Halloween Gory Feast

 I LOVE Halloween!

Actually, I'm pretty much a huge fan of every holiday. Any excuse to have a little party or add a little flair to your daily routine is okay with me!

But Halloween...ahhh. :) There's just something about thinking out-of-the-box and making everyday things gross, scary, and gory! I just LOVE it!

Spaghetti and Meatballs with Halloween flair-

I just prepared my spaghetti & sauce like usual, but I combined them before serving so it would look "bloody". For the meatballs, I used store-bought meatballs (yes, I roll like that these days). I baked them as directed, but in the last 5 minutes or so, I added a slice of a mozzarella cheese stick round on top of each meatball and topped it with a piece of an olive and baked it until melted. That's it! Give it a fun, gory name and your kids will think you're a rock star!


Steamed Broccoli with Halloween flair-

Yes, the stems are edible...and delicious. Probably the sweetest part of the broccoli. I admit I'm guilty of not using them as often as I should...wasteful, I know. It's easier (and faster) to cut up the tops and throw away the stems. But this time I took the broccoli (stem and all) and peeled around the outside of the stem with a potato peeler (to get rid of the stringy, woody parts). I sliced from the bottom of the stem first, working my way up to the florets in long lengths. I just steamed them as usual and gave them a fun name.

We also had breadsticks that I tied the ends of before baking to make them look like bones, but I forgot to take a picture of them before they were devoured! I found a picture at The Hillbilly Chicks blog showing how to make them:

Image from: thehillbillychicks.blogspot.com

Cute, aren't they? They didn't last long at my table.

Happy GORY EATING!

Single Serving (or extra batter) Cupcake

Smart tip-

*Do you ever find that when you're making cupcakes, you sometimes have enough batter left over for another cupcake or two...or would you like to make an individual serving?

Pull out a 1/2 cup metal measuring cup and bake it right in there!

Work's great!

You can also do this to make single servings!

Single Serving Cake Mix Recipe

http://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Single-Serving-Cake

• 1/2 cup Betty Crocker cake mix
• 1/3 cup water
• 1 tsp oil

Bake at 350 in two 1/2 cup measuring cups for about 10-15 minutes. Cake is done when it bouces back when lightly touched. Makes two cupcakes.

The Leprechaun's SECRET to GOOD LUCK- Service Project

It's St. Patrick's Day TOMORROW. Wow, it kinda snuck up on me. I promised a friend I'd hurry and do this post before then, so here I go.

Ok, so let me start by saying- WE LOVE HOLIDAYS. Give us ANY reason to celebrate and throw a party and WE WILL. St. Patrick's Day is no exception. It seems to be one of those overlooked holidays, doesn't it? I think it's fun to learn the history of how the holiday came to be, so my family and I started a tradition a couple years ago that I'm going to share with you.

First, we listen to Irish/Celtic music all day long. Here's a playlist of our favorite Irish/Celtic Irish/Celtic music from Grooveshark.We're really into music of all different kinds, so it works for us. As we get into the spirit of the day, we teach the history behind the holiday to the kids. I've included the links we use: The history behind St. Patrick's Day and fun facts about the holiday, clovers, the Irish, and St. Patrick himself. I like these versions (from Kaboose) because they're fun and easy for kids to understand.
As we eat our breakfast, (see my recipe for Green Pina Colada Waffles here), we make a game plan as we think of different acts of service we can do for people in our area. For one of our projects last year, we weeded a small garden for a neighbor (we did it while they weren't home) and left a treat and a note:

To use this image, right click and save as picture to desktop.
In a word document, insert this pic (from file-- desktop), resize, and print.

 Actually, we left a little different version, but I changed it up a bit for this year.

(I sure hope they don't see this, or our cover's blown!)

Sorry about the blurry pic.

My kids- finding joy in service.

 Not sure he's likin' it yet. Notice the jacket... WITH shorts and flip-flops. Yeah, I know.

He's got a big one...and a dirt smudge on his head.

No, he's not a contortionist. He's just holding his handful of weeds awkwardly.

Rainbow marshmallow pictures was another activity we did.

FOOD-
Some times, we go authentic and eat traditional Irish food, which I love! Tons of recipes found here.

But most of the time, we just eat green food (my kids eat it better). Click here for my BLT Club Wrap w/ Avacado on a Spinach & Herb Tortilla recipe. Click here for my Fruit rainbow-topped jello. Click here for my Creamy Asparagus Soup recipe.

After a long day of service, we enjoyed a nice, candle-lit green meal-

For this particular meal, we had those wraps mentioned above, Guacamole chips, brocco-flower, celery, green grapes, kiwi, and green-colored Sprite. We also had a green salad (not pictured).

Happy St. Patrick's Day, everyone.

