Strawberry Cream Poke Cake!!! AMAZING!!!

When your husband shows you a recipe and says "you should make this", that really means "you better make this" I haven't made a dessert in a LONG time, i have tried to make cookies TWICE recently and both have been fails and i have no idea why.. Simple chocolate chip cookies F-A-I-L!!!

SO, ANYWAY! Strawberry Cream Poke Cake -- Hello AMAZING!!!
This cake is so simple and so delicious! The recipe is from a great website , Butter With a Side of Bread has so many awesome recipes!
I pretty much followed this recipe exactly as the directions called for. The only thing I didnt really do was wait the full 3 hours to put the icing on it, I was heading to bed so I really only waited about 2 hours! I don't think it made any difference

You can follow the recipe here!

Here are some of the ingredients!

You basically make a white boxed cake as the directions on the back of the box call for. Once it is cooled, take a fork and poke holes all along the top of the cake. The more holes the more the jello mixture will seep through! I poked A LOT of holes!  

Once cooled and poked, make your liquid jello and add cold water then pour all along the top of the cake. This is where I didn't follow the directions completely. Place in the refrigerator and let sit for 3 hours (or two if your ready to go to bed like I was). You then take a container of Cool Whip whipped topping and a container of whipped frosting and mix together, add in the almond extract. You have to stir for awhile and I let it sit out so the Cool Whip would soften a little more {my arm was getting tired from stirring} Once it is fully mixed up and a good consistency then spread it over the top of the cake and add your strawberries for garnish! 

I put it back in the refrigerator overnight. It is delicious!!! 

I hope this will fulfill your sweet tooth! enjoy!

Brrrrrr and Beef Stew!!

Sundays are usually my grocery shopping/meal planning days. This week I made out my meals and got everything together on Sunday as normal! I remember a couple of weeks ago I had bought some beef tips and froze them so I thought this would be perfect for Beef Stew. Since having a baby my crock pot has become my best friend! Being able to start something for dinner in the morning and not have to worry about it till time to eat (ok, you should probably check on it occasionally) dinner just takes one stress away!

Ok Ok, back to the Beef Stew. So this morning I was washing bottles and I glanced at my menu for the week (if you don't have one you should get one) Well, I had forgotten to thaw the beef tips last night.. So I quickly filled up the sink and let them thaw while I was putting the baby down for his morning nap!

I had found this recipe several months ago and I have made it a couple of times. I am a very "follow directions" type of cook. So, I usually follow everything to a T! Today, I was slipping a little bit, aka forgot some things! I thought this would be a good time to share "my version" of this recipe. The original is great, I have made it word for word, but my spin off still had the husband saying "dinner is great" SCORE!!!

The original recipe for The best Crockpot Beef Stew. We are not an onion eating family so, the recipe calls for onions, I skipped that! Also, skipped the celery.
Ingredients:
2lbs of beef stew meat (cut them up into small pieces)
1 tsp of salt
1 tsp of pepper
1 medium onion, finely chopped (didnt use this!!)
2-3 gloves of garlic, minced ( I used the jar of minced onion
6oz can of tomato paste
32oz of beef broth
2 tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce
2 cups of baby carrots
4-5 small red potatoes cut into bite sided pieces
1 tablespoon dried parsley
1 teaspoon oregano
1 cup frozen peas
1 cup frozen corn
1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup of water

So today, I couldn't find the oregano! oops
My Style : I used frozen carrots, peas and corn. It doesn't make any difference which you use, I was just feeling lazy and didnt want to waste time cutting up carrots! So basically get out your crockpot and mix the beef chunks, celery, carrots, onion, potatoes, salt, pepper, garlic, parsley, oregano, Worcestershire sauce, beef broth and tomato paste into the crock pot.

Today I used tomato sauce because I didnt have any tomato paste --- could tell no difference. 

Once you put it all into your crockpot, stir it up and leave it on high for 6-7 hours. If you are really an over achiever, you can put it on low for 10 hours. But who has time for that? Not me! around 3:30 I turned it to low for about 45 minutes and then just to keep warm. 

The recipe says to add the frozen peas and corn at the end and cook for 30 minutes, Im not sure why because it has made no difference, so I just put it all together. It also calls for adding flour and water to thicken it up, I have made it once with and once without, the consistency change was minimal. Do as you wish!:)

I whipped up some cornbread muffins and dinner was on the table at 5:45! This is a great meal to cook ahead and freeze too! 

Remember the original recipe can be found here, or you can just throw in your own items and make another spin off of my spin off! At the end of the day, it's a warm meal perfect for this brrrr cold weather we are having!  

6 Months - Time Flies!

Reflecting back...

I remember when I was pregnant people saying, "enjoy it, it'll be gone before you know it".. towards the end I was thinking, why would you tell someone to enjoy this.. I was miserably uncomfortable, not able to sleep and had heartburn from, well you know!! Not to mention, it was June in East Tennessee and I was sweating in places I didnt even know you could sweat in!! ( I know, TMI)

Then, once Bentley was born, the worry of being a mom set in. I remember saying to my mom, I can't sit around and just hold him because that's all he will ever want. I said this to several people and many of them replied, "take advantage of it, it won't last forever" I brushed that off, thinking I have at least a year of these holding, snuggling, cuddling moments.

Last night, I was looking through my Facebook photo album that I made for Bentley when he was born. I started thinking, I did not enjoy those first months like I should have. I feel like it is normal to look back and much of the time seem to be a blur, because lets be real, you were living off of adeline, little sleep and for me - - LOTS of Spark!! I will be the first to admit, things with Bentley in the beginning were not easy, they were HARD. Maybe they seemed evermore hard because I was a first time mom, BUT they were still hard. I think I didnt enjoy my time with him as a newborn because i was so scared the next day would be worse than the current day.

So where I am going with this post is -- I have a 6.5 month old! Ya'll that is half a year, I feel like if I blink too many times it's going to be summer and he's going to be ONE!!! I can't even say that outloud! I might have not soaked up and enjoyed all of our first 6 months, but I will be making up for lost time for the next 6......and well the next 15, 20.. well as long as he will let me! If you are a new mom, soak it up.. spend a nap time on the couch holding them, it's not going to scar them, it's not going to ruin their ability to nap! Take an extra 5-10 minutes at night to sing another song, rock a little longer. One of my favorite things to do with Bentley is lay in the floor with him. He loves to pat my face (sometimes, it's a little harder than a pat - we are working on this). Savor every minute, because it's no joke, you will blink twice and they will be half way to a year.

I have lots of goals for 2016, but one is to continue with this blog. When your a stay at home mom, sometimes one of the things you really miss is adult conversation. While I might not be physically talking, I can get a lot of my thoughts out in words too!

Until Next time, here are some then and now of Mr. B!