Recipes Archives - Page 2 of 7

How to Make Sensational Frozen Yogurt Popsicles

July 8, 2015 By Deirdre

This will forever be remembered as the summer that JDaniel learned to ride a bike. He had loved sailing down the street on four wheels multiple times a day for the last several months. I think he found comfort is riding his bike with training wheels even after I started lifting them off the ground. After his rides and my walks following him riding around our neighborhood, we would head in and have snack of a frozen yogurt Go-Gurt® tube from Yoplait or a cup of Trix cereal yogurt in a cup from Walmart. We both needed a little something after going up and down all the cul-de-sacs in our neighborhood.

Then one night while I was running behind his bike one of the training wheels fell off. The nut holding the wheel in place must have come off and we didn’t notice it. There I stood in the middle of the street holding a training wheel as JDaniel pedaled down the street. The remaining training wheel was sticking straight out horizontal with the road. (Just where I had moved it earlier in the week.)

“Do you know that you are riding without wheels down?” I called to him. “No,” he replied and kept on riding. All of a sudden he knew just what he needed to do to ride his bike.

Then next day I decided that we needed to make something to celebrate his freedom to ride without wheels. I reached in the fridge and grabbed a cup of cherry orchard, a cup of mountain blueberry, a cup of french vanilla Yoplait yogurt and some blueberries. JDaniel and I used them to make really delicious freedom frozen yogurt popsicles.

Let me walk you through the steps we used to make our frozen yogurt freedom pops.

One teaspoon of cherry orchard yogurt was placed in each of the molds.Then a small hand full of blueberries was added on top of the cherry orchard yogurt.

A layer made of one teaspoon of french vanilla yogurt was added on top of the berries.

Finally a layer of mountain blueberry yogurt was added.

Hint: We didn’t not fill the popsicle molds to the top. We both knew that liquids expand when they are frozen. The yogurt would expand and the stick section of the mold might be pushed up.

The yogurt popsicles were given a while to freeze. I think they were in the freezer for about an hour and half.

Hint:

When they were frozen, it was time to dip the mold in warm water to loosen the popsicles. When they were out of the mold it was time to celebrate this new stage in this life as a bike rider with our frozen yogurt popsicles.

I love the idea of serving my son a wholesome snack! These yummy yogurt popsicles might even be fun to have for breakfast on a hot summer morning. I bet my son would love that.

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Yoplait®. The opinions and text are all mine.

Easy to Make Muffin Recipes Featuring Yogurt and Fruit

July 7, 2015 By Deirdre

At snack time we inhale a lot muffins and yogurt at my house. We so enjoy them after a long bike ride or session of LEGO play. Yoplait gave me the opportunity to combine yogurt and muffins to create some really delicious snacks. After a trip to Walmart to look over the Yoplait yogurt choices that would be good pairings for muffins, we headed to the kitchen to cook. We combined a standard muffin recipe with several different Yoplait yogurts. My husband, son, and I all like snacking on them so much that they disappeared in just two days.

I think part of the reason my son liked the muffins is because he helped make them. Let me walk you through the ingredients and directions for our Key Lime Cooler muffins first.

Key Lime Cooler Muffins

Ingredients:
2 cups of baking mix
2/3 cup of water
1 tsp. of vanilla extract
1/3 cup of sugar
1/3 vegetable oil
1 large egg
3 tablespoons of Yoplait’s Light Key Lime yogurt

Directions:

Stir all the ingredients in a large bowl with a large spoon. Place the mixture with a spoon into muffin cups. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in a 425 degree oven.

Here are the yogurt fruit filled muffin recipes:

Next we decided to make blueberry lemon muffins and banana chocolate muffins. Each of these muffin recipes were similar to the key lime recipe. They did have a few differences. The biggest change was the addition of fresh fruit.

Blueberry Lemon Muffins

Ingredients

2 cups of baking mix
2/3 cup of water
1 tsp of lemon juice
1/3 a cup of sugar
1/3 a cup of melted margarine
1 large egg
1/3 a cup of blueberries (You can add more if you like. My son inhaled all, but a 1/3 cup of berries before we made these.)
3 tablespoons of Yoplait’s Greek Blueberry and Lemon Yogurt

Directions:

Stir all the ingredients in a large bowl with a large spoon. Place the mixture with a spoon into muffin cups. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in a 425 degree oven.

