21 Jul

 

Did you know that just about every day is a food holiday?

I can’t make these things up. This is real stuff.

Seriously, if you have a favorite food it probably has it’s very own day set aside every year to be celebrated.

Love Cheese Doodles? March 5th is your day!

Do you get excited over egg salad? You get a whole week! April 12-18.

And for those of you who still secretly munch away on Play-Doh, September 18th is your day. So go nuts!

Yesterday was National Ice Cream Day and today is National Junk Food Day, so I really feel like we’re covering all of our bases with this dessert.

It’s really easy to make. The hardest part is waiting for everything to set so that you can eat it! You can’t really rush this pie since each layer will need to firm up before you add the next or you’ll end up smearing everything together. So plan on at least 6 hours before you will be able to actually eat it.

Do you have to make homemade ice cream? Nope, you can buy the store-bought stuff and save yourself a step.

I’m a big fan of homemade ice cream because it’s super easy to make and I know exactly what’s in it (less than 5 ingredients in most cases, all of which I can pronounce).

If ice cream pie isn’t your thing, that’s cool. You can always get your penuche on tomorrow.

Pie Crust:

22-24 Oreos

4 tbsp melted butter

Directions:

Put the cookies into a large resealable plastic bag, seal it, and beat the heck out of them until they’re all crushed up. You can also put your cookies into a food processor (if you have one) and give them a spin until you get cookie crumbs.

Dump your cookie crumbs into a large bowl, add the butter, mix to combine.

Press the cookie/butter mixture into your pie plate making sure to get that mixture up the sides a bit.

Then put it in the freezer to chill for at least half an hour and get started on your ice cream.

Super Simple Minty Oreo Ice Cream:

2 cups heavy cream

1 can sweetened condensed milk – The only ingredients in that can should be milk and sugar.

Crushed Oreos or store brand cookie similar to Oreos

1 tsp peppermint extract

Directions:

In the bowl of your stand mixer, with a hand mixer, or a whisk, whip the cream to stiff peaks. Scoop a bit of cream with your mixer or whisk (even your finger will work) and have a look. If the cream holds it’s shape, you’re good. If it runs off the whisk back into the bowl, you have more mixing to do.

If you’ll be whipping with a mixer or by hand with a whisk, a metal or glass bowl will work better than a plastic bowl.

Add the peppermint extract and slowly drizzle in the sweetened condensed milk while mixing just until everything is incorporated.

Fold in your crushed cookies. How many? As many as your heart desires. This isn’t baking, we don’t need to be super exact. Just add cookies until it looks right to you.

When your ice cream is ready to go, spread a layer over the crust and put back into the freezer to set for about an hour. If you’re not going to be adding a tasty surprise middle layer, you can just fill the crust with the ice cream, freeze for 4-6 hours, and then top with whipped cream.

However, if you’re like me and need to have a layer of fudge, cookies, and/or candy in the middle of your pie to make life complete, you’ll want to keep this first layer of ice cream fairly thin to accommodate the next two layers.

Once the first layer of ice cream is set, add a layer of cookies, fudge, brownie pieces, Andes mints, York peppermint patties, whatever! And then – you guessed it, back into the freezer to set. This layer only needs about 30 minutes. And don’t use hot fudge that is literally hot for obvious reasons. Warm it if you need to but just enough to make it spreadable.

Add your last layer of ice cream and put the pie back into the freezer for another couple of hours (at least) to firm up.

Whipped Cream:

1 cup heavy whipping cream

2 tbsp granulated sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:

In a large bowl (preferably metal or glass), whisk the cream until it starts to firm up a bit, then add the sugar. Continue whisking until the cream reaches stiff peaks.

You can pipe your whipped cream onto your pie or just spread it on. Either method will yield equally delicious results!

Serve right away or put the whole thing back into the freezer so that the whipped cream can firm up a bit. Totally your choice.

You should end up with quite a bit of extra ice cream. Put that in an airtight container and pop it in the freezer to enjoy another time.

