Yep, once again I am sharing a recipe that is not really light on calories..

Remember back when I said I would be sharing more Weight Watchers recipes

because I was going to be trying to eat healthier?

WW Friendly Minestrone

Umm, well that wasn’t me. Yep, that’s right, it was my evil twin…

No, even better, it was actually a dream you had.. in fact you may still be dreaming..

Yes, I just got back from seeing the movie Inception.. which is an amazing movie!!

And no, I did not consume a bucket of Junior Mints, and I resent the implication.

Now stop distracting me so I can get back to the recipe.. geez…

This -  is not a Muddy Buddy.. This is my beautiful granddaughter

Kelsi Lou Who.

No, that is not her real middle name – but we have all called her that from birth.

Anyway, it has come to her parents attention that she may have an allergy to gluten.

So they have taken all gluten out of her diet to see if it makes a difference.

She is understandably not thrilled with this, as it means she doesn’t get to eat

some of the fun things everyone else is eating.

Last week when the family was coming over for a BBQ I decided to make

something special for her that was gluten free – I found these Muddy Buddy’s at

Pioneer Womans’s recipe site, the Tasty Kitchen, and decided to try them.

Here are the ingredients – be sure you get gluten free cereal.

Start by putting 9 cups of Rice Chex into a large mixing bowl

Then, put 1 cup chocolate chips in a microwave safe mixing bowl.

Add to chips

1/2 cups peanut butter ( I used chunky)

and 1/4 cups butter

Microwave on high 1 minute, then take out and stir.

Put back in microwave for another 30 seconds, then mix well and add 2 Tbls. vanilla

Now comes the fun part -

Pour the chocolate mixture into the cereal

Then begin stirring it together.

Then just throw caution to the wind and dive right in with your hands to mix it thoroughly!!

I would definitely wash them first though..but that’s just me…

Now you need some gallon size zip lock bags.

Put about 1/2 of the mixture into one of the bags.

Add 3/4 cups powdered sugar to the bag, and shake to coat the cereal.

Repeat this until all the cereal is coated, I used a new bag for each batch.

Then spread it all out onto waxed paper to dry.

Oh yeah – it looks yummy huh! Well, it is! I put another piece of wax

paper over the top and left it out all night. It was all dry by morning.

I set out a little crock filled with Muddy Buddy’s to have that evening for the BBQ -

for some reason I had to keep re-filling it…

They went over well with everyone – all of the kids loved them and didn’t even

know they were missing gluten.. of course they don’t even know what that is anyway!

The important thing is K-Lou loved it -

In fact, it almost seemed in some strange way to bring her peace……

Well, that’s my story..And the recipe

Thanks for coming by, and for being my Blogging Buddy’s!

You know Pioneer Woman loves her readers more than her luggage..

I will go a step further for you -

I love you more than my chocolate……

Now that, dear buddy’s, is true love..

Muddy Buddy’s

Ingredients

• 9 cups Corn Rice Wheat Chex Cereal
• 1 cup Chocolate Chips
• ½ cups Peanut Butter
• ¼ cups Butter
• 2 teaspoons Vanilla
• 1-½ cup Powdered Sugar

Preparation Instructions

Place cereal in a large bowl and set aside. In a medium microwavable bowl, add chocolate chips, peanut butter and butter. Microwave on high for 1 minute and stir. Microwave for 30 seconds longer and stir mixture until smooth. Stir in vanilla.

Pour sauce over cereal and stir until evenly coated. Spoon half of the mixture in each 1-gallon re-sealable Ziploc bag. Add 3/4 cup powdered sugar to each bag, and seal. Shake the bag until everything is coated. Spread on waxed/parchment paper to cool. Store in airtight containers in refrigerator

Hi! Welcome to The little brown house!

This week I want to show you a couple of things I did to update

our back patio. It started when I got the Pottery Barn catalog, and

realized I would have to get a 2nd (3rd) mortgage to get everything I wanted!

I saw these copper chargers, and really wished I had something like them.

I have a dozen gold chargers that I got at an after Christmas sale one year for $1 apiece.

I decided to take some ORB (oil rubbed bronze) to a couple of them.

Yeah that’s pretty gold huh!

Anyway – I sprayed it and set it out to dry while I sprayed another one -

Then all of a sudden the can of paint went postal on me.

Nice nails don’t you think?   – It just spit paint all over the charger, big globs of it.

And obviously also all over my hand!

Now – Quick Topic Change-

A week ago my daughter called and told me she had seen some outdoor chairs

at the thrift store by my office. They were out in the back of the store and had just

been donated. She thought I might like them. She was right….

There were 4 of them – and I really liked the color.

I got them for $4 apiece.

I already had patio furniture that was brown, so I decided I needed to see if I could

find something that would tie the blue and brown together.

I went looking for outdoor chair pads, and there was no summer stuff

left in our town! There was, however, an abundant stock of school supplies..

which was not helpful.. but I was able to find

some pillow shams in the home section that did the trick!

I decided to put them over some old chair pads I had -

What do you think?

Now back to the charger redo!

Gotta love that ORB – when it works right anyway! With the sun shining right

on it, it even looks a little coppery!

I really like it! And yes, there is still gold around the edge – I kind of liked that too!

I bought some more ORB but haven’t had time to do more chargers

So here is my photo shoot of the patio with just one place setting out there-

But it would be a nice soothing lunch spot for one, and sometimes that is just what I need!

That is my favorite water bottle in the shot – I just thought it matched so well I should include it!

And this is the charger that the ORB went crazy on -

And sitting on it is one of my Blue Bottle Jar expeirments

You can check that out here:

Blue Bottle Jar

We are still adding more of the gray bricks to the patio to expand it. Well, I should

say my husband, not we.. although I can always be counted on to sit back with

my ice tea and watch him use his muscles!! I am really helpful like that!

So with some paint and fabric and a couple of thrift store items,

I freshened up a whole area for hardly any money. Oh, and the woven placemats

are from the dollar store!

Hope you liked it – And thanks so much for stopping by!

Come back on Tuesday when I will do a gluten-free sweet treat recipe, I promise loads more exclamation points!!