Homemade peanut butter cups

I'm a sucker for anything peanut butter and chocolate so I had to try homemade Reese's peanut butter cups! This is the 3rd time I've made them. After a little tweaking, I think I've got it down.

Homemade peanut butter cups
1/4 cup butter
3/4 cup peanut butter
3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs
1/4 sugar
1 cup milk chocolate chips
2 Tbls peanut butter
Yields 2 dozen mini muffin and 6 regular size muffins

In a glass bowl, melt the butter and 3/4 cup peanut butter in the microwave on high for 45 seconds. Stir until smooth. Add the graham cracker crumbs and sugar and mix. Line the muffin tins. Fill each about 1/2 way full. Let chill (set) in the refrigerator 15 min.

In a microwave safe bowl, mix the chocolate chips and remaining peanut butter. Melt at 50% power for 30 seconds at a time, stirring after each 30 seconds until smooth and all the chocolate chips are melted. (Mine end up taking 1 1/2 minutes). Pour chocolate over the peanut butter base. Chill for 15 minutes. Serve immediately. If it is warm, store in the refrigerator.




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Peep and jelly bean center pieces

I actually made these a couple years ago and forgot about them until I was pinning a couple weeks ago!  Lucky me, Hobby Lobby had all their glass vases on sale when I went!!!  I was able to get some great vases I know I'll be able to use over and over again.

For the round fishbowl, I used skittle jelly beans which is why they are darker than the other bowl which I used regular jelly beans with sprinkled robin eggs on top.



Original pin:

Source: tasteofhome.com via Kristen on Pinterest

Layered jell-o

I volunteered to make a jell-o salad this year.  I found the pin below and thought it looked good.  Who doesn't like sweet condensed milk!  It was easy enough to make.  But I thought it was a little odd to be adding an extra packet of gelatin to the colored layers. I was right, the jell-o was very chewy.  The only thing I can think of is it is needed if you are going to cut out shapes out of the jell-o.  I left mine in a glass 13"x9" dish and served it out of there.  And I covered mine in cool whip.  Overall I liked the flavor of the layers.  Next time I'll not add the extra packet of gelatine and see what happens.  And I couldn't tell what size jell-o box was used.  I started with the 3 oz size and quickly realized I needed to double the amount.  Next time, I'll buy the large packets of jell-o!

And I had some trouble with the white layer.  When you make it, it makes 3 cups.  You only need 1 cup at a time.  So by the time I got to needing the last cup, it had started to set and was chunky.  So I made another batch of the white layer and ended up throwing out 2 cups of it.  I don't know what else to do and how to stop the mixture from starting to set.  

I forgot to take a picture, but wanted to remember what I did if I need to make a jell-o dish again.

For each (I did 3) colored layer:
1 large box jell-o
2 cups hot water
1 packet knorr gelatin (I will not use this next time)

Mix together until smooth.  Pour into a sprayed 13"x 9" glass pan

For the white layer: (makes enough for 3 layers)
1 can sweeten condense milk
3 packets knorr geltin
2 cups hot water

Mix until smooth.  Pour over colored layer.  It helps if you pour the mixture onto a spoon held close to the colored layer as to not cause a hole in the jell-o layer by pouring directly.

Let each layer set completely before adding the next layer.  If not - your jell-o will turn brown.


Original pin:

Source: pluffmuddstudio.blogspot.ca via Kristen on Pinterest

 

Puzzle egg hunt

I loved this idea when I saw it!  My kids love egg hunts, but I don't want to just have candy filled eggs for them.  I went to the dollar store.  I found a 24 piece puzzle for my almost 3 year old and a 100 piece puzzle for the 8 year old.  I put 1 puzzle piece in each egg for my son and 4 pieces in each for my daughter.  That way my son had 24 eggs and my daughter 25.  And I color separated the eggs. My son had blue, green and orange.  My daughter had pink, purple and yellow.  This way we won't mix up the puzzle pieces.

