Donuts – Sprinkles in my Lunchbox

Tag: Donuts

29
Oct
2016

Halloween Party Kid Food – BONE Appetit!

categories: Dessert, Dinner, Kid Food, Snacks

Are YOU having a Halloween party? Do you still need some food ideas? Boo, do I have some for you! Read below…if you dare…..mwahahahaha!

About a month ago, I received a call from a sweet friend of my boys (who also pretty much has me done in for, precious as she is!). She told me she was throwing a Halloween party and wanted me to be her “Chef”. How amazing is that!? She poured her heart into this party, planning every last detail – the decorations, the games, etc. She even had my husband, who is a DJ, provide the music. This was a party for the ages!

So, as the Chef, I pulled together some menu ideas with her wonderful Mama, and our planner approved them ( 😛 ). Each of the other invitees offered to make the items on our list. And here they are, in all their Halloweeny glory!

Horrors d’oeuvres Time:

To make this, you simply carve a pie pumpkin to look as if it’s barfed/vommied/puked…the nastier, the better! Put your dip (guacamole worked best for us because…guacamole) in front of it’s gaping barfy mouth.

These are Bugles! And how cute is this sign? A lot of thought was put into that sign.

This “Pumpkin Poo” went over well with the kids! Also, how can you go wrong with cheese balls? Every party needs cheese balls.

This sweet and fruity Jack O’Lantern was gobbled down in no time! It’s made with orange segments and grapes. You can use blueberries in place of the grapes or do a mixture of the two.

Dinner Time:

These Mummy Dogs are so easy to make, and leave quite a spooky impression! All you need is hot dogs and crescent rolls. Preheat the oven to 350F. Dry hot dogs with paper towels. Cut or rip the crescent rolls into strips. Wrap the strips around the hot dogs in a random pattern. Place on a cookie sheet. Bake until the crescent rolls have become golden brown (as per the package).

For these cutie Jack O’Lanterns, you’ll need clear plastic cups, a Sharpie, macaroni and cheese, and some celery. Draw the faces on the cups before filling with the macaroni. Once you have added the macaroni, place a small piece of celery in, as the pumpkin stalk.

These Bat Nuggets are sure to scare! Bake your chicken nuggets, add tortilla chip wings, ketchup eyes, and make sure you eat them before they fly away! Bats fly quickly and erratically, you know.

Dessert Time:

Nothing will gross you out and make your kids laugh more than these graham cracker bandaids!! All that you’ll need are graham crackers, icing, and red gel. **Yeesh!**

Our ghostess with the mostess put these donut monsters together, right down to the eyes and teeth! Super scary!

These were my contribution – Trick or Treat Brownies and Meringue “Ghosties”. For the brownies, you’ll need one box of brownie mix, a bunch of candy (I used Kit Kats, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, and M&M’s), and candy eyeballs. Prepare the brownie mix and pour into a 13×9 prepared pan. Chop up the candy (not the M&M’s) and sprinkle randomly. Bake as directed. I found that my candy sank a bit as the brownies baked, so I chopped up some more and squished it into the freshly baked brownies. Do the same with more M&M’s and the eyeballs. Let cool and cut into squares.

For the Meringue Ghosties, I used the following recipe.

http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/recipe/meringue-ghosts

I used a food-safe paintbrush and hand painted the eyes and mouths, using black gel coloring.

This party was so much fun, thanks to the wonderful party planning and effort put forth by our cutie gHost! I hope your Halloween parties are as much fun and that you can use some of these ideas!

Happy Halloween!

Kristin

23
Mar
2015

You DONUT want to miss this VPK School Lunch!

categories: Dessert, Kid Food, Lunchbox

Tomorrow marks the first day back to school from Spring Break (cue crying/sniffling/and-also-joyful-whoops). We had a great break – we visited family several hours away, my oldest BFF came up from Miami for an awesome visit, our playgroup went on a train ride and took our kids to a fancy breakfast which was a disaster (but my cheese grits and fried green tomatoes were worth it), we went to a concert in the park, we ate overpriced froyo, and we got sick. All of us. My boys had fevers and one had a horrible ear infection. I lost my voice (happiest day of their little lives). But we survived. And to simultaneously celebrate the first day back in school and mourn the loss of Spring Break, I made a fun donut lunch.

