Homemade.

Food Joke of the moment:

Jane had a system for labeling homemade freezer meals. She would carefully note in large clear letters, "Meatloaf" or "Pot Roast" or "Steak and Vegetables" or "Chicken and Dumplings" or "Beef Pot Pie."

Everyday when she asked her husband what he wanted for dinner, he never asked for any of those meals. She decided to stock the freezer with his various requests. What he really likes.

In Jane's freezer you'll see a whole new set of labels. You'll find dinners with neat little tags that say: "Whatever," "Anything," "I Don't Know," "I Don't Care," "Something Good," or "Food."

No more frustration for Jane because no matter what her husband replies when she asks him what he wants for dinner, it's there waiting.

(found at :  http://www.food-jokes.co.uk/misc-food-2.html)

Star-filled Egg in a Basket lunch

My little dude loves stars.  So one lunch I raced over and made him this lunch, and it didn't even take that long.  I took my star cookie cutters out, then took the larger one and cut a hole in the bread.

 The little guy ate the bread star while I cooked.  Then I sprayed the pan with some cooking spray, preheated it, placed the bread on the pan, and cracked an egg in the middle.  I sprinkled some roasted red pepper spice on it because my guy likes spiced up food, but it would look better plain.

Cook until star looks opaque and flip if desired (I did to make sure the egg was cooked through, no runny egg stains in my kid's clothes) or cook sunny side up, but keep an eye on the bread if you do so it doesn't burn.  

Et voila! I cut another bread star for the plate, along with some small stars out of cheese slices, and placed the cheese on a dollop of marinara sauce I had left over from a pizza dipping sauce.

Spooky lunch... i.e what we ate for Halloween

Macaroni and Ghosts

I made some of that Amy's white cheddar and shells pasta, then took a hard boiled egg that had been peeled and nicked the bottom off with a knife.  Next I put the egg in the pasta cut side down, and used a toothpick to paint on a ghost face with some black food colouring gel (I used Wilton's)   I have seen various colouring on food with toothpicks in the past, and this seemed like a good way to add something special to Halloween lunch.  As a plus, the black gel started to leak a little green colour around the edges and looked extra cool.  

In case you are wondering, the black flecks are pepper... I got enthused and almost ate my portion of lunch before taking the picture.  As a side note, you may want to give the egg a minute to dry before handing it to a starving toddler who thinks it is also cute, as my son had 'eye' prints on his fingers, haha.

Kraft Dinner of the week: Mac and Cheese Pizza

Macaroni & Cheese Pizza

Yes, you did read that right, now take a deep breath and release, then look at the picture from 1 Fine Cookie showing her take on this odd combination food.

Tell me you do not want to eat that.  I feel my waist expand just looking at it.  It is almost at 'deep-fried mars bar' level... which means it is probably delicious too.  Obviously you should check out the link and see how she adds truffle oil to the pizza and is claiming to have one of the best pizza dough recipes. This pizza could be a creativity gold mine if you are willing to experiment with toppings.

Glow*in*the*dark Drinks

I couldn't resist the simplicity, yet over-all effect of this idea, so I hope you enjoy this too.  This may make our Halloween zombies even more awesome than before.  (Zombies the alcoholic drink, if you were wondering how drinking cups went with that...)  Also great for the kids, with non-alcoholic beverages... I wonder how many people will be clicking this just wondering how it could be tagged as both boozed up and kiddie stuff...

Gummie Bear Ghosts

Halloween is by far my favorite holiday of all, and that is why even though I have been too busy to update here as often as I would like to, I could not resist posting a link to this cute little recipe item for your enjoyment.

Not only are they chocolate covered gummie bears, but they can also be on a stick :) I love food on a stick.  I actually have the cookbook entitled 'on a stick', ... well enough about me, if I can not manage to post something before Monday then I wish you a happy Halloween.

Organizing Measuring Cups and Spoons

Organizing Measuring Cups and Spoons

I loved this idea over at  infarrantlycreative.com to organize all your baking measuring devices in a space saving (and time saving) way.  The better part of this project is that she does this with free paint sticks from Home Depot and cheap hardware, so it is very easy to accomplish with a bit of time and planning.  Now, if only I had time to spare...

IMMD : Sky Parfaits

Sky Parfaits

This completely made my day... I mean night.... I mean really early in the morning when it is still dark outside and I am still up for some reason on the computer... but you understand what I mean.  This recipe is really simple:  blue jello plus whipped cream.
Here is the original post:
http://pinterest.com/pin/128251097/
You will find that the post says pretty much the same thing, but with an awesome idea like this, words are really over-rated.  I can't wait to make this for my little man.

