Cooking Light Giveaway Winner & Eye-Spy

And the winner is.....

Brielle!  

 Thanks to everyone who entered the giveaway - I wish I could send all of you a subscription!  I'll have another giveaway coming up in January.  In the meantime, have a very Merry Christmas and enjoy your holiday baking!

Here are some yummies that are now on my "I have to try that" list:

 Caramel Cream Puff Pops (from Dinner With Julie)

 Melted Snowman Sugar Cookies (from Smashed Peas and Carrots)

S'mores Hot Chocolate (from Our Best Bites)

Cooking Light Giveaway

Anyone want to win a year’s subscription to Cooking Light magazine?  

It’s my current favorite (see this post), and it’s one of my most trusted resources for new recipes.  I need to renew my subscription and when I went to the site I noticed that right now they’re having a 2-for-1 deal on subscriptions.  I thought I would give the other subscription away to one of my readers. 

To enter, simply leave a comment here on this post before Dec 23rd at noon.  I’ll choose a winner that afternoon.  (Please make sure there is a way for me to contact you!)




[nope, Cooking Light is not sponsoring this, nor are they paying me to go on and on about how much I love them.]

Menu No. 114

Menus two weeks in a row - this has got to be some kind of record for me, right?

You may notice that the Slow Cooker Ragu was also on my menu for Sunday last week.  Sunday morning came and I pulled out everything for the ragu and THEN realized that we had no egg noodles.  So I pushed that dinner to today and we had whole wheat waffles instead YUM!

I must say that I'm looking forward to having that ragu again.  We tried it a few weeks ago and we all loved it (kids included!)  Here's what we're having for the rest of the week:


Monday – Slow Cooker Ragu over egg noodles
Tuesday – Baked Rigatoni with Roasted Vegetables, Baguette
Wednesday – Vegetable Beef and Barley Soup, rolls
Thursday – Chicken and Black Bean burritos, salsa
Friday – eat out
Saturday – xmas party
Sunday – Robyn’s roast, rice, corn

Baked Rigatoni with Roasted Vegetables

Eye-Spy

[photo courtesy of Vintage Pollyanna]

Oh man this looks good!  I was doing some surfing for another hobby of mine and I came across this blog: Vintage Pollyanna

Allison has some really cute craft ideas, along with some yummy looking recipes.  This one for Chocolate Bark took me on a short trip down memory lane.  Back in college I went to visit a friend of mine at her apartment.  She offered me some chocolate bark and (of course) I didn’t refuse.  After eating it and telling her how much I loved it she informed me that there were saltine crackers in the recipe.  I really, really, really thought she was lying.  (side note:  I was quite a practical joker back in the day so it was not unheard of for people to try to trick me.  You know….  revenge.)  She gave me a copy of the recipe and sure enough – saltines. 

I was so happy to come across the recipe on Allison’s blog.  Along with the recipe she also has step-by-step photos for those of you who are more cautious bakers.
Enjoy!

Jingle Bell Cookie Pizza

I’ll save you the trouble….   it looks better than it tastes.



  I know, I know..  You could have told me that, right?  Store bought cookie dough, topped with marshmallows and m&ms.  Really it comes down to the fact that each of the ingredients are just plain better on their own.  Well, except the cookie dough.  It was extremely salty.  It’s been years since I’ve bought that stuff and now I remember why. 

If you still want it, here’s the link to the recipe.  Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Menu No. 113

Confession:  I’m not doing such a great job with posting my menus lately.  However, I have a new tool that will help me keep on top of things.  More on that later.  Now here’s what we’re feasting on this week:

Monday – Lime Chicken Soft Tacos (& homemade salsa)
Tuesday – Skillet Baked Ziti, french bread, roasted carrots
Wednesday – BBQ Chicken Salad (w/ a yummy BBQ Vinaigrette)
Thursday – BBQ Club Sandwiches, + leftovers
Friday – eat out
Saturday – eat out (Christmas par-tay!)
Sunday – Slow Cooker Ragu over egg noodles, green beans

This week’s treat:  Jingle Bell Cookie Pizza

Need more dinner ideas?  Check out Menu Plan Monday over at orgjunkie