Not so cozy

My son decided a couple of weeks ago that he longer wanted to sleep. He also decided that he was going to make the great escape from the crib. Ah....and so the terrible twos begin.
It's been interesting to say the least. The tears, the screams and my favorite, the giggle that says, "I win again Momma." Ash is getting closer to getting back on schedule, but he seems to mostly want comfort now.
 I can't help but laugh most of the time. He's just so cute about it. As he lays down and then barely opens his eyes to check to see if I'm still there making sure he'll nap. He cracks me up as he sneaks down the hall all super stealth to peek into the office. He then tried scooting his butt down the hall and smiling at me when he came around the corner. Last night, he climbed in the bed with my husband & I for the first time. Aww, my super sweet snuggler! Three headbutts, 2 kicks & nearly getting knocked off the bed later, not so sweet, not so cozy. I will definitely be hooking up the coffee IV today.

S'more pockets

I love s'mores! I saw something like this & I just had to try it. S'mores are messy so I'm loving the craze of creating all the different kinds of s'more desserts. These babies are so delicious & easy to make. The marshmallows melt into the bread making it sweet. Though when I first saw that I was a little disappointed until I tried it. I won't actually admit that I ate the entire batch in 24 hours, possibly less, instead I'll add that my son did help with the eating. 

1 can reduced fat crescent rolls (not buttery)

Bag of mini marshmallows 

Hershey bar or chocolate chips

Lay your crescent roll flat, add some chocolate on the crescent roll, then a few mini marshmallows. 

Bundle them up so that there are no open spaces & then bake according to roll directions. Drool as you wait & enjoy!

Cream cheese sandwiches

I remember having a love of food & cooking early on. I had my little kid cookbooks so that I could feel like I got to make stuff too. In my most adventurous & silly cookbook, Strawberry shortcake, I remember these delicious sandwiches. I still love them & enjoy sharing them with my son. 

Cream cheese sandwich:

Take one slice of bread & cut off the crust. Then smear some cream cheese onto the bread. Sprinkle some Real bacon bits on top. Roll the bread jelly roll style. Spear a green olive on a toothpick & then the sandwich to keep together. Serve. 

Lemon & Mixed Berry Cupcakes

I decided that I'd make yummy cupcakes for my sons birthday in a few weeks instead of making a huge cake again. Texas summers are always too hot so I wanted to come up with something refreshing. These came out better than I'd hoped. Yummmmmmm! Lemon cupcake: 1 cup white sugar 1/2 cup butter 2 eggs 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 1 3/4 tsp baking powder 1/2 tbsp lemon peel 1/2 cup low-fat milk 4 tsp lemon juice 1 1/2 tsp lemon extract

	Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
	Line muffin cups with liners.
	Cream sugar and 1/2 cup butter in the bowl of a stand mixer until fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time, and mix 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract into mixture with the second egg.
	Beat in flour, lemon peel and baking powder until thoroughly combined; beat in milk, lemon juice, and lemon extract to make a smooth batter. It was a thick batter.
	Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin cups.
	Bake in the preheated oven until cupcake edges are slightly golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Cool cupcakes completely. Made about 16 cupcakes.  Mixed berry buttercream: 1 cup butter, softened 1 tsp vanilla extract 4 cups confectioners sugar 1/4 cup mixed berry, purée
	Beat 1 cup butter with 1 tsp vanilla extract. Beat in confectioners sugar, 1 cup at a time, to make a creamy frosting. Purée mixed berries in small food processor. I used frozen. Beat in mixed berry purée to buttercream. Spread frosting on cooled cupcakes.

When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie!

Ahhhh pizza! I love pizza & so does my family, but I don't like all the grease. Fold it & hold the pizza up for 5 minutes until most of the grease pours off.....Delicious, but not healthy. I started making pizza at home & I love it! Knowing exactly what goes into my pizza makes me happy to feed my family. The Cooking Light magazine pizza dough recipe is by far the best I've had. Have fun with it! Use a little garlic olive oil in the dough instead of just plain. Make a chicken pesto pizza instead of cheese! 

Barilla jar marinara sauce is really good or you can just use fresh or canned tomatoes. Add about 3 tbsp of tomatoes or sauce on top of dough that you've baked at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes. Then add as much shredded mozzarella as you like. Add pepperoni or mushrooms or whatever toppings you prefer. We just made a plain cheese pie. Bake about 15 minutes still on 350 degrees & enjoy!

Pizza dough:

1/2 tsp sugar 

1 pkg dry yeast about 2 1/4 teaspoon. 2/3 cup warm water 100-110°

1 1/2 cups of bread flour

 2 1/2 tbsp cornmeal divided. 

2 tsp extra Virgin olive oil 

1/2 tsp salt 

2 tbsp bread flour

Dissolve sugar and yeast in warm water in a large bowl let stand five minutes. Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups level with a knife. Add flour 1 1/2 tbsps cornmeal, oil,  and salt to yeast mixture stir until a soft dough forms. Turn dough out onto a floured surface knead 5 minutes. Add 2 tbsps bread flour as needed to prevent dough from sticking to hands. Place dough in a large bowl coated with cooking spray turning to coat top cover and let rise in a warm place free from drafts 45 minutes or until doubled in size. Punch dough down and shape into a ball in a  bowl with cooking spray place still in bowl turning to coat top cover and let rise another 30 minutes. Roll it into a 12 inch circle on a lightly floured surface place on a 12 inch pizza pan or baking sheet coated with cooking spray and sprinkled with 1 tbsp cornmeal and bake according to recipe directions. 

