Persevering Momma

Taking The Day One Spoon At a Time

#CampWarnerBros – Week 4 – DIY Scooby Snacks

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This is a sponsored post for Camp Warner Bros featuring Scooby-Doo!: WrestleMania Mystery! and a fun DIY Scooby Snack recipe.

I can already tell you that this week of Camp Warner Bros is going to be my son Raiden’s favorite week of camp. That is because he is a huge Scooby Doo fanatic. He loves Scooby Doo so much that for his 3rd birthday we had a Scooby Doo themed party. The idea of watching a new Scooby Doo movie and getting to make a DIY Scooby Snack just means it will be all he talks about for awhile- and I’m okay with that!

Raiden saw the new Scooby-Doo!: WrestleMania Mystery! movie downloaded to our movie platform before I could even surprise him with it which means we watched the movie before making snacks. This isn’t a problem because I expect him to ask me to watch it at least half a dozen times throughout the week.

DIY Scooby Snacks

Let’s make Scooby Snacks! Thanks to Camp Warner Bros you can follow the instructions below to make your own Scooby Snacks at home. We decided to get creative like suggested and we added sprinkles to our Scooby Snacks. This was a huge win in our home because my little buddy, Raiden, loves sprinkles. He loved getting to add the sprinkles to the mix.

He always has avoided helping make anything like this because it is messy to make, but I convinced him to help me even if we had to remove his shirt and keep explaining to him that it is okay to get a little dirty, especially when the results are a sweet treat!

It’s Party Time!

Now that you have made your DIY Scooby Snacks it is time to get ready for the movie! If you have a little one who just can’t sit still through an entire movie then I have the perfect something for you. In addition to the Scooby Snacks I also have two fun coloring pages for your kids. Just print these pictures out and you are ready for a fun filled night of Scooby Doo time!

Keep following on here as well as on social media for even more fun activities with Camp Warner Bros because we are only half way through Camp!

Super Bowl of Chili – Three Ways! Beef, Turkey and Veggie

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Nobody wants to be stuck in the kitchen during the Big Game. Make the following recipes ahead and keep them warm until kickoff. The use of an all-natural slow cooker sauce made entirely of vegetables and seasonings speeds up prep time considerably. Using lean ground beef, turkey or all vegetables ensures a low-fat delicious meal! Take an extra 25% off Jesben Slow Cooker Sauces with code SNOWDAY until 2/1!

Super Bowl of Chili – Three Ways! Beef, Turkey and Veggie


SLOW COOKER SUPER BOWL OF BEEF CHILI

Ingredients

Instructions

  • Place meat in slow cooker.
  • Add beans.
  • Sprinkle spices over beef and beans.
  • Pour entire jar of Jesben® Italian Tomato, Peppers & Herbs Slow Cooker Sauce on top of meat, beans and spices. Cover and cook on low for 8-10 hours or high for 4-5 hours or until meat is fully cooked.
  • With large spoon thoroughly stir cooked chili, breaking up ground beef into chunks and then into smaller pieces with back of spoon.
  • Serve in bowls and enjoy!
  • Makes 8-10 servings

SLOW COOKER TURKEY CHILI

Ingredients

Instructions

  • Place turkey in slow cooker.
  • Add beans.
  • Sprinkle spices over turkey and beans.
  • Pour entire jar of Jesben® Italian Tomato, Peppers & Herbs Slow Cooker Sauce on top of turkey, beans and spices. Cover and cook on low for 8-10 hours or high for 4-5 hours or until meat is fully cooked.
  • With large spoon thoroughly stir cooked chili, breaking up ground turkey into chunks, and then into smaller pieces with back of spoon.
  • Serve in bowls and enjoy!
  • Makes 8-10 servings

SLOW COOKER VEGETARIAN CHILI

Ingredients

Instructions

  • Place mushrooms and tofu in slow cooker.
  • Add beans.
  • Sprinkle spices over veggies and beans.
  • Pour entire jar of Jesben® Italian Tomato, Peppers & Herbs Slow Cooker Sauce on top of vegetables, beans and spices. Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours or high for 3-4 hours.
  • Stir thoroughly and keep warm in slow cooker until ready to eat.
  • Serve in bowls and enjoy!
  • Makes 8-10 servings

Note: If you prefer less heat, chili powder can be reduced in any of these recipes by 1 tablespoon. On the other hand, if you like your chili hot, add a dash of hot sauce or cayenne pepper to taste. Also, feel free to get creative with your ingredients!

