Throwback Thursday - My Favorite Childhood Snow Ice Cream Recipe - SCORE!

Well, I finally went on an "outing" yesterday to my awesome sister's house with the kiddos and the in-laws! She is the most thoughtful person and  always tries so hard to make people feel special and loved 24/7! This was a "come-over-and-have-a-dance-party-and-lunch-so-you-can-get-out-of-the-house" outing. I have now been stuck inside for 16 days, minus a trip to the ER. Fun.

But, our kids LOVE to dance together, so that's exactly what they did. I had a front-row seat on the couch, but it was so much better than looking at my own living room! The kids had a blast! Then my sister whipped up some fantastic lunch for us. Everything tastes better when someone else makes it, right? She really is a good cook though! :)



So in trying to bring my own element of "fun" to the outing, I came up with the idea to make snow ice cream with a childhood recipe when we were done eating lunch. The kids have never made it before, so I was excited to see what they thought. It had been SO long since I had it that I almost had forgotten what it tasted like!

My sister was a bit nervous as she recalled the time she made it herself as a child. She gobbled it down and then saw it again a few minutes later! But I must stress that she made it HERSELF. ;) Her main ingredient was sugar and more sugar! LOL!

I must say that we "scored!" with this recipe. If you know our family, you know that we own an ice cream stand and LOVE our ice cream. This is more of an "ice milk" recipe, but, it had a great flavor and the texture really wasn't bad at all! 

Here is what you need to create your Snow Ice Cream:

The "Kids-Won't-Know-It's-Carrots" Pink Smoothie! - Great for Valentine's Day!

If you have kids, you know how difficult it can be to get them to eat raw veggies! I am getting good at hiding the cooked ones, but crunchy carrots are tough if they aren't hidden in a pool of Ranch dressing - and sometimes that doesn't even work!

 

I have tried SO many smoothie recipes promising that the "kids won't know". Some were OK, but I think some people must have given the kids hot sauce first before washing it down with the broccoli smoothie so they wouldn't taste it! YUCK! :)  I also have to say that I am NOT a fan of veggies at all...so I was secretly hunting for a recipe myself!

 

First of all, you have to have frozen fruit. So many recipes call for ice. Blah. Why drink frozen water when you can get some antioxidants and fiber in there! 

To freeze fruit: just take your fresh fruit and spread in a single layer on a cookie sheet or jelly roll pan. Stick it in the freezer until they are frozen. Then place them in a Ziploc bag to freeze together, that way they don't stick to each other!

 

I have 2 kids that love fruit smoothies, so I make a 16 ounce one and split it between them.  This recipe is totally changeable, but can still be packed with a bunch of colors for an array of nutrients!

 

 

So, basically, you can see below that I break up the 16 ounces into

Super Easy Recipe - Spinach Bake!

If you know me personally, you know that I am not a great cook, nor do I pretend to be! Therefore, I get SUPER excited when I can make something that tastes GOOD and won't break my budget!

Here is a recipe I cooked up with some ingredients that were super cheap these last few weeks!

• 1# Perdue Ground Chicken (last week for $1.99 after $2.00 off freshness peelie)
• 1 Jar Pasta Sauce - This Ragu cost me .87 a while back, but is on sale at Tops this week for $1.67!
• 1 Brick Cheese (shredded or crumbled if from freezer) - This cost me .99 about 3 weeks ago
• 1/2 container (8 oz) Sour Cream - $1.49?, so .75 for half- Walmart with NO coupon - GASP!
• 1 Green Giant Spinach - .66 and is on sale this week at PC for $1.50 , there is a .60 off 3 coupon in one of the inserts from a few weeks ago.
• 1 Box Vegetable Pasta - .50, on sale for $1 without coupons at PC for the other Ronzoni kinds.

Total cost: $5.75!!! This fed my family of 4 with plenty of leftovers!

This is SUPER simple, you ready?

1.  Cook separately the chicken, spinach and pasta according to packages. I salt and pepper my chicken when browning it.

2.  Rinse pasta in cold water and put in large pot to mix. Add cooked chicken, pasta sauce and drained spinach. Mix thoroughly.

3.  Add 8 oz of sour cream and 4/5 of the cheese. Mix again and pour into casserole dish.

 

4.  Top with the rest of the cheese and bake at 350 for one hour.


It is such a healthy, easy and cheap recipe! Enjoy!

Sugar Free, Low Carb, Gluten Free Peanut Butter Cookies!

As a mom, I am always looking for healthier options of the foods I love to indulge in...well, maybe I'm not ALWAYS looking for healthier, but you get my drift! :)

Peanut butter cookies are one of my favorite indulgences and this recipe is one I can feel better about when I eat the whole batch...oops, I mean when I eat a few of them! My friend, Mikki, reminded me of this recipe last year...I had forgotten that we used to have them as kids all of the time until I found the recipe in my recipe collection! (OK, that shows you how often I actually cook from my recipe collection...the internet is so much faster!) Nevertheless, these are FANTASTIC and, I think, just as good as the "real" version!

Here it goes...super simple!

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and combine in a bowl: (I just use a spoon!)

 

-1 egg

-1 cup Splenda (or sugar if you want)

-1 cup peanut butter

-1 tsp vanilla extract

These will appear a little sticky after mixing, but will roll into a nice little ball for you. I get about 16 cookies out of one batch. Take your fork and just press it down slightly to make the cute little design on top!

Bake for about 10-12 minutes at 350. I took mine out at 10 minutes because I am ALWAYS burning things. I let them sit on a cookie sheet to cool because they will continue to bake a bit that way.  

I wouldn't wait to watch them turn golden brown, they don't change color much and they aren't "stiff" to touch when they are ready to come out of the oven. They continue to harden a bit.

This is also a great recipe for kids! Me and my 17 year-old 6 year-old helped me with this one!

I'd love to hear your kid-friendly recipes...

Shoot me an email at jesusandcouponsdotcom @ gmail .com!