Lemon-Lime Ice Cream Sandwiches.

Look at what I found at Trader Joes!

Yummo!  I had to rip open the box as soon as I got to the car to try one of these little yummy cookies.  I love Meyer Lemons!  They were just light and crispy and you could have 2 and not feel guilty at all.  Then I got to thinking.  

I have so much of that lime sherbet left over from my Watermelon Push-up Pops, Ooohhh, AND I have vanilla ice cream too!  I could make Ice Cream Sandwiches!

Okay, so lets set them up and get a piping bag ready.

Then my BFF said, I could swirl the two.  Okay, I can do that.

Alright, so it is not as easy as it sounds.  You have to work FAST, only do a few at a time, and get them in the freezer after a few, then keep going.

These were my first ones, I made the next batch fatter with more ice cream using no tip on my piping bag.

This is what happens when the ice cream starts to melt because your hand is warm at the top and the ice cream is still hard at the bottom.  Basically as you try and squish the ice cream out, some of the melted ice cream squirts and makes a mess.  Not sure I have any pointers for you, just go FAST! If you don't go FAST you get a soggy cookie and it sticks to your paper.  

If you don't go fast the worst that happens is you have to eat the messy frozen glob of cookie and ice cream that did not turn out cute.  (Rough I know.  I had 2 kids sacrifice themselves by eating some of the messy globs.  Selfless and courageous, yup, I am lucky to have such kids.) 

Well, even after the mess I still came up with cute sandwiches and they were a big hit with my family that came for a visit from Chicago.  :) Not only are these delish, they were also low cal.  A nice cool summer treat.  

Random Yummies!

I started a little project. (Okay, not so little.)  I went through all of my cookbooks and scanned things I wanted out of over 30 books. (That is another project - to have them in some order on my computer.)  Then I printed them out, and separated them into two books (ones I have tried and love and ones I want to try.) by category, then I got rid of all of those cookbooks.  We still have like 50 or so, but it felt good to make some space and to purge.  I love getting rid of things we don't use.  Having 2 or 5 recipes in one cookbook that I like or want to try is a total waste (to me).

I have also been trying to add more vegetarian meals into our family diet.  (My skin-and-bones-without-a-lick-of-fat-super-active-is-an-understatement son has high cholesterol and has had it since he was 3.)  I also have been counting calories for over a year now (lost 42 pounds and have kept all off but 3).  So, I take a LOT of time weighing and measuring and counting everything I cook or bake and try to make sure we are getting pretty healthy stuff in our bodies that still taste good.  Oh, and I LOVE cookies so, I have to make a cookie that is less than 70 calories and have one almost every day.  Yup, I do that by using all of the same 'normal' ingredients, I just make them smaller.  It works for me.  I do not deny myself a thing and I am healthier.

All of that being said, I am always on line or digging in my binders for something new to try. So, here are a couple of yummy things we have played with.

Vegetarian Quiche. 

Okay, I am not going to write out the recipe, but I can tell you I got it from a cookbook from a Bed and Breakfast I stayed at back in January of 2011.  The place was called Apples B&B.  Okay, this place was pretty stinking cute.  The breakfasts were amazing.  This is a great place to go if you need a Lumber Jack type breakfast that is jam packed with enough calories for that whole day as well as a bit of the next.  She will blow you away with tastes, flavors and presentation.  That being said, it is really hard on a low calorie (because I don't work off a ton of calories Mom) life style change diet. So, I got the cookbook and took her Vegetarian Quiche and remade it.

Okay, here it is.  I have been tinkering with this quiche.  How can I make it lower in fat, how can I lower the calories, oops I made a mistake and totally forgot the cheese one time kind of playing.  

What I need to try - how to make a yummy crust that is not so calorically dense, should I try it without a crust, and so on.  My kids groan when I make quiche, but I know they like it.  They just get moody on me.  They would gobble it up and ask for more and more, but I think I may have tried playing with it too many times.

Here are the basic ingredients:  Eggs (one or two yolks, mostly whites), swiss cheese, zucchini, roma tomatoes and green onions.  Add crust or not, and play.  I have played with the cook time, everything, I have liked every one of them, not sure which is my favorite.  It is a work in progress.  One of these days when I think it is perfect, I will post it.

Here is another quick one.

Pistachio Bread!

I have been craving nuts with my new workout routine, and needing protein and carbs to keep me moving through the day, so I have been playing with recipes with nuts in them. This is the recipe I used.   I think I did it exactly like it was written (probably less salt).  Now, this was my first yeast bread I have made since I can remember.  It took forever, but was totally work it.  I only took 2 pictures. 

