Cake-Mix Cookies

Here's a super quick and easy treat to make this weekend with the kids...cookies made from cake mix.  These did not last long in our house ;)

{recipe from parents.com.}

ps.  I know I am a not the world's greatest photographer, but I just could not stop photographing these things ;)

Happy Weekend!

xox

Mel

Chick Nuggets

To make little Chick Nuggets you will need:

* Chicken nuggets

* Carrot

* Cheese

* Fruit Leather

* Pasta

* And probably more patience than me ;)

 

Peel carrot and cut a little bit off the top.  

Cut a v-shaped groove into one end. 

Cut a hole into nugget to hold carrot in place. (I used the end of an apple peeler)

Using kitchen scissors, cut a small slice of cheese into a heart shape with a "stem"

Cut a round hole into the top of the nugget and insert stem of cheese.

Using kitchen scissors, cut out eye shapes from fruit leather.

 

 

Or you can use corn instead of cheese...

xox

Mel

No Bake Marshmallow Lamb Cookies

While flipping through a magazine a while back, I saw some really cute lamb cookies made with meringue.  I am quite aware of my shortcomings in the kitchen, and so I know that meringue is something that I should never even think about baking...so I felt a little sad that the cute little cookies were not in my future until last weekend, when I was looking through the pantry and spotted some graham crackers and mini marshmallows.
Hello, lamb cookies....
No bake "anything" is the perfect match for me!

All the ingredients were already in my kitchen:

*Graham Crackers
*Mini Marshmallows
*1 T Confectioners Sugar (and a drop of milk to make icing)
*Blueberry Craisins (although raisins should work fine)
*Black edible pen

To get the shape below, cut the graham cracker gently in a sawing motion with a serrated knife

The icing acts like glue so that the marshmallows stick to the graham cracker

Fill the graham cracker with the marshmallows...in terms of number or order...whatever works is my style, I just made sure the marshmallows slightly overlapped the edge.

Microwave for approximately 10 seconds on high...the marshmallows should be just slightly puffed up and look like this...

Gently push the marshmallows together and flatten slightly...

Becareful because they could be very hot.

Add your blueberry craisin and draw in an eye and maybe a smile :)

The kids absolutely loved these and thought that the blueberry craisin was a perfect complement to the overall taste.  However, after eating about three of them, one of my children remarked:  "Mom, these are SO GOOD...what are they?  Little Fishies?

So much for my little spring lambs...but I guess at least they tasted good ;)


update:  linking here

Painting with Bob The Builder

My little guy loves Bob the Builder and is always playing with his "Bob and the team" toys.  He either spends hours playing with all the vehicles (especially in the dirt outside) or he dons his Bob toolbelt and destroys fixes the house for me... such a helpful little chap ;)

So I thought he would really enjoy painting with Dizzy, Muck, Scoop and Rolly

The great thing about this project is that it uses supplies on hand:

*Paper (I have a jumbo roll which I am always using for kid related fun)
*Paint
*Apron
*Paper Plates
*Bob the Builder's Team

(I just used paint colors I had on hand, but if I had had yellow and green paint, I would have co-ordinated the paint with the vehicles.)

He really had a lot of fun with this, but I think the funnest part was cleaning up...

(which is always a good thing for us mothers)

Surprisingly, this project did not make a lot of mess...maybe due to the large roll of paper...we will definitely do this again.


update:  linking here

Easter chick cookies

Inspired by the very talented Maki Ogawa's cute little chick cookies, I decided to make my own version, and we all know how that goes....

While searching for a ball shaped cookie recipe, I found a recipe for Snowball Cookies at The Baker Who Cooks and thought the kids would love the surprise of the chocolate inside.  However, I wanted to make mini-cookies, so I exchanged the Hershey Kiss for butterscotch chips.
(I also made some non-chick cookies with white and milk chocolate chips inside).
 
Some notes on the process:
* As I was rolling the dough into balls, I realized that I could use the pointed end of the butterscotch chip as the chicks beak.

* For the eyes, I melted some semi-sweet chocolate chips in a bowl, and used a ziplock bag as a pastry bag to dot on the eyes...not the greatest method, but it worked okay.

* To make the nest, I just used the left over melted chocolate to scribble onto the plate in a nest shape.  I then put it in the freezer for a half hour or so to harden.  Very easy!

* Maki used chocolate pens to decorate the eyes and beaks...but I had never heard of such a thing...so I looked on Amazon and found this cool product - Cuisipro Food Decorating Pen,  which looked like it could be very useful.

*  The cookie recipe calls for nuts, which I didn't have, so I just omitted them. (I don't get too hung up on the details when baking, but luckily it worked out this time.) 

* The recipe also does not use eggs, which makes it a good one to remember late at night when you have a sudden craving for something sweet but don't have any eggs...and let's be honest, how often does a lack of eggs in the house thwart all plans of making a decadent midnight treat.

The kids loved the little chicks, and devoured the entire batch in about an hour.  I think it was partly because I obviously wasn't monitoring them too closely and partly because the cookies were so small it made them very more-ish and hard to keep track of how many you had actually eaten.  
Oh well, that just means no cookies for me for breakfast tomorrow ;)

Below is the step-by-step process:

1. Divide up the cookie dough

2. Roll into ball shape

3. Push butterscotch chip into the center

4. Roll the dough around the chip

5. Make sure the top end of the chip sticks out slightly to form the beak

I made some plain ones, too, with chocolate chips and white chocolate chips

update: linking here

Spring!

With the first week of spring upon us, we decided to get into a flower theme around here...

First up, a flower inspired lunch (although the older boys did NOT want to eat flower shaped food...apparently it is way to girly!), but the youngest boy demolished his, so at least my efforts weren't all in vain.

Tomorrow I am going to attempt to make flower headbands for my little live doll daughter ;)