Mango Limeade Popsicles

Red and I had to make a quick run to the store this morning to pick up some movies from the Redbox and some movie snacks. While I was there I caught a glimpse of some popsicle molds on an endcap for $1.00. That was inspiration enough for me. I knew Red would enjoy making them, he loves to do anything that involves the blender. I picked up a can of frozen limeade concentrate to curb the sour craving I had going.

I've got a freezer full of frozen fruits that we usually use for smoothies. Red's favorite are the mangoes. He often times just pulls the bag out of the freezer and snacks on a few frozen mango pieces. I thought at first I'd throw some strawberries in with the limeade-but then figured why not try mango.

I didn't measure the amounts so there is no real recipe-but really this is going to hard to screw up anyway.

Here's what we did:

1. Make a pitcher of limeade. Pour about two cups into a blender.

2. Roughly dice up some frozen mango pieces. Add to blender.

3. Puree the frozen mango pieces into the limeade.

4. Pour mango lime mixture into popsicle molds.

5. Place in freezer for a couple of hours to set.

6. Run some warm water over outside of mold to help remove popsicles when you are ready to eat.

This made about 8 popsicles.

These were so sour and refreshing. I can't wait to make a different combo tomorrow. I'm thinking adding some real lime zest and maybe even a touch of ice cream in the middle would be super good too.

Happy "Patrick's" Day Pretzel Treats

You know I have been scouring the shelves for fun ingredients to make St. Patty's Day treats for Red's class and there really is not much selection down here? I remember growing up in Cleveland what a huge deal St. Patty's was...the streets were decorated and the yellow lines on the roads on some of the streets in Euclid would have green painted next to them...they use to even dye the river green when I was very young.

The parade was a huge event and as we grew into trouble making, experimental teenagers everyone would cut out of school to go to the parade and drink beer and be foolish. It was fun. I mean who doesn't love a good rousing round of silly Irish pub songs? It was like the Mardi Gras of the Midwest for us.

We ate corned beef and cabbage and drank lots of beer and hugged and partied with our friends. Good times...

Ah, the corned beef...I miss that. Cleveland is inundated with little Mom and Pop Corned Beef Sandwich spots...they come piled high with melted Swiss and mustard on rye...or you can have them Reuben style with a thousand island style dressing...so so bad, but so so good.

Ah the memories...

Anyway, Red's pretty into the whole "Patrick's Day" thing because well according to him, its Patrick from Sponge Bob's show day! That and anytime he gets to bring treats into school and wear a special color or something he is all about it. He loves a good celebration.

We made some candy coated pretzels for the class...pretty they are not, but tasty oh yes...and easy. He had fun making them and can't wait to share them with his class today as you can see here...don'tcha just {heart} a kids face that is beaming with pride?

Candy Coated Patrick's Day Pretzels

1 package vanilla almond bark (or you could do white choco chips)

green gel food coloring

1 bag mini twist pretzels

1 shaker of sprinkles

Melt the almond bark in the microwave. I broke the square in half and then mic'd it for 90 seconds...take it out and stir. continue to mic and stir in 15 second intervals until it is smooth creamy and melted.

Add some gel food coloring and mix to your color liking.

Place handfuls of pretzels into melted almond bark. Remove with skewers and place on a cooling rack or on wax or parchment paper. Before candy coating dries and hardens sprinkle with sprinkles or colored sugar.

Let candy coating harden for a few hours and then bag or container them.

In the Kitchen with Spiderman

Today we have a special guest appearance at the Grow.Food.Love Kitchen! Its none other than Spiderman! Spiderman has joined us today to show us how to make Twirly Whirly Pizza originally shared with us online by Parents magazine.

Twirly Whirly Pizza

1 tube (13.8 ounces) refrigerated pizza dough
1/2 cup pizza sauce
1/2 cup shredded Italian-mix cheese, divided
1 cup fresh baby spinach leaves

1. Heat over to 400°F. Unroll dough from tube. Spread pizza sauce on top.

We caught Spiderman getting ready to lick the spoon while he helped spread the sauce on the dough...this is why spiderman does NOT get to help when we make food for guests.

2. Sprinkle with half of cheese and top with spinach leaves.

What a great leaf spreader you are Spiderman!

3.Roll up, starting with short end.

4. Cut into 8 pieces, then lay pieces flat in a greased pie tin. Sprinkle with remaining cheese and bake 22 to 25 minutes or until golden brown.

