Tuesday

Bloggers wanted for the Kiss the Cook Event

Kiss the Cook Event

Organized by: Mom Powered Media

Prize: Rachael Ray Cookware Prize Package

Event dates: 6/3 - 6/24
~~SIGN-UP HERE!~~
~~Sign up is over and for some reason this event never took place. Sorry! I wasn't the sponsor.~~

Easy Eggs Benedict Recipe for Mother's Day

What do you like to do for Mom on Mother's Day? Do you cook her a special meal? Have you ever made her breakfast in bed? Here is a tasty breakfast recipe which would be perfect to make Mom for breakfast in bed.

Easy Eggs Benedict- serves 1 hungry mom

Ingredients:

1 English muffin, split and lightly toasted and buttered

2 eggs, poached*

2 pieces Canadian bacon

2-4 tablespoons Hollandaise Sauce*

Directions:

1) Make Hollandaise Sauce. Recipe and directions below.

2) Toast and butter English muffins.

3) Warm Canadian bacon in microwave or fry on stove top.

4) Make poached eggs. Directions below.

5) Assemble in this order; 1 English muffin, 1 piece Canadian bacon, 1 egg and top with 2 tablespoons of Hollandaise Sauce.

6) Serve to mom with a steamy cup of her favorite tea.

*Hollandaise Sauce

2 egg yolks

2 teaspoons lemon juice, fresh squeezed

1/4 cup of butter, unsalted and melted ( 1/2 of stick)

pinch of salt

pinch of lemon pepper seasoning

Directions for Sauce

1) In a small sauce pan, whisk together eggs and lemon juice. Do this for at least one minute to make the yolks fluffy.

2) Next, put on stove top, very low heat and keep whisking. Don’t stop whisking and keep the heat low for 2 minutes.

3) Finally, whisk in melted butter, salt and lemon pepper. Do this for 1 more minute. Take off heat, cover with lid. Immediately make the eggs and assemble. Top with sauce.

*Poached Eggs-so easy to make and healthy way to an egg

1) In a small fry pan, fill half full with water and 2 teaspoons of white vinegar.

2) Bring to a slow boil. When bubbles appear, break egg gently into the water.

3) Cook egg for 3-4 minutes. The egg white will be all white.

4) Remove with slotted spoon.

Stop over and check out my recipe which is also featured on the Bowdabra Blog. There I show you how to add a little special splash of love to this meal.

More recipes for Mother's Day

Lemon Curd Trifle with Fresh Berries
Prosecco Cake
Chicken Pineapple Kabobs
Kahlua Tiramisu
Tres Leches Cakes
Soft Brown Sugar Cookies

Monday

Menu Plan with Easy Cinco de Mayo Dinner Recipes

Welcome back to Menu Planning Monday! This week I'm featuring easy dinner recipes, corn recipes and Cinco de Mayo mexican recipes. Thanks to all for stopping in and even linking up your tasty recipes and menu plans!

6 corn recipes

Monday- Featured Recipe of the Week from last weeks menu plan link party Homemade Salsa Verde by Growing up Gabel - I really want to make this to go with our Cinco de Mayo recipes later in the week. I LOVE Salsa Verde and have never made it. I'm so hoping that my local store has a bunch of these!

Tuesday- Pig Nachos using the leftover Crockpot Pulled Pork for last week. I froze the leftovers to use this week for nachos.

Wednesday- Fettuccine Alfredo with grilled chicken and shrimp

Thursday- Leftover or you can check out my Recipe Box - Recipes under P-Z

Friday- Soft Pretzels and Honolulu Burgers

Sunday & Cinco de Mayo Recipes

Frugal in Florida Weekly Menu Plan - I really want to make this Aussie Chicken for my family

I've linked up at OrgJunkie's Menu Plan Monday.

