Do you have Christmas traditions in your family? The other day the kids and I drove by an apartment complex I hadn’t seen in many years.

Driving by it triggered a memory from my childhood. I’m not sure how often we did this, but my dad would bake sweet bread for families who were struggling and we would deliver it around Christmas time.

It is one of my favorite memories of Christmas and a tradition I would like to start with my own kids.

Another Christmas tradition we are passing down from generation to generation, is our Christmas clues. Every year we place a clue in our children’s stockings. Each clue leads to another and eventually a gift. This keeps the kids busy and gives parents a few extra minutes of sleep. 🙂

My kids’ favorite holiday tradition is baking!

I can remember baking pies and cookies with my family as a kid and we have a few big baking days in December with our own family. We love to give gifts of homemade candy and baked goods to our neighbors and friends.

Some of our favorite gifts to include in the package are linked with recipes below.

• Buckeyes
• Caramel corn
• Fudge
• Sugar Cookie Cut Outs
• Lemon poppy seed bread
• Chocolate Peanut Brittle

We also host a cookie frosting party every year. This is highlight for my kids and they start planning it way before Thanksgiving.

Traditions have always been really important to my kids because it is something they can count on every year.

From now through Dec. 31, you can find custom “Compliments to the Cook” sharable e-cards on Teflon® brand’s Facebook page. Wouldn’t it be nice to send an e-card to the person who is hosting your Christmas dinner or perhaps your Thanksgiving host?

You can choose a theme, a loved one, and a recipe that you’d like to rave about and create a virtual card to show your appreciation.

It might be nice to send a card to someone who has kept a tradition going in your family.

I think I’m going to send this e-card to my friend Lynn who makes the absolute best homemade snickers in the world. Seriously it is amazing!

Also, by creating an e-card, you can enter to win weekly prize packages consisting of the cookware and bakeware and/or a grand prize of a 12 pc Farberware® Dishwasher Safe Nonstick Cookware set, all coated with Teflon® nonstick coating!

Have I ever told you how much I love eggs? I’ve always liked eggs, but when I started to get fit two years ago I tried to cut out carbs from my breakfast menu. One easy way to do that was to eat eggs for breakfast.

So I did, I made them every day for the next year. I fried them, cooked them over medium, but usually scrambled them because it’s the easiest and I’m not super skilled at making an omelet. The nice thing about eggs is that you can throw all sorts of veggies in your eggs and make a breakfast casserole in about five minutes on the stove top.

One of my healthy breakfasts- eggs, spinach, cheese, and peppers. Yum!

My secret to five minute eggs? A Teflon®  skillet.   

You don’t need to use any nonstick spray or butter/ oil to make the eggs. You just crack mix, and fry.

I love how the pans clean up so easy with very little scrubbing and no soaking. It is so easy even my little kids can get them clean. 

I’m working with Teflon® and they sent me this gorgeous Farberware Premium Professional Dishwasher Safe 12 Piece Cookware Set.

Aren’t they pretty? You can have a set too, just keep reading. 

For the month of May you can win daily prizes during The National Egg Month Sweepstakes. All you need to do is go to the Facebook tab and sign up to win daily prizes. If you refer friends, you’ll be entered to win a weekly grand prize.  

Daily Prizes 

• Farberware Nonstick Aluminum Triple Pack Skillets
• Farberware Premium Professional Dishwasher Safe 11″ Square Griddle

Weekly Grand Prize:

• Farberware Premium Professional Dishwasher Safe 12 Piece Cookware Set 

Don’t forget to take the “What does your egg say about you?” quiz. You can select your favorite type of egg and find out what your “egg personality” is. I was scrambled- which means fun but busy. Why am I not surprised?

You can also enter to win a Farberware Premium Professional Dishwasher Safe 12 Piece Cookware Set right here on the blog! Just leave a comment sharing how you like your eggs to be entered to win!

Giveaway ends May 15, 2014.

The more I try Crock-Pot® Cuisine meals the more I like them. I cannot tell you how I wish I would have known about these when Commander was deployed. I would have loved a culinary break from pizza and cereal.

This month we tried Roasted Chicken and Herbed Dumplings and Creole-Style Andouille Sausage and Chicken.

The roasted chicken was absolutely delicious. It was a huge hit with the kids and we didn’t have anything leftover (which was disappointing as I would have liked some for lunch!) I would highly recommend this meal, with one caveat. You cook the meat first and then add the dumplings towards the end of cooking. So you can’t breeze into the kitchen at the end of the day and open the slow cooker and eat.

Since I’m throughout the day it wasn’t an issue, but I wanted to give you a head’s up since some people make these meals when they won’t be home until dinner.

Once again, the vegetables were cooked to perfection. The chicken was moist, and the dumplings were very tasty.

Our next meal was Creole-Style Andouille Sausage and Chicken. I wasn’t sure if the kids would love this one since it was a bit spicy, but it was delicious. This meal you can start in the crock pot and walk away for eight hours.

We actually had to push back dinner the night we made this and it ended up sitting in the slow cooker for an extra 2 hours on warm. It still tasted great and we didn’t have any leftovers.

Here’s how Crock-Pot® Cuisine works. You order your meals through the website. They currently have seven meals to pick from, but new meals are being added soon.

Current meals available are:

• Layered Beef Lasagna
• Rustic Beef Stew
• Sesame Ginger Chicken
• Roasted Chicken and Mini Herbed Dumplings
• Creole-Style Andouille Sausage and Chicken
• Lemon Herb Chicken

After your order is placed your meals will arrive at your doorstep in a few days.

This is a great service for someone who has just had a baby, or is recovering from a medical procedure. Even if you don’t have time (or are not close enough) to take a meal, you can send them four delicious Crock-Pot® Cuisine meals.

If you are interested in trying Crock-Pot® Cuisine you can save 25% off your first order by using the code CPC25BLOGD. This code is only valid until March 31, 2014 so don’t delay!

This post is brought to you by Eggo Bites. All opinions are my own. 

I love a homemade breakfast more than just about any other homemade meal. For years, when my children were younger, we would often enjoy lazy homemade breakfasts. Now we have a full schedule, co-ops, tutorials, work, and seven kids who all would sleep until noon if I let them.

This means that I spend a good amount of time just getting them up every day. (I’m talking about my little kids – not the big ones). My little kids are late sleepers, and nowadays when we are trying to fit in everyone’s activities we can’t afford to sleep until the mid morning around here.

All this means that most weekdays we are rushing through breakfast to get started on our day, especially on co-op days. My kids like cereal, but I also like to have different options for them because they get tired of eating the same thing every day.

Last week we tried the new Eggo Bites and they were a huge hit.

What’s nice about these little individual packs are that they heat in 30 seconds in the microwave. My younger kids had no problem helping themselves to breakfast and I didn’t have to worry about them burning the house down.

My son loved the French toast (one of his favorite breakfasts) and since they are ready to eat they don’t even need syrup. Another bonus, no sticky fingers.

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See the crazed child in earmuffs? That is how they wake up in the morning. 🙂

If you are looking for a fast breakfast that the kids can prepare on their own, try the new Eggo bites. They are perfect Spring Break, vacations, or any busy morning when making breakfast isn’t the first thing on your to-do list.