I have been playing around with ingredients lately and I bought a pork tenderloin to try out. I love teriyaki sauce so I thought I’d give it a whirl with a pork tenderloin.

Teriyaki Pork Tenderloin Crock-Pot Recipe

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 pounds pork tenderloin
• 1/4 cup teriyaki sauce
• 1 cup chicken broth, or if you have chicken stock on hand, use about a tablespoon of that.
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic, or use fresh – totally up to you.
• 1 packet of onion soup mix
• Salt & pepper

In a frying pan, sprinkle with salt & pepper, then brown the pork tenderloin with olive oil. I used light, but that’s up to your preference.

Brown on all sides, including the ends.

In your crock-pot, mix together the teriyaki sauce, chicken broth or chicken stock, minced garlic and onion soup mix. Once the pork tenderloin is in the crock-pot, use a spoon and pour some of the liquid over the pork tenderloin.

Cover and cook on high for 8 hours.

Once it’s done, the smell is amazing! Take it out, cut, serve and enjoy!

The salt and pepper are all that you really need to add. The combination between the onion soup mix and the teriyaki sauce really season this beautifully!

With this meal, I used some of the leftover juice from the all day simmer to make a brown gravy.

Put in a pan, add some corn starch, wisk and add to the meat.

Serve with your choice of sides and enjoy your Crock-Pot Teriyaki Pork Tenderloin!

I seriously don’t know what I’d do without my Crock-Pot! I don’t like to slave hours over a meal when it takes just 5 minutes for the family to scarf it down.

When I was a child, I lived for the month of December, and in large part, it was because of the holiday baking and treat making that happened from day 1 to day 24. I didn’t think there was anything quite like frosting cookies, making giant messes with the sprinkles, “gluing” eyes and buttons onto goofy gingerbread men and making all other sorts of yummy, delicious, festive treats. Today you can find ideas for whipping up almost anything with your kids, but unfortunately, not many of them are geared for the little, little ones to help with. When Tanya so graciously agreed to allow me to write a piece for Mixin’ Kitchen, I knew I wanted to dedicate a post to holiday treat making that even her little ones could get involved in. If you’ve got your own children that you would love to share some holiday treat-making with, here are a few of my very favorite ideas!

Sugar Cone Trees!

This one is so fun and easy! All you need are sugar waffle cones, a batch of frosting (sample recipe listed below) and a variety of candy. Turn the cones upside down for the kids and give them bowls of frosting (green works best!) and let them have at it! You’ll have instant Christmas trees in no time. Adding on candy for ornaments will add just the right final touch. You can use these guys for décor or eat them as soon as they’re done!

Dipped Marshmallows

Even your three year olds can have fun with this one. All you need are large marshmallows, melting chocolate, wooden food sticks and a variety of fun toppings like sprinkles and candies. Warm the chocolate and place in dunking bowls for your children. Make sure the chocolate is not overly hot so that it’s safe enough if little fingers get dipped too. Kids can place their sticks in the marshmallows and then “dunk” them in the warm chocolate. Finish with a topping of their favorite sprinkles and mini candies. Put a Hershey kiss on top for a hat (attach with a frosting) and a face on the side for extra fun! Not eating the marshmallows when the chocolate is warm and dripping is the hardest part.

S’more Cookies

If your kids are in the mood for making “cookies” but you feel it might be a little advanced, go for “s’more” cookies. There’s still a little time in the oven, so it feels more like baking than the other treat ideas geared for young ones. Have your little ones place graham cracker squares on a cookie sheet and then top them with chocolate chips and holiday colored candies like M&Ms or even red and green Reese’s Pieces. Place the cookie sheets in the oven and allow to “bake” just until the chocolate starts to melt. Remove, and making sure that little hands don’t touch the hot cookie sheets (you can give them back their graham cracker squares on plates), let them top with a layer of mini-marshmallows. Put the crackers back on the cookie sheet and place back in the oven just until the marshmallows start to puff and turn golden brown. You’ll have festive s’more cookies in no time!

