High Five for Friday

1. I got my first date for a guest post ! Watch for me on In the Kitchen with Jenny!

2. Remember the love dares from last week? Hope you thought about trying it. My update is - well...I'm doing it to improve, sooo it's a work in progress :)

3. I'm not sure everyone has been following me long enough to know about my little cake business. My mom had mentioned we make my wedding cake in 2012, that led to Wilton Cake Decorating Classes. Since then we have been making cakes; Wedding, Birthday, Holiday or just because - we have business cards coming soon! Also, you should probably follow my facebook page for the images of these creations! Life in Kenzie's Kitchen - Facebook Page

4. I'm getting ready for Mexico - yeah yeah yeah I know that it's still 20 weeks away but a girl can get excited. You remember I mentioned earlier this week that I was looking forward to the fitness we have added to the household. Well this trip is my motivation to get to my goal. I lost 82 pounds 2 years ago and with post wedding eating, baby and a lot of traveling - it's back and needs to come off. I will probably be talking about it quite often (if I tell people then I will be accountable :))

5. My mom and grandma are my number 5 - they both baby sit and spoil Mr. Maddox. Without them on a daily basis, I would not survive. I'm not sure they understand their importance in my life! Along with that my mother took Maddox to Walmart yesterday and came back with a 4 wheeler. Coming from the grandma that said NO 4 Wheeler's or anything that he will get hurt on! hahahaha

Have a wonderful weekend and see you next week!

shout out to all that are new to my page too!

Guacamole BLT Snack Wrap

Hopefully every ones week is going well, at the Tetmeyer household - we are in the fitness mode. In a strive to lose weight, we went for 2 walks this week and I have been running a little on top of that. Maddox loves being outside so really, there isn't any excuse not to just go even if it's for like 10 minutes. It's better than sitting on the couch with mini kit kats right!?

My cousin always runs the BIX7 in the Quad Cities but I have never been a runner to complete it - hell I don't think I can walk it but this year; I'm going to give it my all!

 

So, with working in fitness, showers, bottle and dinner - I needed a quick dinner option - and who doesn't love a good ol' BLT right?

Only twist it up without the mayo and add homemade guacamole. Ever heard of it ? I also had a friend once tell me she uses it quite often on a Grilled Cheese. Anyway so the bacon isn't the healthiest thing it's a light dinner and really quick - watch for my homemade guacamole recipe!

You will need enough supplies for however many people you are feeding but here are the ingredients...

Flour Tortilla Shells

Bacon

Fresh head of Lettuce

Guacamole

Do you like your bacon extra crispy or soft??!!

Peanut Butter Bars

You talk about a Peanut Butter lovers dream! I thought since I have had such raves about the Peanut Butter Cheerio Bars, I would try something else with LOTS of peanut butter.

Warning: if you don't like peanut butter - don't even scroll down :)

Don't you hate when you go to Walmart (or anywhere for that matter) and take a list and leave with 100 other things and spend 200 dollars!?! This happens to me ANYTIME I go somewhere. Which usually I get cool things but my husband disagrees, heehee

I bought these cute flower plates that the Peanut Butter Bars are on below. Good luck with the recipe!

Cookie Layer:
1/2 cup butter flavored Crisco
3/4 cup creamy peanut butter
2 tbsp milk
1 1/4 cup light brown sugar
1 egg
1 3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 tsp baking soda

Middle Layer:

1 can condensed milk
2 tbsp unsalted butter
1 bag peanut butter morsels

Topping
1 bag Reese's Pieces
1 bag Reese's Mini Peanut Butter Cups

For the cookie, beat the Crisco, Peanut Butter, milk and brown sugar until creamy.  Beat in the egg. Add flour, salt, baking soda mix until thoroughly combined.
Press the cookie dough into a lightly greased baking sheet (15x10). Bake at 375 for 18 - 20 minutes or until is golden.

While baking, heat the condensed milk with butter over low heat until warmed. Remove from the heat and whisk in the peanut butter morsels and stir in until melted. Pour over warm cookie dough.

Immediately press candies into the top layer. Allow this to set up for about an hour.

Happy Hump Day :)

Curly Noodle Salad with Good Company

Getting together with friends is always fun but when you all have babies within months of each other and you can share ALL of the what non parents think are embarrassing pregnancy dreams, breastfeeding mishaps, poopy diaper stories and you get where this could get interesting. Anyway so we ALL graduated with in a year of each other and all got married and have babies now. How fun right??!!

