Mini-Egg Thumbprint Cookies

Happy Easter!

The kids and I made this fun little Easter treat today. I found this recipe on pinterest (where else?). They are short-bread cookies and they were good, but I think next time I would add an egg white as I found the dough quite crumbly which made it difficult to roll into balls. They were also a tad on the dry side when finished.

But look how pretty they are!

You will need:

• 10 Tbsp unsalted butter
• 1/2 C confectioner's sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 1/4 C flour
• (1 egg white)
• 1/4 C semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1.5 tsp corn syrup
• 1 bag of mini chocolate eggs (I used Cadbury)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 

With an electric mixer, beat butter, sugar and vanilla until whipped.

Add the salt and flour (I would try adding an egg white at this point) and beat until well mixed and dough-ish.

Roll dough into small balls and place evenly on un-greased cookie sheet. 

Cook for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and using thumb, press down in center of cookie to create an indentation. 

Put back in oven for 2-5 minutes (until bottoms are turning golden).

Remove from oven and and let cookies cool completely on cookie rack. 

While cookies cool, in a small sauce pan melt the chocolate chips and mix in the corn syrup, stirring constantly. Let cool for a minute and then using a spoon or knife and add a dollop of chocolate to the center of the cookies. Top with a mini-egg. Makes ~24.

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

Look at the mess I woke up to this morning! Apparently Leprechauns visited us last night! My children are running around the house looking for them. My daughter is positive that if she sees one, she can keep her eyes on him until he leads her to gold. She's been practicing.


St. Patrick's day always gives me spring fever. Earlier this week, I thought it would be fun to make some spring-inspired sugar cookies and let the kids decorate them. (We colored them green for St. Patrick's day). 

And St. Paddy's day would not be St. Paddy's day without some green pancakes;

"May the Lord keep you in His hand and never close His fist too tight". Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

For the sugar cookie recipe, go here (note: I didn't want "poofy" ones this time, so no creme of tartar), and for the icing recipe, go here. 

Banana Nut Oatmeal

I love oatmeal for breakfast, but I don't want to develop an oatmeal rut. like our cheerios rut.

I've been playing around with different oatmeal additives and combinations. Loved this one!

You will need:

• 2 C uncooked oatmeal, plain 
• 4 Tbsp all natural peanut butter, (I like smooth) 
• 2 C milk
• 2 C water 
• 1tsp cinnamon 
• 4 Tbsp chopped walnuts 
• 4Tbsp coarsely ground flax seed 
• 2 bananas, sliced for topping
• brown sugar for topping (optional)
• milk for serving

Bring water and milk just to a boil (watch you don't over boil it like I frequently do!). 

Stir in oatmeal, peanut butter, and cinnamon. Reduce heat and boil gently for 3-5 minutes or until mixture thickens and becomes uniform.

Remove from heat. Stir in walnuts and flax seed. Serve in bowls with desired amount of milk and top with bananas and brown sugar. Delicious!

You can of course play around with different nuts and fruit. Raisins are really good!

Snickerdoodle Muffins

Snickerdoodle cookies are a family favorite. This is the muffin version of those cookies.

I like to make my mini. A more suitable size for my kids, and more melt-in-your-mouth!

You will need:

• cooking spray for muffin tins
• 1/3 c butter, melted
• 1/2 C white sugar
• 1 egg
• 1.5 C all purpose flour
• 1.5 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1/2 C milk

Topping:

• 1/4 C white sugar
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 C butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350 F. 

In a medium bowl, mix together dry ingredients. Add wet ingredients and stir until well mixed. 

Scoop batter into a prepared muffin tins (fill each one 3/4 full). This makes ~24 mini muffins (or 10-12 regular sized ones). 

Bake for 18-22 minutes.

Meanwhile, mix sugar and cinnamon in a small shallow dish. Place melted butter in a second small shallow dish. 

When the muffins are done, cool in tins until you are able to handle them. Then dip the top of each muffin in the butter and then in the sugar/cinnamon. Cool completely on a cookie rack. 

Enjoy! These are fantastic when they are still warm!

Here is a simple baby gift idea...

A couple in our small group just had a baby girl and I made this pretty package to give them.

I used a heart-shaped basket, lined it first with parchment paper, and then a layer of saran wrap. I filled it with the muffins, wrapped the muffins up in the saran and parchment paper. 

Then I wrapped the whole thing in tulle and closed it first with a pipe cleaner, and then pink ribbon. Simple and sweet!

Grandma's Snickerdoodles

These are my husband's favorite cookie and they are the ones we make for Santa every year.

