Peppermint Patties Recipe

These Peppermint Patties are a new favourite at our Christmas Eve gathering every year.  Last year I found this recipe somewhere and jotted it down in my recipe book to make.  I made up a batch last year for gifts and for the party and they were a real hit!  

So of course this year I had to make some more and I figured I would share the recipe after I posted a photo on Facebook and had several requests for the recipe.  

Peppermint Patties Recipe

4 + Cups Icing Sugar
2 Egg Whites
5-8 Drops Peppermint Oil
1 TBSP water
2 blocks Semi-Sweet Bakers Chocolate

Directions

Combine Icing sugar, egg whites, peppermint oil and water.  Mix with a hand mixer until a thick dough comes together adding more icing sugar or water to thicken or combine as needed.  It should be a nice thick dough. 

On a clean dry surface, roll out chunks of the dough using more icing sugar to reduce sticking to the rolling pin or surface. Use a small circle cookie cutter to cut out the shapes of the patties and place them onto a parchment lined baking sheet.  

**Note: If you don't have a circle cookie cutter you can alternatively just pull off small chunks of the dough, roll them into a ball and flatten.  

Let the patties dry out on the baking sheet over night. 

Once dried out, melt bakers chocolate in a double boiler and let cool slightly.  You don't want to dip the patties right into super hot chocolate or else they will start to melt a little themselves. Once slightly cooled, dip each patty into the chocolate, using a fork tap off the extra chocolate.  Place each patty back onto the parchment paper and place the tray into the fridge to help the chocolate set. 

 

Once set they can be put into packaging and placed into gifts with out needing refrigeration which is always nice!

Enjoy!  

And as always find me on Facebook or comment below to let me know how you liked the recipe and how it worked for you!

Frozen Gingerbread House

Maybe this blog is turning into a Christmas/Kids activities Blog over the Holidays.... BUT this is my life so my goal here is to share what is relevant to me and what would be helpful to me as a mom out there!

Asher missed school on Tuesday and therefore missed making ginger bread houses with his class too.  So last night when I came home he asked me to PLEASE get him stuff to make a gingerbread house.  So I headed out to the Bulk Barn in town today to find a gingerbread kit.  I was lucky enough to get the last pre-made kit in the store.... which means the job I hate most (building gingerbread house) is done!  YES!

BUT I was feeling pretty uninspired by the candy selection I could get for the house as I walked the isles.  And then suddenly it came to me.... BUILD A FROZEN HOUSE!

So with a new mission (I always do better with a theme), I searched the candy bins for all blue, white and silver candy!  Way more fun that little green trees and gum balls!

I also grabbed a bottle of Sugar cookie icing hoping it would be thick enough to hold the candy (it wasn't) .

Asher was so excited to get started when I got home tonight after I showed him everything I had picked out.

Here is what I got:

Here is our little pre-made gingerbread house

And here is what we turned that little pre-made gingerbread house into!  A Frozen Ginger bread house!  Or as Asher calls it Olaf's Gingerbread house.  

I do have to say, Christmas is really taking over this week.  I haven't been working out as regularly but I have been sticking to my 21 Day Fix meal plan pretty well this week!  So I'm happy with that.  After Christmas I'll be back at it!!

Now I better get back to filling out cards and Wrapping!!!

Magic Reindeer Food

After many plans and bouncing ideas off my husband about what to make for Asher's Kindergarten class gifts this year. We decided on Magic Reindeer Food.  

As much as all those cute candy filled baggies with jelly beans or malt balls with one red one for Ruldolphs nose are cute and would be fun to make... I just don't think the kids need any more candy at this time of year... or ever really.  

But I wanted to make something fun and special for each of them.  So Magic Reindeer Food won out!  

Here is the Recipe for Magic Reindeer Food:

8 Cups Quick Oats
Two Bottles of Sprinkles
18 Zip baggies
18 6" x 2" scrapbook paper pieces cut
18 Cut out Magic Reindeer Poems

I had Asher do quite a lot of this project which is always a good thing in my book.  I like it when the project is kid friendly so they actually feel like they made it too!

Asher mixed the Reindeer Food in the bowl and Scooped some into each baggie for me.  

I then cut out all the poems and measured the scrapbook paper to go behind the poem.  I gave him a 2-way glue pen to glue the backs of each poem while I stuck them onto the scrapbook paper.  

We then folded the bags over once and stapled the poem cards to the baggies.  And DONE!  

This whole job only took us about 30-40 minutes!

Pretty easy and you might even have all the supplies on hand!

Plus I made up the template for the Magic Reindeer Food poem and added it to my google docs so I can share it with you too!  

You can get the template here: Magic Reindeer Food Poem.