Graham Cracker Gingerbread Houses

This is one of my favorite ideas ever! I absolutely loved decorating gingerbread houses as a child (and still do, in fact!) but baking the walls and roofs is time consuming and not much fun. Without having to go buy pre-made packages, you can whip out a box of graham crackers, quickly throw together some royal icing (recipe below) and your little ones have all the ingredients for crafting mini graham cracker “gingerbread houses”! A supply of all your candy on hand will serve for the remaining décor.

Cut-Out “Cookies”

For the little ones anxious to get their hands on cookie cutters, the easiest thing I’ve found to do, rather than mixing up and baking batch after batch of sugar cookies that they won’t be able to help with, is to make Rice Krispies treats instead. While still warm, just after stirring in the marshmallows, place onto a large sheet of waxed paper and roll out thin. Then hand off the cookie cutters and let your little guys go to town (works better before they harden)! They can even frost and decorate just like sugar cookies.

Holiday Wreath Snacks

Instead of using Rice Krispies, you can switch out the Krispies for Corn Flakes. Add a drop or two of green food coloring into the butter/marshmallow mix and make like normal. Then spoon out large helpings of the mixture onto waxed paper and let your little ones shape into circles with holes in the middle (let cool slightly before they touch). Then they can decorate with red hot candies and thin red licorice strings (tied in bows) to make fun and festive holiday wreaths.

Basic Icing Recipe

• 4 cups powered sugar
• 4-5 Tablespoons milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Combine sugar and milk, blend on low speed. Add vanilla, continue blending until completely mixed. Add more liquid or sugar to reach desired consistency.

These are just a few of the many ideas available for young children and holiday sugar-y fun! So go grab your kids, turn on the Christmas music, pour everyone a mug of hot cocoa (with marshmallows) and have some fun together making yummy, easy holiday treats!

Image source: onecharmingparty.com via Dawn on Pinterest

Image Source: karaspartyideas.blogspot.com via Sherry on Pinterest

Author Tara Alley is graham cracker addict, caramel roll baking connoisseur and full time writer for www.air-n-water.com. When not writing site content, she reaches out to write foodie articles every chance she gets.

I was inspired by this post to do something different when it comes to holiday baking.

Introducing my Wilton created melting snowmen fight cookies

Melting Snowmen Cookies & Snowball Fight

I used Wilton’s Giant Round Cookie Pan to create the large chocolate chip cookie. I took 3 balls of sugar cookie dough and made uneven piles for the snowmen, baked and once they were cooled, I used Wilton White Cookie Icing and pretty much just took the lid off the container and poured until I liked the way the melt looked.

Then, I took 3 large marshmallows, put in the microwave for just a couple of seconds (long enough to make them mushy), placed on top of the wet icing and pushed my thumb in to them to make them appear more ‘melted’.

I used mini chocolate chips for the buttons, Wilton candy sprinkles for the eyes, nose and bow ties, then I took some Wilton Ready to decorate Black Icing and created the mouths and arms. For the snowball fight, I used miniature marshmallows that I pulled out of a packet of hot chocolate mix.

Once my melting snowmen were created, I colored some regular icing that I had on hand with Wilton’s Christmas Red, put in a disposable bag with a tip and created the outside of the cookie. I did this because when I took it out of the pan, there were just a few cracks in the cookie itself. Plus, it made it pretty to look at.

I was at an event with Smucker’s this past week where we had a lot of hands on experience from learning about the differences in Coffee, food photography (info to come!), as well as learning how to make our own homemade pie crusts using Crisco.

I did have a lot of fun and I learned a lot about how to mix, create and bake that perfect pie crust, as well as how to make the most beautiful Pumpkin Pie. While I am not a pie baker, I am more of a decorator, I have decided that I will leave the pie baking to my fabulous mother in law. You don’t have to know how to make your own homemade pie crusts, but you can still get that homemade flavor from refrigerated pie crusts from Pillsbury, which is what I use a lot in my kitchen for baking as well as to create fresh new meal ideas for my family.

Eagle Brand Pumpkin Pie

Ingredients

• 1 (15 oz.) can pumpkin (about 2 cups)
• 1 (14 oz.) can Eagle Brand® Sweetened Condensed Milk
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 (9-inch) unbaked pie crust

Instructions

• HEAT oven to 425°F. Whisk pumpkin, sweetened condensed milk, eggs, spices and salt in medium bowl until smooth. Pour into crust.
• BAKE 15 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350°F; bake an additional 35 to 40 minutes or until knife inserted 1-inch from crust comes out clean. Cool. Garnish as desired.

