10 Last Minute Halloween Costumes

Every year, Halloween sneaks up on me.  I start planning my costumes and decorations, my crafts and my projects months in advance...and still, I'm surprised to look up and find Halloween staring me SMACK in the face.  This month has been particularly crazy for me as I had so much on my plate.  So last night when I look at the calendar and find our Trunk or Treat activity is tonight, I went into full panic mode.

Since we are down to only one car, that means I never go anywhere anymore.  It's a little frustrating sometimes, but it is what it is.  So as I talked with Mini Me and Daredevil about Halloween costumes at 8:30 last night, we had to get super creative.

Daredevil decided he wanted to go as a football player, which worked out perfectly since this was his first year playing tackle football and and playoffs aren't until Saturday.  We lucked out and had all the gear, he just would have to suit up and go.  Mini Me was a little more difficult.

We ended up raiding the garage for boxes and made him a Wii Remote costume.  He was so excited to be able to pick the colors and spray paint the box any color he wanted.  So while it may not have been my choice in design, I'm learning to let go and let him have his fun.

But while we were scouring the garage for costume ideas, I kept telling myself that surely I'm not the only one in this boat.  (And then I told myself to stop calling me Shirley...*tell me someone caught the "Airplane" reference.)  You see how things sneak up on me so?  I get so easily distracted.  

So here are 10 last minute Halloween costume ideas using things you might already have around the house.

1. Rubik's Cube Costume from Coolest Homemade Costumes

2. Fork in the Road Costume from Real Simple

3. Pinterest Board from Parties for Pennies

4. Stick Figure Costume from Creatively Christine

5. Lego Costume from Country Living

6. John Deere Farmer from Geek Mom

7. Old Time Black and White Costume from Unknown.

8. Facebook Costume from Trevor & Lesley

(We made this one for Daredevil last year when we were living in the hotel.  He was the HIT of the Party!)

9. Price is Right Costume from B Side Blog

10. Abercrombie Ad Costume from Unknown

Can you tell I love fast, easy, multi-use boxes for my costumes?  I wish I could find a picture of it, but one year, we wrapped a huge box in Christmas paper and Mini Me went as a Christmas Present.  Another year, the Perfectionist went as a Kissing Booth.  Boxes are a quick, creative last minute Halloween costume!

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Foodie Penpal Reveal Day

Today is the last day of October and time to post for Foodie Penpal Reveal Day.  This month my package came from Lyndsay Kugler from New Raymer, Colorado.  What package it was.

There were goodies in every nook and cranny of this box.  Every piece of tissue paper had something hidden in it, and the smell was wonderful.
 

 

 

 There were these three cute packages of various mixes.  The milkshake mix has a recipe on the side to make cookies with it, which, being the Cookie Monster's Grandmother, is probably what I will do.

 

There was a personal popcorn ball.  A great treat for this time of year.

There were wonderful candies.  Believe me, the Mrs. Fields candies got eaten as soon as this photo was taken.

This was another goodies for me to snack on.

My own personal size chicken noodle soup mix.  I am going to stash this at work for lunch.

There were some things made in Colorado.

 A Spicy Snack Stick.  This is going to work for lunch also.

 

 Hot Cider Fixins.  Isn't just the cleverest packaging?  I just had to take two photos.  Do you see the whole nutmeg for the head, the whole allspice for the ears, and the whole clove antlers?  You put the whole thing in a half gallon of apple juice or cider, heat and fish everything out when the cider is done.  This one is probably going to be used on Thanksgiving.

This is the reason that the package smelled so wonderful and so will my home when I use these.

Lyndsay doesn't have a blog listed so I don't know if she has one.  Although I sent her a Thank You email, I want to thank her again here for sending me such a wonderful package.

My Foodie Penpal package went to Katie Tanner at Food Fitness Photography.  You can click on over to see what I sent her.

This wonderful exchange is hosted by Lindsay from the Lean Green Bean.  Sound like fun?

Just click on the graphic above to go to the Foodie Penpal page for all the details.

Linking to:  October Foodie Penpal Reveal Day

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Cheesy Sausage Corn Chowder

Recently I had part of a roll of breakfast sausage and some Colby/jack cheese that I needed to use up.  It seems as though I have needed to “use up” quite a lot of food lately.

