Sweet as Pie: Chocolate Raspberry Cobbler

As all of you who read my blog know, I love dessert. However, I do not typically like a dessert that is made up of boxed ingredients. That might make me a bit of a dessert snob, but as I grew up, my mom never had any pre-bought desserts. My sister and I used to think that Oreos and Chips Ahoy cookie where treat. Now that I'm older, I know homemade desserts are much more of a treat!

I made this dessert for my three boys, my husband, and my mother-in-law. We served it warm, with ice cream, and there was very little left over :-)The one thing I loved about this dessert was how easy it was to make.  I couldn't find Raspberry pie filling, so I used Strawberry pie filling.  In addition, my  husband has a new found love of strawberries, so I thought he would like it better.  Three steps, place the pie filling on the bottom of the pan. 

Sprinkle the cookie mix over top of it, and bake.  Easy !!

Serve warm with ice cream and enjoy.  I know we all did!

Sweet as Pie: Crockpot Cheese Tortellini

As I have mentioned a hundred times, I love pasta.  One of our recipes for the Sweet as Pie Cooking Club this month was Crock pot Cheese Tortellini.  I have also mentioned my love of a crock pot recipe.  I made two adjustments on this recipe.   First of all, I only used half the amount of cream cheese.  I make the same adjustment with my favorite mashed potatoes recipe, and the taste doesn't suffer at all (and my waistband suffers less :) ).  In addition, my boys will eat any pasta, but they struggle with any green product.  However, as a mom, I am a firm believer that green is good, so I often use the food processor to chop either spinach or kale into very small, less noticeable pieces and then I can get it mixed into almost every one of our pasta dishes.  So, rather than leave the spinach in big leaves, I chopped it into tiny pieces and they boys never complained.  That equals one happy mommy. This was very delicious and very easy- both of which are requirements for me to add meals to the meal rotation in my house.  Also, everyone liked it... one more requirement.  This means I will make this again.

Browning the Sausage

The Food Processor FILLED with spinach, that was about to be chopped into tiny pieces!

These are the sausages that I used

Add everything to the crock pot and let it cook... have I mentioned how much I love a crock pot recipe?

 

 

One dish of Cheese Tortellini

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sweet as Pie: Easy Pasta Carbonara

When I first saw the list of recipes, I was dying to try this because I love any pasta dish. However, I put it off because we are trying to cut carbs out of our diet for awhile.  My mom, aunt, and my cousin and her kids were in town, so I thought it was the perfect time to try this.  This was DELICIOUS and I think it was the peas that made the dish so great.  I will DEFINITELY make this again. 

 Line up the bacon, cut it and then sauteed the bacon and onions.

 Added the chicken broth and evaporated milk.  This is my fairly new dutch oven that I got for Christmas from ME :)  I love it. 

 Peas added (and a perfect fit if I do say so myself)!

Served up- there was not enough left over for seconds :(  That is a good thing and a bad thing I guess!  I will be making this again. 

Sweet as Pie: Delicious Healthy Pizza

We have made a conscious effort to move toward clean eating this year in our house so I found this recipe on Pinterest and thought I would try it out for my pick for this month.  I shredded the fresh mozzarella cheese.

 And, I had this very handsome assistant chef. 

 Sauteed the fresh veggies.  I love how fresh and colorful they look in the pan.

 

 Put it all on top of the mushroom and bake it. 

 Wait until it is warmed through and the cheese melts. 

I would make these again and maybe tweak things just a bit.  David was not sold and the boys would NOT eat the mushroom at all. 

#38 Take the Boys Skiing

David and I love to ski.  The last time we went skiing, I was pregnant with our youngest.  We noticed how great the youngest of kids were skiing and realized we wanted to start ours young.  So, we took the boys.  HAS and JMS loved it, but LPS did not.  I think part of his problem was that he is so tiny that he couldn't lift his leg at all once the boots and skis were on his feet.  All 3 of them did remarkably well.  At one point, I even took JMS and HAS to the top of the mountain and we all skied down.  It took a long time to get down, but it was fun.  It started raining in the afternoon, but the boys had a good time regardless.  LPS was done after lunch... he just couldn't do it for one more minute.  He actually needed a nap, but there wasn't a place for that.

Getting Ready to Hit the Slopes

Getting Lift Tickets

David helping HAS with his skis

Me and LPS

JMS and me on the Ski Lift

Seriously... How cute is this kid??

HAS has the same simple joy factor in his life that I do

Didn't mind falling

Love these two... even if they spent a LOT of time on the snow!!!

He was determined to carry his own skis

JMS Skiing-

 HAS Skiing-

LPS Skiing-

We had a great time and are already planning next year's trip.  We are hoping LPS weighs a little bit more and can enjoy it more. 

#7 Have an adults only weekend at Disney

This weekend, I actually crossed two things off of my list. David and I went to Disney with three other couples. No kids… Just the adults :-)   

We arrived at Port Orleans (Riverside) on Thursday night before any of the other couples. We checked in and took a friend of ours out to dinner before gallivanting around Disney.  This is our room, which was great, but the view was even better. 

After dinner, we went in search of the campground at Disney where we will we be staying in December. On the way over, we went to the Wilderness Lodge and just happened across the electric water pageant. I had always wanted to see it, but had never quite been in the right position to see it. My timing was always off! It was awesome! We got to the campground, walked around, and as we always do… Go about determining which is the best campsite at each different campground.

On Friday morning, we went to the expo, which was packed, where we met up with the Herrings. After that, the four of us went to the opening game of spring training for the Braves. We sat in the outfield grass and it was perfect.

Friday night, we went to dinner at the Yacht Club resort at the Yachtman's Steakhouse. We celebrated Carrie's birthday and the food was awesome. Then we walked around the Boardwalk Resort, which I had never seen.  It was an awesome environment. 

Saturday, we spent the day at Epcot. We walked around all the countries and had an Italian lunch to Carbo load for the race on Sunday. We didn't stay until the park closes like we normally do, because Sunday we had to wake up at 2 AM. This truly was a perfect day.

Trying out the hats of the World !!!

Power to the Princesses!!!

One of my Favorite Princesses!!!

Sunday, we woke up and ran a half marathon in the morning and then headed to Magic Kingdom at noon. We moved a little slower this afternoon, because Our legs were exhausted.  We wore our shirts, medals and tiaras to the park all afternoon :) 

We stayed through the fireworks, but couldn't make it one minute longer. We were asleep by 9:30.

 

Monday morning, we left to head home. Experiencing Disney with only adults was awesome. I love experiencing it with my kids, it is just an entirely different experience. I will be repeating both… With my children And without.