of putting Faith, Hope and Love back into your mind and you realize that you have the most amazing life with the most amazing people in it. I love my little family of three and can't wait to make it more someday! Maddox laid in my lap for 30 minutes tonight wide awake and smiled at me before I put him down for the night. There is something that makes my heart flutter again and again when I see him look to me for comfort!

I found this recipe and thought I would try this myself to take to work this week. Stay tuned for one other Pretzel Mix I have coming up, made with similar supplies so buy double now :)

Ingredients

• 2 bags plain Goldfish crackers
• 2 bags cheddar Goldfish crackers
• 1½ cups pecan halves
• 1 stick unsalted butter, melted
• 1 package Hidden Valley Harvest Dill dressing mix
• 1 teaspoon Soy Sauce

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 250°
2. Combine crackers and pecans in a large bowl.
3. Mix melted butter with Ranch dressing mix, dill weed and Worcestershire sauce, and pour over crackers and nuts. Using a wooden spoon, gently stir to coat.
4. Pour snack mix onto parchment lined large roasting pan or baking sheet.Place pan in center of oven and bake for one hour, carefully stir mix every 15 minutes while baking.
5. Cool completely before serving.

Pizza Burgers

Without complaining {poor me} for too long...I will say that today after 2 hours on the phone with dell.com and $129 later, my computer seems to be back up and running. Quite honestly, better than ever. :) I'm not going to speak that sentence again, as I'm sure this will jinx me.



How about this weather in Iowa? For it being the first week of August, we really could have had the air off this week! 

So anyway, we used to have these Pizza Burgers, Mama's way as a kid. We lived busy lives as kids, which is probably where I get it to this day. We would get home from school, mom would cook dinner and we would eat dinner while she went to bowling.

With most recipes you can always substitute things, this recipe is the same thing. Just use what you have!!

My suggestions are the following:

Buns

Hamburger

Pepper

Salt

Pizza Sauce/Alfredo Sauce

Shredded Mozzerela

Green Peppers

Black Olives

Start by cooking the hamburger with all the seasonings that you prefer. Once the hamburger is cooked start adding in the veggies/sauces and cook just until warm. Lay the buns open faced on a baking sheet and lay on the hamburger. Sprinkle with the mozzarella cheese and bake on 350 for about 15 minutes just until the cheese is melted and bubbling.

Lemon Zucchini Bread with Lemon Glaze

I finally got my computer fixed. If I could just blog and edit photos from my iPad, I would much rather do that. Unfortunately, I need my laptop and when it's down, I'm down. I wish I could just get this issue resolved for good, thankfully I'm getting pretty good at the fix!!

This is the time of year that zucchini over powers all of our gardens. I have it coming out of my ears, but it's a darn good thing that we like all things zucchini. When baked in bread I can easily throw it in the freezer and we eat off of it for the rest of the year. That's if it lasts that long!! :)

Lemon Zucchini Bread with Lemon Glaze

Ingredients

Bread
2 cups cake flour
1/2 tsp. salt
2 eggs
1/2 cup canola oil
1 1/3 cups sugar
2 tbsp. lemon juice
1/2 cup buttermilk
zest of 1 lemon
1 cup grated zucchini

Glaze
1 cup powdered sugar
2 tbsp. lemon juice
1 tbsp. milk

Start by mixing the flour, salt and baking powder in a medium bowl and set aside for later. In a large bowl, beat eggs. Add the oil and sugar until well blended. Add lemon juice, buttermilk and zest to the mixture. Fold in the zucchini until it's mixed. Add the dry ingredients, mix until well combined. Pour batter into two greased and floured loaf pans.
Bake for 350 degrees for 45-48 minutes. Make the glaze while this is in the oven and pour glaze while the bread is hot.

Banana Bread Bars

After a crazy few days, no blogging, no laundry and no cleaning. Nothing but cake orders, sleep and work. This week feels like I am getting my groove back. I am down to about 20 hours a week working with 3 other part time jobs. I'm staying pretty busy. Tuesday's are my usual day off - today Maddox and I got up and walked 3 miles before the 102 degree weather here then we took a nap. It is so nice to have these days with him while he is so young and learning new things. I'm a very blessed woman to have the opportunity to do this. 

As far as the weather today, yikes. I had to water the garden and flowers three times today! I don't feel like it's fair to complain about the weather because it's the only hottttt day we have had this 'summer' considering we have had our air off the majority of July!!

