Bunny Puffs

This recipe is from the Pillsbury Crescents small recipe book that you can buy in the check out line in the super market. Jen bought this a while ago because I looked at the coupons at the back of the book and the expire in 2008, so it is pretty old. These bunnies were not in the dessert category of the book, but I think they are a great dessert. There is one piece of candy and the rest, besides the tiny marshmallow and the M&M for the eyes.

Grade: B+

Bunny Puffs
1 can (8 oz) Pillsbury refrigerated crescent dinner rolls
8 miniature chocolate covered peanut butter cup candies, unwrapped
8 white miniature marshmallows, cut in half
4 pink miniature marshmallows, cut in half
16 blue miniature candy-coated semi-sweet chocolate baking bits (I used M&ms)

Directions
1. Heat oven to 375 degrees. Line large cookie sheet with cooking parchment paper; spray paper with cooking spray.
2. Unroll dough and separate into 8 triangles. Place 1 peanut butter cup in center of 1 triangle. Gently stretch corners closest to and farthest from cup together at top of cup, pinching edges together to seal around cup. Pull up third corner; firmly pinch edges to seal. Place on cookie sheet; twist 2 longest tips of dough o make ears. If desired, bend down longer ear. Repeat with remaining dough triangles and peanut butter cups, shaping and trimming dough as needed for desired shape.
3. Bake 8 to 9 minutes or until puffs begin to brown. Place 2 white miniature marshmallow halves and 1 pink marshmallow half on center of each for bunny eyes and nose. Bake 1 to 2 minutes longer or until puffs are golden brown and marshmallows are slightly puffed.
4. For eyes, immediately place 2 blue baking bits on white miniature marshmallows for pupil; remove puffs to cooling rack.

Anna enjoying the peanut butter cup.

Emily thinks it is so funny to eat the bunny.

Sarah attempting to show you her bunny.

Lucy loving the ears!

English Muffin Pizza

This was a make your own “pizza” night at the Hall household. We let the girls make their own pizza on the toasted English muffin as you will see in the video.  The choices for the girls were pizza sauce, mozzarella cheese, pepperoni, and sliced mushrooms. The videos are all under 30 seconds, but be sure to watch Emily take a bite out of her pizza before cooking it.

Taste Grade: B-

Fun for the girls grade: A+

Sarah

Anna

Lucy

Emily

Sarah digging in.

Lucy took forever to finish her pizza!

Emily finding out that cooked pizza is better than raw pizza.

Anna loves her pizza and she now likes mushrooms!

Breakfast for Dinner

Pink Waffles, Hush Puppies, Banana/Grape fruit salad 

Who doesn’t like breakfast for dinner? Not us, our girls would eat breakfast for every meal if they could. The truth about why we ended up having this for dinner is I promised the girls pink waffles for breakfast and was too lazy to make it in the morning. I saw the hush puppies on the next page from the waffles in the BHG cookbook and I thought, why not. I had never made hush puppies before, but like eating them whenever I had been somewhere that served them. I am not sure if they go with the breakfast for dinner, but who cares? Anna and Lucy did not care too much for the hush puppies (even though they love them at restaurants) but Sarah kept on eating the puppies throughout dinner. In fact, for dessert we had Popsicles and Sarah had a Popsicle in one hand and a hush puppy on the end of a fork in the other.

Grade: B

Waffles

1 ¾ cups all purpose flour

2 TBS sugar

1 TBS baking powder

2 eggs

1 ¾ cups milk

½ cup cooking oil or butter, melted

1 tsp vanilla

1.       In a medium bowl stir together flour, sugar, baking powder, and ¼ tsp salt. Make a well in center of flour mixture; set aside.

2.       In another medium bowl beat eggs slightly; stir in milk, oil, and vanilla. Add egg mixture all at once to the flour mixture. Stir just until moistened (batter should be slightly lumpy.)

3.       Pour 1 to 1 ¼ cups of batter onto grids of a preheated, lightly greased waffle baker. Close lid quickly; do not open until done. Bake according to manufacturer’s directions. When done, use a fork to lift waffle off grid. Repeat with remaining batter. Serve warm.