I needed to make soup for lunches so thought that using the sausage and cheese as a base for some chowder sounded good.  I add all the veggies that I like in a chowder and came up with a soup that was comforting and good on a cool fall day.

Cheesy Sausage Corn Chowder
1 lb. breakfast sausage (I use roll sausage and had about 3/4 lb.)
2 ribs celery, finely chopped (about 1/2 c.)
1/2 c. chopped onion
1/3 c. chopped red pepper
1 large potato, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch dice
2 c. chicken broth
1/2 t. thyme
1 bay leaf
1 qt. milk
1 can (15 oz.) cream style corn
1 c. water
1/3 c. flour
4 oz. Colby/jack cheese, diced

Brown sausage in a large saucepan and pour off any excess fat.  Add veggies and cook about 5 minutes.  Add potato, chicken broth, thyme and bay leaf.  (Add a bit of water if broth does not cover completely.)  Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer until potatoes are tender, about 10 minutes.  Stir in cream corn and milk.  Cook until heated through but do not boil.  Stir in cheese until melted.  Measure water into a glass measuring cup.  Add flour and mix until smooth.  Slowly add to soup, stirring until soup thickens to chowder consistency.  Add a bit of milk if soup becomes too thick.  Heat through.  Remove bay leaf and serve.  Makes about 8 servings.

Linking to these great parties:
Trick or Treat Tuesday
Show Me What You Got Tuesday
Tuesday Talent Show
Tempt My Tummy Tuesday
Totally Tasty Tuesday
Tasteful Tuesday
Take a Look Tuesday
Get Your Craft On
Terrific Tuesday

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Hidden Treasure Mini Meat Loaves

It is Monday and time for me to welcome my new followers and to thank all who take the time from their busy lives to read this blog.  I appreciate it very much and hope you find the information I post here useful.

When my kids were growing up there were two things that they liked when it came to food.  One was getting their own individual dish of something and the other was dishes with interesting names.  So this could have been Cheese Stuffed Mini Meat Loaves, but my kids would have preferred Hidden Treasure Mini Meat Loaves.

Meat loaf isn’t the standby in this home that it used to be what with the price of ground beef now, but I do make it fairly often.  This one is still a favorite because each person gets their own little meat loaf with cheese hidden inside and topped with a tomato gravy.  Even though kids no longer live here, these are always welcome at our table.

Various cheese can be used here.  I have used cheddar, Swiss, Colby/jack and mozzarella.  For a little kick, pepper/jack would probably be good.

The tomato soup topping is something that my mother always put on meat loaf, and I have continued this tradition.

Hidden Treasure Mini Meat Loaves
1 1/2 lbs. lean ground beef
3/4 c. quick or old fashioned oats+ 
1 t.  salt
1/4 t.  pepper
1 t. poultry seasoning
1/4 c. chopped onion
3/4 c. milk
1/4 c. ketchup
1 T. Worcestershire sauce 
1 egg
8 (1/2x1 1/2 sticks) cheese of choice
1 can (10 oz.) condensed tomato soup

Place ground beef in a mixing bowl.  Add oats, salt, pepper,poultry seasoning and onion.  Mix together well.  An easy trick to measure the liquid ingredients is to measure the milk into a 2-cup glass measuring cup.  Add ketchup until the liquid reaches the 1 cup mark.  Add Worcestershire sauce.  Break egg into the cup and mix everything together well.  Pour into ground beef mixture and mix gently until everything is well combined.  Putting a stick of cheese into each one, shape mixture into eight equal size mini loaves.  Make sure that cheese is totally encased in the meat.  Place loaves in a greased baking pan.  Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.  Place equal amounts of undiluted tomato soup on top of each loaf.  Bake 15 to 20 minutes more.   Spoon any soup/gravy in bottom of pan over meat loaves when serving them.  Makes 8 servings.

Linking to these great parties.
Busy Monday
This Week's Cravings
Mangia Monday
Made by You Monday
Making Monday Marvelous
Moping It Up Monday
Must Try Monday
Melt in Your Mouth Monday

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The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap

If you want to have a little Christmas time fun, you might want to join this year's Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap.  It is a wonderful opportunity to interact with some other bloggers, support a wonderful cause and to get a little something back.

This swap is hosted by Love and Olive Oil and The Little Kitchen.  The idea is that you sign up, make a up a batch of cookies from a recipe you have not yet posted on your blog and send one dozen to each of three bloggers.  In return you get a dozen cookies each from three other bloggers.  On a specified day, everyone will post their cookie recipe, and there will be a giant link up party for all the recipes.  What a wonderful resource that will be.

