Peanut Free Puppy Chow

Poor, peanut butter passionate Addie pined for puppy chow.  (Try to say that 5 times fast).   So she set out to make a peanut free version due to Caroline's allergy.  It turned out fantastic!  Now, I'm coming off of a three week cleanse so pretty much EVERYTHING tastes good to me right now, but everyone else in the house was eating it like crazy too so I'm taking that as confirmation of it's goodness.  Addie used a basic recipe on the back of a cereal box and substituted the peanut butter with this handy dandy product.

This is the best tasting peanut butter substitute (or "fake peanut butter" as we call it) I have found.  Besides the taste, other positives are that it contains non-GMO soy and is made in a 100% peanut, nut, gluten, and dairy free facility.  This is the creamy version, but a crunchy one is available as well.  I tried to get some photos of Addie in action but as usual, I didn't get much cooperation.

And I had a couple of photo bombers.

It was a fun family night in the kitchen experimenting with a new twist on an old snack.  I had to remove myself from the room after it was made though.  It was so good and I didn't want to totally sabotage my cleansing efforts!

Peanut Free Puppy Chow (adapted from the back of a cereal box)

9 cups Toasted Rice squares cereal
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup Wowbutter
1/4 cup real butter
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

Measure out the cereal and set aside.  In a 1 qt microwaveable bowl, microwave chocolate chips, Wowbutter and butter uncovered on high for 1 minute; stir.  Microwave about 30 seconds longer or until mixture can be stirred smooth.  Stir in vanilla.  Pour this mixture over the cereal and stir.  Pour all into a large resealable plastic bag, add powdered sugar, seal, and shake until coated.  Spread out to cool.  (We really didn't do this, everyone was too impatient and started eating it immediately.)  Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator (if you have any left!).

Holiday Catch Up

I took a little blogging break while the kids were out of school so I'm playing catch up on some of the highlights of the Holidays.  Here we go.

I won a cookie contest!  My cookie recipe was chosen by a local baker as one of the top 12 in the Arkansas Democrat Gazette 12 Days of Cookies contest!  I won free Hiland Dairy milk for a year!

The girls made more Gingerbread Houses.

We made Christmas cookies.

We wrapped and decorated presents.

We opened fun presents.

We spent time with family.

We played a new game.

We played in the snow.

And finally, the girls got haircuts in preparation to go back to school.

And now, back to reality.  Happy New Year!

Brown Paper Packages

For the past few years, we've wrapped the Christmas gifts in brown kraft paper and let the girls decorate them.  It's a fun tradition I learned from my sister who did it when her kids were younger.  The only bad thing is that it's so hard to throw it away after Christmas.  Here are some of Caroline's packages from yesterday.

And here is one of my favorites of Addie's from a Christmas past.

Other events from the weekend included Caroline's first school dance.  It was called a Snowflake Dance and they were supposed to wear their finest!

She and her friend Nora had a great time bopping around for 2 hours, even entering the dance competition.

The other big event this weekend was the annual Daddy/Daughter trip to the Nutcracker in Tulsa.  Mike has been taking Addie since she was five and this was Caroline's first year to attend.  They had a good time and added two new Nutcrackers to the collection. And I had a wonderful time taking my friend Robin out to Pei Wei's for her birthday.  That's another thing we need in NWA!

Gingerbread House

I was out shopping yesterday looking for a gingerbread house kit to do with the kids.  You know, one of those pre-baked things where everything is included?  Then I chuckled because I remembered a gingerbread house Mike and I made once upon a time, back when we only had one child and she was still little and had no activities to be carted to.  Oh how things change.  Life gets so busy.  Mike sketched out this house to look just like the house we lived in at the time.  Then we made the gingerbread from scratch, rolled it out and cut it according to his measurements, and assembled and decorated it. Good times.

Scenes from the Weekend

As usual we had a busy weekend.  We tried out a new (for us) local Restaurant, Hawaiian Brian's, rode the Arkansas Missouri Railroad Christmas train, and I hosted Addie's Girl Scout troop so they could work on their Simple Meals Patch.  Fun, fun fun!  Here are the pictures to prove it. :)

The 4 of us shared this delicious plate at Hawaiian Brian's.

Caroline and her friend Macy happened to wear the same shirt on the train ride.

Addie got a little too comfortable.

I was really hoping waiters were going to burst through the doors with Hot Chocolate and start singing.

There was singing, but no hot chocolate.

This was after Santa told Addie "Little girls who don't want their picture with Santa get strung up by their suspenders". Those are red suspenders hanging from her pants.

The girls picked several things they wanted to make.

They did a great job and were interested in learning.

They washed LOTS of produce.

Pizza time!

Hard at work.