Rainbow Pudding Pops

Last week the girls asked if this week's theme could be about rainbows.

I'm not one to refuse a request like that!

;-)

On Monday we made Rainbow Pudding Pops!

This "recipe" is about as easy as you can get.  Seriously.  Which is why the girls took over the project.

Rainbow Pudding Pops

One package instant vanilla pudding

Milk (amount depends on the recipe listed on the pudding box)

food dye

Popsicle Mold is helpful but paper or plastic cups and tongue depressors (found at craft store) can also be used. 

Make the vanilla pudding according to the instructions listed on the box.  Stir. Stir. Stir. (we used an electric beater) Spoon out equal amounts of the pudding into four different bowls (we only did four different colors; you may wish to do more colors).  Add a different color food dye to each bowl (we used red, yellow, green and blue).  Stir to evenly distribute the dye into the pudding.  Spoon one color at a time into the popsicle molds (ours came from Ikea) until you get a rainbow effect.  We started with red, then added yellow, then green and finally topped off with blue.  Replace the sticks/handles carefully into the pudding. Freeze.  Enjoy!

Ava was in charge of the red and yellow layers

 Annika was in charge of the green and blue layers.

 Carefully spooning the green pudding on top of the yellow layer.

 We had a lot of extra green and blue....so that's why there's a popsicle with only green in it.

 Ready for the freezer!

 Talk about perfect timing!  The girls had their friends over (here is Wynne with Ava) yesterday afternoon and the rainbow pudding pops were a fantastic dessert!

 Shae and Annika

 Paige thinks they're fun too!

 Annika's current classic pose.  

I got the idea for these pudding pops from this blog.

So, it's definitely not a health food but they are fun!  I think if we make these again I know how to make these healthier and fun- use fruit purees!  I think I'd use blueberry, strawberry & raspberry, orange, banana & lemon and kiwi purees to create a rainbow effect.  Or something like that.  It's worth a try!

I've also been up to my elbows in strawberries!  I've got red stains EVERYWHERE.  LOL!  So far I've made 17 half-pints of strawberry freezer jam, gotten a double batch of strawberry ice cream goo ready to be churned, frozen other strawberries whole (to cook and use throughout the winter!) and I'm planning on making a strawberry/whipped cream layer cake.

Anyone want to come over and help us eat the ice cream and cake??????   Seriously!

Do you have any awesome strawberry recipes you can't live without?  Please share them with me!

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Tuesday's Special: Schinkenfleckerl (Baked Ham and Noodle Casserole)

Schinkenfleckerl

What does Schinkenfleckerl mean?  Well, Schinken is ham and the Fleckerl I'm not as sure about.  I think it means flecks or specks.  So perhaps Schinkenfleckerl means specks of ham ....or are the specks the noodles?  Hopefully my Mama will clarify this for us! :-)

Anyway...moving on....this dish is a noodle & ham casserole.

This is what I think of when someone says Comfort Food.  It's the Ultimate Comfort Food to me.  My mom frequently made this and now I make it for my girls.  They love it just as much as I do!  It's really hard not to like it.  Seriously.  What's not to like about noodles, eggs and ham all baked together?  I think this is a typical humble Austrian dish.

Schinkenfleckerl

Ingredients
2-3 cups cooked elbow noodles
1 cup diced ham (I use a package of the cubed ham)
1/4 cup butter (1/2 stick)
3 eggs; divided 
1 small container sour cream


Bread Crumb Topping (optional; not in original recipe my Mom gave me):
1 cup panko bread crumbs (regular bread crumbs work too!)
2-3 Tb butter


Directions
Heat oven to 375F.


Grease 2-quart baking dish (I use a Pyrex baking dish and I use spray cooking oil to grease it).


Beat egg whites until stiff.


In a large bowl cream butter and egg yolks together using an electric hand mixer. (it'll look curdled and that's okay)
Add ham, noodles, sour cream to the creamed butter and yolk mixture.  Use a rubber spatula to stir the mixture.  Fold the egg whites into the mixture.  (by gently folding in the egg whites the end product will be light and almost fluffy whereas if you stirred the egg whites into the mixture you'd lose the airy texture)


Pour into greased baking dish.
***
To make the bread crumb topping (which is totally optional but everyone in my family think it's a nice addition):
Melt the butter in a saute pan on medium heat. 


