December 2013 – Makin' it Mo'Betta

Top 10 Recipes of 2013

Kim

Wow. Just….wow! Can you believe we are about to say goodbye to the year 2013? It still sounds like something from a science fiction movie to me….remember when we were little and would watch movies or read in books about the future. ‘In the year 2013…‘ Well, it’s no longer the future, but the past. With 2014 barreling its way in I thought I would join lots of other bloggers in highlighting the most viewed posts this year.

Some are my favorites, and a few surprised me, but most of all I would like to say THANK YOU to all of you who stop by and say hello, or just grab a recipe and go. You are all appreciated. I never thought this little blog would be anything but a brief hobby, but 3 years later, it has turned into so much more. Not to mention the connections I’ve made with people I’ve never met! But no mushy talk, onto the countdown…

Top 10 Recipes of 2013

1 – Bubble Up Taco Casserole

2 – Italian Meatball Sliders

3 – Loaded Baked Potato and Buffalo Chicken Casserole

4 – Biscuit Breakfast Casserole

5 – Baked Pumpkin Oatmeal

6 – Chicken and Dumpling Casserole

7 – Warm Fruit Compote

8 – Chicken Parmesan Casserole

9 – Huggable Christmas Cupcakes

10 – Buffalo Chicken Pizza

Numbers 3 and 6 are definitely two of my favorites! And it doesn’t surprise me at all to see two different buffalo chicken recipes in the top 10. You really can’t beat some good ol’ buffalo wing sauce! The pizza at #10 is SO good – and would rank in my top 10 favorite foods.

The past few months have been very hectic, with blogging taking a back seat to daily life, but I’m hoping to bring you lots more kid-friendly, everyday easy recipes in 2014! And chocolate. There will always be chocolate 🙂

Baked-not-Fried Pickles {and a few other snack ideas}

Kim

Don’t cha just love fried food? Don’t cha just hate that it’s so bad for you?! I’m always looking for healthier alternatives to my favorite “bad” foods. That’s why when I saw this recipe for baked “fried” pickles in Prevention RD’s cookbook, I knew I had to give them a try.

The bad news is that I ate almost all of them by myself. The good news is they were not too bad for me, so it’s okay 🙂 I think I shared a few with my girls. My 5 y/o wasn’t interested in a breaded, hot pickle…he thought I was nuts! He didn’t appreciate me messing with his beloved dill pickles.

Oven-Fried Pickles from

20 oz jar Claussen Kosher dill burger slice pickles (about 16 slices) *I used the regular dill pickles slices by Mt. Olive
2 eggs
1/3 cup flour
1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp hot sauce
1 tsp garlic powder *I reduced this to about 1/2 tsp
1 tsp Cajun seasoning
1 tsp pepper
1 1/2 cups panko bread crumbs

Preheat oven to 450 F.
In a medium bowl, whisk eggs and flour together.
Add Worcestershire, hot sauce, garlic powder, Cajun seasoning, and pepper to egg mixture. Blend well.
In a shallow dish or plate, add panko crumbs.
Dip each pickle slice into the egg mixture, than coat with the panko bread crumbs until both sides are well coated.
Place coated pickles on a sprayed baking sheet. Bake for a few minutes on each side (2-3) or until lightly browned on each side.

Serve warm with choice of dressing for dipping. We used ranch! These would make a great addition to your New Year’s Eve party tray, along with these….

Baked Mozzarella Sticks

Sausage Balls

Hot Ham Dips on Homemade Slider Buns

What are your plans for New Year’s Eve? {Insert song burst here *what are you doingggg, New Year’s. New Year’s Eveeeee*} I’ll be fixing a few appies and try to stay awake to watch the ball drop. My kids might invite a couple of friends over and that’s about as exciting as I am planning on things getting around here. I’m getting so old.

Easy crafts for gift giving

Kim

Somehow Christmas Day came and went in a blurrrrr. Wow! I can’t believe it is over! But, I figured I would go ahead and post these little crafts/ideas anyway. Just a couple of projects we had going on…

Scarf with ribbon

A couple of gifts my 10 y/o gave to her besties. All you need is a scarf (great deals can be found at Old Navy and Wal-Mart), then embellish them with your choice of ribbon. I sewed mine, but you could probably use the iron on adhesive too. I don’t know how well that would hold up with washing, etc. I’m not much of a seamstress, so I don’t know how well mine will hold up either! However, I thought the end result was pretty cute. (zebra print is still the thang with my girls.)

Candy Sleighs

My girls made these candy sleighs for some friends and teachers. Forgive the horrible photos, the lighting is terrible in my house at night, and these were taken with my cell phone. Always in a hurry around here!

My girls used the hot glue gun to hold them together, and no, my daughter does not have a tattoo. Why does she insist on writing on herself?!

