Lunches Week 14

This week was a 4 day school week. Around here the kids get off the Monday after Thanksgiving for the first day of hunting season. I'm really not sure which hunting season it is, I just like that it coincides with Cyber Monday because then I don't miss any of the sales...lol.

We also had our first snowfall the season this week.

It was only about an inch but it was enough to inspire a snowman themed lunch!

Her Perry the Platypus inspired lunch is because we were going to see Phineas and Ferb Live that evening.

MONDAY

No School

TUESDAY

 

I packed her a snowman Nutella sandwich, snowballs, snowman noses, snowmen marshmallows, and a Capri Sun.

WEDNESDAY

She had a snowflake Nutella sandwhich, carrots, applesauce, Andes mint, and a Sistema Twist N' Sip* of water.

THURSDAY

I packed her pierogies, carrots, an applesauce (not pictured), a Biscoff chocolate chip cookie, and a Sistema Twist N' Sip* of water.

FRIDAY

She had a Perry the Platypus sandwich, pretzels, carrots, raisins, and a Sistema Twist N' Sip* of water.

The products used in this post are listed below.

The container with green inserts is the Rubbermaid LunchBlox entree with trays*.

The clear container with 3 sections is an EasyLunchBox*. 

The tree cup is a silicone baking cup*.
The red star cup is a silicone baking cup*.

The pastel star and heart cups are from ebay.

*Affiliate Links.

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Delicious Nutella Fudge

After my first attempt at making quick and easy chocolate fudge was a success, I decided to try to make fudge that requires more than 3 ingredients. The decision of what kind to make was fairly easy once I found a recipe for Nutella fudge.

Nutella Fudge

Recipe from Not Your Momma's Cookie

1/2 cup salted butter

1/2 cup whole milk or half and half (I used half and half)

1 1/2 cups light brown sugar

1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla (DIY Vanilla Extract)

1 cup Nutella (I used a heaping cup)

2 1/2 -23/4 cups confectioner's sugar

1. Line an 8x8 or 9x9 baking pan with parchment paper. Then spray with cooking spray.

2. Place the confectioner's sugar in a mixing bowl and set aside. (I suggest measuring out all your ingredients and setting them out at this point. If you line the measuring cup for the Nutella with saran wrap it will come out really easily.)

3. Melt butter over medium low heat.

4. Add the milk and light brown sugar.

5. Bring to a boil over medium heat and boil for about 2 minutes, stirring constantly.

6. Remove the pan from the heat and quickly add the vanilla and Nutella.

7. Stir until the Nutella is melted.

8. Carefully pour the Nutella mixture over the confectioner's sugar and mix quickly until combined.

9. Immediately pour the fudge into the prepared pan, and smooth.

10. Refrigerate until set, about 2 hours.

11. To release, run a warm knife around the edge of the fudge.  

12. Peel the parchment paper off the fudge. 

13. Cut the fudge into squares, a pizza cutter can be useful for this.

This fudge is seriously creamy and delicious. 

Plus it was surprisingly easy to make!

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Super Easy Snowman Marshmallows

On Monday I was checking out one of my favorite blogs The Sweet Adventures of Sugarbelle and saw sweet little marshmallow snowmen floating in a cup of hot chocolate. Showing them to my daughter was a huge mistake, because she wanted them immediately. Perhaps if I had some leftover over icing, or I was going to decorate more than 5-6 marshmallows I would have used icing, but I was not about to make icing to decorate a handful of marshmallows.

My solution was to use Wilton Edible Markers*.

Now I'm not delusional. I know that Sugarbelle's snowman marshmallows are about 10,000,000 times cuter than mine, but these made my kids happy and that is good enough for me. I just thought I would share these for anyone who is a little less ambitious like me...LOL

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Browned Butter Cookies

Can someone please explain to me why everything that is made with browned butter is absolutely delicious???? 

Seriously, whether it is in a sweet or savory dish it always ends up being amazing!

I came across a recipe for these cookie from MMM...CAFE and just had to try them!

They are amazing, and I'm not exaggerating. I sent some to work with my husband and they were a huge hit! They are the perfect not too sweet cookie.

Please note that there is a 1 hour chill time required for these cookies.

Browned Butter Cookies

Recipe adapted from MMM...CAFE

Cookies

1 cup butter, softened (2 sticks)

1 cup granulated sugar 

pinch of salt (I used Kosher)

3 egg yolks

1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract (DIY vanilla extract)

2 1/3 cups flour

extra sugar, for rolling the cookies in (When I make these again I plan on trying raw sugar for this step.)