I made a donut (doughnut, also being a perfectly acceptable way of spelling it) shaped PB & berry cream cheese sandwich. I cut the large circle shape using a mug and the little hole using a medicine cup (which I had readily available). I used a teeny bit of red spray, and then a teeny bit of pink sparkly icing to keep the confetti sprinkles from falling off. I also packed gold raisins (as my Biggie calls them), a date, grapes, pineapple, goldfish crackers, and a teeny homemade donut for dessert.

I made the donuts last week.

These little suckers are SO good. I have made them many times before and they are always a hit.

Here is the recipe:

http://www.confessionsofacookbookqueen.com/2012/04/mini-devils-food-donuts/

And for the icing:

2 C powdered sugar

2 T milk (I used cashew milk)

1 t vanilla (optional)

1 t almond extract (optional)

food coloring, if desired

sprinkles, if desired (and why wouldn’t they be)

Mix the first five ingredients together. Frost the cooled donuts and decorate with sprinkles.

Get it girl. Or boy.

Kristin

17
Aug
2014

Vacation Eats

categories: Breakfast, Dessert, Dinner

What’s your favorite part of vacation? For tropical vacations, is it the sand between your toes? The sound of the ocean’s waves, lapping up to your feet? Is it soaking up the sun in your vacation spot’s crystal blue, fancy pool? While I love ALL of those things, my real joy is discovering the local food. I’m a foodie, through and through!

We recently got back from our annual sojourn to the tropical Sanibel Island. We always look forward to seeing our favorite things down there and eating at our favorite restaurants there.

I’ll jump right in!

We always go straight to the Island Cow, a funky, cow-themed, tropical restaurant in the middle of Sanibel Island. They put “bread” on the table when you arrive…read “bread” as strawberry and funfetti muffins. How can you go wrong?

We ordered the Frickles (fried pickles). If you’ve never had these, I URGE you to try them. They fulfill a lot of taste pockets on your buds – crunchy pickle crunchy, crunchy fried crunchy, salty, and savory. They come with ranch dressing and are sprinkled liberally with Parmesan cheese. Again, seriously, how can you go wrong? 🙂

I ordered the grilled salmon. It was a little dry. But I didn’t care. I was eating fresh fish and funfetti muffins on a tropical island, surrounded by extended family. Standards are different.

I ordered it with veggies and cheese grits. Because cheese. And grits. Everyone enjoyed their meals (Hubs got shrimp, Bigs got waffles, and Smalls got catfish – he actually asked for catfish and loved it – such a mini-foodie-baby!).

We then went to the best grocery store on the Island – Jerry’s, as we always do after lunch. We picked up some food for the week…and a few extras….DONUTS.

I was on a donut hunt. Like a Great White Shark (sorry, this all happened during our beloved Shark Week) hunts its blubbery prey, I was out to find the best donut. My hunt began earlier in the week (and in my hometown).

We had to spend 3 hours in Pediatric Cardiology earlier in the week to check out my Smalls’ heart murmur (healed, God is good!) and I thought we deserved donuts. And it was a nice way to round out the week before leaving for vacation. These (strawberry icing with sprinkles, red velvet with cream cheese frosting, coconut crunch, and jam-filled) were delicious, but still not as good as my go-to donut shop (I’ve talked about them and posted pictures before – they’ve been featured on Food Network’s “Donut Showdown”!).

Back to Jerry’s in Sanibel…

We picked up a chocolate icing with sprinkles, an almond-filled bearclaw, and a custard-filled croissant bundt. I was delighted to see that as my search continued, the donuts (and pastries, as it were) were getting better and better. The sprinkle donut was very good (the boys devoured it, they love their sprinkles). The almond-filled bearclaw was DIVINE. The pastry was delicate and crunchy and topped with glazed almonds. The inside was lovely marzipan-esque, chewy, and absolutely wonderful. And the little bundt in the back was a delicious surprise. It was made with torn up croissants, pressed into the mini-bundt pan, baked, glazed, and filled with a creamy, cool, vanilla custard. SO fun!

We finished off our donut crawl at Bennett’s Fresh Roast donuts, which have also been featured on “Donut Showdown”.

Our group liked them so much, we got them twice! The picture above shows their s’mores donut, pink icing with sprinkles (for the boys, obvi), and their Orange Crunch. Despite loving all things s’mores and not really liking Orangesicle flavored things, the Orange Crunch was out of this world. It was FULL of fresh orange flavor.