Before - this was my first try at this, so I know the seam isn't pretty.

After - the seam and inside may not have been pretty but it sure did taste good!

The newest thing I just created was a Push-Up Pop.  

I stumbled upon this book by reading (once again) Bakerella's site.  She cited it some time ago and well, I looked it up, fell in love and decided I had to have it.  Since my kids are finally out of school, I thought why not make a little something to celebrate Summer?  

I only made one.  

One lonely Push-Up Pop.  I split it with my hubby.  

I will be making more, I just wanted to see how it turned out.  I need to practice more, lots more. I need to work on pushing the stuff down and I think I'd like to find a different Strawberry Sorbet, one that is a little darker to resemble more of a watermelon.  I have to say though, this was delicious!

I am obsessed with Push-Up Pops, so you'll be seeing more of these.  :)  

At least that is my hope.  

I need to not eat them all before I get a chance to take a picture of them.

Oh, and calories for this baby = 81!  (Don't ask about the sugar.)

Chocolate Chip Push-up Pops

I needed another Teacher Gift for the end of the year.  I wanted to go simple and easy.  I have been doing other baking and crafting for other little events and things that have been going on.  So, I pulled out that cute Push-up Pop Book that the evil-lovable genius Bakerella got me hooked on. 

Lily and I got to baking.  The book has it's own recipe for the chocolate chip cookie dough, but I just used my favorite Toll house recipe.  It never fails me and it is my favorite.

It took some time to smear out the dough to cover the whole pan, but I finally finished and tossed it in.  Once  the cookies are made you just cut them out with one of the push-up pop molds.

Then I made just a regular vanilla frosting from scratch.  I didn't have a tub and I didn't want to go get one, it is just as easy to make frosting.  Any Vanilla frosting would do.  Now, the next time I make these I want to add pecans to the cookies and then make a butter pecan frosting or a pecan buttercream, something just totally yummy and BAD for you.

This just takes time to get used to.  I frosted the bottoms of the pops, sprinkled mini-chocolate chips and then a cookie circle, repeat.  Some I got 4 layers some I got 5 layers.  Either way, super cute, something simple as a sweet parting gift for the end of the school year.

I tossed a quick little tag that said thank you on with some ribbon and brought them to the teachers.  School is finally out!  Yay, for the end of June!  Yay for the end of the school year.  Bring on Summer Vacation!

St. Patrick's Day (I know right - it's June!)

I have been meaning to put this fun little adventure up since March.  (Before Lily's Birthday.)  Oh, well, I am really early for giving ideas for March 2013.  Right?


St. Patrick's Day Eggstravaganza!

We knew we were not going to be home for Easter, so we decided to color eggs early this year and why not for St. Patrick's Day?  I wanted to try out something new for these eggs.  A friend showed me something her Mom or Grandma did (I can't remember who) then I went home and looked up making homemade dyes on line.  And found these Natural Dyes.  Cute huh?  I think we had more fun going on an adventure looking for flowers and leaves to decorate the eggs with than any of it.  But this is what we came up with.

Then we made homemade veggie pancakes!  Oh, yum.  I saw this recipe and fiddled with it to make my own.  I like to add more whites and take out some yolks, (but to still use some) to cut down on the fat/calories/cholesterol.  They were fun to make and I love making them on the griddle just like you would regular breakfast pancakes.

  Yummy.  I was hoping they'd be green, but they were really kinda pink because of the carrots.

Then I found this recipe for GREEN MUFFINS!  Oh yeah!  They were pretty yummy.  I got way more muffins out of the recipe than she called for.  (Remember - I am about less calories - so smaller is better!)

Before

After

I wanted to add a bit more protein and make it Vegetarian, so I added a veggie sausage and tada a very GREEN St. Patrick's Day Eggstravaganza.  

I Think Lily wanted her picture taken before the sausage was even done.  

Oh, and they insisted on PURPLE milk.  Because, you know Leprechauns like purple milk. (??)

The complete meal.

We had muffins for dessert.  (I think they were still in the oven.)

Pink Monkey Flower Birthday Party?

I am just now getting back to posting.  I have a feeling that no matter how good my intentions are, I will never really stay current with this blog (or any).  But, I can sure tell you that my heart and mind want to. I think we all do so much already, some things just fall in the cracks.  I guess I'd rather make the little cutesy things, give them away or bake away than talk about it.  (Or show it.)  So now you all know, I am not Little Ms. Blogger, or photographer, I am just a Mom that wears a million hats and tries to get it on a blog when she can.

So....

Pink Monkey Birthday Party? 

