If you know me by now, you know that I will try anything {buffalo chicken}.
Buffalo Chicken brownies?
Buff Chix Smoothie?
Chocolate chip cookies?
I kid, but you catch my drift.
What I am NOT kidding about are these Spicy Buffalo Cauliflower “Wings” which were probably first pinned from PETA’s website here.
I chose to follow skinnytaste.com’s version here with my own teeny tiny twist.
I followed Gina’s directions to a “t”, but used about 1 tsp. unsalted butter and 2 tsp. coconut oil instead of 1 tbsp. butter. I am just now getting around to jumping on the coconut oil bandwagon…can you believe it? If you know be my now, you also know that I love all things coconut.
Um, these were amazing. I could’ve eaten the whole pan. To be honest, you don’t even need to dip them in ranch or blue cheese. They are perfect alone.
I didn’t have any celery on-hand so I served with some cucumber slices and just a tad bit of ranch.
Oh, and this is the only buffalo sauce that I use…
*****
Once in awhile I love to go to Hooter’s or Chili’s for boneless buffalo wings and an ice cold beer. These cauliflower bites just might take away the craving and are certainly more guilt-free ~ both in my eyes and in PETA’s eyes.
If you, too, love all things buff chix, you MUST give these a try.
Linking up again with sweet Jess and her monthly PinterTest Kitchen!
It’s been 5 days since I’ve posted! Every day I plan on sitting down and doing so, but it just hasn’t happened.
My days have been filled with the following…
driving around to four stores looking for gingerbread syrup for some martinis…then it dawned on me that I could have just walked into Starbucks and possibly begged them to buy a {tall} gingerbread syrup. Then I visited every CVS in town tracking down some calendars. I tell you, once I get something in my head, there’s no stopping me.
making more of these with Caramel Kisses {delicious, but don’t press the m&m down too hard or you will have oozing caramel which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, just not as tidy for packaging them up nice and neat} and the Hugs {milk chocolate inside white chocolate with stripes ~ those turned out super cute! {you can see the salted caramel ones to the right ——-> under my Instagrams}
Our little ballerina partook in her fourth recital and Gramma and I had the {pleasure} of working backstage. Keeping track of a dozen tutu’d 4-6 year olds is no joke. This paranoid mom was doing a head count every 10 seconds when I wasn’t filling cups with goldfish or providing water refills, that is. I {think} I may prefer sitting in the audience cheering on my girl rather than stressing backstage and applying lipstick touch ups at the last minute, but she’d been wanting me to be a stage mom for some time and I most certainly didn’t want to let my little lady down. Thanks again, Gramma, for being on potty duty!
Also, thank you to Gramma for starting a beautiful new holiday tradition and treating to front row seats at our local production of The Nutcracker. I was amazed at all the beautiful young dancers….my goodness. My girl decided to wear her costume straight from her recital to the ballet ~ swapping her ballet slippers for some boots and adding in one {Fancy Nancy} coat…
Holden sang a very simplified version of {Soon And Very Soon} in church on Sunday ~ You Tube to come!
I hosted a little Merry Mama gift wrapping to-do where several gals came over armed with rolls of paper, rolls of tape, bags of gifts and lots of chit chat. This was where my gingerbread martinis were supposed to make an appearance, but honestly my girls were so busy wrapping they didn’t even notice! I served the Winter White Wine sangria, artichoke dip, cranberry meatballs and Christmas pasta salad {2 packages Buitoni spinach tortellini, one box small shells, 4 small tomatoes [chopped] and a whole bottle of Bernstein’s Light Fantastic Cheese Fantastico ~ cook both pastas [separately] according to package directions, add chopped tomatoes and then stir in the bottle of dressing…can be made the night before} along with my beloved Hershey pretzel snaps and See’s molasses chips for a little sweet somethin’.
My little Pinterest find came together for treats for Elliott’s classmates:
{I picked up a bulk bag at CVS and divided them up into cello bags, but later found them prepackaged in a box of 24 at Smart And Final which is the route that I will go for Holden next year}
I also literally threw together a frame and some glitter clothespins to hold thoughtful gift cards from the kids to E’s teacher ~ one Goodwill frame, a can of black gloss Rustoleum, some twine, a glue gun, some clothespins {thanks for lookin’ out, Lisa!} and a rainbow of glitter…
These frames are also perfect for displaying Christmas cards during the holidays or birthday invitations throughout the year. Just get yourself a frame and discard the graphic and glass, spray paint it if need-be, use your glue gun to string twine across the frame every 4 inches or so by pulling it tight and securing it with hot glue onto the back of the frame. Easy. For the clothespins, just brush some Elmer’s glue onto the pin with a foam brush, sprinkle on your glitter over a bowl, shake off excess and let dry. Easy.
*****
And that is where I’ve been, friends! I’ve missed you and hope to post more regularly now that the kids are both out of school and we’ll be having some LAZY mornings days while they’re on break.
