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Sunday, January 31, 2021

National Hot Chocolate Day - January 31st

It's finally starting to get cold here in Southern California. Not as cold as other parts of the country certainly, but it's in the 40s when we go walking at night. What better way to warm up than with a warm beverage when we get home. 

Today is National Hot Chocolate Day and we've got the perfect thing to go with it!

Saturday, January 30, 2021

Saturday Morning Cereals - Cinnamon Toast Crunch Treat Bars

Sometimes you just don't have time for cereal and need something on the go. We tried Lucky Charms Treat bars not too long ago, and now we're trying Cinnamon Toast Crunch Treat bars!


And like usual, we're comparing it to the real thing. Which treat will reign supreme? 

Friday, January 29, 2021

Bob Ross Flavor Palette Paintbrush Dipping Candy

While wandering the candy aisle, I found something that seemed a bit out of place. Bob Ross? On the candy aisle? Don't get me wrong, I think Bob Ross is great, but seeing him on the candy aisle was odd. 


But apparently, there exists Bob Ross Flavor Palette Paintbrush Dipping Candy. Looking at the packaging, it's very similar to the tasty candy Lik-m-aid Fun Dip. We'll be tasting Fun Dip along with the Bob Ross candy today. 

Thursday, January 28, 2021

Making Al-Noor at Home!

One of our favorite Indian places to eat at here in the South Bay is Al-Noor. Honestly, it's one of those places that is so good that we take people who come to visit to it. And when they come visit again, they're the ones who request we eat there. One of the best entrees there is their Chicken Tikka Masala. Tonight we're going to try to recreate it at home!

Wednesday, January 27, 2021

National Chocolate Cake Day - January 27th

Today is National Chocolate Cake Day! Theresa loves making cakes for the family, so she was excited to make us all a delicious dessert today. 

Tuesday, January 26, 2021

Candy Pop M&Ms Minis Popcorn taste test

Today we're trying a new kind of popcorn. This is the Candy Pop M&M's Mini's taste test!

We're previous tried the Cookie Pop Oreo Popcorn and the Candy Pop Twix Popcorn. We liked both of those so we're happy to have a new flavor to try. 

And if you didn't notice, Ian is dressed like the Blue M&M and Alli wanted to dress like the Green M&M. 


For our taste test, we're going to be having the Candy Pop M&M's Minis Popcorn along with the M&M's Minis just by themselves. Which flavor will win out? 

Monday, January 25, 2021

Pizza at Home - Disney Treats - Goofy's Kitchen Peanut Butter & Jelly pizza - National Peanut Butter Day - January 24th

Sunday is Pizza Day, but today also happens to be National Peanut Butter Day. We celebrated earlier by making our own homemade Peanut Butter. Now we're going to continue that Peanut Butter love and make peanut butter pizza!
At Goofy's Kitchen inside the Disneyland Hotel at the Disneyland Resort, one of the special things they offer as part of the buffet is Peanut Butter and Jelly pizza. That'll be perfect for National Peanut Butter Day, and it fits with my Sunday pizza theme! 

Sunday, January 24, 2021

Saturday Morning Cereals - Cap'n Crunch's Peanut Butter Crunch - National Peanut Butter Day - January 24th

Today is National Peanut Butter Day! Peanut Butter is pretty delicious and when I saw that January 24th was National Peanut Butter Day, I knew we were going to need to do something special. In our quest to try all the different Captain Crunch Cereals available we've tried quite a few obscure flavors like Cotton Candy Crunch, Chocolatey Berry Crunch, and Sprinkled Donut Crunch. We still needed to taste the commonly available Peanut Butter Crunch. 


And to go with it, we're making our own Peanut Butter Sandwiches, but more on that after the jump. 

Saturday, January 23, 2021

Breakfast for dinner

Tonight we're having another delicious breakfast for dinner. Theresa told me that it was all her favorite breakfast foods tonight in one place! There's bagels and cream cheese, hash browns, bacon, and eggs, so that she can make a breakfast burrito!

Friday, January 22, 2021

Ian Makes - Strawberry Lemonade Ice Pop

After the kids get done with school, they're free to play, read, exercise, or come up with other interesting things. Without telling us why, Ian asked us to pick up some strawberries from the grocery store for him. One afternoon he asked for them and we finally got to see what he was up to. He wanted to make a Strawberry Juice Popsicle! Well after juicing 3 large strawberries and having about a centimeter of juice in the medicine cup, Theresa suggested he turn it into a strawberry lemonade popsicle instead. He enthusiastically agreed!

Thursday, January 21, 2021

Christmas Day Pt2

Merry Christmas 2021! After a delicious breakfast of homemade cinnamon rolls, it was time to head back to the living room and continue opening presents. 
Aubrey organized this one, and the kids have been doing a really good job keeping it a secret for the last few weeks. 

