Food Creations Archives - Page 7 of 11

Popcorn Recipe- Red, White and Blue Popcorn

January 16, 2013 By Deirdre

With Inauguration Day right around the corner and President’s Day coming up next month, I thought it would be fun to make red, white and blue popcorn with JDaniel. We could nibble on it during the parade next week or just have it celebrate Inauguration Day. I think you will like this popcorn recipe too.JDaniel was all for it. He love popcorn and snacking. Creating a popcorn snack was ideal for him. The rest of us like popcorn too and kettle corn was sure to give us a sweet treat. I settled on one that I found on online at Our Best Bites. There are several versions online. This is probably the simplest and it listed honey as an alternative for corn syrup.

Red, White, and Blue Popcorn Recipe

While I heated up the butter, honey, sugar and jello mixtures on the stove, JDaniel emptied most of the two bags microwave popcorn into two bowls. I had two mixtures going at the same time. There was a blue mixture in one pot and a red mixture in the other. (I will never do this again. Next time it will be one color at a time.) The sugar mixtures cooled down way to fast to do two different posts at the same time.

When the mixtures were well blended, I dumped each in its respective bowl and started tossing. I had thought JDaniel could help with the tossing, but it was way to hot to have him work with it. I tossed one bowl and then the other. Back and forth I went until the popcorn was mostly covered with color.

Then I dumped them onto a cookie sheet covered in foil that I had sprayed with cooking spray. JDaniel helped spread the popcorn out and sample some of it. ( The sugar layer had cooled down a lot. )We both tried it and it was wonderful. It could have been considered done then, but we followed the recipe directions and baked it at 350 degrees for ten minutes.

It came out a little crunchier and still yummy. I would love to say that it is going to make it to Inauguration Day, but I think this batch will have disappeared. Maybe I shouldn’t have halved the recipe. We might have had some leftover if I hadn’t done that. I guess we will be making red, white and blue popcorn again.

If you like this popcorn recipe, here are some more recipes you might like:

Chicken Parmesan Recipe

Muffin with Fruit and Yogurt

Breakfast Rice RecipesThis post is linked to Alphabe Thursday.

Breakfast Foods- Snowman Meal

January 14, 2013 By Deirdre

Most of last week JDaniel was down with a cold. He had very little energy and his nose was running like a faucet. Colds don’t tend to take him down. This was the first time in a long time he seemed really sick. I decided to try to make him feel a little better by giving him a lunch that was filled with breakfast foods. We love breakfast foods at our house. They are always met with great enthusiasm by JDaniel.

For this meal I decided on a snowman theme. JDaniel has been hoping that we will get snow sometime this winter. While many of you have already had tons of it fall where you live. We are looking at days that are still in the high forties and sometimes high fifties here in South Carolina. The only snow he may get to see is in the house so, I have been looking for ways make it snow inside.

The snowman contained breakfast foods that were new to JDaniel. He hasn’t had milk gravy before. I actually had never made it before. It came out a little thicker than it should be, but it was delicious. Even with blueberries, sausage and a tiny bit of strawberry mixed with it on biscuits.

I know because JDaniel came into the kitchen to look at the lunch, but announced he wasn’t hungry and didn’t want to lunch. As I mentioned I love breakfast foods so, rather than covering the meal and giving it to him later I ate it. It might not have been the right thing to do, but it was really good.

The sausage arms and hash brown snow were delicious too. I was in breakfast foods heaven. Yes, breakfast foods are truly heavenly to me.

When we was ready for lunch, he announced he just wanted a cheese taco and cantaloupe. That is exactly what he got. Since he likes cheese tacos for breakfast along with fruit, I guess he ended up with a breakfast foods meal anyway.

If you like this snowman food creation, here are some more food creations you might like:

Breakfast Rice RecipesChocolate Covered Cookie BallsTeepee Themed Snack

New Year’s Traditions from Around the World and Lunch

December 31, 2012 By Deirdre

I seriously thought about trying to include a wide variety of symbols of New Year’s traditions in this lunch, but I ended up with just a few.

Here are some of the wonderful New Year’s traditions from around the world I considered:

Suitcase

In Mexico they walk around the outside of their houses with a suitcase while hoping for travels during the year.

Red and Yellow Underwear

In Venezuela and several other countries they wear red or yellow underwear for good luck.

White Clothes

In Brazil some people wear white clothes that represent a desire for peace in the New Year.