I typically love Banana Bread but since I made the Chocolate Zucchini Loaf last week we are still eating that and we probably don't need anymore bread!! I decided to do some bars that I can take into the girls at work tomorrow. I'm sure they will thank me - I should probably taste test the bad boys before I do so!! :)

Banana Bread Bars

1 1/2 cup sugar
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 eggs
4 ripe bananas, mashed
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups King Arthur All-Purpose Flour
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt

Brown Butter Frosting

1/2 cup butter
4 cup powdered sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
3 tbsp milk

Start by preheating the oven to 375 degrees, then grease and flour a 15x10 inch jelly roll pan. You can use a 9x13 glass dish but just don't use ALL the batter. For the bars, in a large bowl, beat the sugar, sour cream, butter and eggs until creamy. Blend in bananas and vanilla extract. Add flour, baking soda, salt and blend for 1 minute. Stir in walnuts here if you choose. Spread the batter evenly into the pan. Bake 25 minutes or until golden brown.

Meanwhile, for the frosting; heat the butter in a large saucepan over medium heat until boiling. Let the butter turn brown - DON'T BURN! Remove from the heat. Add the powdered sugar, vanilla extract and milk. Whisk together until smooth ( should be thicker than a glaze but thinner than frosting) Use a spatula to spread the brown butter frosting over the warm bars.

Princess Cupcake Dress

Instead of a recipe tonight, I am providing some pictures of the super cute, Princess Dress we made last night. We were so excited about this as was the little girl. Miss Chloe was also just crowned Miss Muscatine. She is so adorable so she deserved a cake with nothing less. I sure hope she enjoyed the cake tonight at her birthday party!

You can follow the picture along with how to complete this cake!

Chocolate Zucchini Loaf - Let's Get Real Friday Party!

Thanks to the girls from Let's Get Real, I am Co-Hosting this week. Scroll down to grab my recipe, head to their page to give them a like and link up your favorite recipe!!

Welcome to our Let's Get Real Friday Party!

Woot! Woot! Let's get this Friday started. Let's Get Real is all about Healthy Living. That's right! It's all about Real Food, fitness, health and wellness, and home life tips and tricks from Real people. That's you! Grab a cup of coffee (or other preferred beverage ). Relax into a comfy spot and take some time to get to know the great folks that link up here.


**This week you can enter to win next week's special co-host spot. If you are interested in co-hosting next week, please enter the rafflecopter give-away. We would love to have you join us for the week.**

A Big Welcome to our very Special Co-Host Mackenzie from Life In Kenzie's Kitchen! Make sure you give her a big Let's Get Real welcome!

I'm not big on rules (since this is what I do for fun), but I do have a couple of guidelines.

1) Follow all your co-hosts. We follow back! Leave a comment for us on the post and we will know you are a new follower.

Christina: Blog/Facebook/Twitter/Pinterest/Google +/Instagram
Nicole: Blog/Facebook/Twitter/Pinterest/Google +/Instagram
Nicky:Blog/Facebook/Twitter/Pinterest/Google+
Gaye:Blog/Facebook/Twitter/Pinterest/Google+
Mackenzie:Blog/Twitter/Facebook/Google +

2) Please don't link and run! Follow and comment on at least 3 other blogs. The more effort you put into getting to know everyone, the more you will get in return. Everyone is here to get more readers and traffic to their blogs so let's show them some love!


3) Let people know where you party! Add our party badge or link back to the party on your blog or post.

We will be pinning our favorites!!

My Let's Get Real Featured blogger this week is:

(Drum Roll Please!)

Chocolate Zucchini Loaf - mmmmmm!!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

An InLinkz Link-up

Chocolate Zucchini Loaf

The funniest thing this week about zucchini; I had went through a debate whether to plant zucchini or squash. Maddox loves the squash but I love to cook/bake with zucchini. So we planted 'squash' and had to transplant it because it got so big. {garden went from a wooden troth like garden to against the back side of our house :)} So as this starts to grow - Dale and I are like 'uh that looks like zucchini'. So we have zucchini coming out our ears. I have a friend and fellow blogger that didn't plant it this year so I will be sharing the wealth! 

Chocolate Zucchini Loaf is my absolute favorite thing to make with zucchini. The zucchini really doesn't have too much flavor to me but anything with chocolate is good. Most people thing 'EW' when they think of zucchini, in all honesty, you can't taste any zucchini in this. When we used to make this as a kid, I knew it had zucchini in it but if I knew what it looked like grated up I probably would not have even smelt the loaf!!! haha

This recipe has been passed down to me and I make it at least one time every year. I have done other things with zucchini such as these recipes. 

