Freezer Inventory

I recently have gotten into making freezer meals.  I put several together on a Saturday and then I have several healthy meals ready to just put in the crock pot or oven when its dinner time.  It has helped to speed up dinner.    But...  I thought I probably need to list what I have and what I use so that I will be more efficient every time!

I usually make about 4-8 of each meal.  They are good for about 3 months.  I figured this will help me keep track of what ends up being used more and what needs to get used soon!  If I make 8  I will cross of 9 and 10 so only 8 is showing.  Then when I use a meal I will cross of 8....  You get the picture.

While I created this for my freezer meals it could work to inventory your whole freezer.  Personally....  I would have hopes of doing that buy... realistically...  Yeah, not gunna happen.  LOL

I created this to match the 2015 Printable Planner.  You can put it in with that or magnet it to the front of your freezer!  What every you choose!  Scroll down to get the printable.

CLICK HERE to download the Freezer Inventory Sheet!

Volcano Dino Dig Cake

Welcome to 

Tummy Tickled Tuesday!

Where I share a yummy recipe or cooking tip or... something food related at least!

My son turn 3 last month.  Yes... I know.  He is evil and rude.  All that growing.  I have tried to teach him not to, but... he just doesn't listen!  Anyways, I had a fun Spongebob Cake all figured out in my head and when I mentioned it to him he said, "I no want a Bob Bob Cake mommy.  I want a Dinosaur Cake."  Okay... Dinosaur cake it is!

So one day he was NOT wanting to sit on the toilet and poop.  He doesn't like to wait and I don't like it when he does so...  I sat on the edge of the tub and googled "Dinosaur Cake" pictures!

He saw TONS he liked! But... it was a spewing Lava Cake that caught his attention!  His other favorite cake had non-toxic dinosaur bone toys baked right into the cake! Way cool.  So I told him he would have to choose.

Lava Cake

or

Dino Dig Cake?

Imaginatively, he said, "Mommy.  You can make a Volcano WITH dinosaurs IN it.  You can mommy."

Duh... why hadn't I thought of that!

The cake itself was pretty simple.  Betty Crocker is my friend.  I made two 8 inch rounds for the base.  After layering my rounds I shoved these little guys...

Right into the cake! I didn't want to take the time to run around finding non-toxic toys that I could bake.  So I opted for toxic dollar store dinos that I simply washed! 

Then I cooked a box and a half in a glass bowl for the top!  After letting everything cool I spread chocolate frosting and Oreo crumbs on the whole thing!

Here is the part I wanted to share.  How I made the LAVA!!!

A cookies sheet covered with foil and heavily sprayed with no stick spray.

Then I lined up Life Savers and popped them into the oven for about 5 minutes on 350.

WATCH THEM!  Cause they get to this stage quickly.

WHILE THEY ARE IN THE OVEN carefully use a point thing to swirl the colors together a little bit.

THEN pull the sheet out and slice where needed as the cool with a knife so they will break apart where you want.

Some of them I carefully took out and draped over a bowl so they would cool in a curve!

(Do you like my Fancy Life Saver cooling holding tools?)

When everything is cooled put them on!

My mistake?  Using applesauce in place of the vegetable oil.  It makes the cake moist and yummy, but... with such a heavy tall cake...  Let just say that by the time we were ready to eat our Volcano had.. IMploded.  But...  Still looked alright.  Not fantastic but... A 3 year old doesn't care.  He really just wants cake!

Donut Stick Flip Flops

I apologize for the incredibly horrible pictures in this post.  Perhaps they are not completely wretched, but...  Seriously.  This chick needs a DSLR!  Now, will somebody give her one please?  I shall email you my home address.  I am that nice that I would tell you how to get it to me! lol

So... Anyways.  These are some super quick Donut Stick Flip Flops I made for Aurora's class at the end of the year.  It was her turn for the treat and...  I was super busy with all the T-Shirts making for Disney World!  YEAH!  

Needless to say I did NOT get good pics of them.  Can I partially blame the horrible lighting in my house?  Ok.  I will, thank you!

