Octopus and Seaweed

This is such a cute lunch for a kid. I snagged the recipe from Heidi at tried-and-truecookingwithheidi who said she found it in an old Simple and Delicious magazine. She has TONS of great recipes with pics on her blog, so I recommend checking it out.

The only adjustment I made was halving the hot dog before slicing out the legs. I didn't think Willow could manage a whole one. She was thrilled when she saw it and gobbled it all up ... green noodles and all. Mmmm.

Octopus and Seaweed
(Adjust amounts according to how many you will be serving)

1 package (3 ounces) beef or chicken ramen noodles
4 hot dogs
5 drops liquid green food coloring
Prepared mustard and ketchup

Cook ramen noodles according to package directions. Meanwhile, add 4 in. of water to another large saucepan; bring to a boil. Cut each hot dog lengthwise into eight strips to within 2 in of one end. Drop into boiling water; cook until heated through. Add food coloring to noodles if desired. Drain if necessary. Place noodles on serving plates; top with a hot dog. Add eyes and mouth with dabs of mustard.

Apple Smiles

After three or four lovely hot days, the sun has disappeared and everything is rainy and dismal again. Siiigh. I have been hiding out at home. It just seems like so much more hassle trying to get out the door with kids when it’s raining outside. Probably a good thing though, I’ve got lots of laundry and other housework to catch up on.

I made these fun little Apple Smiles for Willow’s snack today. When she saw them and I explained to her that they were ‘marshmallow teeth’ she looked at my teeth for a second and asked if they were marshmallows too lol. No honey, mine are what happens when you eat too many marshmallows!

Apple Smiles

Spread peanut butter on one side of  two apple slices (squeeze a little lemon juice over the apple if not serving immediately).

Place miniature marshmallows on one apple slice and then lay the other apple slice peanut butter side down on top.

Ants on a Log

It’s been fun making the kid-friendly breakfasts in my previous posts. I like giving Willow something different or fun to wake up to. And I have been pleasantly surprised by her acceptance of new foods. It’s taught me that I just need to offer them to her (duh). That I can say no to cereal, the world won’t end! Though sometimes it can feel that way when a toddler is whining!

I want to try out some recipes for snacks and lunches also. I have so many and lots of them are fun and easy for kids to make too. Ants on a Log are a popular healthy snack for kids, at least here in the US. Spread some peanut butter onto celery sticks and place a few raisins (ants) on top. Nice and quick.

I had some celery in the fridge recently that I knew wouldn't all get eaten so I made this for Willow. I didn’t have much faith in the celery going over well though I have to say. It's one vegetable I always hated growing up and still do now unless it's cooked in a soup or something and I just cannot imagine how anyone can eat it raw.

Turns out I was right about the celery (my child is normal!). She just licked the peanut butter off and ate the raisins. But this can be made the same way using apples or a banana etc instead of celery.

Classic Crepes

Classic Crepes

My mum used to make me these crepes when I was young for Shrove Tuesday, which is Pancake day in the UK. I always wished she would make them on other days of the year, and I don't know why she didn't, but I guess it made them more special. I have fun memories of tossing pancakes in the air trying to flip them over. She used to sprinkle mine with sugar (and I say sprinkle lightly because she didnt lol). And a big blob of strawberry jam. I still eat mine this way today and now I can make them whenever I want!

Ingredients:

4 eggs

1 1/3 cups milk

2 tbsp butter, melted

1 cup all purpose flour

½ tsp salt, if desired

2 tbsp sugar (omit if making savory crepes)

Directions:

In a medium bowl, beat eggs slightly. Add the remaining ingredients and beat until smooth. Probably best to add the flour slowly. They say to let the batter sit for a couple of hours in the refrigerater but I don't know how necessary it is. Alton Brown doesn't think it is! And I've never noticed a difference. 

Heat crepe pan or 7 to 8-inch skillet over medium-high heat. A few drops of water sprinkled on the pan sizzle and bounce when heat is just right. Grease pan lightly with butter. Pour scant ¼-1/3 cup batter into the pan, tilting it to spread evenly. When the crepe is light brown and set, turn to brown other side. Fill with the desired filling. And there are many!

