Puffins (Mancakes?) and A Very Dead Snake!

Ok, so I prefer the former name for these quick little breakfast yummies. They are pancake muffins, hence "puffins". However, my eldest daughter started calling them mancakes, which I personally have issue with. They bring to mind being out chasing ripply men, and somehow it even implies (to me) chasing men that are far too young. Since I am both happily married and far too young to be a cougar, I'm going to stick with puffins. You, however, may call them whatever you like!

Mamas (and daddies, I don't discriminate on the basis of gender!) you are going to love me! I whip these up on mornings when I am in a hurry, get up too late, or we are in horrid need of a trip to the grocery store. That is precisely the reason I made them this morning!
What you need:

~Your favy box of pancake mix
~Your favy syrup
~Water
~Various things for toppings (chocolate chips, strawberries, bananas, blueberries, etc.)
~A muffin pan
~Nonstick spray

Heat oven to 350.
Now, I would LOVE to give you exact measurements for the ingredients, but I don't measure them! I pour some dry pancake mix into a mixing bowl and then pour in a little water and syrup. I mix it until it is a consistency that I like and then spoon it into my pre-veggie sprayed muffin pan. Hmmmm. I WILL tell you that I put in twice as much syrup as I do water and I like to keep it a little thick so that the toppings STAY on top. It really stinks when all of your toppings sink through the mix and end up at the bottom of the puffin. If you are unsure, start out with a little water and a little syrup; you can always add more, but you can't take it out!

Once you have mixed it all up, spoon it into your muffin pan, filling 2/3 full just as you would if making regular muffins. Then top with whatever toppings you prefer. Pop into the oven for 12 minutes and WOOT! breakfast in under 20 minutes! Here are pictures of my puffins from this morning:

Please forgive the horrible picture quality. I'm really going to have to do something about the scratches on my iPhone camera.

Anyway! You may notice that I used chocolate chips for my toppings. As stated above, I REALLY need to go shopping. The boys had just gobbled up the last bananas. No fruit to use here! I made "C" pose with her puffin before she took off with it.

The best part of these? They taste syrupy, but with no syrupy mess! I won't have to be wiping down little hands afterwards. And, I'm willing to bet that they actually end up eating less syrup than they would with traditional pancakes. There is only as much syrup as you wish to put in them!

Are they good for an every day breakfast? Uh, no. Excellent for breakfast on the run, though.

What about the very dead snake, you ask?
Yes, about that. Minding my own business, cleaning the house and getting "E" laid down for a nap when I glance out our large front window. There is a snake sunning himself out there! Granted he was only a black snake, but they still bite and snake bites are nasty and get easily infected. What if one of the kids had walked out on the porch and stepped on him? And, he's been on our porch before. The only reason I didn't get him last time was because he sneakily stayed by the house, and I couldn't shoot at the house.

So, when he started to slither off the porch and into the yard I ran into my closet for the shotgun. Yes, shotgun. I'm no sissy, and I love to shoot. Sadly, I haven't done it in a LONG while, so it took me a minute to get it loaded. (No loaded guns in this house with the kids, and the shells in another location!) When I did, I ran outside. I don't know where he was headed, but he should have gone FASTER. I got him with the first shot, but he was still moving and I didn't want him to suffer so I shot him again. I'm embarrassed that it took two tries, but again, I haven't used a gun in a long time. I can usually out-gun my husband easily, but obviously I need some practice.

I heard a "tap-tap-tap" through the ringing in my ears and turned around to see three wide-eyed faces peering out the window at me. The girls and "E". Well, at least they know their Mom isn't afraid to pull out the gun if needed. Honey, can I have a Baby Desert Eagle?

~Love and Smiles,
Chala

P.S. Still needing likes on this page: www.facebook.com/LifeAfterInfidelity
Helping a friend build a community of healing! 

An Amazing Weekend!

I'm in a hurry, so this one will be short! (House cleaning, dinner, getting ready for church, and lots of homework!)

My Graduation weekend was nothing short of awesome! On Friday, May 18th I graduated with my Bachelor of Science in Education. There was nothing like walking out into JQH Arena with all the other grads. I've been waiting 5 YEARS for that moment and I'm proud my 5 children were able to see me walk. Also my sister, C, and my Grandparents were there. My Grandparents are my inspiration for my college education! I think I smiled the entire time. I'll even smile here~ :-D I couldn't have done it without my husband, who has worked like crazy to support our family while I have been going to school ever since 2007.