This is the second year and there have been a couple of changes from last year.  The most important being that there is a $4.00 charge which is a contribution to the worthy cause of Cookies for Kid's Cancer.  The wonderful news is that Oxo will match all the contributions up to $100,000.  How great is that?  Oxo will also send each blogger a "Be a Good Cookie" spatula to use to whip up those cookie.

All the details can be found at the Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap web site.  The deadline for signing up is November 5th.  You can find all the details there.  I participated last year, and it was so nice to get those packages in the mail.  Who knows, if you sign up, maybe I will be sending cookies to you.

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Raspberry Almond Coffee Cake

This week's Saturday sweet is coffeecake, which I really like, and don't know why I don't make it more often.  Recently I had some buttermilk that I needed to use up so turned to one of my favorite coffeecake recipes that came from a Sunset cookbook many years ago.

This an easy and simple coffeecake made with vegetable oil and buttermilk.  I like this one in that part of the dry ingredients are used to make the topping.

I wanted to change things up a little this time and decided to add a layer of raspberry jam in the middle of the cake.  This turned out to be a "good thing/bad thing."  The jam sunk to the bottom of the cake creating more of an upside down situation.  Everyone I shared this with, however, didn't care about that and loved the addition of the jam.  So, if you make this, use the jam, or not as you wish.  Putting the jam in a glass measuring cup and heating it in the microwave for a minute made it easier to spread.

To make the original coffeecake use coarsely chopped, toasted walnuts instead of the almonds and leave out the jam and almond extract.

 Raspberry Almond Coffee Cake
adapted from Sunset Ideas & Recipes for Breakfast and Brunch
2 1/4 c. all purpose flour
1/2 t. salt
1/2 t. cinnamon
1 c. firmly packed brown sugar
3/4 c. sugar
3/4 c. vegetable oil
1/2 c. slivered almonds, toasted
1 t. cinnamon
1 t. baking soda
1 t. baking powder
1 c. buttermilk
1 egg
1/2 t. almond extract
1 c. raspberry jam

In medium-size bowl, mix together flour, salt, the 1/2 t. cinnamon, brown sugar, sugar, and vegetable oil.  Beat with a electric mixer or a wire whisk until well blended.  Remove 3/4 c. of this mixture for the topping and blend into it the nuts and the 1 t. cinnamon; set aside.  To the remaining flour mixture, add soda and baking powder and mix until well combined.  Combine buttermilk, egg and almond extract and mix well.  Add to flour mixture and mix until smooth.  Pour half of batter into a greased 9x13-inch baking pan.  Place jam in a glass measuring cup and microwave for 1 minute.  Spoon over batter and gently spread out evenly.  Top with remaining batter.   Sprinkle the reserved topping evenly over batter and pat it lightly into the batter.  Bake at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes until golden brown. Cool slightly and cut into squares.  Makes about 12 to 15 servings.  May be served warm or at room temperature.

Linking to these great parties:
Strut Your Stuff
Seasonal Inspiration
Weekend Potluck
I'm Lovin' It
Saturday Nite Special
Weekend Bloggy Reading

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Friday Finds

I "attended" Online Blogcon earlier this week and learned a great deal.  It did take up quite a bit of my computer time but was so well worth it.  One the best $15 I ever spent.

For this week's Friday Finds, I thought that I would share recipes I found at blogs of others who "attended" the conference also.

Apple Cider Muffins

Sweet Treats and More

I have some apple cider left from making a pork tenderloin recipe last weekend.  I think that this would be a great use for some of it.  Hubby loves hot breads with dinner.

Slow Cooker Apple Butter Pork Chops

The Frugal Foodie Mama

I recently made apple butter in my slow cooker so have a lot of it on hand.  This also uses apple cider so I could use up some more of that.  As a bonus this is a slow cooker recipe.

Weight Watchers Inspired Chicken Pot Pie Soup

Couponing and Cooking

This time of year I want lots of soup recipes on hand to make comforting soups.  Chicken pot pie in a soup sounds wonderful.  There is also a recipe in this post for Honey Cornbread that looks delicious.

Baked Homemade Applesauce

Will Cook for Smiles

What a simple easy way to make applesauce.  Just bake in the oven and run through a blender.  I am definitely going to try this idea out.

