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Pumpkin Crunch Bars

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Pumpkin Crunch Bars

Start with canned pumpkin and a box cake mix and end up with a delicious, rich dessert very similar to a pumpkin pie!  One of my favorite goodies of the season is a slice of pumpkin pie.  This poses a problem as I am not a skilled pastry chef and honestly, pie crust scares me!  Too many variables and the mess of rolling it out, nope, I just can’t bring myself to deal with it!

This EASY recipe mirrors the perfect pumpkin custard in a pie without the worry of a pastry crust!  Plus, the topping is ONLY 2 ingredients! How amazing is that?!

📍Pin it HERE for later!

Ingredients:

  • 1 – 15 oz. can pumpkin puree
  • 1 – 12 oz. can evaporated milk
  • 1 1/2 c. sugar
  • 3 eggs
  • 1 t. cinnamon
  • 1/4 t. nutmeg
  • 1/4 t. allspice
  • 1/4 t. salt
  • 1 yellow cake mix
  • 1 stick butter, melted
  • 1 c. pecan or walnuts (totally optional!)

Lets make it:

Preheat oven to 350°.  Grease a 9×13 pan.  Mix all ingredients except cake mix, butter & nuts.  Once smooth, pour into prepared pan.  Sprinkle the cake mix over the top.  Top with nuts if using.  Carefully drizzle the butter over the top.  It is okay if it isn’t all covered completely with butter.  Bake 45 minutes to 1 hour until set and browned.  A knife will come out clean.  Allow to cool and serve with a dollop of whip cream if desired!

Easy Halloween Monster Krispy Treats & Pretzel Eye Balls, Pumpkins & Ghosts!

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Easy Halloween Monster Krispy Treats & Pretzel Eye Balls, Pumpkins & Ghosts!

Create super easy and fun Halloween treats using colored melting chocolates and sprinkles!  These come together in MINUTES and look adorable & festive on a tray.

📌 Pin HERE for later!

Monster Krispy Treats

  • Prepared Rice Krispy Treats Cut into rectangles.  Go ahead and cheat here – purchase some store bought ones!
  • Various Colored Melting Chocolate Wafers.  I prefer the Wilton brand.
  • Eye Ball Decorating Candies in different Sizes

Melt the wafers according to package directions.  Dip the Krispy Treats halfway into the chocolate.  Decorate each with the eye ball candies.  Mix and match the sizes and layout.  There is no exact science and just have fun!  Allow to set.

Eye Ball Pretzels

  • Ring Pretzels
  • White Melting Chocolate Wafers
  • Red Sanding Sugar
  • M&M Candies
  • Black Frosting or Melting Chocolate

Line a baking sheet with the pretzel rings.  Put a white wafer inside each.  Preheat oven to 250º – and shut it off.  Place sheet in oven for 3-5 minutes until melted.  Remove from oven and sprinkle a bit of Red Sanding Sugar on each ‘eye ball’.  Top each one with a M&M.  Once set, dot the top of each M&M with the frosting or Black melted chocolate to create a pupil. Allow to set.

Pumpkin Pretzels

  • Mini Twist Pretzels
  • Orange Melting Wafers
  • Green M&Ms, Jimmy Sprinkles or similar for a ‘stem’

Melt the orange wafers according to package directions.  Dip each pretzel in the chocolate and place a green candy at the top.  Allow to set.

Ghost Pretzels

  • Mini Twist Pretzels
  • White Chocolate, Almond Bark or Melting Wafers
  • Small Eye Ball Candy Decorators

Melt white chocolate according to package directions. Dip each pretzel into chocolate.  Add 2 eye balls at the top and allow to set.

💰 Super saver tip 💰:   Shop holiday clearance and grab decorative sprinkles marked down.  Craft stores like JoAnn Fabrics & Michaels are great places to look!  Dip pretzel rods in melted chocolate and add some fun seasonal sprinkles & instantly dress up your table with fun themed snacks for pennies!