On Saturday we had friends over. It was originally deemed a "celebratory BBQ", but after the hubby and I decided that we would rather enjoy friends than make food it became a "celebratory get-together". We ended up ordering all of the food. We had a blast with friends and our friends' children had a blast playing in the sprinkler and chasing our chickens, ducks and turkeys all around. My cake was absolutely gorgeous and so delicious! Thanks to all who came out and I promise we'll do it again SOON! Next time we'll make Matthew grill, though! Also, thank you for all the gifts! I didn't expect them, but I love them all!

Then, on Sunday, we had another BBQ (which was actually a BBQ) at my Mom's house. She made me a super cute graduation cake, too! We had fun with family and everyone (except me) rode my Dad's Harley with him~or without him if they are able to ride!

So, now I have to crack down on my Master's work, which is very in-depth. I had to learn Turabian style in 2 hours flat, although I like it so much better than APA or MLA format. It is so easy to just put a footnote in rather than have to mess with all those in-text citations. I was once told by a Masters student at MSU that it was "So easy, you don't even have to buy your books to read!" Uh, how? I've done nothing BUT read since my courses started last week! For one class in ONE of that class' required books I had to read 94 pages of tiny words! Granted I love it; I've learned so much about Theology and Apologetics in just a week and a half! By far my favorite book is The Popular Encyclopedia of Apologetics as it answers every question you could have about Christianity! I also just found out today that I have to apply to my Ph.D program by mid-January. Yikes!

One last thing before I discontinue boring everyone to tears; there is a page on FB I would appreciate it if everyone would go and "like". In this world today it is unlikely that you don't know someone who has been through an affair. Maybe YOU have been through an affair. Please direct others to this page and like it yourself, as well! It would be a great help to a friend!

www.facebook.com/LifeAfterInfidelity

Love and Smiles,
Chala

Homesteading, Homeschooling.......and all of the other messes I get myself into!

"Hooonnnneeeeyyyyy.....I ruined my Asics!"

This was my whine to my husband a few weeks ago after a hard day's homesteading. I had mowed the yard by myself, thus ruining my shoes. What a perfect excuse to buy more shoes! My hubby had also promised me more shoes if I went out and mowed, figuring I probably wouldn't. For the record, I. Don't. Mow. I haven't mowed but a handful of times ever since I was a pre-teen. This is because of the horrid memory I have of running over a piece of metal when I was around 11 or 12, the metal shooting out of the mower at me, striking a hole in my leg straight down to the bone, filling my high-top shoe (then in style) with blood, and making necessary a painful trip to the emergency room. (One of many in my childhood~remember, I'm clumsy.)

On that same day, I'm proud to say, I cleaned chicken poop out of the coop. Something I never, EVER thought I would be doing. We've never had any interest in chickens. Or turkeys. Or ducks. Yet now we have ALL THREE roaming our yard when the dog is put away. Our Great Dane likes chicken a little too much. That's why we have the giant thing in the first place. Because he kept killing his former owner's chickens. I find that surprising because he hasn't shown any interest in ours, even when a couple of them have managed to get loose. Our flock now consists of the following:

Chickens: 2 Black Barred Rock, 2 Black Wyandotte, 6 Cornish Cross, 7 New Hampshire Reds, and 8 Buff Orpingtons. Ducks: 5 Khaki Campbells (all who appear to be female, which means 1500 duck eggs a year!!!!) and 2 Mallards (these belong to the girls). Turkeys: 2 Bronze Breasted (1 Tom and 1 Hen, they don't go anywhere without one another!) and 1 Bourbon Red.

Whew!

So mowing and poultry-raising. Yep, that's my version of homesteading. Oh, it will get better. Soon it will be time to kill off the Broilers of our flock and that is going to be an interesting day all around.

If we had our own and more land we would probably take this homesteading thing to a new level. Goats, a few pigs.....we've talked about it, but until we buy our own house and have more land it just isn't possible. We've started buying our meat from a local butcher instead of from the store. Seriously, no more pink slime meat. I'm not game. Once I start working I'm hoping to go all organic, but right now it's far too expensive.