Wednesday, January 20, 2021

Alli makes Wontons

Alli loves helping out in the kitchen. Say you need help and she comes running. Hey Alli, do you want to learn how to make wontons today? 

Alli - Oh yes!

She ran off upstairs and came back with her apron that she got for Christmas. 

Tuesday, January 19, 2021

National Popcorn Day - Tasting Popcorn M&Ms and making chocolate covered popcorn - January 19th

Happy National Popcorn Day! I've been holding on to these Chocolate Popcorn M&Ms for a while now, and I think this is the perfect opportunity to taste them. 


And if we're going to taste something with a particular flavor, more often than not, we're also going to be making something with that flavor to go along with it. In this case, chocolate popcorn!
I love that the M&Ms are the same colors as the chocolate popcorn we made. White popcorn, Yellow buttery goodness, and Dark Brown chocolate drizzle. 

Monday, January 18, 2021

Pizza at Home - Alli makes Tomato Pie pizza

Happy Sunday! Today we're making a pizza special for Alli. Whenever I ask about toppings for pizza, she's been asking for the same thing for a long time. Just crust and sauce! 
I've got the perfect pizza for you then! It's called a tomato pie pizza! Also known as red bread, strip pizza, church pizza, or even cold pizza, because often this pizza is served at room temperature or even chilled!

Sunday, January 17, 2021

Stop and Smell the Roses Bike Tour

Even though it's winter throughout the rest of the country, Southern California is still beautiful. One of the things that both Alli and Theresa will remind us to do while we're on either walks or bike rides, is to stop and smell the roses. Yes, we know it's more of a general reminder to slow down and appreciate the little things around you, but roses smell fantastic, so we're going to dedicate a bike ride just to go see them!

Saturday, January 16, 2021

Fudge Oreos - Comparing all 8 available kinds

Sometimes we just like to try all the things! We've tried a bunch of different kinds of regular Oreos. There's so many different flavors available! But in all that time, we've never tasted a fudge covered Oreo. We're going to take care of them all at once and try every single flavor I can find all at the same time!


And that means today we'll be trying 8 different versions of Fudge Covered Oreos!
Available in both Minis and Regular, there's some overlap in the flavors, but as we've seen with Reeses cups and their Minis, Miniatures, Thins, Snack Cups, Regular Cups, Big Cups, and bigger, there's still preferences in which ones are the best. 
For the Oreo Minis, or Thins Bites that they call them for some reason, there's White Fudge Dipped, Fudge Dipped, Latte Creme Fudge Dipped, and Mint Creme Fudge Dipped. For the regular sized Oreos we have White Fudge Covered, Fudge Covered, Dark Chocolate Creme Dark Chocolate Fudge Covered, and Mint Creme Fudge Covered. 
I wonder why they differentiate between Dipped and Covered? 

Friday, January 15, 2021

Trying all three flavors of Cheetos Mac and Cheese

My brother keeps me in the loop on lots of interesting snack things I should test. When he sent a link to the new Cheetos Mac'n Cheese, I was definitely interested. I was only able to find one flavor at the time at my local Walmart. He found them all and shipped me all three flavors! 


There's Regular Cheetos Bold & Cheesy in the orange box. It's very appropriate that there would be a Flamin' Hot flavor too in an appropriately red box. The Cheesy Jalapeno isn't nearly as popular at the other two Cheetos Flavors, but I guess if you're going to do something like this, why not make it in three flavors. The price for these was pretty good too. Something like 95 cents a box, even here in So Cal. 

Thursday, January 14, 2021

Kool-Aid Tropical Punch Cotton Candy

Kool-Aid Cotton Candy? While I was at CVS I happened to see this randomly on the candy shelves. I like Cotton Candy, so yeah! Why not! And as I was looking around at graphics for this article, I found one of the Kool-Aid Man crashing through a wall holding cotton candy for a Mystery Flavor promotion they did recently. Gotta use that. 


The Kool-Aid Cotton Candy is Tropical Punch flavored. We'll be tasting it along side regular Kool-Aid Tropical Punch as well as Tropical Punch Kool-Aid Bursts. 

Wednesday, January 13, 2021

Kids Make - Rainbow S'mores

It's time for another kids creation! Tonight, we're making Rainbow S'mores!


Tuesday, January 12, 2021

Christmas Morning Pt1

It's a little late coming, but not as late as some other write-ups. It's Christmas morning! Merry Christmas! 

Monday, January 11, 2021

Pizza at Home - Gremolata Pan Pizza

Happy Sunday! Another day for making one of our favorite dinners. Pizza!
We've got a special one today, courtesy of a YouTube channel I follow. It's a pan pizza, similar to Pizza Hut, but with a different topping called Gremolata. Let's get started!

Sunday, January 10, 2021

Happy 40th Birthday Theresa!

Wow, has it really been 40 years? Happy Birthday Theresa!