This is one I like doing with my kids because they can get their hands dirty making the balls.

SNICKERDOODLES

You will need:

• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 2 eggs
• 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon cream of tartar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons white sugar
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon (you may need a little more sugar and cinnamon)
• 
  
• Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
• 
  
• Combine 1 1/2 cups white sugar, butter or margarine and eggs. Mix well.
• 
  
• Stir in flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt. Blend well. 
• 
  
• Shape dough into 1 inch balls. 
• 
  
• Combine 2 tablespoons sugar and 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon in a shallow dish. Roll dough in sugar/cinnamon mixture and place 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets. 
• 
  
• Bake 8 to 10 minutes. Cool cookies on a cookie rack. 

These are awesome when they are still warm!

Also, my daughter's preschool xmas party is tomorrow so I shrank down and printed off more 

snowman wrappers and used them on boxes of smarties. Pretty easy for something pretty cute!

Rolo Turtles

As I mentioned in a previous post, I was invited to a Christmas bake exchange this year.  Last year my husband and I did a big one-day bake and in six hours produced all our baking, but it was exhausting and the clean-up took forever. So I'm excited and think this is a brilliant idea because you get all your baking done for the season but only have to make one item!

However, I had to make 8 dozen of that one item. And in a week where I have no fewer than 5 Christmas events and have to bring food to 4 of them, I went on the hunt for something quick and easy. I found the perfect thing on Pinterest (thank-you God for Pinterest!).

Rolo Turtles! These are so easy, I felt like I was cheating.

You will need:

• a bag of pretzels. I prefer Our Compliments mini-twists because they are smaller and compact so less caramel can ooze through and stick to the pan (I couldn't find pretzel snaps like the ones pictured in the original recipe)
• rolos (a pack of rolos has 10)
• pecans (I had no idea pecans were so bloody expensive!)

Preheat oven to 350 F

Line a baking tray with parchment paper unless you have a nice clean non-stick pan, then the paper isn't necessary

Place pretzels on pan in nice tidy rows

Place a rolo candy on top of each pretzel

Bake in oven for 4-5 minutes or until the rolos are shiny but still intact

Remove from oven and with gentle pressure, squish the rolos down with a pecan (watch not to burn yourself)

Cool on pan until pan is no longer hot to touch, then chill in fridge for 10-15 minutes. Voile! Brilliant!

The original recipe I found on pinterest came from So Wonderful So Marvelous

A train wreck with Candy-cane cookies

One of the biggest things weighing on my heart is my relationship with my husband. I know I am the source of a lot of unnecessary conflict and frustration. And I just know that things could be better.

In my quest to be less selfish, I am also trying to minister more often to my husband. I hate the way that sounds by the way, but it sounds better than "serving" my husband. The point is, I want him to see me as a place of comfort and support, and less as a place of agitation and annoyance.

I failed miserably in my quest today.

We decided to decorate our Christmas tree. Everything started out well enough. I made the fluffiest pancakes I've ever made (I think the secret was Our Compliments buttermilk pancake mix and the small soup ladle I used to pour the batter onto the skillet), but once we started decorating, things went downhill.

My husband likes to fiddle around with the settings on our camera. So while I tried organizing the decorations and putting them out for the kids to hang, he was fiddling. As soon as I opened the box of decorations, the kids dove in like maniacs. During the commotion I told my husband to forget the camera and just help with decorating. Instead he started snapping pictures of me.

My husband takes the worst pictures of me. Instead of getting the camera out when I'm all dolled up for a date-night, he gets it out when I'm in my pyjamas, my hair is frizzy from my shower, and I'm covered in pancake batter. What's worse, I look like a downright hag because I'm frowning and in the middle of telling him to stop taking my picture. "Stop being grumpy, like you always are!" he yelled accusingly.

Being told I'm "always" grumpy is a hot button for me (maybe because it's a little too close to the truth at times?), so I launched into the "what about you!?" sequence of our typical argument. Yay! What's more fun than a good game of "no I'm not, you are!"? Joy to the world...

Anyway, after wrapping that up we continued decorating the tree in stony silence. I know, the holiday cheer is overwhelming.

Feeling guilty about the lack of Christmas goodness, after the tree was done I decided to make some candy cane cake-mix cookies. The kids and I had been to the Santa Claus parade the week before and had accumulated quite the stash of mini candy canes. No one in our house cares for candy canes. I thought chopping them up and putting them into a cookie with chocolate might make them more appealing.