Sunday

Sweet Mexican Corn Cake Recipe

My family loves Mexican recipes. We eat Mexican recipes at least once a week or every other week. One of our favorites is sweet mexican fresh corn cake which always brings back memories from one of our favorite college mexican restaurants. Now that it is spring we will be enjoying even more corn recipes like this one.

Corn is a common ingredient in a lot of our mexican recipes. As soon as my local store has fresh corn in the spring, I buy it! Nothing taste as good as fresh corn on the cob. I shave it off most of the time and use it in most all of my recipes needing corn as long as it is available. I participated in a campaign on behalf of Mom Central Consulting for Sunshine Sweet Corn. I received a gift card to purchase a product sample to facilitate my review and a promotional item as a thank you for participating.

When my girls were little, they use to love corn right on the cob. It seems these days that I'm always removing it off of the cob for everyone but my husband. He prefers it fresh on the cob. Right now I can only get corn prepacked like this. How about you?

During the summer our local store lets you shuck the corn before bringing it home. I don't do that because sometimes I grill it before shucking. I also LOVE handing a bag of corn on the cob to my daughters and they sit outside and shuck the corn. They have been doing this since they were 3 years old!

Sweet Mexican Corn Cake

Ingredients

1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup cornmeal
1/4 cup water
1-1/2 cup whole-kernel corn- we love it fresh off of the cob
1/4 cup white sugar
2 tablespoons heavy whipping cream
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder

Direction

1-Beat butter until creamy.
2-Add in water and cornmeal. Mix well.
3-Mix in corn.
4-Add in sugar, cream, salt and baking powder. Stir.
5-Pour into ungreased 8X8 baking dish. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 50-60 minutes until cake has set.
6. Allow to cool slightly and serve. We use a mini cookie scoop to dish out the servings.

More Corn Recipes

Do you have any favorite corn recipes? I'd love to check them out. If you have them on your blog, feel free to leave any corn recipes in the comments. I will come visit! If you don't have the recipe on your blog, feel free to tell me about the recipe in the comments! I'm always looking for more corn recipes and will need them now that Spring is here!

Sunshine Sweet Corn "Livin' The Swet Life" is holding a contest where you could win one of three $200 prize packs! Are you interested in entering? If so click here at the contest link. I would LOVE to win any of the prize pack! How about you?

I participated in a campaign on behalf of Mom Central Consulting for Sunshine Sweet Corn. I received a gift card to purchase a product sample to facilitate my review and a promotional item as a thank you for participating.

Get Uncommon iPhone Case Review and $50 GIveaway

How many cases do you own for your iPhone? Do you change it out seasonally or just keep with the first one you got? I've had my iPhone less than one year and I've had 6 cases! My favorite iPhone case is my newest because it was custom made! Enjoy my review of this new case.

Do you have a favorite piece of art that your little one created just for you? GetUncommon wants you to take this artwork and create your very own, unique iPhone case.

GetUncommon let's you take your kids artwork, their photo or even a photo of your pet and turn it into a beautiful, custom made iPhone case. If you see above, I didn't use anything kid related for my new case. Instead I used part of my blog header and turned it into a walking, talking business card for my blog! Pretty sweet?

Check out this video-

The photo on my phone case is picture perfect! I am so impressed by how well it turned out that I plan on getting more! I couldn't decide quick enough which art piece to try first for my case review but plan to use the girls artwork and even pictures of them when they were tiny to make more cases!

Wouldn't this case make a wonderful, priceless and unique Mother's Day gift? I know that Mom, Grandma, Auntie, Nana or anyone else who you give to at Mother's Day would L-O-V-E this case.

Check out GetUncommon.com for yourself and you will see all of the Apple device products and case options. Come back here and tell me which iPhone case you want to try to be entered to win your own case ($50 value.) Giveaway ends Friday, May 3rd.

How to enter (quick as this ends May 3rd)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I was sent a case to review. My own tasty opinions and thoughts are used here for this review.