 

To make them I simply purchased 2 boxes of donut sticks from the grocery store.  I then used some yellow T-Shirt paint, because... it was right there on the table from making shirts...  and drew "V's" on them.  The stars are just stickers I plopped on top!  They turned out much cuter than the pic I swear.  AND if I had the time I would have used ribbon to make the a little more realistic, but...Disney had the priorities in my crafty brain that week!

Anyways... thought I would share!  And... I needed to not be so lazy and post SOMETHING while I am in vacation in TX!!!  The kids are chasing chickens, I am attempting to keep my dog from eating live duck and...  sewing in my spare time!  Surprise, surprise... I am working on the Disney Autograph Quilts!

Overnight Blueberry French Toast

I found a recipe via Pinterest from RealMomKitchen.  YUMMY!  BUT...  My hubby HATES cream cheese and, unless in a cheesecake, I am not a fan either!  So... this is my adapted recipe for the same thing but without the cream cheese!

Overnight Blueberry French Toast

12 slices of bread, cubed (They recommend Texas, I used my regular ol' wheat!)

1 Cup of Blueberries (I used Frozen)

12 Large Eggs

1/3 Cup Maple Syrup

2 Cups Heavy Cream!  LOL (She used milk...  but... YUM!)

Spread your bread cubes into a 9 X 13 pan.  Sprinkle with your blueberries all over the top.  In a separate bowl mix the milk, eggs, and Syrup.  Then pour that over the top of your bread and blueberries.  Cover this all with foil and put in the fridge overnight.  I did this in the morning and we had Brinner!  (Breakfast Dinner)  Bake at 350 for about 30 minutes and DONE!  Yummy!

I served it with maple or blueberry syrup (my kids like blueberries, but not the syrup for some reason!)  And whip cream!  Yum!

I also served this with my Canadian Egg Boats!  They are a huge hit with my kids.  I think because it has the word Boat in it!

S'mores Trifle or Bowl of Popcorn

This is an easy recipe.  It comes out yummy and, if you add the finishing touches, is sure to be a success at any party!

Ingredients

2 Pans baked brownies, crumbled 

2 Cans Chocolate Hershey's Frosting

2 packs of Graham Crackers

1 Cup of Melted Butter

1/2 sugar

1 bag mini marshmellows

2 jars Marshmellow Fluff

So...  I forgot to take a pic of the first step, but pretty much just crumble 1 pan of brownies and dump them into the bottom of your bowl.

After pressing them down packed layer over them with some chocolate frosting.

In a seperate bowl crumb 1 pack of your graham crackers, add some of your melted butter and 1/4 cup of sugar.  You really just need enough butter to get your graham crackers to stick together in clumps.  Then dump them  on top of your frosting layer.

Plop in 1 jar of your marshmallow fluff.  This step works better if you plop several spoonfuls all around.  This stuff is sticky and doesn't like to spread!

Then do another layer of the brownies!  (Yeah!  I got a picture of the brownie step somewhere!

Then repeat the chocolate frosting layer.

After adding another graham cracker layer STOP!  Don't add the next marshmallow fluff layer yet.

(THIS STEP YOU CAN SKIP AND JUST DO PLAIN MARSHMELLOWS! It just looks cool this way.)

Next you are going to break out the mini marshmallows.  Using scissors I would snip one almost all the way in half and poke another one inside.  

Then sorta smush them together so they stick.  Do this with the whole bag!!

AFTER you make your marshmallows THEN put the marshmallow fluff down.  

I made the mistake of doing the fluff first... then putting the marshmallows on as I went...  They are heavier than the fluff so the sink it!  I stopped and did them all, but then the didn't stick to the fluff quite as well...  Alright though...  I did it fast!

Next I watered down some brown gel coloring and touched some of the piddles with it to look like the kernels.

Last I put some watered down yellow in a tiny spray bottle and spritzed the top!  

Buttered popcorn!

I covered it with plastic and tied a cute ribbon on it for looks!  This was going to an auction to benefit the youth at our church to help send them to camp.  It brought it $50 bucks!  Go me!  I just think it looks awesome!  Although...  I did have a popcorn craving when I was done.