What are cake-mix cookies you say? Only the EASIEST cookie recipe out there! Remember when you bought like four boxes of cake mix at Safeway because they were buy one, get one free? Well now you have a way to use them!

Candy Cane Cake-mix Cookies

You will need...
- 1 box of cake mix (white or chocolate)
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 C oil
- 1 C (or more) of chocolate chips
- 1/4 to 1/2 C chopped candy cane pieces

Mix together cake mix, eggs and oil with a wooden spoon for one minute. The dough will be stiff. Stir in 1 C of chocolate chips and 1/4 to 1/2 C chopped candy cane pieces. Bake 8-12 minutes at 375 until just set. Cool on sheet for 1 minute then on cookie rack.

If you like chocolate and mint, you are going to love these.

My daughter doesn't like chocolate and mint, so she took one bite and made a big production of spitting the candy cane bits out. Feeling a little downcast, I turned to my husband for his reaction. He doesn't like chocolate and mint either, so his reaction was,  "Ummm...". Now I'm feeling really annoyed, so I resorted to "you never like my baking!" (yes, I am guilty of making my own "always" statements). It's also a clear over-reaction stemming from my frustration over the lack of cheer I was managing to create.

And that's just it. The whole day was about me. I had a picture in my head of how I wanted the day to play out, and when it didn't go according to my plan, I got frustrated with the players. I also took it personally. I was trying to "create" Christmas cheer so I took their rejection of my fabulous cookies as a reflection of my ability to do something fun and Christmassy with my family.

Can you imagine how much more fun we could have had if I had just hammed it up for the camera instead and took their rejection of the cookies as a blessing because now I would get to eat more of them? I can. And it makes me wish I could kick myself in the butt.

Cinnamon Biscuits

This is a good one. Simple, yet tasty.

What you'll need:

• 2C sifted all-purpose flour
• 1Tbsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 C vegetable oil
• 3/4 C buttermilk 
• 8 Tbsp (1 stick) butter, softened
• 3/4 C granulated sugar
• 1 tsp cinnamon

Combine flour, powder, salt and soda in a medium bowl and mix well. Stir in vegetable oil. Add buttermilk and stir until just blended

Knead the dough on a lightly floured surface until smooth. Roll dough into a 15x8 rectangle.

Preheat the oven to 400 F. Grease a 9 inch round baking pan lightly

Spread butter over the dough. Combine sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl and mix well. Sprinkle over butter. Roll up rectangle jelly-roll style, starting from one long side. Pinch seam to seal.

Cut the roll into 1 1/2 inch slices. Arrange the slices, cut side up, in prepared baking pan. Bake until lightly browned, about 15-20 minutes. Remove from oven. Serve hot. 

These are a great little treat, and quick to make. Perfect for brunches. 

Pita Pizzas

Ease: 5/5     Kid-friendliness: 5/5     Taste: 5/5     Time: 4/5

Prep: 5 minutes
Cook time: 15 minutes

This makes a quick easy lunch for the kids. My daughter loves pizza, making it a great way to slip in some veggies (if I think she might pick them off, I mince them up and mix them into the tomato sauce - shhhh...).

What you'll need:

• 4 whole wheat pitas
• 1 C shredded cheese (I used marble)
• 1/2 C parmesan cheese
• toppings of choice (I used some orange pepper)
• 1 C tomato sauce

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. 

Lightly spray a foil lined baking pan. 

Spread the tomato sauce over one side of the pitas. Add your toppings. Sprinkle liberally with shredded cheese and top with a sprinkling of parmesan cheese. Bake 10-15 minutes, until cheese is melted. Cut into 4 little slices and serve!

Rice cakes with Raisins

Ease: 5/5     Kid-friendliness: 5/5     Taste: 5/5     Time: 5/5

I am always looking for new ideas when it comes to healthy, tasty but quick and simple snack ideas for my kids. This one fits the bill. Get your child to help put the raisins on.

What you'll need:

• rice cakes
• peanut butter
• raisins

Spread a layer of peanut butter over one side of a rice cake. Top with raisins. Would also taste great with honey and granola spread on it, or nutella and cranberries. Can it get any simpler? 

Blueberry "Ice-cream"

Ease: 4/5     Kid-friendliness: 5/5     Taste: 3.5/5     Time: 4/5

I came across this recipe on the Today's Parent magazine website. This "ice-cream" is super fast to make. I found it a bit sweet, and more frozen yogurty than ice-creamy, but still really tasty. Great to enjoy on hot summer evenings.