Not that I am any busier than anybody else, I just {thought} this was going to be the week when I baked, wrapped, cleaned, organized…
There was lots of stress and anxiety and LOTS of back & forth this week, but the highs definitely outweighed the lows.
Like when I took my first solo trip to {Justice} to procure a few items on Elliott’s Christmas list ~ uh, that place is insane…a peace sign and glitter EXPLOSION up in there. But I had fun browsing {alone!!} and finding some cute starter stuff for her. She’s going to die when she sees a half dozen Justice boxes under the tree ~ I asked the lady for separate boxes to spread out the smiles on Christmas morning.
Or when I put another Pinterest recipe to the test and realized the cuteness factor way outweighs the easiness factor…wait, super cute AND easy? L.O.V.E. **Note: I tried a new variety of Hershey’s kiss tonight…the cookies n cream. Don’t know that I even knew those existed, but they caught my eye at Target today so I grabbed ’em. They DO NOT need a full 6 minutes in the oven, though! Maybe more like 4.5 to 5 minutes because they certainly lost their shape and started to ooze after 6 minutes, but still worked out just fine. I am addicted to making these and am going to try the chocolate ones with mint truffle inside next!
Then there was the Christmas Pot Luck at church which I SO needed on Wednesday night! Loved chatting with and getting to know my sweet RCIA sponsor better and sampling the oodles of home cooked dishes.
Today’s highs take the cake though…I was out on errand duty EARLY and went through the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf drive-thru before I hit I-5. As I was in the long line waiting to pay, I decided that I was going to pay for the woman’s order behind me. When I got to the window I told the guy and he said, “Uh, her total is $15-something…she has three large coffee beverages.” I told him to go ahead…and he asked me if I was sure and I said, “Yes, I just want to spread some Christmas cheer.” and his reply was, “Let’s do this!”. I have no idea what her reaction was, but it was fun and I drove off with a big smile.
Then, my friend, Vicki, and I decided to go in together and do some Blessed to Bless bags {this was one of the things on my [2011 holiday to-do list]}. We both shopped for about six items, split them up and filled our gallon ziplocs. All I need to do is print off a little card to slip inside and they will be ready to load into the car and share with those in need.
Here are the items that we included:
Beanie
Gloves
Trial size lotion
Carmex lip balm
Granola bar
Mandarin orange cup w/ a plastic spoon wrapped in a napkin
2 Slim Jim meat sticks
6 Ricola cough lozenges
2 Wisp toothbrushes {disposable}
Trial size toothpaste
Mini hand sanitizer
Several Wet Ones
Juicy Juice juice box
We bought eight of each item so that will give us both 4 bags each…just the right amount to get us hooked and want to make more, I’m sure.
Awesome stuff right there.
Here is an example of another Blessed To Bless bag:
There were a couple more {highs} this week, but I am going to have to keep those under wraps for a bit, but CANNOT wait to share.
The only way that I have been getting through each day is drawing up a list of what MUST {no ifs, ands or buts} get done THAT particular day. I simply have not been able to think ahead at all! This has been working for me so I will keep it up since the next 8 days aren’t looking any less hectic.
In the words of the CB&TL barista, “Let’s do this!”.
Edited to add: I am linking up with Jess’ PinterTest Kitchen over at Keeping Up With The Johnsons today {10.6.11} to share the Cake Batter Blondies. I am cheating a bit and have already posted this and do not have a play by play with fun commentary {next time!} but I wanted to share these because they were such a big hit. And how cute would they be with some Halloween jimmies {or Halloween Funfetti}, orange tinted frosting and some orange and black sprinkles sittin’ on top? And for Christmas….red and green jimmies in the batter with mint green frosting and some fun festive sprinkles atop? Adorbs, right? They are rich so I suggest picking up some cute mini muffin/cupcake liners and cutting them small and nestling them in the papers. The possibilities are endless with these things….Valentine’s Day? Cute. Cute.
Head on over and see what else is {makin’ it} or {fakin’ it} on Pinterest!
I don’t think I’ve ever eaten a blondie in my life, but once I laid eyes on these, I knew that had to change.
Aren’t they fun? Don’t they just scream, “BIRTHDAY”?
I decided to whip up a batch to serve at this weekend’s birthday brunch.
I cut mine into bite-sized pieces and tucked them into mini muffin/cupcake papers. I used a little blue & green food coloring in the glaze to stick with the {theme}.
The recipe made double what you see. I’m going to pop them in the freezer and pull them out the night before the party. I figure I’d get as much prep work done beforehand to cut down on stress the morning of…
I may or may not have sampled a few as I was cutting them. I mean I wouldn’t want to serve something without sampling it first, right?
Now if I could please excuse myself…Jillian is {screaming} my name ~ off to shred I go.