Halloween Ideas : Pumpkin Party Cooler

: Pumpkin Party Cooler :

Isn't that a great idea for storing your Halloween drinks?  I love Halloween.  It is my absolute favorite holiday.  I think this could also be awesome if you paint the pumpkin black or lightly carve the pumpkin (not all the way through)  Anyways, for the details of this project you will have to go here:

http://www.marthastewart.com/268772/pumpkin-party-cooler?backto=true&backtourl=/photogallery/pumpkins#slide_19

...yes... that does say Martha Stewart.  Problem?? You have to give her credit, she does seem to have an idea for everything.   Somewhere on that site I am sure I have seen something on making your own halloween labels for things like bottles that could go well here too... The sky is really the limit.  Oh, and there is a tutorial on making a pumpkin into the candy bowl too.

I know this is not a recipe, but hey, everyone can use a good idea to display the wonderful baked goods you bring into the world, so why not save money buying expensive cake and cupcake stands when display ideas are all around you.  Here is a post at www.howdoesshe.com that gives great ideas on making your own easy to assemble and disassemble cupcake stand, which also looks impressive.  Once you get the idea, you will see displays all around you, I know I did...

Tiered Cupcake Platter

Spice age chart

I believe this image came from the McCormick website, it has been a while, but it seems like a good thing to remember. There are tips on using spices at the website too.  

http://www.mccormick.com/

vodka-soaked gummie candies

I think I just fell in love.  I just found a website that has an article on making vodka-soaked gummie candies.  I think this may be my next move to try instead of an other batch of jello shooters, although they will always have a place in my heart.  Find out how to do this for yourself right here :

Vodka-Soaked Gummie Candies

 

The website is That's so Michelle so that you can check out all her other great stuff... including awesome jello shot recipes too!

Amazing jello shot tips

I found the most amazing website ever for helping create amazing jello shots! 

They have sections on everything from recipes to presentation, and even floating things like gummie bears in them... although that may be a choke hazard for already inebriated people... but it looks neat.  If you have party plans in your future this seems like a good place to start.

Coca Cola Cupcakes

I found this little gem of a recipe quite a while ago, but thought it seemed like a good time to post a link to it. 

Coca-Cola Cupcakes.  Yeah, I may not drink that much pop anymore, but my loyalty has always remained with coke.  The recipe for these cupcakes is found here at 52 Cupcakes and Layla

Be sure to check out the rest of the site as well, there is nothing like a good cupcake after all. 

Blueberry Syrup

One of my first ever posts here was about my favorite homemade pancakes, and the theme of pancakes and waffles comes up occasionally in this blog... which made the fact that I ran out of maple syrup (practically a Canadian standard) even more sad. 

The budget is tight lately and I have been heavily using web couponing, half-priced and reduced price items to fill the gap, and needless to say, with money low, maple syrup is one of the luxuries that went first. 

However, all is not lost.  I have a bounty of on sale frozen blueberries in my freezer, and since I don't want to give up my pancakes any time soon... I have patched a good blueberry syrup recipe out of two different ones I found in web searches.  It's probably healthier for me and the little guy anyways...

Blueberry Syrup

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups of frozen blueberries

3 tablespoons of organic cane sugar (or honey, maple syrup, xylitol or reg. sugar)

1/2 cup of orange juice

1 tablespoon of cornstarch (can be omitted if you prefer)

 Directions:

In a medium saucepan over medium heat, mix 1 1/2 cups blueberries, sugar and 1/4 cup orange juice. Bring to a boil while stirring and mashing in the blueberries.   
in a small bowl, mix the remaining orange juice and cornstarch, and stir that into the blueberry mixture. 
Keep stirring until thickened, and serve warm.  Store unused tightly wrapped in the fridge.  Use your own judgement, but I wouldn't keep it more than a week just to be safe.  This recipe could probably be canned to keep it longer or give as a gift to friends and family with some homemade pancake mix.


Original recipes:


Blueberry Syrup - Food Network 
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/blueberry-syrup-recipe/index.html

Blueberry Waffles with Fast Blueberry Sauce - Allrecipes
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/blueberry-waffles-with-fast-blueberry-sauce/Detail.aspx

DIY Homemade Pedialyte Recipe

With the summer heat approaching for many of us, and illness a constant possibility for us people with children, I thought it was a great idea to re post this information from the website CraftGossip :) Here you will find a recipe to Homemade pedialyte with simple ingredients you may have lying around the house.

Pineapple Sorbet

Pineapple Sorbet

Ingredients:

1 can of pineapple chunks


Directions: Pour the can of pineapple chunks, juice and all, into a shallow freezer safe container and freeze for a day or two. Alternatively, you could freeze it in ice cube trays, which would also make it easier to make small batches if you wished to.  Let the frozen pineapple sit out for about 10 minutes.  If you used a large shallow container to freeze it in, break the pineapple apart into chunks.  Use a food processor, blender, or in my case a magic bullet to process the pineapple into a smooth  consistency.  This might take a bit of work and a few minutes, you will probably need to shake a magic bullet a few times to make sure you get it all, and in a blender or processor it may take a spoon and shorter bursts to finish it off, but the outcome is still a surprisingly easy dessert.  You can try adding a splash of coconut milk for flavour, or use different fruits and experiment. 