 

Now, if you’re not crazy about the whole two layers of ice cream with a surprise in the middle situation, but still want a tasty surprise somewhere in that pie, just add your candies or fudge or whatever right on top of the crust, fill with ice cream, freeze for 6 hours, top with whipped cream, and then eat it!

 

* To make slicing easier, keep a glass of hot water close by to dip your knife into in between slicing. Just dip, swirl, wipe with a paper towel, and slice. Letting your pie sit out for a few minutes will make slicing easier too.

 

 

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Summer Reading Challenge – Weeks 3 & 4

16 Jul

I had to combine the last two weeks’ reading tally because Cam only read six books.

Six books total in two weeks.

That’s not so good.

Not when she was reading 2-3 books every afternoon.

I blame Pokemon.

Remember Pokemon… From the 90’s?

Well it’s back and it feels like I’ve time traveled back to a decade that I had no interest in revisiting.

My son was obsessed with Pokemon when he was my daughter’s age and now, against my better judgement, my daughter has become just as smitten.

My son conveniently saved all of his Pokemon cards and other paraphernalia so the two of them sit on the living room floor and battle or duel or whatever they call it in the afternoons when it’s too hot to go outside.

She spent a few afternoons last week reading the “Official Game Guide” and the “Official Strategy Guide”.

I wish I were kidding.

What’s even more ridiculous is that she remembered every detail of what she read. Have you ever flipped through one of those?

How is this game geared towards children?

There are stats to remember, attack points, damage points, types, evolution, and let’s not forget about their eleventy thousand different crazy names.

If I need more than five things from the store, I’d better have them written on a list or one of them isn’t coming home.

How are these kids remembering all of this information?!

The beauty of this situation, as much as it pains me to say that Pokemon has come back into our lives, is that it’s something my kids will actually play together.

Being ten years apart, there aren’t a lot of things that interest them both, aside from cartoons and driving me slowly insane.

So I thought about it and decided that if Pokemon can get them to get along for half an hour or so I guess I can’t be too upset about it and I made my peace with it.

My kids are happy, they’re interacting, they’re entertaining themselves, how can I be anything but happy about that?

Then my son came to me and said he wanted to teach my daughter how to play Yugioh.

yay.

Here are the six books Camryn read over the last two weeks:

 

Total books read: 28. 72 more to go!

My First Time

15 Jul

I’m about to share with you the very first bentos I ever made for Camryn.

The lighting is bad and the pictures are blurry because I took them with my cell phone in my dimly lit kitchen before I ever thought about starting a blog.

I never had any intention of sharing these with strangers on the internet and I think that point is pretty clear based on the quality of those pictures (yikes!).

But I’m sharing them today because these are the two that started it all.

These two bentos were my very first and second attempt at bento style lunch making.

The first bento, which was made on March 5th of last year, contains tuna salad on spring greens topped with half of a hard-boiled egg that was decorated with eyes made from cucumber peel and a carrot beak, flower-shaped toast, yogurt covered raisins, peanuts, sunflower seeds, cheddar butterflies, carrot slices, and grapes.

There is also some dye-free yogurt in the heart-shaped silicone cup in the middle, topped with a flower that was cut from cantaloupe, honeydew, and cucumber.

Whew… That’s a lot of different foods!

I think Cam ate two bites of this lunch because she couldn’t stop looking at it. She told me that it was the best lunch ever.

2012-03-05

The second bento was made the very next day. It contained flower-shaped grilled cheese sandwiches, mixed nuts, grapes, carrot slices, spring greens, dye-free yogurt, cantaloupe and cucumber cut-outs, and a happy cherry on top. The facial features on the cherry were cut from a cucumber peel.

2012-03-06

I started making bento style lunches because the idea of mostly healthy, fun, and trash-free lunches really appealed to me. I also love being creative with food and making lunch this way allows me to do just that.

I had so much fun last year making Cam’s lunches and I think she enjoyed eating them just as much.

Here are a few of my favorites from this past school year:

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A Salad for Saturday

13 Jul

saturday salad

 

I get it.

