Mini Corn Dogs

Last week we made Homemade Honey Nut Cheerios, a perfect snack for kids AND adults!  This week we’re making Mini Corn Dogs.  These are so yummy I ate 4 of them pretty much as soon as they came out of the oven.

I didn't use an exact recipe, simply inspiration from photos on Pinterest.  I used the packaged corn muffin mix, Jiffy brand.  They are about $.75 at any grocery store.  It’s not the most healthy thing but for a fun snack for the kids you can't go wrong.

Simply mix the batter as directed on the box, using the same temperatures and times as listed. Pour the batter in a bit less than half into your mini muffin tin.  I used my 2 teaspoon sized ‘cookie scoop’.  Cut the hot dog into about 1 inch lengths.  I actually stood up the hot dog in one of the empty parts of the tin and measured it to below the top as a guide.  Press the hot dog bit into the corn muffin batter in the tin.  I then put a bit of tiny cubes of cheese in around the hot dog, about 2 pieces. 
Bake as directed, let cool, ENJOY!

Kidster isn’t a fan of the carby foods so she mostly dug out the hot dog and left the rest of the corn muffin bit for the dog but when she’s older she’ll hopefully like them, we sure did!
Next week I’ll show you how to make the ‘2 Ingredient Pancake” that seems to be so popular lately. 

What is YOUR favorite way to eat a hot dog?

~Lisa

Scentsy Trick

Hubster used to spend a lot of money on scented candles.  I think part of it was because he grew up with 5 sisters and new that ladies like a pretty smelling house when the come over. (I DID marry him so he was doing something right!)

My mother in law gave me a Scentsy burner and a brick of delicious smelling vanilla.  I would use it for special occasions and never really thought much about it.  That is until my sister started selling Scentsy.  I did the research...and it turns out that having the small outlet plug in Scentsy burners in different rooms in the house was actually cheaper and SAFER than having scented candles, especially since Hubster liked the pretty spendy ones.  IF you've ever left a scented candle burning for a while you realize you just spent $8 to perfume one room for one day.  Not cool in my checkbook, not cool at all.

I figured that if I bought 5 bricks of different scents from my sister I could have different smells for different rooms and different occasions.  Hubster likes them so much that he'll actually call the command to "Scentsy this place up!" before we have guests.  It's also just a nice way for a stay at home mom to feel like her home is as pretty as it can be.  Don't get me wrong.  I am certainly no Martha Stewart (did you SEE my muffin debacle?) but there is just something about yummy spring smells during the spring or delicious baking smells during the winter to really boost your spirits.

I'm not trying to sell you Scentsy at all.  I actually only buy the bricks from my sister but the burners from Wally world (yuck..) but this is for all the Scentsy users out there who may not have heard of this trick.

So let's say that you have a lovely floral scent in your living room but you're looking for a change and the wax hasn't quite run out of smell.  OR it may have run out of smell and you just want it gone.  There are a ton of ways you get the still warm wax out that require possibly burning yourself or spilling wax on your precious new laptop.  *Perish the thought!*

I'm a woman who likes change.  I thrive on it.  I use a different spot for my 'writing' all the time because I feel like it's inspiring.  No....my 'mom office' is still a work in progress and is NOT inspiring, but more on that later right?  I like to change my scents pretty often and don't want to throw out a perfectly good wax blob of goodness.

Get to the point already right?!  Here is the simple answer.  Put your burner with the cool/solid wax still in it, in the freezer.  Leave it there for at least 10 minutes or so.  When you open your freezer this is what you will most likely see.  Pretty awesome huh?

Scentsy wax removed.  Easy!

I have a small glass jar under the sink that I put all of my almost used waxlets.  Yes, waxlets, I just made that up but it seems fitting right?  I'm on a roll today, must be the "Enliven" scent I had in my writing nook for a bit.  The Kidster's room is usually "White Tea and Cactus" and Little Man's room is usually "Serene Green".  Something about the green smells that really help with the... "brown" smells.

What is YOUR favorite room scent?

Mini Cheese Omelet

It seems like I keep finding cute recipes that involve a mini muffin tin.  Well I'm a Texan.  I only ever had the large muffin tin!  On our recent family grocery trip I decided to buy a mini.  I raced home and to my dismay I didn't really see any recipes that struck my fancy.

"Necessity is the mother of invention" Plato is thought to have said.  Well he was a smart cookie. "Mothers invent because of necessity" this Momster is saying right now!

I want to feed Little Man and Kidster yummy healthy high protein breakfasts but like the mom in this blog post Egg and Cheese Mini Omelets I don't have time to sit at the stove and make omelets or scrambled egg every morning.  Evidently these are wonderful even when frozen and reheated.

So I went for it.  At 7:30am I was bright eyed and bushy tailed and ready to get the day started.  I found this recipe and preheated the oven.

I decided to half the recipe because I only have Little Man today and tomorrow and on the weekend Hubster makes "Big Breakfast" as he calls it. Those little tins are really LITTLE!

So three eggs were cracked, 1.5T of milk were measured and bit of S&P were tossed in.  I whisked them all together into a merry little soup.  The original recipe said to add the cheese later. Well that just seemed silly! I didn't measure the cheese because it called for 1/3 cup and I didn't have a 1/6 cup around so I just picked up some cheese and I threw it into the soup.  Poured the bowl into a Pyrex measuring cup because who doesn't love something with a proper spout?

I wish I'd followed the directions.  The cheese acted liked a sieve. (stupid giant shreds!  Next time I'll by the finer shredded cheese.)  All of the egg came out first until the last few cups that were pretty much mostly cheese.  I had overfilled the first cup, which was mostly egg.  So I ended up having to do a bit of crisis control.  Spoon out some egg from the overfilled cup into the other ones.  Add some cheese, having to break the little shreds in half.  Wipe the drippings. You know the drill.

Next time follow the directions!

I baked them at 350 for 8 minutes.  When the buzzer went off I checked on them.  This is what I found!  They were still really 'wet' looking so I figured another 2 minutes wouldn't hurt.

"It's ALIVE!"

I was right.  After 2 more minutes they looked a lot more omelets and had a few bits of brown at the edge.  Kidster doesn't really like eggs in the first place so I have to make sure they aren't 'slimy'.

As PeeWee would say, "Mmmmm, Eggy!"

Cool for a few minutes on the wire rack according to the lady in the blog post.  Aye Aye captain! They do deflate a bit so don't worry about trying to serve you kid or hubby a weird mushroom shaped omelet.

As we speak they are now cooling on the rack looking quite tasty and cheesy.  I will update this when Little Man and Kidster have sampled them.  I'm crossing my fingers! If these work out next time I'll put spinach in them or mushrooms.  Maybe just for the adults. 

What's YOUR favorite thing to make in a Mini Tin?

***UPDATE***

Texas China!  They popped right out super easily!

Success!  Kidster LOVES them!