Strawberry Chocolate Chunk Popsicles

Aw, summer, its just around the corner! I don't know about you but I'm counting down the day til summer vacation (only 21 more days!) I long for the days of relaxed mornings and summer adventures with the kids. We've been working on our summer bucket list and I can't wait to start crossing things off.

One of E's requests was to make homemade popsicles and since the hubby and kids spoiled me this year for Mothers Day with a brand new Vitamix I figured we could cross that off our list a little early. I LOVE my Vitamix, it has been one of the best kitchen purchases in a while. Our morning smoothies have been forever changed by this amazing machine. I won't bore you with how much I love it, but lets just say I love it almost as much as I love Costco.

You don't need a Vitamix to make these popsicles, any high powered blender would work. They are quick to whip up and you only need 3 ingredients. You can omit the chocolate chunks but I think the extra texture and sweetness is a nice touch. The kids really enjoyed them and I can't wait to see what other recipes we can put together over the summer. I hope you enjoy this delicious and healthy summer treat!

Ingredients:

4 Cups fresh sliced strawberries
1 Cup Honey Greek Yogurt (I used the Trader Joes brand)
1/4 Cup Water
1/2 chocolate bar chopped into chunks (I used Trader Joes semi sweet hazelnut chocolate bar)

Directions:

Chop up your fresh strawberries and place in a blender, add the yogurt, and water. Blend everything together til it is very smooth. Place a few chocolate chunks in the bottom of your popsicle mold then slowly pour in a small amount of the strawberry mixture. Keep layering the chocolate chunks and strawberry mixture til your popsicle mold is full. Place in the freeze, best to free over night.

Homemade Ice Chalk

Phew, it was a busy month for us. Now that we have both birthdays for the kids wrapped up hopefully I get some more blogging done. I hope to post about C's Peppa Pig birthday party soon! I ended up making her a Peppa Pig cake that I think deserves its very own post.

Since I'm short on time I wanted to get this recipe up for one of our favorite summer activities, Ice Chalk! I made this for E when he was little so I figured it was time for C to get in on the fun as well. I found this recipe on Growing a Jeweled Rose blog but over the years tweaked the recipe to my liking. It's a easy activity to whip up and it's perfect for those hot summer days. Liquid water colors work best but you can use food coloring if you don't have those on hand. I usually add baking soda to my mix then give the kids a small spray bottle of vinegar so they get the fizzy fun effect. They love to watch all the colors melt together and create a new color, then they spray the puddles with the vinegar and watch them fizz up, so much fun!

Items needed:

• Ice cube trays
• cornstarch 
• baking soda
• liquid water colors (or food coloring)

Directions:

1. Place 1/2 tablespoon of cornstarch into each slot of the ice cube tray
2. Add 1 tsp baking soda to the cornstarch and mix them together
3. Once mixed slowly add in the water, just until the tray is full then mix everything together
4. Add your liquid color to each cube slot and mix
5. place ice cube trays in the freezer and freeze for 12 hrs 

DIY TMNT Ooze

I'm excited to finally post about E's 7th birthday party! It's still hard to believe he turned 7 almost 2 weeks ago. His TMNT party was a big success and everyone had a great time.

When the boys arrived they were greeted with this sign. I was so happy with how the diy turtle masks turned out and to my surprise everyone wore them most of the party. Once everyone arrived we made homemade pizzas because as you know turtles love pizza! This was a hit, I let each kid roll our their own dough and add whatever pizza toppings they wanted. After pizza we let the boys run around the yard and witnessed some epic turtle battles. 

Then came the cake and presents. E loves ice cream cake, he has requested one for the past 3 years. This year I made him a Oreo Mint Ice Cream cake and it was so good! I'll have to post the recipe soon.  After cake and presents the boys were excited to set up all of E's new toys and play some games on the Kinect.

This was his first sleepover birthday party and I'm happy to say that there was no 3 am phone calls to anyone's mom and dad to come and pick them up. They were determined to pull an all nighter but made it til 2 am. It was so sweet to listen to them chat about 7 year old boy life and hear their giggles travel upstairs.

I had planned to make diy turtle ooze with them but they were all too busy having fun so I decided to save it as a solo project with E after his guests went home. This turtle ooze is so awesome and easy to make. I wrote the directions down for E and he was able to follow the steps and make it himself. He even told me this stuff is way better than the ooze you can buy in the store, mom win!

Just a warning, this stuff is made out of glue so be sure to clean up all the ooze when your little is done playing with it. If you don't you will have harden glue all over your table, I usually lay down a plastic table cloth to make clean up easy. E played with this for a while, he likes to cover all of his action figures in the ooze and watch is ooze all over the place. Also be sure to rinse off any action figures that get covered, it rinses of easily with warm water and soap.