Even after all of those wonderful pastries, I still prefer my go-to! And that makes me happy, because it’s close to me. 😀

We also took our boys to the famed Bubble Room! It was SO much fun! My husband used to go to the Sanibel and my parents used to take my to the one where I grew up – such happy memories!

When we sat down, I ordered Bigs a Shirley Temple (as my parents did for me when I was little) and a Roy Rogers for me. Everything about it is happy.

Bigs thought it was great. And seeing him experience something I did as a wee one made me so happy.

The bread basket they put on the table also made me happy…

It was filled with their “Bubble Bread” (garlicky, cheesy, and delicious) and sticky raisin buns. I meannnnnn….

I ordered the Prime Rib, but my picture came out blurry. It was really delicious.

We took a slice (SLAB is more like it!) their famous Orange Crunch Cake back to our condo to share with our family and friends.

We all loved it. It was so delicious.

The food was incredible, as well as our vacation.

Until next year, Sanibel!

What are YOUR favorite places to eat on your recurring or one-off vacations? I’d love to hear!

Kristin

20
Mar
2014

Spring has Sprung!

categories: Breakfast, Dessert, Dinner, Snacks

It’s still Spring Break here and we’ve been staying quite busy! The weather has been gorgeous (save for one day where it seemed like we were in a hurricane) – clear skies, white fluffy clouds some days, picture-perfect blue backdrops everyday, chilly mornings that burn off to warm, sunny, lovely spring days.

Spring Break actually started last week, after Bigs got out of school. We had breakfast for dinner that night. I made a baked oatmeal casserole.

I based my recipe loosely on this one:

http://www.aaronandyolanda.com/2013/07/baked-oatmeal-casserole.html

Instead of two cups of milk, I did one cup of coconut milk and a cup of pumpkin puree. I only added a few chocolate chips. I also didn’t add nuts or fruit of any kind. So it’s basically nothing like that recipe. And it of course didn’t turn out like that recipe (what did I expect!).

It was alright. The oats didn’t get soaked with the pumpkin custard like I thought they would, so there was a separation of sorts. Next time, maybe I’ll have all the right ingredients and I can make it the right way. 🙂

I served it with scrambled eggs, turkey bacon, and sausages. It did the trick (if trick = filling our tummies).

The next day was GORGEOUS! We went to a park play date.

Smalls was able to keep up with the big kids this time.

And Big Brother took the time to play with him.

I love to see them playing nicely together. 🙂

I gave Smalls a wee little apple and he carried that thing around while playing. He dropped it and still clutched it tightly. This is what I found him holding later on.

The next day was Pancake Saturday – not to ever be missed in our house! It should be renamed Pancake and Breakfast Meat Saturdays.

By this time, I’d run out of eggs (running out of ingredients is a key theme in my life, apparently). I substituted applesauce for the missing eggs. The result was an incredibly creamy, custard-like inside. I also added loads of vanilla and vanilla bean paste, and some caramel extract that I found at Wally-World (Walmart). I thought they were just delicious.

They came out fluffy and golden. So good. Seriously. I might be using the applesauce trick again. I also might HAVE to, as I never seem to have everything I need.

Oh, pancakes.

After breaky, we went to a local Farmer’s Market/Petting Farm. It’s newly opened and we’ve been wanting to try it out.

Bigs insisted (and I am not using that term lightly) on wearing his overalls and boots.

Kind of adorable though.

We saw all kinds of farm animals. Bigs went up to the chicken coop and squatted down and said to them, “Hey Chickens! Why did you cross the road?!” My husband and I were beside ourselves with laughter!

From there, we went to the food trucks and market side. We ate an okay lunch of hot dogs.

And followed that up with a huge cup of the most refreshing, gorgeous, delicious fruit ever. I think it tasted even more delicious after that greasy, fried lunch.

We also ran into two different families we know! It was a great day.

When we got home, there was still some time before nap, so the boys did their “yard work”.

They earn their keep, I tell you.

On Sunday night, some of our best friends, who have moved far away, came back because of work and we got to visit. We went on a date night with several of our couple friends. It was just wonderful seeing them. It is terribly sad when one of your best friends moves away, but it makes you treasure the time you have with them, when you see them again.

My husband ordered the best red wine I’ve ever had – Jam Jar! SO GOOD! I will have to get that one next time. I’m not much of a red wine drinker, unless it’s sweet, which Jam Jar was.

