Too Much Easter Candy? Make Easter Chex Crispy Squares!

We received 10 Easter baskets between the four of us. TEN. So I'm going to be finding some creative ways to use some of our candy up over the next few days. Today I hit a real winner - Easter Chex Crispy Squares!

Easter Chex Crispy Squares

4 T butter
1 bag Easter marshmallows (we used Easter ones plus some that were leftover from Valentine's Day)
1 box Chex
jellybeans

First, melt your butter in the microwave in a large bowl. Take it out and stir in the marshmallows, coating evenly.

Return the bowl to the microwave and cook for 1 1/2 - 2 minutes, until marshmallows are melted.

Stir until smooth. Add Chex cereal and stir until evenly coated.

Press mixture into a greased 9x13 pan, press jellybeans into top, and allow to cool.

Cut into squares/rectangles/triangles and enjoy :)

Easter Dinner Leftovers

We brought home lots of leftovers from Easter dinner so I thought I'd try them on the girls one more time. I thought maybe they were just distracted at the real Easter dinner yesterday because they were eating with different people and at an odd time of day. Turns out that was not the case.

Hard boiled egg, fruit (from fruit salad and I washed the white dressing off of it because they thought it was weird), carrots, green bean casserole, macaroni & cheese, and ham

Guess what they had for dinner tonight... Carrots. That's it. OH WELL :(

Easter Dinner

Easter dinner was delish, as usual. Too bad I can't convince the girls of that!

My plate

Leyna's plate. We made the peas just for her. She ate the roll and the peas, not the ham.

Cora's plate. She ate the ham after I cut it in tiny pieces and told her it was "puppy treats." Oh, and she ate the cheese out of the celery. That was it!

Chicken Rice Soup

Leyna and I have been feeling a little under the weather with colds so when she suggested soup for dinner I was all for it. I haven't been grocery shopping yet this week but was able to pull this amazing soup together out of the things we had on hand. This soup was EXCELLENT. I had 2 bowls and Leyna had 3! Cora even ate about half of her dinner for the first time all week :)

Chicken Rice Soup

2 chicken breasts (we use organic)
2 quarts of water
3 T organic chicken base
4 carrots, peeled and sliced
1 bay leaf
4 T butter
4 T flour (I used white whole wheat flour)
1 C rice (I used white Minute rice) 
1 bag frozen peas and pearl onions, thawed (I accidentally bought these awhile back instead of just peas and they turned out to be perfect for this soup!)

Combine the chicken, water, and chicken base in a large pot and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until chicken is fully cooked. Then remove chicken, shred or cut into bite-sized pieces, and return chicken to pot. Add carrots and bay leaf and continue to simmer. Meanwhile, melt butter in a small saucepan and whisk in flour. Cook 1-2 minutes whisking constantly, until fragrant. Add this roux to the soup pot with the chicken and broth. Whisk to combine.
At this point you can keep the soup at a simmer for as long as you need to. About 30 minutes before dinner add the rice to the pot and make sure it's at a low boil. About 5 minutes before dinner add the peas and pearl onions to the soup and stir. After 5 minutes your soup is ready to serve up! ENJOY!!! (and you probably want to pick the onions out if you're serving it to your kids!)

Easter Egg Hunt Fare

Today we had our 2nd Annual Easter Egg Hunt and I'm proud to say it was a huge success! Part of that is probably in thanks to the food of course! Here's what we ate:

Candy, of course!

Clockwise from bottom left: Veggies and Cheese from a guest, Grapes from a guest, Annie's Organic Bunny Snack Mix (3 boxes!), Marinated Olives, Mee Maw's Deviled Eggs, and Nana's Deviled Eggs.

Carrot and Ranch Dip Shooters, Assorted Cheeses (from Costco), Grapes and Strawberries. We also had Hebrew National Hot Dogs with all the condiments, Beer & Wine, Lemonade, Sweet Tea, and plenty of Juice Boxes for the kiddos.

Homemade Chocolate Cupcakes with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting (both recipes from my Betty Crocker Cookbook). The frosting and jellybeans on top are supposed to look like Bird's Nests :)

And perhaps the biggest hit: Carrot Cake Cupcakes with White Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting. (I purchased the royal frosting carrots for the top.) Recipe Below because it was requested a lot!

Carrot Cupcakes with White Chocolate Cream Cheese Icing
from Allrecipes.com
(makes 12 cupcakes)

2 oz white chocolate
1 (8 oz) package cream cheese, softened
1/2 C unsalted butter, softened
1 t vanilla extract
1/2 t orange extract
4 C powdered sugar
2 T heavy cream

2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 1/8 C white sugar
1/3 C brown sugar
1/2 C vegetable oil
1 t vanilla extract
2 C shredded carrots
1/2 C crushed pineapple
1 1/2 C all-purpose flour
1 1/4 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1 1/2 t ground cinnamon
1/2 t ground nutmeg
1/4 t ground ginger
1 C chopped walnuts 

Preheat oven to 350. Line or lightly grease 12 muffin cups. 

For Icing
In small saucepan, melt white chocolate over low heat (or you can carefully melt it in the microwave). Stir until smooth, and allow to cool to room temperature. In a bowl, beat together the cream cheese and butter until smooth. Mix in white chocolate, 1 teaspoon vanilla, and orange extract. Gradually beat in the powdered sugar until the mixture is fluffy. Mix in heavy cream. 


For Cake
Beat together the eggs, white sugar, and brown sugar in a bowl, and mix in the oil and vanilla. Fold in carrots and pineapple. In a separate bowl, mix the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger. Mix flour mixture into the carrot mixture until evenly moist. Fold in 1/2 cup walnuts. Transfer to the prepared muffin cups. Bake 25 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. Cool completely on wire racks before topping with the icing and sprinkling with remaining walnuts.

Pizza Friday...

...tastes much better on the deck!

Snack-Lunch

I was so busy spring cleaning this morning, and the girls were so busy keeping themselves occupied, that we completely forgot our morning snack. So... we had a big snack/small lunch instead. In a muffin tin...

(clockwise from top left) Craisins & almonds, graham crackers, organic honey crisp apple slices, organic peanut butter, homemade hummus, organic high protein pretzels

And while I'm on the subject of lunch, this is what I eat for lunch about 3 times a week. At least.

Mommy food: Baked sweet potato topped with about 2 T shredded cheddar, 1/2 an avocado, 1/4 C salsa, and a sprinkling of cilantro.       LOVE IT!