Sunshine in my pocket

Recipe Found! Brown Sugar Bumps

By KariV on June 27, 2013 in Dessert

When I was a little girl, my sister and I used to make a recipe ALL. THE. TIME: called Brown Sugar Bumps. They were easy to make (no baking, no cooking) and SO delicious (at least I thought so when I was a kid).

Since we’re both OLD(er) and married now, we’ve talked about that recipe many times, but we misplaced that well-used recipe book.

The other day, I came across the recipe and I was ECSTATIC! So of course I made them right away! They are just as delicious (and easy) as I remember. And they only lasted ONE DAY at my house.

These aren’t very fancy looking, so I gussied them up with a little gold. 🙂 They sort of remind me of tiny no-bake cookies, but they don’t have chocolate or cocoa in them. Here’s what they require: (full recipe near the end of this post)

First, melt the butter in the microwave. Add the brown sugar, peanut butter and oats. Stir until well combined. This mixture is a little soft, so refrigerate for a bit before you form them into little “bumps.” I just put them in the refrigerator while I was cleaning up, then they were ready to form. See? Easy!

I remember my sister and I would hand roll each of the little bumps, but now I have a mini ice-cream scoop that does the trick nicely! {It’s about the size of a melon baller.}

And in no time at all I had all these little treats:

I sometimes think that when you grow up loving something that you are just “trained to like” them. Case in point: I used to LOVE Tiger’s Milk protein bars. My mom told us they were candy and she’d hide them at the top of the pantry. That wouldn’t stop us as kids: we’d climb up those shelves and find them! I still like them to this day. But my husband (and many of my friends) who have tried them tell me they are not so good!

So I thought this might be the same story with these Brown Sugar Bumps. So far, everyone loves them. Proof: they are gone already! I will have to make some more and take a poll. 🙂

Here’s the recipe:

[amd-zlrecipe-recipe:8]

So go ahead and give one a try and let me know what YOU think.
These are for you, Sis!

Comments { 0 }

Taste Test Tuesday — Chocolate Cereal

By KariV on June 25, 2013 in Taste Test Tuesday

When I was a kid, I wasn’t allowed to have sugar cereals often. They were a special treat for me and my siblings and I’d love to get CEREAL for my birthday or Christmas when I was young! (now I prefer gift cards, just in case you were wondering)

So now that I’m an adult, I love to have cereal as a snack every now and again. And most of the time I crave a chocolate cereal. So that is how this taste test was born. I knew that we MUST find the best Chocolate sugar cereal out there, and with the help of all my judges (which included both adults AND kids this time…a first in the history of Taste Test Tuesdays) I think we found a winner!

When I was doing research for this taste test, I was surprised at the number of chocolate cereals out there! There were so many, that I included all that I could without adding any generic brands this time. And I just had to put my foot down on one possible contender:

I just couldn’t see myself saying “Oh, I am really craving some Fiber One” (chocolate or otherwise)! So, sorry all you Fiber One fans out there, this one was NOT included in the taste test!
But seriously, has anyone tried these? Are they any good?

So here are the REAL contenders for this taste test:

1) Cocoa Krispies
2) Chocolate Frosted Flakes
3) Chocolate Cheerios
4) Chocolate Chex
5) Double-Chocolate Krave
6) Cocoa Pebbles
7) Chocolatey Crunch
8) Good Morenings
9) Chocolate Lucky Charms
10) Cocoa Puffs

Wow, that’s a bunch of great chocolatey options! Have you tried all these? I have to admit, I hadn’t tried the majority of these so I knew this was going to be an eye-opening taste test.

My sister predicted the winner from the adults taste test panel would be CHOCOLATE CHEERIOS. She said it was chocolately enough without being too sweet. Guess what, sis? It placed in the top 5, but NOT first place!

We had to conduct this taste test in multiple panel meetings because there were so many cups of cereal!

Now to declare the winners in each category:

The adult taste test panel found that they enjoyed the Cheerios, but the top five cereals in order were….(drum roll, please)

Interestingly enough, the top five for KIDS were nearly the same:

That Post Good Morenings is interesting…it had cinnamon mixed in with the chocolate and tasted a little like mini churro bites! Personally, I’m not sure I could eat an entire bowl of it, but it was pretty good. Many kids picked this as their favorite.

Now to declare the WINNER:

Congratulations, Chocolate Frosted Flakes! It had the best chocolatey taste and it made delicious chocolate milk. (followed closely by Cocoa Puffs)

I’m very much in agreement with the winner…it’s been a favorite of mine for a long time. And it remained my favorite after this taste test.

