Chocolate Surprise Easter Eggs

I'm really proud of myself right now because I actually got something done early.  My kids' Easter baskets are ready for next Sunday, and are currently hiding in a storage bin in the garage.  (All except the chocolate eggs I just made which are hiding in the fridge.)

My kids recently discovered a video on youtube of a person opening chocolate eggs to reveal a surprise toy inside.   My littlest one watches it and says "chocolate egg, chocolate egg!"  Funny how such an odd video is entertaining to them.  But when I saw how much she liked it I was determined to get her a chocolate surprise egg of her own to open for Easter.  They were quite expensive to buy online so I decided it would be fun to try making them myself!

I ordered this egg mold on amazon.  It's much bigger than the little egg in the video but I wanted to be sure I'd find a toy to fit inside.   All you need is an egg shaped mold, chocolate, and a toy small enough to fit inside your egg.

Simply melt your chocolate and spread it around inside the egg mold.  I think this would have been easier if I had a single egg mold.  It was actually quite tricky to get them all filled evenly.  I ended up putting it in the fridge to harden and then doing another layer since the first was quite thin.

Once the chocolate is hardened pop them out of the mold.
Place your toy inside and glue it back together with more chocolate around the edges.  Mine were a little messy but I'm sure the kids won't mind!

I chose to wrap the eggs in foil since I wanted them to be able to unwrap them like the eggs they saw in the video.  I decorated the foil and tied it in string.  I can't wait to see them open these next weekend!


If you need another Easter idea check out this older post for resurrection buns!

Baby Turban Headband

I have been searching for a tutorial on making some cute trendy turban headbands for my baby girl, but I have yet to find one that's simple enough for someone as lazy as I am.  So I finally decided to figure it out myself.  My older daughter had a cute printed H&M dress that had a hole in it so I decided I'd use that for the headband.

I cut a wide strip of fabric from the dress.

Fold it in half to cover up most of the under side of the fabric.

Twist it in a figure-8.

And fold it over.

Then put on cute baby's head.  :)

Vegan Noodle Soup & Cinnamon Rolls!

I haven't been posting my recipes lately but we've had a few good ones.

I made a stir fry using tofu cubes, veggies, edamame, and soyaki sauce.  I made some brown Jasmin rice and topped it with the stir fry.  Very delicious!

My daughter had her 2 front teeth pulled and was on a soft food diet so I decided to make soup.  Instead of chicken noodle soup I used cubes of baked tofu.  I just have to say don't knock tofu until you've had baked tofu!  I marinated it in the teriyaki sauce before baking, and it was so delicious we couldn't stop eating it! I used this recipe for the baked tofu and the soup.  Except I don't like celery so I left it out and added in green beans.

I can't believe in all my years of baking and my love for cinnamon rolls I have never made them from scratch.  Until I found this super simple recipe... and it just happens to be vegan!  It's from my favorite blog, the minimalist baker, of course.  I will definitely make these again, even when I'm not eating strictly vegan.

Creamy (vegan) Pasta - Day 6 - (plus breakfast ideas)

During the week we basically have oatmeal, cereal, or toast with fruit for breakfast, but on weekends I always try to make a nice hot breakfast.
Saturday morning I made this vegan french toast.  Top it with a little vegan butter and maple syrup and yum... just yum.
Sunday I mashed up some tofu and made scrambled "eggs." I cooked some papas (fried diced potatoes) and soyrizo. Soyrizo is the soy version of chorizo. Most of my carnivorous family uses it in place of chorizo regularly because it's delicious!  We made breakfast burritos using the tofu, soyrizo, and potatoes.

Tonight I made this easy and amazingly delicious pasta and roasted veggies. I used butternut squash, cauliflower, and Brussels sprouts... I love me some roasted veggies!  I just loved this pasta recipe because it's so much lighter and healthier than making creamy pasta with actual cream and butter.  Also minimalist baker is pretty much my favorite site for vegan recipes.

Topped it with capers and paired it with my favorite Chard... This dinner is a winner.

Painted Pumpkins - Easy Alternative to Carving

Pretty much the entire month of October has been sweltering hot here.  And I've had no time or energy to carve pumpkins or do any fall activities.

I kept promising to take my kids to the pumpkin patch so today I finally came through on my promise.  We first drove to the grocery store to get pumpkins at a fraction of the cost of the ones at the patch. (Sorry I'm too cheap to spend $10/ pumpkin). Then we went and played at the pumpkin patch by our house.  They have a little petting area for bunnies and goats at Giordano Farms.

The past few years I have carved the pumpkins.  But it's honestly just so much work for me, and I don't think any of us enjoy it.  So today I decided to have the kids paint their pumpkins.  There are so many cute ideas online!  I was lazy so we just used what we had on hand.  I put the blue painter's tape on their pumpkins to form the first letter of their names.  Then they just painted all over however they wanted. 

