Ice-Cream Sandwich Cake

Here is a simple and delicious cake for a hot day! We always go to a nearby waterpark for O and my mom's birthday, and I wanted to make something easy and delicious. This ice-cream sandwich cake was the perfect solution!

To make the cake, I put a layer of ice-cream sandwiches in the bottom of a baking dish. 6 sandwiches fit in each dish. I crushed butterfingers and spread them over the ice-cream sandwiches. I then spread Cool Whip over the entire thing. This is not at all healthy, but it was fast, simple, and delicious, and since it's only once a year, I decided it would be ok to be a little unhealthy :)

Easy Peach Cobbler

O and I made this super easy peach cobbler for our July 4th celebration!

To make this easy peach cobbler, we poured a jar of peaches into a baking dish. O then poured a box of cake mix onto the peaches. We used the back of a spoon (and our fingers) to push the dry cake mix into the peach juice. We then scattered small chunks of butter across the mixture. I refrigerated the cobbler until we ate lunch and then baked it at 350 for about 30 minutes. It's not that healthy, but it is fast and easy and sometimes that's the most important thing! (especially since we only make this once or twice a year)

An Easy, Healthy Dinner

I don't have much time to cook, so I try to make things that are fast, simple, healthy, and don't require many pots or pans. This meal met all of my requirements, so I make it often :) I'm not sure what to call it...maybe Veggie & Chicken Couscous Casserole.

To make Veggie & Chicken Couscous Casserole, you need frozen carrots, frozen brocolli florets, whole grain couscous, and precooked rotisserie chicken (I love buying cooked rotisserie chickens from WM...one chicken usually lasts several days and makes my life so much easier). I saute the brocolli and carrots in olive oil and garlic. Once they are cooked, I pour in whole grain couscous and water (I don't measure anything...I just add couscous and water until it looks right). I shred the rotisserie chicken and add it in. This is a quick, easy, and healthy meal, and it's also great for mashing into baby food :)

Homemade Yogurt Smoothie

O and I recently made a homemade yogurt smoothie drink as suggested by a commenter. To make the smoothie, we poured milk into a glass bottle along with several spoonfuls of plain yogurt. O put the lid on the bottle and shook it to mix the milk and yogurt. She tasted it and declared that it had no taste and needed something more. She then mashed a banana and added it to the mixture (she loves to make concoctions and almost always includes mashed bananas in her recipes). She said her smoothie was delicious, so hopefully our days of buying yogurt drinks are behind us!

Yummy Birds' Nests

O and I made yummy bird nests with chocolate malt ball eggs for Easter! We had fun, and they turned out even cuter than I expected.

The idea and recipe for the birds' nests came from The Artful Parent. The nests are basically rice crispy treats made with cornflakes and shaped to look like nests. We made several changes in the recipe, but nothing major...we used Total cereal instead of corn flakes, we didn't toast our coconut, and we used a whole bag of mini marshmallows. I think making (and eating!) these fun, little nests may be a new Easter/Spring tradition for us!

To make the nests, we melted a bag of mini marshmallows along with a 1/2 cup of butter. We poured in a teaspoon of vanilla extract. We then slowly mixed in 4 cups of Total cereal and a fourth cup of coconut. We pressed the mixture into mini muffin tin cups to make the nests. After they were set, I took them out of the muffin tin. We refrigerated the nests overnight, and then we put the eggs in the nests to finish the recipe.

Chocolate Playdough Hearts

O and I recently made chocolate playdough using this recipe. It smelled divine, but we halfed the recipe and I never could get the texture quite right (it was too sticky). O had a great time making chocolate hearts and tricking her Grandaddy and Grandpa into to thinking they were real (they played along...O is not very good at deception :).

