Lukas helps in the Kitchen

My little man has been helping me in the kitchen lately.  He loves to stir whatever I have going on.  The picture above is him and I making cupcakes.  Cupcakes are one of his favorites plus they are fun to make!  We used a simple Betty Crocker box recipe.

After we were done scooping the batter into the cups, he needed to taste test the batter.  Of course.  He must have learned this from me.

Baking with kids is fun!  Plus you can use it as a learning experience for them.  Talk about colors, and teaching them the different ingredients.  It really is so much fun!  I didn't take a picture of it, but he has a dish towel wrapped around his waist as a apron.

The fall cupcakes we made were fun and he got to decorate some of them.  Complete with lots of frosting and sprinkles!  He kept making noises like "ummm" while he was eating it!

These cupcakes are really easy, but I do have a recipe I usually follow instead of the box version.  Here is the link to homemade chocolate cupcakes.

Pumpkin Carving Templates

We are starting to get ready for Halloween around our house.  This next week we will be getting some pumpkins and carving them.  My husband and I love Halloween!  One of our favorite times of the year!

I was over at Allrecipes.com and I found these neat pumpkin templates!  Check them out!  I printed out the Grin, Kitty, and the Death face templates.

Pumpkin Templates

Stuffed Chicken with Crash Hot Potatoes

I apologize...I have no pictures again for this!  We ate it far too fast!  However, that usually means it's delicious when that happens.  Right?!  Go with me on this...no pictures means we gobbled it up in record time.  I wish I would have taken some pictures though the chicken and potatoes turned out wonderfully!

When I was looking at the Budget Bites blog I found a yummy looking chicken I wanted to try.  I had made something like this before, but it was chicken cordon blue.  Beth from Budget Bites made this with pepperoni, but I used ham instead of pepperoni.  Here is the recipe for the Stuffed Chicken Breasts.  My Mother in Law and Father in Law both loved them too!  They came over for dinner. ♥

The Crash Hot Potatoes also turned out to be really great.  The recipe is from Ree Drummond's The Pioneer Woman Cooks website.  I also just bought her cook book The Pioneer Woman Cooks Recipes from an accidental country girl!  I totally love it!  I must admit though, I do transform her recipes into some healthier versions.  She does use a lot of butter! 

Anyway, we also had green beans for good measure.  Lukas won't eat them, but he at least put them in his mouth to taste them.  I used about a tablespoon of Tastefully Simple's Garlic Garlic on the green beans and they are always a hit!

Blog Name Change!

I changed the name of this blog.  Mostly because Super Recipe Girl didn't mean anything to me.  I love to look up recipes and make them, but I don't create them.

I felt like SpicyArtichoke fit because I used this name when I used to online game.  She was my little chick that hid in the shadows and would kill other players.  I have mentioned before I am a computer nerd...right?

Well this name feels like it fits better.  Not like I am going to hide in the shadows and kill people kind of way.  In a kind of way that I have used this name and I am comfortable with it.  It makes me happy to see it!  So it's staying!

White Cheese Chicken Lasanga

A few weeks ago I made this for supper.  Also I think this blog has turned into...'What ate for supper'.  That seems to be the only thing I cook lately.  I haven't had time to bake any goodies or treats, but I have to make supper so it's the only time I get to try something different.  Breakfast and lunch my husband and I eat while at work (nothing really to note) and Lukas eats breakfast and lunch at daycare.

So yeah...this is what we had for supper the other night.  It was really good and didn't take long to put it together at all.  I got the recipe from AllRecipes.com.  White Cheese Chicken Lasagna.

Fast Italian Sandwiches

Tonight I needed to make something fast and we are on a tight budget this week.  So this is what I came up with.  Fast Italian Sandwiches...not toddler approved, well not by my toddler anyway.

Ingredients:
4 Breaded Chicken Patties
1 cup Spaghetti Sauce
1 can mushrooms
1 cup mozzarella cheese
1 cup cheddar cheese
4 sandwich buns

Prep:
Spray frying pan with Pam and cook chicken patties on medium.  Sprinkle patties with Italian seasoning and garlic salt.  Flip and sprinkle with seasonings again.  On the last flip take the 1 cup sauce and distribute over chicken patties.  Sprinkle both cheeses over the sauce and then top with mushrooms and cover.  Let cheese melt and then put on buns. 

They are yummy.  I didn't get to take pictures we were way too hungry!!!  They were great though!

Poor Man's Stir Fry

We got lazy last week and didn't get to the store.  I didn't have any meat in our freezer besides chicken nuggets, and I had an abundance of ramen noodle.  So I used Chinese Noodles recipe from Cheeky Kitchen and also made some Chicken nuggets and diced them up to throw them into the noodles. 

When I cooked the chicken nuggets I slowly heated them in a skillet with some sesame oil, garlic, and ginger.  My whole family enjoyed the cheap and easy recipe!