Leprechaun Bait

Top 'o the morning to ya, lads and lassies!  I read that in my mind with a really lame Irish accent as I wrote it.  I also had a weird daydream this morning about a leprechaun running in the room and pinching my butt as I brushed my teeth.  Probably didn't need to tell you that, huh?  I've obviously eaten too much of this sweet and savory Leprechaun Bait that I saw on Pinterest.  Basically you throw a bunch of stuff you probably already have in your house - popcorn, rice cereal, pretzels - and add Lucky Charms (I found the St. Patrick's day limited edition box), green M&M's (I used a bag of mint ones), and drizzle green candy melts over the whole thing!  Kind of gross?  Yes.  Fun for the kids to make?  Yes.  Will it really trap leprechauns?  DUH!  Happy St. Patrick's Day!  

Similar recipes here and here.    

Also... more St. Patrick's Day dishes and treats HERE!

Mini Sour Cream Bran Muffins

I'm on a mini muffin kick.  First these perfect banana ones, and now these yummy, moist (I know, you hate that word) sour cream bran muffins.  Now, bran muffins probably aren't the first thing you think of when you see the word "yummy" but I, for one, am a fan.  Warmed with a little butter and a drizzle of honey, or smeared with some peanut butter, I've always loved a good bran muffin.  If made properly, it's slightly sweet, slightly spiced and yes, moist.  These are all of those things and most importantly, a good source of fiber for my kids (who desperately need it).     

Recipe HERE.

Perfect Mini Banana Muffins

The other day, my two-year-old came across a package of Little Bites Banana Muffins, and by "came across" I mean I bought them to keep her quiet at Target so I could shop in peace.  Did it work?  Yes.  I bought the few things I actually needed and 13 other things I did not in complete and utter serenity.  Anyway, she LOVED them and would not stop asking for more.  Between the three of my kids, we polished off the box the next day and of course, they were hooked.  However, I felt torn between giving them something they actually enjoy eating and feeding them a snack with ingredients I can't pronounce.  The solution presented itself when we came home from a long weekend away to dark bananas.  I made my own!  I wanted to make them mini, perfectly moist and just sweet enough.  They were fantastic... two-year-old approved.  Best part?  Only took a matter of minutes to prepare the batter IN ONE BOWL and made 50 mini muffins... plenty to eat and plenty to freeze for future snacks.  That's more than one best part, sorry not sorry.       

Perfect Mini Banana Muffins

Makes 50 mini muffins

Printable Recipe

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp fresh lemon juice

1 cup mashed bananas (about 3 small ripe bananas)

2 cups flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup milk

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  In a large bowl, add the sugar and vegetable oil and stir until smooth.  Add the eggs, vanilla and lemon juice and stir again until smooth.  Add the mashed bananas and stir to combine all ingredients.  Add the flour, baking powder and salt and stir until just combined.  Add the milk and stir once more until just combined.  You don't want to over-stir or you'll have dense muffins.  Spray a mini muffin tin with baking spray.  Add a tablespoon or so of batter into each cup (about 3/4 of the way full).  Bake for 10 minutes.  Let cool and then remove onto a wire baking rack.  Enjoy!  

For more breakfast inspiration, check out my segment on the Today Show this morning here.

Rapunzel Cake

I am all birthday caked out.  My daughter Etta turned 4 on Monday, and she's only been anticipating her birthday since, oh I don't know, a few minutes after turning 3??  And, by the way, she's pretty convinced she'll turn 5 next week.  She is NOT understanding my explanation of a year!  I started out all patient and kind with my words, and now I'm so exhausted that I just say, "Etta!  A year is a long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long time.  You will feel like you are 4 forever.  And p.s. Christmas is far away too."  (Even though OMG no it's not.)  As a kid, I always thought it was so weird that my mom didn't seem to care about her birthdays BUT NOW I GET IT.  

Alright, birthday pessimism aside, I really did enjoy making her Rapunzel cake!  I had never worked with fondant before and I was terrified.  However, I found by using lots of powdered sugar to help roll it out and keeping what I wasn't using covered with a damp towel, it was pretty easy to use!  Of course, I have not mastered making it look smooth (I also don't have any fondant tools), but for this cake I was lucky because I was scoring the sides anyway to make it look like a tower.  I used white fondant and then sprayed the cake with this Silver Color Mist.  I used colorful fondant and a little fondant mold for the flowers, vines and birds.  Then, I used a tube of yellow frosting for her hair.  

One thing I would have done differently - more buttercream inside!  No one really likes to EAT fondant, and I found when I cut the cake the fondant took the buttercream with it.  I would have sliced each layer and slathered buttercream inside to ensure each bite had enough.

Finally, I followed this recipe for the cake.

Have great weekends!

