Love continued...

I'll continue on the Love theme and share our little Valentine's day treat...Red Velvet Cookie Sandwiches!!

I originally found the idea here. As usual, I changed it up and simplified a little bit!! Here's the recipe for my version:

Ingredients:
1 Box Red Velvet Cake Mix
1 stick butter (or equivalent in margarine)
1 egg
1 Tub Cream Cheese Icing

Steps:
1. Combine cake mix, butter and egg. Mix until smooth.
2. On parchment paper trace out heart shapes.  I used a small heart cookie cutter as a stencil

3. Transfer batter into piping bag (if you actually own one!).  I just used a gallon size ziploc bag.  [Here's a great tip I found somewhere:  Put one corner of the bag down into a large mug, fold the bag around the mug.  This will allow you to use two hands to transfer the batter into the bag.  Then snip the corner of the bag so you have a small hole.]

4. Pipe the batter, tracing your heart shapes.

5. Bake at 375 for about 9 minutes.  Allow cookies to cool completely.
6. Open your tub of icing and stir to make it fluffy.  Spread it on the bottom side of one cookie, top with another cookie to make your sandwich!

You could re-create this recipe with sugar cookie dough and any food coloring/holiday shape!!

BBK: French Dip Crescents

Welcome to the Baby Boogies Kitchen (BBK); 

real food for real moms!

We all see those recipes online and in cookbooks and think "wow, that looks good...but all those steps! all those ingredients! I'll never be able to make that!"   I agree! What busy mom has time for all that?!  I like simple, quick recipes.  I like "one pot" meals.  Crock Pot meals. Casseroles.  Things you can make on a crazy mommy schedule.

I'm by no means claiming to be a chef.  I'm not claiming to know anymore than you do about making food.  I'm just here to share things from our kitchen.  Meals (and desserts and appetizers) that were both easy to make and delicious to eat!

French Dip Crescents:

Ingredients:


French Dips:
1 pkg refrigerated crescent rolls (8 count)
1/2 lb deli roast beef, thin sliced
8 slices thin sliced swiss cheese
mayo

"Au Jus"
1 can beef broth
2 tbsp Worcestershire
garlic powder

Steps:

1. Unroll crescents and separate
2. Spread mayo on each crescent and top with a slice of cheese (you'll have to cut it ti the shape to the dough) and a slice or two of roast beef
3. Roll each crescent closed, starting at the wide end
4. Bake @ 375 for about 14 minutes
5. Meanwhile combine the broth and Worcestershire  (season with garlic powder to taste) in small pot and heat till simmering. Serve as dip for crescents.

8 crescents were a perfect number for dinner. J inhaled 4, 3 would have been plenty for me, but I thought, why just save 1?! Boogie just ate some left over cheese and roast beef so I could have shared that final crescent with him instead.

25 Days: HH Style, Day 21 & 22

Day 21: Drive & Look at Lights
I've always loved looking at Christmas lights.  The neighborhood I grew up in always went all out. We actually had an annual contest, with multiple categories to vote on for light displays each year.  I loved to drive around and cast our votes!  There are some pretty incredible light displays in Kansas City; so many that there are entire websites dedicated to mapping out all the "must sees!"  Since C-Monk hates her carseat, we knew we wouldn't have much time to drive around so we selected one neighborhood display to check out this year; Christmas Card Lane.  This neighborhood has tons of homes decked out in lights, all tied together with the theme of large Christmas cards from each family.  It's a strange neighborhood with 1980's split-levels, mixed with brand new traditional homes and the light displays varied just as much.  My favorite was a huge farmhouse style home covered in white icicle lights and white lights lining the path up to the house; beautiful! Boogie's favorite of course, was the house with the huge inflatable Mickey Mouse Santa!

The whole experience was fun, but also a little creepy....all these cars driving slowly past the houses, some people getting out to take pictures. It'd be fun to live in a neighborhood like this, but it would get old and annoying really fast! Just wondering if this is something you have to include in a seller's disclosure..."buyer must be willing to spend ridiculous amounts of time and money on Christmas light displays each year while hundreds of complete strangers will slowly drive past the house staring at your work (and in your windows) while taking tons of pictures to share with more strangers..."