(This is a Pillsbury recipe)

On a random note: check out gourmetmomonthego's giveaway. Isn't it just the cutest necklace you ever saw?

Fried AND Baked Chicken

The other day we had chicken with rice for dinner and I thought I'd take some pictures so I could share how I make it. I have been making this chicken for years and love it, it's always tender and juicy. Technically it's my mother in law's recipe but I know I don't make it exactly the same as hers because she never does it the same way twice!

Flatten 1-2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breasts with a meat mallet. Or a heavy can, however you prefer.

Pour some flavored store-bought breadcrumbs in a dish and heavily season (I have made it bland before by not using enough seasoning). I usually use Italian seasoning, seasoning salt, garlic powder, and a little dried tarragon. But mostly whatever I have on hand. Stir to combine.

Wash the chicken breasts but don't dry, just let them drip off. Then roll in the breadcrumbs. I don't bother with dipping in milk or egg first.

Heat some olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. I put enough to coat the bottom of the pan. When hot and sizzly, add the chicken breasts to the skillet. Make sure not to overcrowd the pan or the temperature will go down.

Cook 'till crispy on the bottom and then turn over.

And cook till crispy and golden on the other side. Then remove the chicken to a baking dish.

Pour away most of the grease from the skillet and then stir in some water or stock - about 1-2 cups, depending on how much chicken you made and sometimes I use cooking wine with the stock. Bring to a boil, scraping up the flavor from the bottom of the pan and turn down to reduce a little.

Pour the gravy over the chicken breasts in your baking pan, just don't completely cover them. A few dried bay leaves would go nicely on top too. Then cover the dish with foil and bake in a preheated oven at 350F for at least an hour.

We usually have it with rice and glazed carrots. There's always some leftover too which is great the next day too.

Scrambled Egg in Toast Cups

Scrambled egg in a 'cup' of buttery toasted bread. Yum.

Start by preheating the oven to 350F. Trim the crusts off of two slices of bread and brush both sides of each with melted butter.

Then press them into small custard cups. Put the custard cups on a cookie sheet and bake in the oven for about 10-15 minutes, till their nice and crispy.

Meanwhile, make up some scrambled eggs on your stove. Whisk two eggs with a couple of tablespoons of milk. Heat a tablespoon of butter in a medium skillet and pour the egg mixture into the skillet.

Cook until the eggs start to set. Then stir 'til their soft and fluffy. Shake in some salt and pepper. Fill your toast cups with the scrambled eggs.

If you wanted, you could sprinkle over some crumbled bacon or fresh parsley (I only had dried, but it works). And you could take the little bread baskets out of the ramekin, they will hold up. But it's less messier to eat the scrambled egg in the cup.

Breakfast Sundae

Breakfast Sundae

A nice healthy treat for breakfast!

Ideas for fruit: apples, apricots, bananas, cherries, seedless grapes, strawberries, melons, oranges, peaches, pears.

If your mornings are a bit rushed, you could prepare the fruit the night before and keep it in a container in the refrigerator over night.  Except banana, which needs to be sliced the morning of.

Layer the fruit alternately with your favorite flavored healthy yogurt and top with cereal, granola or raisins and nuts.

Bananas on Toast

Bananas on Toast

I think it was my best friend who introduced me to bananas on toast for breakfast some years ago. It's surprisingly really good! And a quick one for the morning.

Not much explanation needed, just butter some toasted bread and lay some sliced bananas on top. You could spread some honey or peanut butter on the bread first to make it even more tasty. I think that chocolate hazlenut spread Nutella would just be heavenly with bananas but I don't know about healthy! You could serve it as a closed sandwich if you prefer. And for younger babies, you could mash the banana and spread over the toast, then cut into sticks for them to eat with their fingers.

Fantasy Cinnamon Applewiches

The idea for these little apple toasties comes from my Silly Snacks cookbook but I thought they would make a great breakfast also so I'm including them.

