Case of the missing cookies

What does one do when they bake 2 dozen sugar cookies to use when making melted snowman cookies for Christmas, only to discover this when returning to fetch said cookies for decorating???

Ooops. Guess I should have decorated immediately instead of waiting a day. H4L and Baby DIVA found my stash!

So instead I made Oreo Truffles and Peanut Butter Balls. YUM!!

Step one: Balls are formed

Step 2: Dunk balls in chocolate and harden in fridge

Step 3: Admire and consume!

Merry Christmas Eve! Enjoy spending SWEET time with you loved ones while stuffing yourself with SWEETS!!

Christmas cookies

It is no secret that I have never really been able to master the art of baking cookies. No matter what I have done in the past, my cookies always come out looking distorted or super obese, or all the cookies just "Grow" into one giant cookie. It has become some what a joke around my household, a joke that kind of pisses me off.

This year, Baby DIVA being at an age where Christmas cookies and decorating are a fun activity (well for about a minute and half anyway), I was bound and determined to master the art of baking a cookie and having it come out of the oven looking like the cookie I put in the oven. Thanks to Dr. Google and a friends thought of possibly turning my baked goodies halfway through cooking time, I MASTERED THE SKILL!!! Cookies went in looking one way and came out a little golden brown and looking just the same!

But perhaps I have not quite mastered the decorating aspect of this fun activity. Id like to introduce you to Zombie gingerbread man!!!!

And here are a few looks at Baby DIVA's food art. Clearly she has skills momma doesn't!

Do you bake cookies every year with your family? What kind do you bake and with whom?

6 Month Meat?

Don't get me wrong, sometimes I am pressed for time and want to scoot my mom ride thru the drive at the local fast food getaway to feed my Baby DIVA, self and H4L. I know it makes me a terrible mom, pumping my kid full of french fries deep fried in a cooker by some pimply teen, but hey a mom has got to do what a mom has got to do, right? And we all know that there are days that those fries are as good as it is gonna get. I always feel incredibly guilty after loading my kid up on fast fries, or perhaps its is just the rumblings in my tummy from the grease and preservatives, whatever it is, now after hearing about McDonald's 6 month old un-aged meal, I am even more disgusted than ever.
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Sally Davies , a photographer who lives close to a McDonald's, purchased a happy meal 6 months ago, in April 2010, brought it home and placed it on a white china plate. She intended to take a picture everyday as the decomposing process set in. A project stemmed from an article she found online about a 12 year old burger that was still kicking it. You can see this project, and all the photographic details HERE, as well as her other works which happen to be pretty cool.

I can tell you that my daughter will probably still have a fast food something here or there in her lifetime, I can not stop that. What I can do though, is look at this project and each time I am feeling lazy remember that not only is the fast food lifestyle unhealthy, but do I really want my child, myself and my H4L to be eating foods that never decompose, never break down, never go away. Not really. Instead I will try and take my lazy butt home, down a red bull, (cause they are healthy right?) and cook up something that possibly will decompose and release those nutrients into my family and keep THEM kicking for years to come, instead of keeping that nasty burger kicking for years.

Yummy Summer Food

Its so stinking hot here right now. One can barely breath let alone eat. But you know for some reason we gotta eat to stay alive, or so I have been told. HA! Well I read somewhere, and I honestly I forgot where so to the fabulous person who came up with this treat, I am so sorry I don't remember where I read about your idea, but YOU ARE brilliant. I made your fabulous tomato pineapple salad!

Super delicious.

Slice tomatoes and slice pineapples. Layer them on a plate. Sprinkle with feta cheese and a tad salt and pepper. Eat. Yummy. simple. Light. Cool. and Delicious!

Painted toast

Baby DIVA hates bread. Wont touch the stuff. She will lick the PB&J off her bread and toss it back at me. Really! She is that hardcore about her dislike of bread.

Then the other day we were munching on garlic bread with dinner when we saw some little fingers fast approach our plate of delish bread. those little hands snagged a piece and devoured, I mean inhaled the garlic bread. This started my wheels a turning.

The next day I just happened to come across this fantastic blog Sunday Hotpants and found a lovely little post about Painted Toast. So I thought we would give it a try and see if Baby DIVA found it worthy enough to consume.

Here is what we did:
I took a few tiny bowls of milk and colored them with Neon food coloring. Then I took a simple white piece of bread and a never been used paintbrush and made an artistic piece for the DIVA. After painting I popped the sucker into the toaster, waited a few minutes and the POP out came the new breakfast masterpiece. I served it to Baby DIVA and to my delight she loved it! Who knew?!?

Squash Pizza

It is August! Remember this post? When I told you H4L and were going to eat every single meal in, no trips to the drive thru, not eating out, no donuts. Remember??