Peel the painter's tape off and you're done!

I wanted to do something cute on Jael's pumpkin so I decided to paint it Minnie Mouse theme to match her costume.  

I first spray-painted the whole thing red. Then I used black paint on the stem.  And I made spots on it using white acrylic paint.

I painted a "J" for her name with black paint.  Then tied a ribbon around the stem.  It turned out cute!

This is such a fun alternative to carving pumpkins... Next year I want to try the glow-in-the-dark paint!

My Book Addiction/ Reading Challenge

I have an addiction... to buying books.  Not necessarily to reading them.  But when I find a book at a great price that I may at some point in my life want to read well of course I have to buy it... right?  Right.  Well when they're $.50 at the library how can I pass that up?  Don't get me wrong, I love to actually read books too.  The problem is I'm much more inclined to read an ebook these days because it's convenient most of the time: in the dark, at night, while nursing, on my phone, and on my new iPad mini (thanks, Honey).  

Side note: You can download free ebooks from the library on the Overdrive app.

Anyway I have about 1 million physical books I need to read, and I'm finally making a point to start reading them.  Now, I will probably still be reading ebooks at times when it's inconvenient to read a book, like at 2 AM when I'm nursing and trying not to wake my husband.  But my goal is to read one physical book per month that I ALREADY own.

For October I've already begun reading The Red Tent so I will finish that.

I will take this challenge one month at a time in deciding which to read next. But trust me, I have plenty to chose from.

Just a few books from my collection

Vegan Baked Potatoes & Salad (Day 2)

This may sound boring and bland, but I can guarantee my tastebuds were not bored tonight at dinner.

A few weeks ago I learned a new method of baking potatoes from one of my favorite shows, America's Test Kitchen.  I've been wanting to try it, and I thought tonight would be a great opportunity.  But when I think of baked potatoes I think butter, cheese, sour cream, and bacon... None of which are vegan. :(

Luckily the baked potato recipe came with a rosemary, garlic butter recipe as well.  I figured I could sub in vegan butter for real butter.  But instead of heading to the store for vegan butter after school pick-up like I should have I went home to take a nap with baby.  Because I was tired... Oh so tired.

After my refreshing nap with Baby J we got our vegan butter, but the potatoes didn't get into the oven until 6 PM.  And we were all starving at that point.  So I improvised and whipped up some bruschetta on toast as an appetizer.

I was in a hurry so I put the garlic in totally raw, but you can sauté it in olive oil first.  Sorry this is not a real recipe since I didn't measure a thing.
I just chopped some Romas
Added some minced garlic
Added some thinly sliced fresh basil leaves
Splashed in a some olive oil and balsamic vinegar
salt & pepper
Toast some sourdough with olive oil and spoon the bruschetta on top

One of the first things in my fridge I checked for non-vegan ingredients was my Girard's Light Champagne salad dressing.  Thankfully it passed the test, and it was great on our salad tonight.
Salad ingredients:
Romaine Lettuce
Cucumbers
Avocado
Shredded Carrot
Black Olives
Raw Sprouted Pumpkin Seeds

The Baked Potato method and butter recipe did not disappoint.  Seriously the fluffiest baked potato I've ever made and probably the most delicious with the butter.

Ingredients:
4 - 6 Russet Potatoes - washed and patted dry - depending on size (I made 6 small)
2 1/2 cups kosher salt
1 head garlic, top sliced off
2 - 3 sprigs fresh rosemary
4 teaspoons olive oil
4 tablespoons butter (or Earth Balance Vegan butter)

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 450. Put salt in a 9x13 pan.  Press the potatoes into the salt, making sure they're not touching.  Place the 2 sprigs of rosemary and garlic (cut side up) into the pan
Cover tightly with aluminum foil and bake for 1 hr.

Remove the pan and take out garlic head.  Brush the potatoes with the olive oil and place back in the oven for 15 min on 500.

Squeeze the garlic head into the butter.  Chop up about half of that additional rosemary sprig and combine it with the butter and garlic.

Serve the baked potatoes with the garlic butter mixture.

A seriously amazing dinner I would make again (vegan or not)!

Vegan Chronicles -- Day 1

So my (lovely) husband bet our vegan friend that he would beat him at fantasy football this past week.  If he won our friend would eat a burger; if he lost my husband would have to go vegan for 3 weeks.  I’m fine going without meat and most dairy.  My husband, on the other hand, is very picky and needs to have meat with pretty much every meal.  So this would not be easy.

Well obviously he lost the bet…. So here we are exploring veganism for the next 3 weeks.  I look at it as an exciting challenge.  He’s not thrilled about it.  But, hey, he should have thought about that before he made the bet!