It's been a while...

Well, let us not dwell on the fact I haven't had any time to post here in quite a while, and move right on to the food related stuffs... okay?  Lately I have been hearing a lot of bad things about food colouring.  I hear that red and yellow have toxins in them, that they are all chemicals that have health effects, and even of a study showing a link between ADHD (which I have by the way) and artificial food colourings... it leaves a person wanting to find an alternative. 

I already know the basics of some of the natural food colourings, like spinach for green, beets for purple, turmeric for yellow... but the one that I knew I can't live without is the one that was harder to find.  Blue.  Fear not, because I found a link to a recipe for natural blue food colouring, and it turns out I had an idea what it was too.  I once heard of dying yarns with red cabbage to get a beautiful shade of blue, but I thought it was only achieved by adding alum powder, which didn't sound tasty at all.  This recipe doesn't contain anything nasty, so I hope to give it a try and maybe save my child from food colouring related illness... at least at home.

How to Make Blue Food Coloring

 

 here is also a link to wikipedia on the subject of natural dyes that may be helpful / interesting
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_coloring#Natural_food_dyes

Microwave Chocolate Cake In a Mug

I know, there are a million of these recipes floating around the internet at this very moment... but this is the one I actually use and find works for me.  It has been tweaked so much, and is a jumble of so many posts I have seen I can not give credit to any one individual.  I am sure someone out there has came to the same or similar conclusions for their recipe... but this is where I will present my 'findings'  and I apologize if it is the same as anyone else's out there. 

Chocolate Cake in a Mug

Ingredients:  

3 tablespoons of cocoa powder.  "camino" is my favorite, but any kind will do.

2-3 tablespoons of sugar.  *( I like to put in 2, then make the '3rd' tablespoon xylitol to lessen the sugar content just a little)

1 tablespoon of flour

3 tablespoons of milk

The white of one large egg (you could put the yolk in the fridge for french toast later, or freeze it for yolk including recipes in future use if you don't want to waste it... cats like 'em too)

1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla or almond extract... or any extract you like really, you could have a chocolate mint cake, but from my experience, alcohol does not substitute for extract in this recipe... just a warning.

3 tablespoons chocolate chips.

Directions:

Blend the dry stuff together with a spoon.  Add the wet stuff.  Stir for 2 minutes quite vigorously.  Mix in half the chocolate chips, then sprinkle the rest on top.  You could just garnish with chips and ommit the ones mixed in, but I think they are like little melted gems of chocolate, why leave them out?  Microwave for 1 1/2 to 2 minutes depending on your microwave.  It should be a little lava cake like, but not liquid-y.  Enjoy while it is still hot.  Goes really nicely with whipped cream or cool whip.  Obviously serves 1

Coffee*Love : Playtime coffee for tots

I found this amazingly cute post from Sew Homegrown for how to make a felt Starbucks play-set for your child's play kitchen!  You could have your children play-barista-ing away in a nice corner of your house while you enjoy the real thing!  However, I still think my son will continue to try and steal the real stuff... but this is still cute.

Convienence food is always a good thing to have around.  Having made it yourself is always better too, because then you know what is in the food you eat, and you can usually save a lot of money doing it yourself.  Remember that you are paying for someone else to prepare and package your food when you buy something that is ready to go.  Eliminating steps can eliminate dollar signs.  Here are a few freezer articles I found when I was searching 'freeze ahead biscuits'

Basic Buttery Biscuits

http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=10000001023773

*uses baking mix, like Bisquick or the likes, but sounds convenient... think I will add cheese though.

Make Ahead Cooking and Freezer Recipes

http://www.kitchenlink.com/rcpmenus.html
This is a site of numerous freezer recipes, the idea of 'spinach balls' intrigues me.  There are recipes for all sorts of different foods, and tips on freezing and thawing foods, like food safety, preventing freezer burn and even thawing a beloved cheesecake that has been made ahead

Couponing thoughts

Have you ever seen that show, Extreme Couponing?  I have... and knowing I am here in Canada saddened me a little.  I love Canada, but the thing is, we have limits to our coupons now that make it so you can't do the same things those people did, like get food for free or even get some money back.  I can remember things like that happening when I was a child, but now every coupon is a 'one per use, can not be doubled, do not use with other offers' kind of coupon... making it hard to get the same kind of deals.

Sure, coupons are still worth it if you find ones for stuff you need already, so with that, I will post a link to an article telling how to best make use of Canadian coupons.  There are plenty of great tips, and the whole site is great for finding freebies, great coupons and deals.  Great food doesn't have to mean that you have to spend a mint to get it.  Sometimes being frugal and ingenuous can get you just as much for less.

Extreme Canadian Couponing

IMMD * Cosmo Cupcakes

This little 'apres new years' find was an 'it made my day' moment.

Check them out here at Bakingdom