We also tied some red curling ribbon around each one, but I didn’t get a picture of that. I think these turned out really cute! All you need is 2 candy canes for the bottom, a Kit Kat bar, some Hershey’s miniatures, and we used Hershey’s Peppermint Bark Bells for the top. Who doesn’t like a little chocolate for Christmas?!

Now, could someone send over some cleaning elves? My house is a wreck!

I hope you and yours are enjoying great family time and have a Happy New Year!

Time to think about NYEve appies!

Creamy Hot Cocoa Mix

Kim

Yesterday’s post was about easy, no bake gifts in jars. One of the things we put in jars this year for teachers’ gifts was this homemade hot cocoa mix.

It was very simple to mix together, and it was really good! Obviously we had to sample some before giving it away 🙂

We made hot chocolate to drink while watching The Polar Express. One of our favorite Christmas movies!

Creamy Cocoa Mix

4 cups nonfat dry milk powder
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup non-dairy coffee creamer
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa
1 box instant chocolate pudding (approx 4 oz size)

Add all of the ingredients to a large bowl. Stir to combine. For a finer consistency, process in a food processor or blender. (I ran mine through the food processor). Store in an airtight container. Add 1/4 cup mix (or to desired taste) to an 8 ounces of warm milk, water or coffee.

Recipe from

To give as gifts, I put the hot cocoa mix in bags and placed in jars, along with marshmallows, peppermint sticks and Hershey’s Hugs and Kisses.

Then we added the jars to baskets with some other goodies and added this cheese-y little poem…

Because you are my teacher and I love you so much,

Here is some hot chocolate and such….

Just mix with warm milk or coffee too,

my mommy said about 1/4 cup should do.

Then to your cup add some yummy marshmallows,

and don’t forget the Hugs and Kisses from one of your favorite fellows!

Merry Christmas! Love, Mr. Three

Obviously these were for my son’s Kindergarten teachers! I hope they enjoy their baskets b/c they are awesome and my son loves them both.

I plan on making more mix soon to have at home, except I want to use Hershey’s Dark Cocoa and Hershey’s Dark pudding! yummmm! This Hot Chocolate on a Stick is also fun to make and eat…oh yeah, and to give away!

Easy Gifts in Jars {No Baking Required!}

Kim

OHMIGAHHH y’allllll…..it’s Christmas time! I mean, like, it’s HERE. As I say every year, I’m not ready/It’s come too fast/I still have so much to do/I want to do more baking…yada yada yada. Well, I can freak out but it’s not going to change anything. Things have been really crazy these last couple of months (or ‘totes cray‘ if you will…) I haven’t talked about it on the blog because…well, I don’t know why. I just haven’t. I go through phases of wanting the blog to be more anonymous to wanting to share everything. It’s kinda weird putting all your business on the internet, but on the other hand, I’ve gotten a lot of inspiration and encouragement from other people’s business on the internet!

**Skip the following paragraph if you don’t want to hear my life story**
The short version is that my oldest child was diagnosed with , and has been in a back brace for the last month. Being that she is only 12, I was freaked out, as any mother would be. Plus seeing your children in severe pain is horrible. Thankfully the pain was short term (so far). I advise anyone with very active children to look this injury up and be aware of the symptoms b/c I was not at all aware that she was at risk. I’ve had my own share of health issues as well, and finally took my procrastinating self to the doctor. I am a nurse, and I knew something wasn’t right, but I guess it’s human nature to put bad news off as long as possible! Thankfully, it wasn’t that bad and there is an easy fix. My thyroid is out of whack, hypothyroidism, and it is amazing how many body systems your thyroid affects. So, all my life drama in a paragraph. Don’t get me wrong, I feel blessed beyond measure because I KNOW how much worse things could be and I feel so very fortunate. However, these little hiccups in life will derail your “normal” routine. Hence, very slack in the blogging department!
**pick up here for Easy Gifts in Jars**

As much as I love to bake, especially during the holidays, sometimes (most of the time) TIME is an issue. That is probably one of the reasons I like mixes so much! Plus the fact I love the sweet and crunchy combo.

This one is super easy, and loaded with chocolate. My favorite combo of all! Just mix everything you see in a large bowl (add anything you like!)

Once it’s mixed, you can either sit it out for a party or for everyone to grab a handful as they walk by (which my kids did frequently!) or you can package it up in some little jars to give away.

Some of you may recognize those jars…yep, recycled Biscoff jars!! My local stores have only just recently started carrying Biscoff in plastic jars, so I have many glass jars that I’ve saved and use for storage. Or gift giving! Just slap a label on top and you are good to go.

