Rice Crispie Easter Eggs & Chocolate Nests

Classic treat! Rice Crispie Treats! We love these at our house. And it's always a great way to celebrate any holiday. This was a great way for the kids to get involved as well.

Make some rice crispies....

After you've made them, drop the hot mixture by the spoonful onto a greased cookie sheet. Let the rice crispie treats cool down a bit so that you can handle them in your hands. Spray some cooking spray onto your hands and then pick up a spoonful and mold it into the shape of an egg. Lay it back down on the cookies sheet.

Melt some chocolate in a double boiler pan.

Collect some Easter/spring colored sprinkles and put them into a bowl.

After the Easter Egg rice crispies have cooled, you can have the kids dip them into the melted chocolate and then roll them in the colored sprinkles or sugars. Place them on a piece of parchment paper and let them set, then ENJOY!

When you have left over melted chocolate... you can't just throw it away! Here's a fun idea on what you can use with the leftover chocolate. Take the chocolate and mix in chow mein noodles. Drop the mixture in spoonfuls onto a waxed paper or parchment paper covered cookie sheet. After you've dropped the mixture down, you can mold the noodles into a nest shape. Let the chocolate set in a cool place (you can put in refrigerator to speed up the process). When they are hard, you can fill them with whatever goodies you choose. Here is large nest with a rice crispie egg....

Or you can make a smaller little nest and then put in the delightfully delicious Cadbury chocolate eggs (or jelly beans or whatever your candy of choice is).

St Patrick's Day Fun

Love this fun Green Day!

It started this morning with the kids running around to see what our naughty little Leprechaun did to the house.  For some reason he likes to snag a shoe from each child in the house and fill it with some treats or gifts. This year they got golden rolos and skittles, plus a fun new pair of glasses. Sammie & Anthony got the cool aviators while Jared's has an orange mustache attached to his green glasses and Morgan got the 80s Shamrock shades.

A few little tricks that silly little guy worked on while we were all soundly sleeping...

• He colored the toilet water green and unrolled the toilet paper a bit. 
• He arranged the kid's alphabet magnets into the word lucky and then sprinkled some rolos around there too.
• The kitchen chairs were left in complete disarray...turned over and on top of each other.
• Some of the family pictures had funny faces and mustache's drawn onto the photo.
• Finally the milk was turned green. 

Silly little mischievous leprechaun. 

After the tricks were found it was time to eat some breakfast. We went simple this year.... LUCKY CHARMS... cuz "They're magically delicious!" Served along with the leprechaun tinted green milk.

Plus to add some fruits and veggies into their breakfast we had some Turtle Juice Smoothies. 

{{Turtle Juice Smoothie}}

(Printer Friendly Version... click here)

2 frozen bananas

1 big handful of fresh spinach

1 yogurt (flavor of your choice)

2 cups fresh or frozen fruit (strawberries, blueberries, one apple, can of pineapple, one orange, raspberries, etc.)

2 cups juice, any kind

1 cup water

1 tsp vanilla

Blend all ingredients in a blender.

Will be different every time depending on the fruit chosen.

Pina Colada = pineapple juice, pineapple, banana, spinach and pina colada yogurt.

Blueberry Monster = blueberries, banana, spinach, vanilla yogurt, any juice.
This recipe was originally created by my friend Gina Smith and we use it all the time. We vary the fruit and juice to alter the flavor a little, but there is always a BIG ole handful of spinach added to the blender. When I first started making this the kids had no idea they were eating so much spinach, then they saw me doing it and at first they wanted to be abhorred... until I mentioned to them that they'd been eating it for quite some time. They paused... and realized it was true and they don't even complain anymore... they even pull out the spinach leaves when we go to make our green smoothies.

While the kids were happily munching on their cereal and smoothies... I was getting their green lunches ready. I made them a PB&J Shamrock sandwich, a green squeezie applesauce, a green Sprite, a green Fruit by the Foot, a green apple, green Sour Cream & Onion chips (the bag was green at least), and for dessert some Thin Mint cookies. They were super excited about the lunch since they got things that they don't normally get to have. FUN! That's what the holidays are all about. I also went here and printed out a lunch box tag to put in their lunch too.