Day 22: Make Reindeer Food

Recipe:  

1/4 cup sugar 

1/4 cup oatmeal (we don't eat oatmeal so we used rice krispies!)

a sprinkle of red/green sugar

How does it work?

Sprinkle on the lawn at night

The moon will make it sparkle bright

As Santa's reindeer fly and roam

This will guide them to your home

(no, I didn't write or invent this, but thanks for thinking I could be that creative...)

Boogie did a great job helping scoop the ingredients and put them in the bag.  We'll sprinkle it in the yard before bedtime on Christmas Eve!

25 Days: HH Style, Day 7

Sorry it's a little later than usual for the daily update...mommy got to take a shower tonight!!

Before I get to the activity re-cap for today, I have to mention dinner! I found this recipe for Ham & Cheese Sliders and knew J would love them!  As with most recipes I find, I customized a little bit (no Miracle Whip, no poppy seeds and definitely NO ONION!!) and I only made 10, not 24!! For a side dish; baked cheesy potato rounds (simple, easy...slice, butter and garlic bake for 30 minutes at 350...add cheese in the last 2 minutes of baking, YUM!). But, back to the sandwiches....it's been a long time since I've seen J devour something like that! I think his words were "a sophisticated, delicious sandwich, yet it's still just ham and cheese!!" I have to agree...they were delicious!

OK, onto the day's activity....

Day 7: Watch a Christmas Movie

I didn't check the TV lineup before putting this card in today's envelope (note to self: plan better next year)....So, we were limited to what is available to watch instantly on Netflix. We chose The Happy Elf, this choice was solely based on the fact that it was available, kid friendly and only 45 minutes long (about the extent of Boogie's attention span when it comes to things like this). I was fairly pleased with the choice, short and to the point, good story, an Elf named Tucker and apparently a fairly famous "cast." Since we now keep the Wii (our device for accessing Netflix) in our room, we all snuggled on the bed to watch...and we used the timer on the camera for the first time so we could all be in the picture... 

25 Days: HH Style, Day 6

Day 6: Eat Breakfast for Dinner
I must admit, this is one of my favorite meals.  I love breakfast food; hashbrowns, bacon, eggs, pancakes, yum! I just never seem to be up and functioning enough to eat breakfast for breakfast. Especially with two little ones to get up and dressed and fed each morning, I'm lucky to get a cup of coffee in my belly, let alone a gourmet breakfast!
I searched around to find the perfect new breakfast entree to try, and just couldn't find the right one, so I made it up! It's kind of like if my Tater Tot Casserole got together with this Cowboy Casserole and had a breakfast baby...
J and I enjoyed huge helpings of the breakfast casserole and tall glasses of cold milk!! yum!! Boogie had his favorite breakfast food; a big banana, and a little bit of breakfast casserole, although I don't think he was a fan. The pictures don't really do it justice, but I assure you it was yummy! Oh, and check out my old, scratched up Tupperware plate, oh yea!! Fancy!

The recipe?? Oh, I supposed I'll share...

What you'll need:
1lb breakfast sausage (I used turkey sausage)
garlic and pepper for seasoning
1 can cream of mushroom soup
4 tablespoons sour cream
1/2 cup milk
1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
1 package frozen tater tots (I used potato rounds)

What to do:
1. Brown sausage, season with garlic and pepper to taste (I also added a little chipotle seasoning, cause we like a little spice!). Drain and set aside.
2. In medium bowl add soup, sour cream, and milk.  Stir till smooth.  Add 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese. Mix in sausage
3.  Pour into casserole dish
4. Top with tater tots (I thawed the tots slightly in the microwave before adding)
5. Top with remaining shredded cheese
6. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes
7. Enjoy! (We found that it slightly tasted like sausage gravy so it might be delicious to pour the casserole over biscuits!!)