It’s salad. Salad isn’t hard.

You don’t need a recipe for salad.

I’m sure when you saw the title of this post, you wondered for a second why I would take time out of my day to sit down and write a whole post on a salad and probably now why you’re taking time out of your day to read it.

Understood.

And in my defense, I almost didn’t post it because I thought it was too simple.

But then I came across this. And this. And then I didn’t feel so weird about posting it.

Also, this salad is just a tad more involved than say, throwing some leafy greens onto a plate, drowning them in dressing, and calling it a day. This one requires just a few more steps.

It’s totally worth it though because it was really good, and really filling without being heavy. So how could I not share it?

It’s hot out, let’s eat things that fill us up without filling us out.

This is one of those “no-recipe recipes” meaning that the amounts are not exact and you can use the same ingredients and steps that I used or change them up to suit your taste. If you don’t like beans, leave ’em out. Want cheese? Add it.

It should be simple… it’s just salad, remember? 😉

For the chicken:

Chicken (for obvious reasons)

The juice of 1 lime*

1 Tbsp of taco seasoning

Extra virgin olive oil

Agave syrup

Pinch of sea salt

For the dressing:

1 ripe avocado

1 small container of plain yogurt – approx. 6 oz.

1-2 tbsp fresh lime juice*

Agave syrup

Small handful of cilantro

1 tsp taco seasoning

Sea Salt

For the salad:

Greens of your choice

Tomato

1 ripe avocado

Beans – cooked

Here’s how I put it all together:

I whisked together the juice of a lime, a tablespoon of taco seasoning,  a sprinkling of sea salt, a squirt of agave syrup, and a little evoo and poured it into a big plastic bag along with my chicken to marinate for about half an hour. Then I grilled it until it was cooked through and sliced it up.

While the chicken was cooking, I rinsed and drained some canned black beans and seasoned them with onion powder, cilantro, lime juice, and cumin. Then I nuked them in the microwave until they were heated through and added sea salt to taste. If you’d rather use dried black beans, go for it. The end result will be the same.

Then I sliced up a tomato and an avocado and set them to the side.

For the dressing, I added another avocado, yogurt, a small handful of cilantro, a good squeeze of lime juice, a small squirt of agave, taco seasoning, and a pinch of sea salt into my blender and gave them a good blitz.

Then I arranged everything nicely on a plate so that I could share it with you.

Only when all of that was done, did I pour an obscene amount of that dressing all over that bowl of salad and then promptly shoved it in my face and immediately wished that I had grilled some fresh corn to throw in there too.

Seriously, if you happen to have some freshly grilled corn just lying around, it needs to be in this salad.

* To get more juice out of a lime,  heat it in the microwave for 8-10 seconds and then roll it on the counter before slicing.

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12 Jul

 

Maybe this has already been done.

Maybe it hasn’t.

Original ideas are really hard to come by these days.

Seems like every time I come up with something super creative and fantastic, one quick virtual trip to Pinterest reveals that someone else has already beaten me to it.

So I guess what I’m saying is that I probably shouldn’t take full credit for this one but I’m going to anyway since I’ve never seen it done before and I don’t feel like searching the web to find out if I am in fact the originator of this super idea.

That seems time-consuming and since my dirty dishes haven’t yet figured out how to get into the dishwasher by themselves, I figure my time is better spent doing more constructive things… like housework.

I saw Cam’s pencil box sitting on the table this afternoon and thought maybe it would make a decent bento box.

I mean, why not?

They’re super cheap (you can usually find them for under a dollar), they fit in a lunchbox,  they’re easy to open and close so they’d be great for younger kids, and they’ll hold a full lunch.

They also come in all kinds of colors and many times you can find some with kid friendly designs on them.

Seems like bento material to me.

Maybe you’ve been wanting to get into packing lunches this way but didn’t want to spend the money on a bento box, picks, silicone cups, and all the other little accessories that go along with it.

I get that.

Things can get out of control fast. Just look in my kitchen cabinets.

Oh wait, you can’t.