Banana Chocolate Muffins

Ingredients:
2 cups of baking mix
2/3 cup of water
1/3 cup of sugar
1/3 cup of melted margarine or vegetable oil
1 large egg
2 tablespoons of Yoplait’s Chocolate Whipped Yogurt
2 large ripened bananas smashed with a potato masher

Directions:

Stir all the ingredients in a large bowl with a large spoon or fork. Place the mixture with a spoon into muffin cups. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in a 425 degree oven.

Each of these muffin recipes had a wonderful texture and delicious flavor. I think these are just the beginning of our exploration to find ways to use Yoplait yogurt in muffins for summer snacking and maybe even school lunches. We will need to try more. These recipes used the Light and Greek Yogurts. We need need to try some that showcase the Yoplait Light and Gogurt. I am pulling for a pineapple muffin with orange peel next featuring Yoplait’s Light Pineapple Upside Down Cake.

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Yoplait®. The opinions and text are all mine.

Hard Boiled Eggs Recipe- Egg Toppings Bar

March 11, 2015 By Deirdre

Leftover hard boiled eggs provide a great opportunity for children to try new foods or try combining favorite foods in a new way. We have created a hard boiled eggs recipe for a salad with bunny shaped croutons a few years ago. We recently used some leftover hard boiled eggs to create hard boiled eggs recipe for an egg toppings bar. Each had gave us a new way to try hard boiled eggs.

We started by digging through the cabinets and the fridge to look for things that would taste good with an egg. We happened to find some bacon bits, salad croutons, ranch dressing, and shredded cheddar cheese.

After crushing the croutons into bread crumbs (which is lots of fun) , each of the toppings we found was placed in a small bowl. I then placed the bowls on a place mat to keep them from going all over the table.

I asked my son to try dipping one of the ends of the egg or a side of the egg into the dressing. Then he was then supposed to dip that part of the egg into one of the other toppings. The idea was to dip the egg into only one of the toppings. As you may have guessed the eggs may have been dipped in multiple toppings. That is was just fine with me!

The bacon bits and cheese toppings ended up being his favorite. I was not surprised.

Tips for Creating a Hard Boiled Eggs Topping Bar of Your Own

You may want have a small shallow cups or bowls for each child to use. They want to re-dip the eggs they have already bitten into.

You may not want to use bowls for the toppings at all you may want to sprinkle a sampling of each of the topping onto a paper plat and have just the dressing a a bowl or cup. Your children can then dip or roll their egg in the toppings.

You may want to have your children dip their egg into the dressing and then sprinkle the topping or topping they want to try onto the part of the egg with the dressing.

Here are other toppings you to try in this hard boiled eggs recipe:

Ribbon peelings of celery or carrot
Grated cucumber
Parmesan cheese

My son looked like he was having so much fun exploring the hard boiled egg toppings bar that I grabbed an egg to explore them too. Yum! I really liked the ranch with bread crumbs on my egg.

If you decided to create a hard boiled egg toppings bar at your house, please leave me a comment below telling me about it or share a picture of it on my Facebook page.

Breakfast Rice Recipes- Tropical Rice Treat

December 16, 2014 By Deirdre

This is a sponsored post.

Breakfast rice recipes are not something I have explored before. I have wanted to find quick and easy recipes we could use during our holiday break as well as on school days. Things here seem to be busy every day and we all need to fuel up to get the day off to a good start. After finding this recipe on Minute® Rice website called Four Grain Berries and Yogurt I was inspired to come up with our own version of the recipe. It features tropical fruits that are some of my son’s favorites. I knew he would love it.

Here is take on Breakfast Rice recipes:

Ingredients

1 packet of Minute® Rice Multi- Grain Medley

1 large can of mandarin oranges with syrup

1 container of pineapple flavored Greek yogurt

1 cup of dried tropical fruit

½ tsp. of cinnamon

Directions:

Add a cup of mandarin orange juice( syrup) to the pack of multi-grain Minute® Rice’s Multi- Grain Medley in a saucepan.