Hush Puppies

1 cup cornmeal

¼ cup all-purpose flour

2 tsp sugar

¾ tsp baking powder

¼ tsp baking soda

¼ tsp salt

1 beaten egg

½ cup buttermilk or sour milk

¼ cup sliced green onions (I omitted these)

Shortening or cooking oil for deep-fat frying

1.       In a medium bowl combine cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Make a well in center of flour mixture; set aside.

2.       In another bowl combine egg, buttermilk, and green onions. Add egg mixture all at once to flour mixture. Stir just until moistened (batter should be lumpy)

3.       Drop batter by tablespoons into deep, hot fat (375) Fry about 3 minutes or until golden, turning once. Drain on paper towels. Serve warm.

Sarah eating her first hush puppy

Emily giving you a typical Emily face!

Anna opening her mouth double the amount that she needs for the tiny piece of food.

Lucy telling me to take a picture of Sarah.

Belgium and Butter Night

I am calling this meal a “Belgium and Butter” meal because of the Brussel sprouts, but I understand that is a stretch to say the least. Anyways, you might be saying, “Your girls ate Brussel sprouts!?” And the answer to that would be, yes we made them try at least one bite. For the most part they like them, but that was because of the excitement that I created before presenting them at the table.

When I came back from the store with my fresh Brussel sprouts, I called the girls together and I showed the sprouts to them and how they looked like little lettuce heads. They thought they looked so cute. This was around 3:00 and they kept coming downstairs hoping that it was dinnertime so they could have the Brussel sprouts. You have to do what you have to do to get your kids to eat healthy, right.

This meal looks/sounds healthy from the listing of food that is included, but it has a decent amount of butter when you combine all three. Maybe that is why it is so good! For the chicken, I took wheat-chex cereal, fresh basil, and oregano and put it into a food processor. I used this instead of breadcrumbs for the coating. I made an egg wash to dip the chicken in before rolling it around in the chex mixture. I set the oven at 350 degrees and put one stick of butter in an 9x12 inch pan and put it in the oven. Once the butter was melted, I put the chicken in a single layer and cooked it for 30 minutes. (Depending on the size of the chicken times will vary.)

The chicken was extremely moist, as it should be considering it was baked in a layer of melted butter.

I did not do anything special for the baby Yukon potatoes. Just boiled and salted and of course stirred around some butter!

Grade: A

Brussels Sprouts Recipe

INGREDIENTS

·         1 lb fresh brussels sprouts

·         4-6 Tbsp butter

·         1/2 onion, chopped

·         Salt and Pepper

·         1 teaspoon lemon juice or 1 Tbsp Meyer lemon juice, fresh squeezed

·         1/4 cup toasted slivered almonds

METHOD

1 Remove any ragged or old-looking outer leaves on the brussels sprouts and discard. Parboil the brussels sprouts (or steam them) for 3 minutes or until just tender. They should be almost cooked all the way through (split one in half to test). Strain the hot water and place the sprouts in a bowl of ice water, this will keep their color bright green. Cut the sprouts into halves.

2 Heat 2-3 Tbsp of butter in a large sauté pan on medium heat. Add the onions and cook until translucent, about 4-5 minutes. Add 2-3 Tbsp more of butter and the brussels sprouts halves. Increase the heat to medium high and cook for several more minutes. Salt and pepper to taste, while the brussels sprouts are cooking. Do not overcook! Overcooked brussels sprouts are bitter and are the main reason why some people don't like them.

3 Remove the pan from the heat, stir in the lemon juice and half of the toasted almonds. Add salt and pepper to taste. Place in serving dish and garnish with the rest of the toasted almonds.

Sarah making sure her chicken is not too hot!

Emily sticking as much of the chicken into her mouth as she can.

Anna pouting because she wanted to eat a whole Brussel sprout and I cut it!

Lucy just put something in her mouth, but I have no idea what it is.