1. In a larger bowl cream the butter and sugar together.

2. Add the egg yolks and vanilla, and mix well.

3. Add the baking soda, salt, and flour, and mix until combined.
4. Roll tablespoon amounts of the dough into balls.
5. Chill the balls in the refrigerator for 1 hour.
6. Preheat oven 350 degrees.
7. Roll the balls in sugar and place on a parchment paper lined baking sheet.
8. Flatten the balls with the bottom of a glass, and re-dip in sugar and replace on parchment lined baking sheet.
9. Bake for 8-10 minutes. The cookies will appear slightly undercooked, but that is what you want.
10. Allow to cool on baking sheet for 1 minute.
11. Place on a wire rack to cool completely.

Icing

1/2 cup butter (1 stick)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract (DIY vanilla extract)

4 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1/2 cup heavy cream or more for desired consistency

1. In a medium skillet, brown the butter over medium heat, while stirring occasionally. The butter will become foamy, and little golden brown flecks will appear. Remove the butter from the heat before it burns.

2. Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly.

3. In a large bowl combine sugar, vanilla, browned butter, and cream.

4. Beat on medium-high speed until creamy.

5. Spread or pipe onto cooled cookies.

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Christmas Picture Ideas & Promo Code For Cards

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend!

I spent most of the past three days decorating for Christmas and shopping! I am happy to say that my Christmas shopping is officially done, and I didn't even leave the house on Black Friday!

I always have a hard time trying to decide on a theme for our Christmas card.

I never know whether to go funny, classic, simple, or nontraditional.

"Funny" is whatever makes me chuckle when I look at it.

To me "Classic" includes pine, poinsettias, fireplaces, and stockings.

"Simple" is just a plain Santa hat...

or maybe some Christmas balls...

or a sweet fedora.

To me "nontraditional" is when my kids are not in dress clothes.

In the end there is always a few pictures that end up making the decision for me, and all I have to do is make them into a card.

Every other year I got our photo cards from Shutterfly.com, but this year I came across a great promo code from Cardstore.com. If you use code CKN2962 you will get 70% off and Free Shipping! The code is good until December 31, 2012, so if you haven't purchased your cards yet check them out!  

If you are wondering what type of card we ended up doing this year, take a look for yourself!

You can find the card at Cardstore.com.

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Lunches Week 13

I know it is only Wednesday, but technically it is Friday since it is a 5 day holiday weekend.

I won't be posting tomorrow or Friday, because I will be busy celebrating and shopping!!!

MONDAY

I packed a Nutella sandwich cut with the Elephant Lunch Punch*, carrots, pretzels, a Christmas oreo, and a Capri Sun.

TUESDAY

I packed an Princess Lunch Punch* shaped Nutella sandwich, cucumbers, Halloween pretzels, and a Capri Sun.

WEDNESDAY

 She had a turkey shaped nutella sandwich, carrots, oyster crackers, Hershey's drops, and a Sistema Twist N' Sip* of water.

THURSDAY

No school, Happy Thanksgiving!!!

FRIDAY

No school.

 

The products used in this post are listed below.

The container with green inserts is the Rubbermaid LunchBlox entree with trays*.

The silicone cups are Wilton pastel cupcake liners*.

The clear container with 3 sections is an EasyLunchBox*.  

The pumpkin cup is a silicone baking cup*.


 

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Chicken Corn Chowder

My kids are not big soup eaters, but they will eat chowders. 

I guess it has something to do with actually getting food on their spoons.

Their favorite chowder is chicken corn chowder. It has all their favorite things in it; chicken, corn and potatoes.

Chicken Corn Chowder

9 medium-large chicken breasts

16 oz frozen corn

2-3 cans creamed corn

6-9 hard boiled eggs, sliced (I only use the whites)

2 - 32oz boxes chicken broth

9 medium-large potatoes

salt

pepper

1. In a large stockpot, boil the chicken breasts until cooked through.

2. Once the chicken is cooked, shred the chicken. You can check out a super easy way to shred chicken here.
3. Peel and cube the potatoes.
4. Pour the chicken stock in a large stock pot and add the cubed potatoes to it.
5. Boil the potatoes until they are easy to poke with a fork, about 30 minutes.
6. Remove and reserve 2-3 cups of the chicken stock used to boil the potatoes, leave the potatoes and remaining chicken stock in the pot.
7. Add corn, creamed corn, shredded chicken, and eggs to the potatoes and simmer until you get the consistency you want. If you would like it thinner use the reserved chicken broth here, if not you may discard the leftover chicken broth.
8. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
9. Serve with crackers, and enjoy!

