Reindeer Cookies



I made these cuties for a cookie exchange today at my playgroup.

I know all the mommy's will be fighting over them ;-)

Actually...I think they might be pretty popular with the kiddos too.

I got inspired from Pinterest.

It should be called Inspirest...Inspiredest...Inspirethee...Inspiroroni...

well...maybe it shouldn't be called that.

The original blog post can be found here at Bakergirl.

Here are some tips in case you want to make these yourself.

* I used the premade dough roll and I aint ashamed to admit it!  There is therefore no condemnation when it comes to saving time during the holiday season.  Can I get an Amen?!

* The pretzels are Keebler's Right Bites fudge pretzels. They come in a box with six snack packs.

* I bought one box of the good pretzels and then bought a bag of non-chocolate coated pretzels for the rest of the batch I made...to save moolah :-)

* I could not find mini M&M's to save my life at Target.  So I went with plan B.  Chocolate chips point down for the eyes and red cinnamon candy balls for the nose (they were in the baking aisle).

* The regular pretzels didn't stick so well in the cookie.  So I used my newly acquired icing piping bag and little round tip from my cake decorating class (a future post waiting to happen) to pipe a small line of icing on the cookie then jabbed the pretzel on top.

* Follow the 1 inch ball guideline!  I didn't follow that rule with my first batch and they all came out too big.  The smaller the cuter they are!

Be sure to send me a pic of your reindeer if you make some!

And I will feature you on my oh so popular blog! ;-)

Caramel Pecan Cheesecake Bites

Monday was Hubby's birthday!  He had worship team practice that night (he plays bass at our church) so we surprised him and showed up at his practice!  I brought yummy treats for everyone.  Kinda like when you were little and your mom brought cupcakes in to your class on your birthday :-)

The treats were a big hit!  I made Caramel Pecan Cheesecake Bites.  I got the recipe on my allrecipes.com App.  I modified it a little by using 2 cups of Graham cracker crumbs mixed with a stick of butter for the crust.  And then I topped them with some caramel ice cream topping and pecans.  It was pretty easy and super yummy!  Definitely reccomend this recipe if you're looking for something cute and sweet.

Did you know I love circles?

Weekly Meal Plans

First of all, I would like to just say that I am not a cook.  I don't particularly like to cook, I'm not creative with cooking, I just don't enjoy any of it that much.  With that being said, I have found a way to motivate myself to cook dinner and thought I'd share it with you.

I've started planning our meals out for the week.  Whoa!  I know...it's mindblowingly genius.  But I can't take credit for it...lots of people do this.  I am a huge planner and love lists and schedules and being organized.  So this totally fulfills a need I have.

Every week I sit down with my little weekly notepad and my grocery list notepad.  I also have my calendar open so I can take in to account if we need to make a quick meal one night, because we have something to do after dinner.  I then write down what meals we are going to have each night. I usually enlist Steve's help with making the choices.  Then I write down all the ingredients needed for the week on my grocery list notepad. 

Every day I can look at my pretty little notepad on my refrigerator and know what's expected of me and I like that :-)

Can you find my weekly notepad and grocery list??  We like things...ummm eclectic here :-)

FYI - those of you with iPhones... There is a great free App called allrecipes.com Dinner Spinner that makes it super easy to find meal options.