**my dough was really moist for some reason and this made cutting it and keeping its shape very difficult. Next time I think I will flour the dough a little bit and not roll it quite as thin.

This turned out to be a fun recipe for us and you could really add just about anything you want to it. Its just pizza that looks kind of like a cinnamon roll.

Bar-B-Cups, Because Sometimes You Have to Improvise

Yes, Yes, I made a menu plan...but just because I have a written menu plan-it does not mean I will suddenly leave behind my entire old unorganized self-cold-turkey and be able to stay on task all the time. Tonight is Kid's Choice night and I had planned on making some Grilled Nutter Butter Nana Sammiches and Triple Berry Smoothies-but when I went grocery shopping on Saturday-the bananas were looking too sad for me to waste my money on them so I passed them up.

I planned on picking some up at the store on lunch break today-but it was an insane day at work and I also had a lovely appointment with my fav doc-Dr. Joe, for an adjustment and deep tissue massage. Ahhhh, so the whole muscular zen thing got me all distracted and alas, the bananas melted from my mind along with all the other tension of the day.

Luckily though, there was a recipe posted on Taste and Tell, a rockin' blog I seem to be stalking and copying from pretty often as of late, that I wanted to try and had all of the ingredients on hand already.

The recipe is Bar-B-Cups and its totally a fun kid friendly recipe. I adapted it a bit so that it would be a little less fattening. I bought the reduced fat version of refrigerated biscuit dough and used some cooking spray to grease the muffin tins. The use of LEAN ground turkey made a difference in the fat and calorie count as well. I also cut the biscuits in half and used less biscuit in each muffin tin and more of the turkey.

**Side note-check out these really cute summery plates and tumblers I found at CVS for 75% the other day! SCORE! I know its the end of summer-but they can be used next season and they are kid friendly plastic and for 19 and 25 cents each you can't beat it.**

OK, back to the recipe-this takes less than 30 minutes to make. We had it with some steamed broccoli and baby corn spears.

Bar-B-Cups-My Adaptation of the ORIGINAL

1 lb. lean ground TURKEY
1/2 cup barbecue sauce
1/4 cup chopped onion
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 can reduced fat flaky refrigerated biscuits
1/4 cup shredded cheddar

Heat oven to 400°F. Spray 12 muffin cups with cooking spray. In large skillet, brown ground turkey over medium heat until thoroughly cooked, stirring frequently. Drain. Stir in barbecue sauce, onion and brown sugar. Cook 1 minute to blend flavors, stirring constantly.Separate dough into 12 biscuits. Depending on the size of biscuits you buy-you might be able to cut each biscuit round in half and then place 1 biscuit in each muffin cup. Firmly press in bottom and up sides, forming 1/4-inch rim over edge of cup. Spoon about 1/4 cup turkey mixture into each biscuit-lined cup. Sprinkle each with cheese. Bake at 400°F. for 10 to 12 minutes or until edges of biscuits are golden brown. Cool 1 minute; remove from muffin cups.

Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes

These don't fall in line with our quest for cleaner healthier eating, but like I said before you can't completely deprive yourself..and its for the kids! Red is having an "End of Summer" party at pre-school today so we went with Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes as our party food contribution. We did use fat free angel food cake mix for the cupcakes though-so that cut down on the fat a little bit.

Here's Red-ever so happy to be going to his party today, fully decked out in his tie-dye shirt (made at school and required attire for the event) and silly sunglasses...

OK, so back to the cupcakes-they are terribly easy to make.

What you need (just the basics you can get fussier and fancier if you want):

1 box of flat bottom ice cream cones

1 box of cake mix, eggs, oil, water

Frosting and sprinklers for decoration

Ice Cream scoop or small ladle

What you do:

~First you prepare the cake batter as instructed on the box (or make your own from scratch-I'm lazy so I use boxed cake mix). Line up your cones on a flat baking sheet or place them in muffin tins.

~Using an ice cream scoop or small ladle, scoop up some batter and put into each cone-being sure to only fill it about 1/2 way full. I have found that an ice cream scoop provides about the perfect amount of batter for the cones. If you overfill it the batter will bake up and over the top and onto the cookie sheet-still tastes good-just not very pretty.

~Place the filled cones into the oven and bake at 350 for about 25-30 minutes.

~Remove from oven, let cool and then frost and decorate.

~Yay! Cupcakes!