Well, if you could you would see that things here are out of control.

Bento stuff has taken over my kitchen.

Someone should probably put their foot down…

Anyone else hear crickets chirping?

So… I made lunch and put it in a pencil box. It’s pretty darn cute even without any bento accessories like picks, baran, or silicone cups.

I flattened some paper cupcake wrappers and tucked them under the sandwich only because this crayon box was used but you certainly don’t need to do that. I also used a cupcake wrapper to hold the pea crisps but again, that was only because the box is used.

If you didn’t have cupcake wrappers you could use wax paper, construction paper, a paper towel, or a napkin.

The cheese stick works just as well as a sheet of baran. A piece of fruit leather, a granola bar, or a rolled up napkin could just as easily serve the same purpose.

 

The anti-bento bento. A bento-style lunch packed using no actual bento accessories, yet still remaining fun, creative, and trash-free just like a regular bento lunch.

* Since pencil boxes weren’t made to hold food, it may be hard to find one that is BPA free.

Measuring Up!

7 Jul

When I started out on my little bento packing adventure some time ago, I remember stalking other bento blogs spending lots of time online trying to figure out which bento box to buy, which lunchbox it would fit into, and how it compared in size to other boxes.

It was exhausting.

All the manufacturers gave dimensions which is great, but what I soon learned early on when I first started packing lunch this way, is that you also need to account for a drink, utensils, napkins, and an ice pack.

And… manufacturer’s dimensions can be wrong.

I’m talking to you Toys R’ Us.

10x8x8 does not equal 10x5x8.

If you pack a juice pouch every day then you should be all set. Those things pretty much fit anywhere.

But, if you’re like me and you need to pack a thermos or other resealable drink container, you need a little bit more info to go on.

I also think it’s helpful to actually see how everything compares in size and how it all fits together so I put together a little visual that I hope will be helpful to anyone who may be setting off on this lunch packing adventure for the first time this school year.

Last school year we packed lunches in a lunch bag from L.L. Bean for my son, and a “lunch pack” from Garnet Hill for my daughter.

I took a few pics of each lunch bag with our larger bento boxes in them so you can see how everything fit.

But first, let’s size up those boxes!

From top to bottom:

Lunchbots Trio

Good Lunch Box by Sugarbooger

Spencer Bento Box by PBK

Laptop Lunchbox

Easy Lunchbox

Goodbyn Bynto

As you can see, the Bynto wins out in the length category due to it’s handle. Width goes to the Laptop Lunchbox.

Here they are packed in my son’s L.L. Bean lunch bag:

L.L. Bean Collage

The only box that would not fit is the Laptop Lunchbox which wasn’t an issue for us because he carried an Easy Lunchbox exclusively in his bag last year.

He would also put a small water bottle or juice box (when we had them), an ice pack, and a napkin in his lunch bag every day and they all fit. There was a little bulging in the front of the bag but it zipped just fine.

This bag has a handle on top and is meant to be carried upright so keep that in mind if you’re looking for something to carry your kiddos’ lunches flat.

This lunch bag is pretty average in size to most other lunch bags I’ve seen and trust me, I have seen them all.

Now, onto Cam’s lunch box.

Everything fit with room to spare for a drink, an ice pack, a napkin, and utensils when she needed them.

The Spencer Bento box and the Laptop Lunchbox fit snugly but still left room for a small juice box.

And there were even some days when I just put her water bottle or thermos in the pocket of her backpack if I couldn’t get them to fit.

I feel that I should also tell you that I LOVE this lunch bag! It’s extremely well made and worth every penny and the pattern on it is adorable. It still looks brand new after a year of abuse use!

Right now Garnet Hill is offering a free lunch pack with the purchase of a matching backpack which is a great deal. Their backpacks are a little on the pricey side at around $34 for the smaller one but they are extremely durable and come in some adorable patterns this year.

I hope this helps some of you who may be starting your back to school shopping. If you have any questions, feel free to ask in the comments section below.