After lunches were packed, and teeth were brushed... we stopped to take some pictures of their green-ness before they left. Sammie had a green strip of hair that we clipped into her hair and a green scarf. Jared brushed his hair up into a faux-hauk and then I sprayed it with temporary green hair color that we picked up on clearance after Halloween.

Then they were off to school!

When school was over and they busted through the door... they were welcomed by this lovely little rainbow snack. I've seen a bunch of variations and basically just pulled together what I thought my kids would enjoy the most.

Red= Strawberries (or could use raspberries, watermelon, cherries)
Orange= Mandarin Orange slices (or fresh clementines/orange slices, cantaloupe, )
Yellow= Pineapple Chunks (almost did bananas but the pineapple was more yellow)
Green= Green Apples (or kiwi, green grapes, honeydew,)
Blue= Blueberries
Purple= Purple Grapes

I gathered up the rolos that had been scattered everywhere by the leprechaun and used those to create my gold at the end of the rainbow. The puffy white cloud at the other end of the rainbow is a creamy fruit dip that growing up we affectionately called Angel Dip. It is a very popular dip and SUPER easy to make. Only 2 ingredients needed. ***If you've never made this before... you really need to. You don't know it, but something has been missing from your life... and it is this dip. You can mix things into the dip to turn it into different fun flavors, etc, but in its original form, it's a CLASSIC!

{{Angel Dip}}

(Printer friendly version... click here)

1 8-oz pkg. cream cheese, softened (nonfat works great)

1 7-oz jar marshmallow crème

Using an electric mixer or food processor, blend ingredients until mixed thoroughly. Refrigerate. Serve with fresh fruit, such as strawberries, cantaloupe, grapes, watermelon, etc.

For dinner we always have a corned beef roast & vegetables. I pick up the corned beef at the grocery store or Cost-co and the directions for cooking them are right on the package. It has a yummy flavor that is different than a typical steak. This year I threw everything into my crock pot.

1. First there is a layer of cut up celery, carrots, onions (and you can add potatoes, but I didn't this year).
2. Then I put wedges of cabbage on top of the veggies. (Best to keep the cabbage out and add it in half way through cooking though so it doesn't get too soft.)
3. Next comes the roast and I sprinkled a few of the celery, onions, & carrots on top of the roast.
4. The corned beef comes with a little package of pickling spices that you will want to save and then sprinkle over the top of the roast and veggies.
5. I made 2 cups of beef broth and poured that into the bottom of the crock pot.
6. Cooked everything on high for 4 hours and then when we pulled everything out it was perfect. We sliced up the meat against the grain, added some of the veggies to the plate with a pile of rice (you can spoon the broth over the rice if you want, or thicken it up for a gravy).

You can't go wrong with a slow cooker meal, especially one that is easy and turns out great. Click here for the full recipe.

Along with dinner we had some green leprechaun juice. My 11 year old daughter Sammie adorned our glasses with a cute little dry erase marker mustache. She loves to set the table for holidays... she pulls out tablecloths and place mats and tries to make things match and look cute. (So proud of my little Sammie!)

For this juice, I just kinda improvised with what I had.

{{Leprechaun Juice}}

1 frozen can of limeade concentrate

1 frozen can of lemonade concentrate 

2 liter of Sprite

Green food coloring

Mix it all together and serve. 

Finally it was time for dessert... It's so hard to pick just one... So I picked two. (Even that was difficult... there are so many fun things to make for each holiday.) Here's what I made... one thing new and the other was tried and true... an oldie but goodie!

The first treat I tried today was the Lucky Charm treats. Basically a rice crispie treat but instead of using rice crispies, I used the lucky charms cereal. I thought they might taste extra sweet since the cereal has a coating of sugar on it, but it tasted like cheerios covered in marshmallows. Fun! My baby couldn't wait to get his little hands on them!

Finally... the oldie but goodie. Mint Brownies. And since there is a certain someone in my house that doesn't like mint in, there was a third of the brownies that didn't include the mint frosting... just the chocolate... And those kind are good too! If you want the recipe for these brownies... click here.

