Nature Valley Nut Clusters

Last week I went to the mailbox and was greated with a box full of these

New... Nature Valley Nut Clusters

They were sent to me by My Blog Spark for review and I was so excited! I had to give my dad the Almond bag because I can't eat Almonds but the Cashew ones were TO DIE FOR! And I was equally thrilled to find out that the serving size for these clusters is 8 EIGHT 8. (just 8 not 888) but 8 IS ALOT and they were so yummy - I think I had 10!

The Cashew Clusters were my personal FAVORITE but they also have Honey Roasted Peanut and Nut Lovers! Go ahead pick up a bag - You won't regret this one!

I promise! (going corny) I am NUTS about these Nut Clusters!!!

Favorite Holiday Recipe Swap

My mom just called and we were talking about how hard it is to find certain "favorites" at the grocery stores anymore. In this case it is the Pepperidge Farm Stuffing Cubes - we like the cubes not the crushed stuff and we mix a bag of herbed with a bag of country...well in the last few years they have been tough to find and the cube size has shrunk...PF if you happen to read this get your act together and start making things the way I like them again (please)!!!

So that got me thinking about all the holiday food I love and I even started my Thanksgiving food list so I don't forget anything!! While doing that I stopped to blog...because I decided it would be fun to swap favorites with friends! I figure by doing so now we may even have time to try a few before the big days and possibly change things up a bit?

Ok...not the sweet yummy delicious highly fattening deserts (we'll do those in December!) but the yummy Delicious dish that just makes every holiday perfect to you.....

Email me (or post in comments) by Friday October 31st and I will post them here for all to see and share!!! If you have a picture please include it too!

Midweek Update

I saw this delicious, easy recipe on a neighboring blog earlier this week and just had to try it with my girls. Let me simply say YUM! OMG, these little turnovers took a total of 30 minutes (prep and bake) and were absolutely delicious! We tweaked the end version just a bit because of my sweet tooth and during the last 5 minutes of baking I brushed a little melted butter on top followed by some sprinkled Cinnamon and sugar and voila - amazing. This is something I will now keep the ingredients in the house for because it was easy, delicious and fun for us to make together! Unlike the other mom I did not photograph the experience so you will have to click over to her page to see them in action!

Today is a BIG day for Lauren - she gets her expander out at 9:30! YEAH! That thing has not been a pleasant part of her young life. Once it is removed she will do impressions for her retainer to help correct the overbite and the orthodontist is placing a small spring in it to also push her two front together a bit, though the fact that the two teeth beside her front teeth are finally joining the outside world has already helped with this a lot! Lauren is not looking forward to the retainer but I keep telling her "it comes out!!!" you don't eat with it in etc. The expander was a permanent fixture in her mouth - ick. Next week she will visit the good ole dentist and see what kind of damage was incurred while while wearing the expander for several months...that appointment will likely be slightly unpleasant...

I have plenty more to talk about: Lauren's water color painting for school, making our own snow, Hailey becoming SHY, the impending Holidays, the Dyson getting a haircut and more...but for now I am off to start Thursday and hope to make the best of it!

More later...

Train Wreck

Football Sunday? Love it. Ha. A whole day of football, mostly teams I don't care about...I like it when the games are close but that is about it. So I set out to keep us (the girlies) busy today...

First the girls painted pumpkins - you know the little ones they call gourds at the grocery store. They were cute. Do you think I would have thought to take pictures of this? NO...and I should have because that about the best part of the day...no fighting, no whining just pumpkins and paint! Cute.

Then we set up a bunch of the playmobil stuff out up in the playroom. Not all of it but a fair amount. They played for 15 minutes. Count em 15. It took longer to set it all out. Apparently today was NOT a playmobil day.



Next we browsed the net for some cute cake ideas. We were going to bake. Hmpf. We settled on this super cute train cake from Betty Crocker (Because no-ones bakes from scratch anymore do they?) we decided to adapt it a little to meet MY needs...and instead of using loaf pans we were going to use the multi mini loaf pan (don't know what you call it but it is like a muffin pan but has loaf shapes instead)

Bear with me...I could not find a good way to make this short...

We did very well in the beginning, both girls working together



Then came our first train wreck...The first batch...I guess we filled the loaf thingies a little too much...starting to look more like a cake a little less like train cars.


so we moved on...to batch number 2 - it went better. The girls had fun goofing off with the camera and the train cars blew up like Volkswagen Beatles but did not run together so bad...

BUT...all good things must come to an end...we went to the library (Lauren got the book she wanted!!) and then came home to frost our "fully cooled" train cars. I got them ready (trimmed, sliced and somewhat shaped like rectangles again) and began frosting my fingers, I mean the cars. The girls set up all kinds of candy on the table for decorating the cars...and KABOOM - Train Wreck.

One needed help with everything and I was still frosting my fingers ( I mean the cars) the other didn't want to help the poor little one because she had her own agenda (who Lauren, couldn't be! HA HA) Hailey whines, Lauren stomps, Hailey whines some more, Lauren stomps around some more...MOM throws the little snowman frosting Knife in the sink and says FORGET it...here is what we ended up with



And the best part, the proudest mommy moment of the day, the cats meow, the real pooper...When I was rinsing everything off and hit the garbage disposal button what do I hear? CRUNCH, KLANK, CRUNCHLE, KRANKLE...AHHHHHH. Turn it off...what is that?

Step 1. Cringe

Step 2. Tell Hubby your certain it is nothing bad

Step 3. Cringe

Step 4. Reach hand in garbage disposal

Step 5. Cringe, Gag, Wish you hadn't done step 4

Step 6. Pull out first handfull of busted snowman frosting knife

Step 7. Listen to those around you tell you that you shouldn't have thrown your little proud mommy moment tantrum...

Step 8. Let it go out the other ear

Step 9. Repeat steps 4 throuh 6 at least a dozen times

Step 10. Cringe, test disposal and MOVE ON