Add the bread crumbs and stir to coat all the bread crumbs with butter. 


Spread the bread crumbs over the top of the ham and noodles mixture.  
***  
Bake for about 30 minutes until the top is browned and the egg mixture is set. (mine took 40 minutes) 


Serve with salad. mmmmmm......


Posted at $5 Dinner Challenge and Balancing Beauty & Bedlam's Tasty Tuesday.

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Tuesday's Special: Spaghetti with Meat Sauce

Spaghetti! With yummy freshly grated Parmesan cheese on top.

Spaghetti with Meat Sauce 

Ingredients
1 large onion; chopped
4 garlic cloves; peeled and minced
olive oil
1 lb ground beef
2 Tb flour (not exact measurement)
1 small can tomato paste
1 quart (32 oz) of stewed tomatoes (I use my home-canned tomatoes for this)
1 can sliced mushrooms (optional)
Seasonings: salt, pepper, Italian seasoning, dried parsley OR Tuscan Sunset seasoning by Penzeys along with Italian Sausage Seasoning also by Penzeys (the latter two both contain crushed fennel which adds a nice taste to the sauce.)


Directions
Saute the chopped onions over medium heat (translucent and starting to turn brown) in a large frying pan in about 2 Tb of olive oil (or butter).  


Add meat and brown well.  


Add garlic to the meat and onion mixture and cook (I don't add the garlic with the onion as it's more likely to brown too quickly and then make the sauce taste bitter).  


Add about 2 Tb of flour and roast for about a minute.  The flour will help to thicken the sauce.  


Add the remaining ingredients and stir to combine.  


Season to taste (taste the sauce first to determine if you need to add any extra salt).  I usually season my spaghetti sauce with 1-2 Tb of the Tuscan Sunset seasoning and about 1 tsp of the Italian Sausage Seasoning.
  
Simmer (on low heat) with lid on for about 45 minutes.  


Serve with cooked spaghetti noodles (my preference is Angel Hair Pasta) and freshly grated Parmesan cheese.


Notes:
This sauce does freeze well.
I've made this sauce with finely diced carrots and celery.  I like the extra veggies but I usually leave them out as Mark prefers the sauce without the extra veggies.
Sliced FRESH mushrooms are awesome in this sauce!

Linking this post to $5 Dinner Challenge at $5 Dinners, Balancing Beauty & Bedlam's Tasty Tuesday

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{Rainbow Jello} in Pint Jars

Remember last week when I said I need to make a Rainbow Jello dessert some day?

Well, that some day turned out to be yesterday (Sunday)!  

I made them in honor of Annika's last choir concert of the year (which was also on that Sunday).  Plus, it helped that I had all the ingredients to make them.  ;-)

I decided to make the rainbow jello in pint jars...for no reason other than I couldn't find a dish that would easily fit in my freezer.  Plus, it was fun for everyone to eat their own rainbow.  

Want to make your own?  They're super easy but definitely time consuming to make.

Here's what we'll do:

We'll alternate layers of straight jello with layers of jello mixed with your choice of yogurt or sour cream. 

These are the colors I used and the order in which I used them:

red (bottom)

red+yogurt

orange

orange+yogurt

yellow

yellow+yogurt

green

green+yogurt

blue

blue+yogurt

purple

purple+yogurt (top)

Rainbow Jello in  Pint Jars

Ingredients

One box of  Jello (flavored gelatin) of each color: red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple (I used sugar-free); you'll have six boxes of flavored gelatin total

Vanilla yogurt, plain yogurt or sour cream (I used vanilla yogurt)

Five clean pint jars

Six plastic cups for mixing jello with boiling water- makes for easy clean-up

Boiling water (1-1/4 cups of boiling water per box of flavored gelatin)

Sweetened whipped cream (schmoo) or whipped topping 

A couple hours of your time

Directions

Mix the jello as indicated on the box EXCEPT use 1-1/4 cups of boiling water per packet.

Line up your pint jars in a row and add a scant 1/4 cup of the first color to each jar. 