Well so far we are doing fabulous! We rock!! And I have a yummy recipe to share with you that we tried. It kept us from ordering pizza, so you know it must be good.

What you need:
1 butternut squash, baked until soft and cut into cubes
2 cups cubed chicken
1 purple onion cut into smallish pieces
minced garlic (you will use as much as feel necessary, we like lots)
butter
pizza crust

Heading in to the Oven

What you do:
Roll out pizza crust and cover with a bit of butter and lots of minced garlic.
Bake in the oven at 400 for about 5 minutes and then remove.
Add the cubed chicken and squash and purple onion in no particular order but evenly placed on pizza crust.
Return to oven and bake for about 15 minutes or so, until crust is browned and crunchy.
Remove from oven, slice up and devour!!

YUMMY! Ready to munch!

A refreshing sneak

I hate water. Its bland and boring. So not something that a PINK haired momma would desire. But I guess I am a bit a of a hypocrite, because as I slam more Green Monster from a snazzy goblet, I harp on the kids to drink more water, because it is good for them. You know the ropes: Do as I say not as I do. Teehee

So last week I attempted to make a refreshing treat to add to water, in hopes of getting not only the kids to drink it but me too. I took fresh blueberries and placed about 3-4 in each cube of an ice tray. To each cube I also added a splash of lime juice and a dribble of honey. Filled the tray with water and froze. A few hours later the refreshing cubes were popped into all of our water glasses...

Not a drop left. SCORE! A refreshing sneak!

Beans Beans Beans the more you eat...

The more you toot! hahahaha

Just kidding. Beans are a fabulous source of protein, and in many cases are super dooper CHEAP. I have been experimenting lately with all forms of bean recipes in order to expand of food consumption options and continue to shrink our food purchasing expenses. This week we worked with red beans and have a lovely little recipe to share!

I will call it Cheap Bean Noodle thingy! HA!

You need:

2 cans red beans, drained but save juice

Bread crumbs

1 egg

spices: i didn't measure them i went by taste

Basil

Paprika

Salt

Pepper

Fresh minced garlic

Oil

2 packages of Ramen Noodles

Shredded Mozzarella

Some red sauce (tomato based that you enjoy)

What to do:

Smoosh the beans all up in the blender, (you may need to add bean juice during this process a little at a time), add the egg and smoosh some more. Then dump bean mixture into a bowl and slowly add in breadcrumbs 1/4 cup at a time until a paste forms. Once a nice paste consistency has formed goo up your hands with some lube (butter, pam whatever) and form the paste into patties. Then sprinkle the patties with breadcrumbs and basil. Hopefully you will have already been heating the oil in a frying pan so you can get started, but if you are like me and didn't then i suggest getting that done now. So once oil is ready place patty in pan and cook until browned. While these puppies are cooking you may go ahead and boil water for the Ramen noodles. If you versed in Ramen Noodles you know they cook really quick, like 3 minutes, so this wont take long. :)

Once you have fried all the Bean Patties to a brownish color and not burned down the house, you can then drain the noodles and begin to "plate" your cheap ass dinner. Place noodles in a bowl. Place a patty on top with shredded Mozzarella and Red sauce. Give a bowl and a fork to each member of your family and VOILA Cheap Bean Noodle Thingy!

It did taste pretty yummy!

A month food challenge

H4L has agreed to take on a month long challenge with me. A month long challenge? Sound scary? Depends on the challenge huh?

We are going to take on the challenge to not eat out a single paid for meal during the month of August. That is right! All breakfasts, lunches, dinners, snacks, midnight hunts for ice cream, all of it, will only be ingested if I have purchased it during one of our regular grocery store runs. No quick trips for a pint of yummy ice cream, no slips on the diet for a taco run at jack in the crack. Nope! Nada! Zilch!

H4L will be packing not only his lunch but also his breakfast when he travels off to work. We will be only eating food at home for every meal for 31 days. I'm very excited about this. I have just about mastered coupon shopping, meal planning, and OAMC. Now I am taking it to the next level and trying to come up with unique tasty delights that will keep myself and my family eager for more healthy home cooking without fast food or restaurant dining.

Have you ever done this? Do you live this way? Do you have any tasty meal ideas to share?

La Finca Restaurant

The Pink Haired Momma clan tested out a local restaurant this weekend. A Mexican food restaurant. I have heard some rave reviews from friends and online and so we thought we would check it out. This place also has a playground for the tots, so I imagined H4L and I sipping on some authentic margaritas swirled about in someone else blender, while watching Baby DIVA romp around the playground and slide down the slide (her fav activity these days).