What you'll need:

• 2 1/2 C frozen blueberries (or fruit of your choice)
• 1/2 C sugar
• 2/3 C whipping cream (I used the 95% fat free kind)

In a food processor (or blender), combing the frozen fruit and the sugar. Process until the fruit is roughly chopped (I used a blender, and at first, the mixture was too dry to blend, so I let it sit and melt for a few minutes while I cleaned up from supper). The mixture will appear dry and crumbly. With the processor running, add the whipping cream though the chute in the lid until the mixture is thick, smooth and creamy (stop the machine once or twice to scrape down the sides). 

Serve immediately. It will be soft. You could also transfer the mixture to a container and place in the freezer to firm it up slightly. Leftovers could be kept in the freezer for a week.

Lastly, Hello fellow blog-hoppers! Thanks for stopping by. I'll be sure to swing 'round your place as soon as I can!

Peanut Butter Pinwheels

Ease: 5/5     Kid-friendliness: 5/5     Taste: 5/5     Time: 5/5

Here is another quick and simple kid's snack idea (the possibilities with tortillas are endless!)

What you'll need:

• whole wheat tortilla
• 1 Tbsp smooth peanut butter (chunky makes the tortilla hard to roll)
• 1 tsp honey
• 1/4 C low fat granola

Spread one side of the tortilla with peanut butter and a bit of honey. Sprinkle with granola. Roll up and slice into bite-size pinwheels. It's that easy!

Toast Strips

Ease: 4/5     Kid-friendliness: 5/5     Taste: 5/5     Time: 4/5

Happy Father's Day! 

This recipe is perfect for getting the kids involved in preparing something for someone special. In our home, my husband is the pancake guru. In all honesty, he's way better at getting them just perfect than I am. So I didn't want to touch his well-earned title of Pancake-Extroidinaire. Toast strips are a fun alternative to pancakes and french toast. I found the recipe in Blender Baby Food: Over 125 Recipes for Healthy Homemade Meals.

What you'll need:

Toast

• 1 egg
• 2 Tbsp milk
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 tsp grated orange zest
• 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
• 2 tsp butter/margarine
• 1 slice bread cut into 1 inch strips
• Strawberry yogurt dip (see below)

In blender, on high speed, puree egg, milk, vanilla, orange zest and cinnamon until smooth. Transfer to a shallow bowl or pie plate. 

In a skillet, melt butter over medium heat. Dip bread strips in egg mixture, turning until well coated. Arrange in a single layer in skillet. Cook, turning once, until both sides are golden (~3 min/side). Serve warm with fruity yogurt dip. 

I doubled the recipe, which soaked 3 slices of bread. 

Strawberry Yogurt Dip

• 1/2 C plain yogurt 
• 1 Tbsp honey
• 1 banana
• 1/2 C sliced strawberries (fresh or frozen - I used frozen)
• 2 tsp lemon juice

In a blender on low speed, blend yogurt and honey until smooth. Add banana, strawberries, and lemon juice and puree until smooth. (In place of the banana and strawberries you could use almost any fruit combination. The recipe also suggested using 1 C chopped peeled pear and 1/4 tsp ground ginger, which I haven't tried yet, but sounds good).

Serve with fruit fresh (which also tastes great dipped in the strawberry yogurt dip), and you've got a nice breakfast. 

Sugar Cookies

Ease: 4/5     Kid-friendliness: 5/5     Taste: 5/5     Time: 4/5

First, hello fellow Blog-hopp'in Friends! Thanks for stopping by...

I have been talking all week about the main event at my daughter's 3rd birthday part - cookie decorating. It worked out really well. The kid's loved it! (Warning: if you are concerned about getting your floors dirty, this idea is not for you).

I have tried a couple of different sugar cookie recipes, and they have always turned out...meh. My mother-in-law gave me this recipe years ago, and this was the first time I used it. I thought these sugar cookies turned out better than any previous ones I had made. They were fluffier (probably because of the cream of tartar!).

I was able to prepare the cookies ahead of time and I made the icing the morning of the party. Instead of goodie bags, I bought plain aprons from Michael's for the kids to take home and jazzed them up with soccer ball iron-ons for the boys (it is FIFA, after all), and cupcakes for the girls. I also had take-out boxes for the kids to take home uneaten creations. A bunch of decorating sprinkles, jube-jubes, and mini chocolates, and we were ready to go!

To help the mom's ensure our kids ran off the sugar, once the cookie decorating was complete, the kid's played outside. We had a soccer field set up, and a bubble blowing station. We were blessed with beautiful weather. All-in-all, I would absolutely do this kind of party again.

