Lunches for the Queen of Picky

Ok, so she's not exactly picky in the traditional sense.
She's actually a good eater for a 5 yr old, but unlike my other kiddos, a sandwich for lunch will just not do.

She's not a huge bread eater (weird I know!)  Unless it's sweet cornbread or muffins or the like.
So coming up with lunch to send to school has been a challenge.

I've tried variations of the cold cut lunch with ham and cheese tortilla wraps or homemade lunchables.
But they come home mostly uneaten.

So we've moved to hot in a thermos type lunches.
She doesn't really do soup, so I've had to be creative.

So thought I'm surely not alone in this dilemma and would share our current hot lunch list:

Maressa's Thermos Lunches

*Mac n cheese (an obvious choice, but not my fav since she will only eat the neon powdered cheese kind which on occasion is fine, but don't like her to eat it daily)
with a side of bite sized ham to eat with it

*Whole wheat egg noodles and chicken (current fav--directions on how I prepare it at bottom of post)

*chili (bean-and-chunky-anything-less) served with side of shredded cheese to sprinkle on top and sweet cornbread and crackers

*taco meat served again with cheese and tortilla chips

*scrambled eggs and cheese

*grilled chicken pieces with side of bbq sauce for dipping (I don't send breaded chicken nuggets or anything like that due to the fact it gets soggy)

*spaghetti and mini meatballs

So there you have it.  Husband says she's spoiled with these gourmet lunches, but it's often leftover dinner stuff.  Or I make a weeks worth of chicken and noodles at one time to just heat up in the mornings...actually quicker and easier than making a sandwich.  And her thermos is always completely empty when she gets home.  And she doesn't have the I'm still hungry crankiness after school. ;)

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Easy & Quick Chicken and Noodles

Cook wheat egg noodles in water according to directions. 
Drain.
Stir in some butter and sprinkling of garlic powder and black pepper.
Cut up chicken into bite sized pieces (I use a rotisserie chicken from grocery store deli)
Toss and serve.  :)

Recipe Review: Crockpot Chicken Soft Tacos

Our family’s new fav meal.
Found this idea/recipe on Pinterest.
My only changes was to use homemade taco seasoning (my sister gave us this as a Christmas present) and Rotel with cilantro instead of salsa.

For Kalla’s camping party this weekend, she asked for this.
Not really campy, but when you do it in the back yard, you can have anything you want right?
Find recipe post here.

Oh and sorry for weird one photo.  I made these for a large 40+ person group a couple of weeks ago and used most of my taco seasoning.  Never got a pic of the tacos.  But if you follow the link, she's got lots of great yummy pics.  :)

Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy Lemonade Cupcakes

I made 40+ cupcakes the other day for some campers at Summer Camp that is held through many people that go to my church. 
It was my turn to feed them lunch. 
I wanted something easy and fun and yummy for dessert.


I started with a box of lemon cake that I made cupcakes with.
Then I made my standard buttercream frosting and added some Country Time lemonade mix to it.

Lemonade Buttercream Frosting
1 C shortening
4 C powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
4 tbsp milk
1/8 C instant lemonade mix
Mix til well blended. 


I have a love/hate relationship with frosting.
I like it thick, but hate spreading it on cupcakes.
Sometimes I do the frosting tip in a big ziplock bag trick.
But when I made the last batch of cupcakes (star wars party) I ripped a hole somewhere in the bag and frosting escaped all over the place.
I was tired and on the verge of tears over silly frosting.
So on this day I just messily piled it on top.
Who cares what it looks like once its in your tummy right?
And the sour gummy worms hide the mess that is the frosting anyway.  ;)

These cupcakes had the right bit of sour and sweet. 
Even my not-so-big-on-cupcakes kid liked them.  :)

Little League baseball cupcakes

One of my fav things to bring to those end of season Little League parties is baseball cupcakes.


I go a little overboard with them and make them for the team we represented that year.
The kids always get a kick out of it.
To make I simply find the logo of our current team online and copy and paste the picture in a publishing program.
Then resize to fit in my bigger hole punches.
I punch a coordinating color with my biggest punch and tape a lollipop stick in between the two and insert on top of baseball cupcakes.


These are from Z's coach pitch team party 2 years ago.


Micah really enjoyed his season of baseball and his coach pitch team did pretty good!

Make your own Cheesecake bar and Father’s Day

For Father's Day we had a yummy dinner (chicken teriaki kabobs) and for dessert I set up a simple make your own cheesecake toppings bar.
I made this super simple.
I bought a small frozen cheesecake and laid out some toppings.
Chocolate and caramel syrups, cherry pie filling, mini choc chips, butterfinger flavored ice cream toppings and toasted coconut.

I love cherry cheesecake, but my kids don't.
So I figured this way everyone could get their favorites.
As we were enjoying, I realized this could be cool to set up for a party.


This was the big favorite way to eat their slice.


