Microwave caramel wins

Seriously good Sea Salt Caramels that you make in the microwave!

So, the triplets and I made dark chocolate oatmeal cookies on Friday night to take to a Christmas party.  They turned out really well, in fact so well when I looked at them Friday night we only had 8 left.  So, we needed a last minute recipe to make ASAP.  I looked around in the house and we had no chocolate (yikes!).  So, the best I could come up with was making Caramels.  Anyhow, I googled and stumbled across a recipe for microwave caramels.  I was skeptical, and then amazingly surprised at how great they turned out.  Original recipe can be found  here 

Salted Caramels

1/4 cup butter

1 /2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup light Karo syrup

1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk

First, just dump all the ingredients in a Microwave safe bowl.

Microwave for  a total of  6 minutes (I did 7 b/c our microwave is a bit weird).  Anyhow, stop to stir every two minutes.  It will look like the picture below, please be careful, this stuff is hot like molten lava!

Stir and pour into lightly greased dish, i used a greased parchment lined 8 by 8 pan. At this point I sprinkled with kosher salt (I did not have "sea salt").  My husband did inform me that all salt is technically sea salt, LOL.  Anyhow, Kosher salt worked well if you have that on hand. This is what mined looked like after it hardened after a few hours on the counter and I removed it from the pan.

Cut and enjoy!

Super Easy Enchiladas

Super Easy Gooey Enchiladas.

I guess enchiladas is a term I use "loosely", I don't think any recipe that includes Campbell's soup can be considered authentic Mexican fare.  Anyhow, I took the best parts of a few enchilada recipes I have made and came up with this, pretty yummy!

Ingredients-

6 -10 inch Tortillas (i used whole wheat)

Shredded Cheddar-Jack cheese

1 can cream of Chicken soup

1 cup of milk

1 (4ounce) can of green chilies

half cup of sour cream

2 cups of cubed chicken

Okay, so mix about half the cheese with the chicken and divide between the six tortillas.  Roll up and place each one seam side down across your baking dish.  These should fit snugly and take up most of your dish.  

Now, on the stove-top mix the can of soup and the milk, until warm (do not boil).   Now, take off the heat and stir in the sour cream and can of chilies.  This should be nice and creamy looking.  Now, pour this over your tortillas.  Next, sprinkle with the rest of your cheese.  Bake at 350 for 30 minutes, and if you like your cheese nice and bubbly, go ahead and stick this under the broiler for a minute or two.

Disney safari tee's

I can't believe how soon we leave for Disney World. We have been planning this trip for months, and I wanted to make something special for our trip. This project does require a Cricut machine.  Funny story about my Cricut machine, lets just say lots of night up feeding infant triplets + Cricut infomercial on every night = I own a Cricut Machine.  Anyhow, I have always wanted to use the Cricut to cut fabric and I was impressed at how easy it was.  I used the Disney Cartridge, obviously.  So, obviously the Cricut is an investment, but the rest of the materials for this project we inexpensive.  Including toddler black tees from Hobby Lobby at 2.99 each.

Okay, just iron on a backing to your material  (I used steam-a-steam).  Next put on your Cricut mat, I recommend using a fresh mat that is nice and sticky.

Feed into your machine to cut your Mickeys and iron on.  I added some iron on letter and a bow to Baby "C"'s.  

We plan to wear these on the day we visit Animal Kingdom!

World Prematurity Day, November 17th 2011

On a non-crafty note.  Today is the first official World Prematurity Awareness Day.  For those of you that do not know me personally, my triplets were born 9 weeks before their due date.  They weighed 3lb7ounces, 3lbs6ounces, and 3lbs3ounces at birth. I am so happy that the technology is available today to take such good care of premature babies and give them a fighting chance.  My children have no lasting effects from being born at 31 weeks gestation.  I attribute that to the amazing care they got from the get go.  Please check out the March of Dimes website.  There is still so much to be learned to help babies that are born too early. It was grant money from the March of Dimes that helped in the discovery of Surfactant therapy.  Since surfactant therapy became widespread, infant deaths due to respiratory distress syndrome have dropped by over two-thirds.  My littlest guy got Surfactant therapy at birth, so I am especially grateful for this.

Baby A- 24 hours old (I still get choked up looking at this picture)

This picture is the triplets at 2 weeks old.  First time we all got to hang out together in the outside world :)

We have come along way in 3 years.  Somedays it is difficult to remember what those weeks in the NICU were like, especially when I see 3 healthy, funny, strong and smart toddlers trying to draw on my walls.

Making pizzas

We have been having alot of fun around here. Making our own pizza is a favorite around here.