Twelve Grapes

In Spain people eat twelve grapes for good luck when the clock starts to chime twelve. One grape for each time the bell chimes.

Black Eyes Peas and Turnip Greens

In the Southern United States some people eat black eyed peas and turnip greens. The peas stand for coins and the turnip greens for money. Eating them is said to bring you prosperity.

New Year’s Traditions in a Lunch

The bento breakfast JDaniel got contains twelve grapes, plain yogurt with confetti sprinkles, a blueberry waffle party hat trimmed with whipped cream along red raspberry spots, and 2013 written in mandarin orange segments.

The twelve grapes were for good luck. JDaniel’s swimming instructor used to be a Spanish teacher. She shared with JDaniel that he might want to have twelve grapes to start the new year. He loves grapes. I think he would have eaten twenty if they had been placed in his lunch.

The confetti sprinkles are from various different holiday related sprinkle containers I have. Usually confetti falls at midnight during New Year’s Eve parties. I thought JDaniel would like to see all the fun shapes of confetti mixed in with the yogurt. They also made the plain yogurt taste sweet.

A party hat or New Year’s Eve crown is sometimes worn to New Year’s Eve parties. I neglected to put one into JDaniel’s New Year’s Eve Sensory Bin. There just had to be one in this lunch. He loved the waffle with whipped cream. Once he had finished it, he wanted the scraps left from when I cut the waffle into a hat.

What are some of your New Year’s Traditions?

Angels We Had For Lunch- Christmas for Kids

December 24, 2012 By Deirdre

I have been reading the parts of the Bible that lead up to the events of Christmas to JDaniel. Each night’s set of verses seems to mention an angel. Joseph and Mary both had angels visit them. Zechariah had an angel come to tell him about the birth of his son John. Angels came to tell the shepherds about Jesus’ birth. This week I thought I would make JDaniel an angel themed lunch.This Christmas for kids lunch idea was a hit. He really seemed to enjoy it. I gave him an angel with a pickle body, an apple body, and a grape tomato head. Then there was an all fruit angel. It consisted of an apple body, clementine wings, and a grape head. Finally there was an ornament sandwich with an angel them. The ornament was made of ham, cheese and whole wheat bread.The idea was so use simple foods that I know he likes to create angels. Each of the angels has more of an outline than a full angel with facial features. Honestly that was to keep the angels in the Christmas for kids lunch from looking goofy. I did brainstorm ideas for the eyes, noses and mouths, but they really didn’t seem to look right.
I hope you will take a few moments to read the angel verses to your children. They are filled with wonder, joy and brightness.

If you like this Christmas for kids lunch, here are some more bento lunch ideas for kids:

Butterfly Bento Snack for Kids

Bounding Bunnies Lunch for Kids

I am Thankful Bento for Kids

Fall Bento Lunch

Olympic Symbols Bento for Kids

If you like these bento lunches, you will find more food creation for kids on my Food Creations board and my Serving Lunch with JDaniel4’s Mom board on Pinterest.

Christmas Meal- Bethlehem Dinner

December 20, 2012 By Deirdre

I did some reading to find out what might have been served for dinner on that amazing night before Christmas dinner and found that we have been eating many of the same foods they did. Long ago in Bethlehem, Mary and Joseph may have dined on a simple meal filled with bread, a vegetable, fruit, a dip and maybe even a special treat.

Here is what I learned about a Christmas Meal or Bethlehem Dinner:

My guys love to ish. The big guy in particular. I placed a few pieces of fish on the platter above along with placing a few on each of our plates. Fish was plentiful at that time. I won’t be surprised if Mary and Joseph didn’t have some kind of meat. We try to have it twice a week.

I read that cauliflower and broccoli were served at that time too. JDaniel really prefers cauliflower so, he had that on his plate. My husband and I had the fresh broccoli. It was really delicious.

Dried and fresh fruit were server at meals back then. I found some dried dates at the store in the baking section and served them with fresh grapes. JDaniel loved eating a handful of the dates and grapes together. They were delicious he informed me.

Bread was a staple back then and was served at almost every meal. We had french bread with spinach dip to dip the bread into. JDaniel wasn’t keen on the dip, but my husband and I liked it. It was fun to think that were dining on bread the same way Mary and Joseph had.

Our dessert for this meal was created by our niece Emily. She brought baklava she had made to our family Thanksgiving reunion. I froze some of it and served it during our Bethlehem meal. We all adored it. Emily told me it had been a lot of work to make. I am so glad she persevered through making the baklava. It was the perfect way end our Bethlehem dinner.

