Messy Recipe & Chance to Win an LG Oven Range!

Kids + messy recipes + clean ovens don't go together very often. My boys love to help me cook and want to participate in the entire process but no matter the recipe it seems to end up a mess! I have a messy recipe for you today that the boys like to help make but that leaves my oven (and kitchen) less than desirable. It's definitely worth it though!

Living in the Southwest we eat a TON of Mexican food (ok we'd eat tons of Mexican food no matter where we lived) and this dessert finishes off a Mexican feast perfectly.

 CINNAMON FLAN

• 2/3 cup white sugar
• 14oz can of condensed sweetened milk
• 2 cups heavy cream
• 1 cup milk
• 5 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1/2-1 teaspoon of cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350ºF

In a small saucepan place the sugar with a bit of water (you're going to make caramel) heat on medium - medium high constantly stirring (sugar burns easily) until a caramel forms (once it starts boiling you can lift the pan to just above the heating element to reduce burning risk). Remove immediately from heat.

Poor into a 1.5qt casserole dish or 9" cake pan and swirl to coat the bottom - set aside.

In a blender combine the rest of the ingredients and blend on medium/high for about a minute (don't let it get too frothy)

Pour over caramel until it just reaches the top of the pan (can you see how this recipe gets messy?!)

Place cake pan into another larger pan and slide into the oven. Add HOT water to the 2nd pan (about an inch or so)

Bake for 50-60 minutes until set. It will still be jiggly but not watery. Remove the flan pan from the hot water and let cool a bit. Invert onto serving dish and enjoy warm or cold (we like it cold!) you can spoon some of the extra caramel on top to make it extra sweet!

(the mess comes from the inevitable spilling of the flan, getting the water into the pan, and getting everything OUT of the oven!)

 So good!

I'll just leave the cleaning to my husband I think ;) OR I could get an LG EasyClean™ Double Oven Range that allows you to clean your oven in minutes! Oven cleaning definitely gets put to the back of the list around here and builds up making cleaning it take FOREVER. I'd love a quick, easy way to clean up our messy recipes so that we can get on with more important things of the day, like swimming!

I love simple solutions to issues that take away from family time like this and the LG EasyClean™ Oven is definitely one of them!

About the oven - LG EasyClean™: A Clean Oven in Minutes, Not Hours.

Not enough time to clean your oven? No worries. LG brings you the new generation of oven cleaning with EasyClean™. All LG double oven ranges provide a quick and convenient way to clean your oven, while still being able to use the conventional self-clean method. EasyClean works in three simple steps. Spray the oven interior with water, press the EasyClean button, then in just 20 minutes, wipe away any residual bits of grime*. No chemicals or high heat needed to keep your oven sparkling clean.

*Heavy build-up may require additional manual effort or use of the full self-clean feature

Find out more about this awesome new product on their website!

GIVEAWAY!

Guess what?! In addition to making our lives easier LG wants to give away an LG EasyClean™ Double Oven Range. No that is not a typo!

Just answer the question "What is YOUR favorite recipe that leaves your oven messy?"

Sweepstakes Rules:
No duplicate comments.

You may receive (2) total entries by selecting from the following entry methods:

1. Leave a comment in response to the sweepstakes prompt on this post
2. Tweet (public message) about this promotion; including exactly the following unique term in your tweet message: “#SweepstakesEntry”; and leave the URL to that tweet in a comment on this post
3. Blog about this promotion, including a disclosure that you are receiving a sweepstakes entry in exchange for writing the blog post, and leave the URL to that post in a comment on this post
4. For those with no Twitter or blog, read the official rules to learn about an alternate form of entry.

This giveaway is open to US Residents age 18 or older. Winner  will be selected via random draw, and will be notified by e-mail. You have 72 hours to get back to me, otherwise a new winner will be selected.

BlogHer will pool entries from participating blogs and select a sweepstakes winner at random and will contact the winner with details about fulfilling the prize.

  The Official Rules are available here.

This sweepstakes runs from 5/22/13 - 7/15/13.

Rocket Launching with Estes! (a giveaway)

We are SO excited to share our latest "unplug and build" activity this time with Estes!

--------------------> Click HERE to read more and enter to WIN!

