Mint chocolate brownies

I love mint. Mint oreos, mint shakes (or Shamrock shakes as some places call them) mint candy, mint gum...

We were organizing the pantry when I found some mint chips. Yum.

I have a nice stockpile of brownie mixes (doesn't every couponer?) and decided to mix the chips in with the brownie mix.

Then I decided to take it one step further...Have you seen the Duncan Hines frosting creations?

Well I had one of those with a chocolate mint mix in.



Please can I have a brownie Mom?!

So...I added that to the top of the brownies.

They.were.to.die.for! Oh yummy.

A yummy minty brownie with a glass of ice cold milk? Perfection.

Just because you have a mix, doesn't mean you can't add anything to it to jazz it up a bit!

This "recipe" consisted of:

1 box of brownie mix and ingredients to bake them (eggs, oil  water)

1 bag of mint chips

1 container of frosting

1 mint mix in

An easy, simple, yummy dessert!

" I help you"

He is pretty stinkin' cute...but I don't always want his help. However, when it comes to Mason and his bannana bread, it is all hands on deck...

me want cookies

Cookies are good. The end. There is no further explanation needed, right?

On Pinterest the other day, I saw a pin for a cookie recipe. The title was all I needed to hear...

"Holy-crap-these-are-amazing-cookies". And they were. And easy to boot!

Now I followed the pin to the website, and was led to another website and so it took me a little bit to find it. So I am going to post it here so you don't have to go searching all over the internet for it. I am here for you.

This recipe comes from Sticky Gooey Creamy Chewy. You can click on that link and it will take you directly to the post. I love that she gives you the option to just print it out right there!

The boys helped me and these were so yummy. I love baking with my boys. My boys also loved the fact that these were "no bake" and so they could have them right away!

Because one kind of cookie isn't enough (lol) while at Sams Club the other day I found these! I had gone to Wal Mart looking for a birthday gift, and it wasn't there. I had a little craving for Oreo's but decided not to pay $2.99 for one pkg.

These 2 pkg.  boxes were marked down to only $2.71! 2 pkgs for less than the cost of one. I bought 3 boxes so you can guess who was the best Mom ever...or at least for the day!

tie dye or tye dye?

Hmmm, as I have been sharing these pictures, I can't decide how to spell it. In my mind, neither look right!

My kids' absolute favorite way to do math, is BAKE! Makes complete sense, right?

Ethan found a recipe that he was dying to try.

 It was kind of a comedy of errors. First, thanks to couponing, I have 101 cake mixes. But not one of them was white! I wasn't sure if the jello would dye a yellow cake mix so we got a couple of white mixes.

Then, I thought I had a container of jello's...until Harmony let me know that she gave those away to the food drive. Pffft!

So I made sure to pick up some more jello.

We were in working at the table one day, when I hear Ethan yell, "no Mason, bad boy!"

He got all the boxes of jello out, used his teeth to rip open the pkg and dumped them on the floor.

So it took us awhile to actually make the cupcakes but it was such a fun project.

They were really simple.

Make cake mixes (white ones!) following the directions on the package. Divide the batter evenly into three bowls. Pick out the 3 jello flavors/colors that you want.

**Each cake mix only requires a half of the box of jello. So we doubled the recipe so that we could use the whole thing. **

Mix a different color into each bowl. Line your cupcake pans. Then spoon the different colors of batter in a pattern. Be careful not to put too much of one color in, so that they will look tye (tie) dyed.

It was fun to watch my kids do this. One was quick and messy. One was a little more careful. One was very methodical and made the "perfect" bottom layer.

PB Banana Bread

Why is it that some times when I buy bananas, they are gone 30 seconds after they hit the fruit bowl? Then others, they sit on the counter and go brown?

Well, like most women, I refuse to throw them away and either put them into the freezer or turn them into banana bread or smoothies.

Everyone in my home loves plain, ol' banana bread, but I am always trying to find ways to change it up. My children do not like nuts :( and so I usually have to make it without my beloved walnuts.