*Disclaimer: If you are not a homeschooler feel free to let your mind wander during this portion of the blog. You can check back in later on. ;-)
In other news, we started homeschooling again today. We took the month of April off because I had so much unexpected stuff to get done for graduation this month and trying to get accepted to Liberty for the summer term. We are doing Bible, Lit. and Math and Spelling this month. We should be able to finish up Lit and Math and then next month we will be doing Bible, Science, Social Studies and Spelling. If all goes well we will be done at the end of June and the girls can have July and August off before we start up again in September. I'm excited because we are going to do away with the LifePacs this next year. I've been looking and we are going to try the Weaver Curriculum. We are also going to do Monarch for a couple of subjects annnnnddddd, "E" is going to get some Pre-school stuff! He likes to join us at the table and sit and color while the girls are doing their work, so I figure he will enjoy it. Not only that, but he will be almost three in September and more than capable of starting pre-school work. There is a Horizon Pre-school pack that I think he will like and it will keep him busy. Right now he just GETS INTO STUFF while we are homeschooling, with "I" in tow!

So, May is busy already and it just began. Homeschooling. Daily animal care now. Just offered to volunteer at the church. Graduation on the 18th, a BBQ on the 19th, and my Graduate classes start on the 14th. Not to mention I'm still working hard at losing weight and getting my running amped up for the Color Run in June. Can't wait for that! If you've never heard of the Color Run you should check it out at www.thecolorrun.com. Proceeds benefit  a local charity in each town they visit. In KC it is the KC Ronald McDonald House.

So, I know I slouched during April, but I have some GREAT blogs coming up for you! Food blogs, weight loss blogs, chicken care and slaughtering blogs. My next adventure will be documenting the effects of Jillian Micheals' 14 day cleanse and burn. I'm doing fine loosing weight on my own; 2.5 to 3 lbs. a week sticking to 1200 calories a day through my MyFitnessPal app and running 4-6 times a week. However, I thought the cleanse and burn might be a good way to clean out my system and I hear it gives you more energy. I looked up some reviews and I was shocked to see that most people had good things to say about it. Especially those who were actually dieting and exercising along with it. I figure I'll try it out and if it goes well I'll do it again when I hit my plateau. But, no matter if it goes well or not, you'll get to hear about THAT mess that I get myself into, as well!

Love and Smiles,
Chala

A pic of the smallest members of our flock.

 A pic of my graduate material for three classes. Yipes! I've already started reading, though, because I find it all very fascinating.

Unexpected~My Announcement

Well, I'm not going to lie, my announcement is going to seem lame to some of you and downright stupid to others. I'm okay with that.

To start with; NO, WE ARE NOT PREGNANT.

Although, there would be no complaints here if we were. Only praise given to God for a new little life. But, I'm not addressing any of THAT right now. 

Some of you may have seen my sudden, unexpected (even by me) announcement that I'm graduating this semester with my Bachelor's degree. (Huzzah!) I was previously not supposed to graduate until this Fall, December to be exact. I'm an Elementary Ed. major and I still needed to complete a semester of student teaching to graduate with my teaching certificate. Student teaching is something I've been worried about for a while now. I have 5 kids, two of which are home schooled. How in the world were we going to afford childcare for them? Secondly, I have friends who have been student teachers. They spend ALL their evenings and weekends writing lesson plans. Again, 5 kids, absolutely no time for that. Doing such a thing is fairly unrealistic anyway, because teachers do NOT spend every waking moment writing lesson plans, but for some reason student teachers are expected to. Not going to go on that rant, I promise. (It's a lengthy one.) 

Now, I could certainly put the oldest two back in school and only have three kids to pay for childcare for, but honestly we don't desire to do that. Even then, my husband works 14 hours a day and I would have to be in my own classroom before the girls had to be in school and I wouldn't be able to leave before they had to get out of school. Who, then, would take them and pick them up? I knew we were short on options, but I trusted that if the Lord wanted me to student teach then He would give us a way to get through it. He has gotten us through on one income for the last 5 years I've been in school and I trusted Him not to leave me hanging without a degree. And no child is a surprise to the Lord, so I knew His plans for me included our latest three kiddos, even though they weren't around when I originally started going to school.

