Rice Puff Treats

Hi Everyone,

Me again! Yup I know my posts have been really sporadic recently. I've been posting a lot on my Facebook page though, so pop on over and catch up with me there too.

Today I'm going to share the quickest, perhaps easiest sweet treat ever! I make these for special occasions like birthday parties, they are snapped up super quickly too.

You'll need: 

Chocolate buttons or cooking chocolate

Rice puffs

Mini marshmallows

Dessicated coconut

M&M's

Microwave the chocolate buttons until melted, then add all the other ingredients, mix well. I add the ingredients a handful at a time and mix to make sure there is enough chocolate to even coat the dry ingredients.

 

Place tablespoonfuls of the mixture onto wax paper or into a mini cupcake wrapper

 Allow to set for about 20 minutes or place in the fridge.

 And that's as easy as it gets, right?

They're not pretty but they're so good. Limit yourself though because they're very sweet.

 

Take care

xxx

Chocolate and Banana Muffins

Hey Everyone,

Gosh how long has it been since I've blogged? Well we've moved house and we're finally settled in, so I'm back! Yay!!!

Today I wanted to share one of my all time favourite muffin recipes. Its so easy and really yum!

Chocolate and Banana Muffins by Allison Holst from the book Marvellous Muffins

Ingredients:

 2 cups self raising flour

1/2 cup caster sugar

1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/2 tsp salt
 

100grams butter

1 egg
1 cup milk

1 tsp vanilla essence

1 cup (2-3) mashed bananas

Stir the flour, caster sugar, choc chips and  salt together in a large bowl.

In another bowl melt the butter and add egg, milk and vanilla, beat well. Add the mashed bananas and mix.

Add the liquid mixture to the dry ingredients and fold together carefully until the flour is dampened. Stop before the mixture is smooth.

Spoon mixture into 12 medium muffin pans sprayed with non-stick cooking spray. 

Bake at 220 C (428 F) for about 12 - 15 minutes or until they spring back when pressed down in the middle.

I used white chocolate buttons for this batch, and it made a really big difference in taste. The kids prefer the sweeter white chocolate and I still like the milk choc. Either way these muffins are a sure winner!
 

So good, super quick to make and a hit with my family. They're great for lunchboxes. I hope you give them a try.

 Take care

xxx

 

Cheat's Lasagne Pasta Bake

Hey Everyone,

Who doesn't LOVE Lasagne? My family does, in fact its the one meal the kids actually ask for, that doesn't include nuggets, fish fingers or chips. 

But making Lasagne is time consuming and expensive and there's never enough for everyone, the next night. So, after the kids asked for lasagne one night and when I said I didn't have lasagne sheets, they asked for Macaroni and cheese. Now anyone who knows me well, will know I don't like Mac n Cheese (not at all!), but I decided to kind of combine the two and see what happened.

Disclaimer: While I totally made this out of my head, I don't doubt that this has been dreamt up by others and called a variety of other names. I have not discovered this recipe on the web or pinterest, but it may be there ;-)

Ingredients:

1 Cup (or more) Bolognaise sauce ( I used left over savory minced beef with a tomato pasta sauce)

White sauce (enough to cover the pasta)

Bag of pasta shells, spirals, penne - whatever you have on hand

Cheese for the topping.

Set the oven to 180 degrees Celcius (approx 356 degrees Fahrenheit)

Pour the uncooked bag of pasta into a pyrex baking dish.

Add the bolognaise sauce and combine with the pasta to evenly distribute.

Make up a really thin white sauce and pour over the pasta in the dish - make sure the white sauce covers the pasta. 

Season to taste.

Cover and bake for approx 40 minutes or until the pasta has absorbed all the sauce and is soft. Be careful not to over cook and dry out it.

It will look like this with out the cheese.....

Sprinkle a generous helping of cheese over the top of the pasta bake and set it back in the oven for another 10 minutes until the cheese has melted and is starting to brown...

Serve with a salad and crusty bread rolls! This dish really does taste pretty close to lasagne and has become a weekly staple in our house, we all love it!

Let me know if you have a similar family recipe - I would love some more ideas.

Take care

xxx

  

Breakfast Muffins

Hey Everyone, 

This was my post for the Inspiration Cafe - It's A Steal Series.

My mission was to knock off a post (any post) from Sweet Little Blue Bird, which is Mary's blog. Hmm... so many yummy dishes, how was I supposed to choose? It wasn't easy!!!

