We Went to the Zoo

Last Thanksgiving our downstairs neighbors, who work at the zoo, left us two free passes to the zoo clipped to our door with a sweet note saying " Hi neighbors! Happy Thanksgiving!". 

I wanted to cry. I didn't know that there were such kind people left in the world. Much less such kind strangers left in the world!

I immediately went to work brainstorming what we could do in return for them. The best I could come up with was to make them a yummy treat. So we did, several times. They are now my baking guinea pigs. And I think that they like it! 

Yesterday the temperature in Denver was in the low 60's. It was PERFECT zoo weather. I talked Garrett into skipping work, which wasn't very difficult, and we happily used our zoo passes.

First we saw the adorable Striped Mongoose

This one was sleeping the whole time. Wook at that wittle nose!

My hair kind of looks like this in the mornings. Ok, it looks exactly like this in the mornings.

 So. Stinkin'. Cute. Check out that sweet top lip! : )

This gets the cutest animal award.

Arctic Fox. I wish I had one.

Capybara. The largest rodent in the world is adorable.

 This little girl was friendly! She came straight to the fence and watched us the whole time we were around. I'm not normally a monkey person, but this one was cute!

Not amused.

So, in a nutshell, that was our zoo day. It was a nice break from work for Garrett and a nice day to be outside enjoying the weather. I can't wait for more "spring weather" days. Today it is 27 and snowing. 

Now, off to browse through my Pinterest desserts and figure out which to make! I have a 4 day weekend!!!

Chicken Caesar Pasta Salad

Can you believe it? 

A salad on MY blog? I can't really believe it either.

But this salad is GOOD!

I got the idea for it from Cheddars. That's the only place that I will go and order a salad. It's also the only place I leave full and not regretting my meal. I wonder if those two have anything to do with one another? 

What you need:

Penne Pasta

Lettuce

Chicken Breast

Caesar Dressing

What to do:

Put the amount of lettuce that you want in a bowl.

Cook the pasta until tender. I made 3/4 of a cup for just myself but you can adjust it to the amount you want.

 Cook your chicken. 

Sometimes I buy pre-cooked chicken breasts, the kind that you just have to microwave. The last time I made this we marinated our own chicken and grilled it and it was SO much better. But, you can use either one!

Throw it all in the bowl and toss with Caesar (or any dressing that you like)! I barely use any dressing because it grosses me out if I use too much but do it your way!

If you are wanting to marinade your chicken the way I did I used:

Worcestershire 

Italian Dressing

Mustard

Asian Zing Sauce from Buffalo Wild Wings

Salt&Pepper

Caesar Dressing

BBQ Sauce

Weird huh? I just randomly mixed ingredients from our fridge and it turned out DELICIOUS! We both agreed that it was the best chicken we had ever made. Who woulda thought just throwing random things into a bowl would turn out good? I got lucky.

Sharing here:

Adventures of a DIY Mom
A Diamond in the Stuff
Chef in Training
The Shady Porch
Pincushion Creations 

Happy-Go-Lucky

Peanut Butter Bars

You know sometimes when you make a dessert and it is extra good? I know pretty much all desserts are good, but sometimes you make one and it is better than others? Well, roll in the peanut butter bars I made a couple of weeks ago. They were delicious!

I found the recipe through Pinterest on a neat little blog, that I now follow, called Six Sisters' Stuff. You can find the original recipe here. 

One day I was bored and decided I wanted to bake something. When that happens I usually go straight to Pinterest and scroll through my long list of "Delectable Desserts". I saw these, clicked on them, and noticed I had everything already in my cabinets and BAM! they were sitting on my kitchen counter by the time Garrett got home!

For the bars:

You will need:

1 Cup Sugar

1 Cup Brown Sugar, firmly packed

1 Cup Butter

1 Tsp Vanilla

2 Eggs

2 1/2 Cups Peanut Butter, divided

2 Cups Oatmeal, not instant

2 Cups Flour

1 Tsp Baking Soda

1 Tsp Salt

What to do:

Cream first three ingredients together. Add the vanilla, eggs, and 1 cup of the peanut butter and mix until combined. Add the remaining ingredients and mix well.

