Does this really need a how-to? No, it’s pretty self explanatory but it was a lot of fun to do with the kids. I had the boys write down all the foods they could think of according to color, then I had them help me lay them out in a cupcake pan.

This is something I like to pull out when the kids have friends over for playdates. They seem to think it’s a lot of fun, and it’s great to hear them think of other things that we could have put in there, as well as seeing the kids try new things. Note: No one ate the spinach, but hey it was worth a shot.

When I was a kid I’d go fishing with my Grandpa- he always used marshmallows and those seemed to be the most effective bait. The strawberry marshmallows reminded me that, then I added pretzel sticks for ‘rods’ to catch the cinnamon graham goldfish cookies. A stretch, I know – but it makes snack time more fun!

ingredients:
1 cup cinnamon graham goldfish
2 ounces of mini strawberry marshmallows
3 ounces of pretzel sticks

yogurt

Mix the ingredients together.

Obviously you can use other flavors, I just liked the colors that this made.

It tastes even better with a yogurt pond as dipping sauce!

So what I did was take Ina’s basic Buttermilk Cheddar Biscuit recipe and then pump it up a bit. Oh…and I shaped them into pigs. Bacon. Pigs. Get it? I know it’s gross, but you won’t believe how tasty these are. You don’t have to shape them into pigs, they’re still delicious.

ingredients:
2 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1-1/2 sticks COLD butter, diced
1/2 cup cold buttermilk (OR – 1/2 cup milk+3teaspoons lemon juice)
1 egg
2 cups cheddar cheese, grated
1/2 lb of bacon, cooked and chopped
some sliced olives for the face
1 egg beaten with 1 Tablespoon water for egg wash)

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. If you haven’t already cooked your bacon, do it now. Chop it into tiny pieces, cook and drain. Set aside.

Place flour, baking powder and salt in the bowl of an electric mixer. Turn it on low, and carefully add the diced butter until the mixture is crumbly, like small peas.

If you don’t have buttermilk, who does, then just substitute the milk+lemon juice. It works ok too. Combine the buttermilk and egg and beat lightly. Add to the flour mixture until moistened.

In a separate bowl, mix the cheese with a handful of flour for stickage purposes, then add the cheese to the dough, and your cooked bacon pieces – while still mixing on low. Don’t over mix!! Just until combined, then STOP.

Dump the dough out onto a floured surface and knead slightly. Pat it out to about 1/2″ thick. Using a biscuit cutter, cut out circles – this will be the head of the piggie. Then I just take a small piece, shape it into a triangle, and tack it on for the ears.

Now for the eyes, just take a sliced olive, cut it into thirds, which will give you the two eyes and two nostrils. Simple.

Transfer to a prepped baking sheet and brush the tops with egg wash. Bake for 20-25 mins.

My kids really love these bacon-y piggies. You don’t need to go to the trouble of making them into pigs, but it sure is cute.

Quite obviously this is not a recipe. Just an idea of how to make your kids get interactive with meal time. One of the kids favorite books, “I will never, not ever eat a tomato” featuring Charlie and Lola, is all about picky eaters. In order to get Lola to eat Charlie comes up with fantastical ideas of what the foods could become. I took his cue and made race cars out of carrots.

I was making two race cars, one for each kid.
ingredients:
two carrots,
a radish
two sliced olives

Then I printed out teeeeny tiny little Charlie and Lola to sit in my carrot mobile.

The sliced olives were the steering wheels, and the sliced radishes were the tires. The kids were so excited to see race cars on their dinner plates, the Baby ate the whole thing!

Part of my own personal ‘Iron Chef: Battle lemons’ series.

I have been wanting to make cake with olive oil for some time now, and the abundance of lemons gave me the perfect opportunity because the combination is terrific.

ingredients:
3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 large lemon (zest and juice)
1 cup flour
2 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
powdered sugar for dusting

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prep a mini cupcake pan with liners.

Using a microplane, grate your lemon zest directly into the one cup of flour and set aside. I like to sort of infuse my flour when cooking with lemons, to get the mixture going before I even start baking.

In a small bowl, squeeze all the juice out of the lemon and set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the eggs and sugar until thick and pale. On low, slowly add the flour mixture, then the olive oil, and finally the lemon juice.

You will get a beautiful glossy batter. Pour the batter into the prepped baking cups. Bake for 10-15 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack.

Once cool and ready to serve, dust the powdered sugar over the tops of the cakes. What you will have a nice moist, perfectly light cake, ideal for an afternoon snack. But my kids like them for breakfast!

“Matcha” is powdered green tea. It is used in lots of japanese desserts, I used it when I made green tea ice cream.

I decided to try it in a ‘jelly roll’ style cake. I’ve seen recipes with mousse filling, and cream filling, but I thought I’d try something different and fill it with “an” or sweetened red bean. Red bean and green tea go together like, well, peas and carrots. But tastier.

ingredients:
4 eggs, separated
3/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla
3/4 cup cake flour, sifted
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon matcha powder

Confectioners’ sugar, for dusting, sifted
1 can an/red bean
Whipped cream

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Separate the whites and the yolks. Beat egg whites until stiff but not dry and set aside. In another bowl, beat the egg yolks until light. Gradually add the sugar and vanilla, and mix well. Sift together the flour, baking powder, and matcha powder.

