Orange You Glad... Birthday Gift

I made this little gift to give away... I've seen tons of variations on Pinterest. I had to mail this gift so I opted for less chocolate and more mailable items.

Super easy and versatile gift that can be made to fit any person. Basically you just have to collect "orange" colored items.

Here's some orange suggestions:

• Orange notebook 
• Orange pen
• Orange tube of Mini M&M's
• Trident gum (Tropical Flavor- with an orange package)
• Orange Crystal Light
• Burt Bees Chapstick
• Orange Nail Polish
• Orange Slices Candy
• Reese's Peanut Butter Cups or Reese's Pieces
• Kit Kat Candy
• Soda/Drinks (Orange Crush)
• Orange Tic Tacs
• Goldfish
• Cheetos
• An actual real orange
• Orange cup
• Orange Ribbon
• Orange Stickers
• Anything Orange! Walk around and see what Orange things you find.

Then you add a little tag and it's done! Ta dah!

Here's a free printable of the orange tag for a Birthday gift.

And another tag for other gifts... Teacher Gift, Visiting Teacher gift, neighbor gift, just because gift! You can make the gift big or small depending on how much stuff you put into the collection.

 Right click on the image that you want and save it to your computer, then you can print out, cut out and attach it to your gift.

Here's another idea...

It's a plastic mason jar straw cup with a lid (and it even has an orange on the glass itself). I filled it up with a bunch of Orange candy, gum, Tic Tac's & Burt Bee's chapstick. I bought the cup at Wal-mart and after filling it with the orange treasures, I wrapped a ribbon and attached the tag.

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! 

Caramel Apple Dipping Bar

Mmmmmmm.... Love Caramel Apples.

Love them!

They are the epitome of Halloween for me. I find that I crave them at least once every season.... if not more. My kids love them too.... especially now that they don't have their braces on anymore.

We've made lots of fully dipped apples and then covered them in yummy treats and toppings, but they can be such a pain to eat. This takes "most" of the mess away from eating a caramel apple and the best part of separating out the toppings, means that you can have lots of variety. Each apple slice can be it's own delicious caramel apple.

First I like to start with green apples.... the tartness of a green Granny Smith apple pairs nicely with the sweet caramel. Using a simple hand apple slicer that makes 8 even slices, I cut up the apples. Sometimes, I will cut each individual slice again to make a total of 16 slices per apple, especially if there are lots of peeps... (plus that means there is a greater caramel to apple ratio.... very important!) You can use skewers to pierce the apple before dipping or just use your fingers.

Here are the few toppings that we used this time. Sprinkles, mini chocolate chips, peanuts, macadamia nuts, and chopped up M&M's.

Other topping ideas are:

• shredded coconut, 
• mini marshmallows (can be cut in half so they aren't so unruly), 
• chopped up candy bars (Nestle Cunch, Kit Kat, Twix, Snickers, Milky Way, etc.), 
• crushed up Oreo cookies, 
• crushed up chocolate chip cookies, 
• other nuts (walnuts, pecans, almonds, etc.), 
• toffee bits, 
• candy corn, 
• cereals (Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Trix, Lucky Charms, Fruit Loops- kids love these bright sugary cereals),  
• really just wander around the grocery store and you will find a gazillion things that you can add to this caramel apple dipping bar. 

Since there were only a few toppings and only my few kids, we put them in piles on a plate... but you could put each individual topping into its own bowl.

The caramel recipe I used is available if you click here. Another quick and easy way to make a caramel for apples is to unwrap KRAFT caramels and put them in a saucepan over medium heat (or you can melt them in a microwave) with a small amount of milk or cream. I would say for a full bag of caramels you would add about a tablespoon or two of cream.

So many choices... so many varieties... so many yummy choices. 

Happy Halloween!

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. 

Chocolate Covered Fruit

Anything is better with chocolate! At least that's my philosophy. I like chocolate. A lot!

I had a bunch of leftover melted chocolate and fresh fruit in the fridge that needed to be eaten... so naturally I put the two together! Naturally! I made chocolate covered blueberries, grapes and kiwi.

For the blueberries... I lined a mini muffin pan with paper liners and then dropped 4-5 blueberries (that had been washed and thoroughly dried) into the liners.
Using a fork, load it up with melted chocolate, and just drizzle it over the top of the blueberries in no particular way. Leave the blueberries slightly exposed so you can see their pretty blue color. Add as much chocolate or as little chocolate as you would like.
You can use a fine drizzle from a fork and it will leave a design on the top of the chocolate. After you have covered them with the chocolate, let the chocolate set in a cool place or in the refrigerator. Best if served within a day of making them.

Chocolate covered grapes... Who knew right? For mother's day, my husband and kids got me some treats from a chocolate sweet shop. There were several sweet things that they brought me and among the treats included some chocolate covered grapes. I was a bit skeptical, but they are delicious. So I decided to make some myself.

