Yes, you may have a cupcake for breakfast!

We recently made very yummy and healthy muffins. I adapted the recipe from Muffins A to Z.

2 c flour ( I used whole wheat)
1 1/4 c sugar (I used some white, some brown)
2 t baking soda
2 t cinnamon
1/2 t salt
4 medium grated carrots
1 large grated apple
1/2 c raisins
1/2 c shredded coconut
1 c vegetable oil
3 large eggs
1 t vanilla extract

Oven at 400. Combine everything but eggs, oil and vanilla. Then add eggs, oil and vanilla;) Put into greased muffin tin or cups and bake for 20-25 minutes (do toothpick test.)

These are so moist and yummy and full of good stuff. Coconut is particularly good for babes and tots. You can add nuts but then it's not so baby friendly.

Go West!

So, for the very first time, I left my family for a solo vacay. I desperately missed my good friend Jenny who ditched WI for Utah last year. So I booked a flight and headed west.

To the land of Mormons and honey.

Jenny and her husband Jeff (we like him too) picked me up in Salt Lake City and we dined on mole and margaritas. After dinner, we walked around the Mormon- Temple-big-epicenter-place and took in the beautiful setting. Zillions of flowers in bloom.

Jeff and Jenny live in Ogden, which is about a half hour from SLC. It's pretty much a bunch of mountains with a city scattered in the crevices. I stayed at their beautiful home, hiked mountains, took strolls around the town, ate, drank, shopped and sunned myself. Utah is gorgeous and old friends are worth the trip. I had an invigorating yet relaxing 48 hrs before heading home.

What was happening at home? It was Mike's first time overnight with the girls without me. And it was two overnights (plus another bedtime!) I'll tell you what wasn't happening--naps. But I came home (at midnight on Sunday) to a calm husband, sleeping babies and a VERY CLEAN HOUSE (he's welcome to clean when I'm home too...)

So all was well. Daddy is fun and Mommy is allowed to go away. That's good to know. I've been home less than a day and Laney has mentioned several times that she's getting on an airplane and going to Utah. I better let Jenny know to expect her!

Fiesta!

Happy Cinco de Mayo! In this post I'm going to throw in lots of half-correct (half-wrong) Spanish phrases and see how much I can make my mom cringe.

Any excuse for a party at our house. This week we decided to do la comida mexicana. We went with Mexican Chicken Soup and a Mexican Chocolate Cake. They are Mexican dishes because of the addition of *chili powder* to regular dishes. I never promised authenticity.

Laney le encanta cocinar, um, cakes. So she was excited. We did this first. I didn't have a cake mix but I had a full pantry so I decided we would make this cake from scratch. And then I made up a recipe. I think you're not supposed to do this for baking, but I am awesome so it worked.

Here's the recipe--

oven at 350, cake pan buttered and floured

1 cup AP flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1/3 cup dark chocolate cocoa powder (it's unsweetened)
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp or maybe more chili powder
1 stick butter (room temp)
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup water
1/2 cup milk with 1/2 a lemon squeezed in it (I wanted buttermilk but didn't have any)
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract

I mixed things in that order. I think you're supposed to do dry, and then wet yada yada. I didn't. This batter seemed SO WET so I was scared. I based the proportions off a basic cake recipe and I was pretty sure the water was a mistake. It wasn't. The cake baked for about half an hour (do the toothpick test) and then remained moist and yummy for 4 days until it was gone. Instead of frosting Laney tapped powdered sugar on it. Delicioso!

To the soup. Soup is a great thing to make when home with young kids because nothing is time sensitive. I really just added chili powder to regular soup.

Just a note on chicken broth. It's best to make your own (I mean it.) Anytime I make any poultry with bones I throw the bones in a Zip Loc in the freezer. I also freeze vegetable scraps. When I have time, I simmer the stuff in water with salt and pepper and any loose herbs I have (always with a bay leaf) and then I cool/freeze. This is free. A second option is buying some sort of powdered/dried/concentrated bouillon situation. This is cheap but usually salty. I do this a lot; Trader Joe's is the best. Of course you can buy the cartons and cans at the market. That stuff is good but way expensive and soup is supposed to be a frugal choice. Que economico.

Sopa Mexicana

2 carrots
2 celery stalks
2 cloves garlic
1 giant onion
1 bell pepper
1 jalepeno pepper (don't touch your eyes)
1.5 lbs chicken breasts
1 can diced tomatoes
4 cups chicken broth
1-2 cups water
1 tbsp taco seasoning
1 tbsp chili powder

Chop everything (up to the can of tomatoes). Saute the carrots, celery, onion, garlic, peppers. Add chicken and brown. Add all other stuff and let it simmer for 20 minutes to 3 hours.

Serve with triangled corn tortillas sprayed with PAM/baked in oven and guacamole. Aye Carumba!

I don't actually know what aye carumba means but it seemed right.

Happy eating!

Marshmallow Art

A few weeks back I playdated with my old friend Julie and her cutesters, Ian and Audrey. I noticed an interesting craft hanging on her wall. Oh yes, marshmallow art. What could be easier?
So the basic premise is taking some paper, drawing an outline with glue and adhering marshmallows to the glue to complete the picture. Easy enough, right?

Let me say now that Julie's son is THREE and my daughter is TWO. That doesn't sound like much, but trust me, it's the difference between "making marshmallow art" and "eating glue-covered marshmallows".

Luckily, I've been Laney's mom for a couple years now so I thought of this beforehand. First, I did this activity after nap. Had we done this before nap the sugar ingestion would have seriously messed up the afternoon. Second, I used FROSTING IN A GLUE BOTTLE. Yes, FROSTING. Tremendously increasing potential sugar rush yet eliminating the pesky glue consumption. Now let me tell you, you can buy frosting in a glue bottle. Yes, you can. It totally does the job. It's like $900. You can also wash a glue bottle out really really well and put your own cheap powdered sugar water frosting in it. What I did was actually a compromise. I bought the glue bottle frosting, used it, scolded myself for wasting money and now have been continuously cleaning and refilling the same bottle for a few months now (yes, we do many edible crafts.)

By the way, Laney can really only draw a face. Everything else is abstract (she knows what it is, I don't see it.) Doesn't matter what it looked like--it never made it to the wall. She ate it when she was done. It was fun. Thanks, Julie Z.