Ranch Chicken Recipe

Ranch Chicken is easily one of my most requested recipes and yet it's embarrassingly simple.  Get ready, your life is about to change haha.

Ingredients
2-3 Boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 Cup Crushed cornflakes
1 Cup Grated parmesan cheese (not the powdered stuff, the REAL grated parmesan)
1 Ranch Seasoning Packet
1/2 Cup Butter, melted


Instructions
Combine crushed cornflakes, parmesan cheese and ranch seasoning packet in a large bowl.  Toss until it's evenly mixed.  Dip your chicken breast in the melted butter then put it into the bowl with the cornflake mixture.  It won't stick amazingly well, so pat on some extra coating and place it in a pan.  Bake at 350 for 45 minutes or until chicken is cooked through.

**I personally like to cut my chicken breasts down the middle length wise so I have more coating to chicken ratio.  I also double the coating cause that's the best part!**

Also, Costco and Walmart both sell containers of ranch seasoning which are less expensive than the little envelopes you buy.  Costco's is by far the best deal.  You get a 15.7 oz container for under $8.  It's only 40 cents more than Walmart's 8oz container.  You're welcome :)

Decorating Ice Cream Cone Christmas Trees

We did this with my kids last night and can I just say, it's soooooooo much better than doing gingerbread houses!  While gingerbread houses are adorable, I feel like they are so challenging for little ones to make.  These ice cream cone Christmas Trees are easy and cute and fast too!

Buy a box of sugar ice cream cones and treats to decorate your "trees".  I hit up Winco for our goodies so I didn't have to have large bags of all the treats.  I think I spent about $8 or so on the candies and we have a LOT of leftovers.  

My frosting recipe is easy peasy and sticks to the tree, holds the candy in place, but is still easy for the kids to squeeze out.

Frosting Recipe

1 1/2 cups softened butter

2 tsp vanilla

32 oz bag of powdered sugar

4-7 tsp milk (depending on how thick you want your frosting)

Instructions

Mix softened butter and vanilla together until combined and whipped up a bit.  Slowly add in HALF of your powdered sugar.  I do this in my kitchenaid mixer and wrap a towel around the bowl so I don't get powdered sugar everywhere.  Add 3 tsp of milk and mix together.  Check your consistency.  Add in another couple cups of powdered sugar and mix.  This is really where you go back and forth between powdered sugar and milk until you get the perfect consistency.  It's better to err on the side of a little thick than too runny because it's always easier to add extra milk, but once your powdered sugar is gone, you won't be able to thicken your frosting back up.  Add some green food coloring and you're ready to go!

Rustic Wooden Box Centerpiece

Yesterday's project was making a rustic wood box centerpiece for my table.  I use these pieces of wood from an old fence to make the box.  If you have a saw, you can whip out this box in no time.  Here's the wood I used.  Don't mind my MESSY garage. 

I simply cut two boards the same length ( I did 29" since that was the longest I could go before the color changed).  Next you need to cut the bottom piece.  That piece was 29" MINUS the width of two boards.  All I did was cut it 29" and then place two pieces of wood side by side on top and drew a pencil line for my new length and the chopped it.  Last you need your side boards.  Well that's easy too - It's the width of your bottom board (or the width of all of the strips if they are equal.  One of my fence pieces was a little wider than the other two).  I used 1 1/2 inch finishing nails to put the pieces together and that was it.  I did use some clamps to hold the pieces in place while hammering.  You could do it without clamps or just have someone hold the wood in place for you.

Here's the finished product.  The candles are from Dollar Tree - WIN! and I got the greenery from Joann's.  It took 5 bunches FYI.  They were all 50% off so I got them for $16.  Sadly the table runner I bought was waaaaay too long so I'm off to Joann's to buy some burlap and make one of my own :)