Easter Egg Carton Dinner

I found a really cute idea on Pinterest on using Egg Cartons and Plastic easter eggs to make a fun snack pack for kiddos. I shared it with my mother-in-law and she loved it! Little did I know she'd fill the eggs with a healthy dinner instead! These kiddos are pretty picky eaters one in particular so It was wonderful seeing them get excited to eat dinner and eat everything! I was a proud aunt!

Here's the Cartons and eggs all ready to go. 

They were numbered and the kids had to go in numerical order until they got to the golden egg which was filled with a special surprise! It was so fun to see them get excited over chicken nuggets, bananas, jelly beans and other candies! 

This was the cutest and most clever idea I've seen in awhile and props to my mother-in-law for making it work! 

I have to remember this Idea when Ryan and I have kids of our own! Thank goodness for Blogs!!!

.....but next time we might want to rethink golden egg prizes. Pennies are hardly adequate enough for these kids! 

Delicious Pudding Cupcakes

I've been looking for the perfect cupcake recipe and I think I've found it! I've heard in the past "Oh, add pudding mix to your cake batter and it will be the best cake you've ever had!" Well, of course I wanted to try it, but I work off recipes and didn't just want to add pudding mix and then mess up some potentially lovely cupcakes!! So I searched and searched and FINALLY found it a few days ago. You follow the ingredients portion listed and follow the box on the baking time and temp. I might never go back to regular cake mix again!

Ingredients-

4 eggs

3/4 cup of milk

3/4 cup vegetable oil

1 box (your choice) cake mix

1 box (coordinating flavor) Instant pudding mix

1-2 Containers of (your choice icing)

Optional-

M&M's to sprinkle on top!

1. Read the cake mix box in its entirety and assess your tools. You don't want crunchy cupcakes!!!

2. Mix eggs, milk, oil, cake and pudding mix in blender for 2 minutes!

3. Add mixture to cupcake tin and cook according to box on cake mix. (Depending on if you are using a nonstick pan or not, you will have to add or subtract time and temp accordingly..the box tells all!!)

4. I baked mine for 25 mins in a nonstick cupcake pan. My oven runs a tad bit cool. 

5. Allow time to cool and add your amount of icing and toppings and Enjoy!!

Easter

Ah, Easter! I love this holiday, one of my favorites in fact! This Easter was a bit different than ones we've had in the past. Usually, we have two dinners to go to...at least. This year we only had one. And there were two very prominent men in our families that were not joining us at the head of out tables. So, it was not the traditional Easter we usually have, but it was still wonderful!

This morning when I woke up it was cloudy. And my first reaction was, "Of course, first Easter without Granddaddy and Ryan's dad and its gloomy already." Needless to say I was grumpy. Luckily, I woke up a little late and busied myself with my hair and makeup and slipped into my Easter best. (Which is my Easter comfy....after being stuck in a frilly wedding dress I aim for comfort) 

We go to a local Methodist Church called Asbury. 

Service was beautiful and I got pretty teary at...well, the whole time. Seems to be the popular thing of late, me not being able to control feelings. It's been a blast. But when we came out of service all happy/sad/teary (and whatever else I was feeling) it was sunny!!! YAY! So of course we had to take pictures!!!

After church, we raced home to get started on our Easter dinner preparations! I was particularly looking forward to making some cupcakes and try out a tutorial on Chocolate Pretzel Buttons by my sweet friend at Smith Peas{in a pod} (Check her out, She's fab)

So I got started on it, napped, finished, and napped some more. Napping seems to be my thing lately, too. Especially on Sunday afternoons. I can't stand being awake when nobody else is, and I can't stand being asleep when nobody else is. I don't want to miss anything! But since I fell asleep, I missed all the hustle and bustle downstairs. So, I was quite surprised when I woke up to ham, potatoes, broccoli, and green beans all ready to go and be eaten. 

Ham from a local store called The Hamlet, it was so tasty! 

These are the cupcakes I made, Check them out under my Good Eats tab! 

I probably could've kept my Chocolate Pretzel Buttons in the oven about 30 seconds to a minute longer. But they were a hit, especially with one of my little nephews!!!

Easter is a beautiful time of year, I wish I could have gotten more photos, and I wish I could have had my Granddaddy and Ryan's dad here. But wishing for the impossible only brings heart ache. We had a beautiful NEW Easter. That's what Easter is, a new beginning. And despite it being so different than years past, and me dreading it for quite some time now, it was beautiful.