Quick Egg Salad - PROVEN

This is a tip my sister, Ann found.  She was kind enough to share her photos and results with me.

She found this great idea on Pinterest to make a Quick and Easy Egg Salad using a cooling rack to "cut" the eggs.

It's easy to say that this was a winner in her book and it was a fun activity for one of her boys to help her with.

Josiah is 3 and loves helping in the kitchen!  Have I mentioned before that I have the cutest and smartest nephews in the world?

Ann said: It's really easy for an adult to do, but [Josiah's] hands got kind of tired of pushing (I make egg salad with a dozen eggs). So, I did the pushing and then he did the "pounding," which is pounding on the rack to get the bits to fall that didn't get pushed through the first time.

Below are the photos she shared with me, makes me hungry!

Reindeer Cupcakes - PROVEN

My good friend, Amanda Benn found this super cute recipe online and sent it to me.  From the first time I saw it I knew we would have to try it as soon as possible.

These reindeer cupcakes were very easy and really fun to make!!

We doubled the batch so we would each have 2 dozen to share with friends and family, or to devour ourselves!

Okay, hold on to your hats and get ready to laugh at me, but I have never made cupcakes before, ever.  Not that I recall anyway, I am sure I have watched and "helped" my mom when I was a child but not in my adult life. 

We used Sixlets for the Reindeer eyes

I was no expert on filling the cups, I got cake mix everywhere at which point Amanda took over for me.  I was just making too much of a mess!!

I recommend making sure that ALL the cupcakes are completely done cooking.  When it came time to frost them, there were about 8 (out of 48) that were crumbling and falling apart, so we decided just to eat those and not decorate them! DARN! :)

We used red peanut butter M&Ms for the noses!

 

I think that they turned out amazing!  It was an awesome time with my great friend, Amanda and we got these delicious and adorable treats!!

 



We liked them better as Rudolphs!

Frozen Yogurt Covered Fruits - PROVEN

Frozen Yogust Covered Fruit

This idea, pictures and approval came to me from my good friend Katherine Subu.  She saw this awesome idea on Pinterest and gave it a try.  She then suggested it for my blog and took all the following pictures.

She said the recipe calls for plain vanilla greek yogurt, but she substituted that for Vanilla Honey Greek yogurt which sounds amazing all by itself!

Any fresh fruit would work great in this recipe but Kat used blueberries she had on hand :)

Finished Product! (Wish I was in New Jersey right now!)

She said they are DELISH and should be tried and shared!  Spread the word people!

P.S. if you try a pin and want me to share your results, like I did here, feel free to email me at jdenig@yahoo.com.

Thanks for reading!

South Dakota Meat Loaf - PROVEN

This is yet another pin that I created on Pinterest found in my Taste of Home cookbook that we received as a wedding present.

Meat Loaf has always been a favorite of my husband's so I wanted to make him one that we could both enjoy since I wasn't too fond of it to begin with.  My mom didn't make it all that often, I don't think either one of my parent's were huge fans. 

I found this South Dakota Meat Loaf recipe and decided to give it a go.  This was about 5 years ago!!

Meat Loaf is sort of a love or hate food and I thought I hated it.  Not anymore!  This is a staple in our house and on our menu at least once a month.

The first time I made it I followed the directions exactly, now I use a little more Worcestershire sauce, a green pepper (if I have one) and basically more than double the recipe.  I usually make about a 3.5-4 lb meat loaf!!

Usually, I like to take after photos of my cooked meals, but we are usually so anxious to dig in I am having a hard time finding any!!  Enjoy :)

I don't know what about this recipe makes it "South Dakota-like" but I'll take it!

Homemade Baby Food - PROVEN

Every Spring, my husband and I plant a couple of massive gardens.  We grow everything from hot peppers to pumpkins. 

This year, we had a baby to consider when planting the garden so we decided to plant a few extra summer squash and zuchinni plants.

Fortunatley for us, Madison was loving squash baby food right at the time it was coming ripe in the garden.

Summer Squash

I found this recipe for Homemade Baby Food on Pinterest and have used it several times since.  It is very easy, even if you don't grow a garden, produce can be quite a bit cheaper to purchase than baby food!


Squash, cut into chunks, skins on, boil until tender (only leave on skins for ages 6 months +, smaller babies have a hard time digesting the skins.

I made several batches of this food, I used summer squash and zuchinni mixed or just summer squash alone with no added flavorings and it was a huge hit in the Denig house!



Pureed in Food Processor



I saved all of her purchased baby food containers for easy storage

All done!  Ready to eat!

Pumpkin Pie Spectacular - PROVEN

Ok, another recipe I didn't originally find on Pinterest, but it's on there now because I put it there!  Found this one, yet again in Southern Living Magazine (have I said how much I adore that magazine??)

Pumpkin Pie Spectacular

Before I added the Gingersnaps

This recipe is over the top, out of this world fantastic!!!

Pecans needed are a bit pricey, but totally worth it.  I made this a couple years ago for the holidays and I probably should have made a few more because it was gone in minutes!!

It's creamy and rich, it's almost like a pumpkin cheesecake, but not really. You will have to try this one for yourself and with the holidays rapidly approaching I thought it would be a good time to share.

Topped off with Gingersnaps!

Enjoy, bookmark, pin or print this one, whatever you need to do to remember!  It's amazing!