Finally it was getting darker and the family were getting snappy with hunger and so I quickly decided to make them breakfast for dinner! Good thinking right? Who could go wrong with eggs?

So I picked Mary's Bacon, Egg & Cheese Muffins On The Go...

They are awesome!!! 

Click here for the recipe on Mary's blog.

Mary was able to cook a whole egg in the middle of her muffins, but as I only have a standard sized muffin tin, I mixed my eggs as if to scramble them and poured equal amounts into my bread cups.  

I didn't have bacon so I added ham slices to the top.

They really are THAT good!!! 

Sean has decided I need to make these every weekend! Which is perfectly fine by me - tasty, nutritious and easy!

YUM!

 I was left with quite a bit of bread - with missing centres, so as an experiment I dropped a slice of the bread (lightly buttered on both sides) into the fry pan, cracked an egg into the center and while it was cooking, I added a good sprinkle of cheese on the top with ham pieces.

 I was really excited that it did NOT make a huge mess!

Sean was even more excited to get to eat my experiment! His verdict? Really good!!! 

He said it was like french toast with cheese and bacon...Umm..Yummy!

Take care and have a great week

 xxx

 

   

Chocolate Fudge Dipped Cupcakes

 

It was our little Maclayne's third birthday a week and a half ago and she requested 1 friend over for her celebrations. 

So cute! Cannot believe my baby is 3!

We had cake and opened gifts as a family on her actual day. 

For her little lunch date the following week, I decided to make mini cupcakes and dip them in chocolate fudge! 

Just for something different , because yes there is such a thing as too much cake!

So...make a batch of mini cupcakes and allow them to cool a little. I used a wooden skewer to dip them into the hot fudge and roll in 100's and 1000's. 

You need to be pretty quick about it though, don't let your fudge cool too quickly or the dipping process will be too difficult.

Chocolate Fudge Recipe 

(Edmonds Cookbook)

2 Cups Sugar

2 Tablespoons Cocoa

1/2 Cup Milk

25g (0.9 ounces) Butter

1/2 Teaspoon Vanilla Essence

Mix sugar and cocoa in a saucepan, add milk and butter. Heat gently, stirring until the sugar has dissolved and butter melted. Bring to the boil, do not stir. Let mixture boil until the soft ball stage. Remove from heat and add vanilla. Leave to stand for 5 minutes. Beat with a wooden spoon until thick. Pour into a buttered tin. Cut into squares when cold.

For the purposes of dipping the cupcakes - I didn't allow the fudge to cool and I didn't beat it till it was thick. When I had done the cupcakes - I finished the process and the kids had a few squares of fudge too.

 

They. Are. So. Good!!!

Try them...soon!

 xxx

 

 

Linking Up To:

http://www.bystephanielynn.com/2013/08/the-sunday-showcase-party-no-207.html

http://www.artsyfartsymama.com/2013/08/artsy-corner-link-party-3.html

http://www.theshabbycreekcottage.com/2013/08/transformation-thursday-2.html

http://www.houseofhepworths.com/2013/08/14/hookin-up-with-hoh-161/#more-14306

http://www.the36thavenue.com/2013/08/best-diy-projects-19.html

http://www.stonegableblog.com/2013/08/tutorials-tips-and-tidbits-61.html

http://happyhourprojects.com/happy-hour-friday-08-16/ 

http://gracelangdon.blogspot.com.au/2013/08/making-monday-2.html 

Three Ingredient Cookies

A few weeks ago I discovered this incredibly popular recipe at The Burlap Bag. With over 400 comments on this post - I knew I just had to give it a try.

The post is titled 2 ingredient cookies – plus the mix-ins of your choice!

And literally these cookies are made with 2 ingredients : Banana and Oats!!!

I made mine with a large handful of chocolate chips added to the mixture.

And I was seriously surprised at how good they are! And good for you too! I added the choc chips to entice the kids to eat them, but they would be great just on their own.

With a glass of milk or a cup of tea, they are a delicious, nutritious, healthy snack...

Please visit The Burlap Bag to get the full recipe.

Take Care

xxx

 

Anzac Biscuits and a Birthday

Hey Everyone,

Today I wanted to wish Mel from Mellywood's Mansion a very Happy Birthday and while I'm at it, show you the Anzac Biscuits I made of hers..

To get this awesome recipe click here...

I have a recipe for Anzac biscuits too, but no-where near as good as Mel's. 

After devouring the double batch I made last weekend, the kids have asked that these be a regular feature in their lunch boxes!

Thank you Mel, we just love these biscuits...

Take Care

xxx