Saturday

Follow the Top 25 Weekly Blog Parties on Pinterest

Stop over and follow the Top 25 Weekly Blog Parties Board on Pinterest. Find out where to link up! If you have a weekly party you can be added to the board.

Today is also our Pinterest Party! I'm featured my Top 25 Weekly Blog Parties Board on today. I'd love for you to stop over and check it out. It is a contributor board. If you would like to be a contributor link up your Pinterest ID then leave a comment that you want to be added to the board and which number you are in the link party. This board is for you if you host a weekly party. The board is the GO TO spot to find out where to link up each week.

HOW TO JOIN THE LINKY Party (all optional)

1) Pin this Party Post to Pinterest- Please!

2) Link up your most clicked on post, most followed Pinterest board, favorite pinterest pin, etc...anything goes.

3) Add your Pinterest name to the linky.

4) In turn pin a few things on the linky.

5) Please follow my boards on Pinterest- SusieQTpies Cafe and cohost Crystal and Company and 3 Boys and a Dog. We do follow back.

Join the fun!

Friday

Handmade Homemade Soft Pretzel Recipe

Emily and I decide to make these pretzels for her Girl Scout troop. Let me tell you friends, this was a super fun project! We had a lot of fun in the kitchen making these! I hope that you try it, too! We doubled the recipe. I don't usually do this with a first time recipe but I needed quite a few for Girl Scouts and of course some for home! Have you made pretzels??

Soft Pretzels

Preparation Time: 1 hour

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups very warm water
1 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons salt
1 (.25 oz) package active dry yeast
22 ounces flour, about 4 1/2 cups (we used half of it with whole wheat flour)
2 ounces coconut oil, melted (about 1/4 cup)
2 quarts water
1/2 cup baking soda
1 large egg yolk beaten with 1 tablespoon water, optional (we didn't do this)
salt (we used kosher salt)

Directions:

Pour water into the bowl of a standing mixer and stir in sugar and salt until dissolved. Sprinkle the yeast on top but do not stir. Allow to proof for 5-10 minutes, until the yeast begins to foam.

Add the flour and coconut oil to the yeast mixture. Using the dough hook attachment, mix on low speed until well combined. Turn the speed up and knead until the dough is smooth and pulls away from the sides of the bowl, around 4 to 5 minutes.

Remove dough from the bowl. Oil the bowl with coconut oil and place ball of dough back in. Lightly grease the top of the dough ball. Cover the top of the bowl with a damp towel and let sit in a warm place for approximately 1-2 hours or until the dough has doubled in size. *We made a double batch so we divided the dough into 2 bowls to rise. From previous experience with bread if I double a batch, I always split it to proof so not to slow down the double time.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Stir the water and baking soda together and bring to a boil in a large pot.

Turn the dough out onto a work surface lightly oiled with extra coconut oil and divide into 10 equal pieces.We divided the dough into 12 pieces.

Roll out into pretzel shapes and place on cookie sheets lined with parchment paper and greased with coconut oil.

Place 1 pretzel at a time into the boiling water for 30 seconds. Remove with a large, flat spatula and place back unto lined cookie sheets. Brush with optional egg wash if desired.

Bake until dark golden brown in color, 12 to 14 minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack and serve with melted butter, salt, cinnamon sugar and other toppings/dips of choice.

Here are pictures of our process.

Thursday

FREE ebook on Amazon Ground Beef Recipes from My Table To Yours

Are you always looking for new and tasty ground beef recipes? If so, now through Sunday you can get a free ebook with over 20 ground beef recipes from one of my favorite blogs, Lynn's Kitchen Adventures.

From Amazon: "With today’s super high prices, ground beef is the way to go if you’re on a tight budget like most of us.Ground beef is the most versatile and inexpensive when it comes to making a meal for your family or for yourself. Cooking ground beef recipes can also be monotonous but they don’t have to be with a few more ideas at your disposal."