 

NO McDonalds Szechuan Sauce for you! (or you, or you, or you!) Marketing disaster, or a genius plan? #szechuansauce

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NO McDonalds Szechuan Sauce for you!
(or you, or you, or you!)

Marketing disaster, or a genius plan?

 

Today at about 10am my son came in my office by me and said he had to go to McDonalds 30 minutes away to get a limited addition Szechuan Sauce at 2pm.

Now first let me explain, my son is not a big fan of McDonalds, and if he does eat there, it is only when they bring back their McRib once a year, so I was very puzzled by him saying this which I am sure he could tell by the look I gave him followed by “The what sauce?” He then goes into this big explanation about a sauce McDonald’s had back when the Disney Mulan Movie was released in 1998. (mind you he would have been FIVE YEARS OLD, so now I am even more confused) He goes on to explain and starts talking about someone named “Rick & Morty.” At this point I am looking into the other room to see where exactly my husband is because I am thinking our son has completely lost his mind.

Oh… Did I mention, Yup, you guessed it… He is a Millennial.

So let me explain to you what I finally found out, after his father “translating” it to me.

There is a popular adult cartoon show on Cartoon Networks Adult Swim called “Rick & Morty” which is about a mad scientist named Rick who takes his Grandson Morty on crazy adventures around the Universe. In the recent Season 3 premiere of the show, it is all about finding the elusive “Szechuan Sauce.” which prompted a petition to be circulated after a tweet that over 44,000 fans signed asking McDonalds to bring back this sauce so they could try it. Which brings us to today…..

McDonalds responded with buttermilkcrispytenders.com. The sauce would return to select stores in limited amounts, at 2 p.m. on Saturday, October 7th. And as you can see on their website, it would be VERY LIMITED, they put….. “And when we say limited, we mean really, really limited!”

Lucky me, a store 30 minutes away was going to have this and my husband and son both wanted to go (note sarcasm).  Now, I did not have to go, but I had some places to stop at in this city anyways, so I might as well go along instead of making a special trip next week.

12:30pm, We head out of town, get to the McDonalds at about 1 p.m. and the parking lot is PACKED! Yup, I will just wait in the car!

5 minutes later my cell phone is ringing which is followed by “Mom, they do not have any sauce, just posters but we are going to wait!” I think to myself “That is odd, I even looked at the website and it said they would have it, how do they not have any?” After then going to McDonalds facebook page and twitter to double check what was going on, come to find out myself and many others nationwide did not read the fine print which read “Each McDonald’s in the location finder will give away limited-edition posters and stickers, while supplies last; only the McDonald’s locations labeled “Szechuan Available” will be giving away Szechuan Sauce, while supplies last”

Needless to say, A LOT of upset customers, some who had been waiting hours and hours to get this “Amazing Sauce.”

A half hour later my son and husband return to the car, neither have a poster (it is being reported on facebook and twitter most locations only got 10 posters) But they did each buy a 4 pack of the buttermilk crispy tenders which were rather tasty, along with a sticker (photo below) and a coupon for a free 4 piece tenders.

They were both a little disappointed, but after some further  investigating, I am seeing at many locations that were actually suppose to have sauce none was available, and for locations that did have the sauce, they were only shipped 20 of them. 10? Really? Most stores had 100 plus eager patrons standing in line.

Right now Social media is a buzz with “McDonalds Fail” and their marketing planning, But the more and more I think about it…. Was it a fail on their part? Talk of their “Szechuan Sauce” is going on all over including many top newspapers writing articles about it. Hashtag #szechuansauce is buzzing right now, and many of us in the U.S. who had no idea what this sauce was all about, now are hearing about it, and even I want to try it after seeing the demand for it!

Isn’t the saying “Even bad publicity is good publicity.”

So I wonder… in a few months, to “make up” for todays fail, Will McDonalds do a nationwide release of this sauce? I guess only time will tell, but I could definitely see this being one of the best marketing campaigns of all time!

