Valentine Pancake Nutella and Fruit Skewers

How cute are these little Valentine pancake skewers?  I had two leftover pancakes from the previous morning and decided to cut it into cute little heart shapes.  Then, I thought what could make this even better?  Answer, put them on a stick and add some Nutella!  Because, well, everything is always better with Nutella.  I figured it needed a little something healthy so I used my cookie cutter to cut out some strawberry and banana hearts as well.  All you have to do is spread the Nutella on the pancake then skewer everything up!  My two year old LOVED these guys.  Well he mostly loves everything on a stick these days. But, add some chocolatey, hazelnut goodness and he was in heaven!  These would be so cute for Valentines day morning breakfast or even a fun snack to bring to a class party (assuming there are no allergies)  So yummy and it really only took about 10 minutes to put together.  (the pancakes were already made). Totally worth the extra effort!

Valentine's Day Breakfast

I seriously have so much fun making my son breakfast every morning.  Half the week it's usually cherries and a banana but I try really hard to make sure that a few days a week he gets a nice, hot, hearty breakfast.  The look on his face when he sees fun cut-out's and hearing him say "wow Mommy, so nice, this is so delicious" is worth the extra effort.  Which actually really isn't a whole lot of effort at all.  I swear. Just maybe two extra minutes to make his plate a little more "fun" looking.   We also practice all our shapes, colors and letters during this so actually it's quite educational and not just completely for our enjoyment.  Here are some fun Valentine's Day breakfast ideas you can make that your kiddies (or even significant others) will love.

First step, get yourself some heart shaped cookie cutters.  This time of year you can fine them ANYWHERE, the dollar store, target, supermarkets, grocery stores, etc.  They are so easy to find, so inexpensive and you can do so much with them, (not just cut out food) I use them as stencils for crafting projects.  As soon as you have that, the possibilities are endless and you can pretty much cut out anything bread or egg breakfast-related with a cookie-cutter.  Here are some things that I've recently made....

Cream Cheese, Peanut Butter and Jelly

This was seriously my favorite sandwich growing up.  I never could decide if I wanted pb&j or cream cheese and jelly so one day my mom decided to put it all on a sandwich and well, it was heaven.  Seriously, try it.  It is SO insanely good!  It must run in the family too because my son is totally a fan and even my peanut butter loving husband now asks for a little added cream cheese on his pb&j.  

The extra little scraps of bread you do not have to throw out.  I save them in a bag and keep it in the fridge.  When I have a good amount I make some homemade croutons out of them.  Just toss in a pan with some olive oil, s&p and garlic powder until toasted.

Heart Shaped French Toast with Bananas

Just cut out the heart shapes first (or you could even do it after if you'd like) and dunk the bread into a mixture of egg, milk, vanilla and cinnamon.  Melt 1 tsp butter into a cast iron skillet on medium heat and cook each side 3-4 minutes.

Heart Shaped potatoes

Slice each potato.  Cut with small heart cutter.  Brush potatoes with olive oil and season generously with salt, pepper, garlic powder and paprika. Bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes.  For the eggs I just scrambled and baked in a greased heart shaped pie pan.  

Baked Sweet Potato Tater Tot Hushpuppies

I had a few bag of sweet potatoes left over and I wanted to try something new instead of making the usual, boring roasted and baked potatoes.  I thought why not try to make a little hushpuppy, tator-tot type snack with a healthy spin.  I've ordered a similar fried version of these at a restaurant once and totally fell in love with them. I wasn't sure how they would come out or how they would hold together but actually they came out fantastic and were a really light and guilt-free snack!  If you wanted to be a little bit more indulgent you can definitely fry these up and they would probably be even more delicious but if your trying to be a little more health-conscious then popping them in the oven will still give you a delicious little side dish or snack.
I will definitely be making these little guys again.

Here is how I made them...

Ingredients:
5 small sweet potatoes
2 eggs
1/2 cup of flour
1/2 cup corn meal
1 tbsp garlic powder
2 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper

Directions:
Boil the sweet potatoes for about 10 minutes.  You just want to soften them up a bit but not completely cook.  Use the fine side of your cheese grater and grate each sweet potoato.  Mix the sweet potato with the egg.  Add in the flour, corn meal, garlic powder, salt and pepper.  Mix all together.  Spray or butter a mini muffin tin.  (I used my donut hole pan but a mini-muffin tin would work just as well).  Scoop the batter and fill each section to the top.  Bake at 350 degrees for about 15-20 minutes (until the tots are completely cooked through).
Serve with dipping sauce.
Enjoy!
Additionally, If you wanted to kick it up a notch you could totally add in some red pepper flakes, chopped onion or even some cilantro for extra flavor.