Glittery Snow Playdough

O and I made homemade snow playdough about a month ago, and I just realized that I'd never written about it. We followed this recipe and added white glitter and peppermint extract. It smells delicious! We had fun making and playing with the playdough, but O lost interest in it rather quickly (very surprising since she used to be obsessed with playdough). Luckily, this playdough lasts and lasts (if you store it in an airtight container), so I'm sure she'll be ready to play with it again eventually :)

A Snowman Snack

O LOVES bananas so this snowman snack was perfect for her! I cut a banana into 3 pieces to make the body of the snowman. I pu them on a straw, but the straw was really unnecessary. I used a piece of orange for the hat, dark chocolate chips for his eyes and buttons, and a raisin for his nose. Easy, delicious, and fun!

Chocolate Covered Peanut Butter & Ritz Sandwich Cookies

O, E, Elliott, and I made chocolate covered peanut butter & Ritz sandwich cookies for Elliott's work friends. This was a fun family activity! I was glad that Elliott participated since it was fun to see him and O working together...they are SO much alike! After spreading peanut butter on 1 cracker, O asked "Can I lick my knife now?" They were both so excited whenever a cracker broke, and they devoured them like they were starving. I'm fairly certain that sneaky little O broke a few crackers on purpose :)

When we started this activity, E was watching us from her bouncy seat. That did not suit her AT all since she likes to be involved in all of our activities. I put her in the sling (after O tried the sling out...she STILL fits, which is absolutely thrilling for her!), and she was perfectly content. E is not a baby who will tolerate being left on the sidelines!

To make the cookies we spread peanut butter on Ritz crackers and topped them with another Ritz to make a sandwich. We melted Wilton's meltable chocolate in the microwave and dropped each peanut butter cracker sandwich into the melted chocolate. We used O's chopsticks to remove the cookies from the chocolate and placed them on an unfolded cereal bag (instead of waxed paper) to dry and harden. This was fun and simple, but not so fast since it took quite a while for the cookies to dry and harden (and we only had one cereal bag on which to place them).

Chocolate Striped Pretzels with Sprinkles

O and I made chocolate striped pretzels with sprinkles for her Christmas party for her dance class. I spread out the mini pretzels in a single layer on a sheet of waxed paper, melted the Wilton's chocolate in the microwave, and used a fork to spread the melted chocolate over the pretzels. O helped spread the chocolate on the pretzels, but she especially enjoyed shaking the sprinkles onto the pretzels. She went a little overboard with the sprinkles, but it was easy enough to just pour the leftover sprinkles off the waxed paper and into a bowl to use for the next batch.

Peppermint Bark

O and I made peppermint bark for her dance teachers Friday afternoon. We had a lot of fun, and it was very yummy!

We started off with trying to break the peppermints into bits. I planned on hammering them, but I couldn't find a hammer. We put them under a kitchen towel and beat them with a Kleen Kanteen, but that didn't work. Next, we took them out of the wrappers and chopped them in the chopper. It worked perfectly!

We used Wilton's meltable white chocolate, and I melted it in the microwave. I poured the chocolate on a sheet of waxed paper (that was really an unfolded and washed cereal bag). We spread the chocolate out with a spoon and sprinkled the peppermint pieces on top. After we finished, we enjoyed licking the spoon and bowl (that chocolate is expensive, so we couldn't waste a drop!).

After the chocolate hardened, I broke it into pieces and put it in gift bags for O's dance teachers. This was a fun, easy, and delicious homemade gift!

Dark Chocolate Covered Apples

When I was a child, I loved candied apples and caramel apples. I wanted O to be able to experience something similar, but healthier, so we made dark chocolate apples :) I was surprised by how yummy the dark chocolate & apple combination was. O loved it since apples, chocolate, and sugar sprinkles are 3 of her favorite things :)

To make the apples, we melted dark chocolate chips in the microwave. This took quite a while, and I eventually added in a little canola oil to make it watery enough to coat the apples. O held the apples over a bowl while I spooned the chocolate on them. We then sprinkled them with orange, purple, and white sugar sprinkles. O was eating the sprinkles as fast as she could, and she lost interest in helping me finish the apples. Silly girl! The apples don't look very pretty, but they tasted good, and they are a lot healthier than candied apples or caramel apples!

