Keepin’ cool in the Texas heat, with this delicious, cold banana treat.  Adding chocolate and milk but keepin’ it light, this Banana Chocolate Shake will disappear, bite by bite.  I bet y’all didn’t know I was a poet huh?!  Hope y’all enjoy!

Ingredients:

3 whole Bananas, frozen, peeled and chopped
1 cup low-fat Chocolate ice cream
2/3 cup low-fat Milk
Light Whip Cream (optional)

Directions:

Combine bananas, ice cream and milk in a blender and puree until smooth.  Serve immediately.

All it takes is 3 ingredients.  What is your favorite recipe using bananas?  You have to know by now that mine is my grandma’s banana pudding!!! At our Walmart, we have a HUGE display of bananas and I always try to let Truett pick the ones he wants out.  I usually tell him to grab the ones that have a little more green to them since they’ll last longer.  We use bananas in smoothies, protein shakes, oatmeal, bread, and love to saute them in butter, cinnamon, nutmeg, sugar, and drizzle it all over vanilla ice cream!

Who remembers these banana Popsicles?  TO DIE FOR!!

Very Berry Pound Cake with BANANAS!

Pina Colada Banana Pie

And Old Fashion Banana Nut Oatmeal

Disclosure: I am an official Walmart Mom. Follow me and my fellow Walmart Moms as we share our experiences and ideas! Walmart has provided me with compensation and gift card in return for my time & efforts to create this post. My participation in this program is voluntary and my opinions are my own, always have been, always will be.

If you don’t already know, me and my 16yr old son are starting P90x.  This also means we have to eat healthier and the easiest, best way to eat healthy during the Summer, is to take advantage of the grill (and the man cooking..haha).  It’s no secret that Olive Oil is a healthy fat so we do try to use it often on everything from grilled vegetables to salad dressings.  Of course, we buy ours at Walmart and we use the Great Value brand mostly because of price but also use Mazola brand.  Do you have a favorite that you like?

Substituting olive oil, a monounsaturated fat, for saturated fats or polyunsaturated fats can:

• Reduce blood pressure
• Inhibit the growth of some cancers
• Benefit people at risk for or with diabetes
• Lessen the severity of asthma and arthritis
• Actually help your body maintain a lower weight

Just like anything else, cooking with heat can reduce the amount of nutrients but our mentality is – ‘it’s better than butter’.  We’ve, many times, slathered butter all over our vegetables before grilling and I know that this has to be a better option. We have used the Olive Oil spray and just sprayed them! And overcooking is not recommended….as you can see, we overcooked ours just a bit but that tends to happen when you’re watering plants, talking on the phone, and jumping on the trampoline in between!

I’d love to know how you use Olive Oil!  I’ve heard you can make lip balm using it and I know there’s an Olive Oil soap that is amazing.  I’d love to try other non-food ways to use the oil. Share if you know some!

You simple pour just a little bit of Olive Oil all over the Asparagus and sprinkle with salt & pepper.  You might even toss some Parmesan cheese too after they are grilled. YUM!

Ummm, yeah, stay focused when cooking people!! Clearly overcooked but still tasted great!

Disclosure: I am an official Walmart Mom. Follow me and my fellow Walmart Moms as we share our experiences and ideas! Walmart has provided me with compensation and gift card in return for my time & efforts to create this post. My participation in this program is voluntary and my opinions are my own, always have been, always will be.

I already mentioned the current ‘end child hunger’ campaign but just in case you don’t know how to input the codes to get those meals donated, here’s a quick video to help. The website to enter the codes is endchildhunger.com

Disclosure: I am an official Walmart Mom. Follow me and my fellow Walmart Moms as we share our experiences and ideas! Walmart has provided me with compensation and gift card in return for my time & efforts to create this post. My participation in this program is voluntary and my opinions are my own, always have been, always will be.

With the economy getting hit hard, Walmart is helping to fight hunger by donating over over 42 million meals to local food banks.  You can actually find your local community and vote for them and they could also be included. Voting ends on April 30th for that.   Alongside Walmart with this initiative, you’ll find Conagra, Kraft, Kelloggs, and General Mills also helping out.  By simply purchasing products from the Fighting Hunger circular and following the very easy directions, you’ll be able to activate a donation!!

I don’t think I have to tell you how important this topic is to me. I’ve discussed it many times so I do hope that you guys take advantage of these simple things you can do to help fight hunger.   Even taking this current campaign out of it….there are so many ways for you to support your local food banks.  You could simply buy an extra few cans at grocery shopping time every week and then take those and donate them.  Doing something is better than doing nothing!

Disclosure: I am an official Walmart Mom. Follow me and my fellow Walmart Moms as we share our experiences and ideas! Walmart has provided me with compensation and gift card in return for my time & efforts to create this post. My participation in this program is voluntary and my opinions are my own, always have been, always will be.

Pickled Eggs are not on my list of favorite foods but they are for my husband and son.  I love pickles and I love eggs but why anyone would want to eat a picked egg is beyond me.  With that said, I’ll share the recipe that me and my man used, in which, him and Tyler devoured each and every single egg as soon as 8 days hit!  Enjoy!

P.S. I’d double next time and make a lot more.