Spread dough on a greased baking sheet. I used our 11in. by 17in. and it was perfect. If you don't have one that size you could split it up onto two different baking sheets. Or, you could bake them in a baking dish for thicker bars!

Bake at 350 for 15 minutes, or until golden brown.

While still warm from the oven, spread the remaining 1 1/2 cups of peanut butter on top. It will spread easily! Let sit until peanut butter hardens back up. We sat ours in the fridge to speed up the process!

For the chocolate icing:

You will need:

1 Stick Butter, softened

1/4 Cup Milk

1 Tsp. Vanilla

3 Heaping Spoonfuls Cocoa

2 1/2 Cups Powdered Sugar

 Mix all ingredients until smooth and spread onto bars!

 I took these into work and gave some to our neighbors. The recipe makes alot. Everyone loved them and I got a ton of compliments on them! How can you go wrong with peanut butter and chocolate?

Linking up here:

The REAL Housewives of Riverton
Something Swanky
Fireflies and Jellybeans
A Creative Princess
The Shady Porch
Country Momma Cooks
The Answer is Chocolate
Petals to Picots
Blissful and Domestic
Pincushion Creations 

Easy Crockpot Mac&Cheese

I am really into using our crock-pot these days.

Since Garrett and I have completely opposite schedules, I work at 5:30 am and get home around 10:30am and he usually isn't home until 6:30 or later, a good old fashioned crock-pot meal is nice! I can get it going when I get home and it'll be ready when he walks in. The best part is, I barely have to do anything but the meal comes out as if I had slaved in the kitchen for hours. Score! : )

Last week I shared a crock-pot BBQ Chicken recipe. It was delicious and really great with this mac&cheese recipe I am posting today. Throw in some mashed potatoes and it would be the best comfort food meal ever!

What you need:

1 1/2 Cups Milk

1 12oz. Can Evaporated Milk

1/4 Cup Unsalted Butter, Melted and Cooled

3 Eggs

3 Cups Shredded Cheese

1/2 Lb Elbow Macaroni, Slightly Cooked and Drained ( Cook macaroni for about five minutes until it is tender but not all the way cooked)

Salt and Pepper to Taste

What to do:

Spray the inside of your crock-pot with cooking spray. Combine milk, evaporated milk, eggs, butter and salt in the crock-pot and mix until smooth. 

Add the shredded cheese and macaroni. Sprinkle with black pepper. Stir to coat with previous mixture.

Sprinkle some grated cheese on top as well for a nice cheesy topping! Cover and cook on high for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes is up, reduce to low and cook for 2 to 2 1/2 hours.

So, I want to apologize for the pictures I am about to add. If you know me you know that I usually take a TON of pictures. Well, this one time I took only about five pictures. And none of them turned out too great. These two were the best I had! 

Just imagine this displayed on a really cute dish next to some BBQ Chicken and you will have the mental picture of what I wanted my pictures to look like! : )

Hope everyone is having a great week! I am already ready for the weekend. And the next Bachelor episode. Even though Ben is making me a little mad!

 Is anyone else watching this season??

Easy Crockpot BBQ Chicken

I don't know about y'all, but any recipe that deals with simply throwing something in my crock-pot is an automatic favorite! The food usually turns out delicious and all you have to do is throw it in there and let it cook while you do nothing start making dessert. Now that's my kind of cooking!

I found this recipe on Pinterest, of course. Where else?

It turned out yummy and was really easy to make, you can just throw the chicken breasts in there frozen! 

What you need:

4-6 Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts

1 Bottle BBQ Sauce

1/4 Cup Vinegar

1 Tsp. Red Pepper Flakes

1 Tsp. Garlic Powder

1/4 Cup Brown Sugar

What to do:

Mix all ingredients (except chicken) together. Place chicken into crock-pot and pour sauce over it. Cook on low for 4 to 6 hours. That's it! 

