Pirate Party ~ Arrg

Last week I posted about the Princess Party that we had for my Jelly Beane. 

Well, that was a half truth.  Truth is, I really had a Pirate/ Princess party to celebrate Jelly Beane turning 2 and Butter Beane turning 4.

Here is the Pirate part of the celebration.  All of the food for both parties was milk free so it would be safe for String Beane's allergies.

We had a watermelon shark!  I found the instructions on how to cut this here.  I just refilled the watermelon with seedless grapes and watermelon balls.




We ate on some orange pirate ships afloat on some blue jello.  Ahoy matey!

 I also popped some popcorn and served it in some sno cone cups I found at Crate and Barrel.

Butter Beane loves cupcakes so I made some Duncan Heins classic yellow cake mix and made him some.  Duncan Heins classic yellow is milk free!  I topped it with some bubble gum flavored icing and a Swedish Fish.

 

We played some games.

We dug for treasure....

Wore an eye patch...

Walked the plank...

and made the princess walk the plank!

Finally, my little Pirate opened his presents!

He is just about the cutest thing ever!  Don't you think?

It was a lot of fun to combine the two parties and have one.  I only had to clean the house one time!  Bounty!

I am linking up with Metamorphosis Monday, Allergy free Wednesday and these other Awesome Parties.

Princess Party for the Princess

Let me just start by saying that my two older children are boys.

I was beyond excited to find out that my last child was a going to be a girl.  It is even more exciting to spend time with her every day and see that she is a 'girlie' girl.

She loves to play with baby dolls and all of the accessories.  She loves to clean.  She asks for me to put a bow in her hair and she loves the color pink.  I love it!  And most importantly, she loves princess.  There is nothing in her world that a good tutu and some nail polish won't solve.

She will be two years old next week. {Sniff}.  We celebrated her birthday Saturday with a Princess themed party.

When I saw the recipe for this on I Am Baker, I swooned!  I am in no way trying to compare my cake to hers, but I am pretty proud of myself here.  Take one more look at it.

I used I Am Baker's recipe for Basic Butter cream and modified it to be milk free for my String Beane.  I will post the recipe with modifications at the end of the post.  The cake itself, was Duncan Heins classic yellow, strawberry, and devil's food.  They are all milk free.  Just bake them according to the box directions.

We had so much fun playing games.  First we played Kiss the Frog.  I put lipstick on the girls and they were supposed to be blind folded and try to kiss the frog on his lips, but Jelly Beane was not interested in being blind folded.












The children got their fingernails painted and then just played in the yard.  It was great day for a party.





We had some yummy girlie food.  We ate chocolate covered strawberries, mini bologna sandwiches cut out in flower shapes, sugar wafers, potato chips, and Neapolitan Cake.  I also threw in some Ring Pops and candy bracelets for some bling bling.

Everything we ate was milk free so String Beane could eat everything.  For the chocolate covered strawberries, I just melted some Ghirardelli semi sweet chocolate chips and dipped away.  They are milk free.

The bologna sandwiches were made on safe bread and the chips were milk free too.  I used Murray Sugar Wafers.  They are milk free.

To make the Neapolitan Cake, I followed I Am Baker's directions.  I modified her recipe for Basic Buttercream and made it milk free.  It was, hands down, the best buttercream frosting I have ever made!

Here it is:

• 1 cup butter (I used Fleishmann's unsalted margarine)
• 1 two pound bag powder sugar (about 7-8 cups)
• 1 tablespoon good quality vanilla
• 4 tablespoons milk (I used canned lite coconut milk, chilled)
• dash salt

Instructions

1. Put room temperature butter, vanilla, and salt into mixer. Add in powder sugar one cup at a time, alternating with the milk until you have used it all.
2. If your frosting is too thick you can certainly add more milk. I found that this is the perfect consistency for me to pipe roses using the 1M or 2D tip.

I used a 1M tip to pipe my roses.   

I also used margarine strait from the refrigerator, not at room temperature. I think margarine is so much softer than butter, it works fine to use it cold.

