Gratitude and a Birthday Cake

Those smiles bring me so much joy.  

If you look closely you can see all three of them have the same dimple on their chin.  (When Anna was born the nurse exclaimed, "She has her father's dimple!")

They all have the same goofy sense of humor.      

To celebrate my husband's birthday this week my daughter wanted to bake his birthday cake all by herself.   She did a FABULOUS job and the cake was crazy good.  

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Just How HARD Could This Be?

Please don't look at my cake too carefully.   I thought the pin I saw of the Sunflower Peeps Cake was cute, and how hard could it be to make?

Let me tell you just how hard it could be:

1.  Both cakes did NOT come out of the pan neatly (I floured the pans just like I usually do, too!).  

2. That's ok, because I could just "frost" them back together.

3.  I frosted the cake before I put it on the cake plate.  Dumb move.   

4.  Moving the cake from the place where it was frosted to the cake plate was HILARIOUS!   I literally had to yell for my son's help (he was the only one home) to come RUNNING to my aid before the cake fell apart as I was trying to transfer it to the cake plate.

5.  I'm not the neatest baker in the world.   Therefore, some of the Peeps have chocolate frosting on them. This is because my seven year old son was literally BEGGING me for Peeps while I was frosting the cake.  Nothing is cuter than your sweet little boy with a chocolate frosted face eating Peeps.   I love that kid.  

So, here is my Sunflower Peeps Cake.    It's cute, don't you think?

The most important thing is that I loved making it for my family and I hope it makes everyone smile at Easter dinner tomorrow.

{ I think I'll stick to blogging about homeschool matters, because I'm clearly not a food blogger! } 

I'm also making these items to go with our Honey Baked Ham:

Cranberry Gelatin Salad

Grandma's Green Bean Casserole

Add some potato salad and rolls and we're all set.  

What does your family do for Easter dinner?

God's blessings to you for a joyous Resurrection Day!  

What's for Dinner? My Favorite Mexican Dish!

I LOVE Mexican food.   My favorite dish is Chicken Chilaquiles, which I order every.single.time we go out to eat Mexican.  We have been eating out a lot less recently - trying to save every single penny we can.   So, I had to find a recipe to satisfy my craving. 

Before I share the recipe with you, I have to tell you (as I've told you before!) how much I love Plan to Eat!    This is the way I save recipes, make shopping lists, and organize my family's eating.   You can sign up for a free trial for one month.   I think you'll be impressed! 

Chicken Chilaquiles Casserole

Layer your chips (I love Mission Tortilla Strips) in the bottom of your casserole dish:

Pour some of your salsa verde (I added cilantro, too) over the chips.

Add roasted, shredded chicken on top of that.

Then, top it off with frozen corn.

And shredded cheese (of course!).

Repeat all of these layers again, and then bake.

  I also made some quesadillas, because this dish had a little kick to it.  My kids aren't huge fans of spicy foods. 


See, I'm not a gourmet cook - but I keep us all fed and happy.  I get points for that, right?   I'm also happy that I've found a system that works for me and takes some of the drudgery out of grocery shopping.  

To see the recipe, visit my Plan to Eat recipe book.   


Let me know if you use Plan to Eat or what you think of it...