 

Homemade Play Dough

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Homemade Play Dough

 

When the supply list came home for back to school and it said Play Doh (homemade is preferred) I had a moment of panic.  Homemade Play Dough? Really, that doesn’t sound like something I should attempt.  Well, after scouring the internet and reading blogs and reviews, I put on my Pinterest Mom Pants and went for it! … and guess what?  IT’S EASY, turns out PERFECT, and uses pantry staple ingredients!

What you need:

  • 1 c. flour
  • 1/2 c. salt
  • 2 teaspoons cream of tartar
  • 1 teaspoon cooking oil (canola or vegetable)
  • 1 cup cold water
  • Food coloring as desired
  • Latex gloves (if you don’t want food colored finger nails!)

 

 

Now, lets make some play dough

In a medium sauce pan, mix everything except food coloring.  Cook over medium low heat, stirring constantly for 3-5 minutes or until mixture pulls away from the sides of the pan. Once it starts to thicken, you will want to switch from a whisk to a wooden spoon.  It will be MUCH easier to move around the pan!  The dough will have the consistency of mashed potatoes and become very hard to stir.  Make sure it is stiff and set.

Remove from the heat and turn out to a clean, dry surface.  Allow to cool for 1 minute.  At this point, I would recommend throwing the gloves on to keep those hands clean and dye free!  Add food coloring to tint as desired.  To attain a rich deep color I suggest a good quality gel food color.  Don’t be afraid to add a lot.  It will take more than you think to get a vibrant color.  Knead the coloring into the dough for several minutes to distribute color and cool dough.

Allow dough to completely cool, uncovered, for an hour.  Knead occasionally to keep it from drying out on the surface.  Store in an air tight container.

While the ingredients are non-toxic, given the high salt content, please do not eat the dough!

📌 Pin HERE for later!

 

 

Luuup 3 Sifting Tray Litter System B2G1 FREE

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Disclaimer: This post may contain affiliate links. You can view MCC’s Full Disclosure Policy HERE.

If you like Shopping Online, Join our Deals Group on Facebook HERE!

Luuup 3 Sifting Tray Litter System B2G1 FREE

Toss your scoop and ditch your litter liner. Meet the only litter box you’ll want to come home to.  Luuup is more than a litter box. It’s functional and stylish.  Grab these innovative litter boxes for $49.95 OR Buy 2 and get 1 FREE!   That is 3 complete litter box sets for $99 & FREE shipping.  View in depth instruction on this litter box works HERE.

 

 

Lumber Jack Birthday Party

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Lumber Jack Birthday Party

When your son asks for a ‘sawmill’ birthday party you stop and ponder how does one make that happen? I knew there was no way to make a physical ‘sawmill’ cake for him!  So after a little searching around we settled for a more streamlined Lumber Jack Theme!  A few easy treats and toys we had already made for an adorable tablescape!

The CAKE – a Tree Stump!

I baked 2 round cakes and stacked them on a cake tray.  For the frosting you can use a store bought or homemade buttercream.  For this, I made a classic buttercream.  Once mixed, I removed a few cups and added a sprinkle of cocoa powder to tint it slightly tan.  Then added more cocoa powder to the rest and some brown food color to get deep brown bark color.

For decorating:

Fill a piping bag or ziptop bag with the dark brown frosting and snip a small opening.  Making straight lines up and down cover the entire cake.  Neatness doesn’t matter and it doesn’t have to be exact. Just get that tree stump covered in bark! Then make a circle around the top, outer edge of the cake.  Let frosting set and slightly dry for about 20 minutes.  Using a flat edge (knife, narrow spatula or flat pastry spreader) press the frosting upwards to give a pattern of bark, slightly overlapping each pass. Again, neatness isn’t required and there is no exact science! You cannot mess this up.  For the top, simply fill another piping bag with the lighter frosting.  Swirl in circles and create a ‘growth ring’ like pattern.

