Simple Peanut Butter Pie! [Tasty Tuesday]

My husband is not a dessert person.  I don't even know how we're married.  I'm the type of person who always likes to have dessert in the house.  I love baking and trying out new recipes and usually he doesn't really have much of an opinion as to what I make.  The other day he specifically requested peanut butter pie.  I'm not sure where this request came from but I knew I had to impress him!

I found this super easy pie recipe on Kraft's website.  It's pretty much impossible to mess up and it has SIX ingredients (not including the pie crust).  Talk about simple!

Ingredients

1 8oz. package cream cheese, softened (I used the Neufchatel)

1/2 cup + 1 Tbsp. creamy peanut butter, divided

1 cup cold milk 

1 package (3.4oz.) instant vanilla pudding

2 1/2 cups Cool Whip, thawed & divided

1 Oreo or chocolate pie crust*

3oz. baker's semi sweet chocolate

*If you prefer to make your own pie crust, you can used crushed oreos + melted butter and press it firmly into a pie dish.  I went the easy route this time!

(cream cheese not pictured)

How to Make It

1. Beat your cream cheese and 1/2 cup peanut butter in a medium bowl until well blended.  Add your milk and dry pudding mix and beat for 2 minutes.  Whisk in 1 cup Cool Whip and spoon into your pie crust.  Refrigerate until ready to use.

2. Microwave remaining Cool Whip and chocolate on high for 1.5-2 minutes or until chocolate is completely melted.  **Stir after each minute.  When mixture is completely blended, let cool completely.

3. Spread chocolate mixture over peanut butter cream mixture in pie crust.  Microwave the remaining peanut butter (1 Tbsp.) in small bowl for about 15-30 seconds.  Stir and drizzle over pie.  

4. Refrigerate for 4 hours or until firm.

Look who helped me do a taste test with the chocolate!

Birthday Weekend Recap!

If you are my friend on facebook or you follow my instagram (or my friend in real life), you know that Sunday was my birthday!  I wanted to have a fun-filled family weekend and I'd say that was a success.  Here's a look at what we got into....

{Saturday}

Saturday morning we went to the zoo.  It was apparently "Kid Fest" day so there were a bunch of character "mascots" running around and Carson had tons of fun!  We have a zoo membership which is awesome and we realized we had never taken Carson over to see the gorillas.  (Our zoo is huge and it's easy to only see half of it in a trip!)

That afternoon my dad and step-mom came over to deliver a birthday present for me and one for the hubs (his birthday is exactly a week after mine)!  It was nice for Carson to be able to visit with them since he doesn't see them that often.  At first he was shy, but then he loved showing off!

That evening we decided to go out to celebrate my birthday [eve].  I hadn't planned anything because I was totally convinced that my husband had something up his sleeve and was going to surprise me.  False.  [Husband Fail #1]  We went to one of our local malls and decided to just walk around the outside area a bit since it was nice.  We went to check out the splash pad and Carson LOVED it and got SOAKED.  Luckily we knew that was a possibility and had a towel and dry clothes in the car.  Here's a quick video:

Someone needs a haircut!!!

After we got Carson changed it was already 6:45 and since the hubster hadn't made reservations anywhere we had to find somewhere that could get us in right away since it was time for Carson's dinner.  We ended up at California Pizza Kitchen.  Not the fanciest of birthday dinners but it was tasty and I didn't feel uncomfortable when Carson got a bit noisy!  :)

{Sunday}

Sunday was my actual birthday!  As I was getting Carson up and into a fresh diaper, hubster was downstairs baking some chocolate chip cookies!  [Husband Win!]  Don't be too impressed though, he used my homemade cookie dough that I froze into balls so it was basically like break and bake, ha!  Since it was my birthday, I let Carson try his first taste of my chocolate chip cookies.  

Batman capris are so hot right now!

Later that morning we went to one of our favorite parks and my mom and sister met us there.  My mom brought donuts and Carson had a blast exploring, climbing, and running around.

Later that day we went to Graeter's to get my free birthday sundae.  Perfect timing because the temperature was 90 and "felt like 98"!  We don't go to Graeter's too often, but when we do, I always get a cone.   I might be changing my ways because my sundae was AMAZING.  It was called the "cookie monster".  It had 1 scoop of cookie dough + 1 scoop of cookies'n'cream (my two favs!) and those were covered with hot fudge, chocolate sprinkles, whipped cream, and a cherry on top.  To die for!

