Skinny Peanut Butter Cheesecake

For my favorite guy's birthday, I made a Skinny Peanut Butter Cheesecake to celebrate his day of birth. I originally found the recipe on Nest of Posies website here. We both were craving an Oreo crust, so I made a few modifications to the recipe. 

Skinny Peanut Butter Cheesecake

 adapted from Nest of Posies

You'll Need:

• ready made Oreo pie crust
• 2 t of softened butter
• 8 oz fat free cream cheese
• 1/2 C Stevia
• 2 T of peanut butter
• 8 oz of lite Cool Whip
• 1 T mini chocolate chips for topping

Click here to follow Nest of Posies directions for making your yummy cheesecake!

Enjoy!

Desserts & Dateline

 One afternoon I was chatting with a friend of mine who teaches preschool. She told me about the perfect little dessert that her kids made with crescent rolls, apples, cinnamon, and sugar.  Could it be? Am I the only one who didn't make this dessert as a wee little one? Sheesh. Well I'm making up for lost time now. 

I bought a package of four crescent rolls and one Granny Smith apple. After sprinkling the inside of the crescent roll with cinnamon and sugar, I added the apple (which I forgot to peel) and caramel bits. Next I rolled the crescents up and stuffed a few more caramel bits in for good measure. 

I popped the dumplings in the oven for 13 minutes at 375 degrees. 

It was yummy, easy, and very quick.  

The perfect dessert for two people wrapped up in the drama of Dateline on a Friday night. 

Sweets are Good For the Soul

In a past life, Paula Dean and I were sisters. We both have a knack for making things that are just terrible for you.  Like Paula, you probably won't find many recipes around me that will help you with your diet. Oh well! I enjoy making sweet treats and bringing them to group gatherings. I also enjoy eating them myself.  

For the first day of school (a month ago -sheesh!) I made a batch of red velvet crinkle cookies. By the end of the day, the plate was clean. Which could mean one of two things: 

1. People were so hungry on the first day of school they ate the first thing they found (aka my cookies)

2. People enjoyed the sweet little treats!

Let's hope for conclusion number 2. 

Here's the recipe I followed thanks to the Novice Chef. Hats off to her blog and brilliance. 

Red Velvet Crinkle Cookies

• 6 tablespoons of butter (If Paula followed my blog, she'd be smiling right now)
• 2 large eggs
• 1 box of red velvet cake mix
• powdered sugar 

Click HERE to follow the chef's directions. 

Gooey Thursday

Yesterday, I wrote a nice little poem wishing that we wouldn't have a snow day and apparently my poems and door decor have reverse affects. So, that means I'm sitting on my couch watching Hoda and Kathy Lee updating my blog on a Thursday morning.  I was supposed to be teaching my kiddos about animal life cycles, but I got a nice little phone call at 6:00 that said, "Stay in bed, Ms. Furnell." Just kidding, it didn't sound exactly like that. 

I'll be staying indoors today!

This weekend, I experimented with a couple of yummy recipes. Since I've got time to burn today (and laundry to fold ..yuck!) I'll be doing a few posts to catch up on lost time!

Prior to college, I had never had the infamous "Gooey Butter Cake". If you're a native of the St. Louis area, you probably want to slap me. Why did it take me so long to find out about this cake? Don't ask me! My good friend Ali took it upon herself to introduce me to Gooey Butter Cake on my 20th birthday and there was no looking back.

Merriment Design posted an easy to follow guide to making your own batch of Gooey Butter Cookies.

Gooey Butter Cookies
What You Need:

• 1 8oz package of cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 1 egg
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 package of yellow cake mix
• 1/4 cup powdered sugar

Now click here to follow Merriment's post to make your own yummy batch! I highly recommend eating them as soon as they come out of the oven with a glass of milk.

Who wants to take bets on whether or not we have school tomorrow?

Yums in the Classroom & Kitchen

Say "synonym rolls" five times fast. 

Impossible, right? Okay.. maybe not impossible, but rather difficult.  I made you do that for a reason.. read on! Read on!

While grading our weekly Treasures assessment, I realized that my students struggled identifying synonyms in context. Yikes! I had a few ideas brewing in my head, but thanks to this delightful pin... my plans changed!

Luckily, Halloween was the perfect time to whip up a fresh batch of Synonym Rolls. It was the perfect attention-getter and way to spend time reviewing synonyms and using a beloved thesaurus.

As a class, we defined synonyms in our writer's notebooks. Then, we took the "boring word" said and thought of OTHER ways to say said. After creating quite the list, I introduced the rolls. Their assignment was to write the main/boring/overused word in the middle of the roll. Then, along the spirally goodness write words with similar meanings.

It was a great way for me to meet with small groups and talk about using a thesaurus and what synonyms really are.

For example: We picked the boring word "mean" for one roll. One student said, "Well, my sister is mean.. so can I add sister to my roll?" This sparked another discussion about what synonyms are and what they are not. 

Synonyms! Synonyms! Synonyms!

Rollin' Up!

Oh snap! We're using a reference tool.. and it's FUN

Now, each of my students has a piping hot batch of synonym rolls waiting for them everyday in their Writer's Notebook. 

Now, since I'm only talented in the sweet treats department, I have to include one of the recipes I'm preparing for book club on Thursday. 

Practically Living is a brilliant blogger who posted a recipe for Two Ingredient Lemon Bars. This woman is brillant! Since there are only two ingredients in this dish... let's cross our fingers I don't mess this one up. 

Practically Living

9:00!? It's bedtime. Plus, I've begun to italicize one too many things in this post. Time to depart.
Over and out, bloggers!