Gameday Fudgy Cookies

You may (or may not) have seen the Mickey Cookies that I posted 2 years ago (wow... 2 years ago! yikes!). Well I used the family's "Andy's Button Cookie" recipe; Andy is my brother, and apparently since he's the oldest, he's the first to decide that these were his favorite cookie... therefore, they were named after him.

Well, for the months of September through December (or February if you follow professional ball), I'd like to dub these cookies, Gameday Fudgy Cookies because you can make them for ANY team color! Especially for Clemson!!


Gameday Fudgy Cookies
12 oz. pkg semisweet chocolate chips
4 T. butter or margarine
14 oz. can Eagle Brand
1 c. all-purpose flour
1 c. chopped pecans
1 t. vanilla

GREASE COOKIE SHEETS. Melt chocolate and butter in microwave. Add Eagle Brand, flour, pecans and vanilla. Stir well. 

Here is where it may get confusing for some. I mean, it's not THAT confusing... but pictures always help, right?
Drop by rounded teaspoon balls. 

Here is where you customize it to your team! Clearly it works with ANY colors!

I chose orange and purple and mixed them in a bowl.

Flatten slightly with glass. 

1. First dip your glass in the cookie dough to make it sticky on the bottom

2. dip glass into the sprinkles

... see, the sprinkles are stuck to your glass

Flatten cookie  slightly

Sprinkles transfer to your cookie and Voila

Bake at 325 deg. for 8 to 10 min. They should be chewy like fudge.

** you will know they are done when you check the bottom and it is shiny; mine took 9 min **

Weekly Meal Plan #70

SUNDAY was...
Roast Beef, mushrooms, and mashed potatoes compliments of hubby's Aunt

MONDAY
Easy Shepherd's Pie

TUESDAY
Pork Tenderloin and mushroom cheese ravioli

WEDNESDAY
Pesto Chicken Pizza

THURSDAY
Chef Salad

FRIDAY - SUNDAY
We are heading to GAMEDAY!!!

Recap

Not much of a recap because hubby and I FINALLY celebrated our WAY be-lated anniversary at Ocean Prime (yum!)

And then we went out to my mother-in-law to celebrate the first days of school at the Melting Pot

And I had a girls night at PF Changs

Not gonna lie, I'm kind of sick of eating out! I don't think I've eaten out 3 times in one week, in like... heck I don't know, a LONG time!

New Back to school traditions

... Well, at least I hope I keep these up as traditions!

Happy Back to School! Although, I'm not quite ready for Charlotte to be going 5 days a week for VPK. I enjoy our mid-week trips to Busch Gardens, Children's Museum, Aquarium... I'm not sure I can handle going when everyone else has to go, lol.

Here are a few traditions that I have started... and will hopefully keep up throughout the years.

The photo sign
Courtesy of Love Bakes Good Cakes

The questionnaire
This is horrible... I downloaded these the other day and now I can't figure out where I got them from, but they were super cute!

I will update if and when I find the source!

The Hand Tracing
Borrowed from Crissy's Crafts, although I'm not using it in the way she described (however, this post reminds me we need to read "The Kissing Hand" book more!).

I traced the girls hands and let them color them in (or I guess as they get older they can write in them... I haven't thought that far ahead... maybe I ought to get pretty scrapbook paper instead...). Anyway, then I'm going to laminate them, hole punch them, and put them on a ring and hang in their rooms. This way we can keep track of how their hand grows every year.

Side note... you also won't have to worry about those adorable clay handprints getting broken and "losing" it forever  (spoken from experience)

... and lastly the (small) teacher gift!
I like to have the girls show up to the first day of school with something small in hand. Not to suck up (per sey, lol)... but to start the year off on the right foot. This year I borrowed an M&M idea from Katherine Marie's blog. She got mason jars filled with M&M's and attached a cute little sign. ME... I can never find mason jars when I want to, so I just got the movie theatre size boxes of M&Ms and attached my little sign.

I was planning on making a cute sign in photoshop... but then my mouse battery died and I was too lazy to go replace it. SOoooo... there you go.

Weekly Meal Plan #69

SUNDAY was...
DATE NIGHT!

MONDAY was...
Chicken Boursin Bundles

TUESDAY
Lemon Garlic Shrimp and Grits

WEDNESDAY
Skinny Chicken Pesto Bake

THURSDAY
Lightly Smothered Chicken with onions, mushrooms, bell peppers, and mozzarella. (pin)

FRIDAY
Girls Night Out!