We even let Carson try a little bit of ice cream.  He wasn't a huge fan, probably because of the cold-ness but he loved his Cheerios! :)

Later on Sunday my amazing Momma brought over a birthday cake for me!  She has baked this same type of cake for me EVERY year of my life.  It's what I ate at my first birthday party!  I started the same tradition with Carson on his birthday a couple months ago (HOW was that already a couple months ago?)!

How did you spend your weekend?  I hope it was great!


I'm linking up today:

Non-Extreme Couponing

Let me start this post off by saying I am NOT a professional couponer.  I am not like those [crazy] people you see on TV.  I do not have a stockpile of items I don't need in my garage.  I do not subscribe to multiple newspapers.  This is how I coupon the easy way.  I don't get hundreds of dollars worth of groceries for $0.58.  I do save money on every trip, though!

Where Do I Get My Coupons?
The coupons I use come in "the bag" that is delivered to my mailbox each week.  My mom's group also has a coupon train where you send your unwanted coupons on to the next friend and they take what they want and send it on.  I get coupons from that as well as my lovely mom who always cuts extra coupons for me!  You can also get coupons from your Sunday newspaper, but I don't get the paper anymore.

I've also used websites like coupons.com to find printable coupons.  I've found that using printable coupons is best when you're looking for specific coupons, otherwise you waste a lot of ink/paper.

A lot of grocery stores have digital coupons that you can "load" onto your shopper's card.  I do this and as soon as they scan my card, the coupons scan through automatically.  Easy peasy!

For retail shops, you can almost always go to their website and sign up for coupons via email or snail mail!  I also LOVE the website and app Retail-Me-Not.  I have used this app SO many times on a whim.  I'll find something I want, but feel too guilty to buy it at full price.  Open up Retail-Me-Not, find a coupon, bam, item purchased guilt-free!

When Do I Coupon?
Cutting coupons really doesn't take long at all, you just need space.  I usually cut coupons while watching my DVR shows during Carson's nap or after he has gone to bed.  I try to do this every week...usually on Sunday night or early in the week during nap time!

Chip likes saving money, too!

Organizing My Coupons
When I cut my coupons, I have 3 piles: trash/scraps, coupons to file, and coupons to give away.  The give away pile goes to my coupon buddy from my Mom's group.  I bought a cute little coupon organizer at Staples and guess what?  I used a coupon for it so I only paid $2!

When I first bought my coupon file, I had to decide on sections.  I thought about what I usually have coupons for and what I usually purchase.  I made the tabs on my computer by simply making small text boxes the size of the tab inserts that came with my file.  Obviously you could hand write these as well, but isn't everything so much more fun in a cute font?!

I cut out my labels and used double-sided tape to attach them to the tab insert cards.  Here are the tabs I decided on for my coupon file: 

• Meats & Produce
• Boxed & Canned Food
• Dairy & Refrigerated
• Baking & Paper Goods
• Cleaning & Household
• Health & Beauty
• Pets & Baby
• Frozen Foods
• Misc. Coupons
• Target Coupons (Yes, I go often enough that I need a section JUST for Target!)

After I cut out my coupons, I clean out my file before filing my new coupons.  I go through each section and discard any expired coupons.  Once my file is cleaned out, I can file my new coupons.

How Do I Use My Coupons?
I usually shop at the same grocery store every week.  Because of this, I'm able to wait for things to go on sale and watch their weekly ads.  I try to always buy items when they're on sale or when I have a coupon, but obviously some things have to be purchased at full price sometimes!  I meal plan which helps with couponing.  I make my grocery list according to our weekly meal plan and pull out any coupons that I may need to use.  I also plan around what coupons I have.  For example, if I have coupons for ________, I will pick a recipe that uses that item!

I hope I was able to help some people save some money.  I really think people overestimate the time it takes to cut coupons, it's SO easy and there are so many easy ways to save some dollar bills! :)

How do you coupon?  Do you think it's worth the time?

Wordless Wednesday: Comparison Edition

A Patriotic Craft

I like having little pieces of Carson's artwork to put on display for each holiday and season.  I found a TON of flag ideas involving hand prints on Pinterest, but painting fingers multiple colors isn't really an option at Carson's current age! :)  I found one I really liked and used it as inspiration (see my link at the end of this post).