Summertime Mom Time & A $100 Giveaway

I don't post about myself too often so I thought it would be fun to talk about treating myself every once in a while! This will be my first summer home with the boys without a job tying me to the phone/desk for most of the day. I'm excited because it means a lot more mom and boy time but it also means I need to take the time to relax more as well!

 We live in the desert where the temps rise to 115F regularly all summer so frozen treats are definitely a favorite. Dreyer's Fruit Bars (now called Outshine fruit bars) have been a favorite of mine since I was a kid! I used to beg my parents to have one of their special dessert bars. If you look in my freezer now you'll see plenty of them!

 I love that the bars are still the same (they just have a new name) but there are some new fun and seasonal flavors as well! I love the seasonal Raspberry and Coconut Waters with Pineapple. Now, as an adult, I love that the bars are a healthy real fruit or fruit juice frozen snack that I can grab and eat out by the pool with little guilt. My boys love them too!

 What does this have to do with mom time? Usually when sitting by the pool I've got all eyes on the boys (even as great swimmers) so when I get a chance to relax outside by myself you bet I'm going to grab it!

I've got my spot all ready.

Outshine bars, water, and my iPad? Sounds pretty good right about now and that bucket of ice will come in REALLY handy when it's 115F!

 Taking time out to relax, have a snack and catch up on my blog reader is going to be one of the highlights of my summer days. A relaxed mom makes for a better mom and I'm always striving to be a better mom! I love spending time with the boys (I'm usually sad for them to go back to school) but I've also come to realize we all do better with a snack and a little break.

Do you love Outshine bars too?! Check them out and like them on Facebook.

Giveaway!

We'd love for you to have some mom (or dad, grandma, aunt...) time this summer too so how about a giveaway for a $100 VISA gift card?! Aswer the question below for a chance to win!

"What is your favorite snack during your mom time?"

Sweepstakes Rules:

No duplicate comments.

You may receive (2) total entries by selecting from the following entry methods:

a) Leave a comment in response to the sweepstakes prompt on this post

b) Tweet (public message) about this promotion; including exactly the following unique term in your tweet message: "#SweepstakesEntry"; and leave the URL to that tweet in a comment on this post

c) Blog about this promotion, including a disclosure that you are receiving a sweepstakes entry in exchange for writing the blog post, and leave the URL to that post in a comment on this post

d) For those with no Twitter or blog, read the official rules to learn about an alternate form of entry.

This giveaway is open to US Residents age 18 or older. Winners will be selected via random draw, and will be notified by e-mail. You have 72 hours to get back to me, otherwise a new winner will be selected.

The Official Rules are available here.

This sweepstakes runs from 5/8/13 – 6/12/13.

Be sure to visit the OUTSHINE brand page on BlogHer.com where you can read other bloggers’ reviews and find more chances to win!

Giveaway Reminders!

We have 2 awesome giveaways going on still that I don't want you to miss out on!

Fort Magic (a whole kit!)

And TWO winners for the Revell giveaway will win a SnapTite model kit AND $50 gift card to Hobby Lobby!

Unplug and Build (a Revell Giveaway)

We've made the decision to work on stepping away from the electronics and purposefully interacting with our boys more often. We do try to spend a lot of time together as a family but we want to make sure that we are setting aside time specifically for them. They love to talk about what WE used to do as kids. You know, back in the olden days.

----------------> Click HERE to read more and enter for your chance at one of 2 $50 Hobby Lobby Gift Cards and a Revell SnapTite Model Kit of your choice!

Fort Week Part 4: Fort Magic Giveaway!

Are you ready to see a truly awesome fort structure kit? We are so excited to share this with you today because we love it that much!

-------------> Click here see what we think and enter to WIN a Fort Magic kit of your own!

Easy Playtown Set Giveaway!

We were recently sent an Easy Playtown Set from Square One Kids to try out for you all. It's a play set made from cardboard. The whole set comes in it's own box which turns into the "mat" and has 3 buildings...

----------------------> Click HERE to read more and enter to win an Easy Playtown Set!

SWOOP Bag Giveaway!

Finding just the right storage for our LEGO bricks (as you know) has been a never ending process. We have them stored nicely in drawer/bins right now but the biggest complaint is that the boys have to dump them out to find what they are looking for so there is always a supply of LEGO bricks all over the floor. I've seen Swoop bags before and was SO excited to get our first bag to try out.

It. Is. Awesome.

-------------------> Click HERE to read more and enter to win your own!