   

Add a big soup spoonful (I'm guessing that's about 2 Tb) of vanilla yogurt (or plain yogurt or sour cream) to the remaining jello in the mixing cup and whisk/stir until smooth.  

Place the pint jars in the freezer for about ten minutes (to help the first layer set quickly). Put the jello-yogurt mixture in the fridge for the same amount of time.  

Take the jars out of the freezer and divide up the jello-yogurt mixture into each pint jar (about a scant 1/4 cup).  I used a spoon to deflect the warm jello mixture so that it wouldn't sink through the existing jello layer. 

Return the jars to the freezer for another ten minutes to set the jello-yogurt mixture.

Take the jars out of the freezer and repeat the above instructions for each of the remaining five colors allowing at least 10 minutes set time for each layer. 

Once completed- refrigerate the jars (don't keep them in the freezer...I only used the freezer to speed up the setting up time of the jello).  Add whipped topping or schmoo (sweetened whipped cream) to the top.  Eat.  Enjoy!  You're eating a rainbow!

Green- Blue-Purple 

cups of dissolved jello in plastic cups

 Last layer!  Woo hoo!  Just in the knick of time too... time to go to Annika's last choir concert of the year. (the towel covered slow cooker in the background has a batch of yogurt-in-the-works in it)

So very pretty!

Lovely with clouds of whipped cream!

The girls are obviously upset that they're being made to eat this. Obviously. Can't you tell?

We all ate our rainbows differently.  Annika ate hers one layer at a time.

 Daddy's way...several colors at once (my way too)

 Ava stabbed her rainbow jello with a spoon and turned hers into a jar of tiny colorful cubes of jello.

The funny part?  It's made of jello and I'm not the biggest fan of jello!  So I'm kind of laughing at myself for spending a couple of hours making this pretty dessert.  I might trying half-pint jars next time around for true individual serving-size desserts.

Linking this post up to Balancing Beauty and Bedlam's Tasty Tuesday, Skip to My Lou's Made by You Mondays

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Tuesday's Special: Peach-a-Berry Cobbler

I've decided that every Tuesday I'll post our family's favorite recipes.  Hopefully this will help remind me of our favorites when I'm at a loss of what to make/cook/bake!  Ever have that problem???  Surely I'm not the only one!  I'm the kind of person who is always trying something new.  (sigh)  However, sometimes it's really comforting to have an old favorite.

peach-a-berry cobbler

This week: Peach-a-Berry Cobbler (I believe this is originally from the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook but I'm honestly not sure as I got this recipe from my sister-in-law, Beth).  We always have frozen blueberries and either frozen or home-canned peaches on-hand.  This cobbler has been a major hit with all of our guests and is something I (and you too) can whip up easily.

* * *The amounts for the peaches and blueberries aren't exact.  If your fruit mixture isn't thick enough you can quickly mix more cornstarch with cold water before stirring it into the hot fruit mixture (make sure you stir the cornstarch mixture into the hot fruit mixture so that you don't end up with lumps...but even if you do get lumps it'll still taste great.  Trust me!).  It's not super critical to get it thick unless you don't like a soupy cobbler!* * *


* * *  I've also added other berries- like strawberries, raspberries or black raspberries to the fruit mixture.  I usually do this when I've got partially filled bags of frozen berries that by themselves don't amount to much.  It's a good way to use up those frozen berries! * * *

Peach-a-Berry Cobbler

Preheat oven to 350F. 


Ingredients for Fruit Filling
1 Tb cornstarch
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup cold water
2 cups sliced peaches (sugared; usually canned peaches are sugared)
1 cup blueberries (I'll often do more- up to 2 cups)
1 Tb butter
1 Tb lemon juice (I use bottled to keep things easy!)


Directions
Whisk together the first three ingredients (cornstarch, brown sugar, COLD water) in a medium pot.  Add fruits and cook on medium heat until mixture thickens (will take some time if using frozen fruit).  Remove from heat and add 1 Tb butter and 1 Tb lemon juice.  Pour into 8-1/2 inch round or square baking dish (I use a 2-quart Pyrex baking dish).  


