A Bit of Frost-y Advice...

If you're making something that calls for a rich, creamy, fluffy looking frosting (like a cupcake), use soft (un-melted) butter when you make it.

However, if you're frosting something you later intend to layer or stack, like these...
... make a simple icing of powdered sugar, milk, and a splash of vanilla. It will "set up" just enough that the cookies won't stick or smear.
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This post is linked to:

Cupcake Tuesday at Hoosier Homemade.
Works For Me Wednesday at We Are THAT Family.

Oddball Snacks

If you were to ask me what I'd like for a snack, I have to admit I'd probably mention something like Doritos or a brownie. If I were really feeling healthy, I might suggest some fruit and a glass of soy milk.

When it comes to offering snacks to kids, I recommend a balance. My kids often get (and enjoy!) cheese, fruit, yogurt or wheat crackers for a snack. But you know what? I'm a cookie-mama too. I absolutely let my children have sweets. And sometimes cheesy snacks with a dubious orange color. I pride myself on the wide range of things I offer...

But even more important perhaps? Let your kids be your guide once in a while. When I let my son "name his snack" the other day, do you know what he came up with?

Dry spaghetti. Seriously.



It could be worse.
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This post is linked to Kitchen Tip Tuesdays.

Greasing Pans

(Originally posted 9/30/08)

I bake. A lot. I love the process and I love knowing I have control over the quality of ingredients my children consume. And when I feel like my children would rather carbo-load and abandon all healthy fruits and proteins, I sneak them in their snacks. I'm famous for dumping assorted dried fruits and nuts in the their favorite granola bar recipe. As long as there's a handful of chocolate chips in there too, they'll eat anything. This is especially handy for C. since, well, she's still a little string-bean and they're always after us to get her to gain weight!


To keep my bars from sticking, I spray the pan with non-stick cooking spray (translation = canola oil in a can). I love cooking spray for jobs like this. It's so quick and so much cleaner than greasing the old fashioned way. What I don't like, however, is the greasy, misty film that it leaves all over the counters, stove, floor, and anything else that may be "in the line of fire".

What I do? Lay the pan on the inside of the dishwasher door and spray away.

When I'm done, I just close the door and the next time I run the dishwasher, the film is washed right away. Easy greasing. Easy clean-up. Happy Mommy.
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This post is linked to Kitchen Tip Tuesdays.

Ditching the Sippy Cup

I've said it before.. we are a nation with a real sippy-cup addiction. Seriously. You would think I'd be used to it, but it still blows my mind to see 5- and 6-year olds carrying sippy cups around the grocery store. Or seeing parents fill their preschoolers' sippys with soda at McDonald's. Innumberable children entering preschool or kindergarten have never held an open cup until snacktime... and they promptly dump it all over. They have no concept of "cause and effect" and what's going to happen.

The thing is... the sippy cup should just be a transition step. And a fairly short-lived one at that! As far as our kids' teeth are concerned, it's really not any better than drinking from a baby bottle. Drinking from an open cup builds coordination. It requires different oral strengths than a sippy cup. And, quite simply, it's a life skill. I truly believe that, as parents, we need to be more pro-active in getting our kids off the sippy... We've successfully ditched the sippy cup well before the third birthdays of both of our children. Here are my best tips for being successful.

• Use a very small cup and very little liquid to start. There's no reason to start out huge. Face it-- you ARE going to be wiping up the contents of said cup. May as well keep the damage to a minimum.
• Start with water. Same idea-- it's so much easier to clean up than sticky juice or milk!
• Feel free to hold the cup yourself the first few times. This allows your child to sip at the liquid and grasp the concept without getting "flooded".
• Serve drinks at the table. I know that seems like a no-brainer tip, but I really think one of the main reasons for the "sippy cup epidemic" is that, somewhere along the line, we got it into our heads that our children must have access to a drink every moment of the day. I'm not sure why this is... I certainly don't remember EVER having a drink in the car or church or the doctor's waiting room as a child. And I wasn't deprived or dehydrated either. By all means, make sure your children are getting enough fluids. But there's no reason they need to run all over the house with them.
• If you MUST serve something to drink away from the table, consider using a straw. There are lidded cups with straws available that can be washed and re-used. Or give a juice box as a treat. Straws are actually GOOD for kids because they build oral strength (especially "crazy straws"!) and help prevent aspiration since your head remains upright (rather than tipped back) when you swallow. Furthermore, straws are socially appropriate even as adults, so it's not another thing to "wean" your child off of down the road.
  