Ya, well that imaginary vision did not play out exactly like that. Its turned into a rather interesting evening, but no margs, no playground and well here let us chat...



Let me see where to start. Let us start with the good. The food was eatable. It was not the greatest, was not the worst, but was incredibly expensive for what it was. I mean I had cheese enchilada's, and they were good, but tasted similar to that which I could throw in the microwave and serve myself. So not my favorite food, but not spit it out and hide it under your napkin gross either. The place was clean and the service was excellent. Too excellent I might add. The waiter was a nice young gentleman who was friendly and did not mess up our order at all. The rest of the staff was very eager to help us at all times. They were very insistent on my H4L having his diet refilled before he was 1/4 of the way through it. Seriously, he was asked about 15 times, no exaggeration, if he wanted a refill. He kept saying in a little bit, not now. The staff stood by and watched us like hawks each time he took a sip, finally just coming a taking his glass away and refilling it when he was about 1/2 way through it. And then out of no where they brought me another full glass of soda, despite my original glass still being full. Guess they though we were really thirsty or something. It was quite humorous.

Now the bad. The staff being so eager to assist us kind of bordered on annoying. I did like that they were so attentive, however coming up and wiping the table, while we are still eating, each time Baby DIVA dribbled a little hot sauce or cheese worked my nerves. Not only because the invasion of our space, but Hello that dirty cleaning towel is now wiping the table and Baby DIVA is eating snack here, and you just used it ti wipe that table over there. GROSS invasion of the germs! Wait till we are done people! At least then I don't see you wiping germs on my table :)! And besides, I always clean the floor and wipe down the table before we leave the restaurant. Back off! Kindly annoying, to say the least. Then the playground was off limits while we were there. A private party had reserved the entire outdoor patio and playground area. Not a biggie, but annoying again to say the least.

Having nothing to do with the restaurant, we got some fun entertainment by eavesdropping on the patrons sitting in the booth behind us and got quite a tickle. Making the whole experience worth doing again. These patrons came to a Mexican restaurant, tex mex yummy delicious, fat engorged dining facility, and were all but throwing themselves on the floor demanding their foods be prepared without any grease WHAT-SO-EVER. Umm? Really? So we thought maybe they we order a taco salad. Then we hear, "And no vegetable please, and no Charo beans because they are cooked in bacon fat". REALLY?? no veggies, no bacon fat and no grease? Why the heck did you come to a Mexican food restaurant. WEIRD. But hysterical and still has us giggling several days later.

The atmosphere was fun and warm. It does have a great feel for families and a fun night of entertainment. Live music can also be found on the weekends in this friendly environment. The staff is incredibly attentive and the food was okay. I would like to test out the margaritas and playground in the future. I don't know if I will dine here again, but some chips, dips, and alcoholic beverages consumed while watching my TOT have a blast could be a great evening.

looking to test this place out? Click HERE for directions.

Sipping ZZZ's

The fast paced lifestyle of mommahood leads us moms to downing red bulls, lattes, and energy shots by the gallons to keep up with the multiple roles we try and conform to on a daily basis. Mom, Mom, Mom, Mom, MooooooooM!, chauffeur, personal maid to all members of the family all at the exact same time, personal chef to a toddlers changing tastes from minute to minute, You name it, a mom does it. Every day we muster up the strength to trudge on and do so while downing our energy in a can. We all do it. You know you do too. Dont deny it.



Lucky for us, today I stumbled upon a nice way to tuck into bed at night. You know for the whole 2 hours of sleep that a mom can endure. Those crazy nights that involve having another energy drink post dinner to finish up the 50 zillion loads of laundry that somehow appeared since yesterday or to snag a few minutes alone in the bathroom to "pamper" aka use the bathroom alone. Well those nights can sometimes leave the foot thumping and the mind cranking while squeezing your eyes together hoping, praying that you will fall asleep because the baby is gonna scream and wake up again in just a minute, you just know it.

Well the new goodie I found is called Sipping syrup. Not that I condoning dosing up on energy drinks during the day and sleeping syrup at night...not not me! But I do find this little treat hilarious and possibly useful. Will keep you posted on the effects...now off to do some laundry!

Average Person Gardening

We are rip roaring right on into the hot and nasty summer months here in Texas. This year however, I have a fabulous little garden that is producing some lovely summer vegetables for my family to munch on. Having this little garden makes the heat tolerable. I find that Baby DIVA and I enjoy being out playing in the summer sun as long as our hands are in the dirt and the water hose is blasting water our direction. And I tell You Baby DIVA LOVES to water the garden! The fresh veggies are outstanding and I can really taste a phenomenal difference. Perhaps it is the taste of success in growing something on my own or perhaps I am just a dang good little grower. Who knows, but we totally dig it. H4L was amazed at the difference in taste a home grown tomato has in comparison to a store bought tomato. I gloated, but only a little.

