Day 3- S'mores and Chores Galore

Jonathan has been in the Marine Corps for a little over 6 years. His official contract was up about a month ago and if he wanted he could drop to the IRR (Inactive Reserve or something like that).  Most of the people he went to Iraq with and who have been in the unit with him since he joined have dropped to the IRR or have been officially discharged. Last month when he came home from drill he said he was looking around and realized that most of his "friends", the guys he used to hang out with were gone and he didn't really know any of the other people who were there. So me being the wonderful wife that I am I thought what better way to make friends than food! And even better than food dessert...yummy...so I made some super duper yummy white chocolate s'mores bars. These bars are seriously delicious and pretty easy to make too. I even learned how to make a substitute for sweetened condensed milk (because in typical Jessica I decided to make these at the last minute and was missing something I needed). So I will put the recipe for that under the recipe for the bars.

My little baker

 

before the final layer of dough

looks pretty scrumptious doesn't it

I have also been looking through some ideas for chores for not only Jonathan, Lindsey, and myself, but for Jordyn too. Since my sister has started living here we've had some miscommunications when it comes to getting the house clean. I wanted something that would help everyone see what their job was and I needed it to be easily changed every week. I came up with something very simple; I just typed up all the chores and laminated it. Laminating anything turns it into a dry erase board. I also added to magnet strips to the back so it can hang on the fridge. I put initials next to what each person has to do and put the week on top. Easy but effective. 
For Jordyn I made 3 little cards and laminated them so she could check off what she has done. She has 4 chores per day that I know she can accomplish, her chores are making her bed, folding socks, picking up toys, unloading the silverware, and my personal favorite mommy's choice :). So far she has done great, she even folded the socks and put them in each persons room...I was very impressed! Each day she will pick a card she wants to do, but once she has done that card she has to pick another one until she has done all 3 completely. Once she has does all 3 I am thinking she might get some pennies or something as a reward for helping me clean...we shall see though.

sweeping the floor (that was the mommy's choice for the night)... the blue triangle is on the floor so she sweeps all the crumbs into the shape, this was also something I found on Pinterest a while ago

putting away all the silverware...I do the knives

chore charts for Jordyn

*original chore cards are from Over The Big Moon

Recipe from the Picky Palate

White Chocolate S'mores Gooey Cake Bars

1 box any type vanilla cake mix
1 large egg
1 stick (1/2 cup) salted butter, softened
4 1/2 full or 9 square graham crackers
10 ounce bag white chocolate chips
2 cups mini marshmallows
1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk (or half the recipe below)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. and line an 8×8 inch baking pan with tin foil that’s been generously sprayed with cooking spray. Make sure foil goes all the way up and over the edges for this one. It will be a full pan
2. Place cake mix, egg, and butter into a large mixing bowl. Mix with hands until a nice dough forms. (We started with a fork and used our hands to get the last little bit of dry mixed in) similar to a cookie dough.
3. Press half of the dough into the bottom of the prepared pan. Layer with graham crackers, white chips then marshmallows. Top with remaining half of dough pressing evenly. Drizzle sweetened condensed milk over top.
4. Bake for 28-33 minutes, until cooked through and golden brown on top. Remove from oven. Let cool for 5 minutes then take a knife and run along edges to loosen marshmallow, this will make your life easier when pulling foil out of pan to remove bars
5. Let cool completely then remove bars from pan with foil edges. The foil should come off pretty easy for  you if you really sprayed the foil down.
Try one when they are still warm it taste like roasted marshmallows nice and gooey :) we are leaving ours out of the fridge but the woman said they were good chilled too!

Substitute for Sweetened Condensed Milk

 (If you are using it to drizzle the top of the bars do half the recipe)

2 eggs

1 cup brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla

2 TBS flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

mix all the ingredients together...and ta da sweetened condensed milk