Tempt Me Tuesday! Fried Chicken and Dumplings

 There are times when it is just me and my 15 yr old son here at home and we grab some fast food for dinner. One of our favorite places is Chicken Express and their fried chicken strips. I usually get a box of 20 with some sides but we always have tons left over. I wanted to use the leftovers in the next days dinner but change it from what it originally was..... which is how I came up with Fried Chicken and Dumplings!

 Here is what I did

Fried Chicken and Dumplings
Left over fried chicken strips cut into small bite size pieces
4 cups water
1 chicken bullion cube
2 cans cream of chicken soup
2 cups bisquick
2/3 cup milk
1 tablespoon McCormick salt free all-purpose seasoning
pepper to taste

Fill a large pot with 4 cups of water and throw in the chicken bullion cube, bring to a boil. Add 2 cans cream of chicken soup and stir to combine. While this comes back to a boil in another mixing bowl combine bisquick and milk.  Add chicken to boiling soup mixture and then using a spoon drop small spoonfuls of the dough mixture into the boiling soup. Sprinkle in your pepper and all-purpose seasoning and let boil for a few minutes stirring occasionally.

This came out alot better then what I expected.. no I did not remove the breading from the chicken I just cut it up and added it to the pot. I would suggest not adding any salt, the cream of chicken soup has salt as does the fried breading from the chicken. If you like your chicken and dumplings to be less thick try only adding one can of soup or add more water. We like it thicker then most recipes call for. This could also be done using left over rotisserie chicken mmm the seasoning from that would be wonderful!

Love this little bowl I found at Burke's Outlet for $1.50 its cute with a vintage bee and stamps printed on it! 

Have a great week!

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Funky Junk Interiors

Tricked out goody bags

 I'm slowly getting things together for the "Trick or Trunk" Halloween party my brother and sister-in-law are hosting. Its still a week away so the baking will have to wait but I got a head start on the goody bags. I caught a pic on pinterest and followed the link.. it ended up that someone was selling these cute bags with faces printed on them. I found slim tall pretzel bags at Wal-Mart on the Wiltons baking isle. (which happens to be in the craft department) They were only $1.50 each.

I took a black sharpie and went to town making my own silly faces.

Filled them up with some goody's and tied with ribbon.

No shipping and handling fees here! For photo purposes I used left over candy corn from when I made the krispy treats. The faces will show up better if you can find a solid colored candy. Using white candies you could make ghosts as well!

Vintage Birdcage

Hi all! Remember my weekend of Antique Alley and I found this vintage birdcage?

I removed everything from the inside and painted it white. I had saved the flowers and birds to reuse once the paint was dry.

Deciding not to put all the greenery back in I think worked out well. Keeping with neutral tones and rearranging the birds having them both on the inside. 

I did make one mistake which was not lifting the door when painting. So you can see the green in certain spots but hey its not going to be opened for anything I can think of so who will know, right? 

Now to figure out where in the house to display my new birdcage..... 

Have a great weekend :)



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Tempt me Tuesday! Chocolate Swirled Banana Bread

Oh wow... oh my goodness... ohhh yummmy! Yes you might be saying those exact things soon too if you try out this recipe from Our Best Bites. Seriously I don't like bananas but I do like banana bread. Of course I love chocolate so when I spotted this over on their blog I raised an eye brow.....

Picture from Our Best Bites

Chocolate Swirled Banana Bread

2 c. flour

¾ tsp. baking soda

½ tsp. salt

1 c. sugar

¼ c. butter, softened

1 ½ c. mashed ripe bananas (about 3-4 medium bananas)

2 eggs

1/3 c. plain lowfat yogurt or sour cream

½ c. chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly spoon flour into measuring cups and level. Combine flour, baking soda, and salt. Cream sugar and butter. Add bananas, eggs, and yogurt, beating until just blended. Add flour mixture. Beat on low until just moistened. Microwave chocolate chips in a medium bowl for 1 minute. Stir until smooth. Cool slightly. Add 1 c. batter to chocolate, stirring until well-combined. Spoon chocolate batter alternately with plain batter (so you have stripes of plain and chocolate batter) in an 8 ½” x 4 ½” loaf pan coated with cooking spray. Swirl batters with a knife.

Bake at 350 for 1 hour and 15 minutes (give or take a little; I’d probably set your timer for 1 hour and 10 minutes to be safe) or until a knife comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in pan and then remove and cool completely on a wire rack.

I used the sour cream and it ended up baking for 1 hour 11 mins before it was done. It was moist and banana chocolately  oh man was it so good!

Put your best face forward..plus a treat!

 Hello! Its October and I'm cooking up some rice crispy treats with a twist today! Thought I would surprise my son with them as an after school snack. I bought frozen pot pies, hot pockets and his favorite snacking foods because tomorrow I am having my wisdom teeth removed. I just won't be up for cooking much for a day or two. So while he gets to pig out I will be having soup, oatmeal and fruit smoothies! haha!
 While I was shopping I stopped to check out a foundation makeup that my sister told me she uses. I don't wear makeup at all. I have issues with my face being very dry even if I moisturize and so foundation makeup looks terrible sorta like a bumpy chipped sidewalk! Plus now that I'm older I am lazy and don't take the time to apply it. I've decided to change that!
 I purchased L'OREAL True Match Naturale-gentle mineral powder foundation with spf 19 and L'OREAL Go 360 Clean Deep Exfoliating Scrub.
 Lets start with the exfoliating scrub..

source

WOW is about all I can say. This really works and smells good. The small scrublet is soft and gentle but when  paired with the scrub it removed everything. Blackheads gone- dry patchy skin gone and I was left with soft glowing skin!

 Now for the foundation..

source 

 My sister was right this is awesome! Swirled this all over my face with the brush and it looks like a light foundation with just a hint of a powder. No messy liquid goop and my face didn't look like I had smeared thick icing all over it! Loved it! I applied some neutral eye shadow, lightly did the eye liner and some mascara... ok I'm back to being hooked on makeup! In my opinion this was a little pricey at just over $10 (Wal-Mart) but after the results I think its worth it! 

 Hmm what about the twist on the treat you mentioned earlier, you say? Alright..  look what I also found!

Yummmmmy!

According to the back of the mallow bag you need:

One bag pumpkin spice mallows

1/4 cup or half stick of butter

6 cups of rice cereal

In a microwave safe bowl melt the butter then add the mallows and turn to coat. Return the bowl to the microwave and heat mallows on high for 45 seconds. Then stir and place in microwave again for about 40 seconds. Stir well making sure the mallows have melted. Line a 9x13 pan with foil, leaving the ends longer to use as handle and lightly coat with cooking spray. Add the 6 cups of rice cereal to the melted mallows, stir well trying to incorporate the cereal. I sprayed a little of the cooking spray on my hand and pressed the mixture down into the pan. Let cool then remove from pan using your foil handles. You can cut into squares or use pumpkin shaped cookie cutters to make them super cute! I chose embellished them with candy corn. 

So good with a light hint of pumpkin spice.. yummmmy! I'm thoroughly enjoying my new look and a new treat!

I was not compensated for my opinions on products mentioned in this post. I was only really impressed and wanted to share with all of you!


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