Betsy and I were friends in elementary school and were connected again through a mutual friend and the other two ladies are friends of a mutual friend as well. Funniest thing is that the 'mutual' friend is the one NOT pictured with NO kids and NOT married - she is the photographer. The great part is she just spoils the babies :)

Myself (Maddox), Betsy (Maxwell), Megan (Preslie), Meagan (Kenley)

So we all got together for a birthday party and had a potluck and blah blah so anyway, my neighbor provided me with this recipe a few summers ago, now I am not a big cucumber fan but this salad is a keeper. It's perfect for a side with Burgers on the grill and would probably go really well with my Mom's Meatloaf Burgers!! It really is my mom's recipe too! Check it out - Mom's Meatloaf Burger...

You know the saying - 'It's get better with age' - well this salad gets better with age, the longer it is in the fridge the better it is!!

So here it goes!! Try it for your next potluck! 

Ingredients

1 large pkg cooked noodles (drained)
1 1/3 cup vinegar
1 1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp Accent
1 tsp garlic powder
2 tbsp prepared mustard
1 med onion chopped (fine)
1 med cucumber chopped (fine)
small jar pimento
1 leaf fresh parsley

Let this stand in the refrigerator overnight. (gets better with age :))

It's Friday and I Challenge YOU to Take the Dare

hello fellow readers. this week i felt all day like it was friday, but now that it is friday - i am so happy

 

so this week i wanted to share with all of you the recent challenge i have been doing...LOVE DARES!

 

i was approached by a co-worker about the book 'the 40 love dares' i followed that with i have never heard of it.

once she explained it to me, i simply thought 'i could use some improvment'.

 

i am going to give you the first day this week as my top five of the week - im doing this because i can really see a difference, i am the snippy, short, irrated wife. 'did you put the dishes away' - 'why didnt you put your cup in the dishwasher' and the most common is when he is trying to be cute and im all 'im trying to do the dishes so i can sit down for the night!!'

 

DAY 1 – Love Is Patient

 

Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.

—Ephesians 4:2 NIV

 

TODAY’S DARE

 

The first part of this dare is fairly simple. Although love is communicated in a number of ways, our words often reflect the condition of our heart. For the next day, resolve to demonstrate patience and to say nothing negative to your spouse at all. If the temptation arises, choose not to say anything. It’s better to hold your tongue than to say something you’ll regret.

*****

Taken from the book entitled: “The Love Dare” by Alex and Stephen Kendrick.

=================================

You are dared to do 3 things today.
1) Pray for your spouse and yourself;

2) Perform the Dare;

3) Pen down your feelings and thoughts at the end of the day.

 

 

 

Slow Cooker Chicken Salsa

It's definetly getting out of the Crockin' weather, but I gave that bad boy one more run around the block before packing it up on the shelf for the summer. We love Mexican at our house and instead of always hitting up Las Lomas this chicken is pretty compareable to their Super Burrito :)

 

Layer on as many fixins' as you want: black olives, sour cream, salsa, guacamole, lettuce etc

 

Slow Cooker Salsa Chicken

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (frozen is fine)

1 cup salsa

1 can condensed cream of chicken soup

1 packet taco seasoning

1/2 cup sour cream

6 tortillas

Place chicken in the bottom of your Crock Pot. Sprinkle taco seasoning on chicken. In a bowl, combine soup and salsa. Pour over chicken. Cook on high 4 hours. Shred chicken with two forks and stir in sour cream. Serve on tortillas or as desired.

No Bake Protein Balls

Do you have literally 20 minutes to spare and need a 'healthy' snack for the week? These are the ticket to Protein Heaven

Does it sound a little too good to be true that something could be this easy? I am that mom that is like no mess, no clean up. I am anal about cleaning my kitchen as I go, messes drive me crazy and after dinner if its a cake night and 10 pm, I'm still up at 12 am working on unloading the dishwasher and cleaning the floors again  :)  I'm not going to lie it may have caused a few ripples with my husband as he just doesn't get it but he knows that I like a clean house; I guess he will learn to accept it !! I mean really, it's not like I asked HIM to stay up LOL!! (i'm dying laughing because this is a true story)

So onto the good stuff, the recipe...I will say that I'm at a slight advantage here with the Maple Syrup as my in laws in New York/Maine area own and operate a Maple Syrup farm!! I'm on lucky girl when it comes to having anything that needs maple syrup!!