 Homemade Shake and Bake

Life after Laundry

Everyone knows I just love it when I come upon a new homemade version of a commercial packaged product.  I make bread crumbs from left over bread so have plenty on hand to make this recipe.

Peanut Butter Sauce
The Farm Girl

Oh, the places I can find to use this.  Since I love peanut butter, what could be better than a sauce made with it?  This would make a simple dish of ice cream very special.

As always the photos were taken by and are the property of the owners of the respective blogs represented.

To see what other bloggers have discovered in their travels through the blogsphere this week, join me in clicking over to Friday Favorite Finds.

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12 Weeks of Christmas Treats-Tart and Tasty Lemon Bars

Time is moving along, and we are at week five of 12 Weeks of Christmas Treats hosted by Brenda from Meal Planning Magic. 

I am continuing with sharing recipes made with Holiday Cookie Mix.  Today was wet and rainy, cloudy and gray so I wanted to make something bright and cheery.  The answer was Lemon Bars.  These are just a take on the typical lemon bar cookie using the cookie mix for the crust.  By now you probably realize that the mix can be used as the crust layer for many different layered bar cookies.

This recipe works best if the eggs are at room temperature which does take a little advance planning.  If you forget to remove the eggs from the fridge and don’t want to wait for them to warm up, cover the eggs with warm water and let them set 10-15 minutes.  This is what I do most of the time as I rarely remember to get eggs from the fridge ahead of time.

Putting the lemons in a microwave for 30 seconds and then rolling them on the counter will help release the juice.  I use the back of a spoon to squeeze out all the juice that I can into a glass measuring cup.  I pour the juice through a sieve to remove any pulp when I add the juice to the egg/sugar mixture.

For a couple of variations, you can add 1/2 c. chopped nuts or flaked coconut to the crust mix.

I mentioned in my original post that more than 12 different cookies could be made with the cookie mix.  I am posting some bonus recipes on my Saturday Sweets post and so far have posted a recipe for Chocolate Cottage Bars.  I will mention it when I post additional recipes.

The sweet/tartness of these make them a nice contrast when included in a Christmas cookie tray.

Tart and Tasty Lemon Bars

3 c. Holiday Cookie Mix

4 eggs at room temperature

1 1/2 c. sugar

1/4 c. flour

1/2 c. fresh lemon juice (2 to 3 lemons)

Powdered sugar
 

Measure cookie mix and press into a foil-lined and sprayed 9x13-inch baking pan.  Bake at 350 degrees 12 to 15 minutes.  Set aside to cook 5 to 10 minutes.  In a large bowl beat eggs with a wire whisk until thick and lemon colored.  Add sugar and flour and beat until smooth.  Beat in lemon juice until mixture is well blended.  Pour on top of baked crust and bake an additional 20 minutes or until set.  Place pan on rack to cool.  Dust top with sifted powdered sugar.  Cut into bars.  Makes about 32 bars.  Store in refrigerator because of the high concentration of egg.

There is still time to join us in the fun.  Go here for complete details on Brenda's blog.

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Applelicious Pork Chops

Good Monday to all.  Thank you for taking time from your busy lives to stop and read my blog.  It is greatly appreciated.  I hope you find the information posted here useful.

A couple of weeks ago when I cooked up some apples for apple butter, I had extra applesauce so made one of our favorite pork dishes.

This is basically pork chops baked in applesauce gravy.  Applesauce goes so well with pork, and this dish takes advantage of that fact.  My applesauce was pretty chunky.  Purchased applesauce would be much smoother.  The brown gravy mix and onion turns the applesauce into a delicious apple flavored gravy to serve over the pork chops and rice, noodles or even mashed potatoes.  I don't use gravy mix often but love it in this recipe.  One could maybe use some instant beef bouillon instead.

It is a easy, simple dish that goes together quickly and then bakes in the oven allowing you to prepare the rest of your dinner.

