PMS and children do not go well together.  PMS and Candy Bar Cheesecake Brownies go very well together!  I love my children dearly but today I am counting down the minutes until they go to bed so that I can calm my raging hormones with a few one of these…

Candy Bar Cheesecake Brownies

Brownie Layer
1 cup butter, melted
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
4 large eggs
3/4 cup cocoa
1 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

Cheesecake Layer
16 ounces cream cheese, softened
2/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
2 cups sliced candy bars (I used Milky Way & Snickers)

Combine melted butter with sugar and vanilla extract.
Then add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.

Stir in cocoa until well blended.

Add flour, baking powder and salt

and stir until just combined, do not overmix.

Set aside one cup of the brownie batter and smooth the rest
into a buttered (or foil lined) 9×13 pan.

Begin making your cheesecake layer by beating cream cheese and sugar until smooth.

Add the vanilla and eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.

Smooth cream cheese mixture evenly over the brownie batter.

Cut Milky Ways and Snickers
(or whatever other leftover Halloween candy you have in your pantry) into thin slices.

Sprinkle candy bar slices evenly over cream cheese layer.

Using the reserved one cup of brownie batter, drop 12-15 spoonfuls over the top of the candy bar layer.

Use a butter knife to gently swirl the batters.

Bake at 350 for 35 minutes.  Allow to cool completely before cutting into squares.

Enjoy!

source:  brownie base adapted from Two Peas & Their Pod

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I always thought that one Halloween all three of my kids would wear coordinating costumes.  I see other families with a Mickey and a Minnie, a Luke Skywalker and a Princess Leia, a princess and a knight.  It’s cute, it’s adorable!  I like the whole sibling costume coordinating thing but it’s just not going to happen in my house.  Each year one of my children is insistent upon being a certain something and as much as I try to coerce the other two into complimenting roles, they just won’t have it.  This year is no different.  After much thought from each of them, this Halloween I will be out trick-or-treating with a Star War’s Storm Trooper, a Cheerleader, and a Race Car Driver.  Totally random but they will still be just as cute as ever.  While they’re knocking on doors asking for candy, I will be munching on these roasted pumpkin seeds.  How about you, what will your kiddos be this year?

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds
2 cups raw pumpkin seeds
3 Tablespoons butter, melted
4 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon seasoning salt
1/4 teaspoon garlic salt

Use a spoon or your hands to gut the inside of your pumpkin.

Remove the seeds from the pulp and set aside.
Rinse the seeds and allow to dry overnight (if you can wait that long).

Preheat the oven to 275 degrees.
Combine the melted butter, worcetershire sauce and all the salts.

Pour the butter mixture over the pumpkin seeds and toss to coat.

 Place the seeds on a rimmed baking sheet lined with foil.

Bake for one hour stirring every 15 minutes.

Enjoy!

source:  adapted from allrecipes.com 

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In the Fall, I say a sweet goodbye to the carefree days of summer and my life becomes busy again. The kids begin a new school year, a new soccer team, a new grade. They have homework, school projects, practice, fundraisers. I have parent meetings, volunteer commitments, school conferences. The lazy days of summer are behind us and the life of schedules, structure and routine is in full swing again.

I find it a constant balancing act between the have to and the want to. Family time and fun time become things I must purposefully schedule in. One of the ways I do that is by creating traditions. Fall traditions that we do together as a family year after year, making time for each other during this busy season in our life.
Apple Hill and Bishops Pumpkin Farm have become two of our most cherished Fall traditions. We go away for the day, enjoy the outdoors, spend time together, and celebrate being a family. We come home with happy hearts and full bellies remembering who we are and what is most important in every season, each other.

Here is one of our favorite Fall indulgences that we always remember to bring back with us:

Slowly pour in the sweetened condensed milk and stir to combine.

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Snack mixes are definitely the way to go when feeding a group of hungry kids.  Sweet, salty, crunchy, chewy, a little of everything is sure to please a crowd.  After a recent soccer game, I passed out this Halloween Snack Mix to team of six and seven year old hungry boys.  It was a total hit!  My favorite little soccer player is still requesting more :)

Mix it all up and serve!

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I realize that Thanksgiving is only a couple of days away however we still have Halloween candy lurking around our house.  I really couldn’t let my kids eat all this Halloween candy and I really would have hated to see it all go to waste so instead I decided to make these leftover Halloween Candy Bar Shortbread Squares.  I’m sure the Halloween candy will be out of our house in no time now :)

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