I use some pink food gel to dye some of the frosting pink.  I bought a can of Duncan Heins classic chocolate frosting to do the chocolate layer.  It is milk free and I am lazy.

 
And she blew out 2 candles!

I love how everything turned out.

I am linking up with Metamorphosis Monday, Allergy Free Wednesday and these other Awesome Parties.

Banana Nut Biscoff Breakfast Cookies

Here is a secret...  I hate to cook breakfast.  H.A.T.E.  I mean, who wants to mess the kitchen up and have to clean before 9am?  Not me.  That is who.

I love to have breakfast for supper.  That is a delicious meal that we all love in our house.  But we eat it at night.

So I am constantly on the look out for some filling breakfast options that do not really require cooking for breakfast.  So far, I have come up with Sausage Rolls.  They my children's favorite breakfast.  A few weeks ago I ran across this recipe.  It was for Blueberry Biscoff Breakfast cookies.  Breakfast cookies!  Great idea, right?  It was genius sounding on so many levels.  Cookies for breakfast alone was a great idea, but then to have something that was healthy and did not require me to cook in the morning was ingenious.  I tweaked the ingredients to match what we liked and here is what I came up with.

Banana Nut Breakfast Cookies.....pure heaven.

Ingredients
1/2 cup margarine, softened (Fleishmann's unsalted is milk free)
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 cup Biscoff Spread
1 egg
1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 large banana, very ripe, mashed
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup semi sweet chocolate chips (Gharidelli is milk free)

Directions
In a bowl, cream the margarine, sugars and Biscoff until creamy, 3 minutes.  Add the egg and vanilla and mix for 2 more minutes.

Whisk together the dry ingredients and then add them to the wet ingredients.  Beat on low speed until just combined.  Stir in the pecans, banana, and chocolate chips. 

Using a cookie scoop, scoop the dough onto a cookie sheet.

 

Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes.

Let them cool on the pan for a few minutes and then move them to a cooking rack to let them cool completely.  Store in an air tight container.

 When you wake up in the morning your breakfast will be waiting for you!  

I am linking up with Metamorphosis Monday, Allergy free Wednesday, and these other Awesome Parties!

Chocolate Chip Pizzert

So, last week my sweet middle child turned 4 years old.

I wanted to have a special dinner for him since his birthday party will not be for 2 more weeks.

His favorite food is Pizza, hands down.  The boy would live off of pizza.  So for his birthday I made - Pizza.  I also made a dessert pizza.  A pizzert to be exact.  The chocolate chip kind.  We all loved it.  It is worth your time to make.  And you can do it milk free if you have an allergy in your family.

Here is what you do.

Make your pizza dough.  roll it out and bake it for about 10 minutes at 400 degrees.
Sprinkle about 1/2 a box of yellow cake mix all over the pizza crust.  Drizzle on some melted margarine. And top the whole thing off with some chocolate chips.

Throw the pizzert back in the oven for about 12 minutes and smell the goodness happening.  

Stick a candle in there and.....

Make a wish...

and blow out the candle.

Happy Birthday Butter Beane.

Ingredients
One pizza dough ( I used this recipe)
1/2 box of Duncan Hines classic yellow cake mix (does not contain milk)
1 stick of margarine, melted (I used Fleishmann's unsalted because it has no milk)
About 1 cup of semi sweet chocolate chips (Gharidelli has no milk)

Directions
Bake the pizza crust for 10 minutes at 400 degrees
Sprinkle the dry cake mix on the pizza crust.  I use about 1/2 the box.  Get a good layer on there.
Sprinkle on your chocolate chips.
Drizzle the melted margarine all over the pizzert.

Bake at 400 degrees for about 10-12 minutes.

Let cool for just a minute and then slice and serve.  You won't be sorry!

I am linking up with Metamorphosis Monday, Allergy Free Wednesday and these other Awesome Parties.

Menu Plan Monday Aug 20th

So I am looking ahead for the week trying to plan our week's menu around our activities.  Here is what I noticed.....Butter Beane and Jelly Beane will be starting preschool Thursday and String Beane Starts first grade next Monday!  I am starting to get that nervous knot in my stomach that happens at the start of every school year.  I thought that would go away when I was not the one starting school.  Nope.  Only got worse.