Items needed:

• Borax (check your local laundry section)
• 5 oz clear school glue (we used Elmers)
• Green and Yellow food coloring
• water

Directions:

1. Make solution A by mixing 1 C. warm water with 1tsp. Borax in a small bowl, stir to dissolve the Borax. 
2. Make solution B by mixing 1/2 C. water and the entire 5 oz bottle of clear school glue in a large bowl. Then stir in 2 drops of Yellow food coloring and  drops of Green food coloring. Stir it all together til you have a slimy green consistency.
3. Then pour solution A into solution B and the ooze will appear right before your eyes. 

Store the ooze in a sealed jar.  Recipe for ooze found via Dr. Anne Helmenstein with About.com

DIY Ninja Turtles Masks

Go ninja, go ninja, go! Sorry, I couldn't help myself! I've had that song stuck in my head all afternoon and it certainly doesn't help that I've been in Ninja Turtle mode this week.

My not so little guy turns 7 this week, I cant believe it! His one request for his birthday...Ninja Turtles. So being the hip mom that I am I decided to throw together a small Turtles themed birthday party for him. Nothing fancy and over the top those just stress me out. I was once the mom that threw over the top parties and let me tell you while they were fantastic parties I have learned that simple is best. Especially since we have back to back kid birthdays in this house, and at the end of the day all they really care about is running around like crazy with their friends and how much sugar they can consume in one day.

Now if you grew up in the 90's you were probably just as much in love with the Ninja Turtles as my little guy is. It's so much fun watching him enjoy the same things I did during my childhood. If only my brother had kept all those Ninja Turtle figurines, he would be uncle of the year in E's book. Of course they brought back a new line of figurines and E is lucky enough to have most of them.

After a little bit of party planning I decided masks were a must have. I browsed around the party store and they did have some, but they just didn't fit what I was looking for. Then it hit me, I could make my own masks and they would be just as cheap as buying the party store masks. I used tshirts instead of buying fabric from the fabric store to keep costs down. Everything else I had on hand, so in total these masks ended up costing me a little over $4. They are super easy to make and if you are a beginner at sewing this project is perfect for your since it's nothing but sewing a straight line and trust me it doesn't have to be perfect.

 I can't wait to surprise E with these at his party, and to add a finished touch I ordered each party guest an awesome wearable turtle shell! I figured instead of hitting up the dollar section for favor bags I would splurge a little and have the mask and turtle shell be the party favors. I'm thinking it will be a hit!

Materials Needed:

• XL Tshirts in Ninja Turtle colors (Purple, orange, blue, red) I purchased mine at Michaels
• Sewing Machine 
• Iron and ironing board
• sewing guage
• sewing pins 

Directions:

 After you have washed the tshirts cut and measure your material. You want to measure 3 1/2 inches up from the bottom seam of the shirt. Do not cut below the shirts bottom seam, you want to use it since it will make for less sewing in the end.

 

  After you have have cut your pieces, cut where one of the folds meet (aka the side of the tshirt) to make it into one long strip of fabric.

Iron the strips of fabic, once they are all ironed take your sewing gauge and measure 1/2 in hem line. Fold over the hem line and pin. You will only need to do this to one side of the fabric length wise since we saved the original shirt seam.

Once your hem line is pinned sew it in place

Press your hem line for a crisp look and repeat the same steps on the ends of the masks and sew the ends as well. After you have finished sewing your hem lines, fold your mask in half to find the middle. Once you find the middle of the mask trace and cut out the eye holes.

I just used my thread spool cap since it was the perfect size. If you want to be extra fancy use a coordinating thread color but since I didn't have purple thread on hand and I was too lazy to switch out bobbins I used white thread for all of the masks.

                              Here's C modeling her new mask for me, she gives it a thumbs up.

Lemon Chicken

This recipe has recently become a family favorite. I made it a soon as I read the post about it on one of my favorite food blogs Shutterbean since then we have had it for dinner 4 times! My husband swears he would eat it weekly and I could say I would probably be on board with that.

I love this recipe because it's simple ingredients and easy enough for a week night family dinner. The lemon flavor is spot on and not over powering, the best part is the sauce, omg its so good. I didn't change a single thing about this recipe, it's perfect every time I make it. If you're not a dark meat fan I'm sure it would be fine to use chicken breasts but I encourage you to try it with the boneless chicken thighs. Dark meat has so much more flavor and really make the dish. Serve it up with a side of rice and veggies and get ready to be praised by your loved ones. Happy Cooking!

Recipe by: Tracy Benjamin

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 lbs boneless skinless chicken thighs
• 1/3 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil  plus more for pan
• Juice from 1 1/2 large lemons
• 5-6 lemons slices
• 1 medium onion chopped
• 3 garlic cloves chopped
• 1 teaspoon thyme
• 1 teaspoon oregano
• salt & pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees, drizzle about a tablespoon of olive oil in a glass baking dish add the chicken thighs and set aside.
2. In a glass measuring cup measure out your olive oil and add in the lemon juice, chopped onion, chopped garlic, thyme, and oregano. Mix well and pour of chicken thighs. 
3. Place lemons slices over the chicken thighs and season with salt and pepper. 
4. Bake 30-40 minutes ( I did find that mine took about 50 minutes to cook, it all depends on your oven and how thick the chicken is) 
5. When chicken is cooked and sauce bubbling remove from the oven and cover with foil, let rest for 5 minutes. 