I hope you all are having a great week! The weather here in Iowa has hit some record low temps {70's}. I'm not at all wanting to send this weather away. If all year round was like this it would be amazing. Not having the air on in the middle of July is incredible! I'm sitting here in a sweatshirt and sweats!!! 

Ingredients you will need for the loaf:

3 eggs
2 cups sugar
1 cup oil
2 cups grated zucchini
2 1/3 cup flour
1/3 cup cocoa
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp clear vanilla

Grease and flour 5 mini loaf pans or 3 large loaf pans then preheat the oven to 325. Beat the eggs and sugar, then add the oil and zucchini. In a separate bowl combine flour, cocoa, salt, cinnamon, soda and powder. Add to the zucchini mixture and add vanilla - beat well. Bake for 1 hour for mini loaf and 70 minutes for large loaf pan.

Chicken Bacon Ranch Rotini with a Giveaway!!

This is a pretty classic dish. It's another one of those. Okay let's see what is in the pantry and combine everything!

These meals sometimes turn out to be the best meals. It's got Chicken, Bacon, Pasta and Cheese; how much better can it get??!!

While I encourage you to try this recipe I also challenge you to enter for this giveaway at A New York Foodie. There will be three winners. One for each prize! $175 Paypal cash ( one winner) $75 e gift card to postboredom art ( one winner) and a Rejuvenoator microbubble SHOWER HEAD ( one winner). Go check it out because who DOESN'T like a good giveaway, right?

Now for the recipe you can start cooking while entering for the giveaway!

Start with these ingredients and get busy friends!

8 ounces Rotini pasta

1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp flour
1 pkg ranch dressing seasoning mix
2 cups milk
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1/3 cup cooked, chopped bacon
2 cups cooked chopped chicken

In a large pot, cook pasta according to package directions. Drain and set aside.

In same pot melt butter. Add flour and stir. Cook flour for 1 minute. Slowly whisk in milk. Continue cooking until sauce thickens. Stir in ranch dressing mix and cheese. Stir until cheese melts. Add chicken, bacon and pasta. Stir to coat.

Maple Glazed Oatmeal Cookies

It's been a crazy weekend around here. It started with us finding water in our basement just by accident we went in the back room for something and standing water was on top of the carpet. I'm glad we didn't lose anything more than we did and hoping the pictures and valueables can be just dried out and saved. With the terenchal downpours we had this past week, it caused a lot of Flash Flooding. This is the most water I have seen in Muscatine, in the middle of town there are back yards with inches on inches of water!!

on to the goods...

• 1 cup butter, melted and cooled
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 2 cups quick cooking oats
• 2 cups all purpose flour

for the glaze

• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1 teaspoon maple extract

Instructions

1. In your mixing bowl, combine sugars then mix in melted butter. Add eggs, one at a time, make sure to scrape down sides of bowl. Add in flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda, salt, nutmeg and cinnamon. Mix till well combined.
2. Drop by spoonfuls onto parchment lined cookie sheet and bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 13-15 minutes. My cookies were done at 14 minutes. Let cool for a few minutes before removing to racks to cool completely.
3. Combine powdered sugar, cream and maple extract to make a glaze. Brush or drizzle over cookies. Let glaze dry at room temperature before storing. It took my glaze about 6 hours to completely set so I could stack my cookies. 

Parsley and Basil Seasoned Ribeye

Normally, I would be the one at the store picking up the parsley, basil, etc for the steaks but this year we have our very own little garden to be picking from. Since these steaks seemed to be the size of half the cow I decided to just have a light side to go with so we chose to have my Cucumbers, Onions and Tomatoes. I had the side already chilling in the refrigerator. 

Even if you don't have fresh items you can always use the seasonings from McCormick. Of course, I'm always going to recommend the fresh!!

I apologize for the awful picture here but my Nikon camera died, stuck with my iPhone :(

4 steaks
Salt/Pepper
3 cloves garlic
1 tbsp chopped parsley
1 tbsp chopped basil
3 tbsp olive oil

Combine everything together rub on the steaks and grill until medium-rare {cook longer if desired}.