I found this recipe and we all rrrreally enjoyed it!

**Peanut Butter Banana Bread **

Preheat oven to 325*

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup peanut butter
2 bananas, mashed ( I actually used 3 because that is what I had)
2 cups flour
1 tsp soda (which I totally forgot about, oops!)

In a large bowl, cream together butter & sugar. Add eggs, beat well. Stir in peanut butter, mashed bananas until well blended. Add flour and soda. Blend until combined. Grease loaf pan and bake for 70 minutes.
* My daughter really wanted chocolate chips thrown in so we added those as well*
**My oven usually tends to be slow, but 70 minutes was just a little too long for mine. So I would recommend you check for doneness after an hour**

This is my first time linking up to Make a Home over at Linda's Lunacy. If you are interested in joining in on the fun, head on over!

The banana bars that weren't...

It looks like someone just couldn't wait!!

Does he look guilty for scraping off the top and chowing down?!

There are a few things that end up on my shopping list every week. No matter what the sales & coupons are for the week, this one remains constant: BANANAS!

Monkey Mason ( that is what we call my 16mo old) eats at least one a day.

Some weeks, bananas last all of 10 minutes in the fruit bowl.

Others, they sit and brown.

So I make a lot of banana bread.

I decided to do something different and make frosted banana bars. They are so yummy!

I had enough bananas to make 2. One for now and one for the freezer. I had one pan baking, and one pan cooling.

My son comes into the living room to talk to me...with his mouth full of banana bars!

"Yum, Mom this banana BREAD is so good Mom!" He tells his siblings and the next thing I know, half a pan has been devoured!

Apparently, no one else in my family wanted to venture out of our banana bread rut (:

However, if your family wants to break out, here is the recipe for the BANANA BARS!

Frosted Banana Bars

1/2 cup butter or margarine,softened

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 eggs

8oz sour cream

1 tsp vanilla

2 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

2 med. bananas, ripened and mashed (approx. 1 cup)

In mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add eggs, sour cream and vanilla. Combine flour, baking soda and salt in a seperate bowl.

Slowly combine the dry ingredients with the wet. Stir in bananas. Grease a 9 x 15 baking pan. (This recipe makes a lot and I tried to fit in a 9x13. Bad idea. It really didn't fit well and took much longer to bake!)

Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes.

Cream Cheese Frosting:

80z brick of cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened

2 tsp vanilla

3 3/4 cups-4 cups of powdered sugar

Cream together first three ingredients. Then gradually add powdered sugar. Frost cooled banana bars! Enjoy!

**I found this recipe (although there are a ton of recipes for banana bars out there) on That's My Home.

3 tips on baking

I love being able to put my netbook on the counter for recipes! Then I don't have to print anything off!

I LOVE to bake.

However, so not a fan of CLEANING UP !

There are things that I do to make it a little easier on myself though.

1)the GARBAGE BOWL! Thanks to Rachel Ray, I now do this. While baking, I set out a bowl to collect my garbage. That way I don't have to worry about making trips back and forth to the garbage can. I can just make one trip at the end! (:

2) I have a BAKING BOX. Besides all my main ingredients (flour, sugar, brown sugar etc) that are housed in their own containers, everything else goes in one container. Baking powder & soda, extracts, salt, corn starch... It saves me a lot of time to just put everything back in the bucket when I am done. I also save money, because I am not re-buying things I already have (like when we left Guam and I had 3 containers of baking powder!)

3)Do you have an extra set of measuring cups? Leave them in your containers. When it comes time to bake, you don't have to look around for them. You also don't have to wash them!

4) Clean up as you go! Don't just leave everything out on the counter until you are completely done. After the item is out of the oven, you might not feel like cleaning it up! So clean as you go!

With the holidays coming up fast, I am sure that there will be a lot of baking being done! Do you like to bake? What do you do to make it easier on yourself?