Rice Krispy Squares in a Bucket?

Up until this past year I avoided making Rice Krispy Squares.  To me I would have rather made a pie!  Who wants to clean the pot from the stove...all the messy utencils and I could never get them all out of the pan. Not to mention keep from burning the marshmellows.

Thanks to a tip from Stephanie....I now make them all the time....in an Ice Cream Bucket in the Microwave.  Here's how I do it in less than 6 minutes...start to finish including washing the dishes.

1) Spray a 9 x 13 pan and your spoon with PAM

 2)Melt 1/4 cup butter in a bucket in the microwave.  If you have a high pwer Microwave you might want to do this on med-high.  Swirl around the sides to cover as best you can.

3) Add 40 large marshmellows.  Microwave for 2 minutes or until puffed just above the rim. Stir til smooth...add 1 t vanilla.

4) Add 6 cups cereal. Stir and then watch it drop right out of the bucket into the dish. AMAZING!

5) Spray your hand with PAM and press lightly down to even it out. 

6.) ENJOY!  The easy clen-up and the tasty treat.

Mini Apple Pies...

Nolan wanted to bring "Apple Pie" for his birthday treat to school tomorrow.  Apple pie is his all-time favorite dessert.  So I made these little apple turn-overs.  Wasn't sure how they would turn out....but according to Nolan...they were "awesome"  And he isn't easy to please when it comes to the food department.  To make them I made my favorite pie crust recipe in the food processor of coarse.  I used a large circle cookie cutter with the scalloped edge.  Put a little apple pie filling in the middle and folded over.  I then put egg and sugar on the top.  Baked for 19 mins. at 350.   Of coarse as always I made lots.  So now I have a new lunch /snack item in the freezer.  Making lunches is a chore.....when you have a picky eater...even sweets!  Silly kid!

A Party with a different Spin….

This year I had several objectives to follow with Nolan’s party for his 8^th birthday.

-          A budget of $50.  (Not including what I already had on hand. i.e. CAKE MIX)

-          Recycle and Reduce what I have already.  And Re-use

-          Involve the kids in prep.

For me this is a completely different approach.  When I was working full-time it was all about convenience and working til past midnight to get it done.  While I almost always made the cake etc and really got into the planning part….I purchased a lot of stuff to do it.  Now money is tighter and I have lots more time. For this party I gave up having everything look perfect….i.e. the MONOPOLY BOARD.  Typically I would make it all and the font would be printed exactly centered etc.   I’m trying to loosen up!  It was hard but in the end Nolan had as much fun if not more preparing as the party itself.

As I posted earlier…currently Nolan is obsessed with anything Monopoly. A month or so ago we began to plan.  Each step of the way Nolan was involved from invitations to goodie bags.  Here’s some things we did to keep with our guidelines

-          Used Evite vs buying invites.   “Come take a CHANCE and play our game.  Take a ride on our giant game board, eat your way across BOARDWALK and try to stay out of JAIL…..”  RSVP with Mr. and Mrs. Monopoly.  We only invited 11 to keep our numbers reasonable.  7 attended.

-          We created our giant board with 12 x 12 scrapbook papers that I already had (back was white )  I created the grid for the color block and drew the outlines for artwork and the kids markered it in and wrote on the property names.   We came up with our own CHANCE cards….i.e. GIVE A PRESENT TO THE BIRTHDAY BOY. JUMP 8 TIMES    For the houses and hotels, we asked two classes at school to save their milk cartons from Hot Lunch.  Then we spray painted them.  For play pieces the boys made a lego figure when they first arrived.   When they purchased a property they put their name on it and decorated it with trees, roads etc.  Kept them busy while the game was in progress.  We didn’t use all the properties and simplified the game.

-        The cake.... I covered a M. Game board with plastic wrap and then created two layered cakes. One choc…one white.  I had the homemade fondant already from another project.

-          Food….I had let-over little hot dogs from NEW YEARS in the freezer.  I bought fresh veggies and chips. ($6) I already had juice, dip ketchup etc.

-          We used real plates, cups etc vs plastic.

-          Goodie Bags.  I bought Monopoly Deal at Wal-Mart in the states for $5 each.  We made the cookies…dice and player pieces.  The kids helped…here again they were far from perfect looking and tasted a little salty!  We put them in cello bags cut down (already had)  and made a cardstock topper.  “THANKS FOR PLAYING OUR GAME”   Bought choc coins $6 total.  Put them in clear bags that I had and tied with ribbon that I already had.

TOTAL COST- 7 guests - $47

We did it….and it was so much fun!  Not one argument during the game…however the noise level was out of this world!  Mrs. Robb I commend you for keeping 13 boys(and 8 girls) focused on schoolwork each day! My voice was gone after 2 hours!