Oh yeah... one more thing. I thought I had mint extract in my pantry and while I was making the frosting I couldn't find any minty extracts anywhere. They were all gone! I was committed to these brownies... the kids were depending on them... I'd already told them that they'd be having them. So in order to prevent a coup I did something I have never done before. I had a small vial of doTERRA Peppermint Essential Oil and I added in 3 drops of the oil to the frosting so they would be mint and it worked! I had heard that people cooked with the oils and so I tried it. I didn't want to run to the store for the extract. I should have started with 2 cause it seemed a little bit strong to me, but the kids didn't complain or even notice a difference. They were asking for more.

Another St. Patrick's day... done and over with. It was a busy but a fun day.  Now we get to start planning Easter! 

Sunshine Cupcakes

So the sun's not shining much these days....Blech. **big sigh**

It's killing me to see the days getting soooo short. Sunrise is about 7:30 AM and the sun is going to bed way too early, around 5 PM. Oh that is not okay with me. I LOOOVE me some sunshine, so these cupcakes were perfect to add a little brightness to a otherwise un-sunny day. You don't need the sun shining to make you smile... these cupcakes will just make you feel happy inside and out.

These require the candy corn candies which are only available to buy during the autumn months, so I think they are the best way to bring some summer sun into the mi.

For Young Women’s I have been making a yummy treat every month to celebrate the girl’s and leader’s birthdays that month. They have to come up front, we sing to them and then everyone gets a treat. This month I made these A-DOR-ABLE sunshine cupcakes. I’d found an image of them on Pinterest, but no tutorial. Not that a tutorial is really needed. I created my own then. I made them suuuuper simple.

1-Boxed yellow cake mix, made as directed on the box. Made about 22 cupcakes.

2- Then I used a container of pre-made white vanilla frosting, colored it yellow with some food coloring and spread on a nice layer using a knife.

3- Next I had a bag of candy corn and using about 9 candies, I put them around the outside edge of the cupcake to represent the rays of the sun.

4- 2 mini chocolate chips are the eyes. I pushed the pointy end into the frosting of the cupcake.

5- I had leftover yellow frosting that I added more red food coloring to, and it became a pinkish orangey color. Instead of putting it into a cake decorating bag with a tip that would have to be washed, I put it into a plastic ziploc sandwich bag and snipped a teeny tiny hole in the bottom corner and used that to pipe a cute little smile on the cupcake.

6- Then they were done! See Super Simple! and SUUUPER Cute!

Thanksgiving Table Centerpiece

Here's an idea for your Thanksgiving Table... or a Food Table or just a decoration during the holidays.

First take a fresh pumpkin. One from the garden. One from the store. Any size pumpkin will do. You know those pumpkins that are lazy and grow laying down and end up having a flat side? Those sweet little pumpkins are perfect for this.

It can be a big pumpkin or a smaller pumpkin. You'll want to start by laying the pumpkin on its flat side. I think it is cuter to have the stem of the pumpkin still attached and showing, but if you want, you can use a pumpkin standing up straight and cut the top off like you would when starting a Jack-O-Lantern.

 

Then using a knife (or carving tool from Halloween) you'll cut a hole in the side of the pumpkin. Scoop out the seeds and set aside. (Maybe use this recipe to make some roasted pumpkin seeds??? They are yummy!)

I like to use a handful of fake Fall flower stems and grass stems, such as mums, sunflowers, etc. Then fill up the hole with the flowers. Voila! You're centerpiece is ready to go! It takes maybe 5-10 minutes from beginning to end.

If you want to use a fresh bouquet of fall flowers, you can! Simply put a bowl of water into the bottom of the pumpkin and then arrange the flowers in the water to help keep them fresh and strong all through the celebrations. This will make the pumpkin heavier and so you'll probably want to assemble it close to where it will be used. Cause when you move it around with the water inside, it gets all sloshy and spilly. And that's no fun.

Another idea.... buy one of those pretend pumpkins... you know the artificial carvable pumpkins that last forever.  Use that, put a hole in it and add the flowers. This could be reused year after year.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Witch Hat Cookie Treats

I brought a birthday treat for the month of October. They are these super easy and super yummy witch hats.

Here's what you need:
Keebler Shortbread Cookies (you know the flat striped ones)
Hershey Kisses
Can of Vanilla Frosting, tinted orange with gel paste

The base of the hat is a Keebler Shortbread cookie flipped over. Then I had store bought frosting that I colored orange and put into a ziploc bag and cut the tip off. I piped a small amount of frosting onto the bottom of an unwrapped chocolate kiss and then stuck it on the cookie. After all the kisses were attached I used the ziploc piping bag to add a cute little bow to the hat.

