Tater Tot Breakfast Muffins

You know me.  I'm always looking for new ways to make breakfast the night before so I can throw it in the oven while we are getting ready to face the day.  On this particular early Sunday morning, my husband and I were chatting over a cup of coffee.  Our littlest was running around playing with her toys in the living room and the older two were still sleeping.

All of that to say - this was not one of those amazing mornings where I had something ready to just throw in the oven.  But! It was on this morning that this recipe came together in my mind.  I made it after dinner and threw it in the oven the following morning.  I love when we can start a workday with a hot breakfast.  

Let's Get Crafty!

Preheat oven to 350 (if you are making them right away)

Spray some non-stick spray into each muffin tin

Layer it up:
(1)  3-4 tater tots per cupcake muffin hole (We were using us tater tots from the night before, so I crumbled ours up to cover the bottom of each tin.)
(2)  Add in the meat of your choice (We had some diced ham that I was wanting to use up.  You might be catching a theme here. ;) 
(3)  Add whatever toppings suit your fancy.  We did cheese on most and I added a few green chiles to a few.

(4)  Then add your eggs.  We did 12 eggs with some half and half whisked together with some pepper.

Then I put it in the fridge to hang out for the night.  I pulled it out of the fridge while preheating the oven.

Bake at 350 for 20-30 minutes.  Our time landed right in the middle.

Thanks for stopping by!  I hope you have a great day.

Spider Web Bean Dip

It's so fun to find different twists on some favorites during the holidays.  This is a spin off a 7 layer dip idea incorporating a spider web for Halloween.  

Let's Get Crafty!

Ingredients:

1 can refried beans (increase depending on how much you are wanting to make - mine used 3)

Add 1/2 tablespoon of taco seasoning for each can of refried beans 

1/2 cup sour cream

2 tablespoons milk

Other toppings you want to incorporate (we did grape tomatoes, green onions and olives)

Stir in 1/2 tablespoon of taco seasoning for each can of refried beans used.  

I also like to add a couple tablespoons of water for each can to help lighten up the consistency.  

Add your favorite toppings.  Avocado would also be great here.

For the sour cream to make the spider web - I whisked the milk into the sour cream for a thinner consistency.  Then I put it in a sandwich bag and cut a small hole in one of the corners so I could "draw" the web.  The first time I tried this - I cut the hole too big and it didn't work out.  The sour cream was also too thick the first time.  The consistency is something you might need to play with.  I also use light sour cream - so you may need a little more milk with regular sour cream.

Thanks for stopping by!  Happy Halloween.

Mummy Pizza

This was a fun and quick dinner on a weeknight to celebrate Halloween.  We made similar things in the past using hotdogs and crescent rolls.  Those were a hit - so I have been wanting to give this a try.

Let's Get Crafty!

Preheat oven to 400

Ingredients:

Pizza dough (I used the great value brand 13.8 oz

Pizza sauce (we used about a cup)

Black olive slices for the eye

Other toppings you want to include (we added some small peperoni)

Bake around 15 minutes once your mummy is all wrapped up (I started checking ours around 12 and it needed a little more time.)

Spread out the dough on parchment paper in a shape somewhat like a rectangle

We used scissors to make strips on both sides.  We cut 1/3 of the left side and 1/3 of the right side leaving 1/3 intact for the middle where we will put the ingredients.

Add some pizza sauce down the middle, layer in your toppings and cover with cheese.

Once you are ready, use the strips you cut to cover up your mummy going back and 

forth from side to side so it looks like mummy cloth.  We used two slices of olives for the eyes.

Waiting for the baking time to finish can feel never-ending!

Hot out of the oven.

Yummy!  Thanks for stopping by and Happy Halloween.

Jello Poke Cake

Jordan was visiting and coming for dinner with family.  She was here a couple days after her birthday so we were looking for some fun cake ideas to give a try.  Emily saw this one and knew this was the one to make.

I have seen many fun twists on this recipes for different holidays through the years.  My cousin Jennifer used to love these around Christmas time with green and red.

Let's Get Crafty!

Ingredients:

1 box cake mix (and ingredients listed on the box)

3.3 oz strawberry jello mix

1 cup boiling water

1 cup cold water

8 oz container cool whip

Bake a yellow butter cake mix according to the box directions

Note that the directions call for a condensed version of the regular recipe. 

We are just using 1 cup of boiling water and 1 cup cold water.

Follow the "cooking" method on the box.

Use a spoon to evenly distribute the jello liquid all over the fully cooked cake.

Cover with a layer of cool whip and keep in the refrigerator until serving.

This was a fun night at our house.  I'm not sure how it has already been 3 months ago.  
Slow down time...

Hope you have a great day and thanks for stopping by.

Air Fryer Donuts

The kids were super excited when I said we would be having donuts for breakfast and then confused when I said we weren't going to the store to pick them up.  These are ridiculously easy and so tasty!  I'm sure the tastiness factor increases with the level of butter used to help the cinnamon sugar stick - we tried to go a little on the lighter side.

Haley came in while I was working on this post.  She saw the picture and said with glee "Do-Nut!"  She sure loves donuts.  We celebrated Emily's birthday this last week with donuts and everyone was in hog heaven.

This recipe comes from Eating On A Dime - one of my very favorites websites.  

Let's Get Crafty!

Preheat at 360 for 5 minutes

Open one can of refrigerator biscuits (8 per can)

To cut out the center donut hole - I used the inside piece of my yellow lemon juicer (a picture of it is included in the picture below.)

Air fry the donuts for 4 minutes

Donut holes for 2 minutes

While the donuts are "frying", melt some butter to dip the donuts in once they are fully cooked and then roll them in some cinnamon sugar.

Thanks for stopping by!  I hope you give this a try - it's a great one!

Instant Pot Speedy Mexican Rice

This is a spin off the recipe back in April 2018 using the instant pot.  The recipe stays pretty close to the same but the rice to broth ratio is adjusted to account for using regular rice and not instant minute rice this time.  It took a couple tries because I didn't have enough broth the first time.  If at first you don't succeed... make more rice.  :)

Here's the lineup:
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon cumin (I used half this amount)
1 teaspoon salt
8 oz can tomato sauce (no salt added because we are adding salt separately)
2 cans chicken broth
2 cups long grain white rice

                                    Start by warming up the oil, garlic powder, cumin and salt

Add the tomato sauce, chicken broth and rice

I cooked it in the Instant Pot "rice" using the setting for 10 minutes.  

This recipe is a winner.  Hope you have a great day.  

Pinwheels - Take 2

and BOOM! Another opportunity presented itself to use the second pizza dough that I had in the fridge using leftover fully cooked shredded beef.  These were really good too.  I followed the same directions and baking instructions as the Sausage Pizza Pinwheels from July 31, 2021 and just played with the stuffing. 

Let's Get Crafty!

This time we did leftover fully cooked shredded beef that was cooked in taco type seasonings, cheddar cheese and diced green chiles (after using a paper towel to drain off as much of the extra liquid as possible.)

All ready to be rolled up

Heading in the oven

The blue string is what I used to "cut" the pinwheels.  I had to go slower for it to slice through this and used a new string every couple slices.  The same string worked the whole time for the Pizza Sausage Pinwheels.

Hot out of the oven

I love it when the cheese falls through and gets all crispy and delicious!

Thanks for stopping by.  Hope you are having a great day.