Super Mario Birthday Party- Cloud Jello

For a quick treat for my niece's Mario birthday party we whipped up some cloud jello. It's a quick and simple treat that fits the theme of the party nicely. 

Homemade Fudgesicles

This is a guest post by my wonderful sister. She's been pestering me to let her post something so here is her post on some homemade fudgesicles that she made recently. Having been part of the unofficial taste testing panel I give these my stamp of approval. This the popsicle mold used to make these fudgesicles.

Hi There!!!I am guest posting today and I am very excited!! Woot Woot!! I have never blogged before in my life.  So growing up, these were one of my favorite ice cream pops to eat. I am a chocoholic and love anything flavored with chocolate.Any who, as a mom, I try to make anything and everything possible from scratch.  I have made chocolate and vanilla ice cream at home and the results exceed anything store bought.  It's a win win situation when I can make something homemade,  the quality of the flavor can't compare and you know what is going into what you are making.  I first saw these on Brown Eyed Baker, one of my favorite blogs, and I couldn't wait to try them.   I substituted a couple of things because I used what I had in the kitchen.  It was daughter and kid sister approved, it doesn't get any better than that :).

Cinnamon Roll Pancakes

Today is my niece's birthday and as you might be able to tell, she requested a Mario theme. You'll see a few Mario themed posts in the next couple of days, but this post focuses on the start of our birthday celebration: breakfast.

My sister and I wanted to make her a special treat for breakfast and we narrowed it down to either cake batter pancakes or cinnamon roll pancakes. The cinnamon roll pancakes won partly because we were having trouble finding cake batter pancakes appealing and partly because we didn't have the cake mix that we needed. It was a successful victory. Even grandma (my mother, a non-pancake eater) enjoyed these pancakes. And the birthday girl definitely approved of them ... particularly the icing. Overall, it was a great start to a great day.

Bread Machine Pizza Dough / Pizza Bites

When we purchased our bread machine I thought it was just going to be an easy way to have homemade bread. Instead, it has proven to be a way to quickly mix up a variety of things. I like to keep a supply of pizza dough in the fridge for when we need something that doesn't take too long to make for dinner, but making homemade pizza dough can be a fairly tedious process. You have to mix the ingredients, knead the dough, and wait for the dough to rise. Using the bread machine streamlines the process nicely. You just add the ingredients and enter the correct settings.

I love these pizza bites because they are quick and simple. My niece loves them, and if you can get her to eat something I think any picky eater will approve. I like to change up the filling in these. Sometimes I do pepperoni and cheese, sometimes just cheese, and sometimes I like to put some chourico and cheese.

Homemade Bomb Pops

I picked up these popsicle molds a few weeks ago because of their fun shape. I was planning on using them as molds for regular popsicles, but today being the 4th of July I decided to use them to make homemade Bomb Pops. Most of my memories with Bomb Pops come from the ice cream truck. I was more attached to the ice creams shaped like characters with the little gumballs for the eyes, but on hot summer days sometimes nothing would cool you down quite like a Bomb Pop.

These are a healthier version of Bomb Pops. Instead of food coloring and syrups these popsicles are made of fruit, yogurt, milk, and agave. I changed things up a bit and made the red layer strawberry rather than raspberry or cherry.

You can use fresh or frozen fruit to make these popsicles. The original recipe actually called for frozen fruit, but I when it came time to build the red layer the only red fruit I had on hand was fresh strawberries. I pureed those as the recipe instructed and the popsicles turned out well. You can see in the picture where some of the blueberry drizzled into the yogurt mixture. This is where I pulled the popsicles stick out to pour in the yogurt mixture. The blueberry puree wasn't as frozen as I had thought it was so to be sure that you don't get any runny colors make sure that the purees have frozen completely before you remove the sticks to add the next layer.

Waffles of Insane Greatness

With a recipe name like Waffles of Insane Greatness you can't go wrong. These waffles live up to their name. They are crispy on the outside, but light and fluffy on the inside.  I like to change up how I serve them. Sometimes I just use plain maple syrup, other times I will use blueberry syrup or spread cream cheese on the waffle. The original recipe says you should let the batter rest for 30 minutes before cooking the waffles, but I've never done this and the waffles have come out excellent every time. The only negative point about this recipe is that it makes a small amount of waffles (about five on my waffle iron), so you may want to double the recipe depending on how many people you are feeding.

This is my favorite waffle recipe and I think it is the best waffle recipe out there. Do you have a waffle recipe that you think can beat this one?

Waffles of Insane Greatness

Ingredients

¾ cup all-purpose flour

¼ cup cornstarch

½ tsp. baking powder

¼ tsp. baking soda

½ tsp. salt

1 ½ tsp. sugar

½ cup whole milk

½ cup buttermilk

1/3 cup canola oil

1 large egg

¾ tsp. vanilla extract

Directions

11.  Combine flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and sugar in a medium-sized bowl.

22. In another bowl, add the milk, buttermilk, canola oil, egg, and vanilla extract. Whisk until well combined.

33. Add the flour mixture to the milk mixture. Whisk until the ingredients have combined.

44. Heat your waffle iron. Once it has heated spray the waffle iron with cooking spray before filling the wells with the waffle batter. Cook until the waffles are a light golden brown in color.

Source: Adapted from Annie's Eats

Portuguese Chicken With Spaghetti / Espaguete Com Galinha

This is another dish that makes frequent appearances at the dinner table, particularly because it has been successful with the little picky eaters in the family.  This recipe is different from some of the other  Portuguese chicken with spaghetti recipes out there because it includes potatoes (we like our potatoes) and carrots. If you wanted to change this up you could add other vegetables or some sliced chourico. Of course, I would serve it with a roll for dunking.

Crispy Chicken Tenders

This recipe actually was inspired by my favorite fish and chip recipe (Found here). I noticed that the fish had a very crispy coating that reminded me of the chicken tenders that you can find at just about any restaurant (particularly on the kids menu). I've been looking for a good crispy chicken tender recipe for a while so I decided to try making some chicken using a similar technique. This is definitely a kid-friendly recipe.