So, I swear I wasn't trying to get out of student teaching. I wasn't devising devious plans or making up excuses, or anything. I was simply praying and waiting for the Lord to act. Well, He did. About two weeks ago I was up at 2am nursing "J" when it suddenly hit me; what if I could get out of student teaching? I wasn't even thinking about school when this popped into my brain! I didn't even know if it was possible. In fact, I seriously doubted it. After a few more hours of sleep I got on MSU's website and began my research, which wasn't promising. All of my credits were tied up in very specific Elementary Education courses. Switching my degree plan wasn't going to happen unless I switched to an individualized degree, which seemed a pain and sketchy at best. One thing I did know; with 130 credit hours, not including the semester I'm working on now, I had plenty of credits to qualify for a Bachelor's degree. All I could do was email my academic advisor and ask if there was any way I could graduate without the student teaching portion of my degree. 

I have to admit, I was so scared she would say no and I would have to try for the individualized degree that I didn't check my university email for days. I was ashamed of my cowardice, but at the same time there was a lot riding on her answer. Then there was the doubt; was I doing the right thing? All this time I've worked for this and I'm not going to teach? What does God have planned for me, then? Then, when I had just decided I was going to check my email for an answer, my daughter broke my computer and I had no way to check for several days. (Relief! Oops, I can't check, no guilt for that!) 

Within that time frame I was wondering what in the world I could do with an Elementary Education degree if I did not have teacher certification. Then again, if we were planning on continuing homeschooling, how would I teach anyway? I cried several times, scared about the fact that my educational plan I had so carefully crafted years before was going down the drain. These things were running through my mind as I dropped my daughters off at a church sleepover Friday evening. When I saw the children's pastor come out to greet me I thought, "Hey, that might be a fun job." 

That very evening I was at home, online again after the boys were in bed, researching what I could do in the church with an Elementary Ed. degree. Quite a lot, it seemed, as I gleaned from many forums that I was not the only one to decide that I would rather not enter the Elementary Institution after getting my degree. I saw many who had opted for the church instead and I was going to start my Master's in something. I've always wanted my Master's and Doctoral degrees. So I started researching Seminary schools. (Me?! What in the world?) What I found was there were several Seminary degrees that I could get that would allow me to follow job paths that I have always been interested in and some new job paths I have just discovered. Christian author, pastor, University professor, University administrator, children's youth minister or activities director.......and just like that I knew that I was being led to a Master of Arts in Theology.

I was still unsure about it all and still had not looked to see if my advisor had approved my request. Nor did I know what I would have to do to get out of student teaching. When we got our new computer I finally decided to quit being cowardly and check my email.......and lo and behold I had gotten an email from my advisor; she had ALREADY approved my request to graduate without certification, notified the appropriate individuals and I was ready to go! I literally cried; I'm DONE with my Bachelor's degree! In a span of a few weeks I went from "How will we get through this?" to buying graduation announcements and enrolling for my Masters. It has truly given me a new zest for life and I have felt like a fresh spirit for the past few days!

It's amazing how the Lord works, isn't it? Less than a year ago I was fighting the Lord, angry at Him for something that was man's fault. Then my irrational anger came to light, along with the knowledge of who had really let me down and I begged the Lord's forgiveness and returned to the church. How could someone like me be an advantage to the Kingdom of God? When the Lord is ready to work, he doesn't waste time! In a span of two weeks my whole educational plan has been turned upside down and suddenly I'm planning to do something I'm not even sure I'm capable of (Me, a spiritual leader?! Are we sure we have the right person here?), but I know the Lord will give me strength. 

I have been accepted at Liberty University for my Master's of Arts in Theology. It will take me a year to complete, followed by my Ph.D. in Theology and Apologetics. Don't know what Apologetics is? Well, if you're on the computer you have quick access to google to look it up. And no, I won't be apologizing to anyone. ;-) 

I know I have a long way to go. I am actually scared of this new path. I am by no means perfect and I'm not even sure I'm a good role model, but I feel confident this is where I'm being led. I know there are areas of my life that I will have to work on harder than ever now because I will be a representative of the Kingdom of God (as a member of the church, technically I was already). I am excited about this new journey and I am so very ready to start my Master's classes in May.

Please pray that I have the strength and wisdom to complete this journey.