• When you feel frustrated, remember that YOU never had a sippy cup as as child. And I bet you turned out just fine. :)

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This post is linked to Works for Me Wednesday and Kitchen Tip Tuesdays

Apples On My Mind...

Two things got my wheels turning this week...

One, my apple trees are in full bloom. Aren't they pretty? It will be quite some time before they bear fruit this year, but they sure look pretty and Spring-y right now!

Two, Amy wrote about buying eighteen pounds of apples for a steal. She came up with lots of yummy uses for them and I was reminded of my Apple Strudel Muffins. What I love most about this recipe is that it uses six full apples to make a dozen muffins. You do the math- this means you actually get a fair bit of fruit in each serving! Always a nice bonus and particularly great for small children. I made dozens and dozens of these last fall and we ate them from our freezer throughout the winter. Yum!

These are fantastic for popping in lunch boxes or in the backpack for preschool snacks. They look "cupcake-y", but pack a lot of fruit per bite!

Apple Strudel Muffins

Ingredients:
2 cups all purpose flour (I sometimes use half whole-wheat)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 1/4 teaspoon vanilla
6 small-medium apples, chopped very fine

(topping)
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon butter

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375. Grease a 12-cup muffin pan.
2. In a medium bowl, mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
3. In a large bowl, beat together butter, sugar, and eggs until smooth. Mix in vanilla. Stir in apples, and gradually blend in the flour mixture. Spoon the mixture into the prepared muffin pan.
4. In a small bowl, mix brown sugar, flour, and cinnamon. Cut in butter until mixture is like coarse crumbs. Sprinkle over tops of mixture in muffin pan.
5. Bake 20 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. Allow to sit 5 minutes before removing muffins from pan. Cool on a cooking rack.

Enjoy!
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This post is linked to:
Ultimate Recipe Swap, hosted at Life as MOM

Seafood Crepes

I mentioned making these crepes last week and wondered if anyone would be interested in the recipe... since I had a few takers, here it is!

This is a recipe that comes from my mom.... I'm not sure of her source, so I'll just give her credit. :)

Seafood Crepes

Crepes

• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 teaspoon
• salt
• 1 egg
• 1 1/4 cup milk
• 1/4 cup (or even less) oil

Put flour in mixing bowl. Add salt, egg, and half of milk. Beat. Add remaining milk and one tablespoon oil. Beat again. Heat a tiny bit of oil in pan over med-high heat, just enough to barely coat. (Note: non-stick cooking spray actually worked better for me for this step... you're shooting for a VERY thin and uniform coat, so use whatever method works best for you!) Pour in a small amount of batter and tip to cover the pan. Cook for 30-60 seconds then flip to other side. Repeat with remaining batter. This might seem putzy, but it goes pretty quickly. Makes 8-10 crepes.

Filling

• 4 tablespoons butter
• 1/2 pint fresh cream (or half-n-half... or whole or 2% milk... use what you've got, I say!)
• 3/4 cup fresh mushrooms, sliced (more or less, depending on your love of mushrooms)
  
• 8 oz. processed cheese (Velveeta or processed American)
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice (confession? I didn't have this last time and we didn't notice... so don't run to the store if you're out...)
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 pound assorted seafood, fresh, frozen, or canned (I used 1/2 lb imitation crab meat and 1/2 lb frozen shrimp)

Saute mushrooms and garlic in butter in large pan. Add cheese and melt over low heat. Add lemon juice. Add seafood and, when cooked (lots of seafood is already cooked when you buy it, so this may not take long), begin adding cream. Amount varies- get a smooth consistency, not too thick.

Put a small amount of filling in each crepe. Roll and put in baking dishes (putting two crepes in each of four oblong dishes makes for an elegant presentation, putting all of them in one baking dish makes for easier clean-up!). Drizzle leftover filling over top. Heat in 400 degree oven until bubbly and hot (about 15 minutes).