Here is how our craft turned out:

I know my mantel looks naked but I'm working on it! ;)

Here are some of our past projects:

Halloween Foot Print Craft {link}

Thanksgiving Turkey Hand Print Craft {link}

Christmas Reindeer Foot Print Craft {link}

Easter Chick Hand Print Craft {link}

{My Pinspiration}
I can NOT figure out how to embed pins in my blog.  I tried following Michelle's tutorial over at The Vintage Apple but it didn't seem to work for me.  I could not see the pin in a preview of my post like she said I should be able to.  Any tips?!

I'm linking up with Kristin today!

Goals: Old & New!

Happy July!  It's goal time!  Check out my previous goals I've set for myself if you missed them before!  

Here's a look at how I did with my June goals:

1. Read 2 books.  75% complete.  I read Room by Emma Donoghue and I'm in the process of reading The Year We Disappeared by Cylin Busby.  Room was interesting because of the 5 year narration, but also very interesting.  It pulled at my heart strings a lot and definitely kept me up late reading a few nights!

2. Follow my new chore schedule.  Success!  I can definitely say I've followed my schedule.  That doesn't mean I've completed EVERY chore on my schedule (you can tell I'm super motivated at the beginning of the week and it starts to fade...), but I've done a much better job.  It feels awesome to cross things off the list.  I should add other every day stuff like dishes, grocery shopping, food prep, etc. so I can cross off even more "chores"!   :)  I also got some cute dry erase markers which makes it a little more exciting.  Once I go back to work, I'm going to have one color for me and one for Nick so we can see just how even our workload is at home.  That should be interesting!  ;)

3. Pack up some of Carson's old toys.  Success!  I finally bit the bullet and packed up Carson's piano playmat, jumperoo, bumbo seat, etc.  I also packed up some of his smaller rattle type baby toys.  Everything is boxed/bagged up and labeled!

4. Find a new craft to do with Carson.  Success!  We did some finger painting and handprint crafts for Fathers Day gifts.  Carson had a ton of fun and the results were cute, too!  The bottom left picture is Carson about to cry because I took the canvas away!  

We also made homemade cards for Nick and my dad.  Here is Nick's card.  The 1st picture is the front and the handprints were on the inside along with a handwritten message from Carson.

I also did a quick patriotic craft for Independence Day that I'm going to share with you tomorrow!

5. Go through our dressers/closets!  FAIL!  My mom offered to come over and play with Carson while I did this, but she was never able to do that.  I have some boxes saved so I can load them up with my old clothes, but I haven't been able to empty out my dresser/closet yet and actually go through the clothes.....

Now onto new goals!

July Goals

1. Read 2 books.  I'm keeping this goal since I didn't quite reach it last month.  I still have my goal of reading 25 books in 2013 and so far, I'm only on my 9th book so I need to catch up!

2. Try a new food.  I keep finding fun new foods for Carson to try like purple cauliflower and dinosaur pluot!  My goal for July is to try to find a unique new (to me) food to try.  We'll see what I come up with....let me know if you have any suggestions! :)

3. Organize my crafting supplies.  Before I had Carson, I did some crafting (mostly scrapbooking) so I had some crafting stuff here and there.  Now that I'm a Mom, somehow the craft supplies have quadrupled.  I have some little containers but everything is just mixed together and I end up opening every. single. one. to find something I need for a project!  Time to get things organized and labeled!

4. Find a new place to go with Carson.  We've been trying new parks over the past month or so and it's been really fun.  We also tried a new music class with some friends which Carson LOVED!  I want to keep trying new things because he gets so excited every time and I end up having tons of fun, too!  

5. Go through our dressers/closets!  This was a May goal AND a June goal so I'm hoping if I keep it on the list I can finally just get it done!  I know I have a ton of clothes I have forgotten about and a ton that can be donated and put to good use!  

What are your goals for July?

Dinosaur Fruit! [Tasty Tuesday]

Carson tried another new food recently: Dinosaur Fruit!  It was labeled at the store as "Dinosaur Pluot".  I'm not sure where the dinosaur part came from but a pluot is a plum/apricot hybrid!  I had never heard of this before and Carson likes plums and apricots so I decided to give it a shot.  He liked it a lot and it's a really pretty color, too!  I tried it too and it was actually really good - sweet with a tiny bit of tartness!

It even had a cute dino on the sticker!

A pretty red fruit!

Have you tried any new fruits with your babies or toddlers lately?

I'm linking up with Kristin today!

 

P.S. Yesterday I FINALLY took some time to catch up on my blog emails.  I had gotten ridiculously behind and every time I thought about it, it made me anxious.  I'm so glad to finally be caught up and I'm sorry if you got responses a month later, ha!  Better late than never, right?! :)