Dory and Nemo Cake

My baby is two.  That means she's technically not a baby anymore, but you mamas know we are always allowed to call them that.  She is a tiny comedian and when she's not making everyone laugh, she's being her sweet, concerned self.  "Jackie sad?  Mama doing?  Sorry Etta." are phrases she utters frequently when she's not saying "UPPY UPPY UPPY UPPY."  She LOVES Dory and often likes to claim, "I'm Nemo."  For her birthday, it was a no-brainer to bake fishy cakes and finding fish cake pans at Michael's definitely helped.  I went with good old boxed cake mix, because I decided I actually wanted to spend TIME with little LoLo on her birthday.  (I have been known to bake cakes that take me all day to finish and turn me into a giant ball of stress.)  

Do the eyes look a little freaky to you?  They look a little freaky to me.  And it also sort of looks like the fish have braces.  Or blinged out grillz.  I had to google how to spell that.   

If you care to see the other cakes I've created for my kids, check it out here.

Cheddar Cheese Turkey Meatloaf Bites

In my never-ending quest to try and sneak vegetables into my children, I recently tried these bite-sized, delicious, flavorful, cheesy, tiny meatloafs that are prepared in a mini muffin tin.  They are so good that we (Carson and I) ate half of them, and I froze the rest.  The 7 year-old shrugged and said, "yeah, they're ok" and the 19 month-old liked them (but she only eats if she's running in circles these days, forget about a chair!).  The 3 year-old is trying to send me to the looney bin, but that's a story for another day (someone remind me she won't be wearing diapers when she's 10).  Ok but honestly, these are so good and they are packed with vegetables that you pulse into teeny, tiny pieces (see below) so if you also have picky eaters, try them!  If they won't eat them, you will.

Recipe here.  

Tune into the Today Show tomorrow to watch me make something much, less, healthier :)

BB8 Cake

Well, my son turned seven last week.  I don't know why this birthday seemed so significant to me... seven sounds so old!!  This means eight years ago, I was nearly pregnant with him (I'm good at math).  Which means I've been a mother for almost a decade.  WHICH MEANS I'M ALMOST 40!  Ok, it doesn't really mean that, but seven does sound old, right?  He had a Star Wars-themed party this weekend with some buddies (at one of those places where hundreds of kids bounce around together and share puke germs) so I made him a BB8 cake.  Which yes, I realize may have been better suited for his 8th birthday, but I never said I was good at math.  

I made two circle red velvet cakes (following this recipe), cut one cake into a smaller circle, and then in half.  I formed the robot's body and head, slathered everything in cream cheese frosting, and decorated it with candy melts similar to the Transformer and Power Rangers cakes below (click on those links for more info).  As you can see, I've had fun with cakes for my kiddos in the past!  

And by "fun" I mean lots of panic attacks and beers.     

Rainbow Cake

Brobee Cake

Transformer Cake

Frozen Cake

Minion Cake

Funfetti Cake

Polka Dot Cake

Power Ranger Cakes

Wubbzy Cake

Green Mac & Cheese

I swear to God, my children once ate vegetables.  They ate fruit, and healthy grains, and fish and lean meats and foods that came in all different shapes, sizes, textures and COLORS.  Then, each of them hit 18 months, and they were all, "nah... OVER IT... I'll just eat chips and Skittles until I'm out of college and my palate returns to normal, thanks."  My son (who turns SEVEN today!) was always a little better (maybe because I had time to actually focus on one, single child?) but my girls are trying to turn me into a mental patient.  As a mom, I keep trying.  That's my job, to feed them healthy foods.  So I keep trying.  Like yesterday, I made this Green Mac & Cheese, assuming I could trick them into thinking a magical leprechaun turned it that color.  That's fun, right?!  

Me: Hahahahahahaha, look lasses and laddy, a wee little leprechaun has played a trick on us, ohhhhh, aren't we lucky little Irish children!?!

Them: (Blank, disgusted stares)

Cut to THREE different-sized meltdowns over dinner.  My middle kid ran from the table, the baby just screamed "all done, all done, all done, all done" and my seven-year-old took a bite, plugging his nose and choking back tears, like I was feeding him poison.  

My take on this creamy, cheesy pasta full of pureed spinach and broccoli (which I decided to throw into the blender with the spinach so there were NO VISIBLE SIGNS OF VEGETABLES)... it's delicious.  It's so, so good.  Carson loved it as well.  Which is good, because we will be eating it for lunch every day this week.  You should make it too, because your kids are probably better than mine.

Recipe!

*Look, I even melted cut-up string cheese on the top because I ran out of cheddar and I wanted it to be EXTREMELY GOOEY AND CHEESY.  

Happiest Little Baker Giveaway!