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Sadly, I didn't think to take any pictures when I was making this... at the time, I wasn't sure if I'd be posting the recipe or not.

Our kids both like this meal. I think a lot of children probably would... I mean, it's all dripping with cheese sauce if you think about it! That being said, it makes a fantastic "date night in" meal too. And that's how we enjoyed it. My timing was slightly off for getting the meal pulled together before 6 pm. Since our kids go to bed between 7:15 and 7:30, I feel it's essential that I have their suppers done by then... preferably a little earlier. So I revised the plan, made them a quick "breakfast for supper" pancake dinner and saved the crepes to heat in the oven while we tucked the littles in...

When my husband left our daughter's room and I left our son's and we met in the living room... well, our meal was waiting for us. I served it up and we enjoyed a "fancy pants" meal for two. Probably a good thing the kids were asleep, because my hubby went back for THIRDS! We have a winner!
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This post is linked to:
Kitchen Tip Tuesdays
Tempt My Tummy Tuesday
Tasty Tuesday

Looking Beyond the Ketchup...

I adore ketchup. I really do. I'm one of those people. You know the ones... I like it on my scrambled eggs. I like it on roast beef. And you better believe, I like it on my burger. I like a huge variety of burgers... all manner of flavor combos and just about anything you can think of for a topping. About my only rule is that I insist on is cheese. Can you believe I've made it 32 years without EVER eating a burger without cheese? It's true.

Anyway, while I'm a stickler on the cheese issue, I'm decidedly more lenient about how I top and/or dip my burger. I love ketchup, as I said, but I also love salsa, hot sauce, grainy mustards, horseradish, chili, and on and on. My latest fave? This quick and easy recipe:

1/2 cup sour cream (I use reduced fat, but any variety will do...)
1/4 cup ketchup (of course!)
2 heaping tablespoons dill pickle relish

Mix in a small bowl and allow to sit in fridge for at least fifteen minutes and up to a few hours- it tastes better if the flavors have a chance to combine!

This topping is like a fresh take on Thousand Island dressing... and it tastes fabulous on a fresh-from-the-grill burger. Warmer temps are on the way... bust out the charcoal!
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This recipe is linked to:
Kitchen Tip Tuesdays and
Tempt My Tummy Tuesdays

Cutting Raw Meat Easily

As I mentioned yesterday, I'm a tad under-the-weather. So here's my super quick tip of the day...

Just in case there is anyone out there who does not already know this-

If you need to chop, slice, or cut meat neatly, it is much, much easier to do it while the meat is still partially frozen. This is especially true for chicken, but works well for beef and pork as well. Use a sharp knife and partially frozen meat and you'll get neat strips or cubes every time.
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For more Kitchen Tips, please visit Tammy's Recipes every Tuesday.
For more recipes and advice, be sure to check out Tasty Tuesday at Forever, Wherever.

Easter Ham Glaze

Every year, I host Easter. That's "my holiday", if you will. Thanksgiving always falls to one of my sisters-in-law. Mother's Day brunch to the other. And Christmas? Well, we usually gather at my mother-in-law's that afternoon. But every year, Easter happens here. It's kind of nice to know the routine. It's predictable! It also enables me to have a pretty set "plan" from year-to-year. And, I won't lie, weather-permitting it's just lovely to let the eight (soon to be nine!) cousins scamper around around our two acres on an all-out Easter egg hunt.

Since I host Easter, I make the ham. Everyone else brings side dishes to round out the meal, but the ham? That's my department. Over the years, I've played with my glaze recipe and I've finally arrived at a tried and true favorite.

This is it:

Easter Ham Glaze

1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup cider vinegar
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1/2 cup orange juice
1/2 cup orange flavored rum (like Bacardi O)-- you could use all orange juice instead, but the flavor won't be quite the same. If you know you won't use it for anything else, you can also look for one of those "shot size" little bottles in the front of the liquor store and just use that.

Mix all ingredients in a saucepan over low heat. Use to glaze ham during the final 30 minutes of baking.

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While we're on the subject of Easter feasts, I need to get the menu plan out to my in-laws soon. Any recommendations on side-dish requests? Anything more creative than the typical rolls, green bean casserole, deviled eggs, and salad that we tend to have? I'd love your suggestions in the comments!