Valentine's MINUTE TO WIN IT game printable

So, I was searching for a fun Valentine's activity for my son's class and found this cute Minute to win it idea from Pinterest! Yay! That will be perfect for my "center's" activity. Here's the blog with the original idea. She has a printable, too. But I changed mine a bit because I didn't totally understand what to do on the math part. Hehe. Anyway, I thought I'd share incase someone else wants to use it.

To use image: Right-click on it and "save picture as..." name it and save it somewhere you'll remember. Open a word document and insert image. Re-size to fit your page. If you'd like a better quality copy, leave a comment with your email and I'd be happy to send the pdf (since I'm not really very technically savvy and don't know how to upload a printable pdf on my blog yet). ;)

TO SET UP- Place one piece of licorice, one Pixie Stick, and a Hershey's kiss each in their designated spot on the page. Pour 25 M&Ms into a small container and set in front of contestant.
TO PLAY THE GAME- Set a timer for a minute aaaaaaaaand, GO!
1. Fill each circle with an M&M.
2. How may of each color are there?
3. Open a Hershey's kiss with one hand, eat it, and put the garbage in it's spot.
4. Empty pixie stick onto heart.
5. Bite ends off of licorice and blow pixie powder outside of the heart.
DONE! How'd you do?

IF YOU'RE NOT KEEN ON MESSES AND ARE PLAYING WITH YOUNG CHILDREN-
1. Use two hands instead of one on #3 above.
2. Skip #5 all together and have the child blow a "do-do-DO" in their licorice to signal the timer's stop.
Much less messy and helps out on the time.

We did this in my son's class and let me tell ya, they LOVED it!!!

Thanks so much, Stacy Julian, for your super fun idea!
Happy Valentine's Day!

Okay, so after actually playing the game, I realized the spot for the licorice was too small and it actually took 2 minutes to accomplish all that. Either that, or I'm just really slow. Haha! Anyway, I decided to fix my page. So here's the new 2 MINUTE TO WIN IT page! Also, I added a spot for the contestant's name, and their time. I gave a special prize to the kid with the fastest time... which was 1:22!

Enjoy.

Heart attacks, Fancy Dinner, and Chocolate Fondue

We had such an awesome Valentine's day last year! We spent it with our WHOLE family and was seriously the BEST!

We started out by giving a couple of "Heart Attacks"! This has become a tradition of ours.

We took pretzels, stuck heart-shaped strawberry marshmallows on them, dipped 'em in chocolate, then topped with sprinkles. Here's an earlier post I did about these treats. Once the choco-mallow pops were cool, we fixed plates, cut out hearts and let the kids write on them.

Then, my husband took the kids to deliver the goods.

 We couldn't think of any one better to attack than our widowed Great Grandma Brady (my mom's mom) and Great Grandpa Anderson (my dad's dad). We couldn't let them be alone on Valentine's day!

They silently attacked houses with hearts and left a plate of goodies. Grandma B. had no idea! When they had gotten every heart perfectly placed, the kids and Joey rang the doorbell and hid. When grandma came to the door, they jumped out and surprised her! She got kind of emotional. She said we made her day! Doesn't get much better than that! They stayed a little while and told her how special she is to them.

They did the same thing to Grandpa A., only he caught them in the act! He saw them out the window! Haha! The kids finished while Grandpa, with a full heart, watched them. They stayed and talked while he shared oranges and chocolate-covered peanuts. He was so appreciative! He left his hearts up proudly for a few days.

What a fun little service project!

If you don't want to use tape, you can use a magnet for their door (most doors are magnetic), or glue each heart to popsicle sticks and peg all over their lawn!

So, while they were gone, I was home setting the mood...

 The ambiance is key! I wanted it to feel special without breakin' out the fine china (I only have enough for 4 of us anyway), so I used cute paper plates and napkins. I placed them on silver platters to make it look like they were on fancy chargers. I hung beads from the chandelier and whipped out the red candles (and red hot candies). Not too bad. The kids absolutely LOVED it! We ate in candlelight the whole time. VERY romantic. ;) For a recipe for the Sweetheart Salad with a sweet and tangy Peach Balsamic Vinegarette, click HERE.

MY VALENTINE'S!

These are the faces of the people who make my life so wonderful. <3

Dinner was a hit!

But as fun as the day was, I have to say that DESSERT was the BEST!

And it was so easy! Just take anything you'd like to dip in chocolate and load it on a plate! We used Dollar Store "Heart Picks" for our skewers. So fun! For the chocolate- just take a bag of chocolate chips and add your favorite creamer (my favorite is coconut <3). Melt in a sauce pan & dip your goodies! I'm sure any creamer would be awesome. We have quite a variety-- we LOVE to use them in our hot chocolate and Pero.