I am not a very crafty person.  Some moms have the most pinterest-worthy art projects up their sleeves, but when it comes to doing something creative with my kids, I've always preferred baking.  Which is why I was THRILLED to discover the Happiest Little Baker - a subscription based monthly kit that comes equipped with pre-measured, non-perishable ingredients and simple-to-follow, adorable recipes!  It was created by a woman named Linsdey and her husband Mike - parents who love baking with their own two children.  Their kid-friendly approach is obvious in every detail - they even include an activity sheet to kill time while your treat bakes.  After our 'Witch Hat Cupcakes' were done, my son proclaimed, "this is SO MUCH FUN, please sign up for every month!!"    

So for the giveaway, HLB is going to give one winner a 3-month subscription for FREE!  To qualify to win, you must officially follow this blog, as well as follow HLB on Twitter, Instagram and like them on Facebook.  Please leave a comment below to enter the giveaway, letting us know what you like to bake with kids.  A winner will be chosen at random on Wednesday at 9am EST.  Good luck!  

Turkey, Cheese & Cauliflower Meatballs

I make a lot with cauliflower, because it's a vegetable that my children will actually eat, but chopping it up is one of my least favorite things to do.  It's messy, tedious and time consuming.  But yesterday I was at Target, and I came across these Cauliflower Crumbles (did you know if you're a mom and you find yourself with a few free hours you car will actually DRIVE YOU TO TARGET all by itself??? so weird).  Yes, these crumbles are a major short cut BUT WHO CARES!?  Short cuts at dinnertime make for a happy household.  So last night, I made a version of these meatballs with cauliflower crumbles instead of the other vegetables it called for.  They were so yummy!!  They even went to the party, the party in our tummies, because sometimes we have to sing that song while we eat...

Thank you for the recipe, Audra!

Also, a Cauliflower Quesadilla and a Cauliflower Rice Bowl.

Veggie Pizza Balls

By now, if you're a parent, your children are probably back to school (if not, I offer you my deepest condolences).  You're probably also in major "fall schedule" mode.  Back-to-school shopping and haircuts and soccer and dance (and figure out those carpools!) and school open houses (with so many forms to fill out) and easing back into homework.  It's a lot!  It's so much!  And on top of it all, you probably keep forgetting you need to feed your children breakfast and pack their snacks and lunches and figure out something (what!?) to make for dinner.  Which is why I love finding things you can make the night before, or in the 20 spare minutes you find during the day, and can pop in the oven that night.  Weelicious to the rescue!  If you're not familiar with her site, check it out.  She offers a slew of easy, healthy, kid-friendly recipes.  Like these Pizza Balls you can stuff with anything!  Cheese, marinara and then, if you think your kids will eat it... veggies.  I added some finely chopped cooked cauliflower to mine.  My kids loved them (oh, and I ate 10).  Check out the recipe here.

Back-to-school on Rachael Ray

Back-to-school for the kids, back-to-work for mama!  I had a blast on The Rachael Ray Show this morning testing out 3 adorable snacks for the kiddos: edible crayons, rainbow pasta and homemade fruit leather.  They were extremely easy and Rach and I gave them four thumbs up, because we each have four thumbs (you know what I mean).  If you missed the segment, you can check it out here!

Pink Ombre Cake

When I asked my daughter what kind of cake she wanted for her third birthday, her reply was simple: "pink!"  So I went a little overboard, and made the inside of the cake three shades of pink, with pink frosting, pink edible glitter and pink heart sprinkles.  Were there pink candles?  Um, duh.  And I splurged a bit on this cake topper from Etsy because an all-pink cake deserves a little bling.

To make the cake ombre, all you need is a little food coloring!  Simply bake as many layers as you'd like, evenly distribute the batter into different bowls, and use varied amounts of food dye to create different shades.  I made 4 different layers, but the cake started to look absurdly tall so I ditched one of them.  I used boxed white cake (two boxes) with neon pink food coloring, and followed this recipe for the Vanilla Buttercream.  It was a hit amongst the pink-loving crowd.

Now if someone could just help me figure out how to explain to a three-year-old that her next birthday is an entire year away...  

Tuna Melts: Big and Small

When we were visiting The Voice set over vacation, I discovered something FANTASTIC.  My almost-three-year-old PICKY eater will eat tuna salad!  You see, television sets are a dangerous, dangerous place for little kids.  There are scattered jars of M&M's and jelly beans and gum (so much gum!) and then trays of cookies and bars and sometimes they bring out something called Cookie Pie and serve it with ice cream and I die.  Like I said, television sets are dangerous places for grown women who write food blogs.  Anyway, I was bribing Etta to eat SOMETHING healthy before she dove into the candy jar, and tuna salad it was.  We had tried it at home before, but after eating "The Voice" tuna (weird) I realized what I had done wrong.  Mine was too chunky.  This was whipped, and fluffy... a spread-like consistency.  So when I got home, I decided to put my tuna in the food processor.  It was delicious!  Some mayo, some garlic salt, fresh lemon juice and salt and pepper...