Light Tortellini

Of course I love any kind of pasta, well except that wheat pasta. That's some bad stuff. I picked up some of the packaged tortellini in a Italian sausage & another with prosciutto. 

After cooking I put it in a large bowl & added dried garlic bits, a can of petite diced tomatoes & a small amount of olive oil. Mix it well & serve it up with a few cubes of fresh mozzarella. 

My toddler loved this too if anyone is looking for a great meal for kids. 

Flowers for Mother's Day

I remember art class vaguely from grammar school. Cute little crafty projects! I've been trying to reach down deep in my memory for some of these projects to do with Ash lately. With a little help from Pinterest, voila! 

I love flowers, but they don't last long & can get rather expensive so paper flowers are a great gift especially for mothers day when there's grandmas, aunts, neighbors, etc. 

You need tissue paper in the colors you like, scissors, & pipe cleaners. 

Cut a bunch of 5x7 rectangles of tissue paper in the colors you like. Stack them up & fold accordion style. You can cut half moons at the ends or cut a triangle to make a point on each end. 

Loop a pipe cleaner around the middle & twist off the end on the "stem". Fan out the tissue paper gently separating each piece of tissue paper. You can lightly spray with perfume if you'd like. 

Hope you all have as much fun as we did!

Ice pop great for kids

I've always loved ice pops but as I've gotten older I can truly appreciate the real fruit ones compared to the box of food dye pop sticks that I loved so much as a kid. I found some plastic Popsicle molds & decided to give it a try for Ash since he loves fruit so much. This is of course an easy teething helper!

Most grocery stores will have bags of frozen fruit that are individual fruit or a nice mix. I found a really nice one that had
strawberries, mangoes, pineapple, peaches and red grapes. You can really get whatever you prefer. Then I got a bottle of Juicy Juice mango juice.
I took about 3 cups of frozen fruit & 3/4 cup of mango juice & puréed in the food processor. I let it freeze overnight & we both thoroughly enjoyed our yummy ice pops!

Obsessed

Sorry I know it's been a little bit, but I've been crushing candy. This silly little game is more addictive than angry birds! I find myself needing my fix with any spare time that I have. HELP! I have been doing some cooking so I have a few new recipes coming soon! Oh! I think someone just sent me a life....

Strawberry spinach salad

A friend of mine told me of this wonderful olive oil & balsamic shop in our area called Bella Vita. I finally got a chance to go & I kid you not, I thought I went for a wine tasting. It was marvelous! The customer service was phenomenal as she took us through to taste everything. Even Ash got a few samples. If you're lucky enough to have one in your area I highly recommend visiting or go to their site. http://www.bvoliveoil.com
The woman there had us try apricot balsamic with lemon oil. Talk about a flavor explosion! I had to have it so a salad was born.

Strawberry spinach salad

Strawberries, sliced
Fresh spinach
Apricot balsamic
Lemon olive oil

Lay your spinach on your plate. Slice some strawberries on top. Combine the oil & vinegar. I found that a little more of the apricot made a better mix. Then just pour over salad. It's so flavorful, you really don't need much.

Strawberry Muffins

I love strawberries any way that I can get them. It's all too often that I can't find decent strawberries at the store so for this recipe I used frozen ones. I do try, but just like my blueberry muffins, I can never seem to keep my muffins from getting dyed from the juice. You can add some cinnamon for some extra flavor or even try swapping whole wheat flour instead of all purpose.

 

 

1/4 cup canola oil

1/2 cup milk

1 egg

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 cup white sugar

1 3/4 cups flour

1 cup chopped strawberries

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
In a small bowl, combine oil, milk, and egg. Beat lightly. In a large bowl, mix flour, salt, baking powder and sugar. Toss in chopped strawberries and stir to coat with flour. Pour in milk mixture and stir together.
Fill muffin cups. Bake at 375 degrees for 25 minutes, or until the tops bounce back from the touch. Cool 10 minutes and remove from pans.

 

Onion & cheese roll ups

I had these for my husbands birthday party over the weekend & they were a huge hit! I found a garlic & lime salsa verde by Pace that goes perfect with this. You can make changes where you like. Add a slice of ham or serve warm with sautéed onions!

1 cup sour cream
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese
1/2 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
Scallions sliced. Amount to taste.
1 tbsp lime juice
10 (6 inch) flour tortillas
1 jar of salsa or salsa verde


Mix sour cream, cream cheese, Cheddar cheese, green onions, & lime juice.
Spread one side of each tortilla with the sour cream mixture. Tightly roll each tortilla. Place rolled tortillas on serving dish and cover with plastic wrap. Chill in the refrigerator at least 1 hour.
Slice tortillas in half. Serve with salsa.