Tuna Squish Review and Tuna Salad Recipe

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Tuna

I will admit right here and now that I love, love, love Tuna.  Honestly, I love fish in general, but I eat a lot of canned Tuna Fish.  I just love the taste and smell of it.  I hated it when I was younger, but as I grew older I realized I was missing something amazing.  (My cats may have helped me realize this fact, but I will not give them all of the credit.)

One of my favorite things to make is Tuna Fish Salad and the hardest thing to do is to get all of that Tuna juice out of the can.  If I leave it in then the Tuna Salad is too thin and won’t hold together in the sandwich well enough to stay on my toast.  I know everyone makes their Tuna Salad a little differently so, if you keep reading you will be lucky enough to find out the recipe that I have perfected over the years.

In the mean time, let me tell you all about the Tuna Squish product that I was given to review.  You might laugh at the name of the product, but I find it to be one of my favorite tools in the kitchen.  If you are like me and you have dexterity and strength issues with your hands then you will understand where I am coming from.  It can be very hard to get my hands to do what I want them to do and I often struggle to squeeze all of the juice out of the cans without making a huge mess.

Tuna Squish 3

This is a great product because once I have used the can opener to open my can of tuna (I use an electric can opener, though I was sent a manual opener to use with my Tuna Squish review.) I just have to simply insert the can into the Tuna Squish as pictured above making sure that the lid is in place.

TunaSquish 1

Once the can is in place I squish the Tuna Squish and tilt it over the sink to let all of the juices escape the can and when I lift the arms again the lid will come up with it because of a magnet in the Tuna Squish.  This keeps me from getting my hands covered in Tuna juice as well as helps to keep me safe from getting cut by any sharp edges that may be on the can lid when I try to pry it out of the can after squeezing the juice from the can.

HOW THE TUNA SQUISH WORKS

  • Insert opened can into Tuna Squish
  • Squeeze handles, turn sideways to drain the liquid
  • Separate handles, magnet in upper handle lifts lid off can, no digging for sharp lid = no injury
  • Press release button, dump lid directly into trash

*works on 5oz and 7oz can sizes

Purchase:

Tuna Salad Recipe

My Tuna Salad recipe is based off of a 7oz can of Tuna. You can use any brand of tuna fish. I personally do not have a favorite. I buy whatever brand is on sale or whatever one I happen to have coupons for at the time. I feel this is the best option when you live on a fixed income.

Items You Will Need:

  • 1 7 oz. Can of Tuna Fish
  • 3 Tbsp Mayonnaise
  • 1 small Yellow Onion
  • Green Grapes
  • 1 Dill Pickle
  • Whole Wheat Bread or Sourdough Bread

Directions:

Step 1: Open can of Tuna Fish with your can opener and then use the Tuna Squish to squeeze out all excess juice from the Tuna Fish.  You will want to make sure that it is nice and dry and dump into a small bowl.

Step 2: Dice up 1/4 of the small yellow onion and dump into the bowl of Tuna Fish.  If you are like me you will want to dice it up pretty small.  Not so small as that it could be mistaken for minced onions.  I like to use my pinky nail as a measurement tool and like to have my onions just smaller than the size of my pinky nail.  This is a measurement that however will be different for each person.

Step 3: Chop up about 4-6 green grapes into pieces that are the same in size as your onions.  Add the chopped up grapes into the bowl as well.

Step 4: Take 1/4 of the Dill Pickle and chop it up into pieces just like the grapes and onion so that it matches the same size.  Keeping all of these ingredients similar in size seems to make it taste better because your odds are pretty good that you will have relatively even amounts of each in each bite of Tuna Salad.

Step 5: Add in 3 Tablespoons of mayonnaise to the bowl with all of the above ingredients.  I like to use the spoon that I used to measure the mayonnaise with to mix my mixture.  Instead of stirring it I findthat folding the mixture seems to work a lot better and easier when trying to evenly disperse the ingredients through out the bowl.

Step 6: Toast up two slices of whole wheat bread till they are a medium brown in color and are really crisp.  I prefer using a thicker slice of whole wheat bread or a really fresh slice of sourdough bread.  I prefer the sourdough, but it isn’t always easy to find a high quality sourdough bread to use for sandwiches.

Just put the Tuna Salad onto the toast and cut on a diagonal and voile! You have one amazing sandwich.

Tuna Squish

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

Holiday Candy Cane and M&M Cake

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My sister is the one who got the creative baking skills out of the two of us.  I have always wished I thought of some super cute things to make for the Holidays and parties and everything else, but the reality of it is that I will never be like that.  This year she created this super cute Holiday candy cane and M&M cake that I wanted to share with you.