Saturday, January 9, 2021

Saturday Morning Cereals - 3 different types of Lucky Charms - Original, Frosted Flakes, and Honey Clovers

It's Saturday morning and I'm still in bed when I hear Alli come into the room.
Alli - Daddy, can we do a taste test this morning?!?
Me (rubbing the sleep out of my eyes), sure Alli, let me go look and see what I have. 

In my taste test cabinet (yes, I have a cabinet for just my things), I find three different types of Lucky Charms. 


The marshmallows are the same, but the cereal part is very different. There's the original Lucky Charms Oat Cereal (similar to Cheerios), Lucky Charms Frosted Flakes (made from smashed corn), and Lucky Charms Honey Clovers (made of puffed corn, similar to Captain Crunch). 

Friday, January 8, 2021

Alli's Tootsie Pop Comparison - 19 different Tootsie Pop Flavors!

Mister Owl, how many different flavors of Tootsie Pop are there? 

Mister Owl - One, two, (crunch), three. 

Oh Mister Owl. Even when they were invented back in 1931 there were at least 5 flavors. Today we're trying 19 different flavors!


Wow! That's a whole bunch of different Tootsie Pops minis!

Thursday, January 7, 2021

Holiday Treats - Andes Mint Taste Test

I love that after-dinner mint known as the Andes Mint. The perfect amount of minty, chocolatey creaminess. I knew there were different varieties of Andes Mints and had thought about doing a taste test, but never got to it. Santa was watching me though and brought me 5 different Andes Mint flavors in my Christmas stocking! Perfect! Let's do a taste test! 


Today we'll be trying 5 different flavors. As I often do with these types of things, I like to do a little bit of research on the history of these. In 1921, Andrew Kanelos opened a candy shop in Illinois, calling it "Andy's Candies". Clever name, but it turned out his male customers didn't like giving boxes of candy to their girls with another guy's name on the box. Andrew decided to change the name to "Andes Candies" to address their concerns. 

Wednesday, January 6, 2021

Holiday Treats - Salted Caramel Lays Chips

This year Lay's has brought us a new Limited Time Flavor just for the holidays! Today we're tasting Lay's Salted Caramel chips. 


This reminds me of those Salted Caramel Pringles we had back in 2015

Tuesday, January 5, 2021

Holiday Treats - Making Gingerbread and Sugar cookies again!

Today we're making cookies! Yes, again! It's been fun getting together as a family and making them and decorating them, so this is the third batch of gingerbread cookies, and the second batch of sugar cookies!

Monday, January 4, 2021

National Spaghetti Day - January 4th

 Hooray! Today is National Spaghetti Day!




Pizza at Home - Kids make the pizza tonight

Happy Sunday! It's pizza day! Christmas was just a couple weeks ago and their cousin Aubrey knew how much they liked helping out in the kitchen. She gave them a present of a Young Chef cookbook plus a cute pink apron for Alli. As the kids were looking through it, they came across a recipe for pizza and asked if they could make pizza on Sunday. I think that's a fantastic idea! 

Sunday, January 3, 2021

Holiday Treats - Making a Chocolate Yule Log

Since 2014 I have challenged myself every Christmas to make a special holiday treat. It started with Gingerbread Men (2014)Homemade Candy Canes (2015)Fudge (2016), Peppermint Marshmallows (2017)Figgy Pudding (2018), and Eggnog (2019).

And even though this year I've already made my first Gingerbread House, Salted Caramels, and Surprise Sugar Cookies, I'm not counting any of those for my official yearly treat. I was having a hard time deciding what I should make this year when Theresa suggested that I try making a Yule Log cake. I've seen them at Disneyland, looking pretty fantastic, and decided that would be the perfect challenge to make this year!

Saturday, January 2, 2021

Holiday Treats - Cheetos Snowflakes

Not all these taste tests need to be big and involved. Sometimes a simple bag of Cheetos shaped like snowflakes can be fun to try. Today we're going to try these Cheetos White Cheddar Snowflakes!


Would you really give a bag of Cheetos Snowflakes as a present? This Limited Edition bag has a tag printed on it in the top corner with a To: and From: line. 

Friday, January 1, 2021

Pizza at Home - Happy New Year Black Eyed Peas Pizza

Happy New Year! Wow 2020 sure was something. Pizza is usually on Sunday, but this is New Year's Day and I've got a special pizza planned. 

Growing up in a southern family, I remember that every New Year's Day, along with our meal we'd have Black Eyed Peas. According to Southern Tradition, eating Black Eyed Peas on New Years Day is thought to bring good fortune and prosperity in the coming year. We could certainly use some of that going into 2021. 


My mother loves black eyed peas in general, but they're not always easy to come by. I was fortunate to spot a can of them at my local Walmart. Growing up, I remember sitting in the living room, everyone with a big pile of black eyed pea pods and just shelling them into a bowl while watching tv. 

Happy New Years Eve!

Happy New Year's Eve! The kids were excited to celebrate the new year!