We had a minted edamame hummus and roasted red pepper hummus with lavosh crackers, as an appetizer. We also tasted our friends’ pesto chicken flat bread.

After we toasted to our wonderful friendships…

…we dug into our meals. My husband ordered the scallops (did not get a good picture) and they were divine. I ordered the winter vegetarian sampling.

This plate changes seasonally. I love it. This time, there was a stuffed mushroom, some roasted beets, broccolini, asparagus, and peppers, along with a veggie stuffed taco, and some tofu with mango chutney.

This restaurant is famous for its small desserts. I can’t ever choose one.

Oink.

I chose the chocolate peanut butter mousse (um, SO good) and the cannoli (cannoli cream, chocolate chips, raspberry sauce, cannoli shell).

I can’t even.

I am still dreaming about that cannoli cream. Is that weird? To dream about cannoli cream?

The next day was St. Patrick’s Day! I always go big on these smaller holidays. I love a theme! I think you know that by now.

Before everyone (else) woke up, I put together the Irish Stew in the crock pot.

I sort of changed around the recipe. I used this recipe as a base:

http://everydaymomsmeals.blogspot.com/2013/02/its-not-soup-its-stew.html

I did not add onion soup mix (due to the non gluten and dairy-free and high sodium nature), so I added real onions. I only used one can of tomato soup and added a can of no-salt stewed tomatoes. I also added more of the same vegetables. I let that sit on low all day while we were busy doing other things.

For breakfast, I made Spinach Pancakes (yep – the third time in five days that I served my family pancakes – that’s how I roll). This was a great recipe.

They were chock full of fresh spinach (two cups!). Bigs said that they tasted like green beans, but he kept eating them, so that’s a good sign.

When drizzled with syrup and some butter, the very obvious spinach flavor was sort of pushed to the back (a plus for most kids).

I added more vanilla than called for. I served them with corned beef hash.

Here is the recipe:

http://www.superhealthykids.com/blog-posts/no-dye-green-pancakes.php

My best friend since kindergarten was up visiting from where she lives and brought her little girl (who is only 2 months older than Smalls). I LOVE seeing my best friend. I miss her dearly. I feel so blessed to see two of my loveliest friends, who no longer live near me, all in the same week!

For an after lunch St. Patty’s Day treat, I made Leprechaun Pudding for the kids!

I just mixed half a packet of sugar-free, fat-free white chocolate pudding mix into some vanilla yogurt and added some green coloring. I layered that with some Lucky Charms cereal. I think they liked it.

Earlier in the morning, I’d also made a birthday treat for my bestie. I asked her what she wanted and it was so simple and I love her for that. All she wanted was a boxed mix peanut butter brownie with a ganache on top. How easy!

I sent that home with her. She let me try it and take pictures of it before she left though. THAT’S a best friend!

It was good. I used coconut milk for the ganache.

While my boys were napping, I prepared our Irish dessert – Banoffee Pie! I totally used shortcuts. I made a quick crust from graham cracker crumbs and butter. I “baked” it in the toaster oven. I sliced a banana on top of that, melted and poured some dulce de leche that I bought from Costco, and sliced another banana on top. I then whipped a half pint of whipping cream and spread that on top.

I let it sit in the fridge for a few hours. It was SO good.

I loved that the dulce de leche was the only sweet part of it. I added no sugar to the graham crust or whipped cream. It was a nice contrast.

It was a dream of a pie – crunchy, buttery and rich, sweet creamy bananas, indulgent, deep caramel, fluffy, milky topping. Seriously, the stuff (my) dreams are made of.

Just…yum. It was even better the next day.

And the Irish Stew came out SO SO good!

The stew beef was so tender, as were the potatoes.

The broth was rich and tomato-y.

We ate it for two days. It was great.

I’d call that a successful food holiday!

I got a chance to see my other friend (who we’d seen on Sunday) again before she went back up North. We met, with some other friends, at a neat farm-to-table restaurant.

We started off with fresh, crusty bread and butter (the only way to “start” anything).

My friend got a Blue Moon and I had some. I love that beer – so refreshing!

My other friend and I went halfsies on the burger. It wasn’t just any old burger. It had bacon jam, pimento cheese, spicy/sweet pickles, bibb lettuce, and a fried green tomato.

One of the best burgers I’ve had!

It was served with wedged potato fries topped with shaved white truffles. Earthy, salty goodness.

Aca-yeah!

