I never knew that these things had a name. O.G. always called them FOOTBALLS cause that’s what they looked like. Brilliant, I tell you. Anyway I was shocked at how simple they are to make and the kids absolutely love them.

ingredients:
2 cups rice
1/4 cup rice vinegar
3/4 teaspoons salt
3 Tablespoons sugar
1 Tablespoon sake (I left this out when I made it for the kids, fyi)
1 package aburage aka tofu pouches

Cook your rice in the rice cooker. While that’s going, in a small bowl mix together the rice vinegar, salt, sugar and sake if you are using it. Set aside.

Now bring a pot of water to a boil and heat the aburage according to the package directions. Obviously this is the easy step, since the thing is pre-made. Pretty awesome and simple.

When the rice is done, mix it will with the sauce ingredients that you’ve mixed together. Careful, the rice is HOT.

Now get your prepped aburage ready. They look like little pockets.

Using a spoon, stuff the prepped rice into the pockets and serve. It’s that simple!

This is an easy meal, and kids love to eat out of the little ‘bowls.’. I was lucky enough to find the world’s cutest Hello Kitty pasta, but any small shape will do!

ingredients:
melted butter
1 package pasta (small shapes are best)
1 28 ounce can crushed tomatoes
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 cloves garlic
1 small onion
1 teaspoon oregano
1/2 teaspoon basil
salt
pepper
1-1/2 cups mozzarella cheese, shredded

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prep six large ramekins (or 8 small) by greasing the inside with melted butter. Set aside.

Boil pasta according to directions. Drain and set aside.

While the pasta is boiling, start the sauce. In a large pan saute the chopped garlic and onion in olive oil for a few minutes. Add the tomatoes, oregano, basil and salt and pepper to taste.

Mix the sauce with the drained pasta and spoon into your prepped ramekins. Top with the shredded cheese, sprinkle with a tiny bit more salt and pepper.

Place ramekins on a baking sheet (in case they bubble over) and bake for 20-25 minutes. Let cool a bit and serve, careful kids – those ramekins are hot!

Sure, this meal is cuter because of the Hello Kitty pasta, but you can use any shape and it’s still a fun dinner for the kids. As for the dino shaped garlic bread, yeah – there’s no changing that. It’s a must.

Who are we kidding, I know baked corn dogs aren’t as good as fried ones, but I thought I’d give it a go. They baked up pretty well and turned out really tasty and the kids asked for more!

ingredients:
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup cornmeal
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 Tablespoons butter
1/4 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup cheddar cheese

1 egg + 1 Tb water for egg wash
4 hot dogs
4 lollipop sticks

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
Using lollipop sticks, carefully push the stick halfway into the hot dog. Set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, slowly mix the flour, cornmeal, baking powder and salt. Add the butter, and slowly add the buttermilk. Add the cheese, and mix until you get a dough like consistency that pulls away from the bowl.

Take the dough and separate it into four equal pieces. For each piece, roll out into a rectangular shape, the length of your hot dog.

Roll the dough around the dog, shape to cover it.

Place on a baking sheet and brush with the egg wash for a nice color when it comes out of the oven. Bake at 350 degrees for 15-17 minutes.

Let cool slightly and you’re ready to serve! I liked to put condiments and side dishes in a muffin tin for the kids to dip into. It’s the perfect size!

Like most boys, mine are into trains. I had some kids come over for playdates so I had to do something special for dessert of course. So I made up some Blue Velvet cupcakes and topped them with fondant Thomas faces.

With lots of inspiration around I dragged out some Thomas’ to help me out. I wanted it to be simple since I didn’t have a lot of time. Luckily the face is just gray, with white and black accents.

Even better…all the elements are circular, so there’s really no difficult shaping. I dyed fondant gray, and then made a bunch of black, to do that base of the face, which is Thomas’ smoke stack. I used a biscuit cutter to get the circles within a circle, and then freeformed the smoke stack on top.

Much like Hello Kitty’s whiskers, the key element for Thomas is the eyebrows, believe it or not. Once those were on it suddenly took shape.

The Kid complained that there was no blue and EVERYONE knows Thomas is blue. But I ran out of fondant! So, I made some red velvet cupcakes, but dyed them BLUE and turned them into blue velvet. Perfect for Thomas’ color. I tinted some cream cheese frosting with even more blue, and the Kid helped me put the Thomas faces on.

I could have gone overboard and did a full complicated version, but I just didn’t have time and these were rather quick. The kids were excited, which is always a plus. They also ate the WHOLE fondant face which I find a little gross, but sugar is sugar I suppose.

These are very quick and easy and are great for any little boys train birthday party!

If there’s one thing I know like the back of my hand, it’s Hello Kitty. So I’ve been wanting to do some Hello Kitty fondant work for a while.

you need:
white fondant
yellow gel dye
red gel dye
black gel dye
some delicious cupcakes!

Obviously you only need to dye VERY LITTLE of the fondant yellow, since it is just for the itty bitty noses. If you look at Hello Kitty’s head it’s basically an oval, so I started by making a roundish oval. I then made little pointy triangles for ears, oval nose, oval black eyes – and there you have the basic face.

The red bow is just two rounded end triangles put poit to point, with a big ‘ol circle in the middle. When you add the bow in red you know it’s Hello Kitty. The bow is rather large and takes up quite a bit of the side of the face.

What I never really realized is how much the whiskers make a difference. I sometimes forget they are there, but when you don’t put them on the face, it seems somehow incomplete.

I also made a few Pirate Kitty faces cause pirates make everything more awesome.

Hello Kitty is a great intro to fondant since the basics of the head is white. Along with small dyed pieces, the whole face comes together rather quickly.

I had this very expensive Vanilla infused Sea Salt leftover from some cupcakes I made. The ‘vanilla’ part of the sea salt made me think…what if…ice cream!? It came salty-sweet, in the best possible way. Of course if you don’t like salt – don’t make this.

ingredients:
2 cups heavy whipping cream
2 cups whole milk
3/4 cup white sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1-1/4 Tablespoons Vanilla Sea Salt

In a bowl, combine the heavy cream and the milk. Whisk in the sugar and the vanilla.

Pour into your ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer’s directions. When the mixture begins to firm up just a bit, I add the salt. When it is done, transfer to a sealed container and freeze.

This makes for a unique salty-sweet treat.