Chocolate Lover’s Chex Mix

2 Bags Chex Mix (Dark or desired flavor)

1 cup Vanilla Chex Cereal

1 cup Chocolate Chex Cereal

1 small bag of Kit Kat miniatures (chopped in half)

1 cup semi sweet M and M’s

1 cup Gingerbread M and M’s

Mix everything in a bowl. Done!

I think a nice touch would be to spread the mix out on cookie sheets and drizzle with white chocolate. Once it cools, then add to jars. I plan on doing that with the 2 jars I have left.

The great thing about this is that it is easily tailored to whatever you have on hand, or what you or the person getting the gift likes. I am thinking a good variation would be to add pretzel M&M’s and pretzels to the mix for some sweet and salty action. Or mini peanut butter cups and peanuts would be delish. The options are pretty much endless.

Last year, I made these-

Little jars from the dollar store, and I painted the tops with chalkboard paint. I added some ‘Christmas Crunch’ aka White Trash Mix to the jars. (Another easy, no bake mix!)

This year, for my son’s teacher gifts, I found these cute jars at Wal-Mart. They have a snowman and a snowflake on them. I filled them with peppermint sticks, marshmallows and homemade hot chocolate mix, along with some Hershey’s Hugs and Kisses. I can’t believe this is the only picture I took! I’ll try to get the hot chocolate mix posted soon b/c it was very good.

Just a few last minute, quick and easy gift ideas!

Sit Back and Relax with P.F. Chang’s

Kim

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of for . All opinions are 100% mine.

Anyone else having quite the hectic holiday season? I’m talkin’ running around like a chicken with it’s head cut off kinda hectic. Sorry for the visual. I just need a breather. A time to sit down, relax and maybe indulge a little bit. How does sitting down with friends or family and enjoying something decadent and delicious that you don’t have to prepare yourself sound?! Sounds pretty good to me!

I feel more relaxed already! And what about…

yes please.

So where can you enjoy this? of course! They have some new seasonal-inspired desserts and drinks that will make anyone’s day a little more merry. Just imagine handmade Sweet Vanilla Cream Dessert Wontons and the Vanilla Bean Bourbon Milkshake. Fa la la la la!

You can learn more about the offerings of P.F. Chang’s by giving them a on Twitter or . In the meantime, you can think about how delicious the Peppermint Mocha Cappucino is going to be when you get there.

How are you finding time to relax during the holiday rush? What P.F. Chang’s menu item do you think you would like to try first? Remember, it is the season to eat, drink and be merry!

Out of this world with #Polyvore

Kim

It appears that I am one of the last people to know the fabulousness and fun of . Sure, I’ve known about it for quite a while now. I knew that my sister used the site to put together some cute outfits and home decor, but I’ve never tried it out. Then my girls got interested in creating outfits on Polyvore and that is all I’ve heard about. Obviously, I had to check it out.

Well, you know how Pinterest became addictive after you used it a couple of times? The same is true for Polyvore! It’s fun to go through the site and see what others have created in the areas of fashion and home decor, but it’s also fun to put together outfits of your own. That’s what I’ve done here – I was given one image, the dress, and asked to build an ensemble around it. In exchange, I get entered into ‘s weekly Polyvore contest.

by featuring

modcloth.com

fotki.yandex.ru

It was a lot of fun, and I discovered some cute things along the way…like how cute are those wedge booties pictured? I think it would also be a great resource for figuring out which holiday outfit to wear to any parties you have coming up. That’s not an issue here, I’ll be chillaxin’ in my jammies as much as possible. But I’m old.

Huggable Christmas Cupcakes

Kim

My middle child needed a treat to take to cheerleading the other evening, so we decided to make mini cupcakes. We used this ‘souped up’ cake mix recipe, and wanted them to look festive. This is what I we came up with! I thought they turned out really cute, and they were so simple, so I thought I would share in case anyone needs something quick and easy this week. Since I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one running around like a crazy person…

The Hershey’s Hugs were the perfect size for the mini cupcakes, and we added Christmas sprinkles. Done and done! Miss Two got lots of compliments!

Special Announcement Krusteaz Virtual Baking Event! (#KrusteazHolidays)

Kim

Y’all already know that I am a fan of Krusteaz, as I’ve worked with them before and posted about some of their products I use. Sooo, I was super excited to be invited to participate in the Krusteaz Virtual Baking Event, coming up TOMORROW!! (wow, is time getting away from me!) Krusteaz and Weelicious blogger Catherine McCord will be serving up some delectable baking and gifting ideas and I can’t wait! Especially since I have to have desserts ready for at least 40 people on Sunday. My girls and I will be baking away!!

And check out the AWESOME package Krusteaz sent me to get my baking party underway! I heart Krusteaz.

You can join in the fun as well! Just tune in for the free webcast on Saturday, December 14 from 1:00 – 3:00 PM EST taking place at .