While I, personally, am not a fan of pumpkin pie, I loved learning all about the ingredients and all the tips on how to create that perfect pie crust which I can create for my favorite; Chocolate Pie. I don’t use pie crusts just for pie baking; I use pie crusts to make things like I am creating tonight…. a pastry filled with diced potatoes, cheese and seasonings, topped with homemade chili. Sounds amazing, doesn’t it? I will post the recipe and directions once I make sure it is tasty.

You can find more about Pillsbury, Eagle Brand, and Crisco by visiting the links attached to each brand. Be on the look out for some tester recipes that I am working on this weekend and this upcoming week!

When you are getting ready to head out to do some grocery shopping, how do you prepare yourself? I have tried several things ranging from setting reminders on my phone to post it notes to remind me of all the things I need to get, components for recipes that I want to try and even gift ideas for family for the upcoming holidays. I have been using a new app on my iPad that I really like called Grocery Guru.

What is Grocery Guru?

Simply put, Grocery Guru is the ultimate shopping tool. Grocery Guru is a FREE mobile application that allows you to create customized grocery lists on your cell phone that you can then sync with your computer! You can watch the video below on all the cool features of the Grocery Guru app and how it can help you get grocery shopping done in the most efficient way.

With Grocery Guru, you are able to create lists, check off items in store on your phone and share with friends to help get the job done. Create, manage and share your grocery lists at home and in-store with Grocery Guru. While I do not have my iPhone anymore, you are able to use this on the iPad. Four words: I. Love. This. App! Anytime I go out for a day of errands and grocery shopping, I take my iPad with me to help keep me on track with what all I need to do.

Once you download Grocery Guru, you are able to see your grocery lists, create a new list, invite friends to check out Grocery Guru and more.

Within my lists, I have created two lists. On Friday, Kambry and I are going to run some errands and visit Sam’s so that we can stock up on some bulk items. Also, with the upcoming holidays, I created a whole list all in itself that has gift ideas for friends and family, as well as a list of the kids’ ‘wants and needs’ for clothes, toys, etc. for Christmas. There are so many times that I will be out and someone will call and ask what one of the kids has on their wish list for birthdays or Christmas. With this list, I can pull up their wish list right away.

There are so many different categories within the lists that you create.

Here is what it looks like once you get your list created. I love that it organizes everything in to the appropriate department.

What platforms is Grocery Guru available on?

Currently, Grocery Guru is available on:

• iPhone
• Blackberry
• Android

You can download the app here.

Another thing that I have found that I love about Grocery Guru, is that you can look up recipes and get some new ideas for dinner… and along with those recipes, it has all the ingredients that you need just like a Build A Burger Bar for yummy burgers to solve just about everyone’s taste. I am always looking for new recipes for my family, so this is a great addition!

If you are like me and are always on the go or always trying to find ways to keep your lists organized, Grocery Guru is a great app to get you organized! You don’t have to have just Android, iPhone or Blackberry – as I said above, I have this on my iPad and it works beautifully!

For more information on Grocery Guru, be sure to check out http://see.walmart.com/groceryguru

I am working on a campaign for Lunchbox and will be compensated for my time. All thoughts and opinions are 100% my own.

It’s just about that time of year where we are pulling out the fall clothes and where hot cocoa sounds oh so yummy! I looked in my cabinets only to find that hubby had drank all of our instant hot cocoa mix, so I decided to try something new.

Homemade Hot Cocoa

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup Nestle Baking Cocoa
• 4 cups of milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon

In a pan, whisk together the sugar, baking cocoa & cinnamon over medium heat. Gradually stir in the milk and vanilla. Stir constantly until hot, but do not boil. Feel free to add whipped cream on top! Sip and enjoy!

I use a Wolfgang Puck Bread Machine and love to make different things in it, other than just homemade bread. I have made pizza dough, as well as Monkey Bread. If you haven’t tried Monkey Bread – you are missing out!