Halloween Cheerio Treats

O, Guh-guh, and Grandaddy had fun making Halloween Cheerio treats! (I planned to participate, but I was nursing and rocking the baby in the adjacent room while they were making the treats). To make these easy and delicious (but not so healthy) treats you need 4 cups of mini marshmallows, 6 cups of whole grain cheerios, 2 tablespoons of butter, and candy corn. Melt the butter and marshmallows in the microwave and stir in the Cheerios one cup at a time. Add in the candy corn and stir. Press the mixture into a glass dish and chill in the refrigerator before cutting. I LOVE these treats, but we rarely make them since they not very healthy :)

An Easy, Healthy, & Fast Breakfast

O and my mom made these fun egg and toasts breakfast combinations a few days ago. O chose the cookie cutters, they cut the shape out of the bread, buttered the bread, put it in the pan, cracked the egg into the toast, and fried the egg. Delicious, healthy, fast, and fun!

We all enjoyed this easy breakfast. I think it will be fun to use different seasonal cookie cutters with each season and holiday :) The idea for this breakfast came from Parents magazine.

Homemade Silly Putty

O LOVES playing with putty, so we decided to make some of our own. It was super easy and fast to make.

To make the putty you just need 3 ingredients...white school glue, food coloring, and liquid starch. (Thanks, EB, for buying the ingredients for us!!!)

1st we mixed a 1/2 cup of white glue with a 1/2 cup of liquid starch. (We originally mixed in just 1/4 cup of starch, but added more later to make it more firm and less gooey.)



Then O added in green food coloring and stirred it with a spoon. We let it sit out to dry for several hours.



Then it was time to play! This putty is MUCH more slimy and messy than the therapy putty that O typically plays with. I'm keeping it on the kitchen counter, so that she only has it when she is closely supervised. I spread out a washed, unfolded cereal bag for a play surface so the putty would not stick to the grout and tiles on our kitchen countertops.



O LOVES this putty, and even though it is potentially very messy, I'm sure we'll be making more soon!

Chocolate Covered Frozen Bananas

Guh-guh and the girls had a delicious treat on Wednesday! They froze bananas and then dipped them into melted dark chocolate. Yummy! They discussed how the frozen bananas made the chocolate freeze and harden when they dipped the bananas in the chocolate. This was a great activity for O since she has been asking "what makes hot? and what makes cold?" lately. The girl likes details, and we ended up calling her daddy at work so he could explain how the hot water heater worked (in detail!). My girl is full of questions!

Homemade Sidewalk Chalk

It is SO easy to make homemade sidewalk chalk! You need 1 cup of plaster of paris, 1 cup of water, and powdered tempera paint.


 
Mix the ingredients together.



Pour the mixture into a mold. We used our insect molds, the plastic container that Buddy came in, and the flower mold that we used to make chocolate flowers. The molds don't lay flat (I guess I should have realized that), so we spilled a lot of the mixture during this process :)
Let your chalk dry for at least 24 hours, pop it out of the mold, and have fun!!! O loved drawing on her gigantic outdoor chalkboard :)


 

Apple Cupcakes

We made apple cupcakes for my niece's birthday party today, and I thought I'd share the recipe since this is the recipe that I shared for the postcard swap.
Apple "cupcakes" are simple and fun to make. My sister and I made them this morning and didn't involve the girls since they were so busy playing.
To make the cupcakes cut the apples in half horizontally. Scoop out the seeds. Then spread the apples with your favorite topping. We used cream cheese (with a little sugar) and peanut butter. We then decorated the apples with Teddy Grahams, sprinkles, chocolate chips, and goldfish. Serve the "cupcakes" in cupcake liners :) The kids liked the cupcakes, but most of them did not eat much of their apples. I think the apples were just a little too thick. Next time we'll cut them a little thinner or just buy smaller apples.