In honor of our first snowfall of the season this past weekend... Candy snowflakes- easy, cheap, tasty and cute! All you need are a bag of spice drops and some toothpicks! Select one spice drop as your center and insert 5 toothpicks into it. Remember it's five not six....snow flakes have five points (and if yours have six you should play the lottery because dang you are lucky!) Attach the colors of your choice to each toothpick (usually 3 fit nicely) Once you have filled each toothpick it's usually acceptable to dig in and eat as many as you can handle. Have fun and enjoy! … [Read more...]
Candied Turkey
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I recently saw something in a magazine that I thought would be so fun and so great to make (and share with you). The treat is 100% sugar so how could I go wrong? Here is what you will need: Double stuff Oreo's (the ONLY way to go) Candy corns Candy corn pumpkin Rolo's Mini peanut butter cup Mini marshmallow Chocolate frosting Mini Oreo's Step 1: Stuff 7 candy corn's into the frosting of the first Oreo cookie (point down) Step 2: "Glue" (with chocolate frosting) the Oreo's together with the one with the candy corns standing up and the other one laying down. Step 3: Attach peanut butter cup with chocolate to the belly. Step 4: Attach candy corn pumpkin just above the peanut butter cup. Step 5: Cut one mini marshmallow in half, attach sticky sides to the top of the candy corn pumpkin. Step 6: Attach one cookie piece from a mini Oreo to the Rolo (upside down) to make the hat and glue with frosting to the middle candy corn. Step 7: Use chocolate … [Read more...]
Left-over Halloween Candy Treats
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Halloween is over and your kids collected TONS of candy. What do you do with it all (besides simply eat it)? Here are some fun (though still not healthy) ideas for left-over Halloween candy: Cut up chewy or nuggety candy bars into bite sized pieces and bake them into the middle of a cupcake. Frost the cupcake then crumble more of the candy bar on top. Mix crumbled candy bars or smaller candies into ice cream, add a little milk, and blend it to make your own candy milkshake. Mix crumbled candy bars, Reeces Pieces, M&Ms or similar candies into cookie dough and bake for an extra special cookie treat. Break up chocolatey or caramely candies into small pieces and stir them into brownie dough. Bake for a deliciously gooey brownie treat. Make a candy pizza. Just search "candy pizza" in your internet browser for a ton of different recipes. Make this really awesome Halloween Candy Advent Calender or other cool things that I found at Alpha Mom. (This is … [Read more...]
Healthy alternative to pop/soda
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Do your kids love pop/soda? Do you worry about the amount of sugar and calories they are consuming because of pop/soda? Try this healthy, fun alternative! You'll need: Seltzer water (not tonic water or club soda--seltzer water) Any kind of fresh fruit or 100% fruit juice Small strainer (optional) Small blender (if using harder fruits such as strawberries or apples) The easy way of making pop/soda alternative: Mix 100% fruit juice and seltzer water to taste. That's easy isn't it? The fun way of making pop/soda alternative: 1) Squeeze citrus fruits into the seltzer water. If you're like me, squeeze them over a small strainer to avoid pulp in you "pop/soda" (I HATE pulp!). 2) Smash semi-hard fruits through the strainer so that the juice goes through. Above, I used a kiwi. (Yum! kiwi/lime was good!) 3) Puree harder fruits such as strawberries or apples in a blender than smash them through the small strainer to the juice goes through. (Sorry, no … [Read more...]
Homemade fruit leather
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Who doesn't like a fruit leather (a.k.a. fruit roll-up)? They're a huge favorite at our house. But if I am being 100% honest I can't stand that the first ingredient in them is HFCS (high fructose corn syrup)....in fact it really ticks me off (ahhhh- Jamie will wanna slap me if I go to "crunchy mama" on you so I will leave it at that). I did a great deal of searching on the web to find a recipe that actually works AND tastes good and I think I may have a keeper. Want to make your own fruit leather? It's super easy! Here is what you need: 4 cups fruit of your choice (we love raspberries, strawberries and even mixed berries) 1/2 cup water 2-3 Tablespoons sugar (this is 100% optional, when the fruit is sweet and in season I don't even add it) Measure out your berries or fruit and place all ingredients in a blender or food processor. Blend until smooth. Pour your puree into a sauce pan and bring to a boil (to cook the fruit a little). Simmer for about 10 minutes (not … [Read more...]
Creative lunchbox ideas
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Creative lunchbox ideas...yeah that's what I said! Are your kids picky eaters? When you send a bag/box lunch to school with them is half of it uneaten? I might have the cure for you and your picky eater. My quest to get my kids to eat more all of their lunches started with the growing list of things I COULDN'T pack in their lunches. The school they go to has all these "rules" about things that you can and cannot pack in their lunches, yet they offer no school lunch program. (Nothing that needs to be heated up, no peanut butter (or any nuts for that matter), under the age of 4 no carrots or celery (choking hazard), blah blah blah). I found myself, and my kids, were getting bored with the same old standby of a meat and cheese sandwich. So......I thought to myself "hmmm, what can I do to livin' up the lunches?" I did a little searching on the internet and found some great blogs and ideas of things to do to jazz up their lunches. I can say, it takes a bit more time (a few minutes) but it … [Read more...]