I have a few leftovers and some carry over meals from last week.  That will help me our a lot this week since we have a preschool teacher conference one night and an Open house at String Beane's school another night.  Throw in some soccer, gymnastics and Kindermusik and that is why we are all tired and crazy!

Here is the plan for this week.

Monday
Fried Chicken
Green Peas
Cantaloupe

7-UP Biscuits

Tuesday

Dirty Brown Rice with Shrimp
Broccoli
Applesauce

Wednesday

Crockpot Chicken Taco Chili
Cornbread
Fruit

Thursday

Pork Lo Mein
I am substituting pork for the shrimp.

Friday
Breakfast for Supper
Sausage
Pancakes
Scrambled eggs
Fruit

Weekend
Chicken Pot Pie
Broccoli
Applesauce

So....what's on your menu this week?  How are you going to handle lunch box packing this school year?

I am linking up with Menu Plan Monday.  Go and see what everyone else has cooking.

Ice Cream Sundae Cupcake Tute

I know that baking cupcakes in ice cream cones is not new information.  I have seen different versions of it for a while now on the internet.

I tried making them a few years ago and they didn't turn out so good.  They were sort of flat or ever so slightly domed.  They were always a disappointment.  They never looked good decorated.

Then I tweaked the baking technique.  I went upside down.

Here are the steps.

Mix up your cupcake batter.  I used Duncan Heins.

Spray your cupcake pan with cooking spray.

Fill your cupcake pan about 1/2 to 2/3 full.

Easy peezy.  Now turn your cupcake cones upside down.

 Bake at 350 degrees for 18 to 20 minutes.

One of the great advantages to this technique is that you don't have to worry about any of the batter filled cones toppling over on the way to the oven.  I hated that.

When they are finished baking, let the pan cool for a few minutes on a cooling rack.  Then you can lift them out and you will have this:

Doesn't that look pretty? .... and easier to decorate?

If you have any little nubs like in the picture above, just use a knife and slice it off.  Icing will cover all ills.

 

Ice the cupcake cones with butter cream.  Drizzle on some Magic Shell.  Add some sprinkles and a cherry on top!  Look what you got!  Put these in the fridge for just a few minutes so the Magic Shell will harden. 

When these are being made, I need to move fast!  All the little Beanes heard me getting out sprinkles and came running.

String Beane loves these.  It is nice to have an ice cream sundae looking option when you are allergic to milk.  (Notice little Jelly Beane's face?  She thought he was taking hers away.)  

 Butter Beane has inherited my sweet tooth.  It is one of the many things I love about him.

 My sweet Jelly Beane woke up from her nap and came running at the smell of cupcakes.  

These cupcakes freeze beautifully too!  Just freeze them in a zip lock bag.  When you are ready to eat them.  Just take them out of the freezer, ice them and decorate.  Then you have an impressive dessert on a moments notice. 

I am linking up with Metamorphosis Monday, Allergy free Wednesday and these other Awesome Parties!

BBQ Chicken Tostada

This was a happy accident the other night for supper.

I had some ingredients on hand, but no plan.  Typical, right?

I threw what I had on hand together and Viola`!  BBQ chicken Toastadas were born.  Actually, they weren't born.  A quick Google search proved that I am not the inventor of these.  But, I did not know about them before I made them.  So that should count for something.

Moving on.

These are supper easy and fast, so it has weeknight dinner written all over it.

Here is what you need.

Ingredients
6 Corn Tortillas
A few tablespoons of oil for frying
1 package of Butterball Oven Roasted Chicken Strips - found in the meat section of the grocery store.
1/3 cup BBQ sauce, or more or less to taste.
2 cups of cooked rice.
Toppings suggestions:  Shredded cheese, we used Mozzarella, but Monterrey Jack would be great.
Cilantro

Directions
Heat up a few tablespoons of oil in a frying pan.  Fry the corn tortillas for a few minutes on each side.  Drain on a paper towel.

