Friday Favorites – Week 255 – With Last Minute Valentine’s Day Ideas

friday favorites

Hi everyone! Happy early Valentine’s Day! To celebrate the holiday, I’ve got a few last minute Valentine’s Day features!  Hope you enjoy them!

Also, if you applied to be a guest contributor or linky party co-host, thank you!  I’ve just out emails to the linky party co-host applicants, so if you’ve applied please check your inbox for my email. As for those who’ve expressed interest in guest posting, I’ll be planning a guest posting event shortly and will contact you with details as soon as I have them.

Now take a look at these fun Valentine’s ideas!

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Game Time with Coke, Ritz and DiGiorno® Pizza and Ritz Balls Recipe

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #PreparetoParty #CollectiveBias
Game Time with Coke Ritz and DiGiorno

Are you ready for the Big Game? Great brands like Coca-Cola, DiGiorno® Stuffed Crust Pizza  and Ritz Crackers make it easy and affordable for anyone to throw a great football party! Last weekend we enjoyed a day of football and food.  Today I’m going to share my recipe for Ritz Balls and I’ve got some other tips for how you can creatively use these products to make your football party food fun and fresh! [Read more…]

25 Delicious Must-Make Recipes from 2014

25 Delicious Must-Make Recipes

 

Happy New Year! (Again!)  As a blogger, it seems to have become quite customary to take the interim period between Christmas and New Year’s Day to look back over the year’s work and then re-share some of the highlights.  So I’ve been looking back at everything over the last few days, and today I have a fun round-up of posts for you: my 25 Delicious Must-Make Recipes from 2014!

I can honestly say that I enjoyed making and EATING all of these, so I hope you will check them out and decide to make few of these for yourself (especially the chocolate chip cookie dough cupcakes….just saying!)

And as always, I welcome your comments on this and any of the recipe posts featured here, especially on my photos.  In 2014, I worked on improving my photo staging and editing, but I was still limited by not having a DSLR camera (not to mention, the lighting was not always ideal!).  However, I’m really proud of the improvements I was able to make throughout the year, and I am super excited because I….I mean, Santa, just got me a DSLR camera for Christmas, so I cannot wait to make things look even better here in 2015!  [Read more…]

Friday Favorites – Week 249 – With Holiday Party Food

holiday party food

Happy New Year! Welcome to our first Friday Favorites party of 2015!  While you’re here this week, be sure to take a look at this awesome giveaway for an Epson Printable Ribbon Kit.  This machine can not only help you create fun crafts and party favors, but it also works with regular label maker tape for all your organizing purposes!  And if you’re really in to organizing, take a look at my round up of Printable Blog Planners for 2015! Yay!

Now on to this week’s party!  Today we have some yummy holiday party foods. (They could also double as football party food, if you’re planning for that!)

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Hot Cocoa Muddy Mix

Hot Cocoa Muddy Mix

I’ve never been a “go out on New Year’s Eve” kind of person. I’d much rather than stay home. It’s way less crowded!  But what I do love, is to have plenty of appetizers and snacks to help celebrate the occasion.  The night wouldn’t be the same without them!  This year for the sweet side, I made this Hot Cocoa Muddy Mix.

I’ve made a few different Muddy Mix recipes (or Puppy Chow if you will): Peppermint MuddiesCheesecake Muddy Mix. and Strawberry Cheesecake Muddy Mix.

I love this stuff because I can make it in about 10 minutes or less!  It is also a very festive snack that you can change up with just an ingredient or two (like my linked examples above).

I’ve enjoy each muddy mix I’ve tried, but I think this my new favorite!  I looked at a few recipes for inspiration, and then I threw this together….I called myself making a “half batch” since a lot of recipes instruct you to use 6 or 7 cups of Chex Cereal (basically the entire box), but even my half batch made a pretty big bowl of stuff; I’d say it’s enough for 2 to 4 people.  It’s definitely enough if it’s just you, your spouse, and a couple of kids.  (Then again, this stuff DOES stay good for a few days, so even if you’re not having a party and just want a little extra for you and your family, by all means, feel free to double the recipe!) [Read more…]

Sweet & Salty Popcorn Bark + G.H. Cretors Popcorn

GH Cretors Sampler Pack

From popcorn balls and snack mix, to a simple bowl of popcorn, G.H. Creators popcorn is a must have item for holiday snacking!  If you’ve never tried their popcorn, I highly recommend it.  I absolutely LOVE their Just the Cheese Popcorn.  It’s amazing!  And I recently tried their Simply Salted variety, and I found it just as yummy.   Made in old fashioned copper kettles, G.H. Cretors popcorn always comes out perfectly fluffy!