The SNACKS!

Birch Logs: 

Dip pretzel rods in white melting chocolate.  Drizzle with dark chocolate or black melting wafers to create the ‘birch tree’ look.

Acorns:

Using the melting chocolate from the logs above put a small dab on Hershey’s Kisses & press onto Vanilla Wafers. Top with a butterscotch or peanut butter chip using the same melted chocolate.

Evergreen Trees:

Melt green melting wafers and put in a piping bag or ziptop bag.  Lay pretzel sticks on parchment paper and carefully drizzle the chocolate side to side into a free form tree shape over the sticks.

Fire Wood For Sale:

Pretzel Nuggets in a bowl

Wood Chips:

Mini Marshmallows, Mini Chocolate Chips, and Granola in bowl

To finish out the table, I added a log hauling truck we had, plus a few chain saw toys, logs, and photo props to add to the fun.  Plus we used red balloons, bowls and plates over a black table cloth bringing the lumber jack ‘flannel’ into the party.

 

📍 Pin HERE

 

 

 

No Melt ‘Ice Cream’ Cones

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My challenge was to make “Ice Cream Cone Treats” for a bake sale. I wanted to do the cupcake ones in the cones, but they tend to get soggy.  Plus, I would have had to make them the night before, so it would have been worse.  Instead, we did a spin on them with things I had in the cupboard! After making these with my son and seeing how much fun we had, I think it would be a GREAT idea to make at a birthday or slumber party. 📌 Pin it HERE for use later!

No Melt ‘Ice Cream’ Cones

Ingredients:

  • Sugar Cones
  • Camp size marshmallows (the big ones)
  • Melting Chocolate Wafers (any colors) or chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, almond bark, butterscotch chips)
  • Sprinkles
  • Red Candy – we used bite size Twizzlers, but could use a red gum drop, red M&M’s, red Sixlets, etc.
  • Disposable aluminum cake or lasagna sized pan

Directions:

  • Cut the top & bottom of the marshmallow around the edge so it will fit in the cone, but tight enough so that you still have to stuff it just a bit that is will stay stuck in the cone. This will be your ice cream! We also cut around the top with a kitchen sheers so it had more of an ice cream scoop look! If it requires too much stuffing, cut off a little bit more so it doesn’t break your cone (we lost 2 cones from over stuffing, but no complaints, they were a nice snack ).
  • Carefully melt your chocolate over a double boiler  or in the microwave.  Dunk your ice cream (marshmallow) in the melted chocolate of your choice! We used what we had on hand, but any color chocolate would be fun!

  • Roll in sprinkles! (hey, NOT YOU, the “ice cream” scoop. Though rolling around in sprinkles I may have to add to my bucket list, that just sounds like fun!)
  • Put a spoonful chocolate melted chips on top of the cone (milk, semi-sweet, dark – as long as it’s brown). This is your hot fudge!
  • Top with your red candy to look like a cherry!

  • To set, I put holes in an aluminum foil pan to hold them (and also used some of our water bottles that had small top openings and some wine glasses, I have plenty of those in the kitchen).
  • I picked up the clear treat bags at the Dollar Tree and individually wrapped each cone!

Here is our final product. Simple to do and they taste OH SO YUMMY!

This fun little project was written by a dear friend and Midwest Coupon Clippers follower Brooke. A huge thanks to her and cute little Tucker for their continued help thru the years.

📌 Pin it HERE for use later!

 

 

 

John Deere Tractor Farm Birthday Party

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John Deere Tractor Farm Birthday Party

 

My son is John Deere Tractor OBSESSED and refers to himself as a John Deere Farmer Kid. He lives for those green and yellow tractors and spots them everywhere we go.  When he said he wanted a John Deere Birthday party, I knew that we had to go all in! Taking inspiration from the tractors and farm equipment toys we had around the house, I put together a simple spread of treats and snacks representing all things John Deere!

