Valentine’s Day Pesto Cracker Chips

Feb12

These tasty little things can pass as a chip or a cracker. Either way try them. These are super fast and easy to put together. These would be perfect for a Valentine’s Day lunchbox or as part of a cheese or charcuterie board to have with wine. You can change up the shape to suit whatever occasion you are celebrating.

Take a package of wonton wrappers and use a cookies cutter to cut out the shapes you want to use.

Place the shapes on a parchment lined baking sheet and brush with pesto and just a very light sprinkle of salt.

Bake in a 350F oven for about 8 minutes, until golden at the edges.

Let cool completely before storing in an airtight container. Lasts for a few days, but ours did not last to make it into a container.

As you can see, we tried a few tree shapes that we could use for Christmas and pumpkins for Halloween.

One note about the pesto, if you are putting in a lunchbox check the pesto for nuts. Both pesto types that I bought contained nuts. Our school is nut free so I couldn’t put them in the lunchbox. I have to find a nut free commercial pesto or make my own.

You could also just brush them with a little olive oil and sprinkle of salt to make a plain cracker-chip. That is how I will use the rest of my wontons for the valentines lunchbox.

School Lunch Pizza Bites

Sep27

The school year has just started and I am already sick of packing lunches! I always see amazing looking lunches on Pinterest that I would like to pack but who has the time and those containers! I went looking for some of those nice compartmentalized (is that even a word) containers and they are pricey. They were ranging from CDN$45-80. Oh Mylanta, I will need a second job! I can’t comit to just one container and those are so expensive. Can you sense my angst here?

Anyway, on to the post. After perusing Pinterest for a few hours, I mean minutes, I came across these little pizzas that looked like faeries made them. This is it, my lunch saver.

We used:

1 tube pilsbury pizza dough

1 stick small pepperoni

1 small can pizza sauce (for dipping)

Preheat oven to 350F.

We used a small round cookie cutter to make little dough circles just a little larger than he diameter of the pepperoni.

Place dough circles on a lightly greased baking sheet and press the pepperoni into the dough.Bake for 10 mins on 350F.

And here is a lunch all ready to go, note the absence of cool container. I will comit to a cool container soon.

There are good. Of course you can use cheese or anything that your child likes on the dough. This took minutes and she can’t wait to have lunch.

Roasted Almond Pumpkin Seed Butter

Aug26

We always make homemade peanut butter and it was the easiest thing ever. I really like almond butter, so had to give that a try too. It was just as easy and turned out really good.

I took a couple of large handfuls (about 1 cup) of raw almonds and one handful (about 1/2cup) of raw pumpkins seeds and roasted them for a few minutes in a 350F oven. Shake them around a bit and watch them carefully or they will burn! To make it easier you can just buy them already roasted. When you take them out you will hear the pumpkins seeds cracking and popping.

Let those cool a bit, just to room temperature. Put all of those into a food processor.

While blending drizzle in some avocado oil, or any flavour neutral cooking oil. Only 2-3 tbsp. Blend until smooth, drizzling in a little more oil as needed.

Drizzle in a tablespoon or two of honey, to taste and a generous pinch of salt.

Blend until smooth

Place in a jar and keep in fridge

We like it on toast or apple slices

Happy New Year!

Jan4

Well the holiday season is over and things are slowly getting back to a slightly normal rhythm. I have a couple days off work so Evie is itching to do some of her craft kits she got for Christmas.

Today we are stuck inside as we are having freezing rain and everything is covered in ice. We are using the time to make homemade hamburger buns. While those are rising we are trying out Fuzzeez, make your own teddy bear, it is no sew felted wool.

After 2 washes in hot water and dried in the dryer remove the clips and we have this little guy.

It did turn out pretty cute.

He was still a little too soft and some parts were not quite felted. This could have been avoided if the instructions said to use one piece stretched out.

So we trimmed the edges, put back in form and washed and dried again.

Overall it did turn out well. The instructions were step by step, however never mentioned filling in the feet, which led to our problem with the parts that didn’t felt properly. We were able to fix those up and it worked ok. Definitely not energy efficient and it took a long time to go through 3 hot wash cycles and then a very long time in hot dryer.

I am still on the fence if we would buy and do another of these. Knowing what we know now regarding how it turned out and we could avoid the little problems that we had. I say probably yes and Evie said yes right away. So there may be a bunny or cat in our future!

This is not an affiliate post, we were not compensated in any way for this review, it was a Christmas gift to Evie from her great aunt and we just decided to review it for anyone who would like to know how it actually works.

Cheese Crackers

Dec18

These little crackers are great for the lunchbox, but you can also make them into holiday shapes, sticks or twists for holiday entertaining.

I found these on Minced, you can visit that site for the complete recipe. Please do visit that website for detailed instructions and to see the beautiful pictures. Her pictures are much nicer and more elegant than mine (I barely know how to use my camera).

