GIVEAWAY: $35 Dayspring (in)courage gift certificate

The great people at (in)courage sent me these lovely pieces of Dayspring jewelry the other day to review.

Aren't they adorable?

I first heard of (in)courage when I attended Blissdom earlier this year and I gots to tell ya that I just fell in love with their company and community. 

I was given the awesome opportunity to take home a beautiful cake stand, meat platter, serving plate and tea towels that are totally my style...

As I flipped through their catalog I begun to realize that from their cards to their home decor, this company had nailed my style and my heart. 

I can't tell you how much I love their stuff... One of their journals is absolutely my favoritest journal ever ;)

Which is why I am sooo excited to share with you that they have given me a coupon code to giveaway to one of you for a $35 gift certificate!!!

Will you let me look over your shoulder while you shop??? Pretty please?

Now, you are going to have LOTS of ways to enter to win. You don't have to use them all, just do the ones you want. Just make sure you leave a separate comment for each entry. 

Contest ends 5/5/11 at 9 PM EDT.

1. Follow GOODEness Gracious through Google Friend Connect (GFC) (right sidebar)

2. Join our Facebook Community

3. Follow @crisgoode on Twitter

4. Subscribe to us via email (right sidebar)

5. Subscribe to our feed (right sidebar)

6. Check out Real Farmwives of America In the Kitchen blog and follow through GFC 

7. Fan Real Farmwives of America and Friends on Facebook

8. Follow @realfarmwives on Twitter

9. Tweet about this contest and include @crisgoode in your tweet

10. Head over to Dayspring's (in)courage shop and come back and tell me what you would buy!!

Savory Muffins: Quiche Muffins

Yesterday I shared with you about my Broccoli Cheddar Muffins and today I am continuing that series with these yummy Quiche Muffins altered from a recipe that Gooseberry Patch shared on Fox 28 a while back.

Truth be told, these yummy little babies remind me a lot of one of family favorites: Ham and Cheese Cups.

Now... remember that I was baking three different muffins at a time...

I totally spaced taking pictures of me spraying my muffin tin with oil 

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I also spaced taking pictures of me placing the small biscuits in 10 of the muffin cups...

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And pressing them down into the cups...

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Nor did I take a picture of mixing the eggs with the softened cream cheese until smooth

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Now somewhere around this point I woke up and realized that I am a food blogger after all and I grabbed my camera and caught the rest of the action...

I poured my egg mixture 3/4 of the way up in the 10 cups... and added salt and pepper

Then I added crumbled bacon on top.

Say cheese!

Now bake up at 375 degrees for 10-15 minutes until set.

Now, I am fairly confident these will freeze well, since the ham and cheese cups did well. However, you simply MUST try one of these straight from the oven... absolutely delish!

Click on the card to print the recipe only.

Note: I plan to share my third (or technically fourth) savory muffin over at Pennies and Blessings real soon: Zesty Chicken Salsa Muffins :)

Savory Muffins: Broccoli Cheddar Muffins

The other day I was hanging out at one of my favorite online places and I saw that Gooseberry Patch posted about savory muffins that they had shared with a local television station and I was intrigued...

Savory muffins... immediately I thought "Self... these babies will freeze well AND they will offer great portion control not to mention individual dinner/lunch options."

Then myself and I got a bright idea and thought they would be great to take to a gathering that some of the Real Farmwives of America and Friends (RFOA) and I were heading to...

Speaking of RFOA... did you see that this week they interviewed me and are voting on which Gooseberry Patch Cookbook I will share with you here and the GIVEAWAY?  Check it out and let them know which book you'd like to see here...

Speaking of books to giveaway... here is a sneak peek of two BRAND NEW books I will be giving away in May BEFORE you can buy them ;)

Now where were we... ahh savory muffins... muffins aren't just for the sweet tooth... just sayin'

I tweaked their Jumbo Quiche Muffins... to make a smaller version and then I gave their yummy Zesty Chicken Salsa a try...

I will be sharing the Quiche Muffins here tomorrow and the Zesty Chicken Salsa later in May as a feature on my series on Pennies and Blessings.

But today is about my little experiment of Broccoli Cheddar muffins... now GP shared a Broccoli Casserole Muffin that I want to try sometime soon, but with all the baking I was into, I wanted to do something a little quicker...