That’s it!

It took like 10 or 15 minutes to make about 40 of them. From start to finish. I was concerned about the top of the hat (the kiss) slipping & sliding around on the soft canned frosting. I made these last night and by this morning, they were perfect. The frosting had solidified so that it held everything in place and I could easily stack them on the plate. But when you tried to eat it, it was still soft and delicious!

Healthy-ish Halloween After School Snacks!

In our house.... We love Halloween! And it is even more fun when you can make fun food to help celebrate. 

These "Apple Smiles" or "Monster Mouths" have been a tradition for our family since I was a kid.  They bring back so many memories and my kids love them as much as I did when I was their age. Delish! That little bit of marshmallow sweetness paired up with an already great duo- apples & peanut butter. Slice up your apples, slather on some peanut butter, line up your mini marshmallow teeth and slap the top lip on top of the teeth and then take a great big bite in. They are yummy!

These next two were new additions this year.... but both of them are definitely keepers! First we have some Witch's Brooms! I took a String Cheese stick and cut it up into thirds. I started to pull apart one end of the cheese stick to make it look like the bristles of a broom. Use a small sharp knife to help separate the ends. Then take a pretzel stick and push it in the other end of the cheese that isn't separated. Sometimes the cheese would split a bit at the top so it helped to take a small piece of chive and tie it in a knot (plus it makes them look more realistic!). Done! You can make a bunch of these in only a few more minutes.

Here's the second keeper! Used Band-Aids! Ahhhhhh! Don't you love them!? I LOOOOOVE them! And they're soooooo very simple. These obviously aren't as healthy as some of previous ones, but who cares when they are this cute. Break apart the graham crackers into four pieces and lay them out on your serving dish. Use some white frosting and spread it onto the middle third section of the cracker. (I used a small ziploc bag, put the frosting in, and cut the snip off the end of the bag so you can start squeezing the frosting out onto the cracker). The add some blood by adding some red frosting. You can dye some of the white frosting red or just buy a pre-made red gel frosting and put that on. (Plus the gel would look a bit more realistic.)

Ta dah! Kids ate these after school and they were so happy! A great and easy after school snack. 

Edible Image on Cake

For my Grandpa's 80th Birthday we decided to celebrate with a birthday party. It's not every day that you turn 80. I was making a cake for the party and wanted to do something different. I had a picture of my Grandpa when he was younger and serving in the air force. He also worked his career and retired from Disney Studios. I took the picture, scanned it into Photoshop, added some balloons, a Mickey Mouse & some words. I took the picture to our local grocery store, Harmons and in their bakery section they printed the picture out on their edible printer (someday I want to get me one of these). On the left side you see the picture and the frosting edible image on the right. It is an 8x10 image.

You can tell the edible image is not as vivid as the printed picture and it ended up a bit smaller than the 8.5x11 inch image that was printed. 

However it is a great duplication... and went onto the cake nicely. (Check local grocery stores or bakeries for the option to have your image printed cause it makes for a super easy & personalized cake!)

Here is the cake right after I finished decorating. I made a simple chocolate layered cake, covered in a basic white buttercream (had to be a light color so the image would show up). Before I added the blue star border I peeled the image off the backer paper and applied it onto the white background. So easy! Peel & Stick! The edges were super noticeable at first but with time the image blended into the frosting more and more. I didn't really know what I was doing, but it turned out. When they printed the image, there was an ink blur at the bottom and it transferred as well... I should have cut that off. I could have trimmed around the image as well since the cake was bigger than the image and I didn't put the border next to the edge of the image.

I used a large wide open star in blue tinted buttercream for the border.

Grandpa (and Grandma) loved the cake! And that's all that matters. I had bought some camouflage material to use as a tablecloth for our party. The cake cut up nicely when it was time to eat it. I made sure I got a piece with the edible image and it tasted like sugar.

Happy Birthday Grandpa!

Pancake Art

We LOOOOOOVE pancakes at our house. They can be so simple to make too. Sometimes it is nice to dress them up a little bit differently. Here are some of the pancakes that we have been making lately.

