Pickled Eggs are not on my list of favorite foods but they are for my husband and son.  I love pickles and I love eggs but why anyone would want to eat a picked egg is beyond me.  With that said, I’ll share the recipe that me and my man used, in which, him and Tyler devoured each and every single egg as soon as 8 days hit!  Enjoy!

P.S. I’d double next time and make a lot more.

For the first time in 5 years, all of my boys will be in school.  Tyler is a Senior, Toby a Sophomore, and Truett a Pre-k’r.  It’s a bittersweet moment you know?  The youngest is growing up and one will be graduating.  It’s surreal to me right now and all I can think about tonight is how fast time has flown by these past few years and well, it made think of my grandma.  I miss her so much and I just wish we she could be here to share in these experiences with me.

When I got thinking about school snacks and my grandma, it made me think of one of our favorite snacks to have together; peanut butter honey crackers.  Although me and my grandma ate them as late night snack, I thought my last evening with Truett before he heads off to school tomorrow would make for a perfect time to recreate similar memories.

You can’t get any easier than this guys.  You simply need peanut butter, honey, and crackers.  Mix the honey and peanut butter to taste and spread on the cracker.    Use two crackers to make a sandwich and you can put them in a ziploc baggie for  your kiddo’s lunchbox!

Truett absolutely loved them. I’ve recreated a memory that was always special to me and I hope that will be special to him one day.

What back to school snacks will you be making for your kids? 

Disclosure: I am an official Walmart Mom. Follow me and my fellow Walmart Moms as we share our experiences and ideas! Walmart has provided me with compensation in return for my time & efforts to create this post. My participation in this program is voluntary and my opinions are my own, always have been, always will be.

Summer snacks are big deal when you have kids at your house all the time, and finding ones that are friendly on the pocketbook can sometimes be a challenge. I remember the first time I had these Firecrackers-crackers with seasoning, and they were delicious! I thought they’d make the perfect snack for this 4th of July!

Disclosure: I am an official Walmart Mom. Follow me and my fellow Walmart Moms as we share our experiences and ideas! Walmart has provided me with compensation and gift card in return for my time & efforts to create this post. My participation in this program is voluntary and my opinions are my own, always have been, always will be.

Snack attack time! School is out, it’s Summer time and the kids are hungry but don’t fret parents, Chili-Cheese Dogs to the rescue.   Of course you can always heat up a corn dog but a chili dog with cheese in a blanket is way better!  What I love about this recipe is that the kiddos can help you make them.  By doubling the recipe, you can be sure that you are making enough for everyone or even for a picnic!

INGREDIENTS

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 3/4 pound of ground beef
• 1 tablespoon chili powder
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 2 teaspoons onion salt and ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 1 (13.8oz) tube refrigerator pizza dough
• 1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
• 8 hot dog wieners

DIRECTIONS

Preheat the oven to 400′

1. Heat the oil in small pot over medium high heat.  Add the meat and brown.  Season meat with chili powder, garlic, onion and salt & pepper.  Add the tomato paste and stir; then addd 1/4 cup water to help loosen the tomato paste.  Simmer for 5 minutes and turn off heat.
2. Roll out the pizza dough into a big rectangle.  Cut the dough in half lengthwise with a small knife.  Cut the dough into 4 equal pieces across so that you end up with 8 small rectangular pieces of dough.  Across the center of each rectangle, place a couple of spoonfuls of chili sauce and sprinkle a small handful of cheese on top.  Set the dog on the dough and wrap and roll the pizza dough around teh dog as you would for pigs in a blanket, sealing in the chili and cheese.  The nubs of each end of the dog should be peeking out.  Arrange on a baking sheet and bake for 18 minutes or until brown.

LITTLE HELPERS

The little helpers can measure ingredients, shred the cheese, and roll the dogs in blankets.

This is what happens when ALL my emails are bouncing back to people and I haven’t received not one email for over two days. I eat. ugh. Yes, it’s midnight but that’s what stress does to you.

In my goal to be fit, not only am I working out to the Your Shape Wii Game, I’m also eating things healthier when I can.  Trying to find healthy substitutions to replace the easy accessible junk food can prove to be difficult at times.  I realized that trying to find prepackaged healthy food was the real problem. I needed to discover ways to create healthy snacks “from scratch”.  So instead of buying granola bar type snacks, I decided to make my own version. Since granola seems to be an ingredients that’s hard to come by around here, I chose to use oatmeal as a substitute but you could use granola (and I recommend you do) to make this recipe.

When the kids go back to school, I tend to stock my freezer full of ready made products.  You know, the ones that take minutes to cook or heat up?  I do this because A) The kids are usually starving right after school and supper isn’t ready until 6 and B) back to school usually means I’m the one helping with most of the chores here on the ranch instead of the kiddos, well, because they’re at school!  That means my time will get eaten up by chores, the little cowpoke (since the kids won’t be around to help watch), and trips to and from school helping out.

I love to cook from scratch and do it often but there are times when the kids need something fast to hold them through until supper or sometimes we need a meal in less than 30 minutes because we’re headed to town or school function.

Something I buy are Hot Pockets, Fully Cooked Chicken, and Stouffer’s Easy Express Skillet meals.  I’m obsessed with the Stouffer’s lasagna but don’t always have time to cook the family version of it so the express meals come in handy!

We have two freezers, one big one for our beef and other stuff and our top freezer on our fridge. This is where the quick foods are easily accessible.

As you can see, it’s not very well organized. I’ve got veggies on bottom, hot pockets, chicken, Popsicles and bacon on top.  My other freezer holds the Stouffer goods because well, obviously I can’t fit much else in here!

Here is one of my 20 minute meals using the Stouffer’s Easy Express Meals. First, I use Easy Express Skillets Grilled Chicken & Vegetables.  It has the vegetables already in it but I still need one more filler. Since these meals literally only take 20 minutes, I need something that takes the same amount or less.  That’s where biscuits come in!  Bread is always a great filler and I’ve got a recipe that takes 20 min or less.

BISCUITS!

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 c. flour
• 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• dash of salt
• 2 Tbl. sugar
• 1/2 c. butter
• 3/4 c. Carnation Evaporated Milk

PREPARATION:

Mix dry ingredients.  Add butter, milk and form into soft dough.  Do not over knead!  Pat into a ungreased 6×6 pan.  I use a pie pan myself so you can use whatever.  Cut into serving size portions before you cook.  Bake at 400′ for 15 to 20 minutes or until done and golden brown.

$500 Walmart Gift Card

I usually make my giveaways pretty simple, and while this one is still simple, it requires a bit more thought than the others I’ve done in the past.  Hey, it’s $500, if you wanna the chance to win something big like that, it’s gonna take a bit more work!

TO ENTER

Leave a comment here with a recipe using one of these Nestle products that would be great for breakfast, lunch, dinner, or snack:

• Carnation Evaporated Milk
• Nestle Raisinets
• Haagen Dazs Ice Cream (any flavor)
• Nestle Coffee-Mate Creamer (any flavor)

ONLY ONE RECIPE COMMENT PER PERSON! Put a little effort into the recipe folks. Please don’t be lazy;)  I’d like to try some of the recipes myself!  In fact, those of you who are saying, ice cream between two cookies, etc–WILL NOT COUNT!!!  Geez!

Additional/Optional ways to enter, leaving each one in a separate comment:

• Twitter the giveaway, including a link back here and my handle, @ACowboysWife -1 entry
• Share on facebook or similar social networking site and leave a comment telling me. -1 entry
• Create a Whrrl story using photos of your recipe and I’ll give you an additional (include link to story)-25 entries!

FINE PRINT

This giveaway is sponsored by Nestle.  Giveaway closes on August 18th at about 10pm CST.

In my quest to lose weight this year, I’m on the prowl for TASTY GOOD snacks that I can indulge in–Snacks that are going to soothe the craving.  I’ve tried another brand (WW) that were so horrible that even my kids wouldn’t eat them and they eat everything!  But these Little Debbie Snacks?  These are sooooo good.  You would have no clue that they are only 100 calories.  Not to mention they are cheaper than that other brand.  AND, there is currently a coupon for .55cents off!!!  Feast your eyes on these goodies…..

These are only 5 of the 8 that I tried out.  The other ones didn’t even last one day because of the boys aka hogs.

These are not large portions but they are not meant to be….the whole point of them being 100 calories is to provide a healthier alternative in a portion control size.   Yes fruit is healthier but sometimes you just need to indulge in something like this so that you don’t fall off the diet wagon, you know?

Anyways, Little Debbie snacks have been around for years so I found it to be a breath of fresh air to bring in a lighter version of their snacks. OH, and if you don’t give a rat’s butt for lower calories, then check out this Strawberry Shortcake Roll recipe!!!  It includes one of my most favorite debbie snacks ever.

So guess what?  You can WIN IT!

Oh yeah!  3 winners will get this HUGE box of 100 calorie Little Debbie Snacks.  The same box that I received in fact.  And my favorite part about their box?  It has their twitter handle on it!!  So cool that they are also trying to stay in the cutting edge of social media.

This is what you will get…..

Which ones did I fall in love with?  The Snow Puffs were my absolute faves.  Then the rest are all tied…seriously.  They are THAT good.

HOW TO ENTER:

Go check out the Little Debbie Website and tell me which one is your favorite snack! It doesn’t have to be a 100 calorie one either…..Come back here to this post and leave a comment.

Additional ways to enter include & should be done in a separate comment:

• Twittering this

100 calorie @LittleDebbie snacks giveaway over at @acowboyswife ‘s food blog! http://tinyurl.com/9tgbc3

• Blog it
• Stumble it

This giveaway ends on January 16th.  Rules

In need of a very good treat to give for the holiday?  Almond bark, popcorn, pretzels, peanuts oh my!!  This is the perfect, affordable treat that when wrapped in cute holiday buckets and plastic goody bags, will make anyone smile!   You can make it small and large batches and even use different themed bags & buckets for different holidays.

INGREDIENTS:

• *Air pop corn popper-because my husband is a freak and thinks that Microwave ovens (along with everything else in this world) cause cancer.  I think that SEX causes cancer and that we need to keep that out of our house too!!!!! (lol)
• *Vanilla Almond Bark
• *Spanish peanuts
• *Pretzels
• *Popcorn

DIRECTIONS:

I melt one entire block thingy of Almond Bark on my stove top (again the microwave issue with the man) in a plain ole pot on LO to MEDIUM LO, until completely melted. While the candy is melting, Me & Orville Redenbacher get the poppin’ party started!! I fill the popcorn to the level indicated 2 times. This usually gives me enough popped corn for a full batch of Goodies. I used a fairly HUGE bowl.. Add popcorn, peanuts, & pretzels. When the candy is completely melted (whew, my arm is tried of stirring occasionally to prevent scalding) I add the melted candy and mix until completely covered.

Pour onto a wax paper to cool, as a little holiday cheer, I sprinkle red and green candy decor (sugar) over popcorn goodness before it cools.. Fill up your favorite holiday gift bags, add a cute lil bow or ribbon. There you have a perfect scrumptious homemade gift.

I also have a picture of just a Christmas candy that I make, just excluded the popcorn. Mix candy, pretzels, and peanuts until covered, and plop down on wax paper until cool. I also add the colored sprinkles for some holiday flare…..Get your filthy hands outta there I am taking a picture…….

Get your filthy candy grabber’s outta there, you no microwave wanting Nymph…or you’ll pull back a stump..

Happy Holidays Ya’ll!!