How Do You Dress Up Your Hot Cereals?

Maybe I'm the only one, but around here we make large pots of some sort of hot cereal for breakfast. Usually it's either Malto-Meal or oatmeal, but I fill my big dutch oven pretty fill with whatever I'm making that day. Since it's usually fairly plain tasting, I've found some ways to help my kids learn to love these hot cereals, with just a few additions.

Like today, to my massive pot of Malto-Meal (about 10 servings worth), I added somewhere around 1 1/2 to 2 teaspoons of pumpkin pie spice, about 1 cup of brown sugar, and roughly a cup of milk. Other days I've done plain cinnamon and brown sugar, and sometimes I add nuts and/or raisins as well, depending on what I have on hand and what the kids are in the mood for. The nice thing about cinnamon, is that it has a lot of good properties, one of which being that it helps control blood sugar to a degree, so that the kids don't go on a sugar high from all the carbs. I love that about cinnamon, among other things. And my kids love the extra flavor.

Other flavors I've done are apple pie spice, as well as just a mix of cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg (sort of like ginger snaps). They really liked that one. I have also added vanilla extract in the past (homemade of course), and honey in varying amounts.

While they weren't too thrilled about the plain hot cereals at first, after a few trial and errors, they seem to love it now, especially as the weather starts growing colder. Even the baby loves it now, with all the yummy flavors.

Another Contest Is Coming, But While You're Waiting....

Check out this coupon for $4 off any Elefun & Friends game. The coupon is available for download through October 31st, and good for use until December 31st. So while you're waiting for this giveaway, you can get a really great coupon to use for some fun games for your kids. The giveaway will involve two new games from Elefun, and I will let you know as soon as I can start it :)

They Want To Inject My Kids With What?

This is a link to an article containing several videos discussing the dangers of vaccines.

Watch the first one especially, if you have a daughter nearing the age of getting the Gardasil Vaccine.

They Want To Inject My Kids With What?

Lemon Ginger Cookies with Boysenberry Cream Cheese Frosting

This is my first entry in Bake at 350's Flavor Of The Month carnival. I missed out on the last one, which was pie, due to, well, life. But, I made it this time, and I'm excited to participate in the theme of lemon and/or lime. I chose lemon, mostly because I can't stand lime, but also because I have some good recipes with lemon in them. The following recipe is one I stumbled across recently, and fell in love with it. The frosting was something I concocted because I was in a crazy mood that day, and thought I'd be adventurous. I'm not sure how the adventure turned out, but the cookies are very good, and the frosting, while tasty, doesn't necessarily add to the cookie, though it doesn't take away from it by any stretch. As my husband put it, he's ambivalent about the frosting. But, it does make it look pretty :)

So, go check out the carnival over at Bake at 350, and if you have any lemon and/or lime recipes, go turn them in :)

Lemon Ginger Cookies

1 c. butter

2 c. brown sugar

2 eggs

1/3 c. dairy sour cream

1 tsp. lemon extract

1 tsp. vanilla extract

3 1/2 c. sifted flour

2 tsp. soda

2 tsp. cream of tartar

1 tsp. salt

2 tsp. ground ginger

Cream together first 7 ingredients until fluffy. Sift remaining ingredients together and add to creamed mixture, blending thoroughly. Drop from teaspoon 2 inches apart on lightly greased cookie sheet. Bake in moderate oven (350 degrees) for 12 minutes or until done. Remove at once from pan. Delicious!! Yields: 6 dozen.

Boysenberry Cream Cheese Frosting

I took a half recipe of my favorite cream cheese frosting, and then melted down some boysenberry jam until it was runny. I then blended that into the frosting until it looked about right and I could taste the jam. I think I used only a few tablespoons.

The frosting is completely optional, you could even use a plain cream cheese frosting for these. I ended up topping them with some coarse sugar too, just to make them pretty.

Hair

I've been making some changes to my hair routine, and so far they're going well. On Monday, I washed my hair with a baking soda rinse, and followed it up with an apple cider vinegar rinse. Then, I didn't wash my hair for 3 days. It's insane, I know. Usually by the end of the second day my scalp is begging for mercy from the itching, but I didn't have that this time. Today, I get to wash my hair again with the baking soda, but no ACV rinse. I've made a rosemary rinse though, so we'll see how that feels. It's too hot to use it yet, but I'll be doing that in a little bit. I was surprised at the 'rosy' color of the tea though. I simmered a sprig of rosemary in some water for about 15 minutes, and it turned out a really pretty rosy color. I can't wait to use it, it smells so good.

Here are the sites where I got my ideas from:

Babyslime

and

Rosemary

I am hoping that the rosemary will help with my hair strength, since after 6 kids my hair has gone a bit brittle. Wish me luck :)

Ice Cream Bon Bons

I don't know if anyone else remembers the little ice cream Bon Bons that were around when I was a kid, but I remember them being very good, covered with lots of chocolate. After seeing a yummy recipe on the new Tasty Kitchen, which Pioneer Woman has so lovingly created for all of us ^_^, I started coming up with all sorts of ideas. The original recipe called for vanilla ice cream, banana slices, and chocolate. Then, I thought about nilla wafers, ice cream in a number of different flavors, and more chocolate coating. Then I started thinking about about a billion other possibilities.

The basic structure is the same. Something on the bottom, ice cream on the top, dip the whole thing in chocolate.


Oreo cookie
Oreo or vanilla ice cream
Dip it in chocolate

Nilla wafer
Any flavor of ice cream
Dip it in chocolate

Banana
Vanilla ice cream
Dip it in chocolate
Top it with nuts! Mmm!

Small chocolate chip cookie
Vanilla ice cream
Dip it in chocolate


The possiblities are really endless. Any combination of small cookies, covered in ice cream dipped in chocolate (even white chocolate might work), would taste soo good. I will have to experiment, and if you're lucky, you'll see the results :D

Oh, I had another one!

Nilla wafer
Raspberry ice cream
Dip it in either white or dark chocolate

Now I'm drooling :D

Yep, Another Giveaway!

Since I didn't hear back from me, Amanda is the next winner. If you could please contact me within 24 hours that would be great. Congratulations! However your profile is not available and you didn't leave an email, so I will need to hear from you for you to win.

******
And the winners are......

me **I don't have an email address for you, so if you could contact me with that, I would appreciate it. If I don't hear from you within 24 hours, I will pass the prize on to the next entrant.**
and
throuthehaze

I used random.org to choose the winners, and I will be contacting you shortly. Congratulations!

*********************************
I've been given one more opportunity to host a giveaway, this time for a nifty little prize pack from Pillsbury Simply Cookies. I have a package of those yummy looking cookies sitting in my fridge at this very moment, waiting to be cooked up.

And while my cookies are waiting to be cooked up, you can enter the contest for this nice little prize pack:

A coupon for a free package of simply... cookie dough

A tote bag

A small ceramic cookie jar



I've used the bag at the grocery store a few times already (it holds quite a bit!), and once I get the cookies baked up I"ll be putting them in the cute little cookie jar :)

Enter in the comments section, and make sure that I have a way of contacting you either through your profile or by leaving an email address. Once the contest is over, I will contact you for your address which I will forward to the host of the contest, and they will mail you your prize pack.

While you're commenting, here is a question for you:

What do you do to make your meals more simple?

Contest ends on August 2nd at 5pm.