Add another tablespoon of oil to the pan and saute the chicken strips until they are heated up.  Add the BBQ sauce and heat and stir until the chicken is covered.

Put a Corn tortilla on a plate and top with a scoop of rice.  Top with some of the chicken strips.  Sprinkle some of the cheese on top and let the heat from the chicken/BBQ sauce melt it up.  Sprinkle with some Cilantro and serve!

This was a fast and delicious meal, even though I did not really invent it.

 

I am linking up at Metamorphosis Monday, Allergy Free Wednesday and these other Awesome Parties! 

Have a great week!

The Best Pound Cake ~ Allergy options

You know you are an allergy mom when you figure out how to make a pound cake without milk/dairy!

Mr. Homegrown's brother came a few weekends ago to help us move, so I made a pound cake for dessert one night.  As a general rule, I do not make anything for our family that String Beane cannot eat.  So I substituted the milk ingredients in the recipe to make it safe for everyone.  The results were amazing!

This pound cake was delicious!  My favorite part of pound cake has always been the crust.  The crust on this pound cake was so good.  It was crunchy and delicious.

Everyone loved this cake.  String Beane ate A LOT of it!  That always makes me happy since he is so hard to please.

Here is the recipe I used and what I substituted to make it milk free.

Ingredients
2 sticks of butter, melted (I used Flieshman's unsalted margarine, it is milk free)
1/2 cup oil
3 cups flour (I used All Purpose)
3 cups sugar
6 eggs
1 cup of milk (I used almond milk)
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons of Vanilla extract

Directions
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

Combine the flour and baking powder in a separate bowl.

In a mixer, cream the sugar and butter and oil until fluffy.
Add the well beaten eggs and beat until combined.
Add in the flour and milk, alternately, until well mixed.  Begin and end with the flour.

Add the Vanilla and give it one more mix.  

Spray a bundt pan with baking spray and pour in your batter.

Bake for 1-1 1/2 hours at 325 degrees.  Check with a cake tester.

Let the cake cool on a cooling rack and then turn out on a platter.

There is really no way to go wrong in eating this cake.  Slice it and eat it plain.  Serve it with strawberries and whipped cream.  Serve it with some berry compote drizzled on top.  Slice it and toast it for breakfast!

I am linking up with Metamorphosis Monday, Allergy Free Wednesday and these other Awesome Parties!

Chocolate Butterscotch Crescents

Sometimes it is the simple ideas that are the best. 

And this is a simple and easy dessert/breakfast idea. 

We have been in the middle of a move.  It has been so much more difficult than I had imagined.  Horrible really.  I needed some easy and simple in my life. 

So, here is the easy and simple dessert.

Ingredients
One tube of Pilsbury Crescent Rolls
Semi sweet chocolate chips, I used Gharidelli because they are milk free
Butterscotch chips, I used Food Lion brand because they are milk free
Powdered sugar

Directions
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
Unroll the crescent rolls and separate into triangles.
Place a tablespoon of semi sweet chocolate chips and a tablespoon of butterscotch chips on the crescent roll.
Roll them up and place them on the baking sheet.
Bake for 11-13 minutes.

Mix up some simple icing glaze.  This is sort of an 'eye ball it' situation.  Put about a 1/4 cup of powdered sugar in a bowl.  Add 1 teaspoon of water at a time and give it a stir until it is the consistency you want. 

When the crescents come out of the oven, let them cool for a few minutes, or as long as you can stand it.  Drizzle the powdered sugar glaze over the tops of them. 

They sort of have doughnutty taste to them.  This is totally worth the very little effort that they took. 

My little Beanes ate them up.  I ate two of them up. 

These totally hit the spot with a cup of coffee!

Feel free to adjust the ingredients to your tastes.  I think these would be good with some peanut butter and chocolate chips.  I used all ingredients that were milk free so my String Beane could eat them. 

I am linking up at Metamorphosis Monday, Allergy Free Wednesday and these other Awesome Parties!







Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Bread

I have been on a peanut butter and chocolate kick lately.  I can't help it.  It is the greatest combo of flavors ever.  It is a fact.

