Kids in The Kitchen- Muffins

I've never attempted to make "home made" muffins before, always just from a bag or box, however on my new cooking "ventures" and my wanting to do Muffin Tin Mondays with Lu I thought it was only right that I tried to make them the tried and ture way! And holy mess was I missing out! First of all, Lu did most of the work, but secondly they were so delish, better than any muffins I've had, and thats saying something since the BASE of them were Banana and if you read my blog you know I am not fond of bananas *really I think it's the texture, but I am not sure, I could handle them in this maybe because the flavor wasn't as STRONG! In any event we made them Monday and its been GREAT for breakfast this week, something new and different

instead of the same ole' cereal. For weeks I have been on a "snack kick" for after school and now I may move on from that *since I've found some great snack recipes through Kids in The Kitchen as well as magazines and blogs. Now I think I am gonna move to breakfast ideas in my house. I think Lu was excited for a "change" and now that the muffins are gone I have to find something to replace them :) so onto my new adventure I will go!! Got any ideas? *I would really rather make something that will last all week like muffins or homemade waffles frozen so that I dont have to cook so early every single morning*

We made Simple Banana Muffins and at the end we changed it up a bit for some variety, so heres the how to:

Lightly beat 1 egg, then pour in 1 cup of sugar and stir, then 1/3 cup of melted butter, and stir again!
In another bowl mash up 4 bananas *we used a potato masher* and doesn't this picture say it all! "Mom I've gotta use ALL my strength here, quick putting the pressure on me by snapping so many pictures"
Add the bananas to the first bowl *w/ sugar and egg* then add to the bowl 1 and 1/2 cups all purpose flour, 1 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp baking soda, 1/2 tsp salt. STIR WELL!
We divided the mixture into 3 ways.
Added nothing else to the first mixture, to the second mixture we added 2 handfuls of choc chips, and to the third mixture added finely chopped walnuts. All 3 were really tasty. My choice was the banana/walnut. Of course Lu's choice was banana/choc. And Joshy liked them all :)

heres the end product yummy huh?

Please grab my button and join right in. Share your favorite snack ideas, kid friendly cook books or recipes, ways to get your kids to eat their veggies, or pictures of kids in the kitchen. I get so many great ideas from the particpants and the more ideas the better!

Wordless Wednesday - Dixie

This is our new dog Dixie she is so sweet! Lu loves her dearly and they play so nicely together! I like her too she lays at my feet while I'm on the computer, follows me around the house when I am walking, and shes so loveable, at 50 lbs she thinks shes a lap dog LOL. She is 1 yr old and we took her from a loving family that could no longer take care of her due to family illness. I never knew I could like an animal this much! She's a great addition to our family!

To see more great photos click here, here, and here

Muffin Tin Monday- No Themer

Todays Muffin Tin Monday was a No Themer! And so we did something so CRAZY AND OBSURD .... we actually made muffins with our muffin tins CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?? Who woulda thunk it? And they were SO DELISH! We had enough batter to make 6 big ones....

and 12 small ones....

And heres my little pumkin enjoying her after dinner muffin, and it will make for a good breakfast tomorrow!

I had to go to Walmart after I picked her up from school to grab some milk, and Lu yelled real loud "MOM MOM ITS MUFFIN TIN MONDAY, WHATCHA MAKING ME HUH HUH HUH?" LOL its not excapable anymore :)

**Stay tuned and I will give you the recipe for our yum delishous banana/nut/chocolate muffins on Thursday for my kids in the Kitchen post**

For more great tins click here

Simply Made Sunday- Kool-aid Playdough

I've been dying to make Kool-aid playdough with Lu. Either we don't have time or we find a "different" project to do! But today I had an excuse, I needed to make something for Simply Made Sunday and this was it!! :) Lu has been playing with it for an hour now, without a sound just diligently playing! YAY! Now I know what grabs her attention, I guess I will have to make a new batch weekly HAHA!
Heres the how to: Mix together 1 cup and 2 tbsp of flour

1/2 cup of salt

1 pkg any flavor klool-aid ... then stir in 2 tbsp of vegetable oil, and 1/2 cup of water.

Lu tried to stir with a spoon but that was too hard for her, so she mixed with her hands, which was just as good! It starts to form shape after a couple minutes, then we just kneaded it on a flour surface.

My little Lu is in all her playdough glory. She really enjoyed making it and playing with it for that matter! It was fun!