 The kids had a blast coming up with their own little concoctions. There's just something fun about dipping your food, huh? Then, we all decided to tell each person one at a time what we loved about them. We went in a circle until every person had been told by all 6 of the rest of us. BEST PART OF THE NIGHT! Sweet, emotional mommy moment... I discovered that despite all the arguing and pestering, my kids really DO love each other! Very, sweet, perfect end to the night.

Here's a beautiful short video to help your family get into the spirit of Valentine's day- LOVE ONE ANOTHER

Happy Valentine's day!

Check out this PDF for tons more Valentine's Day ideas!

April Fool's Day- FOOD IDEAS

April Fool's Day is one of my FAVORITE HOLIDAYS OF ALL TIME!!!!! Stay tuned, because I'll be posting a LOT more in the next couple of days! For now, here are some fun food ideas!

Breakfast

Colored Cereal-

I do this one just about every year, so my kids expect it. They love it every time, though! Set your table for cereal (before the kids wake up). Put a few drops of food color into bottom of bowl. Fill bowls with cereal. When your family is up to the table, fill (or let them fill) bowls with milk. Watch their faces as their milk changes color! My kids now try to guess who will get what color! So fun!

Ice Krispies-

Fill bowls with cereal, milk, and spoon. Freeze overnight and set out just before they eat. Make sure you have a back-up plan, because they really won't be able to eat it!!!

Fake egg-

Spoon Vanilla yogurt on a plate to look like an eggwhite. Top with an apricot half to look like yolk.



Lunch/Dinner

Mashed potatoes icecream w/ gravy carmel sauce- (Whip your mashed potatoes. These work best if you add cream to make them light & fluffy. Refridgerate overnight and use an icecream scoop to form balls. Top with "carmel": 1 packet of brown gravy + 1 packet of chicken gravy---makes the perfect color.)

Rubber fishing worm in sandwich-

Unwrapped cheese sandwich (You can also use a piece of wax paper cut a little smaller than the bread with the words, "April Fools!" on it.)

Moving food-

Place a strong magnet (you can buy REALLY strong magnets at just about any auto store) on a thin plate. Cover with a napkin and breadsticks. Place another strong magnet under the table directly under plate. When your "prank-ee" reaches for a breadstick, reach under and pull magnet, making the plate move.

Check out this dessert-looking Shepherd's Pie!

Check out this meatloaf cupcake!

Check out this cool Mock Sushi!

Check out this Candy in a Fruit Can!

Drinks

Blue Gatorade glass cleaner-

This one doesn't need much of an explanation and is such a FUN fake-out! Just make sure your glass cleaner container is CLEAN before you fill it!

Jello drinks-

Make and refridgerate jello in drink glasses according to directions & watch your victims try to take a drink!

Can't get a drink-

Poke tiny holes in straw

Buggy Ice-

Freeze little plastic bugs in your ice.

 Dessert

Chocolate-dipped... treat?-

Slice raw onions, potatoes, or carrots to mini chocolate size. Dip in chocolate! Haha! I love this one!

Toothpaste-filled Oreos-

Scrape out cream centers and carefully fill with white toothpaste!

Kitty litter dessert-

Squished and molded brownies sitting in chopped nuts!

Chicken nugget cake bites- Cut pound cake into chicken nugget-sized pieces. Dip in microwaved vanilla frosting and roll in chopped toasted coconut and crushed corn flakes.

Grilled cheese sandwich-
This is really just toasted slices of poundcake filled with orange-colored frosting.

Peas & carrots-

Using green & orange tootsie rolls, roll into balls for peas, and little cubes for carrots.

Decorated styrofoam cake-

This one's kinda mean... unless you have a REAL dessert for AFTER the prank.

Confusing cupcakes-

Check out this and this website for some cute ideas!

Melted Chocolate bar diaper-

Fill a un-used, clean diaper with an un-wrapped chocolate bar (chopped up Snicker's looks awesome) and pop in the microwave for 20+ seconds or until semi-melted. I love this one!

Check here and here for more fun April Fool's Day Recipes! I also got many of these cool ideas from HERE... one of my FAVORITE April Fool's rescources!!! Check it out! They have LOTS more!

Fruit Rainbow!

This rainbow can be added to just about any treat in a rectangular dish!

I let the kids help me arrange this rainbow on top of this really simple graham cracker dessert. Except I used sugar-free lemon pudding instead of chocolate... and I used instant instead of cooked. Hey, I needed a dessert pronto!

We ate the leftovers the next day for breakfast! Haha! Atleast there was lots of fruit!!!

Got colored marshmallows? Here's an activity for ya!

My kids made these pages for St. Patrick's Day. It was such an easy, fun activity!

You can do this little project with your kids while they're home over the summer! If you're like me, you're constantly looking for something cool to keep them busy!

 First, print this page below:

 Click HERE for a free, printable version.

Next, grab your colored marshmallows.

Finally, you can do one of two things.

