Roasted Marshmallow Pumpkin Bars

If a s'more and a pumpkin pie had a baby, these would be it.

These lovlies are mind blowing. You can be dainty and eat them with a fork, like I did. Or grab one in each hand and enjoy. 

Roasted Marshmallow Pumpkin Bar (modified from Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook)

2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1 teaspoon baking soda
4 eggs, beaten
16 oz. can of pumpkin
1 cup sugar
3 ripe bananas
1/2 bag mini marshmallows 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Place all of your dry ingredients into a bowl (except sugar!). Enjoy the fall smells from the cinnamon and pumpkin pie spice.

Whisk together the dry ingredients with your King Kong whisk.

What, you don't have your own personal King Kong to whisk up all your kitchen goodness?

Place your three ripe bananas in a separate bowl. Use a potato masher to smash them up.

Mmmm, smashed banana goodness.

Place all wet ingredients and sugar into your mixer bowl. 

Mix on medium until well blended. Look at that gorgeous pumpkin color!

Get your helper to add the dry mixture into the wet, slowly to avoid lumps and poofs of flour everywhere.

Lots of helpers in this house.

Pour your mixture into a greased 9*13 baking pan. Bake for 35 minutes or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.

Ta Da! Your house will smell incredible. It really captures the smell of pumpkin pie. But here comes the fun part.

Spread a 1/4 to 1/2 bag of mini marshmallows onto the bars. More or less depending on how thick you want the marshmallow topping to be. We went with half.

Enjoy a few (or a handful) of marshmallows. For testing purposes.

Place back into the oven for about 5 minutes, with the setting changed to broil. Keep an eye on it!! Marshmallows can go from roasted to burnt really fast.

Fresh out of the oven. You will be ridiculously tempted to cut into them, but be patient. Allow everything to cool a little, and the marshmallows to firm up.

Look at that! Thick like a slice of pumpkin pie, and that roasted marshmallow top adds a touch of sweetness.

So good you can't eat just one. Go ahead, have another. I wont judge.

These called our name every coffee break or heck every snack break. Make them. I promise you will not regret it.

If you do make them, let us know! Have another pumpkin recipe you love? Share it with us!

Nutrition Information
Serving - 1
Servings per Recipe - 16

Calories  181
Carbs        39
Fat              2
Protien       4
Sodium  104
Sugar       22

Abigail's 2nd Birthday: Minnie Mouse Luau Party

Happy birthday Abby! Our little girl turned 2!

Abby has so many wonderful interests. Books, cars, coloring, accessorizing. But two of her favorites right now are swimming and Minnie Mouse. In planning for her birthday and thinking of ideas it became apparent there was only one great option: Minnie Mouse Luau and Pool Party!

When guests first arrived they were greeted with a giant Minnie Mouse hanging on the garage.

Making this was incredibly simple. A $5 sheet from Walmart, $3 can of black spray paint, and leftover tulle from her tutu. I traced out the Minnie head in pencil, then sprayed it in with spray paint. After it dried I connected a tulle flower with hot glue. Viola! Instant party announcement.

We spread the Minnie Mouse luau theme throughout our backyard. On our deck I attached green table clothes to the bottom, then sliced it to create a grass skirt appearance. To the rails I attached a fantastic flower garland that I ordered here.

Our garden fence received a colorful face lift with the addition of flower garland and Minnie Mouse heads. We also used the fence posts to display all the flower leis for everyone to pick and choose from.

Our trampoline became a tropical splash pad! We hung palm tree streamers from the posts. To turn this plain trampoline into a splash pad, we ran a garden hose and a little sprinkler under the bottom. Once turned on it splashed and sprayed everyone whenever they would jump.

Even the swing set club house displayed Minnie Mouse fun! I traced and cut a Minnie Mouse head on card board, spray painted it black, and attached a tulle flower. The kids loved pointing out all the Minnie's around the yard.

This has to be one of my favorite additions to the luau. A Minnie Mouse bean bag toss. Trent will expand upon this himself, but it was a fairly straightforward project that was a blast to play with.

To make the bean bags I traced a Minnie outline onto some scrap felt I had then hand stitched them closed. Too lazy (and busy) to drag out the sewing machine.