For more great recipes and food ideas click here

Yarn Apples

Last night a group of us girls went to a local resturant to celebrate a friend of our's passing her state teaching board YAY! I am so glad its autumn, since the teaching "symbol" is apples, I had many "apple crafts" to choose from. They are just everywhere, blogs, magazines, but when I saw these over at make and takes I knew what we were gonna make for her! She will be teaching elementary so I thought what better way to "prepare" her for what she has in store as far as Christmas gifts and end of the year gifts. I know I have Lu MAKE things for her teacher. So we made something for my friend, they turned out so cute I am gonna make apples for my house, and pumkins for halloween using the same concept different yarn.
Heres a few pictures of Lu making them: I absolutley love this picture, we had fun with this project!
Don't they look so good you can eat them?
Why yes they do!
TOO CUTE ... they are adorable. And you can get the full tutorial here.

For more craft fun and kid friendly ideas click here and here

Kids in The Kitchen Fillo Cups

Welcome to Kids in The Kitchen Thursday! Go get your kids, run in the kitchen and starting making some good food! If you've been reading my Kids in The Kitchen Post since school started about 4 weeks ago, then you know 2 things, number 1 being that We've been EXTREMELY busy, and number 2 that I am trying to find GREAT snack ideas that are quick and easy, yet fun, and different! Yesterday I totally HIT THE JACKPOT! Every time I go to the store I stand in the frozen food section for 20 mins looking at Fillo Shells, wandering if they are worth the $1.75 and what would I ever do with them, but last shopping trip I bit the bullet and bought them! This week they become our kids in the kitchen project, so simple, yet so fun, and so many things you can do with them! And their website gives great ideas too! We made 3 choices for snack....

P-nut Butter Banana

Slicing up the bananas...

1 scoop of p-nut butter (Her smile is so sweet today!)

a pinch or two of brown sugar!

A squeeze of honey ... and mix lightly. Put into the Fillo shell.

Our second version, all Lu did was mix some yoplait yogurt (strawberry banana flavor) she sliced up one strawberry and mixed it in with the yogurt and plopped it into the fillo cup!

Delish right? Mouth waterin good! And I love the way they look!

And for my snack ... this shrimp salad delight! I was peeling shrimp for last nights dinner, and had to sneak a couple in, so Lu mixed some shrimp, chives, mayo, and lemon juice for me (oh and salt and pepper)

She enjoyed them, and I enjoyed knowing there is yet another snack I can make YAY!

Grab my button and join right in! Let us know your secrets to getting your kids to eat veggies, your favorite kids cookbook, your favorite kid friendly recipe, or your kids helping you cook! Its so nice to know this is "my time" with Lu cooking, and sharing laughter in the kitchen! So join in and show us your family's fun!

Muffin Tin Monday-Children's Literature

Todays Muffin Tin Theme is Children's Literature. I was almost going to skip today because I had already planned dinner and it didn't contain MTM childrens literature "stuff" However I JUST KNEW if I didn't do something my little Lu would be greatly disappointed. Then I found myself skimming through her books this afternoon and came across this.... IF YOU GIVE A MOUSE A COOKIE *Ding Ding Ding* she loves this book, and I was sure enough that I I could EASILY make a NICE afternoon snack from this book.

And thats exactly what I did ... If you give a MOUSE a COOKIE, he's going to ask for a glass of MILK!

Muffin cups contain: A Strawberry Mouse, a Cookie, and Milk

She most certainly enjoyed this nice little muffin tin snack! So glad I didn't skip this week!

For more GREAT Tins head over to Her Cup Overfloweth!

Kids in the Kitchen- Baked Apples

Seriously I am so glad my child is old enough to hold me accountable! It doesn't matter how busy I am, Wednesday nights I better had something planned for her to cook, I love that about her, but I love it so much more when I am actually in the kitchen with her, seeing the joy she gets out of it! As you can kinda tell my Kids in The Kitchen post have been thrown together lately, last minute recipes from the good ole' internet that find what I already have in the pantry. Last night though I got really excited about the recipe I found on my fave magazine, Family Fun. (I did bake the apples in the oven rather than over a campfire though) It was so autumnish and made my house smell delish! When we ate them, it felt like autmn. Let me make one thing clear Florida has three seasons not four and they are HOT, HOTTER, HOTTEST. So when it comes to autmn I have to "create" that "autmn sense" for us! This is also a REALLY easy, REALLY good recipe and it isn't hard at ALL!