Basically you place the following ingredients in a food processor and pulse until the dough forms, keep it going, it will come together.

1/2 lb grated extra sharp cheddar cheese
1 stick (1/2 cup) cold unsalted butter, cut into thin slices
1 cup all purpose flour, more for dusting
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
Cayenne pepper (optional – to taste)

Preheat oven to 350F. Once you have the dough roll it out and cutout and shape as desired.

Bake for about 10 minutes, just until puffed and slightly golden at edges.

Snowballs

Dec17

There seemed to be some problems with my reblogged post, so lets see if this works! This is one of our very early posts and we have so many newer followers since this post we thought we would share it again. This is a Christmas staple and an excellent addition to any Christmas cookie tray. We are making these right now, Evie is rolling in coconut as I type!

I should call these cookies Newfoundland snowballs.

These are cookies that I grew up eating and Evie loves them now. I haven’t met anyone that didn’t like them. I made a batch recently and shared with a few people. They are really easy, no bake and quick to make with few ingredients.

The coconut used is fine or medium desiccated unsweetened coconut.

Put the first 4 ingredients in a small saucepan and melt stirring to combine.

cookswithevie

I should call these cookies Newfoundland snowballs.

These are cookies that I grew up eating and Evie loves them now. I haven’t met anyone that didn’t like them. I made a batch recently and shared with a few people. They are really easy, no bake and quick to make with few ingredients.

The coconut used is fine or medium desiccated unsweetened coconut.

Put the first 4 ingredients in a small saucepan and melt stirring to combine.

Into another bowl add the next 3 ingredients and mix to combine.

Add the melted butter mixture to the oat mixture and mix. Let this cool, I usually put it in the fridge for about half an hour until it will hold shape when rolled into balls.

Roll into balls and then roll in coconut. That is it!

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These also freeze well and are good in the freezer for a few months. Sometimes I freeze…

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Havin’ an Ice Cream Ball

Oct16

This is 3 ingredient ice cream, all real, all delicious. We haven’t used our ice cream ball to make ice cream since Evie was a toddler. She actually had forgotten it.

This is an ice cream ball, actually a camping accessory, but works at home just as well.

The inside of the ball gets filled with ice and 1/2 cup of rock salt.

The inner metal canister (on the other side) gets filled with 2cups of cream and 1/3 cup sugar and a little vanilla, we added some vanilla beans as well.

Place the lids tightly and roll and shake for 15-20 mins.

Et voila…..

Fresh vanilla ice cream

Fairy Garden

Jun5

Evie wanted a little fairy garden for a long time, then she saw some pictures on pinterest, then our neighbor put some old pots out on the curb. That was it, she became relentless, it had to be done. Off we went to the garden centre for a few little plants and now we have this little garden sitting in our herb bed amongst the mint.

It was very basic to make and you can find endless instructions on the internet, but really you don’t need instruction to pour some dirt in a pot (broken or unbroken), we upcycled. Tuck in a few little low growing easy care plants into the soil and there you have it. We have since added a little bottle cap seat so a fairy can sit and rest if she needs to.

Toddler Banana Bread

Apr25

We were very excited when we found this recipe which we had lost! It is a recipe that was on a sheet of paper and it had gotten tucked inside another recipe book and when leafing through it the other day there it was. This recipe came from Evie’s daycare when she was a toddler, her caregivers were a wonderful group of young ladies at a Reggio Centre and they really were special. This is a recipe that they made regularly with the toddlers, each child had a part, one measured the flour, one mixed etc. The children loved taking part and they loved to have their banana bread for a snack afterwards.

Here is the toddler banana bread! (that is Evie’s note)

There you have it, a very simple easy banana bread. It is perfect for breakfast and snacks.

In My Kitchen April 2016

Apr8

I missed the IMK last month, I am not sure what happened it just kind of came and went and I didn’t get it done. I have had no internet connection for days and I am going to post this one before it is too late. Hopefully I will finish and post before I lose the connection, forgive any typos!

Here is a little of what has been in our kitchen lately:

Rosemary garlic sourdough

Easter cake and cupcakes

Hot Cross Buns

Empty Tomb Rolls

Delicious Apricot Scones from Tara, these really were amazing!

a little lemon tart with teeny tiny macarons, Evie picked each one off for herself!

Evie has been sewing and needle felting and made me this little donut and the cutest little needle felted sheep

A science experiment, making a clock from and orange and lemon juice.

We found our toddler banana bread recipe, from when Evie was in daycare, recipe to follow soon.

Balsamic mushroom pasta, will share soon

And my fearless protector, who is always close by watching.

I hope you enjoyed your visit and I hope you come back soon. If you’d like to write an In My Kitchen post, please do so by the 10th April and send your link to Maureen at The Orgasmic Chef. Thanks for hosting Maureen!