From SusieQTpies Cafe: Wow this book looks DELISH! Get a copy and send a copy to a friend. My family loves Mexican recipes and I can't wait to try her Chili Cornbread Bake, Chili Relleno Casserole and Frito Pie. I'm having a Cinco de Mayo party with church friends and I will cook a few of these for the party!

Each recipe in the cookbook as a tasty mouth-watering photo. I'm such a visual learning that I go ga-ga over cookbooks with photos. I love e-cookbooks especially when I use the Kindle app on my phone. This allows me to have recipes on hand while at the store or to share with friends.

Lynn loves to share recipes and you can tell by this book and her blog. Click over to get it now. If you miss out on it being free, still purchase it for $.99. It is well worth it. Click here to get the free ebook!

More Free Ground Beef Recipes

Cocktail Meatballs and Wieners
Easy Cheesy Enchiladas
Easy Homemade Spaghetti and Meatballs
Fiesta Burger
Lazy Lasagna
My version of The Nebraska Runzas

Wednesday

Wake up & Shake up Morning Routine Tips for Kids

How do you keep wake up time fun all school year for the kiddos? I know a lot of families struggle once Spring break is over because kids want to sleep in and play all day instead of heading off to school. Here are a few tips to wake up and shake up that morning routine.

This sponsored post will give you morning wake up ideas.

We have found that once Spring break is over, everyone has spring fever and they are dragging! They drag to get up in the morning and even drag to get school work completed. A way to help this is to start the day off with some wake up and shake up time. This will set the tone for the entire day. As parents this does take extra effort on our part because if your home is anything like mine, you also have spring fever and long for the freedom of summer.

Tips to Wake up and Shake up the Mornings

#1 Use an alarm clock- Everyone needs their own alarm clock. Work out a time that they need to be up by, teach them how to set their alarm clock and how to get up and turn it off. Don't put the alarm right by their bed. Put it across the room so that they have to get out of bed to turn it off.

#2 Teach the kids time and challenge them to beat their morning routine time. This will make get up time a game. Who doesn't love games?

#3 Create a countdown calendar for the end of school. Let them mark off the days every morning.

#4 Plan ahead breakfast and let the kids pick out which foods they will eat in the morning. This will give them something to look forward to. Encourage them to pick out foods that will give them a good balance of carbs and protein to get them to snack time or lunch time. One of our choices are Silk Fruit & Protein drinks. They give the benefits of fruit juice with the power punch of protein. Besides protein, Silk Fruit & Protein is full of Calcium, Vitamin D and Vitamin C. They currently have Mixed Berry, Mango Peach and Strawberry Banana.

#5 Go shopping! This doesn't have to cost a lot but go pick out a few new shirts or hair accessories. Hit the clearance items or even thrifty stores. This will give them something new to wear to school just like they do at the beginning of the year.

#6 Competition! Yes not only can they compete against their own morning time but also anyone else in the house. Friendly competition always wakes and shakes up any dull morning.

#7 Rock around the sink- Put their favorite music in the bathroom so that they can sing in the shower, while brushing teeth,etc.

#8 Purchase special plates or napkins for breakfast ONLY! This will give them something to smile about.

#9 Quick bedroom switch game-Have them go to their room to make their bed real quick. Once they are there, yell out SWITCH and tell them ahead of time that whenever you yell that they have to go make someone else's bed.

Do you find that the morning routine does get boring and is such a chore once spring break is over? How do you wake up and shake up your kids morning routine? Do you do any of the tips that I suggested? Are you going to try any of them? I love to know!

This blog post is part of a paid SocialMoms and Silk blogging program. The opinions and ideas

expressed here are my own.

Tuesday

Pulled Pork Sliders Crock Pot Recipe

We love mini slider sandwiches. This Pulled Pork Slider recipe now a new favorite of ours. We found it in the new, Gooseberry Patch Game Day Fan Fare Cookbook.