Ingredients for Topping
1 cup all purpose flour (I've even used whole wheat pastry flour instead of the all purpose flour with great success.  Sometimes I'll do 1/2 cup w.w. pastry flour and 1/2 cup a.p. flour)
1/2 cup sugar
1-1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup butter; softened (half stick)
Cinnamon Sugar (optional; 1/4 tsp cinnamon + 2 Tb sugar; I usually make up a bunch of cinnamon sugar)


Directions
In a medium bowl, sift the dry ingredients (I do this by whisking the dry ingredients together to get out all the major lumps).  Add milk and softened butter and beat mixture until smooth (I use a rubber spatula to mix).  The topping mixture will be very thick It'll be more like cookie dough than cake batter. Spoon over the fruit mixture and sprinkle Cinnamon Sugar (optional) over the top.


Bake at 350F for 30 minutes (until topping is lightly browned and the fruit mixture is bubbly).  **Note to make life easier on yourself: place the ready-to-bake cobbler on a lipped cookie sheet or jelly roll pan before placing in the oven.  (the cookie sheet goes in the oven as well).  That way if the cobbler bubbles over it won't mean extra oven cleaning time!  I do this for all my pies, cobblers, crisps...anything that is likely to bubble over and cause a mess.**
  
Serve with {vanilla} ice cream or whipped cream (how about whipped cream sweetened with maple syrup? Or how about honey or maple syrup sweetened plain yogurt for a healthier topping?).  Serves 6...supposedly! If you add lots of whipped cream or ice cream you could probably double the number of servings!

We've eaten this for dessert...and leftovers for a lovely breakfast.

Another little note...I made this cobbler today using 2+ cups of frozen blueberries plus the 2 cups of sliced peaches.  I didn't add any extra cornstarch and my fruit was kind of soupy- meaning not very thick (which I don't mind).  I also did a sugar substitution on the topping.  I used 1/2 cup of Stevia (because I bought a bag of it the other day to try out) and 1/2 cup regular granulated sugar.  Guess what?  It tastes great!  I'll need to get opinion from all my family members but I might try this cobbler topping using just stevia instead of sugar.  Does anyone know anything about using stevia?  Is it indeed a good alternative to sugar?
ETA- The cobbler was a huge hit with all the members of the family.  Nobody could tell there was anything different (the stevia) about it.  Also, the fruit mixture did thicken up as it cooled.  It was soooo good that I might have accidentally had seconds.  oops. With plain yogurt sweetened with a little bit of maple syrup.  Yummy!

on the topic of blueberries....


Want to know how we manage to keep a frozen stash of blueberries?  Every August (around the 10th) you'll find us in Michigan...picking blueberries!  We pick enough (plus purchase extra from the blueberry farm if needed) for us to have a stash of blueberries in the freezer. 

If you should ever happen on an awesome deal on blueberries and don't-know-what-to-make-this-instant-with-them-this is what I'd do: wash them gently using either a colander, sieve or salad spinner.  Gently rinse the berries and swish them around to make sure you've gotten all of them clean.  Spin dry if using a salad spinner (I use that one I purchased for less than $5 at Wal-Mart and it works great).  Dump the damp berries on kitchen towels (I line my countertop with clean kitchen towels while I'm working with blueberries).  Sort through the berries- toss any that are over-ripe or mushy (will have an odd, yucky taste) or green.  Toss any leaves or anything not a blueberry!  (small children helping berries often get distracted) Using another clean kitchen towel very *gently* dry the berries (they bruise easily!).  Using quart-sized freezer Ziploc (or other brand) bags place 4 cups of the dried-off cleaned berries per bag.  Label or not label the bag depending on your mood.  Frozen blueberries are easy to identify!  Freeze for future use.  Now, it is important to get most of the berries as dry as possible (by gently rubbing the berries with clean towel or paper towel).  Otherwise you might end up with a glob of frozen blueberries that you can't separate and will need to use all at once.  By doing it with this method you'll end up with frozen blueberries you can easily remove the amount you need and refreeze the rest.  (I mean...take out what you need without thawing the entire batch....you definitely don't want to completely thaw out a bag of blueberries, take some and refreeze the remaining. )  Anyway...it's worked for us and for my sister-in-law for many years.  