Yet another friend and I shared the chocolate cake! We call each other “cakesters”…we just live for cake, what can I say!

It was delicious. And a wonderful night with wonderful friends.

I got to see my kindergarten bestie again the next day! I took her to my favorite donut shop.

She hadn’t been there before. She is now a convert.

I got my now usuals – a sprinkle for Bigs, some holes for Smalls (one of which was shoved whole into his teeny mouth), a German chocolate, a Coconut Crunch, a strawberry and cream cheese, a chocolate and peanut butter, and a chocolate and cream cheese.

I meannnnnn…..

Oh, my heavens.

Why, thank you!

We then walked off our calories at the zoo. It was such a gorgeous day!

The boys and my bestie’s daughter, B, really loved seeing all the animals.

The usually low-key otters were really playful and the lemurs saved their freak-out for when we were leaving.

It was a really wonderful day.

My, what a foodie Spring Break it’s been, and it isn’t even over yet!

I hope this finds you all well,

Kristin

04
Mar
2014

Ketching-up

categories: Dinner, Kid Food, Lunchbox

Well, well, well. What a long break I’ve had from you. It’s felt long to me, too. I hope you haven’t forgotten about my itty bitty bloggy. Right? I need you to tell me you haven’t forgotten. Lots has happened since I’ve last written, but when I sit down to write, I can’t remember much! So we’ll just go down the list of food I’ve made or eaten. That’s mostly all I remember. That’s what I created this space for, mostly, anyways, the important food stuff.

I WAS going to post a few pictures of what I thought was a great dinner, but unfortunately, I had a little tummy bug and saw that dinner come up again and again the whole night. So. I cannot bear to look at it. You aren’t missing much anyways.

So last week was my husband’s birthday. You might remember my ill-fated birthday cupcakes. The next day, we took our kids to a theme park to celebrate Husband’s birthday in a bigger way. It was a ~~long~~ fun day! I packed lunches for the boys:

I made Mickey Mouse shaped PB&J, gave each boy some goldfish, gave Smalls some applesauce, and gave Bigs some whole grapes and a gummy worm.

We don’t normally spend money on overpriced theme park food, but it was a special day. Upon getting there (in the morning), we started with a Mickey Mouse shaped macaron (could have done without that one, flavor wise) and a surprisingly worth-the-money-for-the-taste lollipop. You are a hero to your almost 4 year old if you let him have a lollipop right after breakfast, especially one with Mickey on the front and that is bigger than his hand. Trust me. You’re a hero.

That lollipop left its mark on just about everything we owned – sticky town!!

Aaaaand, we got the most buttery, salty popcorn life had to offer. Yum.

The next day was another working-in-Bigs-classroom day for me. I love those days! We were learning about trains so I made an appropriate lunch for Bigs.

A train shaped PB&J (what else!), pretzel sticks, a clementine, and some pudding in a cup. Chugga chugga!

And I packed myself a lunch, too.

I made a quick farro salad the night before. I boiled and drained farro. I added rice vinegar, some Asian spices, peas, and corn, and S&P. On the side, I packed a clementine and two small (cut up) bell peppers. For snack, I had pretzels and hummus.

Bigs also had a day where he learned about air planes.

It’s an airplane shaped PB&J (Food Writers details), the word “Air!” stamped in bread, a box of raisins, graham crackers, grapes, and a clementine.

Well that catches us up only to Thursday. See? I told you it was a long week! Friday, one of my favorite days of the week, was a zoo playdate days. Here are the boys’ lunches:

For Bigs, a camel shaped PB&J for Bigs (lightly sprayed gold and eye and toe details added), a clementine, grapes, a box of raisins, and some bear shaped cookies for dessert. For Smalls, I packed a bear shaped PB&J (my track records for adding bear details to a bear shaped sandwich are now 2/2…as in, I’ve messed up 2), some bear shaped cookies, some grapes, and a clementine.

Just before meeting our friends at the zoo, I took my little sweeties to one of our favorite places – a Mom & Pop donut shop! I daresay…and with confidence….this donut shop beats Dunkin’ Donuts AND Krispy Kreme. I can’t even handle how good they are. And my boys think it is such a very special treat going there.