Sweet Honey Mustard Yogurt Dipping Sauce
1/4 cup vanilla greek yogurt
1 tstp honey
1 tbsp honey mustard
Mix all ingredients together (Tweak any of the measurements according to your liking)

Dipping Sauce
2 tbsp greek yogurt
2 tbsp ketchup
2 tbsp Sweet Baby Rays Secret Sauce
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
Mix all ingredients together (Tweak any of the measurements according to your liking)

Valentine's Tassle Garland

I seriously just LOVE a tassle garland.  I follow so many crafters on IG that make the most gorgeous ones for parties.  I just think they are so fun.
This was my first tassle garland I made with the Martha Stewart Fringe Cutter and I must say that it worked like a charm!  It made it SO much easier to get perfect straight lines and also made it way less time consuming.  This little gadget actually didn't get great reviews online and I was about to return it but I figured I would just test it out myself first since I plan on making about 60 tassels for another project.  Once I got the hang of it and figured out how to correctly use it, (I watched a few you-tube videos that helped a lot) I was SO surprised and amazed how great it actually did work.  It does take a little bit of time (a lot more when you have a toddler running around and wanting in on the action).  I think the hardest part of all was the last step when you do the twisting.  It was hard to get it tight because I was so afraid of tearing it since tissue paper is so immensely thin.
I definitely still need some more practice but over all I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.  I'm sure as I do some more I'll probably look back on this one and laugh thinking how not perfect it actually was.  And if you put it in a competition to tassels that are for sale in Etsy shops mine would probably come in last place.  But for now, I'm pretty happy with it and the best part, my son (who I made it for) loves it and would never realize any imperfections.

This is what you will need to create the tissue paper garland:

12 pieces of tissue paper (I like the hallmark tissue paper the best)

Martha Stewart Fringe Cutter (sold at almost every craft store) OR scissor

Glue Gun or glue dots

Twine or ribbon

So here's how create it... 

There are basically four steps

Step #1 

Fold tissue paper in half, then in half again.

Step # 2 

Use your Martha Stewart Fringe Cutter and simply roll the blade down the tissue paper.  The folded side should be towards the bottom.  You do not want to cut the entire paper.  You need to cut away at least 2 inches from the folded side. (You will see why in the next step).  If you don't have the fringe cutter you can use a scissor to cut strips.  I cut half inch strips for this garland but you can adjust the measurements to your liking.

Step #3

Open up the tissue paper.  The middle part will be the part that was not cut.  Use your fingers and roll up the un-cut part of the tissue paper.  As you roll you will have to keep untangling the cut side. (It tends to get a little tangled as you roll it).

When it is completely rolled up it should look like this..

Step #4 

Twist the middle un-cut portion as tightly as possible (be careful not to rip the tissue paper as it is very thin) and then fold in half and twist together.  Then, viola! You have just created your very first tissue tassle!  

Now, time to put the garland together....

To assemble the tassle garland just simply grab some twine or some ribbon, even some string would work (whatever you have) and slide it through each loop.  To ensure that each tassle stays in place, use your glue gun and glue the tassle directly on the twine or ribbon.  You will just need a dot of glue so if you have  a mini glue gun that would work best.  You could also use a small glue dot to hold it into place.  (I love those things!) If you are really particular and a bit of a perfectionist you can gather each tassle and trim the bottom so that each strip is equal and hangs evenly and nicely.  

I hung the tassle garland in my son's playroom and it looks stinking adorable!

Hope you have as much fun making it as I did!

Simple Valentine Heart Garland

This garland is really cute, really easy and really inexpensive to make.  I seriously love all things heart-shaped which is why I have so much fun crafting during Valentine's season.  I purchased the two items needed for this at my home away from home, every moms favorite store, Target.  The hearts are actually stickers which meant this garland required no glue or tape!

So here is what you will need....

6 packages of glittered heart stickers
1 spool of red twine
(Both found in the Valentines section of Target)
Scissor





So here's how you construct it...
Take each sticker and place it towards the top of the red string.  Then, simply place another sticker on top of it.  So easy!  Each package contains four stickers so you can get two hearts out of each one.  I seriously love the way this garland came out so much that I think I'm going to go back and add some hearts so I can string it all along my son's playroom.  I'm thinking it would be super cute for a Valentine's Day photo shoot backdrop or maybe strung intertwined with some string lights!
Enjoy!

Sweet Potato and Chicken Enchiladas

I have a serious love for all things Mexican. From the home decor to their food. I'm pretty sure the decor of my next home will have tons of Mexican themed touches. I love, love how everything is just so bright and colorful, including their food. 

Seriously, who doesn't love Mexican food?!  I so just love making Mexican food. It's always really delicious, really flavorful and most of the time really easy because it requires a lot of the same basic ingredients.  And, if I must say so myself its one of the things (Unlike many others) that I normally don't screw up!  This idea came to me because, well I wanted to cook a healthy dinner and barely had anything in the house.  However, I also didn't have the enthusiasm to pack two kids in the car and head to the supermarket in the freezing cold.  So, I opened the fridge took out some chicken cutlets and grabbed the sweet potatoes off the counter (that were about to go bad) and somehow came up with the idea to make enchiladas.  Since my husband shares the same love of Mexican food with me I thought this would be perfect meal for him to come home to after a long day of work. 