They have already given me an excellent idea with the Holiday Pancakes –

Pancake Mix in a jar with different add-ins…such a cute idea! I think it would be fun to do that with the cookie mix as well. And do y’all like my Christmas plaque?! Being the born and bred Southern girl I am, I lovelovelove it!

Not only did I want to tell you about the baking event, but I also wanted to share the Krusteaz “Seize the What If” Contest with a chance to win a kitchen oven makeover! To enter the contest, simply select your favorite Krusteaz product, add in three original ingredients and name your unique recipe. Fun! All entries are eligible to receive a coupon for free product too (more fun!) Out of all these submissions, 10 finalists will be selected who will win a year’s supply of Krusteaz products. Here’s the direct link to the contest: so head on over and enter! AND don’t forget…mark you calendars, set your alarm, put it in your smart phone –

What: Krusteaz Virtual Holiday Baking Event with Catherine McCord

When: Saturday, December 14 from 1:00 – 3:00 PM EST

Where:

Who: Everyone, it’s free!

Hashtag: #KrusteazHolidays

Christmas Kit Kat Cake with Eggland’s Best {GIVEAWAY}

Kim

One of my family’s favorite cakes is what is commonly referred to now as the “Kit Kat Cake” or the “Candy Cake”. I made my first one for my daughter’s 10th birthday and it was a huge success. And delicious! I have wanted to make a Christmas version and the 2013 Eggland’s Best Holiday Dessert Recipe Exchange gave me the perfect opportunity! Plus, my husband needed a cake to take to work, so I could make the cake, and pass the calories on to other people. I’m thoughtful like that 🙂

You may have seen that I often use eggs in my recipes…like this Biscuit Breakfast Casserole or these Baked Bacon and Eggs. They are my brand of choice because they have 25% less saturated fat than ordinary eggs and contain more vitamins D, E, and B12, and more nutrients like omega-3 and lutein.

And I’ve never done a side by side comparison to other brands, but look how yellow and pretty they are! (Okay, that’s not really a reason to use them, but hey, it’s an observation!)

Speaking of pretty, does anything scream the holidays like red and green?! I’ve changed the cake recipe up a bit, and from what my husband’s coworkers said…it was delicious! (and the batter was amazing)

Those spatulas work great at getting every last bit of batter out of the bowl. And into the cake pans. Absolutely not into my mouth. *ahem*

Chocolate Vanilla Christmas Cake

1 package devil’s food cake mix (without pudding in the mix)
1 small box instant vanilla pudding mix (sugar free/fat free is fine)
1 cup vanilla yogurt
1/2 cup canola oil
4 Eggland’s Best eggs, beaten
1/2 cup coffee

1/2-1 teaspoon cinnamon (optional)

For decorating –

frosting of choice

10 regular size Kit Kat bars

Red and Green M and M’s (regular and mini’s)

*any candy you like…I think the peanut butter M and M’s or the Mint would be really good too!

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a large mixing bowl, combine the cake and pudding mixes, yogurt, oil, beaten eggs and coffee.
Beat at medium speed for 2 minutes.
Pour batter into two greased and floured cake pans. (or pan of choice)
Bake for suggested time on back of cake mix box for the size pan you are using, or until top is springy to the touch and a wooden toothpick inserted comes out clean.
Allow cake to cool in pan for about 10 minutes, then invert onto cooling rack to cool completely before icing.

Once the layers are cooled, ice with desired icing. I like to use chocolate, so that you do not get a different color peeking through the Kit Kat bars, but use what you like. For this particular cake, I used Hershey’s Special Dark canned frosting, (however, I’ve since discovered this frosting and it is amazing.) After frosting the cake, place Kit Kat sticks all around the outside of the cake. It works best to break the bars into doubles or triple sticks instead of using singles. The bars will stick to the frosting, and you can place a ribbon around the outside to reinforce the bars and just ensure they don’t fall. I haven’t had this happen, but it could if your icing started to melt. Once the Kit Kat bars are in place, pour your candy over the top, lightly pressing down. I like to use regular M&M’s and mini’s to fill in any gaps. SO MUCH CHOCOLATE, but OH SO GOOD!

{Disclaimer right here!} Eggland’s Best was oh so awesome to send me this great package of goodies (minus the 18 count carton of EB eggs. I buy those at Sam’s Club!)

GIVEAWAY INFO – They are also graciously supplying one Makin’ it Mo’Betta reader with an EB goody bag including an EB spatula, tote, whisk, bowl scraper, plush egg, and coupon for a free dozen of Eggland’s Best eggs! (shipping only available to U.S. residents). Just leave me a comment letting me know you would like to be entered into the giveaway. And if you would like to share your favorite recipe using eggs, that would be awesome too…leave it as a separate comment and you will have an extra entry into the giveaway! Giveaway ends midnight 12/18/13 EST.