Mini Monkey Buns

I'm all about quick and easy! So this busy morning of catching up on school work for my oldest daughter Molly and getting ready for a meeting later this morning, I needed something quick and easy! So I took a cue from The Pioneer Woman and made these quick little morning buns with a few small adjustments.

(Taken with my phone because I couldn't find my camera!)

Mini Monkey Buns


8 ct. Grands buttermilk biscuits, cut into 16ths and each piece "balled" up
stick unsalted butter (cut into matchsticks; and cubed) cubes should be about the size of a pencil eraser
sugar
cinnamon
powdered sugar
vanilla
water


Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a mini muffin pan  place one butter cube, just enough sugar to cover the bottom of the muffin tin and a sprinkle of cinnamon. Place three little balls of dough into each spot; top with another cube of butter. Bake for about 8 min. or until golden brown. Pop out of pan while still hot and drizzle with a powdered sugar glaze ( 1/4 c. powdered sugar 2 T. water and a dash of vanilla) Makes roughly 42 mini muffins.

Pumpkin Muffins

I love pumpkin just about anyway you can make it! For years I've been buying this pumpkin bread mix from the grocery store and making it into muffins for my family. It's simple and cheap and we gobble them up. 


About a year ago I stumbled across this great blog called Southern Plate and fell into a familiar world of southern cooking but with new recipes!! Christy Jordan is from North Alabama and writes this great blog full of great stories and wonderful recipes (many of which are now part of my menu rotation!) I got Christy's cookbook (that was born out of her blog) for Christmas and absolutely love it!


Anyway, back to the muffins ;) Did I mention I like pumpkin? So I found this recipe on Christy's blog and knew I had to try it. So first thing this morning before doing my morning post on my other blog I whipped these up and popped them in my oven. Oh my goodness, oh my goodness! I wish we had smell 0 vision! My house smelled wonderful! I was sitting here typing and drooling, the kids were dancing around the kitchen asking if they were ready yet. My oven was singing because of these wonderful muffins! Two ingredients and 1/2 a cup of water! That's it! The box I've been buying all these years takes more than that! This IS the new pumpkin muffin recipe from now until the end of time!

What you need:

1 box of Spice cake mix 

(Carrot will work too, trust me I know because I didn't realize that's what I used until after I dumped it in the bowl!)

1 small can packed Pumpkin

1/2 c. water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Dump it all in a bowl and mix! That's it! Grease 12 ct. muffin tin with shortening or spray. Fill each tin fuller than normal because these hardly rise. I put two heaping spoon fulls. 

What you need for Streusal:

1 c. flour

1 c. brown sugar

1 stick butter/margarine

Mix together using a long tinned fork (that's just fancy talk for using a grown up fork not a kid fork) to mix together all the ingredients until it looks all crumbly.

Top each muffin with a handful of steusal. Don't worry if it doesn't look neat.

 

Ta da! Pumpkin Spice Muffins! Delicious, addictive and simple!

Recipe from Christy Jordan over at Southern Plate.

KISS Gingersnaps

We had friends coming over this afternoon for a planning meeting for upcoming events with our homeschool group and everyone was suppose to bring a snack. I haven't been shopping this weekend outside of grabbing a gallon of milk yesterday evening AND we've been trying to eat healthy so there isn't much in the cabinets either.  What to make!?!

The thought that kept running through my mind (thanks to my friend Bridget) was KISS, Keep It Simple Stupid! So I set out to make something simple and tasty. The result.... KISS Gingersnaps!



KISS Gingersnaps

1 box Spice Cake Mix
2 eggs
1/2 c. oil
1/2 c. sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix cake mix, eggs and oil together. Dough will be thick. Roll into balls about the size of a large marble; roll in sugar before placing on pan. Bake for 13 minutes. *If they begin to brown they are overcooked!

Makes about 4 dozen cookies.

Ad match up: Rouse's 1/25-1/31

I'm not going to do the entire ad match up for Rouse's like I have done the last few weeks. It's time intensive AND not that many deals. So, from now on I'll only be posting items that actually have coupon match ups OR are outstanding deals.


Great Deals
 Dreamfield  Pasta $1.99 * we LOVE this low carb pasta
-$1/1 printable here

Rouses Salt $.45

Bounty Basic Paper Towels 8 ct. $4.97
-$.25/1 P&G 1/1

Tide 2x  50 oz. $5.99
-$2/1 P&G 1/1

Crest toothpaste $1.88
-$.50/1 P&G 1/1

Split Chicken Breast $.96 lb

Two Fat Chicks Running: Week 3

Whew! Week 3 done! I'm exhausted and my legs hurt! Wait did I say that last week too? That would be because it's true! Today starts Week 4 and I'm a little afraid! The schedule says we should be running 2 minutes and walking 1 minute. I am NO WHERE close to that and my Mom is farther behind than that. BUT, we are not discouraged because we are out doing something!  Trying to keep ourselves motivated because we are half way there! I love this quote that our trainer, Lisa, sent this week:

"You also need to look back, not just at the people who are running behind you but especially at those who don't run and never will... those who run but don't race...those who started training for a race but didn't carry through...those who got to the starting line but didn't in the finish line...those who once raced better than you but no longer run at all. You're still here. Take pride in wherever you finish. Look at all the people you've outlasted." ~Joe Henderson


Mom and I didn't get to run Friday because I had to pick up my hubby at our running time (forgot I had the car!). So Saturday I got up and ran with my friend Juliana. Juliana is just getting back into running after long absence. Let's just say that she is in WAY better shape than me and really pushed me to keep up with her pace. We went 2.1 miles (not running the entire thing) and our average pace was 18 minutes per mile. That's a pretty decent rate. So I set two new milestones this week, ran my farthest distance ever AND went the fastest I've ever gone!


Despite reaching two new milestones, the scale hasn't reflected a difference, but I feel "skinnier" does that make sense? I can look at my body and tell a difference, so maybe I lost inches instead of pounds this week. I'm cool with that.

As dedicated as I'm trying to become with running, there is another dedication that I'm trying to focus on too and haven't been as successful or consistent. My Ephesians Bible study. I did two out of five days this week... yikes! However, that's more than I've done before. I've also slacked on my 31 Days to a Better Spouse...we wont' talk about how far behind I am on that one! Speaking of my other half, he posted this verse the other day and I'm trying to take it to heart.

For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come. http://bible.us/1Tim4.8.NIV