When you walk in, you smell fresh donuts being made. It is such a different kind of donut shop. I adore that place. Look how cute my boys are peeking in the donut case. I hope one of them works there when they turn working-age. Anyways, Bigs picked his usual sprinkles donut (gotta love a kid who knows what he wants!) and I got the same for Smalls. They were almost out of donuts (this place is popular) so I chose ones I don’t normally choose. And I’m glad I did. I have a new favorite. The German chocolate donut was literally to die for. I am dreaming of it now – a not-too-sweet raised donut that was full of cocoa flavor, a rich, coconutty icing dollop, streaks of chocolate frosting. Yes, it’s my new favorite. The bottom left was a strawberry and cream cheese one, also to die for.

Sluuuuurp! **wiping drool off**

Bigs loves sprinkles (he’s the reason, after all, for the name of this blog!!), but Smalls and his sprinkle donut? That was quite a different story. He attempted to pick off each sprinkle and discard. The horror!!

Then we were off to the zoo! Sadly, it was the day that the entire tri-county school system brought kids in for a field trip. But we still had fun!

We saw the new giraffes, we ate our funny lunches, rode the choo choo train and the carousel. It was a great day.

That brings us to Saturday! We volunteered for a “Serve Day” at our church.
The kids decorated and filled snack bags for the other volunteers doing more physical work (landscaping, cleaning, etc.).

We handed out the bags and the kids said, “Thank you for serving!”, and it was so wonderful to see the kids get it – giving back and being a servant. Love our church!

That night, we were feeling burgers. And peanuts.

Five Guys is a place where you can get both. AND you can make a big mess of the peanuts, something that is highly appealing to small children. Making a mess on purpose and not getting in trouble? Sign them up!

And lastly, here is today’s camping themed lunch. I LOVE this one!

This might just be my new favorite lunch for Bigs. I did a couple of little cocktail weenies, a packet of ketchup, some corn off the cob, and for dessert, a make your own s’mores (a few graham crackers, a few tiny marshmallows and one little Hershey square). I hope he loves it!! It gave me the giddy giggles to put it together.

Alright. All ketch’d-up. Hope you have a great Tuesday!

Kristin

24
Jan
2014

Hammy Time!

categories: Dinner

What a week. Seriously. I know I say that all the time, but what a week. Both boys had doctor’s follow up appointments (both better – yay!), both boys had a little kid gym class (they go each week on different days), both boys had a make up little kid gym class (on different days), Bigs had school and one on of those days, I worked in his classroom. And also Smalls got reinfected with pink eye and had another fever night (booooo). But he’s better again. But seriously. Whaaaaat? Why does this keep happening?!

I absolutely love working in Bigs’ classroom. The parents of the kids switch off days, so that every day has a helper parent. It’s a wonderful opportunity to get to know our kids’ teacher, classroom and procedures and learning itself, and classmates better. I absolutely adore Bigs’ teacher and classmates. He’s expressed that he never wants another teacher again. Just the one he has. 🙂

I showed up to class rocking my donuts. You just might recall how much my Bigs and I love donuts. It’s sort of a thing for us.

I put on my donut sweatshirt and earrings. And then I remembered that I had a donut necklace.

So I put that on, too. Because…you can’t just wear SOME of your donut stuff. Sure I looked like Flava Flav a bit. And maybe also a clown. But you know what? The kids (and adults) thought it was a hoot. And I did too. Love donuts. And someday, probably not too far off in the future, my Bigs will be (and I hope he isn’t!!) mortified when I show up like this. I gotta capitalize on him loving my wackiness now.

My feet matched. I try to do that.

It was a blast of a day, hanging out with my big buddy.

So, back when I’d posted about this sweatshirt, I sort of mentioned that it was a Christmas gift to myself and that my husband didn’t know it yet. I’d already purchased it and was going to give it to him to give to me. But sweet Husband took it upon himself to get it for me before knowing I’d already done the dirty work. It was quite a hubbub to return it. So I EXTRA appreciate it!

Besides the boys not taking naps yesterday, which by all scale-of-tiredness-accounts they should have (and I needed one!), it was a lovely day.

I also made a ham dinner. For some odd (and I DO think it’s odd), Bigs’ favorite meat is ham. I feel like kids Bigs’ age (almost 4) would rather chicken. But I’m glad he likes it! Especially because he’s having it for dinner again tonight. 🙂

I glazed it with cherry preserves. I also made a cheesy hash brown casserole.