Ingredients - keep in mind you can add or substitute anything that you don't like in or out - enjoy

1 cup dry oats
2/3 cup coconut flakes
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup flax seed
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/3 cup maple syrup
1 tsp clear vanilla extract

Stir all ingredients together in a medium bowl until thoroughly mixed. Cover and let chill in the refrigerator for half an hour.

If you don't want to roll them out into balls you could easily just make these into a granola bar by pressing them into a small pan!

High Five for Friday

happy happy friday !! this week was very productive. i was almost shocked at the fact i walked in my house after work last night and stood in the middle of the kitchen and said "what am i going to do tonight?" i was so confused with no cake orders on thursday night!! :) it was nice to not have anything going on...

1. tomorrow i am going to visit my best friends new born baby girl, who made her appearance into the world this week. finley grace billhorn! :)

2. cooking/baking has been happening quite a bit at the tetmeyer household. every night i have baked or cooked something or both! my favorite this week was cheeseburger wraps (recipe to follow)

3. maddox took two steps away from the table on wednesday, its only a matter of time before he is running around behind me.

4. i got all of my plants in the ground this week. being a part time stay at home mom is a blessing because maddox and i spent the day in the yard on tuesday :)

5. we have officially booked a trip to mexico!!!

 

 

Rhubarb Crisp

As I get a text from Ally (from Sweet and Savory Foods blog) saying that when I visit 2 day old Finley this weekend she would love a homemade treat, I think to myself I wonder if I can get this rhubarb crisp to stay in my fridge that long. Sweets don't usually hang around my house very long. Which is kind of ironic as my father has diabetes the first thing he asks after dinner is do you have any chocolate cupcakes :)

My father in law gave us some Rhubarb the other day when we visited and I immediately jumped on the internet looking for someway different to use it up. I didn't know until yesterday that you could freeze it. That will be nice in the future. I have considered planting this in my mini garden. (pics of that will follow, it's a work in progress)

So here is what I came up with for a Crisp

Wash up the stalks really well before using.

Rhubarb Crisp

Ingredients

1 cup All-Purpose Flour - I prefer King Arthur

Dash of Salt

1 Cup sugar

2 eggs, beaten

2 1/2 cups diced rhubarb (you can used up to 3 cups depending on how much you like)

3/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup butter

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray an 8x8 baking dish (I used an 8 inch round cake pan) with cooking spray. Mix 1/4 cup flour, salt, sugar, and eggs together in a medium sized bowl. Add the diced rhubarb and pour into dish/pan.

Combine the brown sugar and remaining flour and the butter in food processor and blend until mix is crumbly.

Sprinkle crumble over top and bake for 45 minutes on 350!!

Scratch Strawberry Cupcakes with Strawberry Buttercream

Happy Mother's Day to all !! Hope you enjoy the recipe!

Ingredients:

Cupcake
1 2/3 cups cake flour
1 cup sugar
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
3/4 cup butter, room temperature
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup sour cream
1/4 cup 1% milk
3/4 cup chopped strawberries

Buttercream
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1/2 cup Crisco shortening
4 cups powdered sugar
6 tbsp strawberry puree
1 tbsp 1% milk

Preheat the oven to 350. Whisk together the flour, sugar, baking soda and baking powder in a large mixing bowl. Add the butter, eggs, vanilla, sour cream and milk - beat this until smooth. Fold in the strawberries. Fill cupcake liners with batter 3/4 full. Bake 18-20 minutes.

While those cool, start the frosting. Beat the butter and shortening until smooth. Slowly add 3 cups of the powdered sugar one cup at a time. After smooth again, add the puree then the remaining cup of powdered sugar. Begin piping on the frosting. (I used the star tip).

Construction Theme Cupcakes

As the weeks go by there seem to be more and more ideas coming to mind for cupcakes. I am very excited about how yummy these turned out!! This week I was approached by a co-worker to make 'Construction Theme' cupcakes for her 3 year old little guy.

 

While thinking, 'I could always go to the party store and get some stuff', I was also thinking I could dream up something with some fondant props.

 

Usually it is the order that doesn't start with a solid game plan that turns out to be a favorite. These are super cute!!

 

I had to include a picture of the little guy that is now 9 months and walking around all the furniture!!

 

 

Homemade Chocolate with Buttercream and White with Frosting

(watch for the yummy recipes)

 

 

These can be done with just some dollar store toys (as seen in picture above) and a few sprinkles or you can go big and roll out fondant and make cones and caution signs :)

 

Have a wonderful weekend!! xoxoxo