This recipe is called Pulled Pork Sammies in the cookbook but we renamed it Pulled Pork Sliders. This is a new game day and any day family favorite. Once you check out the recipe, click over to the Gooseberry Patch Game Day Fan Fare post where you can learn more about this cookbook and enter to win a copy! We have cooked quite a few recipes from this delish cookbook and you will find some of them there, too.

Pulled Pork Sliders (Sammies)

Ingredients

3-5 lb Boston butt pork roast
28 oz can fire roasted diced tomatoes
2 12 oz cans Coke
1 1/2 c. brown sugar
3 T.. chili powder
12 sandwich buns, split

Directions

1-Place pork in a slow cooker and all the ingredients except the bungs.
2-Cover and cook on low setting for 8 hours.
3-Stir occasionally and cook until very tender.
4-Serve on buns and add sauce from slow cooker.

Pork Shred Tip-- If pork is tender, take 2 forks and pull it apart. I love this and use it all the time for shredding meat. This way you can do it while the meat is still hot and you don't have to touch it.

Kitchen Notes-
-My experience is that only 1 can of Coke was needed. My store was out of the butt pork roast so I just purchased the same meat amount pork roast. I get the pork roast that has fat on it just like the butt pork. If not the pork will be on the dry side.
-We served ours with the mini Hawaiian buns and a slice of cheddar cheese.
-This recipe made a HUGE amount of meat. We used the leftover the next day for our famous pork aka Pig Nachos.
-Yum!

Click here to get more recipes from this cookbook and to enter the cookbook giveaway. Leave any comment below about this recipe as that is one of the entries.

More Sliders Recipes

Ham and Swiss Cheese Sliders
Pot Roast Sliders
Chicken Crockpot Sliders
Chicken Chik Fil A Knockoff Sliders

Monday

Egg Carton Craft and other fun recycled crafts for kids

Egg carton crafts are so fun to make! Earth day or any day kids love hands on recycled, upcycled reusable fun projects. Get into spring and let your kids create bugs and blooms egg carton crafts.

Bugs & Blooms Recycled Egg Carton Crafts

Basic supplies:

Paper egg cartons
Scissors
Pipe cleaners
White glue
Paper clip (for poking holes in the egg carton)

Pick a few more supplies to decorate your project:

Markers
Crayons
Washable paint & brushes
Pom-poms
Buttons
Wiggly eyes
Glitter

Caterpillars

Cut the bottom of the egg carton in half down the middle, so you have two strips of 6 egg cups.
You now have two caterpillar bodies! One side of each strip will have notches along the side because of how the carton is shaped, so you can cut the other side with matching notches, if you wish.
Now, you need to decorate your caterpillar's body! Add some color with markers, crayons, paint, and/or glitter.
You can also glue on some pom-poms or buttons and add wiggly eyes to give him some personality!
If you like, you can punch little holes along the bottom of his sides and insert small bent pieces of pipe cleaners as legs or glue on pom-poms for feet.
Don't forget his antennae! Cut a pipe cleaner in half, and bend it into a V. Poke two small holes in the top of the caterpillar's head, and insert the V into the holes from underneath.

Caterpillars get hungry, so let's make him a flower snack!

Flowers

Using scissors, separate the egg carton cups from each other. If you like, you can also cut out a few of the triangular parts of the egg carton that are between the cups.
Shape each cup into a flower however you like.
Add some color to your flowers with markers, crayons, paint, and/or glitter.
Poke two small holes in bottom of each egg cup, and cut 6 pipe cleaners in half.
From the bottom of the cup, insert one end of the pipe cleaner into one of the holes, bending it over after you push it through, so that it can loop over and come back out through the other hole.
Tightly twist the long side of the pipe cleaner together with the smaller piece that's now sticking out of the bottom of the egg cup.
Bend over the bottom tip of the pipe cleaner stem to protect little hands from getting poked by the wire.
If you want your flower to have a fancy center, glue a pom-pom or button inside the center of the egg cup bottom. Enjoy your bouquet!

Hope you enjoyed this fun project from Donna & Co.