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For more Kitchen Tips, be sure to visit Tammy's Recipes every Tuesday!
For more yummy recipes, visit Tasty Tuesday, hosted at Forever... Wherever!

Keepin' the Mush Off My Mushrooms

We eat a LOT of mushrooms around here. We use them in our Hot & Sour Peanut Noodles to give it some "meaty" texture during Lent. We use quite a few in Chicken Marsala. We also put them in omelets, on burgers, in grilled cheese, on pizza, etc. Mushrooms, we love. Mushy, slimy mushrooms? Not so much.

To keep my mushrooms fresher, longer, I use this simple trick:

Transfer them from the plastic container they come in into a smaller paper bag (lunch sacks or the bags they put wine bottles in are the perfect size for this). I don't know all the ins and outs of the science of it, but I do know that by keeping the light off the 'shrooms and allowing moisture to leave the bag, the mushrooms stay fresher and have a superior texture... even after a week of rolling around in my fridge. This is especially handy when I pick up those "manager's special" mushrooms...

How about you? Does your family love mushrooms? Any tips for keeping them fresh?
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For more great tips, visit Kitchen Tip Tuesdays, hosted at Tammy's Recipes.
For more tasty ideas, stop by Tasty Tuesdays, hosted at Forever... Wherever!

Banana Cookies

These cookies are a definite favorite with my kids- they feel spoiled when I make them and, to be honest, I'm not sure I've seen many cookie recipes that can claim to be as healthy! Makes me chuckle every time they gobble one of these down for dessert and look like they've gotten away with something. :)

Banana Cookies

Ingredients:

• 3 very ripe bananas, mashed
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 cup brown sugar, packed
• 4 egg whites
• 3 cups oats
• 2 tbsp. whole wheat flour
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1/2 chocolate chips or nuts (if you wish-- I've made them plain, with nuts, or with choc. chips... they're good no matter what!)

Directions:

• Mix first 3 ingredients together in a large bowl. Add egg whites and mix. Add remaining ingredients except nuts or chocolate chips. After dough (more like batter, really) is mixed, add nuts or chips.
• Batter will seem too liquid, but drop on cookie sheet by tablespoon anyway.
• Bake at 350 for approx. 12 minutes.

Notes:

• I often make a whole batch of these, but I've cut it into a third before and used only one banana and one egg white. That worked! Each banana used seems to yield about a dozen cookies.
• If I use nuts, I prefer walnuts or pecans for this recipe.
• Don't know what to do with those egg yolks? I have another kid-friendly recipe coming up that uses just yolks!

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For more Kitchen Tips, be sure to stop by The Finer Things In Life, where Amy is guest-hosting for Tammy this week!

Beer Bread

We use a wide range of bread around here... I bake white and wheat bread quite frequently. I also buy 88 cent loaves of wheat sandwich bread at Kroger pretty often (because, well, I like the convenience, quite frankly...)

Occasionally I run out of all of those but still want to have a fresh loaf of bread to serve up with a meal. When that happens, I often turn to my trusty beer bread recipe which I can make from start to finish in less than an hour. And which requires very few ingredients.

My husband and I are not beer drinkers, but we do have some in the family. Because of that, we often have leftover beers rolling around our fridge. This recipe is perfect for using those up and, for those concerned, it's nice to know that all the alcohol bakes out and the bread does NOT, in fact, taste like beer.

Quick As A Flash Beer Bread

Ingredients:

• 2 2/3 cup flour (I use a combination of white and wheat)
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 12 oz beer (any kind), freshly opened, chilled or at room temp

Directions:

• Heat oven to 375. Grease loaf pan.
• Mix dry ingredients in medium bowl. Add beer and stir with spatula until flour mixture is just moistened. Dump in prepared pan.
• Bake 50-55 minutes.
• Cool in pan on rack for 5 minutes, then turn out to cool.

This bread tastes fantastic with soup or stew and actually makes great toast! Sometimes I like to add some garlic or onion powder to the batter and I top the bread with some shredded cheese for the last ten minutes of baking. Super easy, super inexpensive, super fast homemade bread.

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For more Kitchen Tips, be sure to visit Tammy's Recipes every Tuesday!