Here are some more Christmas meal ideas:

Red and Green Layered Dessert

Christmas Soup

Chocolate Covered Cookie BallsThis post is linked to Mrs. Matlock’s Alphabe Thursday.

How to Make a Gingerbread Man Lunch

December 17, 2012 By Deirdre

The links below are affiliate links.

The Virtual Book Club is celebrating Jan Brett this month. She has written several books featuring gingerbread people. I decided to create a gingerbread lunch for JDaniel to celebrate her books Gingerbread Babyand Gingerbread Friends

This is the time of year when gingerbread men and women are trying to runaway from being served at lunch, dinner, and snack times. I made JDaniel a gingerbread man lunch to take to school last Wednesday. His gingerbread man seems to have left his shadow in the slice of bread.

The gingerbread man didn’t get very far though. He has only made it to the upper right hand section of JDaniel’s bento box. Although he has squished himself down. He will probably still be found. He does have supply of marshmallow snowballs to throw at anyone that gets to close. The gingerbread man has them hidden behind him. JDaniel will have to watch out for them. Actually he might like it if the gingerbread man threw some marshmallows right into his mouth.

When our sandwich man has finished throwing marshmallows. He may have to move to the left and grab some red grapes and chow mien noodles. JDaniel would love the grapes being thrown. They would be soft to try to catch. The chow mein noodles are a little pointy and may hurt. I hope the gingerbread man doesn’t try to throw those.

JDaniel was hungry like the fox in the gingerbread story and he ate this meal right up. There were no leftovers this week.

If you like this gingerbread man snack, here are some other snack ideas:

Christmas Tree Snack

Chewbacca Wookie Cookie Snack

Kid Friendly Recipe- Teepee Snack

Scarecrow Snack Idea

You will find more bento lunch snack ideas on my Food Creations board on Pinterest.

The Hobbit- Read.Explore.Learn

December 14, 2012 By Deirdre

The links below are affiliate links.This week we looked a simple children’s book that looks at a section of The Hobbit . It has amazing illustrations and only looks at brief section of the book. JDaniel really seemed to enjoy it. I think he will like reading or having the whole book read to him when he gets older.

JDaniel is a little like a Hobbit. He doesn’t have fur on the top of his week like they do, but he really like to snack like they do.

Here is the hobbit meal schedule:

1. Breakfast2. Second Breakfast

3. Elevensees

4. Lunch

5. Afternoon Tea

6. Super

What did we do to explore The Hobbit?

Well, I looked at a number foods mentioned in The Hobbit along with recipes for them. Pork pie was mentioned as one. I wasn’t sure I could convince JDaniel that he really wanted to try it. Biblo , the main character, was fond of seed-cakes. Again I wasn’t sure how he would feel about them. Buttered scones are a favorite of mine and I found that they were probably served during tea in the Shire where Biblo lived. I am great a buying scones but, I am not great a making them. My scone are a little rock like.

Rather than make a dish from the book I decided to make a bento meal with symbols from the book.

I made Gandalf’s hat out of a cracker and a cucumber. The “Precious” ring is made of Colby Jack cheese. There is a Hobbit’s door made of crackers, cheese and pickle. Biblo’s door was green from some reason. Finally there are Hobbit feet. The feet are made of whole grain bread, nut butter, a toasted coconut marshmallow and raisins. Hobbit’s have fur or hair on the top of their feet. I think that coconut looks a little hair like.

If you would like to see more Hobbit themed meals, you can head to Biting the Hand That Feeds You! They are the next part of the Hobbit hop that this post is also apart of .

Here are some wonderful non- Hobbit posts that linked up last week.

I love the little owls that Like Mama~Like Daughter made after reading Little Owl’s Night. We read Little Owl’s Night and loved it too.

Fantastic Fun and Learning read One Snowy Night and then made the most adorable hedgehog. I bet Bilbo might have seen these animals on his travels in The Hobbit.How have you explored books this week?

Recipe- Delicious Christmas Soup

December 13, 2012 By Deirdre

I love to try new recipes around holiday time. I found a recipe for a delicious Christmas tortellini soup and altered it fit the taste of my guys. We all enjoyed it and now I would like to share our version of Christmas soup with you.

How to Make Christmas Soup

Ingredients 1 can of beef with vegetables soup1 1/2 cups of tricolored cheese filled tortellini

1 cup of water

2 cloves of garlic

1 tsp. of oregano

1 28 ounce can of crushed tomatoes

1 cup of fresh spinach1 cup of cooked Italian sausage

Directions:1. Cook the tortellini according to the directions on its package.