*I would suggest using a medium sized crock-pot if you own one so that the chicken stays submerged in the liquid, otherwise it may come out a bit dry.

We ate ours with homemade mac&cheese, recipe coming soon, but mashed potatoes and green beans would be yummy too!

We hope y'all are all having a great weekend! It is Denver Restaurant Week here which means a ton of restaurants are having 3 to 4 course meals for $52.80 for two people! Garrett just informed me that 5280 is Denver's elevation, pretty clever. We are thinking about trying out Texas De Brazil...have any of you ever eaten there and if so what did you think?

Linking up here:

Six Sisters' Stuff
Country Momma Cooks
Joy in the Jumble
Two Sasters
Simply Sweet Home
One Artsy Mama
The Tattered Tag 

Cake Batter Rice Krispies

When I saw this recipe here, I knew I had to make it.

Seriously, cake batter and Rice Krispies?

I have made cake batter truffles before and they were delicious, so I thought how can I go wrong with yet another cake batter recipe? Turns out, I couldn't!

So, I gathered up the ingredients...

What you need:

5 to 6 Cups Rice Krispies Cereal

3 Tbsp. Butter

2/3 Cup Yellow Cake Mix

1 10oz Bag Mini Marshmallows

Optional: Sprinkles

What to do:

Melt butter in a large nonstick saucepan over low heat and then add marshmallows.

Add the cake mix once the marshmallows start to melt. Once the mixture is all melted together you can go ahead and throw in the cereal. If you are using sprinkles you can throw half of them in there too. 

Press into a baking dish. You can use any size, we used an 8x8 and it worked great. Then, if you want sprinkles, put the other half on top. Let cool before cutting into.

I used sprinkles but you can't see them. Bummer. So then, I sprinkled some extra cake mix over the top of ours. It was pretty tasty!

Garrett and I both agreed that these were the best Rice Krispies treats that we had had. That's sayin' something!

I hope you have all had a great week so far! 2 more days...

Linking up to these fantastic parties:

It's a Party #42 @ A Creative Princess
Rock N' Share #17 @ The Shady Porch
Terrific Tuesdays #3 @ Adventures of a DIY Mom
The REAL Housewives of Riverton
Six Sisters' Stuff
Country Momma Cooks
Joy in the Jumble
Two Sasters
Simply Sweet Home
Something Swanky
The Tattered Tag

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Two Sasters

Fried Pickles

Heloooo blog friends!!

In my super bowl Sunday post (here) ... AKA forever ago...I mentioned that I was going to share our recipe for fried pickles.

Then I got lazy.

So....10 days later, here it is!!

What you need:

• 1 small to medium jar of Hamburger Dill Chips (Pickles)
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• Frying Oil

What to do:
  
1. In one dish mix the egg, milk, and Worcestershire sauce. Beat them together with a fork to mix well. Get your fryer/oil ready!
  
2. In another dish mix the flour, salt and pepper.

3. Dip each pickle into the egg mixture then into the flour mixture. Repeat.

4. Wait until you have a large enough batch and put them all into the fryer at once. Let them fry until they are golden brown!

  

5. Remove them and start your next batch. We usually go ahead and make the whole jar but you don't have to. When you remove them from the fryer just drain them on a paper towel. 

Garrett loves them with Ranch dressing, and I think most other people do too, but I like them just as they are. They are delicious. 

If you are like me when I first saw/heard of these and think they sound weird; give them a try and let me know what you think! I think you will love them!

Sharing at these sweet parties!

Fireflies and Jellybeans

A Creative Princess

Petals to Picots 

Joy in the Jumble 

Days of Chalk and Chocolate

Two Sasters

Lisa's Craft Blog 

Chef in Training 

Adventures of a DIY Mom 

A Diamond in the Stuff 

The REAL Housewives of Riverton

Six Sisters' Stuff 

Country Momma Cooks 

Simply Sweet Home

One Artsy Mama 

The Tattered Tag