Bread Machine Monkey Bread

Dough Ingredients (Put in machine in order as below)

• 1 cup water
• 2 tablespoons margarine, softened
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast

Topping Ingredients

• 1 cup margarine
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 cup raisins (optional)
• 1/4 cup of chopped pecans (optional)

Sugar Mixture

• 1 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons cinnamon

Directions

1. In the order of ingredients, place in bread machine. Make sure the yeast is on top of the dry mixture & doesn’t touch the liquid, until the bread machine is started.
2. At the top of the powdered mixture, place the yeast. Make sure that no liquid comes in contact with the yeast. Select dough cycle and press start.
3. When dough is complete, place dough on floured surface, knead and roll dough in to a long tube shape.
4. Cut dough in to 1 inch bites.
5. Drop one chunk at a time into the sugar mixture. Thoroughly coat dough pieces. I like to use a sifted spoon to get excess sugar off the rolled dough.
6. Layer them loosely in a greased Bundt or tube pan, staggering layers so you’re plopping each dough chunk over a space between two below.
7. Chop Pecans
8. In a medium saucepan on low heat, wisk together topping ingredients until smooth. Remove from heat.
9. Pour topping mixture over coated rolls in baking pan.
10. Bake in a preheated 375 degree F (190 degree C) oven for 20 to 25 minutes or till golden brown.
11. Remove from oven & enjoy!

Images of steps:

Steps 1 & 2

Step 3

Step 4

Step 5

Step 6

Step 7

Step 8

Step 9

Step 10

Step 11

We have breakfast for dinner a lot in our home. One of my favorite cereals growing up was Cocoa Puffs. If Cocoa Puffs weren’t great just as they are, there is a new chocolate favorite in our house; Cocoa Puffs Brownie Crunch. Oh, I went there! Cocoa Puffs + Brownies all in the same name?

Confession: We have been munching on Cocoa Puffs Brownie Crunch as a snack, and not just as a breakfast cereal.

Love the taste of brownies? You will love Cocoa Puffs Brownie Crunch!

Cocoa Puffs Brownie Crunch

With the delicious taste of brownies “baked” into every bowl, Cocoa Puffs Brownie Crunch is a delicious chocolate-y cereal ready to be enjoyed for breakfast or as a satisfying snack on the go. You will be sure to get some brownie points as your family´s taste buds delight in the perfect balance of whole grain goodness and delicious chocolate flavor in every bite.

Cocoa Puffs Brownie Crunch has at least 8 grams of whole grain (48 grams recommended daily) and a good source of calcium and Vitamin D in every serving. For chocolate lovers everywhere, Cocoa Puffs Brownie Crunch is sure to become a choco-licious go-to!

Our thoughts: With as much as we eat cereal, I was excited for our family to try this. We eat cereal for breakfast, but we also like to enjoy a cup of dry cereal as snacks or on the go. I knew that Cocoa Puffs Brownie Crunch would be chocolaty with brownie in the name, I was honestly expecting it to be a bit more brownie’ish and more chocolaty flavor. The flavor is good, but very similar to the original Cocoa Puffs cereal. This isn’t a bad thing; we just hoped for more chocolaty oomph. Overall, our family was happy with the new Cocoa Puffs Brownie Crunch cereal and I do see us buying this again.

Mommy Goggles gives this product: [rating:4]
Why this rating? This is a star rating (1-5) that is based off our opinion on the product itself, use, wear & tear, price and how it fits in to our family’s lives (at home or on the go).

The Cocoa Puffs Brownie Crunch product and, information have been provided by General Mills through MyBlogSpark. All opinions in this posting are 100% my own.

I can remember eating Chef Boyardee as a kid. Here I am, as an adult, and I still eat it and love it! My favorites are the Spaghetti & Meatballs and Mini Ravioli and Kambry’s favorite is the Mini Spaghetti & Meatballs and Mini Ravioli as well. There is 1/2 cup of vegetables per serving, so there’s another reason why I, as a mom, don’t mind feeding my family Chef Boyardee.

I love to cook, but there are times where I just don’t have the time to spend three hours on a meal that will take 5 seconds for the family to eat. While I love to eat Chef Boyardee just as they are, I had no idea that you could make quick and full family meals just from something like a lasagna bake from Chef Boyardee Ravioli or a casserole dish with pepperoni, cheese, milk, and Chef Boyardee spaghetti.

