Breakfast: Fun, healthy, and portable!

Today is the first day of August and the official start of my back-to-school panic.  Where did the summer go?!

With our new dietary restrictions, all of our grab and go breakfast favorites are out of the rotation.  No more pre-packaged sausage biscuits, no quick and easy granola bars.  Ugh.

I started making smoothie sticks to replace the freezer pops we could no longer have and it occurred to me that they have all the makings of a fun, healthy breakfast.  Score!  I also like that I can whip up a double batch at one time and be done with the blasted blender.  (I have a love-hate relationship with this particular appliance.)

Get as creative as you want.  Variety is good - especially when it comes to smoothie sticks.  This is one of our favorite blends.  Think pina colada without the rum.  Here's how to make it:

Ingredients:
4 bananas
32 oz. Vanilla Greek Yogurt (We like Chobani)
13.5 oz.  Coconut Milk
46 oz. Pineapple Juice
1 bag Frozen Pineapple Chunks
Freezer Pop Sleeves (I use these:   http://www.icecandybags.com/ )

Instructions:
Mix coconut milk and pineapple juice in a large container.  In blender, add half of the yogurt, two bananas, half the juice mixture, and half the bag of pineapple chunks.  Blend until smooth. Pour into freezer pop sleeves using a funnel and a steady hand.  Tie off ends.  Repeat with the remainder of the ingredients.  Makes about 20.

As I fill sleeves, sometimes I add to the mix for different flavors.  Orange juice, frozen berries, frozen mango are all tasty. We stick with the plain or vanilla Greek yogurt, but you could also add fruity flavors to mix things up.  They make great after school snacks and we even eat them for dessert - that's how yummy they are!

The cost of each stick works out to about 60 cents and each sleeve holds about one cup of wholesome smoothie goodness. For smaller children, using re-useable popsicle molds will make for better portion sizes and bring the cost-per-pop down considerably, although this recipe makes quite a lot so you'll need to adjust. 

Enjoy!  Of course, you may be compelled to explain to the other mothers why you allow your child to have popsicles for breakfast.

My Dirty Little Secret

I have a dirty little secret that is eating me alive.  I know the internet is not the place to keep secrets, but the imagined anonymity makes me feel safe enough to confess.  Here, I won't have to see the disdain in your eyes when I tell you what I've been doing behind closed doors.

I've been baking bread.  From scratch.  (EEEP!)

Please, please, please don't tell my friends!  It's not my fault!  I wanted to buy the stuff on the shelf, but I can't do that anymore now that I have a newly discovered corn allergy.  (Yes, it has corn - even the white stuff.)

Here's another little secret:  It's SO stinkin' easy to bake bread!  And since I can buy all the ingredients at once and keep them in the pantry until I get good-and-darned ready, it works for me.  (I REALLY hate grocery shopping.)  But the other moms just wouldn't understand.  This whole baking from scratch thing (especially when it comes to bread), well, it's just not, um...acceptable among the busy mom crowd.  ("Who does she think she is?!  Martha-friggin-Stewart?!) 

My daughter digs baking so it's been good for some time together, but I cautioned her to keep "our little secret".  No one has to know.  "It's not that it's wrong, honey, it's just that, well...it's no one's business what we do in the privacy of our own kitchen."


Just in case you'd like to live a double life, too, I recommend this recipe for Gold Medal Classic White Bread.  You didn't hear it from me.

Oh, and make sure you save a couple of Mrs. Baird's bread bags before you come to the dark side.  I only wish I had thought of that sooner!

UPDATE:  New favorite sandwich bread recipe:   http://deliacreates.blogspot.com/2010/10/best-bread-ever.html#

Teacher's Gifts: More 3, 2, 1...Cake!

 

Here's another version of the "Emergency 3,2,1...Cake!" we gave to our beloved school teachers.  At around $3.50 each, we were able to give one to every teacher, including the gym, art, and music teachers.  The version pictured earlier on this blog were made for our church youth group's teachers.   

I added a tablespoon I picked up in a set at Dollar Tree which added, well, an extra dollar, but I felt it was important to make it easy for the teachers to get their chocolate fix.  I left the rest of the set on the ring it came with and decided it would be fun to donate the (incomplete) sets to the church daycare for use in their sand boxes & colored rice bins.

The cake mix* is simple:  

• 1 Box Angel Food Cake Mix
• 1 Box Triple Chocolate Fudge Cake Mix
• 1 Box (large) Chocolate Pudding Mix

This is enough mix to fill about 3 1/2 pint-size mason jars.  You can add a cup of crushed Oreo's for fun, but I wanted to keep this version on the healthy side.  I took the time to figure out the nutritional info and was amazed at what a guilt-free treat this was!

 

After discovering it was fat-free, with just 108 calories and 2.5g total carbohydrates per serving, I decided it would be a great Christmas gift.  It will make the transition from holiday gluttony to healthy New Year's resolutions a little less painful!