Me, just give me cherry pie filling and chocolate.
Mmmm, mmm!


We had a laid back Father's Day.

He chose to spend the evening with the kids...reading to the girls and playing 'indoor' baseball with the boys.
Good times!


BTW, I have fallen in love with PicMonkey.  Been playing around with all the picture enhancements.  FUN!  FUN!

Fruity Flavors Candied Popcorn

I found this popcorn recipe on pinterest.
It only requires 2 simple ingredients:  sweet condensed milk and jello.
I decided to make a big multi flavored batch to take to baseball tournament tomorrow.
It was easy.

We did cherry, blueberry and grape.


But I think I would do a few things differently.
I measured out 12 C of popcorn and it seemed to be roughly 2 bags of microwave popcorn.
I would use 3 bags next time personally (I would prefer them a little more lightly coated).
I would first toss the popcorn in the coating in a big giant bowl then dish out onto the greased baking sheet.
Also, when I tried to stir the first batch every 5 minutes it seemed to make the coating lumpy and mucky.
Then next batch I didn't stir at all, but just baked for 20 mins.
Also, note that if you put the popcorn to bake on aluminum foil, you need to immediately turn it out onto freshly greased aluminum foil to cool and harden.  Trust me on this one!

This is defintely yummy, and I should not be allowed to be near an open container of it for long periods of time.  :)

Five

Little Miss turned five yesterday.

I can hardly stand it.

(I'm a day late posting, but yesterday was C-R-A-Z-Y)

Yes, the 10 yr old does this every chance he gets when I get the camera out.

Kinda annoying.  lol

This was the special birthday treat we sent to school.

The jumbo 'smarshmallows' dipped in chocolate with sprinkles.

This was the cake I made for us.

Idea from Bakerella here.

I used cake mix and my own fav frosting, but the rest was the same.

We ate it in our jammies right before bed (we waited for the boys who were at basketball practice).

It was good.

A star snack

As mentioned previously, M is having her turn at star student this week at school.

Today she got to bring a favorite snack.

After brainstorming, we came up with these.

Star shaped ice krispie treats dipped in chocolate and star sprinkles and on a stick.

yum!

the waffle maker=breakfast changing

I got a waffle maker for Christmas.

It was a requested item I've wanted for some time.

It has been even more life changing than expected.

I made room for it on the counter even.  :)

No more burnt pancakes.

No more gooey pancake centers.

No more hovering over a frying pan with spatula in hand.

No more worrying about kid distractions.

See that little light there on the left?

It tells me all I need to know.

It tells me when it's hot enough for the waffles.

It tells me when they are cooked perfectly.

I can make eggs and bacon,

wipe up spills,

refill milks,

set the table so we can all sit together like civilized people,

check morning email,

or sip on coffee like a lady of leisure

and I all have to do is keep my eye on that little light.

And then I have perfect waffles.

And the smell.

My Papaw made waffles when we visited.

Stacks that went a couple of feet high.

One of my fav memories of my grandparents was the warm kitchen bustling with breakfast fixings and the smell of waffles.

AND they had squeezy butter.  Do they even make that anymore?

The inaugural batch of waffles were our 'birthday' waffles adapted from the birthday pancakes the kids love so much.

(Birthday pancakes/waffles=mini choc chips and big ice cream type sprinkles in the batter.)

And the kids approved!!

On the weekends I make a triple batch and store them in the refrigerator and then toast them on school days.

No more icky 'yellow' frozen waffles.

OK, so all you people who knew this awesomeness called a waffle maker long ago,

share your recipes and tips.

I was so excited and tried to make waffle brownies as I thought I've seen that done before.

I figured it would be no more than make brownie mix and pour it in and cook.

Well, that was a big fat FAIL.

Sadly.

Someone tell me how to do this!  :)

Ok, one more breakfast changing tip I got on Pinterest.

I'm sure you've all seen it.

Oven baked bacon.

Except I broil mine.

And these beautiful center cut pieces come out crispy and flat.

Which apparently my children have become bacon snobs?

They won't eat it fried and wrinkled up anymore.

But that's ok, with as much as a family of 6 bacon loving folks, this is far more efficient.

Oh and don't do like I did above and mark up your cute Target lime green cookie sheet and line it with foil first.

Christmas Cowboy Cookies

I've heard of the cowboy cookie before, but never made them.

Intrigued by the hearty ingredients, I finally decided to try them.

We had a church thing this past Sunday of which I volunteered to make cookies for kids for after we went caroling so this was a perfect opportunity to bake them.

I used this recipe and altered it slightly.

Instead of chocolate chips, I used red and green M&M's and omitted the nuts.

They turned out thick and chewy just like I was looking for.

Coconut was just enough for me to enjoy, but not enough that small children shall detect it.  ;)

I would probably add just a bit more next time.

I may have enjoyed some leftovers with my morning coffee.