I started out with one of those 12 oz steamer bags of broccoli... cooked it up and chopped it up

Then I melted up a 1/2 of stick of butter

Then I added in 1 Cup of Shredded Cheddar

And a 8.5 oz box of my secret weapon... Jiffy Corn Muffin Mix... I heart Jiffy... just sayin'

1/2 Cup Chopped Onion

4 Eggs Beaten and Salt & Pepper

Now make sure you line your 12 cup muffin tin with cup liners and fill them all the way up. Bake at 350 degrees until they pass the toothpick test... about 15-20 minutes.

Click on image to print card only.

Have you made a savory muffin before? Do share...

What I'm Loving Wednesday: Guest Vlog by Miss Add

Truth be told, Miss Add has fallen in love with video taping.

She uses her Dora camcorder all the time to pretend tape herself. Today, while we were playing I decided to pull out my Flip and low and behold it turns out she did a What I'm Loving Wednesday vlog on the spot! Gal would be so proud...

So without further ado... I give you Miss Add's guest vlog... 

(Ya might notice she is also directing the film ;))

Now for What I'm Loving...

Weight Loss Wednesdays: Pasta Salad... yeah... I said salad...

Dear Reader... 

This morning my bathroom scales said something to me that truth be told I didn't like one bit. Now, I am not a gal that goes gossiping about what is said in private conversation, but let's just say she was quite rude and I plan on stepping on her every morning for quite some time just to shut her up... that and I think El and I have got some reaquaintin' to do... yeah me... she is such a delight... just sayin'.

In related news... Did I mention that my bridesmaid dress for Aunt Lou's quickly approaching wedding came in today. The good news?... It zips... My goal is to keep it that way and perhaps even be able to do so in the future without having to use... oh say... a set of pliers... 

So, that means this mama has some lightenin' up to do on my end (literally;)) and I am going to talk about it in a new series... Weight Loss Wednesdays. Now don't go getting worried... we are still going to have fun with this... and, I still am gonna cook up some GOODe food that is far from diet food during other times of the week... just sayin' 

However, you will probably be seeing some other dishes here that are going to help me tighten up my waist line. 

Now, I have told ya before that I am not a big fan of salad... and I am going to try to change that... but in the meantime, I thought I would start out with a gateway salad... pasta salad.

Now before you go tellin' the diet police on me... I took my normal pasta salad recipe and I tweaked it a bit...

I started out with about 2 cups chopped tomatoes.

Then I added in 1 cucumber that I seeded and chopped up.

Normally I would then add 2 cups of cooked and chilled rotini... But, this time I cut the pasta in half and used a fiber enriched white pasta to help me up the fiber in the dish and cut the calories. It also means that I get double the veggies...

Now I add 1/3 cup of my favorite fat free Italian dressing, then salt and pepper.

And mix 'er up

Now chill out and then serve it up with some yummy pre-cooked chicken strips.

Have you tried these??? Holy cow I love them... they save me so much time and they are quite yummy on their own.

Yum!

Click on the card to print.

So do you have a favorite salad that doesn't turn you into a rabbit?

Linked to: Works for Me Wednesdays

The Happiest Place on Earth

Dear Reader,

I am alive...

I have been a little busy, a lot sick and off to see about a mouse.

But now I am back here ready to tell you all about all of it and catch up on some recipes and plenty of fun.

Truth be told, I hadn't planned on being gone for so long, but a nasty little cold had Miss Add and I down for the count, just about the time we were supposed to be making our big visit to THE Castle... so... somethin' had to give... and that somethin' ended up being the blog.

Miss Add and I willed ourselves better to be able to enjoy some time with the mouse himself... Here she is (above) trying to convince me she is feeling better and camping out in her stroller--hoping that we will say we can go to the Castle.

Pretty soon, we were well enough and headed off to the happiest place on earth...

Truth be told, we had a GOODe Ole time at the Magic Kingdom... but it was nothing compared to the amazing time we had a couple days later at Disney's Hollywood Studios...

We played and played with all the Disney Channel and Pixar characters...

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We also played on the giant Honey I Shrunk the Kids Playground...

But, perhaps one of the most memorable moments came when Puddie tried out for the American Idol show...

And was chosen to perform for over 600 park show guests as one of three American Idol Contestants!

It was a story worth telling all on its own... but a lot of fun! For the rest of the day he was a park celebrity... everyone kept coming up to him. One kiddo even asked to have his picture taken with him!

Needless to say... our first Disney experience was quite the experience and we can't wait to go back!