My String Beane outgrew his peanut allergy late last year.  We have treaded slowly, but surely into the peanut world.  I think I am finally at peace with him eating peanuts and peanut butter.  Maybe that is why I have been adding peanut butter to everything lately.

I saw this recipe on Pinterest and knew that I could switch it up a bit to accommodate us. 

I just changed some of the ingredients to make this milk free for us.  It was a delicious bread that everyone ate.  We ate it for breakfast and snacks.  It did not last long!  I have to say that it was especially yummy with a cup of coffee after the little Beanes had gone to bed.

Here you go:

Ingredients

6 TBSP unsalted butter, at room temperature (We use Fleishmann's unsalted- it is milk free)
1/3 cup peanut butter
1 cup granulated sugar
½ tsp. vanilla extract
2 eggs
3 medium, ripe bannans
2 cups all-purpose flour
½ tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips. (We use Gharidelli semi sweet - no milk)

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. 
Sift all of the dry ingredients together in a bowl and set a side.

Cream the butter, peanut butter and sugar on medium high for 3 minutes until light and fluffy. 
Add eggs, one at the time, beating after each addition.  Add vanilla and beat an additional 30 seconds.
Add bannanas and mix until incorporated.

With the mixer on low speed add the dry ingredients and mix until everything is just incorporated. Don’t over mix. Remove from mixer and fold in chocolate chips with a spatula. This will also help the rest of the ingredients mix in.

Spray a loaf pan with cooking spray.  Pour batter into loaf pan.  Bake for one hour and 15 minutes.  Check with a cake tester to make sure it is done.  Cool in the pan for 10 minutes and then turn out on to a cooling rack to cool completely.

Eat up!

Peanut Butter Cup Brownie Bites

I am almost certain that ,thanks to Pinterest, I can pull off almost anything on a moments notice.

Or at least I think I can.  On that note, the biggest problem that I see with Pinterest, is that so many people are on it.  I mean when you think you are all creative and make something to go to a party, people will say 'oh, I saw that on Pinterest'.  Sort of takes a little something away. 

Anyway, we were invited to a pool party last night.  Whenever we are invited anywhere, the biggest dilemma I have is making sure there will be food that will be safe for String Beane's allergies.  I had the dinner part all planned out, but dessert had escaped my attentions.  Enter Pinterest.

I saw this post by Cookies and Cups and thought it would be easily adapted for milk allergies.  I pinned it. So, about 2 hours before the party started, I started working on a dessert to take. 

I made these cute little Peanut Butter Cup Brownie Bites.  They were GOOD!.  They were simple and they were fast.  And, I made them without milk!

Ingredients
One box of Duncan Hines Chewy Fudge brownie mix and ingredients called for on the box. (This is milk free)

1/2 cup butter, room temp (1 stick) (I used Fleishmann's unsalted margarine - milk free)

1 cup creamy peanut butter

6 cups sifted powdered sugar

1/4 cup milk (you can add more if your prefer a creamier frosting) (I used Almond milk)

Optional Garnish of chopped peanuts and chocolate syrup.

Directions

Start by preheating the oven to 350 degrees.

Mix up your brownie mix according to package directions.

Line a mini muffin pan with pretty cupcake liners and give it a spray with cooking spray.

I used a cookie scoop to fill the cupcake liners about 2/3 full.

Bake for 12 minutes.  I wanted these to be a little gooey, so do not over cook.

Allow to cool for about 10 minutes and then move them to a cooling rack and let completely cool.

While the brownies are cooling, make your frosting.

Dump the margarine, peanut butter, powdered sugar and almond milk in a bowl and beat with a mixer until smooth and fluffy.  Add more milk if you needed to make the frosting the consistency that you like. 

When the brownies are cool, pipe some frosting on the top of each one and look at your pretty work.

Garnish with some chopped peanuts and a drizzle of Hershey's Syrup.   If you have any leftovers, store them in the fridge. 

Take one more look at them.



They are so good.  Make yourself some. 

I am linking up with Metamorphosis Monday, Allergy Free Wednesday and these other Awesome Parties.