Today I went to Costco and Trader Joe’s without a list.  I just went through the aisles trying to find anything vegan I thought my family would eat.   

I’ll be sure to share any interesting recipes and findings from our culinary vegan adventures.

If all else fails he can live off PB&J ;)

Day 1:

I have never made tofu before.  It looks utterly unappealing in most cases, and therefore I’ve never eaten very much of it.  But I decided to take the plunge and buy a giant box of it for about $5 at Costco.  I figured if it’s bland there has to be some way to make it taste delicious.

Tonight, for our first vegan dinner, I decided to make tacos.

I chopped some sweet potatoes and cooked them in coconut oil in one pan.  In the other pan I put some drained and diced tofu also with a little oil.  On both I put some taco seasonings: garlic, salt, pepper, cumin, and chili powder.  To the sweet potatoes I added some cooked brown rice and black beans I had in the fridge.  (See my previous post for a simple way to cook black beans.) 

I heated some corn tortillas in a pan with a tad bit of oil for crispiness.  Then I just spooned the tofu and sweet potato mixture into the tortillas.  I added some avocado and salsa to my tacos.  Here’s the finished product.

Notes:

• I use coconut oil for almost everything so I don’t mind the flavor, but you could easily substitute with your oil of choice.
• You could totally leave out the tofu if your intimidated by it or just don’t like it.
• I would definitely add cheese if I wasn’t trying to be a good vegan!

Dye Fabric with Kool-Aid

I am now a nursing mama as I had a precious baby girl 2 months ago.  My go-to outfit for nursing on the go in this hot summer weather is a maxi skirt and crop top.  While I was pregnant I bought a pack of men's regular Hanes t-shirts.  So I decided to turn them in to crop-tops.

Cut them up however you like.  I like the hi-low look, but this particular one I cut in a semi-circle pattern so it is shorter in the middle and longer on the sides.  I cut off the collar and the hem of the sleeves.

I didn't want to go out and buy fabric dye so I decided to try Kool-Aid since I had some in the pantry I had gotten free with coupons some time ago.

1) Boil water in a pot
2) add Kool-Aid packets (I used 2 packets of red for about 2 quarts of water)
3) add clothing/ fabric to pot
4) remove from heat; let cool
5) rinse in cold water
6) hang to dry

Here are my results:

3 Easy Meals (Freezer/ Crock-Pot)

I've always been intimidated by Indian food, but recently I tried it at a few different places and became obsessed with the chicken masala!

I saw this recipe for crockpot butter chicken and decided to try it out.  (Bonus recipe for homemade Naan bread!  Seriously so easy and delicious!  I will never buy naan at the store again!)

My misshapen naan... I made an extra batch and put it in the freezer as well!

There were a couple things I had to buy that I don't usually have on hand like fresh ginger, curry powder, curry paste, and garam masala.
I normally go to Whole Foods for one thing: raw local honey. (If you buy in bulk it's much cheaper than buying any of the jarred honey.)  And this week I wanted to try out some of this amazing looking Thai curry paste.  I decided to get the red curry paste (they also sell yellow and green)  so I could use it in the butter chicken recipe.
I wasn't able to find garam masala at the store so I used this simple recipe to make my own.  I happened to have everything on hand. I did find curry powder at Whole Foods and realized they sell many spices in bulk so you can buy as little or as much as you like.  I just got a little baggy of it.

I bought a pack of 6 chicken breasts (about 4 lbs total) so when I got it out to make the butter chicken I decided to portion it out to make a couple other recipes to put in the freezer.

I used 2 chicken breasts for each recipe.
I chose to make this Thai chicken soup and this Honey sesame chicken recipe.  For the Thai chicken soup I already had the curry paste.  I didn't have the coconut milk, but I can get that before I decide to cook it.  I used only 1 of the 2 cups chicken stock, the other I will add when I cook it.  I just put everything else, aside from the peas and garnishments, into the freezer bag with the chicken.  (I omitted the fish sauce since I didn't have it and my husband doesn't like it anyway.) Then I double-bagged the whole thing and slipped the recipe inside so I'll know what I need to add when I make it.

I did the same thing for the Honey sesame chicken.  All 3 recipes called for fresh ginger so I was glad to be able to use up a big chunk of what I'd bought.  And I had my raw local honey on hand.  For this recipe you don't even have to chop the chicken since it will shred in the crock pot.. So simple!

Now I have a couple easy dinners in my freezer for a busy, or lazy, day!

Baby #3 -- Gender Reveal!

We already have a girl and a boy so with my third pregnancy (I'm 22 weeks) we decided to do a gender reveal.  I was excited because we've never had a co-ed baby shower, and this would be the first time we got to find out what we're having at the same time as our families.

I found these adorable invitations on etsy.

But I was able to make something very similar using Word.

