Octopus for Dinner!

These little octopuses are so fun and easy! You and your kids will love making them!

Basically, you stick spaghetti noodles in cut up hot dogs... like so...

or like so... {if you're my son}

Then you throw your little octopuses... octopi... whatever their called... into some boiling hot water.

strain

and scarf!

YUM!!

Enjoy!

YUMMY BANANA BREAD

THE BEST BANANA BREAD EVER! TRY IT, YOU'LL NEVER GO BACK TO YOUR OLD RECIPE! 1 stick unsalted butter at room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 cup very ripe bananas-mashed (about three)
½ cup sour cream
1 tsp vanilla
1 ½ cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt

Mix butter, sugar, and eggs in mixing bowl until well blended. In separate mixing bowl, mix bananas, sour cream, and vanilla until well blended. Add mixture to butter, sugar, and eggs. In third mixing bowl, mix flour, baking soda, and salt. Gradually add and mix together with other ingredients. Do not over mix; batter should be a little lumpy. Our into greased bread pan and bake at 350 degrees for one hour, or until fork comes out clean.

Have your cake and veggies too!!

Chocolate Zucchini Bread/Cake

I'm not a huge fan of pineapple so this is a great twist for me on the zucchini bread thing. Its so yummy you will die of yummy-ness!!

Here's what you need:

1 cup vegetable oil

2 cups sugar

3 eggs

2 1/2 cups flour

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/2 cup milk

3 (1 ounce) squares unsweetened baking chocolate

1 Tb vanilla

2 cups grated zucchini

Here's what you do:

In a large bowl combine oil, sugar and eggs. In a separate bowl sift dry ingredients. Add together, add milk and mix well.

Melt baking chocolate in the microwave for 20-30 second intervals until just melted.

Blend chocolate and vanilla into batter.

Stir in zucchini.

Bake at 350* in greased 9x13 baking dish for 25 minutes

or

Bake at 350* in two greased bread pans for 45 minutes.

Apricot Chicken

This recipe tastes like you took a lot of time preparing it, but actually, it is super easy! I love making this dish for company because it appears fancy when it is really simple!

5 chicken breasts or 1 large whole chicken
½ cup Russian salad dressing
¾ cup apricot-pineapple jam
½ pkg. Dry onion mix

Use 9 x 13 pan. Clean and remove skin from chicken. Salt lightly. Mix together jam, salad dressing and soup mix to make sauce. Pour over chicken. Bake at 360 for one hour.

Or, mix everything together and put in a crock pot on high for four hours or low for six!

Sweet and Sour Chicken

Breading
2-6 chicken breasts
1/4 cup flour
1 cup cornstarch
garlic salt
1 egg
2 tbl milk

Sauce
1/4 cup chicken broth
2 tbl soy sauce
1/4 cup ketchup
3/4 cup sugar
slowly heat til dissolved

Heat oil in a pan
slice uncooked chicken breasts into strips
in a large plastic bag mix flour, cornstarch and garlic salt and SHAKE
in a bowl mix milk and egg
add breaded chicken to egg/milk mixture
BROWN chicken on both sides
Pour sauce over the chicken
add chopped onions and peppers (optional)
Bake on 350* for 1 hour
Serve with cooked rice

This is super duper yummy. I don't even like Chinese food and I love this!
The original recipe came from Natalie at the Cooking Chicks.

ENJOY :)

How to Make a Truck Cake!

For Dallin's 2nd Birthday, I made a big rig truck cake!

I used three bread pans.

One regular size for the bed of the truck (the white part)

And two small ones for the front of the truck (in red)

I cut one of the small ones in half lengthwise and placed it on top of the other small bread pan.

Then I used food coloring to dye Betty Crocker cream cheese frosting red. My recipe? The vanilla cake from the Betty Crocker cookbook. Very easy!

Then, the fun part, accessories! Skittles for the headlights and taillights, mini doughnuts for the wheels, and dots and candles for the thingamajings on top!

The final touch. . . the writing! I didn't have any fancy shmancy cake decorating tips, so I just used a plastic bag, put frosting inside, and cut a small hole. It worked! At least you can tell what I wrote :).

I would have LOVED to decorate the pan to look like a road, but time/supplies would not permit me. I think that would be awesome though!

All the hard work paid off when I showed the cake to Dally boy! He LOVED it!

Grandma's Chocolate Cake

This is by far the best chocolate cake EV.ER!

No lie.

Look at it.. is your mouth watering?

This is my grandma.
She is awesome! What do you think of her apron?
Pretty cool, huh?!

Anywho. She gave me this recipe and I have to share it!

Here's the recipe card. Copy, paste, print, bake!