You can get the Template here: Magic Reindeer Food Poem

Easy Caramel Popcorn

Yes this is totally a treat and off the diet for sure!  But I'm busy doing my Christmas baking for gifts today and I had to share this recipe because it's easy, tasty and makes a great Christmas gift!

I made two batches today and only ate a few kernels, packaged up the rest and saved a small amount for later..... only because I didn't have another container for it to give the rest away!

So here it is, my Easy Caramel Popcorn Recipe.

1/2 cup water

1 cup white sugar

1/2 cup buter

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp baking soda

Method:

Add water and sugar into a large pot.  Stir just to combine and then don't stir again until I say. 

On medium high heat, wait until the water boils out and sugar starts to brown.  This takes a long time, but keep an eye on it and have you butter ready as well as your vanilla and baking soda for when it starts to brown. 

Once the sugar starts to really brown... try to wait a few more seconds before you add the butter.  You don't want to jump too soon and not have a nice brown caramel.  But you also don't want to burn it.... so be ready but also be patient! 

Almost ready here...

While this is bubbling, pop your popcorn.  I like to use a brown paper bag and about a 1/2 cup of popcorn kernels in the microwave for about 2 1/2 minutes.  Works like a charm!

Once the sugar starts to brown, stir butter into the sugar mixture. Once melted add in the vanilla and baking soda to puff it up.  Now add your caramel to the popcorn.

Ok add that butter!

I did mine in two batches and then gave them a good stir to mix the caramel as evenly as possible.  Next you will place popcorn on a parchment lined baking sheet to cool and harden.  

YUM!  Stir that caramel into the popcorn

It won't take long before you can test it and even package it up!  

I found this awesome packaging at Target this year!
Packaging can be hard to find and pricey too, so I
was pretty happy to find these at Target this year. 

*Tip: to clean your spoon, pot and bowl I like to boil water in my pot after use and add my spoon too.  This loosens all the caramel that has hardened on it.  Then I dump the hot water into my bowl to soak for a while.  Then wash!  No scrubbing off hardened caramel!  

Elfish fun

Asher has been highly amused by Alfies fun and games this year and I'm happy to report no touching instances like we had last year! 

Asher Caught our little Elf having quite a bit of fun this week! 

After Asher watched Elf the Movie one night, the next morning Alfie showed Asher how he liked his spaghetti. 

One morning I woke up to find Alfie had gone fishing in our bath tub. Asher quite liked that Alfie was fishing for Goldfish and that his squid was in the tub too!

Then one morning Alfie was found on the kitchen table with the bananas, he had drawn minion faces on each of the bananas! 

What a funny Elf! 

Alfie is trying to Catch a Big Fish

Our Little Elf was busy fishing this morning when I woke up for work! What a character.

Asher Sure got a kick out of him fishing for Goldfish Crackers and the fact that his squid was in the tub too.  He commented that he had put that squid away last night... funny kid!

Now.... what will Alfie do next?

Chicken Enchilada 21 Day Fix Style

Satisfying meals are so important when you are trying to stick to a meal plan so my Lunch yesterday was this tasty Chicken Enchilada. 

I prepped my lunch the night before and then just topped it with cheese and baked it in the glass dish at work! Easy.

I've decided to share the different recipes from my 21 Day fix meal plans instead of my daily meal plans.... because well, many of my meal plans are the same as the day before.  I try to keep it quite simple because I know that taking the guess work out of meal planning helps to stick to it.  When you have to think about what the meals for each day are going to be it can take so much more time. So I find that if I keep the majority of my breakfasts and lunches the same it makes packing and making my meals so much easier.  

At the beginning of this week I had prepped 3 Salmon Spinach Salads and had all my lunches ready to go for a few days.  So for Thursday's lunch I decided to make something a little less salad like and a little more cheesy!  

Here is the Recipe...

Chicken Enchilada 21 Day Fix Style

1 Yellow Container: Whole Wheat Tortilla

1 Red Container: Chicken

1 Blue Container: Cheese

1 Green Container: Peppers and tomatoes 

1 Tsp Homemade Taco Seasoning

1 TBSP Greek Yogurt

Directions

• Cut chicken into cubes and cook in frying pan with a little bit of olive oil.  
• Once cooked mix in 1 tsp of Homemade Taco seasoning and mix until chicken is coated lightly. 
• Remove Chicken from the pan and add in Peppers and Tomatoes chopped.  Saute Veg lightly and remove from pan. 
• Onto whole wheat wrap, spread greek yogurt and add half of the Chicken and Veg and then top with half the cheese. 
  