So, this is my spin on semi-healthy enchiladas. They were seriously delicious. My husband and two year old son literally devoured their entire plate. The sweet potatoes gave the enchiladas a sweetness to them that you don't normally get. The most amazing part about these beauties (aside from their scrumptious taste) was that I threw it all together in about 40 minutes. 

So here's how I made them....

Ingredients

4 boneless, skinless chicken cutlets

1 1/2 jar of your favorite enchilada sauce

4 sweet potatoes

1 onion

1 can of black beans

6 large flour tortillas

1 cup of cheddar Cheese

1 cup of montery jack cheese

Fresh Cilantro

1/2 cup cherry tomatoes

Directions

Cook the chicken in the oven with 1/4 cup of the enchilada sauce covered at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes (until chicken is fully cooked through).  In the meantime, chop your onion, peel and cut the sweet potatoes into chunks and shred all of your cheese. (The block of cheese is always better than the pre-grated). Mix the two cheese together and set aside.  Next, place the cooked chicken pieces into a large bowl and using two forks, shred the chicken. After chicken is nice and shredded, add another 1/4 cup of enchilada sauce to the chicken. Then, add beans, chopped onion, sweet potatoes, beans, cilantro (as much or as little as you'd like) and one cup of the mixed cheese into the chicken.  Mix everything together. Place a heaping scoop of the mix into the flour tortilla then roll up. Place the rolled up stuffed tortilla into a large baking pan. Continue the same with all 6 tortillas and line them up side by side so they are all touching.  Top all the rolled up tortillas with remaining 1 cup of enchilada sauce.  Then, top with remaining 1 cup (or more of you'd like) of the cheese.  Bake in the oven at 350 degrees for 30 minutes (until heated throughly and cheese is melted). Top with fresh chopped cilantro, cherry tomatoes and serve with creamy sour cream and a side of brown rice.

Enjoy! 

Puffins! Mini baked Pancakes

So I've pinned this recipe at least ten times and kept telling myself I was going to make them for my two year old who is a pancake lover  He totally takes after me in this breakfast department.  I have a thing for pancakes.  Well, I have a thing for making pancakes, in super fun shapes.  Although I must admit, it has taken me years to perfect my pancake making abilities. Yet, still the first one of the batch always ends up in the garbage.
Anyway, these little pancake muffins looked so cute and the perfect little finger-food breakfast for my son.  I finally got around to making them this week and they were a total hit.  Bonus, they were SO much easier to make than actual pancakes.  There are a ton of recipes where you can make your own batter from scratch but most included buttermilk which I never have on hand so I decided to improvise.  I've tried SO many different pancake mixes in the past but I've finally settled on Biscuick brand.  They always give me the perfect amount of fluffiness that every pancake should have.  So thats what I used for this.  They came out super light, super fluffy and super delicious.  The best part was since they weren't fried in butter they were a lot less greasy so I didn't feel as guilty dousing it in syrup.  It ended up making about 32 muffins so I kept them in the fridge and ate them throughout the week.  They were actually even BETTER the second day when I re-heated them in the toaster.  The outside toasted up and gave it a nice little extra crunch while the inside kept its fluffiness.  I didn't try it, but Im thinking these would be a good make-a-head, freezer-friendly breakfast treat to keep on hand.
I served them with some fresh heart-shaped fruit.  (Just used a mini cookie cutter) It is Valentines Day season after all!

Here's how I made them:

Ingredients:
2 cups of Bisquick mix
1 cup of whole milk
1 tbsp pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs
2 tbsp sugar
1/2 cup of blueberries

Directions:
Mix together the Bisquick mix, whole milk, vanilla extract, sugar and two eggs.  Stir in fresh blueberries.  Pour the batter into a generously buttered muffin tin about 3/4 of the way.  You can add some additional blueberries on top if you'd like. Bake at 375 degrees for about 10-12 minutes. Enjoy!

Healthy Banana Peanut Butter Muffins

I've seen these muffins floating around Pinterest for a while now and I finally decided to give it a go.  Turns out, they were even easier than they looked to make and SO super yummy!  The best part is that everything gets thrown into a blender and then poured into mini muffin tins to be baked off.
After about 5 minutes of prep work (to measure and blend all the ingredients), the muffins headed off the the oven where they were baked off for an additional 8 minutes.  This makes the whole preparation of these little guys from start to finish, UNDER 15 minutes!  Yup thats right, under 15 minutes to yummy, healthy goodness. I doubled the batch which made 24 very plump mini muffins.  Another awesome part was that they lasted a good five days (possibly longer but I have a house full of hungry boys).  They were just as tasty on the fifth day as they were on the first!  
Ok, so here is how I made them.....

Ingredients:
1 ripe banana
1/4 tsp baking Soda
2 tbsp pure vanilla extract
1 egg
2 tbsp honey
1/4 cup of whole milk
1/2 cup of creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips
1/4 cup rolled oats
pinch of salt

Directions:
Throw everything into a blender with the exception of 3 tbsp of the mini chocolate chips.  Pour the batter into each section of a greased mini muffin tin.  Top with remaining 3 tbsp of mini chocolate chips and rolled oats.  bake at 375 degrees for 8 minutes. Enjoy!