For the cake, using a flat cardboard sheet and mini cupcakes, I arranged them into a rough tractor shape.  Using tinted frosting and piping gel, the tractor came to life.

 

Our guests were treated to sugar cookies (with green and yellow sprinkles) in a tractor loader bucket, ‘hay bale’ rice crispy treats loaded onto a semi flatbed, and corn nuts in the grain hauler wagon right from the combine!  Of course we had to include a farm fresh veggie tray and being from the Midwest every good dairy farmer puts out a cheese tray!

 

Check out these simple cups we made ourselves.  Using dollar store colored cups and stickers, we made our own themed cups for a just a few bucks!  It was a fun project to keep small hands occupied and easily included him in the party prep!

 

With few toys and a bit of prep, my not so little anymore ‘farmer kid’ had a fun birthday party.  Everyone had a great time and loved the personal touches!

 

 

📌 Pin it HERE

 

Easter Bunny Suckers

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This post contains affiliate links and we will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on our links. You can view MCC’s Full Disclosure Policy HERE.  

Easter Bunny Suckers

📌 Pin it HERE

Turn those classic Saf-T-Pops that we all remember getting from the doctor into adorable Easter Bunny treats in just a few easy steps!

What you need:


◾ Saf-T-Pops

◾ Parchment Paper or Wax Paper

◾ White Pom Poms

◾ Ribbon

◾ Hot Glue or Craft Glue

 

 

 

These adorable treats come together in just a few steps.

Directions:

  • Cut the parchment or wax paper into 4″ squares.
  • Unwrap the suckers from their original wrappers.

Did you know they come with different letters stamped into them? My son loved looking for the letters in his name while we unwrapped them!

  • Stack 2 suckers together and wrap them up tightly in the parchment.
    I secured the paper in place with a tiny clear rubber band so I didn’t have to struggle keeping the paper in place!  
  • Trim the excess paper around the top to expose the ‘ears’.
  • Tie a simple bow around the top with ribbon.
  • Using hot glue or bit of craft glue secure that fluffy bunny tail on.

 

price & availability accurate as of
Apr 5, 2019 @ 10:38 am CST 

Hobo Hamburger Stew

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Hobo Hamburger Stew

This easy hearty soup is a hint spicy, but a little sweet. It comes together in a few minutes and you can mix and match veggies to what you prefer or have on hand.

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon of oil
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 1/2 cup celery
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 1 pound ground beef
• 2 tablespoons of all purpose flour
• 1 46-48 oz bottle of original or spicy V-8 juice
• 2 cups of diced carrots (about 2 large)
• 2 cups of corn
• 2 cups of cut green beans
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 10 dashes of hot sauce (I always use Frank’s & doesn’t make it spicy, just
rounds the flavor out)
• 1 teaspoon of kosher salt, or to taste
• black pepper, to taste
• 2 c. small cut pasta – cooked just until tender

Instructions

In the bottom of a Dutch oven or other heavy pot, heat the oil over medium high heat. Add the onions and celery; cook and stir until softened, about 4 minutes. Add the garlic and ground beef, cook and stir until meat is browned and cooked through. Drain off excess fat. Sprinkle meat with flour; cook and stir for 3 minutes. Add the V-8 juice. Stir in the carrots, corn and green beans. Add hot sauce, sugar and seasonings to taste. Stir, cover and simmer over medium to medium low (low bubble) for about 30 minutes or until veggies are tender, stirring occasionally. Taste and adjust seasonings as needed.  Feel free to add more sugar or hot sauce depending on your preferences!  Just before serving, add cooked pasta.

You can add diced potatoes, but I prefer to add the pasta. Toss in whatever veggies you have on hand. I have used diced tomatoes, peas, and even canned or frozen veggies to get it done quickly! You can skip the flour part, too if you want a runnier soup. The flour makes it rich & thick.

Idea: Serve with Homemade Beer Bread or Soft Pretzels!

 

📍 Pin HERE

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