Applelicious Pork Chops
4-6 pork chops
salt and pepper
1 envelope (3/4 oz.) brown gravy mix
1 c. water
1 c. applesauce
1 T. instant minced onion
1 T. mustard

Trim excess fat from chops season with salt and pepper, brown in a skillet and pour off excess fat.  Place in a greased 9x13-in. baking pan.  Stir remaining ingredients into drippings left in pan from browning chops.  Heat, scraping up any browned bits.  Pour over chops.  Cover and bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.  Serves 4-6

Linking to:  Hunk of Meat Monday
Melt in Your Mouth Monday
Must Try Monday
Mop-It-Up Monday
Making Mondays Marvelous
Made by You Monday
Mangia Monday
This Week's Cravings
Busy Monday
What's Up Wednesday

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Autumn Apple Salad/Dessert

Since, I really overwhelmed the blog with sweets this week, I though that I would redeem myself a little and post a somewhat healthier dish for Saturday Sweets this week.

This can be either a salad or a dessert. I will admit that we eat this mostly as a salad. If you are a member of the “Fruit is Not Dessert Club”, you will probably consider it a salad, also.

The recipe has probably made its rounds around the web in one for or another, but it is my “go to” fruit salad recipe because it is so versatile. The only two ingredients that you must have are the undrained pineapple and the instant pudding. After that, anything goes. This can be made with fresh, canned and drained or thawed and drained frozen fruit. I use either lemon or vanilla flavor pudding. The lemon pudding will keep the apples white, but kids usually like this better made with vanilla pudding.  I use sugar-free.  Pineapple tidbits are smaller so I like to use them, but  chunks are OK.

I usually use a few maraschino cherries, quartered, for color, but if you prefer dried cranberries can be used instead.  Sliced banana may be added just before serving. 

This is quick and easy and can be made ahead.

Autumn Apple Salad

1 (20 oz.) can pineapple tidbits or chunks, undrained
1 small pkg. instant lemon or vanilla pudding mix, can be sugar free.
1 small can mandarin oranges, drained
2 medium apples, peeled and chopped
1 can  (15 oz.) fruit cocktail, drained or 1 can peaches or pears, drained and chopped or 2 fresh peaches or pears, peeled and chopped
8 maraschino cherries, drained and quartered

Pour pineapple chunks into a serving bowl.  Add instant pudding mix and combine well.  Stir in remaining ingredients.  Chill a few hours to combine flavors.  Makes 6 to 8 servings.

 
 Linking to:  Strut Your Stuff
Seasonal Inspirations
Weekend Potluck
I'm Lovin' It
Saturday Night Special
Weekend Bloggy Reading

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Friday Finds

Since my own blog seemed to gotten overwhelmed with sweet things this week, I thought I should make up for it here.  So I am sharing some non sweet recipes and ideas from my travels around the blogsphere this week.  First, more recipes to make with my slow cooker.

Crockpot Cashew Chicken

Hugs and Punches

An oriental-inspired dish for the slow cooker.  This one goes to the top of my "recipes to make with my slow cooker" list.

Chinese Roast Pork

The Frugal Farm Wife

Another oriental-inspired recipe, and pork is one meat that I have been happy with when cooked in a slow cooker.  Another recipe going to the top of the list.

 Slow-Cooker Maple Mustard Chicken

Chef in Training

Just 4 simple ingredients and a slow cooker.  I am not sure that it could get easier than this.  Maple and mustard is a great flavor combination.

Soups are a mainstay for the lunches we have at our house so I am always looking for new recipes to try.

Steak Soup

Learning the Ropes One Recipe at a Time

At one time, I would not have used steak to make soup, but since ground beef is now as expensive to purchase as round steak, I think I will give this one a try.  It looks delicious and healthy.

 Navy Bean Soup

In Him We Live and Move and Have Our Being

I don't make a lot of bean soup as hubby is not necessarily a fan, but I am going to try this one anyway.

 Pasta Fagioli Soup

Stella B's Kitchen

This is a meatless version which I want to try.  I have made a version with ground beef which we like a lot.

Make Ahead Minced Garlic

Kalyn's Kitchen

Kalyn shows an easy method of making minced garlic and freezing it.  The defrosted garlic can be kept in the refrigerator up to a week.

Copy Cat Red Robin Seasoning

SumptuousSpoonfuls

I am not sure that I have ever had Red Robin Seasoning, but I love to find new homemade seasoning mix ideas.  The dried tomato powder may be a little hard to find.  I may try tomato bouillon which I can get in the Hispanic section of my grocery store and leave out the salt and see what happens.

As always the photos were taken by and are the property of the owners of the respective blogs represented.

Join me in clicking on over to Finding Joy in My Kitchen's Friday Favorite Finds to see what other bloggers have found this week.

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