Note: This chowder freezes very well, but I recommend leaving the egg out, because the egg white does not freeze well. You can add the eggs after you thaw the chowder or leave it out all together.

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Quick and Easy Chocolate Fudge

I have always wanted to make fudge, but I was always afraid it would flop. 

This year I decided to attempt an easy recipe I found on Allrecipes.com.

I was pleasantly surprised when I had completed it, and it was creamy and delicious!

Chocolate Fudge

Recipe adapted from Allrecipes.com

3 cups milk chocolate chips (I used 1.5 - 11.5oz bags of Ghirardelli milk chocolate chips)

1 - 14oz can sweetened condensed milk

1/4 cup unsalted butter, cubed

1. Line an 8x8 or 9x9 baking pan with parchment paper. Then spray with cooking spray.

2. Place chocolate chips, sweetened condensed milk, and butter in a large microwaveable bowl.

3. Heat for 1 minute on high, then stir. Repeat until all chips are melted and combined.

4. Pour into prepared baking dish, and smooth.

5. Refrigerate until set, about 2 hours.

6. To release, run a warm knife around the edge of the fudge. 

7. Peel the parchment paper off the fudge.

8. Cut the fudge into squares, a pizza cutter can be useful for this.   

This fudge would make a great holiday gift! 

Enjoy!

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Lunches Week 12

I am so feeling behind the eight ball this week. Until this past Monday I had in my head that there was one more week before Thanksgiving. By now I usually have our Christmas cards printed, Christmas shopping 90% done, and Black Friday list ready to go. This year is definitely not going as planned. Now this weekend we need to do the kids Christmas pictures for cards, and my daughter was sick this week and looks pathetic. Sigh, 'tis the season I suppose....

Since my daughter missed school Thursday and Friday this week there were only 3 lunches.

MONDAY

I packed a Nutella sandwich cut with the heart FunBites*, carrots, goldfish crackers, and a Sistema Twist N' Sip* of water.

TUESDAY

I packed an M&M shaped Nutella sandwich, cucumbers, Halloween pretzels, and a Sistema Twist N' Sip* of water.

WEDNESDAY

 She had a ice cream Lunch Punch nutella sandwich, carrots, white cheddar puff balls, and a Capri Sun.

THURSDAY

No school, she was home sick. 

FRIDAY

No school, she was home sick. 

The products used in this post are listed below.

The container with green inserts is the Rubbermaid LunchBlox entree with trays*.

The silicone flower cup* is Wilton.

The clear container with 3 sections is an EasyLunchBox*.  

The pumpkin cup is a silicone baking cup*.


 

*Affiliate Links.

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Spaghetti Squash Bake

Looking for an easy side for your Thanksgiving dinner? 

Here is another option for you, that will allow you to make part of it ahead of time.

This is a great nontraditional side to any meal, but can also serve as a vegetarian option for your guests.

Ingredients

Recipe adapted from Green Lite Bites

1 medium-large spaghetti squash

2-3 large tomatoes, sliced

1 8oz package of Shredded cheese Mexican blend

Kosher salt

Garlic Powder

Onion Powder

Dried Basil

Dried Parsley

Fresh Basil, optional

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2. Cut the spaghetti squash in half lengthwise, and scoop out seeds.

3. Place the halves rind side up in a 9x13 or 11x15 baking dish.

4. Fill the baking dish with water until the cut edges on the spaghetti squash are covered.

5. Bake for 30-40 minutes, until the rind can be easily pushed on with a fork.
6. Separate the strands of spaghetti squash with a fork.

Steps 1-6 can be done ahead of time and the cooked spaghetti squash can be refrigerated until ready to use.

7. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

8. Prepare a 9x13 baking dish with cooking spray. 

9. Spread a third of the spaghetti squash in the bottom of the baking dish.

10. Top with a single layer of sliced tomatoes.

11. Top with a third of the cheese.

12. Sprinkle with spices and salt, to your families taste. Remember you will do this after each layer, so a lite hand to good.

13. Repeat step 9-12, 2 more times. So from bottom to top you will have; squash, tomato, cheese, spice, squash, tomato, cheese, spice, squash, tomato, cheese, spice.

14. Bake uncovered for 30 minutes.

15. Top with fresh chopped basil.

    

This is a simple bake that is full of flavor, and reheats well.

Enjoy!

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