Our ultrasound was on a Tuesday and we planned for our families to come for the gender reveal on Saturday so we had to be very patient!  We had the ultrasound tech put the results into an envelope, and immediately dropped it off with our trustworthy baker friend. She baked cupcakes, half with blue frosting on top, half with pink.  But in the middle they would all be the same: either pink or blue.

On Saturday we had our whole family over and everyone cast their vote for boy or girl.  It was fun to see what everyone thought.  I had made the kids shirts that said "Team Girl" and "Team Boy" with a pink bow and blue mustache respectively.

Kids' tables

Our ultrasound pics and baby pics of me and the husband

Our cute cupcakes, and I made lollipops with mustache and bow molds

Naomi was in charge of getting everyone to write their vote on the white board

Once everyone had arrived my husband, my 2 kiddos, and I each got our cupcake and bit in while everyone watched.  I took the biggest bite possible to make sure I got some of the middle frosting.  I had thought it would be a boy so I was surprised to see pink frosting!   My daughter was so excited that she's going to have a sister.  She jumped up and down and said "team girl won!"

I was trying to chew the giant bite I took, and Pete was saying "I told you!!" 

This was such a fun experience for our family and me, I'm so glad we did it!

Superhero capes/ Masks

In November the kids were invited to a superhero theme birthday party.  Judah already had a batman shirt with a velcro attached cape, so I wanted to make him a matching mask.  And Naomi had nothing so I decided to make her a cape and mask.  I found this great blog tutorial for superhero masks!  So I used that.  And I found this tutorial for the cape.

Here's how they came out!

Cutting out my patterns

Naomi's finished cape...

The kids before the party!

Kindergarten Word Bingo!

I've been using a wonderful curriculum for writing for the past few weeks.  It's called Spell to Write and Read (SWR), and I am totally obsessed with it.  My kindergartener, on the other hand, is not as thrilled about learning to spell to write and read 20 words per week.  She's doing great, but I try to give her a break and make it fun while still meeting our weekly goals.  I get her to do the tough part by promising a fun game or activity afterward.

Today I put together a bingo game using the 4 lists of words we've had so far.  I found this template and decided to make my own so I could use the words I wanted.

Since I only have one student I played against her.  I printed all the words and cut them out.  We took turns drawing a word and reading it then trying to find it on our card.  We used coins as bingo markers and played until the whole card was filled up.  It was fun!

If you want to make your own I can email my template.  :)

Recipe Share

This is how I feel a lot of times... But this week was a good one for dinner recipes so I thought I'd share!

We went camping last weekend, and I came home with a few left over hotdogs.  I didn't feel like eating hot dogs again, but I wanted to use them.  So I found this mini corn dog recipe on Pinterest.  It's pretty simple, and the kids (and I) loved it!

I got the idea from a friend to make chicken skewers for camping, so I've been doing that the past few years.  This year though I didn't make enough, and all the teenagers wanted them so Pete didn't get any, and I only got one.  So I decided to make them again this week.
I just cut the chicken breast into chunks and marinate with whatever I have on hand.  For camping I used BBQ sauce and beer.  This week I used TJ's Soyaki sauce.  Then just skewer the chunks of meat (you can add veggies if you want) and throw them on the grill.  So easy and delicious!
I also tried this ramen salad from Pinterest with a little modification.  I made a half recipe, and it was a plenty!  Here's my version:
SALAD:
1 package ramen noodles (calls for beef but I used Ichiban original)
1 12 oz package broccoli slaw
1/2 cu. slivered almonds
1/2 cu. sunflower seeds
2-3 green onions, chopped
DRESSING:
1/4 (or less) honey or agave
1/3 cu. oil (I used olive and a dash of sesame)
1/4 cu. white rice vinegar
dash of soy sauce
flavor packets

Just put the salad ingredients in a bowl.  In a separate bowl mix the dressing ingredients.  Pour the dressing over the salad and toss it all together.
I will definitely be making this again!

I've been wanting to try a recipe using soda for a long time... My husband had bought a 2 liter of root beer, we drank maybe 1 glass each, and I knew we weren't ever going to drink the rest so I decided to try this bbq pork stuffed sweet potato recipe I saw on (you guessed it... ) Pinterest!  I obviously used rootbeer instead of coke, and it came out great!  But I wanted a little extra topping so I decided to make shoestring fried onions.  Here is the recipe I used.  I didn't even tell the kids they were onions, and they were none the wiser... Everyone loved it!  I was a little worried that I was crowding the onions too much in the oil, but they came out perfect.

 And last but not least was last night's amazing dinner... Fish taco bowls.  I used tilapia rather than cod simply because it was cheaper.  Any my husband doesn't eat fish so I made his with chicken breast.

Can you tell I love cilantro?