Wash and dry your grapes. You want to make sure they are very dry because water and chocolate don't like each other very much! The water will cause the chocolate to seize up. Mmmmm... yummy red grapes!
Next, taking one grape at a time, drop it into the chocolate and using a fork, cover it will chocolate. Then pick up the grape on the fork and let the excess chocolate drip off. Then place the grape on a wax paper covered cookie sheet, until the chocolate is set.
Pick them up off of the wax paper and start popping them in your mouth. As the warm chocolate cools, it seems to shrink and condense on the grape so that when you bite into them, the grape bursts forth its juicy goodness. Sweet and crunchy and yummy! A great way to eat some dessert and fruit too!

Great as a gift too! Drop them into a bag, tie a ribbon on top and share with a friend.
Another fun treat. Trim the skin off of a kiwi... I cut them straight so that they were shaped octagonal, but you can make them circular if you want... or even in the shape of a star. After you have cut them about 1/2 inch to one inch thick, stick a popsicle stick inside them and push it up past the center of the kiwi so that it helps them to become more stable. (At this point you can proceed to the next step or you can freeze the fruit and dip in chocolate after.)
Then dip them in chocolate. A very important thing that I learned while making these... dab the kiwi on a paper towel first before you dip them in chocolate because they are very juicy. This helps to remove any liquid on the fruit, because as stated above, chocolate doesn't like water and as you can tell in the picture... the chocolate started to seize up and get clumpy on some of them.

Let the chocolate set up in the refrigerator and then take a bite. My kids enjoyed these... (I think kids enjoy anything on a stick!). Store in refrigerator and use within a day (unless you froze them and they will last longer).

Chocolate Filled Raspberries

THIS:

+ PLUS THIS:

= EQUALS THIS:

!!!!!!!

WOW! Yummy Treat!

{{Chocolate Filled Raspberries}}

(printer friendly version)

Fresh Raspberries
Chocolate Chips, milk chocolate, semi-sweet or white chocolate (depending on your preference)

Wash Raspberries thoroughly and let them dry completely.

Take the chocolate chips and gently press one into the center of each raspberry, pointy end down into the opening of the raspberry. (Depending on the size of the berry will decide the size of chocolate chips... a bigger berry works well with the larger chips, such as the Guittard chips. Smaller berries work well with a smaller chocolate chip.)

Store in the refrigerator until ready to serve. Best if served within a few hours of preparation, but up to one day, depending on the freshness of the berries.

Greek Yogurt & Nutella Fruit Dip

Simple, lowfat fruit dip. Healthy and yummy. Goes well with lots of fruits.


{{Nutella Fruit Dip}}

(printer friendly version)

1 cup non-fat greek yogurt
1/2 cup nutella

Stir together the yogurt and Nutella. Serve with fresh fruit such as strawberries, bananas, apples, grapes, raspberries, pineapples, etc.



Done. Delicious. Dip. Who doesn't love dipping right?

Brownie Shish Kabobs

We made these yummy kabobs and the kids went gaga for them! A little bit of brownie and lots of fruit drizzled with chocolate. Perfect!

Here they are drizzled with chocolate. Mmmmmm...

{{Brownie 'n Fruit Shish Kabobs}}

(printer friendly version)

1 box fudge brownie mix (including the water, vegetable oil and eggs as called for on the brownie mix)

4 cups fresh pineapple, chunks

5 cups halved fresh strawberries

10 large bananas, cut into 1 inch pieces (Brushed with lemon juice to prevent browning)

1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1/4 cup butter

21 (10 inch) bamboo skewers

Heat oven to 350 degrees (325 for dark or nonstick pans). Line 9x13 pan with foil or parchment paper and let it hang 2 inches over the side of the pan. Spray or grease only the bottom of the lined pan.

Make brownies as directed on box. {You can also make your favorite brownie recipe from scratch... if I'm using a box, I prefer the Betty Crocker Fudge Brownies and I have noticed since we live at a higher altitude it works best if I add 2 tablespoons of flour to the mix before adding the remaining ingredients.} Spread brownie batter in prepared pan.

Bake brownies for 26-30 minutes or until toothpick inserted 2 inches from the side comes out almost clean. Cool brownies completely.

While brownies are cooling, start cutting up all the fruit and brush the cut up bananas with a diluted lemon juice water {I did 1 tablespoon of lemon juice and a 1/2 cup water and brushed it onto the bananas with a pastry brush}.

Lift brownie from pan and remove parchment paper/foil. Cut brownies into 1 1/4 inch squares.

Line cookie sheets with waxed paper. Alternately thread 3 brownie squares, 2 pineapple chunks, 2 strawberry halves, and 2 banana slices on each skewer. Place kabobs on waxed paper.

In a small microwaveable bowl, microwave chocolate chips and butter uncovered on high for 1-2 minutes, stirring once the chocolate is melted. Drizzle over kabobs.

***We made some without pineapple, some without banana, but all of them had strawberries. We wanted to satisfy the desires of all those that would be eating these. I actually cut the brownies a bit smaller and added more fruit when possible.

I had to include the kids... They were too busy eating to even smile! This was serious business. They were going GAGA!!!