Friday, March 29, 2013

Enjoy Your Weekend

 Papas Peanut Butter Eggs

Well it is Easter weekend and our Lenten Promise is coming to an end. I will recap on Monday but my quick summary is: I think we will keep going. It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be, not as pricey, but we will bring some things back. Here are some links to enjoy...

The Chive always seems to inspire me just when I need it :)

Thinking it would be fun to try and make some pinatas this weekend for our Easter Celebration...they seem easy enough and you doesn't love a good paper-mâché project!

100 Rules to Dinner; a long but awesome list. 
18. Kitchen chairs should be red. Or at least fun.
81. Everything in moderation, but particularly garlic.

If you are into peanut butter eggs for Easter, Cincinnati has some of the best! Papa's Peanut Butter eggs (and opera cream, or coconut or pineapple) are the quintessential item in my kids baskets.

Prudent Baby makes the best stuff in the microwave, like how about a carrot cake

And if your still hungry you have to check out the perfect waffle.

Some people are much better at egg decorating than I am. 

Have fun Easter Egg Hunting!

Thursday, March 28, 2013

Bento Lunch

Usually my daughter buys hot lunch at her school. They offer a pretty good variety and lots of healthy options. I am happy to know that they make all the food there in the school and use mostly fresh ingredients. Does my daughter actually eat all those healthy options, I highly doubt it; but they're offered.

Today though she didn't like what was on the menu and needed me to make her a quote "yummy lunch, like you make LittleMan". LittleMan is pretty darn picky so I have started making him Bento Box lunches, since I bit the bullet and bought this lunch box. I LOVE this lunch box and all it's little compartments and especially that it does not leak! The only bad thing about it is that it does not fit in any of the lunch box carriers we have except for a Lulu Lemon bag. Yes they sell bags on the site as well, but sorry those just don't fit our ascetics. Maybe I will get crafty and make one, one day. But until then the kids are happy to sport any bag that carries this treasure trove of treats.

I don't get crazy with making faces on the sandwich and rose carrot curls but I do try to offer a variety of yummyness. So here is what she ate today.

Bento Lunch Box
  • Broccoli Slaw with Garlic Expressions Dressing
  • Red Seedless Grapes
  • Roast Chicken with Pepper and Garlic Salt on Homemade Buttermilk Bread
  • Plain Greek Yogurt with Honey and Strawberries
  • Robins Eggs (#1 Easter candy in our house)

Was it my best effort? Maybe not, but she has some healthy options to choose or ignore.

Linked at http://www.bentolunch.net/

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

The Perfect Waffle

The Perfect Waffle
It has been a long road to finding the perfect waffle...we tried many recipes and many variations until we got it just right and then we modified it more to fit our families nutritional needs :) TWEAK! (apology now, the only picture that is mine is above of our final product, sadly I lost all my others)

So we ended with this Milk's Favorite Waffle from Dine & Dish. It was a perfect base to grow from producing a thick batter that created fluffy waffles that crisped just enough around the edges. I really think it has to do with the beaten egg whites! But even with this almost perfect recipe my kids were crying for Eggo waffles, gross!

So with a little tweak here and a little tweak there...I might have finally converted them!


Final Recipe For the Perfect Waffle:

  • 1 cup whole wheat flour 
  • 1/2 cup all purpose
  • 3 tsp baking powder
  • 4 tbl heaped brown sugar
  • 2 beaten egg yolks
  • 1 cup greek yogurt
  • 3 tbl melted butter
  • 1tsp vanilla extract 
  • milk for consistency
  • 2 stiff beaten egg whites
First pull your eggs out of the fridge, never underestimate the power of a room temperature egg when beating egg whites! Also go ahead and plug in your waffle iron so it can preheat.

Mix together your flours, baking powder and sugar in a large bowl, make sure you break up those sugar clumps. Nuke the butter in the microwave for about 10 seconds or so, you don't want to put it in hot so give it time to cool. Separate your egg yolks and whites. Place the whites into a separate bowl and lightly beat the yolks in a measuring cup and pour into your flour, adding your yogurt, butter, and vanilla, mix well. If it feels too thick add a little milk but you don't want it to be thin, think of paint in a bucket, just a touch thicker than that.

Now comes the fun part, beat those egg whites!! Here is a great tutorial for beating egg white if you are new to this process.  You are looking for stiff peaks, see below. You will fold this light and fluffy perfection into your batter. And by fold I mean add 1/3 of the egg whites at a time to your batter and rather than mixing in a stirring motion you will scrape under the batter to the top rolling it in the bowl until all your whites are JUST folded in.
Perfect Peaks image from A Lump of Sugar

These egg whites are going to thicken up your batter, leaving it more like the paste you used in school. Also those egg whites are where the fluffy waffles will come from :)

Plop some batter in your waffle maker and voila, perfect delicious waffles! Each waffle maker works a little bit different so your first waffle might come out wonky if it wasn't preheated enough, or you didn't spray a little pam in there to grease it up, or it didn't cook long enough. Mine has a light to tell me when the waffle is done.

These waffles are gobbled up in our house but on the off chance we have left overs I let them cool and throw them in a freezer bag, then they are just like frozen waffles! Pop them in the toaster and you have breakfast to go on a busy school morning.

Enjoy!

Linked at:
http://somedaycrafts.blogspot.com/
http://www.thecraftedsparrow.com/ 
http://www.bunsinmyoven.com






The Mandatory Mooch

Friday, March 1, 2013

Enjoy Your Weekend

My little volleyball star has her first tournament game tonight. We are hoping for a win but sadly the girl inherited my athletic skill which is slim to none :( and even more sadly she does not have a competitive spirit. She is really just there to socialize with friends, which I guess is good too. They all enjoy her company and are not so competitive that they resent her inability to hit the ball over the net. But maybe this being her FIRST tournament she will rise to the top?! What fun events do you have going one?
Quinoa with roasted sweet potatoes, caramelized onions and sugar snap peas

Sketchers is in a heap of trouble, as they should be, over their new line of shoes called Daddy$ (pronounced daddy's money)

The kids love building forts all over the house, here is some inspiration

For my daughter's birthday party I am thinking of making up some of these t-shirt bags as the goodie bags using toddler sized Ts?

Also have you been following Dana's Celebrate the Boy!? Her and Rae are making the cutest boy stuff, easily transferred to girl as well.

And how about some Quinoa granola? hmmmm