That little bit of extra work during blueberry season is well worth it!  I'll post more of our favorite blueberry recipes.  :-) 


*I'm sharing this recipe with Balancing Beauty & Bedlam's Tasty Tuesday Parade.

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Tuesday's Special: My Favorite Sugar Cookie (turn it into a mini Fruit Pizza)

{mini fruit pizzas}

I've seen this particular recipe on at least three different websites (All Recipes, Moms Who Think and Simply Recipes) and it's no wonder as it's a very nice sugar cookie.  I've tried countless sugar cookie recipes over the years and unless someone suggests that there's a better recipe out there I'm sticking with this one!  

My Favorite Sugar Cookie Recipe

Ingredients:

3 cups all purpose flour

1-1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup sugar (they are sugar cookies!)

1 cup butter (softened; I use real butter- I buy it in bulk when I find it on sale and freeze it)

1 egg at room temperature

3 Tb half-and-half (or heavy cream)

1 tsp vanilla extract OR 1 tsp almond extract (I like almond; I like to use Penzeys)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400F.  

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar.  

Cut in the butter with a pastry blender until mixture is crumbly. (kind of like making a pie crust)

In a small bowl, whisk together the egg, half-and-half and vanilla or almond extract.  Add the wet mixture to the flour mixture and blend thoroughly (I start the process using a spatula and then switch to using my clean hands).

Chill dough in fridge for one hour.

Roll chilled dough on lightly floured surface to 1/4 inch thickness.  Cut into shapes.  Try hard not to eat cookie dough scraps!  

Place on parchment paper covered cookie sheet (I use my Silpat liners) and bake for 6 to 7 minutes, or until lightly browned.  Rotate the cookie sheet half way through baking time to get even browning (I set my timer for 3 minutes, rotate the sheet and reset the timer for 3 minutes).  Place on cooling rack.

I let the cookies sheets cool off before baking the next round of cookies (the dough will spread if placed on hot cookie sheets).  I also chill the scrap cookie dough before rolling it out again.  

Apparently this cookie dough freezes well but I've never had any leftover to try!  LOL!

Cream Cheese Frosting

via Simply Recipes

This frosting is great for fruit pizzas!

Ingredients:

8oz block cream cheese, room temperature

1 stick (1/2 cup) butter, room temperature

2-3 cups powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:

Cream the cream cheese and the butter together- I do this using my ancient stand mixer but you can also use an electric mixer.    Beat until the mixture is very smooth (stop and scrape down the sides of the bowl to make sure it all gets evenly mixed before continue mixing).  

Add vanilla extract and mix.  Add powdered sugar (begin by adding only 2 cups) and beating slowly.  Continue to add powdered sugar until you reach the desired thickness and sweetness.  

Spread on cooled cookies or cakes or eat by the spoonful.  :-)

Mini Fruit Pizzas

Ingredients

Baked & cooled sugar cookies

Cream Cheese Frosting

Fruit- anything you wish!*

*Suggestions for fruit: strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, bananas and apples (sprinkled with either lemon juice or FruitFresh to keep them from turning brown), kiwi, orange slices and mangoes.

Slice the larger fruit into smaller, bite-sized pieces.  Spread cream cheese frosting on to the cookies.  Arrange the fruit on the cookies.  Eat.  Repeat!  

Note- these cookies are meant to be consumed almost immediately.  At least that way you don't have to torture yourself waiting to eat them!

Some of our sugar cookies got turned into mini fruit pizzas & gobbled up!

Yum!

And the remaining cookies were decorated by two very wild looking little girls!  Ava and Annika spread the cream cheese frosting on the cookies and then generously covered them with spring-y sprinkles!

Fun activity for kids to do ...especially when the weather goes sour.

Assortment of Spring Cookies!

Sugar Cookie Icing Recipe

via Moms Who Think

Ingredients:

2 tsp milk

1 cup powdered sugar

2 tsp light corn syrup

1/2 tsp vanilla extract or raspberry extract (I LOVE raspberry with almond sugar cookies!)

assorted food coloring (if you want your icing to be colored)

Directions:

In a small bowl mix the milk and powdered sugar until smooth.

Beat in corn syrup and vanilla (or raspberry) extract until icing is smooth and glossy.  If the icing is too thick then add more corn syrup until you get the consistency you want.  