Love and Smiles,

Chala

My Daughter Broke My Announcement

Ok, so she didn't the announcement itself, simply the means of communicating the announcement. I finally became sure enough to make the declaration and BASH~family laptop dropped on the floor! Imagine starting out a lovely spring morning intending to do some homework and a blog post while your kids are on homeschool spring break. You make the children breakfast, nurse the little one and get everyone settled in. You get yourself a cup of coffee and sit down at the computer to start in on your work...... And then you open your laptop. That is how my morning went yesterday. But, when I opened my laptop I didnt get any work done because I encountered a screen that looked like tv "white noise" interspersed with cracks going everywhere. Wait? Wasn't I just on this thing at 6:30am with no problems? Indeed I had been. Awakened by "E" at 6:30am, he insisted I turn on Spongebob for him. He sounded as of he might wither up and die if he didn't get a Spongebob fix, so I obliged. After crawling out of bed looking like a hobo from being up with "J" most of the night, I made the unpleasant discovery that I had forgotten to pay the Dish bill and it was off. Great. The Spongebob addict commenced whining while I hopped ONLINE and paid the Dish and service was restored. All better. So WHY, a mere two hours later, was I sitting in front of a destroyed screen? It had obviously been dropped; I could see the point of impact on the screen. By who? Not by "E", no. He is two; the computer would have been left where he dropped it and not carefully placed on the table and closed it so I was none the wiser. No, it had to be one of the older, sneakier ones, both of whom were sitting on either side of me and I immediately questioned them. Denial from both parties. No surprise. We had a suspicion who it was, but no one was confessing. So, we told them that they could either be banned from ALL technology in the house (our cell phones, Nook, any new computer, their DSs, etc.) indefinitely OR someone could confess and get a 1 month technology ban for lying. The accusations and denials flew all day until I went to class and left them with their Dad. While I was gone the suspected perp confessed. I imagine she didn't want to confess to me when I had just missed a ridiculous amount of homework. So, my daughter broke the announcement I'm wanting to make. I'm typing this post on my phone and it is a PAIN! So the announcement will come in a few days, along with my MacBook Pro. Right now, I'm off to make Chocolate Cherry Cupcakes. Don't worry, I'll document it all for future unbroken blogs. :-) Love and Smiles, Chala

Ahhhh, a beautiful Spring day.....spent in a cemetary

Yep, that's where I spend MY beautiful Spring Mondays! In cemetaries. Let me elaborate.

So, this past Monday my sister was over. We went shoe shopping for running shoes and then came back to my house where we did some outdoor gardening and such. There is a cemetary on the property we live on, a very old one. It is way up on top of a hill in a field next to our house. My husband has seen the cemetary before, but I never have. The grass is always tall in the field and once that grass gets tall you can bet that the grass in the cemetary will be tall as well, even under the trees that encase it.

Anyway. So my husband was telling my sister about the cemetary and he suggested that she and I go up there to visit it since the grass is just beginning to green up and he was home to stay with all of the kids while I went. So she and I headed up there to see it, sidestepping cow patties all the way. We get up there and start looking for a gate. We go around one side. Then another. Then the third. Then the last.

No gate. WITW? (What in the world, for those new to my Chala-lingo)

I know my husband has been in the cemetary. He has told me about how you can't read most of the gravestones. So I put in a call to him back at the house. No answer. He is probably chasing our 5 crazy kids that he isn't left alone with all that often. So my sister and I start snooping. In most places the fence is quite high, up to my chest, and there is barbed wire on top of it. Someone really didn't want anyone getting in there. (Or getting out, ha!) Finally we found a spot that we could just step over~well, my several-inches-taller-than-me little sister STEPPED. I went first and kind of bounced, clamored......whatever.

Once we were inside it was pretty neat. The oldest headstone we were able to make out said the person was born in 1805. 178 years before me. Wow. She (I believe it was a she) died in 1876. Some of the headstones were sinking into the ground. Pieces were broken off and nearly none of the names and dates were legible. My sister and I had to trace the letters with our fingers to figure out what we did. We read several names on headstones and then came to another one we were reading. A little girl, only six, daughter to the people on the headstones we had just read. We went around to the other side and her sister, 4, buried right beside her, who died in the same month and year as she did. Very sad. As a momma I cannot imagine losing two children in one month. The four year old had died at the beginning of March 1876 and the six yeard old had died at the end of March 1876. Safe in the arms of the Lord.