Bring them to a boil and then let them simmer for 10 minutes. When the rice is ready there will be very little liquid left.

Place the rice into a mixing bowl.

Mix the yogurt, dried fruit, and cinnamon into the rice thoroughly.

Place the mixture into individual bowls or ramekins.

Sprinkle a little cinnamon onto each bowl. Then add a few piece of the dried fruit to the top as you would add sprinkles.

This recipe makes four servings of the Tropical Rice Treat.

I love that Minute® Rice Multi- Grain Medley is a blend of four gluten-free grains ( long grain brown rice, Thai red rice, wild rice, and quinoa). My sister has to eat gluten free recipes. This is something I can serve her for breakfast when she is here over the holidays. It might inspire her to find other wonderful recipes that incorporate holiday leftovers. It might also encourage my whole family to look for meals we can serve to her when she visits with us. We may decide we love them so much that we want to have them when she isn’t visiting.

My son loves tropical fruit so, I created our recipe to include foods I knew he would like. If your family likes special fruits and flavors, you will want to include them in the version of this recipe you make at home. Of course you can always use our recipe. I will be using it again and again.

If you like this recipe, you can find other breakfast rice recipes on the Minute® Rice recipe website. They have tons of recipes that feature their 100% Whole Grain Brown Rice, Minute® White Rice, Minute® Brown Rice as well as Minute® Multi-Grain Rice. I think I am going to try the Zucchini Banana Multi- Grain Bread next.

Breakfast Rice Recipes- Tropical Treat

Disclaimer: This is a sponsored post. All thoughts and opinions about Minute® Rice products and their recipes are my own.

signature

Christmas Cookie Recipes-Chocolate Covered Cookie Balls

December 9, 2014 By Deirdre

We wanted to make JDaniel’s teacher something for Christmas. The Christmas cookie recipes for cookie balls seemed like a perfect gift after looking high and low for one. Why? I wanted a cookie that would fit in the egg carton holiday gift box we made. Cookie balls can be any size of rounded ball that you want them to be. That made them perfect for us to make as a teacher gift.

I loved to add a little JDaniel4’s Mom twist to the recipes we try. We started with the basic chocolate covered cookie ball recipe found on Snack Works and then created our own version of the recipe.

Here are its ingredients:

1 pkg. (8 oz.) of cream cheese that has been softened

36 OREO sandwich cookies that have been finely crushed

3 (4 oz.) packages of baking chocolate melted

Here is what our Christmas cookie recipe ingredients were:

1 pkg. of Neufchatel cheese that has been softened.

36 generic Oreo like sandwich cookies that have been crushed

¾ of a can of chocolate frosting

Why use Christmas cookie recipes alternative ingredients to make this recipe?

They were much cheaper. We love my son’s teacher, but if I could come up with a cheaper ingredients that would make a yummy treat I decided to go for it.

Directions for this Christmas Cookie Recipe

Combine the Neufchatel cheese and the cookie crumbs. We tried mixing them with our hands and found that a fork made a better mixing tool.

Roll the mixture into balls. All of the Christmas cookie recipe I looked at for Christmas balls said you would end up with about 48 one inch balls. We must have had some of the dough disappear. We ended up with closer to 40. (Hmmm! Who do you think sneaked some?)

Place the balls onto a tray covered with wax or parchment paper. (We used parchment paper.)

Place the tray covered in cookie balls into the freezer for about 10 minutes.

Melt about a ¼ of a can of chocolate frosting in the microwave for about 15 seconds. Why not do the whole ¾ of a can a once? The frosting starts to harden quickly. We were able to have smooth and dripping chocolate to dip the cookies into by working with small batches of frosting.

We covered the slightly frozen cookie balls with chocolate by placing them into the small bowl we had melted the chocolate in. Then we spooned chocolate over each ball as we rolled in the bowl. Then we used a toothpick to lift up the cookie ball and move it to the tray. (The Christmas cookie recipes were explored really didn’t tell us how to dip them.)