THE LEAST FAVORITE:

Now, I must mention that KRAVE made it to the list of top 5 for the kids because if you are a 5 or 6 year old little boy, apparently this is the BEST cereal ever!! It was voted #1 by boys in that age bracket (only). For all others, kids and adults included, it was the LEAST FAVORITE and some had even very STRONG adverse reactions to this cereal. Most didn’t eat more than one or two bites of it.

I have lots of this box left, but I’m glad my nephew Garrett will take care of that for me! 🙂

A special thanks to all the judges, both kids and adults! I couldn’t do this without you. I hope you enjoy the extra cereal I sent home with you!

Comments { 2 }

Dose of Sunshine Monday — Trust the path will Illuminate

By KariV on June 24, 2013 in Inspiration

Happy Monday. I was inspired this weekend! And it caused me to remember a coach who would tell me to take a leap of faith. He says you don’t need to see all the steps in front of you, you only have to take the FIRST step and the step stones will appear. That takes trust and faith. Even if you don’t know WHERE you are going right now.

Take a deep breath, and take a first step.

Have a GREAT week filled with trust that your path WILL illuminate! Happy day. 🙂

Comments { 0 }

Thank you Berry Much card

By KariV on June 21, 2013 in Paper Crafting

It’s the first day of summer. (Although it has felt like summer for weeks now, here in Arizona!) And to celebrate, I put together a little summer fruit berry card with a few scraps of paper, a few scraps of felt and a thanks banner.

I love strawberries in the summer, and how cute are they as the star of this card? Enjoy:

Inside:

I love felt as a medium for cards and tags. {See my orange felt slice here.}

Linking up to the Summer Fruit Card Challenge.

Comments { 1 }

Ginger-Lime Grilled Beef Salad

By KariV on June 19, 2013 in Cooking Light, Dinner in Minutes, Recipes

Today is my wedding anniversary and what better way to celebrate and praise 14 years of wedded bliss than with a perfect and delicious recipe?! This is special tribute to my husband who is a grill master (you are awesome, Honey!) and he will grill anything I ask him to!! I love that we are such a perfect couple for this: I love to cook and deliver up great recipes, he loves to grill them…:)

Summer is perfect for grilling and for salads…and when you have a recipe that combines the two, you have the perfect summertime dinner!

We love this recipe at our house. In fact, whenever my son comes home from college, he requests it! It is easy to make and nice and light for summer. It’s a fast recipe too…just marinate the meat in the morning, then grill it up for dinner! I can’t even begin to tell you how flavorful and delicious this recipe is, you’re just going to have to try it yourself. 🙂

To make the marinade, use some simple ingredients. I always keep these ingredients on hand so I can whip this up at (almost) any time!

Less Sodium Soy Sauce, Chili-Garlic sauce, ginger root, lime juice, and a little brown sugar (not pictured). Those ice cubes in front are actually frozen lime juice…if I can’t use my limes up in time, I just squeeze them and freeze the juice. And did you know that you can freeze ginger root?! It’s true…I’ve had this ginger root in my freezer for a few months and it’s still delicious and fresh tasting in this marinade! (see the full recipe below)

Just mix together all these ingredients, then reserve some aside to use later as your salad dressing. Pour the rest into a resealable bag with the meat and add a little extra lime juice. Then make sure to coat all your meat and store it in the refrigerator until ready to grill. I found that if you marinate for four hours or longer, the taste is SO much better. So make sure to stir this up for marinating earlier in the day.

You can use either Flank Steak or London Broil for this recipe. I’ve tried both and we all seem to like the Flank Steak the best. I will be experimenting with other cuts of meat, I’m sure and I’ll report back. 🙂 Now just grill up the meat:

(Here’s the picture to prove it: My husband is the best at grilling…Happy Anniversary, Honey!)
And while that is on the grill, get your salad ready:

I like to use the organic salad mix from Costco. It has spinach and arugula, but sometimes I just make a simple romaine bed of lettuce for this recipe. It’s always just delicious! I will add tomatoes or green pepper from the garden, and sometimes I shred up a carrot to add, too. Mmmmm….

Let the meat rest for a few minutes before you slice it thinly. This allows the meat to retain more of it’s juiciness! Since everyone at my house likes their salad different, I will put the additions on the side so it’s more like a salad bar…then you can build your own salad and top it off with a bit of the grilled meat. Add a little (believe me, this is flavorful stuff so you only need a little!) of the reserved dressing and enjoy!

{The recipe suggests that you add all the ingredients together and combine with the reserved salad dressing, but at my house everyone likes different amounts of the dressing (or none at all) and so I just let everyone make their own plate.}