My daughter (Lilypad) really wanted pink monkey cake pops for her Birthday. She also wanted flowers and Pirates and a Pinata.  Oh, and she told me she wanted the bounce house and popcorn.  Alrighty then!  She is one of a kind.  She loves many things and wants to be able to have it all and all at once, not caring if it matches or not.  She is just a treasure to me.

                                                                         Monkey!

IT RAINED!

The bounce house did not happen.  But, the painting party DID happen.  The girls got a heart shaped box and the boys got a treasure chest.  So cool!  I ordered enough and Lily was able to have one of each.  This was awesome!  We hired this gal Sandy from KlayKids. LOVE her!  We know Sandy from my kids school where they take the extra curricular ceramics class.  We originally were going to have the kids paint outside and bounce house it up, but because of the massive rain storm we had, be brought it inside.  Thank goodness for having a big living room with wood floors.

                                         Big Brother Noah working on his Treasure Chest.

                                Lily's BFF Nathan.  This has to be the nicest boy I have ever met.

                  Great Family Friends, I love that Dad got in there and helped.  I love these guys.

                                                     Birthday girl with her treasure chest.

                                       Sweet girl from school.  This is the flower box, isn't it cute?

Then we had the pinata in the garage.  We went with a flower pinata.  Beating a flower is much easier on the psyche than a beloved pink monkey.

                                                            Birthday Girl taking a swing.

                                              This little one was the toughest of the bunch!

                                                                Big brother and his turn!


Then, we had the cake pops and cupcakes.  I went lazy with the extra cupcakes.  I used my cricut to cut out a flower template and then used colored sugar to make the design.  Then of course no Pink Monkey Flower Birthday Party can be complete without Pink Monkey Cake Pops.

 Let's not forget the popcorn!

Finally, a moment of heart filled pride for my baby girl. Shortly before my girl turned 4 a young girl in our community died of cancer.  But, before she did, she started up an AMAZING gift of joy to children all over the world called Joy Jars, where she encouraged children to NEVER EVER GIVE UP.  (NEGU)  We had been hearing about this little girl, praying for her and Lily said she wanted to do something or give something to the little girl who died.  So, we asked all of our invited guests to bring toys to fill Blessing Boxes to fill Joy Jars for NEGU instead of gifts.  We were blown away by the generosity of our friends.  Thank you for your love for Lily and your generosity to these kids.  Lily had a great 4th Birthday Party.

                                                                       Thank you!


 

Sprite Biscuits?

So, I saw this recipe on the side of my FB page.  Once in awhile they look yummy, so I print them out and try them later.  We made these awhile ago, but I am just getting to posting now.  We were having soup for dinner and wanted something new to try, so we said, why not?  The recipe was for 7-Up Biscuits, but we only had one can of Sprite in our fridge.  So, we made Sprite Biscuits.

There are only 4 ingredients.  Oh, yummy ingredients.

Start with 2 cute kids, ingredients and the recipe.

Bisquick?  Check!

Sour Cream? Check!

She takes her time.

He got a turn too.

Sprite?  Check!

Ohh, leftovers!

My turn!

Before.

After!

Add butter (or not) and YUM!

Add soup!  Okay, as you can see the biscuit barely made the picture by the time I pored a bowl of soup.

Yummy dinner.

I love it when my kiddo's help by making dinner.

Here is the recipe:

7-up Biscuits

Teacher Appreciation Gifts.

It has been awhile, my apologies.  I have many things I want to post, none will be in order I am sure.  I have been rearranging my house this past week.  We are moving our 'office' to the dining room that was never used and our office is now a hobby room.  (I call it a craft room, but my husband and I still share it.)  Pretty excited about it.  I got a desk for Mother's Day.  I will post pictures once I get it all put together.  :)

For now, I have been on a deadline to get Teacher Appreciation gifts organized.  I had the idea of a gift card tree (the kind you find at Christmas).  Well turns out, you can't find them, unless they are super expensive.  So, I got other ideas, looked on pinterest, returned all of the stuff from my other idea and went with something 'easier'.

So, I sent out a note to parents, they all donated gift cards, I then pulled out my handy dandy Cricut.  I used 4 different carts (oops, sorry didn't write the down, and don't remember), and I made flowers and one butterfly.  The gift cards then started flowing in and I realized that Starbucks has an ugly color brown.  So, I colored it up a bit by using a flower punch and some brads.  

And, here they are!  I have no idea where on pinterest where I saw this.  I think I pulled it from a combo of two or three ideas out there.   This is not my own idea, FYI.  There is my disclaimer.  

I am pleased!  I think they are cute and absolutely filled with generous gifts our wonderful teachers so greatly deserve!

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week!