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Caramel Apple Oatmeal Cookie & Bourbon Ice Cream Sandwiches… with Bacon!

4 Jul

 

I’ll bet you thought I was going to come at you today with some patriotic-themed, tri-colored dessert that was all hopped up on sprinkles and glitter to celebrate the holiday.

Nope.

The 4th of July just isn’t one of my favorite holidays.

Yes, I’m glad to be an American and to have my independence. I just don’t care to celebrate it fighting crowds of people to walk one mile to stand for 45 minutes all to watch about 10 minutes of fireworks and then fight that same crowd of people back a mile to my car so I can drive in traffic all the way home in the rain.

Every year people. Every year.

And can we talk about “those people” who are still lighting fireworks and making all kinds of noise at 2 in the morning as if no one in the neighborhood has to get up early for work the next day?

Newsflash people: The 4th is a holiday. The 5th is just another day.

Personally, I’d rather celebrate my independence in stretchy pants… and with bourbon!

I’d rather celebrate everything in stretchy pants and with bourbon if we’re being truthful here, and I think that we are.

So seeing as how it’s a holiday and everything, I figured, why not celebrate my way!

So I put on some stretchy pants, broke out the bourbon, and made us a treat.

Happy 4th!

bourbon bacon ice cream

Bourbon & Bacon Ice Cream:

2 cups heavy cream

1 can sweetened condensed milk

2-3 tbsp bourbon

1 tsp vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste

2 to 3 strips of cooked, cooled, and crumbled bacon

Directions:

With a stand mixer, electric mixer or a whisk, whip the heavy cream to stiff peaks.  Add the bourbon, vanilla, and slowly pour in the evaporated milk. Stir gently or fold until combined.

I usually use my stand mixer and just let it run on low while I add the sweetened condensed milk, then I crank it back up for a couple of seconds to make sure the peaks remain stiff.

Fold in the crumbled bacon.

Put mixture into a container with a tight-fitting lid and pop into the freezer for 6 hours or until frozen.

I usually separate the ice cream mixture so I can flavor half for my kids and the other half for us grown folk.

If you’re making an entire batch of bourbon ice cream, you may need more than 3 tablespoons. Just keep tasting as adding as you see fit. Be advised though that the more alcohol you add, the faster your ice cream will melt as it did in my pics.

If bourbon isn’t your thing remember, the sky is the limit with this ice cream. You can pretty much add in anything before you pop it into the freezer so go nuts. Add fruit, nuts, chocolate, sprinkles, birthday cake, brownie pieces, candy, cookies, whatever!

Caramel Apple Oatmeal Cookies

2 sticks unsalted butter

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp apple pie spice (optional)

3 cups quick-cooking oats

1 cup dehydrated apples

1 1/2  cups caramel pieces or chips (I used the individual wrapped caramels and cut them into smaller pieces)

Directions:

In the bowl of your stand mixer or with an electric mixer, beat the butter until nice and fluffy. Then add both sugars and mix until combined. The mixture should be light in color and fluffy.

Add the eggs and vanilla and mix to combine.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and apple pie spice.

Add to the wet mixture and stir until everything is barely incorporated. It’s important to not over mix or you’ll end up with tough cookies.

Fold in the oats, apples, and caramel pieces just until everything is incorporated.

Pop the mixture in the fridge for an hour. There’s a lot of butter in this dough and giving it a chance to chill will help to make sure that your cookies set up nicely in the oven.

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees and use a tablespoon measure to scoop out balls of dough.

Line a baking sheet with parchment or a silpat or lightly grease it and place your dough balls a couple of inches apart.

Bake for 8-10 minutes.

Do not over bake, you want these cookies to be soft.

Also, give the cookies a minute or two to set up once you pull them from the oven. Caramel turns to liquid when it’s heated and if you try to remove your cookies from the pan right out of the oven, they may fall apart.

Once the cookies have completely cooled, fill with ice cream and enjoy!