Add the sifted flour mixture to the egg yolk mixture. Fold in the egg whites into the egg mixture.

Prep a jelly roll pan (or cookie sheet – by lining it with parchment paper, and spraying it with oil. This will make it easy to remove.

Pour the batter right onto the lined pan. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes until a golden brown.

While the cake is baking, put a clean towel down and dust it with powdered sugar. You will invert the cake onto this to start the rolling process.

When the cake comes out, turn it onto the towel. Peel off the parchment and trim it if you want it to be a more ‘perfect’ shape. Now the fun…

Begin with the narrow side and roll the cake and towel up together.

Cool cake on rack, seam side down, for 10 to 15 minutes. Once cake has cooled, gently unroll and spread cake with an filling and re-roll.

Now you have yourself a perfect rolled cake! Sprinkle with powdered sugar, slice and serve with whipped cream!

I swear, these things look like rocks. But when you bite into them, boy are they light and fluffy! Surprisingly so! I like smaller biscuits, so I cut them into 16 pieces. Perfect with soups and stews.

ingredients:
2 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1-1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1-1/2 sticks COLD butter, diced
1/2 cup cold buttermilk (OR – 1/2 cup milk+3teaspoons lemon juice)
1 egg
1-1/2 cups cheddar cheese, grated
1 egg beaten with 1 Tablespoon water for egg wash)

some extra flour
some sea salt

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Place flour, baking powder and salt in the bowl of an electric mixer. Turn it on low, and carefully add the diced butter until the mixture is crumbly, like small peas.

If you don’t have buttermilk, who does, then just substitute the milk+lemon juice. It works ok too. Combine the buttermilk and egg and beat lightly. Add to the flour mixture until moistened.

In a separate bowl, mix the cheese with a handful of flour for stickage purposes, then add the cheese to the dough, while still mixing on low. Don’t over mix!! Just until combined, then STOP.

Dump the dough out onto a floured surface and knead slightly. Pat it out to a nice rectangle. Cut it in half, then in quarters, then again, making about 16 pieces.

Transfer to a prepped baking sheet and brush the tops with egg wash. Sprinkle with sea salt (YUM) and bake for 20-25 mins.

I think these taste even better the second day. They are really quick to make and you can even prep them the night before, then just stick ‘em in the oven.

I saw this jar of espresso powder bought it immediately. I knew I’d find some good use for it…someday. Then I came across a post on cookiemadness for William Shatner’s cappuccino muffins and I couldn’t believe it, but yes, the recipe was his. (I changed it a little) These are tasty, pack up well and best of all, easy.

ingredients:
2 cups flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
2-1/2 teaspoons instant espresso powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 large egg (room temp)
1 cup milk (room temp)
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted and cooled
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Prep a muffin pan with liners.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, espresso powder, cinnamon and salt.

In a medium bowl, whisk egg lightly. Whisk in milk, melted butter and vanilla extract.

Make a well in center of dry ingredients and pour in milk mixture. Stir until just blended, don’t overdo it, if you go too far your muffins will get tough. No one needs tough muffins. Stir in chocolate chips.

Divide batter among the cups. Bake 15 to 18 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack.

This is the PERFECT recipe for new parents. When I had a newborn I was up late at night, these muffins would have been good, 1. the coffee part would have helped keep me alert. 2. They are easy to grab and eat. 3. There is nothing on late at night but Classic Trek. See how that all works out?

As a kid I remember going to Taco Bell, you wouldn’t catch me dead there now, but in the 80s, we went there. My brother LOVED their ‘dessert’ called Cinnamon Crispanas. This is a healthier version. I got the kids to be my little sous chefs, since the recipe is so easy.

ingredients:
flour tortillas
cookie cutters
melted butter
1/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl. Set aside. Put the melted butter in another bowl.

On a cutting board, lay out the tortillas and cut out any shape you want. If you are boring, just cut them into triangles. BO-RING. (but it works too.)

Brush butter on the cut out tortilla, sprinkle with cinnamon mixture. Turn over and do the same. Lay them down on a prepped baking sheet. By prepped I mean with a silpat or a parchment liner.

Bake for 5 minutes, turn and bake another 5. That’s it. Super simple, very tasty. And fun for the kids, at that!

Oh, Ratatouille cookbook, you complete me. While it’s filled with FANTASTIC recipes, great for adults, this is the one that sold me. The Kid thought it was hilarious. The Baby thought it was disgusting. I like the simplicity of it and the entertainment factor. I changed the ‘recipe’ of course. I always do.

ingredients:
Tortillas
cheese
luncheon meat
mini gehrkins
dill

Lay a large tortilla flat. Layer cheese and ham, I only did one layer each since you will be rolling it, you don’t want a giant ass snail. Or do you? Hm…

I cut away the curved sides and slowly and carefully rolled it up, laying it seam side down.

Cut a gehrkin at an angle to make a ’snail head’. Here’s where it starts to take shape, take a toothpick and poke two holes in the ‘head’ of the snail. Cut off the end of some dill and poke them in. The Baby was HORRIFIED by the ’snail horns’. I thought it was funny.

I’m sure you can make an entire scene on the plate with a forest of broccoli or what have you, but who has time for that, I barely have time to make snail horns.