Over-salted Sauce?

Super quick tip today...

If, like me, you make your own pizza sauce, taco sauce, soup, etc, there may come a time when you taste it and realize you were a little heavy-handed with the salt. Not too worry; all is not lost.



Simply place a cut apple or potato into the pot, stir, and let it simmer in there for 15-20 minutes. The starchiness will absorb much of the excess salt making it more palatable! But you'll probably want to toss the apple/potato... it will be pretty gross.



(On a related note, putting a whole, peeled carrot into a tomato based sauce while it simmers will absorb excess acid resulting in a sweeter sauce.)

For more kitchen tips, be sure to visit Tammy's site every Tuesday!

Let Them Eat Cake!

... and cookies. And chips. And chocolate. And even sugary cereal.

Yep, that's right. I'm going out on a limb here and saying that I believe, absolutely, that we should let our children eat some junk. There are very, very few "forbidden foods" at our house and I have no intention of changing that.

Why?

Because I believe that most things lose their allure and appeal if you're allowed some exposure to them. Case in point-

When I was a little girl, my father was the director of engineering for Nestle... the CHOCOLATE division. We had boxes of chocolate bars in our house. Bags upon bags of chocolate chips and mini candy bars. I can remember friends of mine and my siblings staring wide-eyed at the array of sweet treats in our pantry closet. And you know what? I like chocolate. I did then and I still do. But I have never once in my life "needed chocolate" or been unable to control myself with it. I don't think I've gorged on the stuff even once. I can take it or leave it.

And so my kids sometimes eat cheese puffs. Or frosted cheerios. I offer them dessert after almost every dinner (assuming they ate reasonably well). I don't sweat it if I find out their snack at preschool that day was doughnut holes and not applesauce. Whatever. (My one exception? My two preschoolers do NOT drink soda. Ever. But I do let them have chocolate milk or even, on occasion, Capri Sun...)

I should probably make it clear that none of us have any health problems in this household. We're also all healthy weights. I can certainly understand that some families have special circumstances to keep in mind...

Friends and family and even my kids' teachers will tell you-- I've raised good eaters. They eat a whole range of flavors and textures and no one has ever called them "picky". They love all sorts of different healthy foods and don't turn up their noses just because they've been exposed to Lucky Charms...

I'd say our laid-back approach is working just fine. Let them eat cake.

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For more Kitchen Tips and advice, check out Tammy's Recipes every Tuesday!

Using Little Pockets Of Time

When I have something cooking on the stove or something under the broiler... or when I'm baking cookies, I seem to have these little 3-5 minute pockets of time. The thing is... I really can't leave the kitchen to do anything. I'm notorious for letting those few little minutes turn into a longer stretch and then, well, bad things can happen!

And here's the thing- it's not like I don't have plenty of short little tasks that need to be accomplished. Sometimes getting those little things done is just as hard as the bigger things when you have two little ones underfoot! What really works for me is keeping a basket on my counter filled with quick things that need to be done. At any given moment, here's a sampling of what you might find in my basket:

• Paperwork or forms for my childrens' school that need to be filled out.
• Thank you notes and stamps to write and send.
• Coupons still waiting to filed or cut out (especially ones I've printed from the computer).
• Little garments in need of small mending jobs (e.g. replacing a button or fixing a seam).
• A necklace that need to be de-tangled.
• A bill that needs to be paid and isn't set up online.
• Information or pamphlets that I've been "meaning to read".

These seemingly insignificant things rarely make it onto my "to-do list". But if I let them fall through the cracks, they quickly snowball into a huge project. Keeping them at my fingertips helps me use my little pockets of time wisely and helps me avoid the temptation of wandering off!

What do you do with your "little pockets of time"? Do you have a method for accomplishing those little pesky tasks that need to get done? Please share with everyone in the comments!

For more Kitchen Tips, visit Tammy's Recipes every Tuesday.

Freezing Milk

As a pregnant mommy of little ones, I find myself buying a lot of milk these days. One of the things that I love about shopping at Kroger is that I can almost always find reduced-price milk with several days left before the "sell-by date". This really helps the budget and enables us to buy several gallons of milk at once.