Color the icing with food colors if desired.  

I really like this icing recipe- I think it's very versatile.  

Do you have a favorite sugar cookie recipe?  

*posted this at Balancing Beauty & Bedlam's Tasty Tuesday

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Skewered Peeps! {fruit kebabs}

Oh no!

Someone skewered a Peep!

I know I saw these somewhere on the internet but I can't think where (this is not my original idea)
*ETA: Now I know where I saw these!!!!  I saw them over at Sun Scholars!  Rachel made the cutest Easter candy kebabs.*

All it took was some bamboo skewers I happened to have at home, a box of Peeps (99cents) and a variety of fruits (I used apples, green grapes, blackberries and strawberries).  I dusted the apple slices with FruitFresh to keep them from turning brown.  

The girls were ever so excited to get this for their dessert tonight!  And I mean EXCITED!

Those are some very happy girls!

And this Mommy has to agree...it was a pretty darn tasty dessert (not all that unhealthy considering we only got one Peep each).  Probably loads better than the *ahem* ice cream and homemade chocolate goo we had the previous night!  LOL!

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Tuesday's Special: My Favorite Granola Recipe (with NO oil!)

How about that?  It's yummy AND healthy!  I didn't think those two could co-exist!

My favorite granola recipe is originally from Baking Bites. It's so good you won't want to stop eating it!

Applesauce Granola

3-1/2 cups rolled oats
2 cups puffed rice cereal (aka Rice Krispies)
1 cup unsweetened coconut flakes (optional; find in health food section)
1/4 cup wheat germ (optional)
1/4 cup flax seed meal (optional)
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
dash of ground cardamom
3/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup plain applesauce (not chunky)
1/4 cup maple syrup or honey (I use maple syrup)
1 tsp vanilla extract
up to 1-1/2 cups chopped nuts*
up to 1 cup dried fruit**


*Nut suggestions: hazelnuts, almonds, walnuts (I toast these either on the stovetop in a dry cast iron skillet or in the oven at 350F for about 10 minutes- check often to prevent the nuts from getting too brown; toasting really seems to enhance the flavor of the nuts) PLUS cashews, macadamia nuts, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds


**dried fruit suggestions: cranberries, chopped apricots, raisins, cherries, blueberries, raspberries


Preheat oven to 325F and line a large cookie sheet (or two smaller sheets) with parchment paper.  -I use my Silpat liners instead of the parchment paper.


In a large bowl combine the oats, puffed rice cereal, spices, salt,coconut flakes, wheat germ and flax seed meal (if using).  In a medium bowl whisk together sugar, applesauce, maple syrup or honey and vanilla.  Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients along with chopped (& toasted) nuts and stir to combine.  Spread the wet granola evenly on the cookie sheet(s).


Bake on the cookie sheet for 30 minutes and then carefully- using a wide spatula- turn the granola over.  Bake for an additional 15 minutes, until crisp and golden.  Depending on the size of the cookie sheet the center may not be fully dried if the granola layer is thick but the edges might be browning.  Remove the edges of the baked granola to a cooling rack and let the rest of the granola bake for another 15 minutes until done.  -It usually takes the full hour for mine to be done (just be sure to keep turning it to brown it evenly!).


Cool on cookie sheet.  Break up granola, add in fruit and store in an airtight container (I store mine in a gallon size Ziploc bag).  - I usually forget to add the fruit...this can be done when you serve it.  

Just a side note: sometimes I toast the puffed rice cereal before mixing it with the oatmeal.  I do that in a dry cast iron skillet on the cooktop.  One time, however, I didn't closely watch the toasting process and I burned the cereal.  It was awful...nothing I could do to save that batch!  (I foolishly thought the burnt taste wouldn't come through in the end product.  I was wrong!).  I'm not sure that toasting the rice cereal makes any difference...perhaps try it and see what you think!


*********
I found this quote on the internet and it very neatly sums up my thoughts on cooking:


You don't have to cook fancy or complicated masterpieces - just good food from fresh ingredients. 
Julia Child


I'm hoping to bring you my favorite recipes every Tuesday (Tuesday's Special).  That way I can revisit old favorites and discover new ones in the process!

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