IMG_1521

Holiday Candy Cane and M&M Cake

This cake that my sister made is actually a pretty simple little cake to make.  I will outline everything that you need for the cake below though it won’t be a full recipe or anything since I believe that she made it with boxed cake mix.  Even if she didn’t you could easily find a recipe for the cake or use one of your own for it.

She made this for one of our family parties and I can tell you it was a huge hit.  Everyone loved the festive look and loved just how good it was as well.  Thank you so much for letting me share this cake with everyone, Sarah.  I know you are proud of the cake just as much as I am proud of you.

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What you will need:

  • 2 Yellow round cakes or whatever flavor cake you choose
  • Candy Cane sticks approximately 40
  • 1 bag of Holiday M&M’s
  • Frosting 1 container or homemade
  • Ribbon

 

Did I get you hooked?

4 Easy Appetizers Perfect for Holiday Parties

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If you are planning a party this holiday season, wow your guests with one of these easy delicious appetizers. Not only are they delicious, they are easy to make too. Your guests will think you slaved for hours in the kitchen.

Bacon Wrapped Lil’ Smokies

SONY DSCThis appetizer definitely isn’t low calorie, but it is always a huge hit at holiday parties. Men especially love these bacon wrapped sausages. You will probably need to make a double recipe to make sure that there are enough to go around. Make these for Christmas Eve or New Year’s Eve, any time you need a quick, hearty appetizer.

Ingredients:

1 package bacon
1 package Lil’ Smokies
1 package brown sugar

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cut each slice of bacon into thirds. Wrap each lil’ smokie with a piece of bacon and secure with a toothpick.

Arrange all of the lil’ smokies in a 13x9x2-inch baking dish, and sprinkle brown sugar all over the top of the sausages.

Bake for about 45 minutes, or until bacon is completely cooked.

Crab-Stuffed Mushrooms

Stuffed mushrooms are an easy, delicious appetizer to serve your holiday guests. This version features crab as the main stuffing ingredient.

mushroomsIngredients:

1 lb. fresh mushrooms
7 oz. canned crabmeat
1 c. green onions, chopped
1/4 c. grated Parmesan cheese
1/3 c. mayonnaise
1/4 tsp. thyme
1/4 tsp. oregano
1/4 tsp. savory
Pepper to taste
Paprika

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a medium sized bowl, mix together crabmeat, green onions, thyme, oregano, savory, and pepper. Gently stir in Parmesan cheese and mayonnaise.

Do not put mushrooms under running water. Instead, use a damp towl to gently wipe any dirt from the surface of the mushrooms. Remove the stems from the mushrooms and use a spoon to gently scrape out the insides of the mushrooms so that you have room to add the filling.

Fill each mushroom with a rounded teaspoonful of the crabmeat mixture. Place the stuffed mushrooms in an ungreased baking dish and sprinkle with additional Parmesan cheese and paprika.

Bake for about 15 minutes, and serve right away after removing from the oven.

Sausage Balls

These sausage balls are very easy to make and tasty too. You can freeze them ahead of time and just heat them up when you are ready to serve them.

Ingredients:

1 lb. ground pork sausage
1 1/2 c. biscuit mix
1 c. grated cheddar cheese

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, mix together all ingredients with hands. Roll the mixture into balls approximately the size of walnuts and place the balls on an ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake for about 10 minutes, or until the sausage is completely cooked and the biscuit portion is browned.

The sausage balls will be a little greasy, so let them set on a paper towel to drain before serving.

Cheesy Bread

This easy cheese bread not only tastes great but looks very attractive on your holiday table too.

sourdough breadIngredients:

1 round loaf sourdough bread
8 oz. grated monterey jack cheese
1/2 onion, cut into thin slices
1/2 c. parsley, chopped (optional)
4 tbsp. butter, melted

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Using a long sharp kitchen knife, make cuts diagonally all the way across the bread. Don’t cut all the way through the bread, stop about an inch from the bottom of the loaf of bread.

Next cut the bread diagonally in the opposite direction, creating a criss cross pattern in the top portion of the bread.

Place the grated cheese, onion slices, and chopped parsley into the cuts that you created in the top of the bread, pressing them down into each crevice.

Then pour the melted butter over the top of the bread.

Wrap the loaf of bread in foil and then bake for 20 minutes. Remove the foil from the top of the bread so that the bread can brown and bake for about 15 more minutes or until cheese is completely melted. Serve right away after removing from oven.

Image by: Flickr

Allie Henning is a professional blogger that enjoys sharing her favorite recipes and dishes. She writes for RecipeChart.com, where you can find a large selection of delicious recipes for food enthusiasts like yourself.