When all of the cookie balls were covered, they were placed back into the freezer. I left them in the freezer overnight. Some Christmas cookie recipes called for them only be in the freezer for an hour.

Here are some other Christmas cookie recipes for activities we have done:

Decorating Gingerbread Men

Making Salt Dough Cookie Ornaments

Healthy Recipes for Frozen Pops

July 16, 2014 By Deirdre

We have added some really cool silicone frozen pop tubes to our kitchen creation tools. (I will share more about them tomorrow.) While it has been fun creating our own recipes, I decided to search to find some tried and true healthy recipes online.

I found a multitude of wonderful healthy recipes with a wide variety of ingredients in my search. The recipe ideas and their links below are the ones that I looked at and knew we would be trying out our house. I hope you will take a few moments and check them out.

Healthy Recipes for Frozen Pops

6 Healthy Popsicles- Huffington Post

The kiwi recipes on the post look wonderful.

Chocolate Super Pops- Momables

These have interesting ingredients that look like they work really well together.

Healthy Kids Snacks: Watermelon Popsicles- Coffee Cups and Crayons

We go through a lot of watermelons during the summer. I bet we could set some aside to try this recipe! I looks wonderful.

Blueberries and Cream- My Whole Food Life

These will be right up my blueberry-loving guy’s alley.

Fresh Fruit Frozen Yogurt Pops- Meet the Dubiens

This post shares six wonderful flavor combinations! You will want to try them all.

Mango Popsicles – Katy She Cooks

These look super refreshing! What a great fruit-filled treat!

How to Make Healthy Ice Pops- Move Nourish Believe

This post has an amazing recipe printable. I will have a copy in my kitchen.

Easy Homemade Popsicles-Living On A Dime

This post has tons of creative popsicle ingredient ideas. We are going to try a number of them.

Healthier Banana Fudgecicles – Mama.Papa. Bubba.

You will love the photos that walk you step by step through the healthy recipe for these yummy frozen pops.

Summer Recipes for Family Fun

July 5, 2014 By Deirdre

These wonderful summer recipes for family fun will be terrific to pull out when your children need something new to do. They would be great boredom busters or to explore during family time too. Each was shared on last week’s Sunday Showcase by some of you. Now all you have to decide is which summer recipes for fun your family would love to do.

Summer Recipes for Family Fun

Mini Monets and Mommies shared a really cool homemade glow in the dark paint. We are going to try it at my house.

Water shooter tie-dye outdoor fun was shared Fantastic Fun and Learning. The tie-dyed sheets they created would be great for picnics or outdoor story times.

Epic Fun for Kids has created a chocolate slime dough that they used to create a habitat from Star Wars. It look incredible!

Growing in God’s Grace had me craving homemade fudgecicles after reading their post. Be warned if you visit this post you will crave them too.

The Kid’s Activity Blog shared a recipe from their wonderful new book 101 Kids Activities That Are the Bestest, Funnest Ever!: The Entertainment Solution for Parents, Relatives & Babysitters!fizzy sidewalk paint that looks really wonderful. We have recently made sidewalk paint, but it didn’t fizz.

More Summer Recipes for Family Fun

JDaniel keeps asking them to make more confetti eggs with him. He really loves make them and throw them at his friends.

Sidewalk chalk has been another favorite at my house this summer. This post shares easy recipes for sidewalk chalk.

Brown cow floats are a hit with everyone. Actually if you don’t like brown cow floats you can make black cow, spotted cow, or orange cow floats instead.

The Sunday Showcase is hosted on the following blogs:

Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas
Here Come the Girls
Inspiration Laboratories
JDaniel4′s Mom

We each feature different posts that have linked up, so be sure to check everyone out! We’ll also be pinning our favorites to our Pinterest board.

If you are here for the first time, please read this informational post for the full details. Here’s the short version – anything kid friendly and/or child centered is welcome! You are welcome to share more than one post, but we don’t accept links for giveaways, shops, or downloads for purchase, etc.