*Recipe adapted from The Hidden Pantry's 1-2-3 Cake.

Make Sour Cream Last Longer

  

I love, love, love having sour cream on hand.  It's so versatile!  I like buying the larger tubs, but hated having to throw out half of it when it went bad before it's expiration date.  Once I opened it, it seemed like it started growing black spots immediately. Turns out, there's a trick to keeping it fresh longer.  Only use a clean spoon dedicated to scooping and then smooth out the surface with the back of the spoon before putting it back into the fridge.  The dips and divots in the surface collect moisture in the fridge and that's what causes it to start growing mold.   Try it!

Teacher's Gifts: 3,2,1 Cake Jars

I'm not a teacher, but I can imagine they may have days when a little cake break would help soothe the frazzled edges.  And since I doubt they have an Easy Bake Oven handy, I thought a jar full of 3,2,1...Cake! mix might be just what the therapist ordered.  It bakes up all fluffy in a single minute in the microwave with just a couple of tablespoons of water.  Perfect for those cake emergency days!

Here's the recipe for the cake mix:  3,2,1...Cake!

I can think of a dozen fun ways to package this, but I just used pint-sized Mason jars.  I painted the rims pink, and used some printed jar lid flats that I grabbed on clearance for just twenty-five cents for a 12-pack.  I added a little tulle left over from the candy party, some pretty scrapbook paper I had on-hand, and slapped on a label I printed on clear Avery label stock.

Note:  When painting the lid rims, I found it easiest to set them on top of a can so I could pick them up and turn them around.  Makes it easy to get good coverage on the first try.  I also found some pre-painted rims (white) coupled with the cutesy gingham print flats at my local Walmart.  They were only $1.50 for 6. 

The cost of each of these cuties was only about $1.50 each!

Ombre by Default

As a kid, I was naturally blonde and spent a lot of time outside.  I had gorgeous highlights that didn't cost one red cent.  As I got older, the bright blonde dulled and I had to hit the salon just to maintain my "natural" color.

That was back in the day.  Back when salon visits were considered a very necessary expense. Gone are the days when I would plunk down $150 on a great cut and color.  I now buy hair color on sale (with a coupon if I have it) and do it myself.  Not my favorite activity so, of course, I procrastinate.  I've procrastinated SO long this time, I've got about four inches of dirty blonde (mixed with silvery gray threads) creeping from the roots to the left-over blonde from the last color.

Imagine my delight when I discovered the ombre fashion craze has made it to hair!  I have the hottest hair color for free!  Score!

Easter Egg Luminaries

 
These ostrich-sized Easter egg luminaries were lots of fun to make!  I had most of the materials already on-hand so they were also budget friendly.  (We love budget friendly projects!)

I hope you'll try them, too!

Materials:

Battery Operated Tea Lights
Water Balloons
Fabric Starch
Paint Brushes
Tissue Paper
Long Handled Tea Spoon
Clear Spray Paint

How to:
~Blow up a water balloon until it looks like a good egg shape. (That's 'inflate', not 'explode'.)

~Find the bottom center and trace a circle with a marker.  This is where your tea light will sit, so you'll want to leave it open.  We used a toilet paper core since it was a little larger than our tea lights.

~Use your paint brush to spread some fabric starch onto your balloon and then add a layer of tissue.  We just tore random pieces of various colors and stuck them on as we saw fit.  The fabric starch is very thin, so plan for a little dripping.  We also found it helpful to use a wide mouth drinking glass as a stand for our balloon egg, keeping our hands free.  Brush over each piece of tissue to make sure it's fully saturated.  Continue until balloon is covered with one to two layers of tissue.  Leave a little room around the tied end of balloon.  Don't forget, the bottom circle should be free of tissue, too.

~Let dry completely.  We clipped ours to a wire shelf with binder clips.  It was a warm, sunshiny day with a bit of a breeze, so they dried quickly.  (Note:  The temperature will affect the air in the balloons.  Keep them in the shade if it's really warm since it will cause the balloon to expand.)

~Once they're dry, pop the balloon and pull it out.  You're egg will completely collapse and crumple.  Try not to cry.  It'll be okay.  Use a long handled tea spoon to gently reshape the egg from the inside.  I wish I had a photo for you, but this is our first time to make such a thin-walled paper mache object and when our eggs completely imploded, it was, um...surprising.  Not in a good way.  :)  I was too busy reassuring the kiddo (and myself) to snap a photo.

~Patch over top hole (where the balloon knot was) and let dry.  Leave the large hole at the bottom open.

~Seal the egg with clear spray paint.  This will make the paper more translucent and help it hold it's shape.  I inserted the spoon to help me hold and turn the egg for this.  Let dry completely.

~Turn on and set out tea lights, then place eggs over each one.  Done!

The tea lights I have are not very bright and have a yellow tint to them, so I might go on a hunt for a brighter, white light version or I may dig for a string of Christmas lights to brighten them up, but for now the tea lights work just fine.