This seemed like a success!  Even though my brother and I ended up doing 75% of my daughters puzzle (she had no concentration with so many family members around!), it was great and I look forward to doing this again next year!

Original pin:

Source: parents.com via Kristen on Pinterest

Egg plate for the kids

My almost 3 year old liked this much better than my 8 year old!  My 8 year old didn't get enough food - especially the ham!

I ran the plastic eggs thought the top rack of the dishwasher and washed the styrofoam egg cartons thouroly.  I just wanted to make sure there were no raw egg yuckies left in the egg cartons and residue on the plastic eggs.

The original pin:

Source: brandyscrafts.blogspot.com via Kristen on Pinterest

Carrot flower vase

I saw this and loved it!  I've done lemons before but never thought about carrots...

The original pin:

Source: mixmingleglow.com via Kristen on Pinterest

Bunny Footprints

We were expecting rain, so Riley wrote the bunny a note and drew him a key so he could make it into our house (bunnies can come down fireplaces!).  The Easter Bunny used the key and left evidence he was in our house!  I didn't think the dogs would clean up the flour footprints for me, but that's one less thing I have to do this morning!

Meat fat

I keep seeing this post and finally remembered to try it. I'm going to do this every time I need to drain off fat! It was so simple.

I just lined a cereal bowl with tin foil, poured in the hot oil and let it sit for about an hour. Then I just threw it all away. So easy!

Unique way to patch jeans

My fashionista of a daughter had holes in her two favorite jeans. What's a girl to do? I had extra fabric from a project in her room so with the aid of some "Stitch Witchery" she has fashionable new jeans - and the patch is comfortable and not itchy she told me.

Thin Mint Brownies

Girl Scout cookie season has exploded all over my dining room table. It's hard to not eat them all myself - especially the Thin Mints. The Girl Scouts got smart and added recipes to their website that use the cookies. I made the Thin Mint brownies.

Thin Mint Brownies

1 sleeve (1/2 the package) of Thin Mints
1 brownie mix
2 eggs
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup oil

Preheat oven according to brownie mix.
Place thin mints in a plastic bag and crush them using the back or a spoon.
Mix all ingredients together (1 ended up using 1/4 cup more oil and 1 more egg than the mix called for - these totals are reflected above).
Bake as directed.

These were a hit! The thin mints didn't add an overpowering mint flavor, just a really subtle hint of mint. I'll make then again - as long as I have thin mints left on my table!!!!




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Bath coloring ice cubes

These were a big hit! My son initially wasn't trilled with the residue they left on his fingers. I told him it was colored soap and then he was good! Each cube lasted a few minutes at the temperature I had his bath at. The only thing I would do different is give him 1 color (or 2 primes colors that mix well). He played with green, yellow and red cubes so the bathtub water turned brown. I was afraid this many stain not only our hands, but my bathtub as well. But no - not even a tint of color that shouldn't be there.















- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhonee

Bath coloring ice cubes

These were a big hit! My son initially wasn't trilled with the residue they left on his fingers. I told him it was colored soap and then he was good! Each cube lasted a few minutes at the temperature I had his bath at. The only thing I would do different is give him 1 color (or 2 primes colors that mix well). He played with green, yellow and red cubes so the bathtub water turned brown. I was afraid this many stain not only our hands, but my bathtub as well. But no - not even a tint of color that shouldn't be there.















- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhonee

Masking tape race track

After 3 months, I finally had a morning to do nothing with my son. Last night I went on Pinterest and got a ton of ideas to do with him.

The last one of the morning was a race track made out of masking tape. He loved it. Of course, after we did the other activities he wanted to play cars and I didn't have masking tape. He was a good sport and off to Hobby Lobby we went (and hit In-n-Out on the way home - yummy!!)

While he was eating his grilled cheese sandwich, I starting making the track. He was looking at me like I was crazy, but caught on pretty fast. Then I kept hearing "cool mom", "awesome". That is the reason I'm doing these things!!!! I can't wait until his sister gets home.




The original pin:

Source: Uploaded by user via Kristen on Pinterest

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone