THE Zucchini Brownie Recipe

Now that I am getting the hang of 3 kids, maybe I can find the time to blog again!

I miss it so much...

So to celebrate coming back to the blog world, I want to share with

you the most amazing brownie recipe.

Courtesy of my wonderful mother.

 

Zucchini Brownies

2 cups white flour

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 tsp. salt

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/4 cups cocoa

2 cups grated zucchini

1/2 cup canola oil

2 tsp. vanilla extract

1/4 cup water

 

Mix zucchini and oil together in stand mixer. In separate bowl mix together all the dry ingredients. Add dry ingredients to the zucchini and oil slowly, scraping sides as you go. Once mixed add the vanilla and water. Pour into greased 9x13" pan. Bake for 25 min at 350 degrees.

 

Chocolate Icing

1/4 cup butter, softened

2 cups powdered sugar

1/3 cups cocoa powder

1 tsp. vanilla extract

4-5 TBS. half & half (just enough for desired consistency)

 

Place all ingredients in a stand mixer and mix together with the whipping attachment. Stop mixer, scrape sides, and mix again on medium speed for 2 min. Spread on completely cooled brownies.

 

In my opinion these taste the very best the day after you make them from then on out. I recently made two pans in a week. You will thank me. Promise.



 

Delicious Fudge made with doTERRA Essential Oils

This fudge recipe is so simple and SO delish!

I made it for one of the doTERRA classes and everyone loved it.

Infact, they loved it so much, that I had to write down the recipe and

copy it for everyone.

There is only 4 ingredients and takes about 5 minutes to make.

 

5 Min. Fudge

1-12 oz bag milk chocolate chips

3/4 c. butterscotch chips

14 oz can sweetened condensed milk

1 tsp. vanilla

7-8 drops of preferred essential oil

 

Line a loaf pan with tin foil and spray with non-stick spray.

Put first four ingredients into a sauce pan on medium-low heat.

Stir ingredients until completely melted and combined.

Remove from heat and add your essential oil.

Mix well.

Pour mixture into prepared loaf pan and place in refrigerator.

When completely cooled remove from loaf pan and cut into desired square size.

Enjoy!!

 

My personal favorite is the Wild Orange in the fudge.

And this fudge is also delicious without the essential oils, specially when

you add walnuts!!

 

Would be a wonderful neighborhood gift for Christmas!

 

need an new idea for a delicious and healthy snack?

i'm always looking for healthy little snacks for layla and i,

so i'm not just fueling her with goldfish, fruit snacks, and marshmellows.

(yes, she'd eat that all day long if i'd let her.)

living in hattiesburg i've dicovered a favorite snack that both of us love, so i thought i'd share.

these...

paired with this...

is absolutely delicious.

i've always known about pita chips and hummus,

but not these brands.

we also like to eat big juicy grapes on the side.

they compliment both pita chips and hummus very well.

it's a yummy treat! 

i get mine at sams, but i'm sure you can get it at walmart.

try it out.

what are some yummy healthy snacks that you enjoy?

a look inside our girls days..

yesterday we had it at our house.

we had a couple more mothers join us with their adorable children.

and even though we're all exhausted after refereeing our kids, we still love to do it.

on the menu-

spinach and poppy seed salad

it was delicious.

here's the recipe. 

Salad

2 bags of spinach

1 bag of romaine

1/2 lb bacon, cooked and crumbled

3/4 lb shredded swiss cheese

sliced almonds

Dressing

1 1/2 TBS. poppy seeds

1 1/2 c. oil

3/4 c. sugar

3/4 tsp. dry mustard

1 1/2 tsp. salt

3/4 c. white vinegar

1/2 purple onion, chopped fine

Make dressing 24 hours before your event. Store in the refrigerator and shake often.

pantry secrets

for christmas, one of the gifts my mother gave me was a big box of

pantry secrets
products.

 i was so excited to learn how to make bread, but a little intimidated.

(making banana bread and zucchini bread doesn't count)

well, last week, i finally took the plunge.

with the starter kit you get 2 how-to dvd's.

so i watched them first.

i thought, "that seems easy enough!"

and it was!

i whipped up my first two loaves in less than an hour.

baking and all.

there is all different kinds of varieties of bread that you can make with one recipe.

this time around i made the cinnamon bread using their famous cinnamon drops.

{i know one loaf looks a little "warty" but that's just the yummy cinnamon drops}

just so you know how good this bread was,

the first loaf was gone within an hour or so.

i just made another 2 loaves to share with our family in picayune.

i'm sure they'll be gone shortly after the bread bag is opened.

check out

pantry secrets

by clicking right on the link above

and invest in their starter kit.

you will not be disappointed.

and it's a wonderful investment.

thanks mom!!

chicken with orzo, carrots, dill, and avgolemono sauce

Okay, I'm always taking pictures of my foods to share with my blog family and I never post the recipes!
I'm going to try and make it a new years resolution to post at least one yummy recipe a week...
(what a resolution huh?!)

This dish is awesome, specially if you like lemon.
Lance bought me a Food and Wine cookbook a couple years ago and I love every recipe I've cooked in it.
This one is a favorite. And it's very simple.
To make it all flow perfect, prepare everything before you even start cooking.
Oh and don't let the recipe title scare you, it's just a fancy name for a delicious Greek sauce!

Chicken Breasts, with Orzo, Carrots, Dill, and Avgolemono Sauce
-Courtesy of Food and Wine Cookbook

2 Tbs. olive oil
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
   (about 1 1/2 pounds)
   Salt and fresh ground black pepper
1 1/4 cups canned low sodium chicken broth or homemade stock
1 tsp. dried dill
1 1/2 cups orzo (you'll find this in the pasta section, it looks like rice, but it's pasta)
2 whole carrots, quartered and cut into 1-inch lenghs
2 eggs
2 Tbs. lemon juice

1. In a large frying pan, heat 1 Tbs. of oil over moderate heat. Season the chicken breast with salt and fresh ground black pepper and add to the pan. Cook until browned, about 5 minutes. Turn the chicken and cook for another 3 minutes. Add the broth, dill, and 1 1/4 tsp. salt. Bring to a simmer, reduce the heat and simmer partially covered, until the chicken is just done, about 4 minutes. Remove the chicken and cover lightly with aluminum foil to keep warm. Set aside the pan with the broth.

2. Meanwhile, in a large pot of boiling, salted water, cook the orzo for 6 minutes. Add the carrots and continue cooking until the orzo and carrots are just done, about 6 minutes longer. Drain and toss with the remaining 1 Tbs. oil and salt and fresh ground pepper.

3. In a medium bowl, beat the eggs, lemon juice and 1/8 tsp. of pepper until frothy. Bring the chicken broth back to a simmer and add to the eggs in a thin stream, whisking. Pour the mixture back in the pan and whisk over the lowest possible heat until the sauce begins to thicken, about 3 minutes. Do not let the sauce come to a simmer, or it may curdle. Put the orzo and carrots on plates and top with the chicken and sauce!

If you try it out, let me know what you think!
Enjoy!

if you like pumpkin, cinnamon, and chocolate chips...

..then you must make these muffins!
they are divine and you'll thank me later.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins
4 eggs
2 c. white sugar
1-16oz. can pumpkin
1 1/2 c. vegetable oil
3 c. flour
2 t. baking soda
2 t. baking powder
1 t. cinnamon
1 t. salt
1 1/2 c. chocolate chips (i use milk chocolate)

Instructions:
In a large mixing bowl, beat eggs, sugar, pumpkin, and oil until smooth. Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt in a separate bowl and whisk. Add flour mixture to pumpkin mixture slowly and mix well. Fold in chocolate chips and fill greased or paper-lined muffin cups 3/4 full. Bake at 400 degrees for 16 min. or until muffins test done. Cool for 10 min. before moving to wire rack. Makes 24-36 muffins.

I know pictures usually sale a recipe, but they were to good to stop and take a pic!
Enjoy!

rewind to July 4th

I've been M.I.A when it comes to the blogging world

and it's all because of these cuties..

Ryan, Misty and the kids arrived in Mississippi July 2nd.

So ever since then we've been super busy with kids!

But it's been so much fun and I'll be so sad to see them leave tomorrow.

And so will Layla.

For the 4th, we just grilled ribs and chicken and hung out as a family.

It just doesn't get any better than that.

Misty and I stayed up late the night before making these...

They were so heavenly that we ended up making a total of 4 batches.

I got the recipe on one of my all time favorite food blogs, HERE.

For the recipe,

click HERE.

I strongly suggest you do it.

discover the chef in you...

I LOVE Pampered Chef!

This Saturday, June 26th I'm hosting my first show.

Soo...

If you'd like to buy some products click

HERE

And if you need the host # it's

NHH3

If you live close by, please attend!

I'd love to have you, and I'm sure you'll love the food.

(for directions and info. e-mail me at: LTS_28{at}yahoo{dot}com)

Valentine Fever

I just love Valentine's Day, but it has totally creeped up on me this year! This past Sunday I was talking to some of the sisters in our ward about a play date and I realized that Valentines was a week away. So I decided to throw a party for the little ones so that we mom's could have an excuse to get together!

For Layla's Valentine to her friends I got a cute idea on http://www.makeandtakes.com/. We took a few of Grandma Spiers' old crayons and recycled them! We made chuncky valentine crayons! I think they turned out pretty cute.
Crafts for the little ones...
Valentine bags...

For the main course we had heart shaped pb and j's. Just perfect for the kiddos.

Natalie, decorating her bag..

Layla, going to work on hers...

Decorating sugar cookies...

Jennifer, Jody, Savannah, and I

A little story behind these:

My Grandma Marcia Critton makes us all giant sugar cookies, with our names on them, that look just like these, every year for Valentine's Day. (talk about a run on sentence!) She's all I could think about while I was baking and icing them. I sure have missed getting my cookie these past 3 years. Maybe she'll make me some when I go home for Catlin's wedding ;-). Anyway, mine were yummy, but not the same as Grandma's cookie. It's such a special memory I'll always have of her.

Happy Valentine's Week!

Gingerbread Cookies w/ the Cusaks!

Last Tuesday we had the Cusaks over for a yummy dinner. Afterwards we baked and decorated gingerbread cookies. I think Gwen enjoyed it the most!

{little Gwennie hard at work}

{so precise}

{the one cookie I decorated}

{Layla enjoying every bit of her cookie!}

notice her top tooth finally making an entrance!

Fair, Pumpkins, Playing, and More...

I've got some catching up to do, so beware, there are A LOT of pictures below! We've had a fun filled week, and it's not even over. We are just loving every bit of fall and enjoying the Halloween holiday. The weather has been absolutely beautiful the past week or so. We've had a cool front come in along with a little rain, so sitting outside and playing on the grass is a very ideal afternoon for the Spiers' family.

She'd do anything to get that jacket off. She is no where used to wearing a lot of clothes to stay warm.

cReEPy CraWLy CupCaKEs

Me and my sister-in-law, Lacey, made some yummy Halloween treats. Lance helped to decorate them. What fun afternoon that was!

I know the licorice looks like it's in my nose, but I promise it's not.

Playing with Daddy

Our toilet paper terror...

Franklinton Fair

Every October there is a huge fair in Franklinton, Louisiana. Lacey gave us the smart idea of going, so we did. It was so much fun watching Layla interact with all the animals. She loved every bit of it, and so did we!

This mean ole cow mooed at her right as we parked her stroller next to it. As you can tell by the look on her face, she wasn't too thrilled.

These were the cutest little piggy's ever!

And so were these chicks.

This chicks were hatching as we watched. It was so neat, something I'd never seen before. The poor things just looked exhausted after hatching.

These cows were huge! And Layla did not want anything to do with them!

She still loves showing off her tricks.

Ok ok, I know this is disgusting, but this ugly old rat feels good on my babies little sore gums. She gets so excited when she sees that thing fall out of her toy box! And no, I didn't buy this for her to play with, it's one of Lance's little toys he plays tricks on people with.

Finally got a picture of those two little teeth! We've found ourselves singing "All I want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth!" And we really do, for Layla's sake.

Carving Pumpkins

After putting Layla down last night we all broke out of pumpkins and did some carving. What a blast it was! I think they all turned out so cute and wicked looking.

Left to Right: Mine, Lacey's, Dane's

Left to Right: Lance's, Brad's, and Greg's.

We sat outside and stared at them forever. It's amazing how much they infactuated us.