Pops!

Summer is coming, and our little ones are growing up so quickly. Being a healthy mom I'm always on the lookout for interesting ideas to let Demi have her treats, but keep the experience as healthy as possible. I came across a great book called "Pops!" by Krystina Castella. The book has recipes for young and old. K and I have been indulging in some really great cheesecake pops... not that I need any more help with my waist line.

The book contains some really great recipes, and provides a great base for any creative health conscious mom. One of Demi's favorite treats so far is a one of my own recipes taken from the Peanut butter and Jelly recipe from the book.... ok, apparently I wasn't reading carefully because I just noticed that one of her substitutions is banana! (though she does it differently than me.)

Of course every new hobby requires my prerequisite trip to my favorite store to stock up on supplies. The Dollar Store! As the book will tell you anything can be used as a popsicle mold. I purchased some actual popsicle containers, but ended up having to drill holes in the plastic sticks because they were just slipping right out minus the popsicle!

By popular demand I'm going to share my peanut butter and banana pop recipe, and the recipe for the cheesecake pops.

Peanut Butter Banana Pops
1/2 peanut butter
1/2 yogurt
1/2 milk2tbs honey
Mix in a blender
1/2 - 1 banana cut into small cubes. Fill your pop molds with the peanut butter mixture. Place in the freezer for 1 hr.
Remove the pops from the freezer and insert your banana pieces. The peanut butter mixture should be thick enough to suspend the banana throughout the pop. Freeze overnight (or a good 6 hours)You can make this a PB & J pop by using fruit juice (we used Bolthouse 50/50 veggie berry flavor). Fill 1/2 of the pop mold with fruit juice, let freeze for 1-2 hrs. Fill the remaining space with your PB mixture.

Cheesecake pops
(these work best in a silicon mold or in a paper cup so you can cut it off)

1 cup fruit reduction (we used strawberry)8oz cream cheese room temperature
1cup heavy cream (I used 2%)
1/2 sugar
vanilla
Crust
10 graham crackers6tbs sugar4 tbs unsalted butter melted

In your cup evenly distribute the fruit reduction (makes 8 6oz pops). Freeze for 2 hours.
Mix cream cheese, cream, sugar and vanilla until smooth. Remove the cups and evenly distribute cream cheese mixture. Insert sticks. Freeze for 3 hours. Mix crust ingredients. If the mixture is not sticking together easily you may want to ad some water 1 tbs at a time. Press the crust into the pop molds. Freeze for at least 4 hours.Of course you can ad fruit to the cheesecake mixture as well, or use chocolate cookie crumbs.

I used cardboard with a slit cut into it as a brace to hold the popsicle sticks in place. *Disclaimer: Children should always be supervised when eating popsicles as they can be a chocking hazard, and the sticks can be dangerous if they are running with them in their mouth.*

Sesame Street silicone ice cube trays make excellent Elmo pops!



Enjoy!

Really me,
Coolest mommy on the block!
Nik

My Daughter Has 2 Dadas

It’s like a little competition between parents. Is your precious little bundle of joy going to say mama or dada first? When your partner’s not around you hold up your child’s favorite toy.

“Do you want your toy… say mama. MA MA. You can do it. mama…. ma ma…. ma…..ma…. mama”

It’s been my experience that dada wins out. It just seems to come a little easier to their budding vocabulary. Demi (as she was aptly nicknamed by my CB girls) said dada first. And trust me, I tried!

For one glorious week around 8 months old, I was mama. Everything was mama. Mama this, mama that. It was great! And then mama went into a little vault in her head. Fast forward to 16 months old, and still no mama! Only on the very rare occasion when she is over tired, grumpy, or maybe teething, possibly hurt, will I ever hear the long drawn out cry.

“MMMMMMAAAAAAMMMMAAAAA!!!!”

We look at pictures and it’s “dada”.

I get home from work and she yells “Dada!”

I go to the bathroom and she pounds on the door yelling “DADA”

Really me,
Dada #2
Nik

30 Minute Meals III

Ok, so this one isn’t quite 30 minutes, it’s more like 40, but it’s still really simple, tasty and healthy. In fact it's probably something a spouse or an older child could throw the last few touches on, and throw in the oven so dinner is waiting when YOU get home! (S I'm looking in your direction ;) )

Fajita Chicken Casserole (one pot wonder!)
You’ll need:
1 chicken breast per person
Chicken Broth
Brown Minute Rice (for two people 1 c is plenty)
Salsa
Cheddar cheese (used to top each chicken breast, so you don’t need a lot)
Fajita seasoning
Beans (1/2 can well drained of any kind you like)
Peppers, julienned
Sour cream

Night Before:
1. Grate cheese
2. In a large casserole dish layer rice, beans, peppers. Place chicken breasts on top of the rice. Top the chicken with salsa and grated cheese.
3. Cover and store in the fridge. (it is very important to make sure there is no liquid in the container or the rice will suck it up and ‘cook’ before it’s time.)