* I just wanted to add that this is my 200th post! Thanks to everyone who stops by my little space on the internet regularly to see what I’m up to. I’m sure there are plenty of other more important things that you could be doing with your day (like folding laundry) so the fact that you choose to avoid your responsibilities and visit here for a little while instead makes my heart happy.

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Lunch for the 4th

4 Jul

7-4 lunch

 

For lunch today Camryn had a BLT on a hot dog bun (BLT dog?) It’s so much easier for her to eat that way. Bacon is straight, hot dog buns are straight, how did I not think of this before?

She also has some cheesy cut-outs made to sort-of resemble fireworks and of course she had to have a cheese pig since there’s bacon on her sandwich. 😉

In the smaller sections she has apple fries, some star-shaped cereal, and a scoop of homemade mint chocolate chip ice cream with a few rainbow sprinkles on top.

Happy 4th!

♥

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Avocado Brownies

2 Jul

When I discovered that black bean brownies were a thing that existed in our universe, I was instantly intrigued.

The black beans actually replace the flour called for in the brownie.

What the what!?

I’m not even going to begin to try to understand how that whole situation works because chemistry seems hard.

But I’m all for making things healthier so I spent a good chunk of my Thursday afternoon searching the internets for “the best black bean brownie recipe” and do you know what I found?

The same recipe over and over with a slight variation here and there.

With so many people using this recipe and proclaiming it to be “delicious” over and over I figured that it must be a winner.

Nope.

It most definitely was not. I’m not even going to post it here.

If you’re really curious, do a quick search and you should easily be able to find that recipe and be well on your way to a pan of chocolate flavored pureed black beans.

Gross.

After that epic kitchen fail I searched one of my favorite online resources (aka Pinterest) for more baking substitution ideas and found this:

Helpful no?

Check out the fats section.

See where it says you can substitute butter with avocados?

I totally did that.

Science is crazy.

I used a really simple brownie recipe that I love because it uses cocoa powder instead of melted chocolate.

It’s great in a pinch, there’s no melting of anything involved, and it’s so easy my kids can make it.

I pulled a switcharoo on the sugar as well, trying to get away from the refined white sugar called for in the recipe.

What’s the verdict?

My kids ate every bite of their brownies and then asked for seconds.

And they ate them the second day too.

I was able to detect a slight avocado after taste but I’m also one of those super-taster people who can’t stand bitter things that other people can’t even taste and I can tell when there’s coconut oil or food coloring in something without ever reading the ingredients so don’t go by my highfalutin’ opinion.

If you’re really craving a brownie, go for the version made with butter and sugar because nothing beats that.

But… oh I don’t know, maybe you have some extra avocados lying around, or maybe you want something a little healthier, or maybe you want to try something a little different, or maybe you just want to mess with your kids by sneaking produce into their dessert, I won’t pretend to know your life.

For any of the above mentioned reasons, this one’s for you. 😉

Ingredients:

1/2 a ripe avocado – mashed really well

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup honey (or maple syrup)

2 eggs

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup flour

Directions:

Add the first five ingredients to a large bowl and whisk well to combine. Make sure there are no avocado lumps. The mixture should be smooth.

Add the remaining dry ingredients and whisk until combined.

Pour into a greased 9 inch pan and bake at 350 for 20-25 until done.

Chocolate Avocado Frosting:

In a medium-sized bowl add:

3 Tbsp mashed avocado

3 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa

1 Tbsp honey

1-2 tsps vanilla extract

1 cup powdered sugar

1-2 milk (I used almond milk)

Whisk together until smooth and shiny. If it’s too thin, add a tablespoon or two of powdered sugar, if it seems too dry, add a tablespoon or two of milk.

Spread on top of the brownies once they’ve cooled and add sprinkles if you want ’em.

♥

brownies 032

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Week 2

1 Jul

Here are the books that Camryn read last week:

book collage

 

book Collage2

PicMonkey Collage3

PicMonkey Collage4

sock monkeyz-goes-home-by-Jon-Agee

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

She read 13 books last week. So her new total of books read since we started our little challenge is 22.

78 books to go!

How are your kiddos doing with their summer reading?

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