  
  
• Place into glass or oven safe container and top with remaining Chicken and Vegetables. 
• You can either add the remaining cheese on top now or right before you bake it. 
  
• When you are ready to eat.  Bake in toaster oven at 350 for about 15-20 minutes or until hot through and starting to brown.  

*Option to top with a Tablespoon of Greek Yogurt and salsa

Busy Elf

Alfie our little Elf on the Shelf has been a busy little elf lately.  

He has been keeping an eye on the Boys and reporting back to Santa each night.  This year Asher wakes up every morning excited to find Alfie, which has made it really fun for us.  However we darn not forget to move that Elf because sure thing he will notice!

There was one night where we did in fact forget, luckily we came up with a theory about why he hadn't moved right quick which did the trick! Asher had been up sick in the night and Gord ended up sleeping on the couch while Asher took his spot in the bed with me.  So our theory was that Alfie couldn't fly to the North Pole because Daddy might have seen him move since he was out in the living room.  It worked!  Phew.

Our little Elf has hidden in the Christmas Tree, the Christmas Village, on top of our Clock and has been busy playing with Asher's toys at night time.  One morning we woke up to Find Alfie on the back of Jake's Dune buggy racing Lightening McQueen around my bedroom! And yesterday morning we found Asher's Ninja Turtle playing Tic Tac Toe with Alfie on our kitchen table!

I have a few ideas for Alfie this week including a boat ride (when I know no one is showering or bathing the next day), Drawing on our bananas and maybe an elf breakfast too!

Comment below with your ideas for your Elf on the Shelf this week!  Or come by my Elf on the Shelf Ideas Pinterest board and share your ideas there!  You can request to be added to the group board which is so fun!

21 Day Fix Meal Plan Day 9

I switched up my workouts yesterday and threw in a T25 Lower workout!  KILLER!!  I haven't done T25 in a while and I forgot how good Shaun T is.  I'm seriously looking forward to my Insanity MAX:30 arriving and it should be here any day now.  

I ended up with an extra Yellow container at the end of the day so I melted a few organic dark chocolate chips and drizzled them on my apples and peanut butter for a treat!  YUM 

I heated up my salmon filet at work today and boy was that good on my Apple Walnut salad.   

Here is what my 21 Day fix meal plan looked like yesterday...

Breakfast

1 Red Container Greek Yogurt
1 Purple Container Raspberries
1 Yellow Container Waffle

Snack

1 Red Container Chocolate Shakeology

Lunch

Salmon Salad with Apples and Walnuts

1 Red Container - Salmon

2 Green Containers - Mixed Greens

1/4 Purple Container - Apples Slices

1 Blue Container Walnuts

Snack

1 Green Container - Cucumbers

Dinner

Chicken Dinner

1 Red Container Chicken

1 green container Broccoli and Carrots

Snack

Apple and Peanut Butter

1 Purple Container - Apple

2 Spoons - Peanut Butter
1 Yellow Container - Chocolate chips

21 Day Fix Meal Plan Day 8

I didn't blog my meals this weekend or Monday as I was tied up with Pace (christmas musical concert for my son) on Saturday all day and the Barn Raising fundraiser on Sunday all day!  I actually did quite well sticking to healthy meals.  What I did eat was healthy for the most part and within my 21 day fix limits but but I know I didn't eat enough each day. 

As for Monday we spent the day cleaning the house after hardly being there all weekend and then grocery shopping for a week of 21 day fix meals! 

Last night I spent about an hour, prepping lunches for the week (Salmon Salad) and planning our dinners as much as I could! 

But today when I arrived with my yummy Salmon Salad for lunch to work I discovered that we had scheduled yet another work lunch today that I wasn't expecting!  Sushi. 

I considered not going and sticking to my healthy lunch, but I didn't want to be rude.  So I decided I would go and see what I could have on the menu that was reasonable.  Unfortunately they didn't have brown rice at this particular sushi place. Very disappointing. I stayed away from greasy tempura and I ordered one spicy salmon roll and snacked on cucumbers later in the afternoon. 

Then around 4pm I had an early dinner (my salmon salad) so that I could go see a movie after I got home from work! So my salad got used anyways and it wasn't a waste!  Phew!


Here is what my 21 Day fix meal plan looked like today...

Breakfast

1 Red Container Greek Yogurt
1 Purple Container Raspberries
1 Yellow Container Waffle

Snack

1 Red Container Chocolate Shakeology

Lunch

Sushi Roll

1 Red Container Salmon
1 Yellow Container Rice

Snack

1 Green Container - Cucumbers

Dinner

Salmon Salad with Apples and Walnuts

1 Red Container - Salmon

2 Green Containers - Mixed Greens

1/4 Purple Container - Apples Slices

1 Blue Container Walnuts

Snack

Apple and Peanut Butter

1 Purple Container - Apple

2 Spoons - Peanut Butter

You can find my Meal Plans from Last week here, here, here, here and here!