Pecan Peanut Butter and Apple Bar

Been away for two days and all I think about is blogging {addiction :)}

Today, I was off work and spent the day at home with a 10 month old getting 4 teeth  :( It's a real bummer when the little man just doesn't feel right. I think with his binkie and his mommy we got this! Even with the not so 100% baby we went to a Wined Down Party and BBQ tonight with a group of my father in laws friends. I met this group seven years ago when I met Dale and they have welcomed me in like family and I feel like they have been my friends since I was little. It's so nice to have people like this in life and I'm so excited that Maddox can have these handful of couples to grow up around. They are like 5 other sets of grandparents! They spoil him and kiss him and laugh when I tell them he put my phone in the toilet!! :) It's ONLY funny now because my phone started working again this morning!! #ihavemyhandsfull

So anyway - I took this dessert to our gathering tonight and it was a hit. I think it needed Ice Cream on the top something to give it some extra moisture! Keep that in mind when you serve it.

Apple Peanut Butter Bars

1/4 cup unsalted butter

1 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup creamy peanut butter

1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/4 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 medium apples – cored and peeled
1/4 cup chopped pecans

1/4 cup chocolate chips
1 tablespoon sugar

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray your 8x8 inch baking dish with Pam. In a sauce pan, melt the butter and brown sugar until smooth. Remove the saucepan from the heat and add the peanut butter. Stir until mixed and set aside.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

Go back to the sauce pan and stir in the egg. Combine then add the vanilla.

Add the wet to the dry and stir together until completely mixed.

Pour half of the mix in the baking dish. Spread with a spatula. If you have not cored and peeled the apple do so now and arrange them on top of the batter. Place one row and layer the next row the opposite direction.

Place the remaining batter on top of the apples and sprinkle the top with the pecans, chocolate chips and sugar!

Bake this on 350 for about 50 minutes.

Grandma's Pea Salad

I made this specifically to take to my grandma in the hospital - we had the other bowl for the 4th with our Steaks. My grandma {not the Mint Brownie Grandma :)} is in the hospital for the second time in a month with an infection in her prosthetic knee joint. The first time they did surgery and she dodged another surgery this time due to this infection was from one of the antibiotics {yes, that sounds like a typo but it's not}. I guess this antibiotic is so strong it has a lot of harsh side effects. Anyway - she is coming home today but last night we visited and I took her some of her 'Famous' Pea Salad. I'm also taking this to a potluck this week as well.

The awesome part of this recipe is you really don't have to measure anything out. I am providing you some estimates but do this one the old fashioned way - don't measure just taste as you go!

2 can sweet peas - drained
1 bag Velvetta cheese - must be Velvetta {found at Fareway and HyVee}
1/2 jar Heinz Sweet Midget Gherkin 
Dash of sugar
1 1/2 cup Miracle Whip

Directions - Mix all ingredients together! {Easy, last minute side dish}

I also, walked in the parade with a few co-workers! Check out this amazing

Piggy Bank Themed Bank Group!

Cookie Dough Bars

I went to see a movie late last night {9:30, wayyy past me being out time} but we enjoyed the quiet time. I love Mike and Molly and all the other movies that Megan McCarthy has been in so we have been counting on going to see the newest movie 'Tammy'. I was not 100% impressed as I love to laugh at the stupid humor, this movie actually shed some tears. Not a big fan of shedding tears...It was a good movie about keeping relationships, staying tough in a bad situation and laughing. 

Too often in today's daily tasks people always look to negative ways. There are people dying for us to be free, people have cancer and some don't have any family. Just think about someone else in need the next time you decide to get really angry over spilled milk - take a deep breath and relax. Remember that you could just go home and bake something and you will feel much better!!! 

Ingredients

• ½ c. unsalted butter, softened 
• ¾ c. packed light brown sugar

• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2 c. all purpose flour
• 1 (14 oz.) can sweetened condensed milk
• 2 c. mini chocolate chips
• ½ cup creamy peanut butter
• ½ cup milk chocolate chips
• 
  
• Instructions

1. Line an 8×8 inch pan with parchment paper or aluminum foil and set aside.
2. In a large mixing bowl, mix together butter and brown sugar until it is fluffy. This takes about 3 minutes. Add vanilla and bet until combined.
3. Turn the mixer to low and alternate the flour and the sweetened condensed milk until combined. Gently fold in chocolate chips.
4. Press the cookie dough into the bottom of the 8×8 pan. It will be sticky so lightly flour your hands if needed.
5. Cover your bars with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 3 hours or overnight until firm.
6. To make the topping, combine the peanut butter and ½ cup chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl. Stir every 30 seconds until smooth. Pour and spread over the top of the chilled dough and chill at least for 1 hour until firm.