I served this over Jasmine rice and it was delicious, make sure to spoon on some extra sauce!

Pour Paint Flower Pots

It's starting to feel like spring in our neck of the woods. The tulips and daffodils are blooming and I've been decorating my house with happy spring colors. Hopefully it will soon warm up enough to open windows and get that spring air flowing through the house. There's nothing more refreshing than spring, the season of new life. I had both my babies in spring so I guess it's safe to say I'm a spring lover.

Since we planted our seeds for our garden not that long ago I figured this would be the perfect timing for some flower pot painting. Kids love seeing new things grow, my oldest son was always so fascinated with planting grass seeds and watching them sprout up in our kitchen window. Now he's of to school most of the day but thankfully I have another curious little that also loves doing these kinds of things.  I made these with my oldest when he was around 3 yrs old and he enjoyed it so much I figured I would give it a try with C. She loved it, of course her favorite part was squeezing all the paint bottles. She also enjoyed watching the paint slowly trickle down the side of the flower pot, she kept saying  "It's so cool mommy!" This project would be great for outdoors but since it was still a bit chilly and rainy last week I decided to attempt it indoors and it worked just fine. To be honest this project really isn't that messy, but then again we aren't ones to shy away from art messes. Once the paint dried we filled our pots up with potting soil and added a fun little succulent. 

The materials needed are very basic and inexpensive. Glass jars are another great thing to use for pour painting, I'm a glass jar hoarder so I'm always looking for ways to use them up. These would also make a great Mothers Day gift or something to share with grandparents. I love seeing our little pots in the kitchen window, they always bring a smile to my face.

 Items Needed:

• Acrylic Paint
• Flower Pots
• Masking Tape
• Cookie Sheet
• Parchment Paper 

Directions:

The first thing you want to do is is tape up the bottom hole of the flower pot

After the hole is taped up, line your cookie sheet with parchment paper. (Do not use newspaper! I tried that in the past and the paint soaked right through it.) Once your cookie sheet is line take the paint and start squeezing it over the masking tape. You will be using a lot of paint so don't be alarmed if you think its too much.

Layer each color of paint, you can squirt a lot of paint or a little. Just go with it and have fun.

C loved watching it slowly trickle down the side of the slower pot

Once you are finished layering your paints slowly lift your parchment paper off the cookie sheet and allow the flower pot to dry over night. It will take some time to dry, once dry fill your pots up with potting soil and plant your seeds or flowers.

I hope you enjoy this fun project, Happy Crafting!

 

Chocolate Oatmeal no bake cookies

Every Wednesday after school my brother and I would make the walk from school to our church to attend CCD classes. One of the best things about CCD was finding out what the snack would be when we arrived. Usually one of the moms would volunteer to make snack for the group of kids. Sometimes it would be store bought cookies, or some sort of marshmallow cereal bar but my absolute favorite was the Chocolate Oatmeal no bake cookies. I loved when these showed up as our snack, and now that I'm a busy mom myself  I now know why they were a regular cookie to show up.

No bake cookies are perfect make if you don't have a lot of time and need to feed a lot of people. After doing research I discovered they became popular in 60's cookbooks because moms were looking for something quick to whip up for the kids but didn't want to spend all afternoon in the kitchen. Believe me I love my kitchen but sometimes you don't want to deal with the process of baking things in the oven. These cookies lack no flavor and are just as good as any baked cookie but take half the time. With the summer just around the corner (hopefully, I heard more snow next week! ekk!!) these are my go to cookies on the hot days where I don't want to deal with a hot oven making the house even hotter and I'll let you in on a little secret, they are even better cold! That's right, put these babies in the fridge or freezer once they set. Trust me, you'll thank me later. My kids love these cookies and I bet yours will too.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 c. Butter (or 1 stick of butter)
• 2 c. Sugar
• 1 tsp Salt
• 1/2 c. Milk
• 4 tbsp Cocoa Powder
• 1/2 c. Peanut Butter
• 3 1/2 c. Old Fashioned Oats
• 2 tsp Vanilla Extract  

 Directions:

1. In a large sauce pan, mix together the first five ingredients and bring to a boil. 
2. Let boil for one minute then remove from heat.
3. Add in the remaining ingredients and mix well. 
4. After everything is mixed, drop by the tablespoon onto parchment paper. Allow the cookies to cool and set, usually around 30 minutes. Store the leftovers in a plastic Tupperware in the fridge.