A friend of mine introduced me to a fabulous web site called Average Person Gardening.com, recently, that is all about Vegetable gardening for you guessed it, people like me, AVERAGE folks who really have no idea what they are doing but LOVE it. I spent some time looking through the information on the website and was quite astounded when I discovered this powerhouse knowledge bank not only offered information pertaining to my light green thumb, but also a snazzy seed of the month club!

For a mere $1.99 a month, you can enroll in the Club and receive 4 packets of seeds each month from the SEED CLUB , AND in addition have access to a wealth of knowledge right at your fingertips. I couldn't resist! I quickly contacted Average Person Gardening.com, and let them know I was interested by filling out the easy to use SEED CLUB form. In no time, I received my first set of SEEDS!!

1. Cucumber

2. Radicchio

3. Cabbage

4. Spinach

Mike the Gardener runs the place and I have found nothing but kindness and fabulous assistance from him as I embark on planting my new seeds. I was so tickled. I mean how could one not be. These four packets would have cost me a minimum of $8 in a store and they only come with a couple little lines of planting instructions on the package. Average Person Gardening.com provides me with the seeds, the knowledge, the know how and a resource guide to ask questions whenever I feel in order to gain insight on how to produce the best vegetables from the fantastic seeds provided. I never feel embarrassed or too shy to ask a question; whatever is presented is answered in a group discussion on the Vegetable Gardening FACEBOOK page. It really is amazing and such a wonderful way to gain further growing knowledge.

Baby DIVA and I got busy as soon as the seeds arrived. We planted a few seeds of each vegetable provided and are now waiting on some sproutage. As you can see another fantastic advantage this club provides, beside the seeds, knowledge and learning to produce my own food, is one on one time with my fabulous daughter. A few moments in time where we can dig around in dirt and I can teach her the art of creating something on her own, right after I tell her to not eat the package the seeds come in of course!

If you are interested in learning about Vegetable gardening in any capacity, I suggest checking this group out. The seeds provided by Average Person Gardening.com are great and the resources of endless and plentiful. A great place for beginners and veteran growers alike! Let them know Pink Haired Momma sent you!

The Spud

This is my idea of an April fools joke. I would serve this up with dinner and see how long it took my peeps to realize it was chocolate! Sandee's Chocolates are fantastic and are derived from potatoes! Have a look at The SPUD for more information! Happy April Fools Day!

Wordless Wednesday

I have not eaten BEEF in nearly 10 years, until this last weekend...



The nasty cheap drive thru ultimate cheeseburger!

HEAVEN!!

Weird Snacking

My kid is weird. I am totally cool with that. I think it is great, but am I setting a precedent for Baby DIVA? I have mentioned many times before that my kiddo really likes some interesting tasting food that is far beyond her little 14 month taste buds. I can see it now. She will be in preschool having a discussion with the other kids about the savory taste of her soup. Or she will be giving the other kids lessons on her exquisite taste for high dollar cheese. And you know what? I am setting her up for this behavior because I am giving in to her exotic 14 month old taste buds!

For example, Baby DIVA' favorite snack is not the usual cheese or cheerios or anything of that nature. Nope! Not my DIVA. She prefers me to provide her with a nutritious and delicious serving of these items, that is if I do not feel like whipping her up some sweet potato pancakes of waffles fresh from scratch.

What the heck are those funky looking treats you ask? Well the first is a little special crackery type snack that is known as Magic Pop . The second little snack is dried okra. Yep, you heard me right! Baby DIVA loves, and I mean LOVES dried okra! She even has a special little shimmy shake dance she does when she wants or sees this fabulous little goodie. Weird, I know.

Magic Pop is a pretty cool treat. It is made from wheat, brown rice and corn. It does not pack a huge nutritional punch, but it is very easy to serve, just pull it out of the bag and hand to babe, and it provides a crunchy treat to those screaming babes on car rides. When you bite into it it sort of dissolves rather quickly, eliminating those mommy fears of baby chokes. And momma's and daddy's find it quite tasty too!

**The Okra gods did not give me free products of Okra to express my sincere likes for the food on this blog. We simply found an odd ball treat while in the trenches of the grocery store aisles and let Baby DIVA try it. Since she loved it so much, I felt it only appropriate to share with my readers. No monetary or product compensation for Magic Pop either. I paid full price for the bag, not even a coupon was available. Again, while in the trenches of the grocery, I came across a new treat and let the official Baby DIVA taste tester go at it. And Voila a blog post was born, free of charge!***