Today I have a great recipe, featuring G.H. Cretors Simply Salted Popcorn: Sweet & Salty Popcorn Bar. Check it out! [Read more…]

Saltine Cracker Toffee from Tanya at My Fruitful Home

I can’t believe Christmas is this week, and I’ve barely had time to post any of my Christmas content.  Thank goodness we have guest bloggers!  Today Tanya from  My Fruitful Home is here to a share simple and delicious treat, Saltine Cracker Toffee.

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Who doesn’t love toffee? My favorite candy bar is the Heath bar. I love that toffee and chocolate combination. When I found a simple recipe for Saltine Cracker Toffee I was thrilled! It is so easy, but tastes like you spent a lot of time on it. There are only four ingredients. The recipe follows.

 cracker toffee

Ingredients:

* 40 saltine crackers

* 1 cup (2 sticks) butter

* 1 cup light brown sugar

* 2 cups of semisweet chocolate chips or 1, 12 ounce bag

Directions:

 Preheat oven to 400 F

1 Line cookie sheet with saltine crackers in a single layer.

2 In a saucepan combine sugar, butter. Bring to a boil and boil for 3 minutes.

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3 Pour over crackers right away and spread to cover completely.

cracker toffee

4 Bake at 400 F for 5 to 6 minutes.

cracker toffee

5 Remove from oven and sprinkle chocolate chips over top of crackers and leave for five minutes.

cracker toffee

6 Spread melted chocolate and let cool completely.

7 Break into pieces

Tanya is from the blog My Fruitful Home where she blogs about recipes, home, crafts, and living the abundant life with a chronic illness.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Bars with Nestle Toll House Delightfulls

Disclosure: Thanks to Nestle Toll House for sponsoring today’s recipe post. The opinions expressed here are my own.


Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Bars

Today we’re doing holiday baking with a new “secret ingredient.”  The secret ingredient, which I’m about to reveal to you is Nestle Toll House DelightFulls. As I was shopping for baking ingredient last week, I found these little jewels and just had to try them out!  Imagine your favorite baking chips, then imagine them a little bigger and with a special surprise inside! [Read more…]

Molasses Cookies and SPLENDA® 365 SWEET SWAPS™

Disclosure: This post is part of the SPLENDA® 365 SWEET SWAPS™ Blogger Program by McNeil Nutritionals, LLC and The Motherhood, who sent me products and compensated me for my time. Opinions, experiences and photos shared here are my own, and I hope you enjoy them.

Molasses Cookie Stack

Every year I look forward to holiday baking. I usually have a list of the tried and true recipes I want to make, as well as a few new ones. Of course, I never get around to making all of them, but it’s fun thinking about it just the same. And when I do bake, I always have more than we will ever eat at our house.  No worries! For me, it just means it’s a great opportunity for gift giving and sharing.  But not everyone can eat sweets.  Have you ever given cookies or candy to someone, only to find out that they can’t eat sweet due to diabetes or other dietary restrictions?  I’ve done this a couple of times!   It’s embarrassing for you, and the even worse, the giftee is tempted to break their diet!

Enter Splenda!  A lot of people know Splenda as a no calorie sweetener for things like coffee and cereal, but what you may not  know is that Splenda actually has products especially for baking.  Their product line includes: [Read more…]

Friday Favorites – Week 245 – With Christmas Treats

friday favorites

Happy Thanksgiving! And thank you for taking time out from your busy schedule to link up today.

While you’re here, please check out my current giveaways.  I’ve a $50 Target Gift Card (Plus Mega Bloks & General Mills cereals)JBL Portable Speakers, a 2 Name a Star Kits.

I also invite you to check out gift items in my Etsy shop!  I have a lot of affordable gift ideas, including necklaces, Christmas Ornaments, and keychains.  Custom orders welcome!  I’m also offering 10% off right now with coupon code: GIVETHANKS.

Now on to today’s features…this week we have a round of Christmas treats. Hope you enjoy! [Read more…]