Pepperoni Spaghetti Bake

Ingredients

• PAM® Original No-Stick Cooking Spray
• 1-1/4 cups original baking mix
• 1/2 cup reduced fat (2%) milk
• 2 can (14.5 oz each) Chef Boyardee® Spaghetti & Meatballs
• 3/4 cup shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese, divided
• 1/3 cup sliced turkey pepperoni

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375°F. Spray 13×9-inch glass baking dish with cooking spray. Combine baking mix and milk in medium bowl; stir until soft dough forms.
2. Drop dough by spoonfuls on bottom of baking dish (will not completely cover bottom). Spoon 1 can spaghetti and meatballs over dough and sprinkle with 1/2 cup cheese. Top with remaining can spaghetti and meatballs, remaining 1/4 cup cheese and pepperoni.
3. Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until dough is done in centers and browned.

Cook’s Tips

Add your favorite pizza toppings, if desired. Get the kids involved with preparation; they can prepare the dough, layer the ingredients and top the dish with pepperoni.

I love to make casserole dishes and one of my favorites, as is the kids’, is a pasta bake with cheese, pepperoni and different shaped noodles. When I saw one of the Chef Boyardee Recipes used Chef Boyardee Spaghetti, I knew it was something that I wanted to try out. To my surprise, everyone in my family really liked it. Instead of making dough from scratch, we decided to drop in refrigerated biscuit dough, then sprinkled grated parmesan on top of the mozzarella cheese just before we baked it.

Looks pretty yummy, doesn’t it? It was! Another recipe that I am excited to try is the Ravioli Lasagna. Now that I have seen that you can make actual dishes with Chef Boyardee, I will be letting the creative juices flowing for some more yummy recipe ideas. I think it would be a good combination to add a can of Chef Boyardee Ravioli to the Pepperoni Spaghetti Bake to add different textures to the casserole.

With BlogHer ‘11 coming up, I am adding some of the smaller sized microwave meals to my suitcase. Anytime I travel, I like to buy or take my own snacks to help save on eating out costs. At under a buck a piece, this is what I call savvy and smart planning on any budget. Too bad I can’t pack a casserole in my carry on otherwise I’d totally do it. LOL

For more recipes, please visit Ready-Set-Eat for more Chef Boyardee recipes.

I wrote this review while participating in a campaign by Mom Central Consulting on behalf of Chef Boyardee and received a gift card to facilitate my review and a promotional item to thank me for taking the time to participate. All opinions in this posting are 100% my own.

A few weeks ago, I first tried a new product, affresh Stainless Steel Cleaner from Whirlpool, on my stainless steel fridge. With two kids that are constantly in and out of the fridge and always playing in the kitchen and putting their artwork on the fridge… there is always handprints and smudges on the fridge.

affresh Stainless Steel Cleaner

Affresh® Stainless Steel Cleaner gently cleans the fingerprints, smudges, and residue left behind from daily use. The cleaner combines commonly used cleaning agents with special ingredients that, when used as part of a normal maintenance program, can help prevent the formation of residue that can build-up on stainless steel surfaces.

After 4 weeks, I can say that I have noticed a dramatic different in my fridge. My stainless steel fridge definitely looks cleaner longer, but also, affresh has made it easier TO clean just after the first cleaning.

Just before the first use of affresh, my fridge always showed smudges.

First use

4 weeks later

I do see a difference in the upkeep of the look of my stainless steel fridge. I find myself not having to clean it near as often because the affresh does seem to help maintain the overall look and prevent smudges. I have even been using affresh to clean my small countertop appliances like my stainless water filtration station and stand mixer. Overall, I highly recommend affresh Stainless Steel Cleaner for stainless steel appliances.

You can get more information about Affresh by visiting their website at www.affresh.com

Mommy Goggles gives this product: [rating:5]
Why this rating? This is a star rating (1-5) that is based off our opinion on the product itself, use, wear & tear, price and how it fits in to our family’s lives (at home or on the go).

I wrote this review while participating in a campaign by Mom Central Consulting on behalf of affresh and received product samples and a promotional item to thank me for taking the time to participate. All opinions in this posting are 100% my own.