Dinner Time:
1. Preheat oven to 350°
2. Mix the required amount of chicken stock with ½ package of fajita seasoning.
3. Pour into the casserole dish.
4. Cook for about 40 mins or until chicken juice runs clear.
5. Top with sour cream, enjoy!

Since there’s nothing else required after you throw the dish in the oven you can use the spare time to hang out with your family, do some house chores, surf the web etc.

So Far...

So far this week I have had

Ants in my pants

Birds in my soffit

and

Raccoons in my attic

I think nature is mad at me, you think?

Really me,
Really?
Nik

Ants in my Pants

I have ants in my office today. Nasty little brown ants. EVERYWHERE!

My predecessor had some ketchup packets in the bottom drawer of the desk, well one leaked and attracted an army of ants.

I called my husband

Me: I have ants!
Him: Where
Me: Everywhere!
Him: That’s no good.
Me: I had to come outside because the ants were taking over and we didn’t have any ant spray so I sprayed Glade on them and now my office smells like Glade and I think the ants are having a party.
Him:…
Me: How am I supposed to work like this, they’re under my feet, and if I work there all day they’ll crawl up my chair or up my leg and into my underpants. Then I’ll have ants in my pants!
Him: You won’t have ants in your pants.
Me: How do you know? You don’t have ants, I do. And the ants are going to take over the world… you know they say they’ll outlive us all.
Him: Isn’t that cockroaches?
Me: They’re all bugs, it applies.

I think this is going to scar me for life… I was already scarred as a child when some brilliant adult told me about bed bugs. I would not sleep without my underwear for fear that they would crawl in my vajayjay and make it their home. I still always sleep in my underwear… always. ANYWHO

My husband was of little help. All he cared about was feeding the baby her lunch! Pshaw!

Now I’m sitting cross legged in my chair trying to avoid the ants, breathing in the toxic Glade fumes freezing my butt off because the window is open to aerate the room and swatting the occasional ant off the top of my desk

Can you say GROSS!!!

Really me,
Nik

30 Minute Meals II

In contrast to the first 30 min meal, this one is all about assembly. This is a quick meal I like to serve in the cooler months when you need something good and hearty. Most of the meal is assembly.

“Chicken A La King” with Rice
You’ll Need:
Brown Instant Rice
Chicken stock
TenderFlake patty shells (one per person is the proper portion size…we have been known to eat 2 each)
Campbell’s Soup (they used to have an A La King soup, but we can’t find it anymore so we use Smokey Bacon Chowder, or Chicken and Corn. What you’re looking for is a creamy soup with chicken and veggies)

Night Before
EDITED:
There are no steps for the night before. I just realized that the box says cook from frozen.

Dinner Time
1. Place the patty shells on a cookie sheet and cook as per box directions
2. In a small pot heat up the soup.
3. In a medium pot cook rice according to package directions using chicken stock instead of water.
4. Layer rice on the plate, patty shell on top and pour the soup over everything.

This recipe reminds me of a salmon dish my grandmother used to make on Fridays. She would make a roux, add a tin of salmon, some peas and serve it over a flaky pastry. This one will keep you nice and warm on a cool night.

Really me,
The Chef
Nik

Let it Grow Let it Grow Let it Grow

Spring has sprung again. The sun is going down later, and rising earlier. The birds are singing, the bugs are buzzing (ick!). And I am planning my garden for this year. Even though C is only 16 months old I thought this was a good time to give her a little gardening lesson, and put her in charge of her own living object. I went to Dollarama and picked up these neat little plants in a cup.


The little cup comes with a peat moss pellet, 3 seeds (they have several plant options available) and a peat moss cup so that you can re-plant your seedlings outside. All you have to do is remove the seeds, pour some water over the peat moss pellet and once it expands plant your seeds. As we went through all the step I explained everything to C.

"This is the bed your flowers will live in. Push the seeds into their bed and cover them up to keep them warm. We have to give them enough water to grow big and tall, but not too much so they drown. We put the cups on the window ledge because flowers love the sun. etc."

You may even think that that is too much for a 16 month old to understand, but I can assure you that on some basic level they are understanding what you're saying. I'm sure of this because every morning we come downstairs and I ask her where her flowers are. She goes running into the kitchen, up to the window ledge and with a big smile on her face she yells;

"Der dey is!" (For anybody who doesn't understand toddler talk, that translates to 'there they is'... we're working on grammar next.)

We water them when the dirt feels dry using a water bottle with a pin prick in the cap. This allows C to hold the bottle and 'pour' it, but it also lets mommy monitor the amount going in ;)

Here's my princess with her 10 day old sunflowers... we're still waiting on the bird house gourd.


























Really me,
The gardener's assistant
Nik