SATURDAY
Grilling out at the beach

RECAP

 Florentine Chicken Soup

 Grilled Salmon, sweet potato, and asapargus

Pasta with Salmon and Mushrooms

As always, if you are interested in a recipe that I don't have posted anywhere, send me a message! Also, yes... my 4 and 2 year old eat what we eat. Some nights are harder than others... but bribery is alive and well in our house!

8 months!

What fun did Lizzie have during month 8?
Hosted a pool party
Hosted a "Welcome back"/housewarming Luau
Went to the aquarium
Went to a Children's Museum
AND went on a 10 day, 2,591 mile road trip up to see my 96 year old Grandma, step-Grandma...

and swinging by my brother's house and crashing a Choo-choo train birthday party. (ok we didn't REALLY crash, we were invited to stay)

While on our trip we also visited this INCREDIBLE playground called Smother's park up in Owensboro, KY. That picture doesn't even do it justice! It. Was. HUGE. Each blue roof thing was it's own slide/playground/climbing thing.

source

How is Lizzie sleeping?
Bed around 9 (or later if I accidentally let her take too long of a nap), up around 6:45 to eat, then back to sleep for an hour until breakfast with the family
2... ish naps a day

What is Lizzie eating?
Mainly mommy milk, but some formula when I run out of my stock and we have a date or some fun kidless event
Is EXTREMELY curious as to what we are eating;  I made angel food cake the other day and we we were all sitting around on the couch eating it she was crawling from one person to the next with her eyes intently on the cake and trying to get some.

Loves avocado, apple sauce, bananas, most fruit.
Homemade veggie puree
I haven't had egg again... maybe I should fix that.
Actually enjoys the spaghetti with meat sauce baby food.
LOVES the pouches, and I love how easy they are

What "skills" has Lizzie mastered (or working on)?
All. Over. The. Place!
So Lizzie started to "worm" her way forward on July 4th (a week before she hit 8 months) - well by the time her 8 month-iversary came around, she was full-fledged crawling.
NOW she is pulling up on EVERYTHING and trying to get into every single drawer we have.
Our upstairs play area is a lowered area (down 2 steps), and I'm not sure that's going to hold her very long.

Plans for month 9 include...
More mommy/Lizzie time with sissy's going to school
Back to school pool playdate
Visit with Gigi and Pop pop in Georgia (while mommy and daddy go to Clemson FOOTBALL!)
Hopefully a Busch Gardens, Kids museum, aquarium trip
More pool and playground time

Happy 8 months Lizzie!

Weekly Meal... inspiration?

You may have missed it, but due to our whirlwind road trip, I will not be planning out a menu this week.
However, here is some inspiration in my absence!

 Oven Baked Tilapia with Mushroom Cheese Ravioli

 Noodle Bowl

 Mushroom Chicken Bake

 Pasta Fagioli

 Grilled Jumbo shrimp on salad

 Taco Night

 Steak, sweet potato, asparagus, and mac n cheese

Surf n Turf (shrimp, chicken, steak) Salad

On the road again...

The girls and I head out this morning for our whirlwind road trip from Florida up to my parents house in Georgia for half a day to pick up my mom (and sleep), then on to Illinois to see my 95 year old Grandma on the farm for a few days, then we hit Kentucky for a day to see my "Grandma Martha", then back to Georgia to drop mom back off and rest for a day... and then we will make it back home to Florida a short week before school starts.

Where DID the summer go? Sheesh. I'm not ready for Charlotte to be going to school 5 days a week for VPK.

Here are the girls showing daddy where we are going on the first leg of the trip.

We stopped by the AAA office the other day to get a USA, Southeastern states, and Northeastern states map so we could track our progress. The girls are really excited about the maps.

On the way to the grocery yesterday, Charlotte had out the Southeastern states map and said, "Is the grocery on this map? I want to track us". I told her, no, the map was a little too big to see our neighborhood so I had to get on google and print out a few maps to show her our planned route for the day. She got a kick out of it.

I could be totally wrong here... but I highly doubt many kids have any clue how to read a map. I like that Charlotte is so interested! I used to love to follow along on the map during my own childhood road trips to Illinois and Kentucky.

Wish us luck on our LOOOOOONG road trip with the 3 girls!