Bird Nest Treats

We love these simple bird nest treats! You can make them with different kids of chocolate chips for different flavors.

Ingredients:

1 C butterscotch chips (or chocolate chips)

3/4 C peanut butter

1 C chow mein noodles

1 bag  mini Cadbury eggs

Directions: 

1-In a medium bowl, melt chips and and peanut butter in microwave for 30 seconds at a time until melted.  

2- Add chew mein noodles to mixture, mix well. 

3- Form nests in muffin tin, let cool.

4- Add Cadbury eggs to nest, Enjoy!

  

Hamburger and Hotdog Treats

We used to make these cute little treats with the neighbor kids when we would babysit and decided it was time to make them with our own kids. Aren't they cute?

Are boys loved them!

The hamburger is really simple!

You will need: 2 vanilla wafers, 1 grasshopper cookie, some coconut colored green, some vanilla frosting colored red and yellow and some sesame seeds and a little water.

1- To get the sesame seeds to stick to the wafer simply get your finger wet and run it over the top of one cookie, sprinkle a couple sesame seeds over the cookie and let dry.

2- Now sandwich the grasshopper cookie and coconut between the two vanilla wafers using the frosting to hold it all together!

These hot dogs are simple too! You will need: 1 circus peanut, 1 caramel and some vanilla frosting colored red and yellow.

1- Shape the caramel to look like a hot dog and cut the circus peanut in half.

2-Put the caramel in between the circus peanut pieces and top with red and yellow frosting!

Homemade Fruit Roll Ups from Applesauce

I find myself checking and double checking expiration dates on our food this time of the year. Rotating our food storage has always been a BIG job for me...one that I don't enjoy but seems to constantly be on my mind. We did pretty well this year except with one thing...applesauce. I had cans and cans of applesauce that needed to be used and so we had it with our meals as a side for about a week but quickly got sick of it...I decided i needed to get creative. My friend suggested I make fruit leather/fruit roll ups. I am so glad I did!

She introduced me to Parchment paper. Yeah, I had no clue what it was. It's found by the foil, saran wrap and paper products in the grocery store and can be purchased for about $3 a box.

These fruit roll ups are straight applesauce...nothing added and they are yummy! I tried making them 2 different ways: with a food dehydrator and in the oven.

Food Dehydrator: I cut parchment paper to fit my dehydrator trays and then put applesauce (Nothing added) on the paper, stacked trays and let dehydrate for a day and a half. (This made yummy fruit leather but it was tougher then when I made it in the oven)

Oven: Heat oven to 170 degrees (This should be your ovens lowest temp), Line cookie sheet with parchment paper and pour applesauce on paper, let cook for 8 hours. (Be sure to use lowest temp to avoid cooking the applesauce...the goal is to dehydrate it)

We ended up eating most of the fruit roll up before we needed to store it but did store a few by cutting strips, rolling it up and storing it in a plastic bag. I am told you can do the same type of thing with any type of pureed food. I plan to try more flavors in the future!

Farm Fun in the Kitchen!

This little guy LOVES to help out in the kitchen so we made some sugar cookies together.  He actually did a lot of the work.  We just used a few cookie cutters we had on hand…a duck, a bunny, and a farm hat.  Boy, was dad happy to eat the cookies with us when he got home! ; )


The only color frosting that I had on hand was from Halloween markdowns, not so pretty but still delicious!

We used the same cookie cutters the next morning to make farm shaped pancakes.

Delicious & Colorful Cereal Bars!

To bad these are LONG gone…just looking at the picture makes me want one. These are super easy to make and SO yummy. They are made just like you would make rice crispy treats except instead of adding the rice crispy you add Trix, Dyno-bites or Fruity Pebbles.

Here is the recipe:

3 Tablespoons of Margarine or Butter

1 Package (10 oz) regular marshmallows or 4 cups of mini marshmallows

6 cups of cereal. (Trix or fruity pebbles)

Melt the mallows and butter in microwave or on stovetop. Once melted add cereal and stir well. Spray a cookie sheet with cooking spray and spread the mixture into pan to cool. Once cooled cut into square and enjoy!

Banana Bread/Muffins

This is a weekly favorite at our house! I have gotten into the habit of buying extra bananas just so I can make this yummy bread. It is simple and yummy, I can even make it a little healthier by adding 1 Cup wheat flour and 1 Cup white four and only 1/2 Cup sugar. Enjoy!

It makes a little more then a loaf, I usually do 1 loaf plus some muffins!

Ingredients:

2 Cups of all purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon of baking soda

1/4 teaspoon of ground cinnamon (We really like cinnamon...so i do 1/2 tsp)

2 beaten eggs

1 1/2 Cup mashed bannana (about 5 medium)

1 Cup sugar

1/2 Cup cooking oil or melted butter

We also like to add a 1/2 bag of chocolate chips, you could also add about 1/2 Cup nuts if you like them.

Instructions:

Add dry ingredients (first 4), then add wet ingredients (last 4), Mix well. Add chocolate chips and nuts last.

Pour unto greased bread/muffin tin

Bread: Bake at 350 degrees for 55 min

Muffins: Bake at 350 degrees for 15-25 min depending on muffin tin size

Enjoy!