To celebrate Halloween without directly celebrating Halloween at school, we learned about owls, bats, spiders and other nocturnal things this week, in addition to having a fall party. The kids were obsessed with the giant books showing all kinds of creepy, crawly photographs. We made our own spiders out of styrofoam balls, pipe cleaners, and googly eyes. After reading a book about how spiders had 8 eyes and 8 legs, we set to work creating our own. 8 tiny googly eyes plus 8 pipe cleaner pieces plus paint plus glue equals one giant mess! One of the other teachers commented that my little cowboy looked like he just got done working on a car with all the black paint smeared down his button-down and jeans. But hey, learning is often messy, especially with this age! The spiders turned out so cute...legs and eyes literally poking out all over the place. If we wanted to be super anatomically correct we would have used two styrofoam balls per kid since we learned that spiders' bodies have two parts but they say hindsight is 20/20. The kids also made owls on construction paper. They dipped their palms in paint and (were supposed to) put their fingers all together to make the body (palm is head, fingers at bottom are talons...you see where I'm headed?) We need to work on our understanding of positional words I think since the more I told them to put their fingers together the farther they strained to get their little fingers as far apart as possible haha! Then they dipped their hands in paint again and, with fingers intentionally spread this time, made the wings. Then came the GIANT googly eyes and a paper beak. Then finally, glue and feathers of all different crazy colors. It was hilarious. One of my boys literally but one feather on each wing and one on the body and called it a day. One of my girls put so many feathers on hers you couldn't even see the ginormous eyes. My favorites had to be the ones that glued everything, feathers, eyes, and beak, in the space around the painted body. So cute!!
We went to a little Halloween get-together with a group of my husband's friends and I volunteered to be the sweets-provider. I got this recipe from my aunt, tweaked it slightly most wonderful, most moist (moistest?) dessert that rocked our worlds. Wait for it......Reese's Pieces Cupcakes!! I'll give you a sneak peak at what will get you drooling with three little words...peanut butter buttercream. My aunt's original recipe was for peanut butter cup cupcakes but I was out of some of the ingredients so I improvised. Is your mouth watering in anticipation yet?? And yes, this cupcake is also known as the "death to all diets" but they say it's all about moderation. Therefore, have your cupcake and engulf it too :)
Reese's Pieces Cupcakes
1 package devil's food cake mix
1 (5.9 oz) package instant chocolate pudding mix
1 cup sour cream
1 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs, lightly beaten
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup water
Peanut butter Buttercream Frosting:
3 sticks butter, softened
1 cup creamy peanut butter
2 Tbsp vanilla
2 lbs. confectioner's sugar, sifted
6-8 Tbsp. heavy cream (if using milk, amount will be less)
*I used milk, can't remember how much but I just added it until I got the consistency I wanted. It might have been about 3 tablespoons.
NOTE ABOUT FROSTING: WILL MAKE A TON. THIS IS NOT A TEST.
I had so much frosting left over that I made a whole 'nother batch the very next day and took all 24 new cupcakes to work. Moral of the story: halve the frosting recipe :)
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin tin with liners or spray with cooking spray.
2. In large bowl, beat together cake and pudding mixes, sour cream, oil, eggs, vanilla, and water. Beat for two minutes on medium speed until well combined.
3. Distribute batter evenly between muffin tins (mine made 27 cupcakes total), about 3 tablespoons of batter per muffin well.
4. Bake for 18-22 minutes or until top of cupcakes spring back when lightly touched. Allow cupcakes to cool inside muffin tins for about 10 minutes.
5. Remove cupcakes and allow to fully cool on wire rack before frosting.
For frosting:
1. Cream butter and peanut butter on medium speed until fluffy. Turn mixer to low and slowly add in confectioner's sugar, continuing to mix until well blended.
2. Add vanilla and milk. Blend on low until moistened. Add additional milk if needed until you reach the desired consistency. Beat at high speed until frosting is smooth and fluffy.
I apologize for the low quality of this photo, and the subsequent lack of phots of the following meals. My poor camera has reached the end of it's time with me. R.I.P. Sony.
Crockpot Tamale Pie
Cornbread topping:
3/4 cup cornmeal
1 1/4 cup flour
1 cup milk
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp baking powder
Tamale filling:
1 can drained and rinsed black beans
1 can fire roasted tomatoes (I used a can of Rotel)
1 can drained corn
1 Tbsp chili powder
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp paprika
1/4 cup diced onion
1/2 cup shredded cheese
**You can add browned meat of your choice if you so desire. I was in a hurry before work so I omitted it and you really didn't miss it!
1. Spray crockpot with cooking spray.
2. Add in filling ingredients (including cheese) and stir well to distribute spices.
3. In a separate bowl, combine ingredients for cornbread topping.
4. Pour batter over filling, spreading with a spatula.
5. Cover and cook on low for 4-7 hours or on high for 2-4.
Sad story about the cook time: I turned it on before I left for work and just happened to get off late that day. The edges of my poor tamale pie were burned black!! And the rest of the cornbread topping was a little darker than I would have preferred. But we made do and just add from the middle outward. On her blog, the woman said hers was ready at hour 6 so I would definitely NOT recommend cooking it for 8 and a half hours!! But oh man, tougher cornbread texture aside this meal was SO good and SO easy!! We are going to have it again on a weekend when I can better control the cook time.
The Lord provided us with a nice little taste of cold fall weather this week so we were definitely in the mood for warm food. I got this recipe off of Pinterest as well, originally from howto-simplify.com. When they say simple they mean it! So easy to prepare and so flavorful. I took the leftovers to work and was in heaven...could even ignore the havoc that was being wrecked by the small children surrounding me. Actually I had to fend for my chili as they all wanted to stir it for me haha!
White Chicken Chili
1 Tbsp. olive oil
1 medium onion, diced
2 c. cooked chicken, shredded
2 cans Great Northern beans, drained and rinsed
1 can corn, drained
1 can (4 oz.) green chilies
1/2 tsp. cumin
1/2 tsp. oregano
1 box (32 oz.) chicken broth
Salt and pepper to taste
Juice from 1 lime
1. In large pot, saute the onion in olive oil.
2. Add chicken, beans, corn, green chilies (with juice from can), cumin, and oregano. Stir to combine, then add chicken broth.
3. Bring to a boil and simmer 20-30 minutes to allow broth to reduce. Add salt, pepper, and lime juice.
4. Top with sour cream, cilantro, cheese, avocado, or tortilla chips.
I chose to top ours with a tiny bit of sour cream mixed in, shredded cheese, crushed tortilla chips, and a very light sprinkle of chili powder. O.M.G. Such a yummy comfort food with just the right amount of spice. Y'all have to try this one!! It will be a keeper I guarantee :)
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