Fantasy Cinnamon Applewiches

4 raisin bread slices

1/3 cup reduced-fat cream cheese

¼ cup finely chopped unpeeled apple

1 tsp sugar

1/8 tsp ground cinnamon

1. Toast bread. Cut into desired shapes using cookie cutters.

2. Spread the toast shapes with the cream cheese and top with the apple.

3. Combine sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl and sprinkle it over the top of the apples.

UFO Bagel

UFO Bagel

What’s worse than turning 30? Being sick and turning 30. The past few days have been pretty miserable. I caught the full-on flu. Fever, cold, body aches and all. Fortunately, it seems to be on it’s way out now but I am still left with a killer sore throat and a popping ear. I am so grateful for my husband taking the day off on Friday so I could rest. Even though he did tell me how awful I looked!

Here's my flying saucer bagel from the Family Fun site. Not sure how much it resembles one but it looks weird enough to be enjoyed by kids. I spread Willow's with cream cheese and mandarins ... or 'baby oranges' as she calls them.  She ate the bagel but flat out refused to eat the egg. I figured that's what she would do so I made this when I was in the mood for an egg :)

See the how-to video for this complicated recipe here.

Sunny-Side Up Waffles

I love this one. Waffles that look like they have fried eggs on top (great for an April Fool's Day breakfast hah). Again, just three ingredients: waffles, thick vanilla or plain yogurt and canned apricot halves. If your child isn't a fan of apricots you could try peach halves also, same effect. And you could mix things up by using blueberry or cinnamon etc flavored waffles.

Sunny-Side Up Waffles

Put toasted waffle on a plate.

Spoon some yogurt on top of the waffle.

Put your apricot halves onto a paper towel first to dry off any juice and then place them, rounded side up, on the top of the yogurt to look like the egg yolk :D

Easter Cake

I decided Easter would be a good excuse to bake another cake! 

This is a yummy moist yellow cake recipe from my BH&G Anyone Can Bake cookbook. I recommend this book to anyone, it's full of great recipes.

The best part about this cake though, in my opinion, was the strawberry filling. Which was just leftovers from the strawberry topping we had with our pancakes but it was soo good in the cake I will definitely be using it as a filling again. Only next time I'd add even more strawberries. To do a filling for a cake that is not the same as the frosting on the outside of the cake (in this case, a fruit filling inside and a buttercream frosting on the outside) make sure to pipe a border of frosting around the cake to hold the filling in. See my lovely neat border above!

Spreading the cake with a thin coating of frosting will seal in crumbs. Let it sit for a while and then finish frosting and decorating.

I attempted to do a basketweave pattern on the sides of the cake which was easier and took less time than I thought it would. It looked OK too, well ... as long as you kept your distance. Up close you could see more of the imperfections! I tinted some sweetened coconut green for the 'grass' and stuck on a few Hershey's chocolate eggs which were swiped the moment the cake hit the table.

Yellow Cake

Ingredients:
3/4 cup butter, room temperature
3 large eggs, room temperature
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 3/4 cups sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 1/4 cups milk

1. Grease and lightly flour two 9 inch or 8 inch round cake pans or one 13x9x2 inch baking pan; set pans aside. In a medium bowl stir together the flour, baking powder and salt; set aside.

2. Preheat oven to 375F. In a large mixing bowl beat butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Gradually add sugar, about 1/4 cup at a time, beating on medium speed for 2 minutes more. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until well combined after each addition. Beat in vanilla. Altlernatively add flour mixture and milk to butter mixture, beating on low speed after each addition just until combined.

3. Spread batter evenly into the prepared pan(s). Bake in the preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes for 9-inch pans, 30-35 minutes for 8-inch pans, 25-30 minutes for 13x9 or until a wooden toothpick inserted neat the center(s) comes out clean. Cool layers in pans on wire rack sfor 10 minutes. Remove from pans and cool thoroughly on racks. Or place the 13x9 inch cake in pan on wire rack; cool thoroughly.

Bunny Rabbit Pancakes and Showstopper Strawberry Topping

OK so mine didn't turn out quite like the cute little bunny on the Pillsbury website but it was a big hit with Willow all the same. So much so, she cried her little eyes out when I cut the pancakes up for her. "No noooo! Don't cut his ears Mommy!!' so cute. We had a job convincing her to eat him. 