What you'll need:

• 2 eggs
• 2 C white sugar
• 1 C shortening (melted)
• 4 tsp cream of tartar
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/4 C milk
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp nutmeg
• 1 tsp salt
• 4 1/2 to 5 1/2 C of flour
• assorted cookie cutters

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. 

Mix sugar, soda, cream of tartar, salt and nutmeg with 4 1/2 C flour. Stir in shortening, milk, and milk. Mix until thick and smooth (a nice dough-like consistency - you may need a little extra flour). 

Use the other 1/2 C flour to roll out the dough. Roll out to 1/2 inch thick. Use a cookie cutter and cut cookies out to desired shape. Place on cookie sheet and bake for ~ 10-12 minutes.

Other party menu items included sandwich trays pre-ordered from Safeway, a veggie platter, pretzels and:

• mini cheesecakes
• cranberry almond punch
• icing

Happy Friday!

Sugar Cookie Icing

 Ease: 5/5     Kid-friendliness: 5/5     Taste: 5/5     Time: 5/5

A cookie decorating party would not be complete without colored icing. I found this over at allrecipes.com. I altered it only slightly. It worked really well. It's quick and easy to make. I liked it because it's not overly sweet. I made it the morning of the party and covered it with press and seal, and it was still soft when it came time to decorate (please note, that it does melt in warm weather. I packed some decorated cookies up for the park the next day, and what a sticky fantastic multi-colored mess that was!).

What you'll need:

• 1 C confectioner's sugar
• 4 tsp milk
• 1 Tbsp light corn syrup
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 tsp almond extract
• assorted food coloring

In a medium sized bowl, stir together the confectioner's sugar and milk until evenly mixed. 

Add the vanilla and almond extract and stir again until evenly  mixed.

Add the corn syrup and stir until evenly mixed. At this point it was a nice smooth consistency for spreading. I added a couple of drops of food coloring and mixed well. One bowl of this would have easily covered 20 cookies, but I wasn't sure so repeated the recipe 3 times with three different colors. This was way more icing than was needed! It dried to a tacky state within 20 minutes, and completely hard within an hour. I know I will be using this recipe again.

Raisin Nut Bananas

Ease: 5/5     Kid-friendliness: 5/5     Taste: 5/5     Time: 5/5

These happen to be one of my favorite snacks too. I came across the idea in the May edition of Today's Parent magazine.  Kids will like helping to put the raisins on. So easy!

What you'll need:

• 1 whole banana, cut into 1/2 inch thick pieces
• 1 Tbsp peanut butter (nutella would taste great too!)
• raisins

Spread a layer of peanut butter evenly over one end of the cut banana pieces. Top with raisins. That's it!

Mini Cheesecakes

 Ease: 3.5/5     Kid-friendliness: 5/5     Taste: 5/5     Time: 4/5

Look how precious THESE are:

I came across this fun twist on cheesecake at Real Mom Kitchen. They are just the right serving amount. They would be perfect for a kid's birthday party. I made them for my mother-in-law's birthday, and they were a hit.

What you'll need:

• 2 packages (8 oz) cream cheese (I used light)
• 3/4 C sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 Tbsp lemon juice
• vanilla wafers (I broke up graham crackers I had left over from making s'mores) and/or oreo cookies
• 18-20 cupcake liners
• pie filling, fresh fruit, or chocolate chips (I used whole blueberries,  whole raspberries, and chocolate chips)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Cream the cheese and sugar together. Add eggs and lemon juice. Beat until smooth.

Line cupcake pan with liners. Scrape the filling off the oreos. Place oreos and/or wafers flat side down in each liner. 

Fill liners 3/4 full with cream cheese mixture. Bake for 6 minutes. At this point I added the fruit or chocolate to the cheesecakes (4-5 blueberries or 2-3 raspberries or 4-5 chocolate chips. If adding chocolate chips, swirl them around in the batter with a toothpick). Continue baking for 9-14 minutes or until golden brown. 

Allow cheese cakes to cool and store in the fridge. Before serving, I topped them with 3 blueberries, 1 raspberry or 4 chocolate chips, depending on what I had added to the batter (my daughter had fun topping them). You could also top these with pie filling before serving (can also be frozen prior to topping. To serve, thaw and top with fruit, chocolate chips or pie-filling).  Made 20. So good! Real Mom Kitchen also provides a Turtle Variation that sounds awesome.

Lastly, a special hello to fellow Friday Followers!