Activities for Busy Kids this Holiday Break

I have been busy busy cleaning up the blog, organizing my posts into categories and also adding some holiday kids activities posts up too.  In the process I realized how many kids activities I actually had on the blog!  So I decided to make a post dedicated to Kids activities, and I've rounded them all up to help you keep your kiddlets busy while they are on Holiday Break this year!

Just click on the title or the photo and it will take you to the details of each activity.  

I'm sure I will be adding a few more to this list over the next few weeks.  But this is a great start to keeping them busy without making you too busy putting together the supplies.

Counting Christmas Trees

Melting Snowman

Snowman Milk Jugs

Olaf Build a Snowman

Kitchen Science

Fizzing and Foaming Paint

Race Car Colouring

Easy Cloud and Rain Science Activity

I hope you and your littles enjoy a few of these activities over the holiday break or anytime for that matter!!

Caprese Chicken Pizza

21 Day fix Containers

1 Yellow - Whole Wheat Pita 

1 Blue - Mozzarella Cheese

1/2 Green - Tomato and Basil

1 Red - Chicken

Caprese Chicken Pizza Recipe

Ingredients:

1 whole Wheat Pita shell

1 Tbsp Olive oil

2 Tbsp Balsamic Vinegar

1 blue container Mozzarella Cheese grated

1 chicken Breast

1 Large Tomato

5 Basil Leaves

Sea Salt and Fresh Cracked pepper

Directions

• Grill chicken in a frying pan with some salt and pepper.  Slice thinly and set aside.  
• Preheat over to 400. 
• Slice tomatoes thin and set aside.
• In a small bowl, mix together the oil and vinegar.
• Line a baking pan with parchment paper. 
• Using a bruch, cover the pita shell with oil and vinegar mixture and season wiht a bit of salt and pepper. 
• Spread out grated cheese over the pita.
• Evenly spreat out the tomato slices, covering the whole pizza.  
• Spread the chicken out over the pizza and the basil leaves on top.  
• You can sprinkle a little more oil/vinegar mixture on top.  
• Bake 13-15 minues, until pizza is golden brown.

21 Day Fix Meal Plan Day 5

Yesterday kind of got away from me.  Shopping with my sister and then visiting with my mom after.  So I didn't get my workout wedged in there.  But today is a new day and I'm back on track!  My plan is to do double workouts tonight after Fraser is in bed.
Today I have packed the same breakfast as yesterday, and a spinach salad with Tuna, Almonds and tomatoes on top.  I'm saving my carbs up for dinner tonight which I have planned a Caprese Chicken Pita Pizza!

Here are my planned meals for the day so far...

Breakfast

Greek Yogurt and Berries

1 Red container Greek Yogurt
1 Purple container Raspberries

Snack

Chocolate Shakeology blended with Ice = 1 Red

Lunch

Spinach Tuna Salad

2 Green Containers - Spinach and Tomatoes
1 red - Tuna
1 Orange - Almonds

Dinner

Caprese Chicken Pita Pizza

 

1 Yellow - Whole Wheat Pita

1 Blue - Mozzarella Cheese

1/2 Green - Tomato and Basil

1 Red - Chicken

 

Ingredients:

 

1 whole Wheat Pita shell

1 Tbsp Olive oil

2 Tbsp Balsamic Vinegar

1 tsp Italian seasoning ( Oregano, basil, garlic powder and marjoram)

1 blue container Mozzarella Cheese grated

1 chicken Breast

1 Large Tomato

8-10 Basil Leaves

Sea Salt and Fresh Cracked pepper

 

Directions

 

• Grill chicken in a frying pan with some salt and pepper.  Slice thinly and set aside. 
• Preheat over to 400.
• Slice tomatoes thin and set aside.
• In a small bowl, mix together the oil, vinegar and dry italian seasoning.
• Line a baking pan with parchment paper.
• Using a bruch, cover the pita shell with oil and vinegar mixture and season wiht a bit of salt and pepper.
• Spread out grated cheese over the pita.
• Evenly spreat out the tomatoe slices, covering the whole pizza. 
• Spread out the chicken over the pizza and the basil leaves on top. 
• You can sprinkle a little more oil/vinegar mixture on top. 
• Bake 13-15 minues, until pizza is golden brown.

 

Snack

 

Apple and Peanut Butter

 

1 Purple Container - Apple

2 Spoons - Peanut Butter

Workout of the Day

My workout today is Cardio Fix