Baked Apple: First thing have the *parent* core out the middle, leaving the bottom in tact. The original recipe tells you to mix dried fruits and nuts, so we threw in a bowl cranberries, raisins, and p-nuts. And Lu sloshed them around a bit!

Then she stuffed the center of the apple with the fruit mixture.

After Lu stuffed down the fruit real good, she put a little cinnamon/sugar mixture on top, then a little dollop of butter.

place into preheated 350 degree oven for 30 minutes or until apple is soft.

This is what it looks like cut open, it looks so GOOD! And it was pretty tasty. I'd have to say it was pretty healthy too. I know that little bit of sugar mixture wasn't too healthy but minus that and you got yourself an all fruit snack.

Here J and Lu are tearin it up ... it was good! Lu request that I make these for an afternoon snack. When she asks that I know they were tasty.

Thanks for participating in Kids in the Kitchen. Please grab my button and link your post to Mr. Linky. Anything goes, any kid friendly cookbooks/recipes, tips on how to get your children to eat period, or eat veggies, kids cooking, anything that comes from your pantry weather its edible or not (such as playdough/sidewalk chalk), snack tips/ideas, or maybe you just saw a kid friendly recipe on the web you wanted us all to know about, whatever gets those kids in the kitchen!
See ya'll next week!

*Fairy Dust Necklace*

Lu and I did a craft today that I just felt compelled to share with you all! I believe I saw something like this a while ago *I don't remember where* but I put my own spin on it! If you notice in the picture above she is wearing a *stylish* necklace!

First I rounded up some supplies ... I had those cheapy beads lying around, some sequins, fake flowers, ribbon, glitter, and the key ingredient a water tube (the water tubes can be found at florist, they are what goes at the end of roses) The florist down the street gave it to me for free, I went in and just asked her for one and she said take it! Can't beat that!

First things first have your child string beads on the ribbon, I had Lu count 30 beads out and string them. Then you'll want to take the lid off the water tube, there is already a hole in it (that is where the rose is suppose to fit in) take your already beaded ribbon and push it through the hole, then tie in a knot, I put a bead there and then tied for extra security so it would not slip back through the hole, and I also hot glued it in place.

Next fill the tube with glitter ... then place the lid back on the tube, and glue in place, again I used a hot glue gun! Lu then picked out some cute butterfly sequins and I hot glued them to the sides, I also wrote *fairy dust* on a small piece of paper and glued to the tube, here is a close up picture! Isn't it adorable?? It was virtually free too .. I had EVERYTHING on hand except the water tube but the florist gave it to me, so we paid nothing for this project. It turned out real cute and Lu wants to wear it everyday to school she said! Hope you all enjoy making this for your little princesses too!!!

For more Kid Friendly Stuff jump on over to Kid Friendly Friday and We Made It Friday Showcase

Muffin Tin Monday- Applewiches

Today for Muffin Tin Monday the theme was Apples, and I was thinking to myself "there isn't a chance I could fill a entire muffin tin apple themed" then It came to me ... The Paula Deen Childrens cookbook, if you read my blog, or if you know me then you know I LOVE CHILDRENS COOK BOOKS. And further more I love UNIQUE ideas. I remeber reading this recipe a while back for Applwiches and thought it would be a perfect after school snack ... and it was!!! I took a picture of the book so you know I was for "real" this recipe actually fell under the "sandwhich" category. And I let Lu make it by herself, she loves to do that kind of stuff!

Top row: 2 apples slices, 2 more apple slices, apple juice

Bottom row: Cheese, cheese, and p-nut butter

HERES HOW YOU MAKE IT:
Spread the Pnut butter on 2 apple slices
Top with cheese and then sandwhich them together!

ENJOY! *at first my little Lu was like eww that is gross cheese and pnut butter, I told her she won't know till she tries it, and she ate 2 WHOLE applewiches, infact after she took the first bit and knew she liked it, she made a "double decker applewich.

I also thought it was REAL YUMMY .. I would eat this any day of the week and I think it falls under the healthy lunch/snack category.

Even though I didn't fill each muffin cup with apples, it turned out wonderfully! Ya'll should try it one day!

To see more great apple themed muffin tins head over to Her Cup Overfloweth