I also like buying four or so gallons of milk at a time because I live 17 miles from town. It's not convenient (or cost-effective) for me to "run out for a gallon of milk" whenever we get low.

Stocking up on milk is great, but it's only a deal if you can keep it fresh. To accomplish this goal, I've taken to freezing my milk. Over time, I've learned a few tricks about this process that I want to share with you all...

• Skim milk is the easiest to freeze. Skim milk can be frozen as-is in the gallon. It doesn't seem to expand too much and, because it has no fat, you don't have to deal with the fat solids separating from the liquid as it freezes. The kids and I all really like skim milk (and they're both over two) so this works out great. (Oh, and I just have to say because I get tired of reading this little myth on other sites-- skim milk is NOT the same as watered down whole milk. You water down nutrients that way and still consume fat.)
• Higher fat content milks can be frozen too. We never buy whole milk around here anymore because no one will drink it. But I often buy 1% (that extra fat is good for my little C.) or 2% (Daddy likes it in his coffee). I've noticed that these milks seem to expand more than skim (I have no idea why exactly that is). I've never actually had a plastic jug crack on me, but the possibility makes me a tad nervous and so I transfer these into other plastic containers, allowing a good inch or so of expansion room. With extra space in the container, it's easier to "shake it up" and redistribute the fats once the milk has thawed. This also enables me to store at least some of it in my normal kitchen freezer instead of the big chest freezer in the garage...
• This is a great way to ration chocolate milk. I've been lucky enough to snag chocolate milk for 75 cents a gallon recently. We ALL like chocolate milk around here, but it's not an everyday thing. By dividing the gallon into smaller containers, we can just use what we need and the rest remains safely frozen until the next time. We don't have to each drink 24 oz of chocolate milk in one day to use it up. (Truth? Chocolate milk is the easiest for me to choke down when pregnant. I'm not a great milk drinker for the most part, but I do enjoy chocolate milk. And, since I tend to have some trouble gaining weight, I don't worry too much about the extra sugar...)

By learning a few tricks for safely and conveniently freezing reduced price milk, I've been able to keep the cost of four gallons of milk under $6 for our family. And that's something that we all find refreshing!
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To read how others live frugally and save some pennies, check out Frugal Friday, hosted at Biblical Womanhood!

For more tips and recipes, be sure to visit Tammy's Recipes every Tuesday!

I Love White Flour

There. I said it. And I'll say it again. I love white flour. For lots of reasons. And, sometimes, I'm left to feel like a very bad person for feeling that way. Or for letting my children consume products containing white flour. And white sugar, for that matter, but for now, I'm talking about white flour...

I really love wheat flour too. We adore wheat bread around here. The grainier the English muffins, the better. I love baking up breads and muffins and bagels using wheat flour... and we gobble them up.

But you know what?

Nothing really takes the place of white flour in my book.

I've tried.

I baked up the cinnamon rolls with wheat flour and, while I'm happy to report that my kids happily scarfed them down (amazing what frosting can do), I thought they had a funky taste and, while, to his credit, he didn't actually complain, I know my husband found them a poor substitution for my usual rolls. If I'm going to fuss with cinnamon rolls, I want them to be delicious. Not just passable.

Ditto on the pizza crust. It didn't work for me. I didn't like the flavor or texture and it ruined the whole experience for me.

I'm sure there are dozen of other recipes I could try, but I'm not really sure I want to... because my white flour recipes are already delicious.

We enjoy whole grains around here and we get a lot of them...

But you know what?

I love white flour.

And I'm going to keep right on using it...

Am I the only one?

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For more great kitchen advice, thoughts, and recipes, check out Tammy's Recipes for Kitchen Tip Tuesday!

Birthday Cake Thoughts...

So here are a couple things you should know about me...

1. I refuse to shell out $20+ for a grocery store bakery cake that tastes like it's frosted with Crisco and is often airbrushed with psychadelic colors.

2. I have nothing against boxed caked mixes.

3. I love making my kids' cakes, but I'm not one of those super-mommies who manages to create those amazing scenes on their cakes either. I'm somewhere in the middle.

My kids are little yet-- just turned 3, almost 4, and not-yet-born, so I haven't had the most experience making birthday cakes. But I do enjoy it! Usually...