 

I think if I'd used the frozen pancakes the recipe calls for, instead of making my own, mr rabbit might have looked less scarey 'rustic'.

Bunny Rabbit Pancakes

(A Pillsbury recipe)

1 stack Pillsbury® frozen original microwave pancakes (3 pancakes)

2 raisins

1/2 maraschino cherry

2 pieces (1 1/2 inches each) red string licorice

1/4 cup maple-flavored syrup

1. On large microwavable plate, stack 2 of the pancakes. Microwave uncovered on High 30 seconds.

2. Cut remaining pancake into ears and bow tie. Arrange ears and bow tie around stack of pancakes to look like bunny head. Microwave on High 30 to 45 seconds or until hot.

3. For bunny's face, arrange raisins for eyes (I used choc chips), cherry for nose and string licorice for mouth. Drizzle with syrup. Serve immediately.

Showstopper Strawberry Topping

(From Betty Crocker's Kids Cook! cook book)

 

 We enjoyed our pancakes with Showstopper Strawberry Topping which has gone straight into my 'keepers' folder. I used the leftovers in a cake later and wished I had more to use. I just estimated on the amounts 'cause hubby was hungry and letting me (and the neighbors) all hear about it so there was no time for measuring!

1 cup fresh or frozen strawberries (I used a mix of both)
1 jar (12 ounces) strawberry jam
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp water

1. If using fresh strawberries, put the strawberries in a colander and rinse them with cold water. Pat dry with paper towels.

2. Remove the stems from the strawberries and cut each strawberry into 4 pieces. Or just give a rough chop like I did.

3. Put the strawberries, jam, butter and water in a saucepan. Stir with a wooden spoon until mixed. Cook over medium heat for about 5 minutes, stirring all the time, until mixture is bubbly. Enjoy with whatever you would normally put strawberry syrup on.

Breakfast #1 Egg with a Hat

… or in a hole, or a basket as it has also been known by. Just three ingredients, this is real simple to make.

Start with a slice of bread. Cut a hole in the bread with a round cookie cutter (or heart, flower, star). The rim of a glass would also work. Make sure to save the little circle of bread you removed. This is your hat :)

Heat a frying pan or griddle to medium heat and then add 1 tablespoon of butter.

When the butter has melted, drop in your slice of bread along with the little bread circle or cut out shape and fry lightly on one side. Couple of minutes maybe.

Flip the bread over and reduce the heat to low. Now crack the egg into the hole in the middle of the bread. If you’re like me and not very good at cracking eggs without having to dig out the shell, it might be a good idea to crack the egg into a small ramekin or bowl first and then pour it in rather than burning your fingers!

Cover the pan and cook the toast for a few minutes or until the egg has set up. If you like your egg over-easy, flip the egg and bread and cook it on the other side.

I put the ‘hat’ on top :b

Enjoy!

Kid-friendly Meals

For years now I have been collecting cook books. I have all kinds but I mostly tend to buy kid-friendly recipe books. I go through each book and copy up the recipes that I want to try some time onto the computer and file them away under their different categories. I know most people would find it easier to scan them but, and maybe it’s just our scanner, it seems to take me less time to type the recipes than to bother with cropping them etc plus it’s all part of my ritual :D

Because I’ve been doing this so long now I’ve built up quite a good collection of recipes and I think it would be fun to try to make some this month and post pictures of the results. I'll also share some recipes that I make already that Willow enjoys. Hopefully it’ll offer a little inspiration to other Moms who, like me, get into ruts when it comes to cooking.

Starting with kid-friendly breakfasts, here’s what I’ll (be aiming to) make:

• UFO Bagel
• Bunny Rabbit Pancakes with Showstopper Strawberry Topping
• Fantasy Cinnamon Applewiches
• Classic Crepes
• Egg with a Hat
• Breakfast Sundae
• Bananas on Toast
• Sunny-Side Up Waffles
• Scrambled Egg in Toast Cups