If you’re linking up, I encourage you to visit some of the other link-ups! Everyone appreciates comments, encouragement, feedback, etc.

*Please note that by linking up you are giving us permission to use a photo (with proper link to you!) in our featured section!

An InLinkz Link-up

Playdough Recipes for Fun (The Sunday Showcase)

June 14, 2014 By Deirdre

Making your own playdough is super easy when you use the playdough recipes I am featuring on The Sunday Showcase today. The posts I am sharing include playdough recipes and activities that you can do with your home playdough.

We make playdough often at my house. It is a great indoor activity on rainy days, high pollen days, or days when your children just need to slow down and have some “home” time. One of wonderful things about these playdough recipes is that you will probably have many of the ingredients already in your pantry at home. When you need something fun to do with your kids, you just need to open your pantry door and grab them.

Playdough Recipes for Fun

My Nearest and Dearest has created a coffee bean playdough recipe. Making this playdough recipe looks like it was as much fun as playing with it.

Ocean Cloud Playdough was also shared by My Nearest and Dearest on the link up last week. My son has tons of ocean creature figures. They would be great to play with in this dough.

In the Playroom created a color matching activity with moon dough that looks like fun. The creations shared in this post are super cute.

Munchkins and Moms shared a secret ingredient you can add to the traditional moon dough! I was suprised by what it was. You will be too.

Construction equipment toys let your dig into a construction sites made of playdough. If you have child that likes construction equipment, you may have a small set of construction equipment toys at home in your toy bin.

Chocolate shadow playdough has two shades of brown and a great scent. This post shares how I make playdough. We made it for Groundhog Day.

Creating playdough in fun colors and with fun names that match a favorite author’s books is a playdough recipe for fun. This post shares several Dr. Seuss themed playdoughs.

Link Up Information

If you are here for the first time please read this informational post on Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas’ site for the full details. Anything kid friendly and/or child centered is welcome! You are welcome to share more than one post, but we don’t accept links for giveaways, shops, or downloads for purchase, etc. They will be deleted.

An InLinkz Link-up

{Easter Ideas} Empty Tomb Rolls

March 26, 2014 By Deirdre

One of the fun Easter ideas we have tried is creating empty tomb rolls. This cooking project helps children to experience the Easter story as they bake. I have found that story themed cooking lessons help my son understand stories and concepts. The story of the stone rolling away and Jesus’ tomb being found empty while wonderfully miraculous can be hard for some children to grasp.

Easter Ideas- Making Empty Tomb Rolls

Here is how I made the story the resurrection story more than just an Easter idea for JDaniel and the boy next door:

We started by talking about the events leading up to Jesus’ tomb being found empty. Both boys are very familiar with the Easter story and they were able to take turns filling me in on the events. If you have class or children at home that aren’t familiar with the story, you may want to take out a children’s bible or an Easter storybook and read it to them.

Then we took out a broiler pan. We could have used a cookie sheet, but I reached into my pan cabinet and pulled out the first thing I could grab.

I had purchased a package of five ready to bake rolls in a cylinder knowing that I wanted enough for both boys to get two rolls and have one left over for me. If you were doing this with a larger group, you may want to get a larger roll of rolls.

Each boy placed his rolls on his side of the broiler pan as I explained the next step. It was really hard to not want to squish and squash the rolls. One of the boys, in particular, lost this battle and ended up squishing his rolls.

It was more challenging to do the next step of the activity with squished rolls, but it was not impossible. I told the boys to pry open their rolls in the middle and place a marshmallow in the center. The rolls we had purchase advertised that they had many layers. That made it easier to place the marshmallow in them.

The rolls I explained to the boys represented the cave that was used for Jesus’ tomb. The marshmallow represented Jesus’ body wrapped or shrouded with burial cloths. By placing the marshmallow in the rolls we were replaying what had happened to Jesus when he was buried.

With the marshmallow in the rolls (tombs) we sealed the rolls closed just as Jesus’s burial place had been closed off. The closed rolls were then placed in the pan.

Talking About the Story the Rolls Tell

We talked about how the disciples and other followers of Jesus knew he was safely behind a rock that had been rolled in place. The marshmallows were just as safe in the rolls we all agreed.