1. Use scissors to cut each mallow in half (or tear them) and stick them to page.

2. Let your kids bite the ends off each marshmallow & stick the remaining piece to the page. This is what we did, but I have to warn ya... that was a LOT of sugar they took in!

It ended up being a pretty fun project, though! You could do this with just about any picture! THIS is one of my favorite sites to go to find printable coloring pages! Have fun!

GREEN Pina Colada Waffles

Top o' the mornin' to ya!

 I know this is more Hawaiian than Irish, but hey, it's GREEN! This breakfast has become a family favorite since I was inspired by my friend, Josh @ joshlovesit.com. I used his recipe HERE for the coconut syrup, except I substituted the buttermilk and coconut oil for a can of coconut milk. I'm sure his version's awesome just as is... I just didn't have those ingredients on hand. Anyway, it's so frickin' yummy!

This would be an INSAAAANE dessert if you topped your waffle with ice cream, pineapple-carmel sauce, coconut shavings, your favorite toasted nuts, and let's not forget the coconut syrup! Oh, my.

Pineapple-Carmel sauce

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup water

2 T. butter

Simmer in saucepan until syrupy. Add:

1 can sweetened-condensed milk

1 sliced fresh pineapple (it would be AWESOME if you grilled it first) or 1 lg can

(add green food coloring for St. Patrick's Day!)

Have an awesome day!

Creamy Asparagus Soup your family will LOVE-

Green Soup? Yuck!

At least that's what I thought I'd hear when I made this for my family. At my house, we make our kids to take one "courtesy bite". I mean, I've just gone to all the effort of making them a meal... the least they can do is try it once, right? So AFTER their courtesy bites, they can form an opinion about whether or not they like it. If they don't, I won't force it. But 9 times out of 10, they end up liking the new meals they try. Honestly, I only made this because I had all this asparagus in my fridge from my last two bountiful baskets and needed to use it somehow.

I really didn't think it would fly, but to my surprise (and delight), my family LOVED this greeeeeen soup!

I got the approval of 6 out of 7 of my family members,

which I consider a success!

Even my two-year old was asking for more! SCORE ONE FOR MOM!

This soup makes for a perfect first course
for a St. Patrick's Day meal!

Garnish with crisp-fried Canadian bacon (or regular bacon
if you're not watchin' calories), grated Parmesan,
and a sprig of flat-leaf parsley.

Creamy Asparagus Soup

1 tsp olive oil
1/2 a large onion
2 large garlic cloves
1 lb asparagus
Chicken stock (or broth)
1 potato
salt & pepper
1 cup fat free cottage cheese (or a package of cream cheese--I've found that I like the cream cheese better)
1/4 cup skim milk
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
Canadian bacon (or regular bacon)
Parsley (optional for garnish)

Sautee' diced onions and minced garlic in olive oil until translucent. Add chopped asparagus pieces and peeled and diced potato. Fill pot with just enough chicken stock to submerge vegetables. Boil until tender. Turn down stove to medium heat. Blend soup with an emulsion blender until creamy. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Combine cottage cheese (or cream cheese) and Parmesan with milk and blend until smooth. Add to soup. Garnish with crisp-fried Canadian bacon (or regular bacon), grated Parmesan, and a sprig of parsley.

Makes about 6 servings. Enjoy!

Sweetheart Salad

I made this salad for my family for our first course on Valentine's Day.

What says V-day more than a naturally heart-shaped strawberry?

To make the strawberry hearts, just core them (kind of
deeply), and slice in to 1/4 inch hearts. Place on top of
whatever you think might need a little love. ;)

Salad -
Washed Spinach
Red leaf lettuce
Chopped cucumber
Shaved Carrots
Diced Tomatoes
Broccoli florets
Avacados
Chopped ham or canadian bacon

Peach Balsamic Vinegarette-
1 Italian Dressing pouch
Balsamic vinegar (according to directions)
Olive oil (according to directions)
4 Tbsp. peach jam (or any flavor you like)

Easy, but delicious!

Easy Choco-mallow Pops

These are a PERFECT little item to make with your kids. It's so fun & easy!

All you need is:

Shaped marshmallows, Pretzel sticks, & Chocolate chips.

You can top with sprinkles if you have them.

Take a bag of shaped marshmallows (we used the strawberry-
flavored hearts for Valentine's Day), and stick a pretzel
 in the bottom of the marchmallow.

+

Dip them in melted chocolate chips. You can't go wrong here.
Just shake off excess chocolate, and...

 =

Place on wax paper and top with sprinkles. Cool & enjoy.
*Tip: If you like the taste of Charleston Chews, try leaving
your pretzel-stuck marshmallows out un-covered over-night
(or two) and dip in chocolate. It makes 'em chewier. Yum!

These are a quick, inexpensive activity/treat you can make for any holiday. Just buy the current holiday marshmallow shapes & top with corresponding holiday sprinkles.