Here is our sun/flower pancake. Boys don't mind eating a sun... but they aren't so keen on eating a flower. Fruit and pancake... perfect breakfast.

How about a teddy bear for breakfast.... one very large pancake for the head, one medium to small pancake for the nose/snout, and two small pancakes for the ears. Use two chocolate chips for those dark brown bear eyes and then chocolate syrup to draw on the mouth.

Best part here... It's the syrup and it looks like he is covered in honey! CUTE!

Here's a monkey pancake... Once again almost like the bear: one very large pancake for the head, one medium to small pancake for the nose/snout, and two small pancakes for the ears... It is just about how you put them together on the plate. Also for the monkey we mixed in about 1 Tablespoon of cocoa powder into the pancake batter to make the other parts darker. Add two regular chocolate chips for eyes, and then we used mini chocolate chips to make a mouth. Serve with a banana and breakfast is ready!

Another fun and easy pancake... Mickey Mouse! On the griddle or pan where you are making your pancakes.... start with a medium to large circle pancake and then add two more small scoops right on top to create the ears. You want them to attach so it becomes one pancake. (Also we like to make Minnie Mouse pancakes too, you know for the girls....Make sure you put the ears far enough apart and then using a spoon put two triangles in the middle of the ears, attached to the head to look like a bow.)

One is a regular pancake and the other is a chocolate chip pancakes. Make your pancake batter and then while the first side is baking sprinkle mini chocolate chips onto the pancake. Flip and allow them to finish cooking. Serve with syrup.

There's lots of other pancakes that we've made, but don't have pictures of them all. It's fun to play with your food!

Banana Bread Pancakes

{{Banana Bread Pancakes}}

(printer friendly version)

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 cup all purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

2/3 to 1 cup milk

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

3 large ripe bananas, mashed

2 tablespoons butter, melted

mini chocolate chips, optional

In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, sugar, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a large bowl. Measure out the milk and add the vanilla extract to it. Whisk together the dry ingredients and add in 2/3 cup milk and vanilla, stirring to combine. The mixture will still be dry. Add in mashed bananas and mix. Add in melted butter and stir until batter is somewhat smooth (add the additional 1/3 cup of milk here as needed to make the batter a smoother consistency).

Heat a skillet or grill on medium heat. Using a 1/3 cup measure, spoon batter into rounds and cook until bubbles form on top – about 2-3 minutes. Flip and cook for a minute or two more. Repeat with remaining batter. Serve hot with butter and syrup.... Mmmmm....Or to make it even better yet.....sprinkle with mini chocolate chips... sprinkle to your little hearts content.

Another fun way to serve the pancakes... turn them into a monkey! I pulled out about 1 cup of batter and added 1/2 tablespoon of cocoa powder to make darker pancakes. Grill up a large monkey head, a medium sized mouth and two smaller ears. Decorate with 2 regular sized chocolate chip eyes and mini chocolate chips for the mouth. Accessorize the monkey with the monkey's favorite treat... a banana!

Mmmmmm.... I love breakfast! Don't you?

Banana-Pillar

Adorable right! What kid wouldn't want to GOBBLE this right up! Heck... I want to gobble it up! Nice fun and healthy snack for kids.

Banana-Pillar

Banana
Stick Pretzels, broke in half
Peanut Butter
Mini Chocolate Chips
Red Gummy Bear, cut in half

Peel banana and slice. Push a half stick of pretzel into each side of the banana. Smear a small amount of peanut butter onto the banana and stick another banana onto it. Continue until the entire banana has pretzels and peanut butter on them to form the body of the cater- I mean Banana-pillar. After the body is ready, take two mini chocolate chips and using a small amount of peanut butter, stick them on for the eyes. Then using half of the gummy bear, stick that on as the mouth/tongue! Ta DAH!

Serve it to the kids and watch their eyes widen in amazement. You can also try to serve it on a lettuce leaf (you know as if the little guy was sitting on a leaf) and maybe if you are lucky the kids will be so excited about eating the adorable banana-pillar, they will eat the lettuce leaf too!

Wow!

I found this cool website.... I think these melons are beautiful... but couldn't even dream how to start one of these, but thought I would share.