After the rolls had been in the oven for the amount of time recommended on the package, we took them out. We immediately saw that something had happened to some of the rolls. I had hoped it would happen to all of them, but it didn’t. What had happened? The rolls and had a small opening in the front and we could see inside them. Much as the tomb had opened and those that came to visit it could look inside. What a great illustration of one the central Easter ideas!

There was also only a small amount of marshmallow ooze at their entrances. We talked about how the followers of Jesus’ had found the white wrappings that had been placed on him. They were all that was left in the tomb.

The boys bit into the rolls to see if they would find the marshmallows in the rolls that had stayed closed. There wasn’t even small marshmallow ooze.

We talked about how the marshmallows had probably melted into the rolls while it was cooking. That made sense to both of the boys. They were in awe of how the marshmallow melting had created enough steam to push a hole in the biscuit in an attempt to get out.

The boys were astonished by this Easter idea. They would have never guessed that the rolls would have become empty. I bet the disciples and Jesus’ followers were astonished too.

Here are three other Easter ideas that help children learn about the true meaning of Easter:

Easter Story Cookies

Legend of the Dogwood Hand Print Craft

True Meaning of Easter Rocks

If you are interested in more Easter related crafts, snacks, and learning activities, you may want to visit my Easter board on Pinterest.

Saint Patricks Day Snack: Leprechaun Dust

March 9, 2014 By Deirdre

Leprechaun are known for having magical and precious treasures. Among those treasures are leprechaun gold and leprechaun magic dust. I decided to create a leprechaun magic dust snack with my son for Saint Patrick’s Day. One of the special things about leprechaun magic dust is that it transform a simple snack like yogurt into a snack swirled with color.

Our leprechaun magic dust was made of pistachio pudding powder. Pudding powder has very little if any color when it is in its package. It may have slight scent to it, but it doesn’t reveal what type of pudding it will create until it is added to a liquid or a solid. I think a leprechaun’s magic dust may be just like that. You may not see that it is being scattered until it has drifted onto the object it is being sent to change. Since it truly doesn’t look like more than dust. I added a few shakes of gold sprinkles to add to the magic’s dust magical look.

The leprechaun’s magic dust could be added to almost any white food that your might like a pistachio flavor added to. (I know not all children will like pistachio. You could try lime jello for this project instead.

Here are some foods that I think would work:

Cream of wheat
Whipped cream cheese
Milk
Yogurt
Icing
Oatmeal

We used plain Greek yogurt as our base of the snack. My son loves Greek yogurt, but the plain variety needs something added to it I have been told. I think that vanilla yogurt would probably have worked well too. We avoided using a yogurt that would already have a strong flavor that would clash with the leprechaun magic dust for this project.

Saint Patrick's Day Snack- Leprechaun Dust with Yogurt

I happened upon black salsa bowls at the dollar store. They reminded me of the type of pot that a leprechaun might store his gold in. They came in a set of two so we each got to use one to create the Leprechaun Magic Dust Snack.

An old container from sprinkles was the perfect thing to house the magic dust. I filled the plastic container with the pudding mix before we started the project so that it would be a surprise to JDaniel. I did have him add the gold sprinkles to the container using a funnel.

Creating a mysterious and magical snack was a lot of fun. I think it would be great to do at home or in a classroom. The fact that this Saint Patrick’s Day Leprechaun Dust Snack changes color is really cool.

If you are looking for some other St. Patrick’s Day activities, you may want to check these out.

St. Patrick Loves Veggies

St. Patrick’s Paper Plate Emotions Spinner

23 St. Patrick’s Day Activities

St. Patrick’s Day Sensory Activities

Homemade Cinnamon Rolls

Deirdre Smith writes/owns JDaniel4’s Mom. After twenty years as a elementary school and technology resource teacher in Northern Virginia, she became a stay at home mom in upstate South Carolina. Her blog features ways she and her 6 year old are exploring learning, crafting, creating healthy meals and living life to its fullest. Deirdre can also be found on her blog’s FB page. You can also check her out on Google+.