Emily M.'s Christmas Movie Checklist

I already know what I'm going to be doing for the rest of this month, and it involves a lot of movie watching.

I was originally going to give my top 25 Christmas movies, but soon realized that was an almost impossible task considering that my list seems to change by the day, so being the OCD (Obsessive Christmas Disorder) person that I am, I broke them into categories.

And what helps cross some of these movies off your list faster than ABC Family's 25 Days of Christmas?! I've attached their full schedule here.



And no Christmas movie marathon is complete without hot chocolate and snacks! One of my new favorite Christmas snacks is a twist (peppermint twist that is) on classic puppy chow. I got the idea from Sally's Baking Addiction and tweaked it just a tad.

Peppermint Puppy Chow

Ingredients:

5 cups Rice Chex cereal

10 ounces melting white chocolate or vanilla flavored Almond Bark (I used Almond Bark)

1/2 teaspoon Peppermint extract

1 cup Andes Peppermint Crunch Baking Chips

1 cup crushed candy canes

1 cup (or more) confectioners' (powdered) sugar

Directions:

Pour 5 cups of Chex Cereal into a large bowl. Melt white chocolate/Almond Bark according to the package directions. When melted stir in peppermint extract and pour over cereal, stirring and folding until the cereal is completed covered. Fold in Andes Peppermint Crunch Baking Chips (they will melt and make your cereal look pink or swirled). Then fold in crushed candy canes.

In a large zipped top bag or covered container, add the powdered sugar. Pour the chocolate covered cereal/candy canes into the large bag or container. Seal the bag or container and shake until all the cereal is coated with the powdered mixture.

Discard excess powder. Store at room temperature up to 2 weeks, if it lasts that long!

So bake some cookies and make some snacks, and get all your friends or family together on the couch to watch a good movie or two! Did your favorite Christmas movie make my list? And do you have a favorite holiday snack or recipe that I need to try? I'd love to hear it!

Keep Celebrating!

Pumpkin Seed Recipe

Between work, going to my little sister’s soccer games this weekend, and doing piles upon piles of laundry, I was finally able to carve my pumpkin last night! (if you want to see how my pumpkin turned out, follow me on Instagram!)

One of the hardest (not to mention messiest things) about carving a pumpkin is getting all the seeds out. It’s slimy, cold, and there is a ton of it. What are else are you supposed to do with this goop than throw it away?

Stop what you are doing right now!

You are about to throw away perfectly good pumpkin seeds!

Pumpkin seeds are a good source of fiber, vitamins, antioxidants, and minerals. They contain Vitamin E, Vitamin K, copper, manganese, potassium, calcium, iron, magnesium, zinc, and selenium, along with some other great health benefits (basically this is one Halloween snack you won’t feel guilty indulging on!)

A new tradition I started with my family two years ago was flavoring and toasting the seeds. There are several different recipes you can find online, or you can even experiment with a few of your own favorite seasonings!

Sweet & Spicy Pumpkin Seeds
1 egg white
1/4 cup natural cane sugar
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
scant 1/2 teaspoon fine grained sea salt
1 cup fresh pumpkin seeds

Preheat oven to 375. In a medium-sized bowl whisk together the egg white, sugar, cayenne and salt. Add the pumpkin seeds and toss well. Drain off any excess egg white (using a strainer) and place seeds in a single layer across a baking sheet. Bake for about 12 minutes or until seeds are golden. Sprinkle with a bit more sugar and cayenne pepper when they come out of the oven. Taste and season with more salt if needed.

Makes one cup.

If you want something sweet, you can try this sugar and spice recipe, or if you prefer something salty you can try one of these! My favorite are sweet and spicy pumpkin seeds. I found the recipe here.

If you’re having a pumpkin carving party, toasting everyone’s pumpkin seeds in your favorite seasonings and putting them in little bags for everyone to take home at the end of the night is a great (and cheap!) party favor!


 I hope you enjoy this healthy treat as much as I do!

Keep Celebrating!

I'm Bananas For You

I would like to consider myself a “glass half full” kind of girl. I always try to see the positive side of things and I always try to make sure that my perspective is in check, so when I saw that the bananas I bought were starting to go brown I got a tad bit upset. (Disclaimer: I am one of those strange people who are extremely picky about my bananas. If they aren’t a tad bit green at the top, I don’t like them; so you can only imagine my distraught to see brown spots.)

But before throwing out my three browning bananas, it dawned on me, BANANA BREAD! You have to have browning bananas to make banana bread!

New mantra everybody, “When life gives you browning bananas, make banana bread.”

So I went to my recipe box and pulled the recipe out. (Hey, what do you know? It calls for three bananas. This must have been fate, right?)  I quickly realized that I could make quite a bit of banana bread, so why not give some away to my friends and neighbors while I was at it? Turns out a few browning bananas can feed a small village or an apartment complex in my case.

Want to make some of your own now? Already ahead of you friends!

(click on the recipe card to be redirected to Google Docs for a printable version of the recipe!)

EASY PEASY!

If you want to send them out as gifts like I did, bake them in mini loaf pans. (Just make sure you adjust the cooking time! Otherwise, you’ll end up with bricks for your next home renovation.) And to make things even easier on y’all, we've made some gift tags that you can download and use yourself! Just buy some plastic gift bags and wrap them up!  

(click on the picture to be redirected to Google Docs for downloads!)

Because, let’s be honest, who doesn’t find banana bread “a-peel-ing?”

 Keep Celebrating!