This is from the copycat recipe for Cracker Barrel. Do you have those near where YOU live? If not, just get off on the next interstate exit and go immediately. That place is so good. For this recipe, it calls for a cream of soup and sour cream. I didn’t have enough sour cream but I DID have a tub of ricotta cheese. I threw that in, hoping it would help make up for my lacking ingredient amounts. It turned out great, you couldn’t even tell.

I also made beans.

I sautéed a mix of carrots, green beans, and wax beans in coconut oil with whatever seasoning feels right (lemon pepper this time) and freshly grated garlic. I add dried cranberries when it’s almost done. This time, I burned the lot, but it still tasted good. And, oddly enough (my life must be “odd” because I find myself saying this a lot!), this was the only thing Smalls ate last night. He literally turned down cheesy potatoes and frozen yogurt (I froze actual yogurt for the boys to have for dessert) for beans. That kid is something. But I’m glad that if he’s eating anything, it’s beans.

It was yummy.

And like I said, we’re having it again. I love leftovers.

Just yes.

After such a long few weeks of sickness and not really having the energy to cook, it was really nice to have a homey, comforting meal to eat.

And I love knowing that no matter what happens today, we’ll get that same homey, comforting meal again. And I don’t have to even cook it again.

Have a wonderfully blessed Friday (seriously TGIF!!)

Kristin

09
Nov
2013

Sprinkles…On My Donuts

categories: Dessert

One of my very favorite foods is The Donut. I love love love donuts. Doughnuts, too. For writing purposes, I’m sticking with “donuts” because my spell-checker doesn’t even pick up “doughnuts”. That’s its own problem. And sort of rude. But whatevs. I have ALWAYS loved donuts. Despite “them” (whoever “them” is) saying bananas are the world’s most perfect food, I think donuts are. Baked, fried, filled, holes, iced, glazed, long, powdered, mini, raised, cake, jellied, creamed, I don’t care. I WANT!

My husband even brought me donuts while I was in the hospital after having our first son. We made it a rule that if anyone goes into the hospital, they get donuts. I think it’s a legitimate rule. Somehow, in the hubbub of having our second son, this rule was forgotten. I got gypped. But I won’t worry too much. I’ve had more than enough (is that even a thing??) donuts since then to make up for it. My sons love them too. Every time we pass a Dunkin’ Donuts, Bigs tells me, “We should go on an adventure there!”…I’m with you, Kid.

My husband got this sweatshirt for me for Christmas this year. He doesn’t know it yet. I almost can’t hold out and need to wear it just as soon as I won’t sweat to death. Although, donuts are worth it. Worth the sweating, worth it all.

“If you stop eating donuts you will live 3 years longer. It’s just 3 more years that you want a donut.
-Lewis Black

My sentiments exactly.

Some delicious donuts I just got last week, actually. I meannnnnn…..

I got a mini-donut pan on sale a few years ago. It was wicked cheap. I’ve enjoyed making my own donuts with it since then. It is super tedious. Mostly because they are mini donuts (which I don’t mind eating, they are so small that I can eat more!) and also because the pan only holds 12 and the recipes usually make about eleventy hundred.

Some little pink cuties that I made. I used the recipe that came with the Wilton pan.

http://www.wilton.com/recipe/Baked-Cake-Donuts

Aren’t they cute?

Then I tried them in yellow. Adorbs. So cheerful!

Here’s a chocolate version! Donuts for days!

Then, I ran across a recipe for the type of waxy, chocolate-y donuts you find in packs of six or at gas stations. Sometimes, the very best kind. Yum. Of course Kristan, the writer of the recipe, makes them look way more professional. Mine came out delicious and adorable though. Here is the recipe:

http://www.confessionsofacookbookqueen.com/2012/04/mini-devils-food-donuts/

“…life is a jelly donut. You don’t really know what it’s about till you bite into it. And then, just when you decide it’s good, you drop a big glob of jelly on your best t-shirt.”
–Janet Evanovich, “Ten Big Ones”

I also made a delicious Coffee & Donuts Cake. Almost nothing compliments a donut more than a cup of coffee…or a moment of peace that I can share alone with my donut. I used a Serious Eats recipe and it was TDF (to die for). It was a lot of steps, but totally worth it. The best of both worlds!

http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2011/09/let-them-eat-coffee-donuts-cake-coffeecake-recipe.html

I “donut” care if you already have plans to make something else – you gotta try these! I hope you do and enjoy these recipes as much as I have.

Have a rolled in sugar, jelly-filled kind of day!

Kristin