Now we make Tiny Tuna Melts for the kids on crackers with white cheddar, and grown up versions on sourdough bread with sliced tomato and avocado.  I pop both versions under the broiler and watch until the cheese gets bubbly and slightly golden (adding the avocado for the adult sandwiches at the end).  You should definitely try the food processor trick for your tuna if you haven't already!

Tuna Salad

(Serves 4-6)

Printable Recipe

12 oz. tuna (I like solid albacore in water)

1/2 cup light mayo

Juice of half a lemon

Garlic salt

Salt and Pepper

Drain tuna, and place in food processor or blender.  Pulse until smooth.  Place in bowl, and add mayo and lemon juice.  Stir until smooth.  Add garlic salt, salt and pepper and taste until desired consistency is reached!

Also, Tuna Avocado Toast and Tuna Casserole

Homemade Funfetti Cake

My baby turns ONE on Thursday.  Today, August 17th, was my due date, and it feels like just yesterday that I was waddling around, complaining about still being pregnant, shoving absurd amounts of carbs in my mouth.  Now she's almost one, moving into toddler-ville, drinking real milk and trying to walk.  I would do it all over again, each and every loooong pregnancy, just to savor these baby years.  Yet I know they must grow up, and therefore we must celebrate and that means CAKE.  We had a little pre-party the other day, and I baked a homemade Funfetti Cake following this recipe.  It was moist, delicious, and easy.  And um, fun... DUH.  

Instead of one of those giant number candles, I made a "1" using a wax paper stencil I made myself.  Simply cut out a design, place over the cake (gently), add your sprinkles and remove!  

More birthday cake fun:

Jack's 5th birthday cake.

Jack's 4th birthday cake(s).

Jack's 3rd birthday cake.

Jack's 2nd birthday cake.

Jack's 1st birthday cake.

Etta's 1st birthday cake.

Etta's 2nd birthday cake.

(And in case you're keeping track, for Jack's 6th birthday I bought an ice cream cake because that's what he wanted and I only pouted about it for a week or so.)

Baby Brezza: Tropical Smoothie

You know those "first kid, second kid" commercials?  I think that perhaps I write them in my sleep and submit them to the diaper companies.  There is nothing more true than how much your parenting mentality changes from one kid to the next.  Our first kid had only age appropriate toys that I sterilized once every few weeks in a bucket of soapy water.  Our third kid plays with (and sucks on) my car keys.  It's just the way it goes!  Similarly, I made ALL of Jack's baby food.  All of it.  Down to pureed ground lamb, turkey and chicken that I called "meat paste" - oh man, did it look revolting.  Second and third baby?  Well, I definitely made a few things... but those baby food pouches are just SO convenient (enter major mom guilt!).  

However, I always say to new moms: it is SO simple to make homemade baby food.  Chop, steam, blend... it's truly that easy.  You can even make large batches of food at once and freeze individual portions.  Products like the Baby Brezza make the process foolproof.  At the touch of a button, you can steam and blend your food at desired intervals, or you can steam only, blend only, etc.  The other day, I made a smoothie for London with strawberries, mango, banana and yogurt, and with the leftovers I made frozen push-pops for the big kids.  6 thumbs up from them!  I do math!  

Tropical Baby Food Smoothie

(Makes 4 small glasses, or 4 frozen push-pops)

Printable Recipe

1/2 cup fresh or frozen strawberries, roughly chopped

1/2 cup fresh or frozen mango, roughly chopped

1/2 banana, sliced

1/2 cup whole milk yogurt

Place first 3 ingredients into the Baby Brezza.  Choose the 'Steam and Blend Only' feature for 15 minutes.  Once the fruit has been blended, add the yogurt, and choose the 'Blend Only' feature until your desired consistency is reached.  Pour into glasses and place in fridge to cool.  I poured some into push-pop molds and froze for the big kids. 

Found my "Cool Cones" at Michael's, but can also be purchased here.

Frozen Peanut Butter Banana

Carson came home from work the other day and was raving about this easy recipe: a banana, sliced in half, smothered in peanut butter and frozen.  What a great thing to keep in your freezer for a sweet, savory, healthy snack!  I, of course, would dip it in dark chocolate, maybe roll it in coconut... but I don't know when to stop.  You should make this, thanks Joy Bauer!    

Speaking of Carson, I wrote a little something about him for Father's Day here.  If you enjoy, please share, and vote, or better yet... join the site and write your OWN!