"Then little children were brought to Him that He might put His hands on them and pray, but the disciples rebuked them. But Jesus said, 'Let the little children come to Me,
and do not forbid them;
for of such is the kingdom of heaven.'"
Matthew 19:13-14 New King James Version

---

Running off of limited information, we found two families in the cemetary, who may well have been related by some blood link, but there were two last names. There may well have been other families, other last names but it was too hard to tell. Trees were swallowing up some of the headstones. My sister stopped and pick up a piece of one that had broken off of the main part, and poked it back on top. It was neat to see the remnants of it being cared for; one gravestone was surrounded by Irises and Daffodils, apparantly carefully planted by a loved one who either no longer visits or who may lay in a grave nearby. I told my sister that there is no telling if these people are even still where their headstones are; there has probably been a lot of shifting of the ground over time.

So, after spending a sunny, warm evening in a neat, but depressing, cemetary, my sister and I headed back to my house. I sure can find fun on a glorious spring day, huh?

This shot was taken as I was leaving the cemetary. I almost deleted it, but it has a very blair witch-esque quality to it......ok, maybe not. But I thought it was kind of cool anyway with the corner of the headstone in it and the sides all blurry because I was walking.

You never know what I'm up to, huh?

Love and Smiles,
Chala

As Promised: Stuffed Zucchini

What you'll need:

2 to 3 Zucchini
Sour Cream
Your Favy Guacamole
Shredded Parmesan Cheese
1/2 an Onion
1/2 a Tomato
Butter or Butter Spray
Cheddar Cheese (Optional)
Bacon (Optional)

Heat Oven to 400 degrees F.

Start out by chopping up your onion and putting it in a pan to saute. I diced mine into little squares; I don't think this is the kind of dish that you want long onion slices in. Put some butter in the pan with the onion (I used butter spray because it is calorie free) and saute the onion until it is soft and slightly browned. The more butter you put in the pan, the more the butter flavor comes out in the zucchini!

While the onion is cooking it is time to prepare the zucchini. Cut the ends off of each zucchini and then cut them in half length-wise (or "hot dog" style, as we teachers would say in the classroom!). Now, take a spoon and scoop out the insides of the zucchini, setting aside the now-empty outer part of the zucchini. Easier said than done. I almost broke my zucchini in half several times, so tread carefully! You should probably check on your onions at some point and give them a stir and then you can go back to your zucchini. Once the onions are done just set them aside. They don't need to be warm for this. Chop the insides of your zucchini into smaller bits and put it in a bowl. Your zucchini should now look like this:

Now, ignore those for a moment. Take your onions, which are probably long done by now (I hope you were checking on them!) and put them in the bowl with your zucchini "innards". Now, chop half of a tomato and toss it in with the onion/zucchini mixture. I recommend slicing, salting and eating the rest. ;-) Scoop a few spoonfuls of Sour Cream into the mix, along with your favorite Guacamole. Don't like Guacamole? Well, you're absolutely nuts, but you can leave it out. My favorite Guacamole in the whole world is Marketfresh. YUM! Now, I don't know how much of each of these things I put in there. I just eyeballed it. Put enough in to make the mixture creamy. Give it a lick and see how it tastes and be the judge if you need more of one or the other or both. Next, throw some shredded parmesan in there. Don't like parmesan? Use cheddar. I used shredded parmesan in mine. Again, I don't know how much I added. I like cheese, so I myself probably added quite a bit. If you are going for healthier, go for less. Now, mix it all together.

If you want to add some crispiness, add some bacon. Bacon makes everything better! Fry some up, chop it, toss it in your mixture and give it another stir. I was actually going to add bacon to mine, but I got busy and burnt it. We have fresh-from-the-pig bacon and it takes a bit more watching than store-bought. This is the mixture I ended up with:

Yummy! Now, cover a baking sheet with aluminum foil. Remember those poor little shells we abandoned earlier? We're going to use them. Fill each one with the mixture you created. Kind of twisted, gutting a zuke and then filling it back up with its own insides. They'll live. Set each one on the baking sheet. As a last step, cover the tops with more shredded parmesan. Or, if you prefer cheddar, use that. For reference, I used parmesan. 

Stick those puppies in the preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes, letting that cheese on top get nice and brown. These are what they should look like afterwards:

OMGosh, I want one right now! I would have taken a picture of the whole pan-full, but my family had already raided them. Personally, I could have eaten a couple of these all by their selves and they would have been plenty filling to be a meal. One of them alone would make a nice, light lunch. Enjoy!

I was wondering if finely chopped pepperoni would have been good in these? Hmmmmm.....an experiment for another day!

Love and Smiles,
Chala