Pinterest Recipes

I have a confession. So, here goes.

Hi, my name is Kari and I spend obscene amounts of my free time, and my time I should be interacting with my children, pinning mostly useless pins on pinterest.

There, I said it. I waste a LOT of time, especially lately, looking at idea after idea. I mean, there are a lot of useful things on there and I have used a lot of the pins that I have pinned regarding activities with my kiddos and food to eat however, lets get real, I will most likely never use a pin from my "dream home." Unless of course I finally write the book I know will be a huge success or decide to finally buy a lottery ticket and slightly increase my odds of winning.

So, to make myself feel a little bit better about the copious amounts of time that I spend staring at my 2x4 screen, I thought I would share with you some of my favorite pins that I have actually prepared.

See, not totally wasted time...

I made these yummy to go oatmeal muffins, found here.

 (all pictures from linked site)
 My son can't get enough of them however little L eats about half of them and is then done...she eats every bite of normal oatmeal so I might stick to that for her for now. My only comment is that they were a bit moist after baking (apple sauce) so I would recommend the foil muffin liners instead of paper.

E has been begging for chicken noodle soup all winter and in an attempt to avoid too much sodium, I thought, I can make him some. I found this recipe here, and pretty well followed it. We found that it was really really good with some cajun seasoning sprinkled over top. I also only  had to turn it on high for about 25 minutes and the noodles were cooked. Great news when you have two kids begging for dinner to be ready :) E liked it, but didn't really devour it...the hubs and I loved it.

I love eggs Benedict.  For years I sort of felt like Julia Roberts in "Runaway Bride" eating my eggs however the person I was eating with ordered them.  It wasn't until I was married that I was introduced to the poached egg and the glorious holandaise sauce. That being said, I made this recipe for my in-laws a couple of weeks ago and it left me in the luke warm category. Although it felt like a major accomplishment to make my own sauce, something I had never done before, I felt that it somewhat defeated the purpose of the overnight egg bake...I still had to stand over a pot, ignore people as I stirred constantly and do dishes. SO, if I were to make this again, I would totally cheat with a packet of the powder sauce instead to save some time. Just about as tasty. Also, it took about 10 minutes longer to bake than advertised...my sauce was done well before the food. I still like my poached eggs better :)

I do like my overnight casseroles though...as you are really about to find out. I made this one for a MOPS meeting and it was so easy to assemble but I would like to maybe try it with 2/3 of the hashbrowns and double the chilies. It really needed the salsa, so I don't consider it optional. I will be making it again :)

Is your mouth watering looking at this photo? I have made this one a few times now. If you were wondering how a person can run and run and not lose any weight, it is because they found a lot of french bread on clearance and have been eating overnight french toast bakes, weekly. I may know a thing or two about that...but, this is a decadent, delicious, "today must be special" kind of french toast. I typically omit the white bread and just use half a french loaf for the bottom and the other half for the top. Also, to try and justify my extra piece, I just use skim milk instead of the half and half and lowfat cream cheese. It really turns out the same...and don't forget, you are getting a healthy serving of antioxidants!

Some of my other french toast bakes I have talked about in previous posts. I told you I was obsessed.

More next time. I try really hard to get creative in the kitchen and love the inspiration I find on pinterest.

See, all that wasted time--totally justified.