They do have oatmeal after all.  ;)

Super easy crockpot barbeque sandwiches--YUM!

One of our go-to kid friendly and easy dinners.

Here in the south everyone loves a pulled pork sandwich.

And cooked in the crock pot makes it practically like mom's night off.

Even the four finicky eaters in the house approve.

The 10 year old boy eats 2 whole sandwiches in a sitting.

Makes nice for leftover night too.

And make sandwiches and wrap in aluminum foil to take on the go (like to baseball games).
 

The 6 year old boy prefers to eat it without the bun and dipped in extra bbq sauce.

So here is how I prefer to make barbeque.

I buy the boneless pork rib ends.

The type of meat makes a BIG difference.

I place the uncooked meat in the crockpot and then fill the crockpot halfway with water.

Cook on low setting about 8 hours.

Then drain the water out.

Then I pour over the meat my favorite bbq sauce (if you prefer you can make homemade).

We LOVE the red sauce from a local bbq restaurant, Gibson's Barbeque.

Now use a couple of forks to shred the tender meat and coat with sauce.

Leave on low setting for a few more hours til dinner time.

And that's all there is!

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Winner of My Memories digital scrapbook software is comment #5, Crystal.

Congrats!

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Did you know that you can find all the pins from your blog on Pinterest?

Just put in the following address:

www.pinterest.com/ source/ nameofyourblog   --without the spaces.

If you'd like to see the 'best of" Just Deanna's projects check out what has been pinned from my blog here.  :)

Make an easy and quick cookie cake

I made this super quick and yummy cookie cake a while back for Zachary's birthday.

I totally cheated and used break n bake dough from the grocery store.

To make your own, take 2 packages of refrigerated break n bake chocolate chip cookies.

Break off a few at a time and press together into a cookie sheet.  I happen to have a round one that fit the cake perfectly.  Bake according to the directions.

Then I used a homemade frosting to decorate.

This one works well:

1 C shortening

1 tsp vanilla

4 C powdered sugar

2 tbsp milk

It was easy to pipe and was very comparable to what they use at Great American Cookie.

The cookie cake also stayed nice and chewy like theirs.

Don't think I'll be ordering any more and will make my own.

Too easy and yummy not to!

Vanilla Bean Cream Cheese

Try this:

One 8oz container of your fav plain cream cheese.

 Mix in 1/4C sugar, 1 tsp vanilla extract and beans scraped from half a vanilla bean.

Spread on a bagel or waffle.

Other suggestions: on a slice of pumpkin bread, muffins or use as dip for gingersnaps!

I HIGHLY recommend the new Eggo Pumpkin Spice waffles.

Simply heaven.

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No hassle to enter, just leave your email addy!
Chances are good to win since their is low participation!
The prize is pretty awesome!!

Birthday Cheesecake

Yesterday, I made this incredible cheesecake.

Several steps involved, but straighforward.

TOTALLY worth the effort.

I strongly encourage those who love white chocolate raspberry cheesecake to try it.  :)

Hubby was very impressed.

As tradition holds I print this banner off the computer.

Then the kids color it.

This year we got extra festive and hung balloons and streamers. 

I let Z man stand on a chair and tape them up while the other kids handled the tape and handed them up to him.

It was a lovely little family party.

Completely the way hubby prefers it.  ;)

Oh and the gifts. 

A new picture to take to the office (let Zachary pick one out from the pictures from the beach).

And some really spicy, dark dark chocolate (which the girls have been trying to get him to share generously with them).

I think he had a good day.

Back to Batman

Just thought I'd share a few details from the big Caped Crusader party.  :)

First off how I made the bat symbol chocolates for the cupcakes.

I melted some chocolate in a Wilton chocolate squeeze tube (I think I got them at Walmart). 

 I printed a page full of bat symbols to trace.

Placed the print under some parchment paper on a cookie sheet.

Then I carefully traced around the edge, then filled it in.

After making a full cookie sheet, I placed it in the refrigerator to set up. 

 Then carefully peeled them off the paper to put on the cupcakes.  Very easy to do.  :)

For the cute little Batman mini totes.  For more info on the party favors go here.

 I got these plain blue mini totes at Target in the dollar section.  There were 3 in a bundle I believe. 

I wanted to make a bat stencil for it.  First I tried to use freezer paper to stencil them. 

Well, um even though these totes look and fell like fabric, they are not. 

They are made of plastic...and melt under an iron.  So plan B.

 I made a simple stamp with a small scrap piece of 2x4 wood. 

 I used a thick foam sheet to cut a bat shape and then glued it to the block.

Then  I coated the stamp in yellow paint.  The first coat didn't show up real well on the dark blue.  So I used a smaller paintbrush to add a second coat.

Now that I've got this party thoroughly covered, I'll move on to Kalla's Garden Brunch. 

 Look for the posts soon.  :)

Feeling a groove coming on soon as the kids settle into school.  ;)