The happy birthday girl!We set up a bubble machine on the deck rail, and Abby was more than happy to run through the sea of bubbles covering the yard.

For birthday photos I picked up these coconut containers from our local Dollar Tree. They were cute on their own, but needed to be more festive. I traced Minnie Mouse ears onto card stock then cut and hot glued them onto the lids. The flowers came with the containers, but after designing the Thank You tags I attached them onto the flower stem.

Inside was a Minnie Mouse cookie and Minnie Mouse stickers.

Favors for kids and adults alike. Paper fans (it was hot!) and tropical clackers.

Gabe thinks they are magic wands. Works for me (a lot less noisy) ;)

Everyone spent a huge amount of time at this table. Sugar cookies to decorate with pink frosting and sprinkles, vegetable tray, fruit skewers, and goldfish. We also had large metal tubs filled with waters, sodas, and juice boxes.

We wanted to do something special for the meal that allowed our guests to be involved. Grilled flatbread pizzas!

The guests filled out a menu card then Trent and I would grill them up to order. Quick, fresh, and everyone was able to enjoy their perfect pizza.

A delicious flatbread fresh off the grill.

Then there was cake. Delicious cake.

Banana cake, vanilla custard filling, and lemon meringue frosting. Tropical but light. And most importantly, Abby loved it!

Side note: Abigail received this pink cozy coupe that day. She refused to leave it, even for cake. Trent had to pull the table up next to the car so she could enjoy her cake without leaving it. Silly girl.

And the happy girl, along with our wonderful family and friends all enjoyed a long dip in the pool on a hot day. Abigail, our little fish, could not have been happier.

A fantastic Minnie Mouse Luau to celebrate two years with this silly, loving, smart, precious little girl.

Happy birthday Abby! We love you!

Kale Turkey Meatloaf

My house is not big on meatloaf. In fact, whenever I would get a really bad craving for meatloaf, and dish some up for dinner, there was always a lot of eye rolling. To which I always replied "This is what I cooked. Eat it, or don't, but my tummy is happy". 

Recently, this has changed. My meatloaf is met with happy smiles, empty plates, and (gasp!) requests for seconds from the kids. How can this be?!? Is it magic??

The answer may surprise you. Turkey - kale - and milk. That's right my friends. Healthy and wholesome ingredients have transformed my family into meatloaf eaters. Who knew?

Turkey Kale Meatloaf (adapted from Real Simple)

1.25 lbs. ground turkey

1/2 white onion, diced fine

2 c. spinach, chopped

3 c. kale, chopped

1/2 c. panko breadcrumbs (if using Italian panko, omit Italian seasoning)

2T mustard

2T Italian seasoning

1 egg white

salt and pepper, to taste

1 c. milk (I use 1%)

1/4 c. ketchup

Preheat oven to 400 degrees

Begin by washing your kale and spinach. If you don't have a salad spinner, I highly recommend getting one. It makes cleaning your leafy veggies so much easier, and saves me tons of paper towels.

 

Once washed, finely chop your spinach and kale. One meatloaf uses approximately one small bag of spinach, or one destemmed bunch, and two large leafs of kale, stem removed.

Place your chopped greens, bread crumbs, Italian seasoning (if using unseasoned bread crumbs), mustard, egg white, salt, pepper, and milk in bowl. 

Chop the onion and add to the mix.

Add your ground turkey. I used 93/7, but you could easily use extra lean 96/4 if you like. Then get your hands in there and get dirty!

Mix until just combined. Try not to over mix, or the turkey will lose its texture and just be a mush.

Form your mix into loafs in a 9 x 13 pan. If you have tin foil, you can line your pan for easy clean up. Or, if you forgot to buy tinfoil, like me, you can spray your pan with pam to make easier clean up. Spread ketchup over the top.

Bake for 45-50 minutes, or until thermometer reads 165 degrees.

Our favorite way to enjoy is with roasted garlic gold potatoes and salad.

Yum!! The milk adds moisture, while using panko bread crumbs keeps the meatloaf from being one texture. 

Are your families meatloaf fans? What is your go-to comfort food?