2. Place everything except the fresh spinach in a large saucepan.

3. Stir until all the ingredients have had a chance to co-mingle.

4. Bring the soup to a slight boil.

5. Add the fresh spinach.

6. Stir until the spinach has started to wrinkle.

I served a tree shaped melted cheese bun along with the soup. My guys love to dunk bread into soup. A fresh green salad and a taste of homemade fudge would have totally completed this meal. I think will have to try it again.

This soup seems to increase in taste and flavor if you end up with leftovers. Lots of soups and casseroles seem to do that. I know that my husband loves lasagna a day or two after it has first been served. Let me know if you try it!

If you like this Christmas soup recipe, here are some more recipes you will love.

Watermelon Recipes for the Summer

Easy Muffin Recipes with Yogurt and Fruit

Breakfast Recipe – Breakfast Rice

Hot Chocolate Recipes for Families

Chicken Parmesan Recipe

If you like this Christmas soup recipe, you will want to check out the recipes I have collected on my Great Recipes board on Pinterest.

What is your favorite winter soup?

Christmas for Kids- Creating a Reindeer Lunch

December 10, 2012 By Deirdre

This post contains affiliate links.I usually share with you JDaniel’s reaction to lunches I have created or how I put them together. Today I thought JDaniel and I would walk you through how we put this reindeer lunch together in a bento box.

JDaniel used a barely sharp plastic knife to cut antlers out of Swiss cheese. He ended up cutting out about four antlers for our reindeer. Why? Well, he kept eating the antlers. I thought it would be a good idea to cut everything we needed first before we constructed the lunch. That turned out to be a very bad idea.

Cutting out the bread didn’t pose the same problem that cutting out the cheese did. We had scraps we didn’t need and JDaniel was able to snack on them.

Slicing the tomato for the nose was a little tricky. The tomato kept rolling around. Finally I started out the cut and JDaniel was able to finish it.

Once the foods we needed to cut out were done, we started to construct the sandwich. The cheese antlers when into the box first. The bread head was placed on top of them. JDaniel’s favorite sausage slices leftover from dinner were placed on the head for the eyes and the tomato slice was placed on as his nose.

Black olives were added to the deer for his pupils. I gave the reindeer lunch. JDaniel didn’t think kids would like them for Christmas and even reindeer might not like them. I put them in anyway. The reindeer was also given homemade granola and an abstract art bell.It turns out reindeer eating children eat everything, but the carrots. I guess JDaniel was right!

If you like this reindeer lunch, here are some more food creations:

Star Wars Breakfast

Watermelon Cookie Cutter Cutouts

You will find more food creation for kids on my Food Creations board on Pinterest.

Holiday Hop for Goodies- Christmas Wreath Pasta

December 9, 2012 By Deirdre

Time to get this Holiday Hop of Goodies going! For the next 3 weeks I will be posting holiday skinny mini recipes, crafts, decorating ideas, giveaways and more! Today I am starting the hop off with a Christmas wreath pasta. snack. Your kids will love helping to put it together and taking it apart to eat it.

Christmas Wreath Pasta

Sometimes you buy something from the grocery store for a particular recipe and you end up with some leftover. That is just what happened with the cheese tortellini in this wreath. I bought it to use in a Christmas soup recipe ( I will be sharing it later in this week.) and there was a lot leftover.

The package sat in the freezer for a few days while I thought about what I could use the pasta for. Finally, an idea came to my mind. Why not make a Christmas wreath pasta snack? JDaniel is always looking for a snack in the afternoon. I could just boil the pasta and put it out for both of us to snack on. I am always looking for an afternoon snack too.

We didn’t eat of all of the pasta in the Christmas wreath. Some ended up being tossed with salad dressing and some greens for a pasta salad. We did have fun popping these in our mouths and savoring the cheese filling the afternoon I had this out for a snack.

If you like this Christmas wreath snack, here are some other snack ideas for kids:

Over a Veggie RainbowApplesauce Toppings Bar

Very Hungry Caterpillar Snack

Minion Goggles Snack

St. Patrick’s Day Snack – Leprechaun Dust

Homemade Cinnamon Rolls

Snack for Kids- Kings Cake Recipe

Nine Apple Recipes for Kids
More snack ideas like the Christmas wreath snack can be found on my Food Creations board on Pinterest.