Archive for the ‘Kids’ Category

• Caramel Popcorn

  Date: 2010.06.07 | Category: Kids, Life, Snack, Sweets | Response: 0

  Summer has officially started at my house. We will be driving from Texas to Virginia Beach, Virginia for vacation this summer. We lived in Virginia Beach for 5 years while we were in the Navy and have a lot of friends that are still there. We are so excited to see everyone again. For the first time ever we rented a condo on the beach instead of staying at hotel. We are hoping with a full size kitchen we will cook more and not eat out so much, to save a few bucks. I can’t wait to get to the beach!!

  What are you guys doing this summer? I would love to know.

  

  With summer in full swing the kids have been staying up a little later, playing the Wii, playing in the sprinkler and watching movies. Last week I make caramel popcorn to go with their movie. My daughter was the only one that ate it, not sure why, I thought it was pretty tasty. The results tasted a lot like Cracker Jacks minus the peanuts. I have never made caramel popcorn before, I wasn’t sure what I was doing. I was trying to make popcorn balls on a stick but that didn’t work out, I pretty sure it’s because I did not have cream. I only used sugar and butter. My next attempt will start with a recipe search on Tastespotting. For now this was pretty easy and really good. Here’s the recipe.

  Ingredients
  1 cup sugar
  5 tablespoons butter
  1 bag of microwave popcorn
  
  Directions
  1. Pop popcorn according to package.
  2. In a medium sauce pan combine sugar and butter and cook on medium until the sugar is dissolved.
  3. Cook until you get a nice amber color.
  4. Spread popcorn onto a cookie and evenly pour caramel over popcorn.
  ~~~Caution: The caramel is very very very hot so please be careful. Do not touch with your bare hands give it time to cool~~~
  5. Let the caramel popcorn cool and break the pieces apart.
  6. Enjoy!!

  I have everyone has a great summer.

• Fruit Roll-ups or Fruit Leather

  Date: 2010.04.28 | Category: Kids, Life, Snack, Sweets | Response: 30

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  It’s been close to one month since  my last post and I can’t believe it has been that long, sorry for being gone so so long.  We have been a little busy around the house and when I say we I mean my  husband.  We are trying to find out if we have a green thumb.  Shaun has a little garden in the back yard.  We are hoping to produce tomatoes, bell peppers, jalapeno peppers, yellow squash, egg plant and zucchini. This is the first time we have ever attempted to grow any type of food. I think it will turn out great. We, I mean Shaun has also planted flowers in the front of the house, pink hydrangeas, my favorite flower by far. They are so pretty every time I look them I smile, they are happy flowers. I will write a post in a few days with pictures of our garden and flower bed in a few days.

  

  On to the fruit roll ups. Strawberries were recently on sale at Target so I bought four pounds and decided to make fruit roll ups for the first time. I did a little research and it’s not hard but it does require a little planning. It can take up to 8-10 hours in the oven for the fruit roll ups to dry. All you need for this recipe are strawberries, sugar, lemon juice and a food processor or blender. So lets get started.

  

  adapted from Fly Through Our Window
  Ingredients
  4 pounds of fresh strawberries, cleaned and stemmed (or any fruit you would like)
  1/2 – 1 cup of sugar (depending on the sweetness of the fruit)
  juice from 1 lemon
  
  Directions
  Preheat oven to 170F degree

  1. Toss everything into a food processor and blend until smooth.
  2. Pour into a heavy sauce pan and bring to a boil, stirring constantly.
  3. Reduce heat and skim off foam that will form on top with a spoon.
  4. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 30-45 minutes until mixture is the consistency of applesauce.
  5. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
  6. Pour mixture on parchment paper and spread evenly.
  7. Bake at 170F for 8-10 hours. Until the center is no longer sticky
  8. Cut into strips and roll up. There you have it, homemade fruit-rolls.

  

• Sliders

  Date: 2010.03.11 | Category: Kids, Main Dish, Quick and easy meals | Response: 3

  If you need a really quick and easy meal this one is for you. A slider is a mini-hambuger that is all, nothing fancy. We make sliders a lot at my house. The kids love how small they are and I love how easy they are. Normally when I make sliders I form them into individual patties and cook them on the stove top. But when I was searching the Food Blog search engine I found this recipe for White Castle Sliders from Full Bellies, Happy Kids. I must confess I have never has a White Castle slider, mainly because there are not any White Castles where I live. I can’t tell you if this recipe is just like White Castle but I can tell you why I had to try it. The main reason for trying it was because the meat was cooked in one pan and in one big patty, talk about easy right. If you have kids or just love quick easy meals you must give this a try.

  Next week is Spring Break for us.  We are heading to San Antonio, we haven’t had a family vacation in two years.  We have a busy week planned.  We are going to the Alamo, Fiesta Texas, visit family and more site seeing.  Our last trip was Disney World and Kameron was only three months, we went to Florida for my cousins wedding, then we all went to Disney World.  We are looking forward to our trip, the kids are excited and I’m glad to be getting out of the house for a little while.  The weather is suppose to be really nice so I need to go get a pedicure so I can wear my cute sandals and flip flops.   I’m to get a pedi I will see you soon!

  Ingredients
  1/2 cup dried onion flakes
  2 pounds ground chuck
  1/2 t. seasoned salt
  6 slices of your favorite cheese. I used cheddar and pepper jack.
  24 small slider rolls- I used Pepperridge Farm Sliders
  Toppings, pickles, lettuce, tomato. Typical hamburger stuff

  Directions
  1. Evenly spread the onions on the bottom of a 9×13 inch baking dish.
  2. Gently press the ground beef on top of the onion flakes. Press evenly making one patty.
  3. Sprinkle with season salt.
  4. Bake at 400 for 20 minutes.
  5. After 20 minutes blot the grease from the top using paper towels. Top with cheese slices and return to oven until cheese is melted, about 2 minutes.
  6. Cut into 24 patties and make a slider with your favorite toppings.