Here are a couple cakes from past birthday celebrations...

My son's zebra cake for his 2nd birthday.

When our little girl was 2, her favorite food in the world was grapes. So there you go.

This year, as C's third birthday loomed before me just as I was recovering from my energy-sucking illness, the thought of coming up with a creative cake idea almost drove me to tears. I kept meaning to get online and find some wondrous design I could try to replicate. But it didn't happen. In the end, I bought two Funfetti cake mixes, baked about thirty cupcakes with Tinkerbell liners, whipped up some buttercream icing, tinted it pink, and topped them with pastel sprinkles...


Honestly? I think they were even more popular than the cakes I usually make. Fact is... kids love cupcakes.

So I guess my advice is... think about your audience. Decide what really matters. Is it more important that my neighbor thinks I'm a pastry genius or that my children have huge, cake-crumby grins?

Long live the cupcake.

Even on her first birthday, C. was a fan of the cupcake!

For more kitchen advice and ideas, check out Tammy's Recipes!

Update 1/29: Be sure to check out all the wonderful cakes at the Birthday Cake Round Up, hosted by Life As MOM!

The Kitchen Slack-off Plan

Okay, so I'm actually really embarrassed and pretty reluctant to write this post. But I'm going to write it anyway. Because right now, at this exact point in my journey, this is the advice I have to offer...

When push comes to shove and the thought of cooking brings tears and nausea, just slack off. I have an abundance of chicken breasts, ground turkey, sausage links, and all manner of veggies in my freezer right now. I can barely stand to look at them, let alone come up with a meal plan for preparing them. I'm in the first trimester of a pregnancy and, while I am blessed and thrilled and overall doing great, I am also tired and nauseous. No big surprise.

And so, when my husband got paid and my monthly grocery money rolled in, what did I do? I'll tell you...

I went through my coupons and pulled out all the ones for frozen meals and Hamburger Helper. For chicken patties and ready-to-bake pizzas. For soups and "rice and sauce"-type side dishes. And I hit the store.

As I rolled my cart through the check-out lane, my cheeks flamed a bit. I don't usually shop this way. I can usually take pride in my array of fresh produce, lean meats, and my giant bags of flour because I bake all my own breads. I sometimes glance at others' carts and wonder how they can pay so much for convenience...

But you know what? The teenage cashier didn't bat a lash. And I think my husband was kind of excited to see some of the types of things we used to eat in college. And, as I served my children Lender's bagels spread with peanut butter instead of Mommy's homemade this morning, they didn't notice.

But everyone's happier when Mommy's happy. Slacker or not.

For more tips, check out Kitchen Tip Tuesday!

Homemade Granola Bars

I've had the pleasure of giving away some awesome gift baskets filled with spa goodies and Chex Mix bars over the past few weeks. In the comments, one question has popped up a few times now:

Will I share my homemade granola bar recipe?

You betcha. But first, let me just tell you this: It contains corn syrup. I know some of you choose to avoid that. Personally, I still use it in some candies and baked goods. I'm sure there are great recipes that do NOT use corn syrup but, well, mine does. As long as you're still on board with me, here you go:

Chewy Granola Bars

Ingredients

3 cups oats
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda (+ 1/4 tsp salt - optional, but I think it adds something!)
1 tsp vanilla extract
½ cup butter (softened to almost-melted)
1/2 cup lite corn syrup
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 to 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips (or any flavor chips, or M & M minis, or dried fruit, or nuts, raisins, you name it, the list goes on... we LOVE M & M's dark chocolate with dried berries!)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Mix all dry ingredients in a large bowl. Drizzle corn syrup and softened butter over the top and stir until crumbly. Add chocolate chips or other fillers and mix. Press into pan with your fingers and bake for about 20 minutes.

I make these in a 9 x 13" pan sprayed with cooking spray. After they cool for about a half hour, I cut them in three WIDE rows across and then cut six columns lengthwise. I wrap each of the 18 resulting bars individually in narrow pieces of saran wrap. I try to save these pieces of plastic wrap to reuse; they don't get particularly sticky or dirty. This way they're handy to toss in a diaper bag or grab on the go!

Check out Kitchen Tip Tuesdays at Tammy's Recipes for more recipes and ideas.