Some of you may already be familiar with Biscoff. They make a delicious cookie but have taken it a step further to create Biscoff Spread. It’s basically crushed up Biscoff cookie deliciousness put into a jar! I made a pie with it, of course. And no, it’s not really a banana crust per se but I did use them in place of a regular crust. How would you eat?

Disclosure: I am an official Walmart Mom. Follow me and my fellow Walmart Moms as we share our experiences and ideas! Walmart has provided me with compensation and gift card in return for my time & efforts to create this post. My participation in this program is voluntary and my opinions are my own, always have been, always will be.

By looking at the photo, you’d have no clue just how adorable these brownie ‘ice cream’ cones really are but lemme tell ya—-SUPER CUTE!  I was sent some Kraft Philadelphia Indulgence chocolate spread to try out but I wasn’t sure how I wanted to use it.  I had bought these mini cones the other day to make for Truett’s class.  After looking through my bare pantry, I found a box of brownie mix, and then it hit me!  Using the same concept as the Strawberry Mouse I made the other day, I decided to whip up a tub of cool whip with the new Kraft Indulgence in Milk Chocolate. Viola, you have creamy, whipped chocolate mousse.  They also have dark & white chocolate by the way.  I simply baked the brownie mix in the little cones and piped the chocolate mousse on top to resemble and ice cream cone! !  Remember the Kupcake Konz I did a long time ago? Those were stinkin’ adorable too!

Disclosure: I am an official Walmart Mom. Follow me and my fellow Walmart Moms as we share our experiences and ideas! Walmart has provided me with compensation and gift card in return for my time & efforts to create this post. My participation in this program is voluntary and my opinions are my own, always have been, always will be.

Are you on Pinterest? If not, you should be because that’s where I found this adorable idea! I’m making these Easter Peeps S’mores for Truett’s pre-k class along with the Goldfish Carrots.  I think they’re both gonna be a big hit for their little Easter baskets!

How will a S’more taste made with a Peeps rabbit? My own husband said it was probably the best S’more ever!  Truett agreed and well, so did I!

INGREDIENTS/SUPPLIES

• Peeps Marshmallows
• Graham Crackers
• Mini Hershey’s Chocolate Bars
• Wilton Party Bags
• Avery Labels (Template 5395)

DIRECTIONS

1. Print up your labels. You can be creative and do whatever you want here.  I made my own and if you want the template for it, click here.  You want these printed first so they’ll be ready to help close your bags.
2. Break your graham cracker into two halves.
3. Assemble peeps, crackers, and mini Hershey’s chocolate bar in bag.
4. Fold over and close with a label.

TIPS

I cut down the bags so they weren’t so tall.  You could also use ziploc bags if you can’t find cellophane or these party bags.  If you don’t want to print labels, just use some Easter ribbon and tie the bag shut!

Then to make, be sure to put the chocolate on the cracker first, then peep on top of chocolate.  If you don’t, it will slide all over the place!

Also, don’t let your marshmallow explode! LOL  You just need to heat just until it starts to plump, then stop it.  Let it sit a minute or two and the heat from the marshmallow will melt the chocolate perfectly!

I can’t believe Easter is just around the corner and here in Texas, that means HOT weather is on the way.  We’ve already had some warm days so I’ve been on the prowl for easy, cool desserts.  I’m sure this Strawberry Mousse is something several of you already know about, but I’ll admit, it’s new to me.  I was planning on making chocolate mousse using Philadelphia Dark Chocolate Cream Cheese but couldn’t find it in my small town, so I settled for Philadelphia Strawberry Cream Cheese.  I’m glad I did, it was a big hit here on the ranch!

This is another one of the easiest recipes ever.  I beginning to wonder if I’m smart or lazy ’cause if any recipe requires too much work, I’m outta there!  Anyways, everyone in my house loved it and we had ages of 18 to 5.  Two thumbs up from the Falcon household!  I’m even thinking about taking this is a snack for the kiddos in Truett’s class.  Enjoy y’all!

These are your ingredients….super easy y’all!

Disclosure: I am an official Walmart Mom. Follow me and my fellow Walmart Moms as we share our experiences and ideas! Walmart has provided me with compensation and gift card in return for my time & efforts to create this post. My participation in this program is voluntary and my opinions are my own, always have been, always will be.

Easter is just around the corner and I’ve been on the prowl for some Easter goodies to make for Truett’s class.  I’ve seen these ‘Easter Carrots‘ before but most of them were filled with candy; reese’s pieces, orange jelly beans, orange m&ms, etc.  Because there is a little girl in Truett’s class that’s allergic to red dye (and yes, orange stuff does have red dye in it), I chose to use Goldfish Crackers.   They’ll need something ‘bready’ to soak up sugar from all that Easter candy anyways!

These Easter carrots are one of the easiest crafts to make and will make your little bunny grin from ear to ear.  Truett helped me by cutting ribbon so let your kiddos help if possible. It just makes the experience that much more fun!  You can find Easter crafts & recipes at Walmart (which is where I bought mine) and be sure to check back soon. I’ll be posting a couple of other easy goodies that anyone can make!

Disclosure: I am an official Walmart Mom. Follow me and my fellow Walmart Moms as we share our experiences and ideas! Walmart has provided me with compensation and gift card in return for my time & efforts to create this post. My participation in this program is voluntary and my opinions are my own, always have been, always will be.