Egg Boats with Canadian Bacon

My kiddos call these Eggs Muffins!  I don't care what you call them... they are simply awesome!

First you are going to need a muffin tin, a pack of canadian bacon and some eggs!

First I sprayed my pan, probably not necessary because of the greasy bacon, but I didn't want to risk it.  Then I cut 4 slits in the bacon (I picked canadian cause it was round!)

The cuts help it fit in the tin better.  

Then I cracked an egg into each cup and sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Then bake at 350 for about 25 minutes!  We like the yolk cooked all the way through, but... if you like it runny then cook it less!

See!  Yumm!

And they even re-heat fine if you have leftovers!  Which...  you shouldn't but I always cook extra!

Spring Chickens and Tie Dye Cupcakes!

I love it when I remember ahead of time that I need to make a treat for my primary class!  I had been thinking all morning of what I could make when my sister texted me a picture of her cute cupcakes she was making.  So...  I copied her!  But...  I had to add a twist of course.

I started by making regular cupcake batter from a box mix.  I like to create things from baking and it takes enough time to do all that!  Then I divided the batter into 4 bowls (yes I know only 3 are shown...  and 2 of those have no batter!  I didn't think to take a pic until most the batter was gone!)  Then I used my fancy wilton food coloring to mix up the colors.

I placed about 1 tbls of each color batter into a muffin paper.  Notice I didn't even put the papers into the muffin tin yet?  That is because I did and then it took so long I didn't want to have to fill them in between oven switch them!  So...  at this point my first batch is in and I am filling papers ahead to save time.

I used my lightest 4th color on top.  I knew I was going to frost them all yellow and I didn't want the cupcake color to bleed through.  

Then I used the end of a spoon and gave them a swirl to mix the colors!

As you can see some of the color pops through anyways, but look how fun so far!

You probably also notice that my cupcakes are pretty tall.  That is how I like them!  No flat cupcakes for me.  I like them heaping!

Here is a pic of the done frosting.  Again...  I didn't use homemade frosting, just the butter-cream from a can.  It's what my hubby likes most anyways! To start I colored my frosting pale yellow for the base.  Then I tinted it again darker and shoved some in a ziploc bag.  I snipped the corner and used it for piping heart shaped wings.  Then I squeezed the remainder out and colored it a dark more orangish yellow and piped the triangle nose and feet!  The eyes are upside down chocolate chips with a tiny dot of butter-cream again, piped from my fancy Ziploc bag.

My hubby's primary class is rather large and he gives them each 2 treats.  One for reading a scripture during class and the other for behaving!  So he likes to have his treats hidden from most of the world as he walks the halls in church.  It's easy to get mobbed when armed with yummy goodies!  So here are his in a box where they happened to fit perfectly.  

Even I didn't realize my own cleverness until I closed the box I had put his cupcakes in!  That was funny.  "Brother Herbert brought us eggs as a treat? LAME!"  Then they open it. "Holy Smokes they hatched!"  LOL

I didn't want my kids to eat their treat until they got home cause mine are younger and much more apt to make a mess!  So I put some easter grass in a Ziploc and shoved a cupcake in.  (I took this picture at an angle apparently because the pic looked wrong both this way and perpendicular...  Rgg...)  

All the kids loved them!

Fun Sandwiches

It has been a while since I posted fun lunch!  This last Sunday I got to feeling extra crafty at lunch and made everyone some fun sandwiches!  Enjoy!

Lion Sandwich

Turkey Sandwich Cut

Carrot Mane and Eyes

Broccoli Floret Grass

Pirate Ship Sandwich

Turkey Sandwich Cut

Carrot Mast and Cut Carrot Portholes

Apple Chip Waves

Butterfly Sandwich

Banana Halved for Body

PBJ Triangles for Wings

Cut Carrot Eyes

Whole Carrot Wing Deco and Antennae

Penguin Cupcake School Snacks

This post has moved to the new blog!

CLICK HERE to head on over!

Polar Express Candy Trains

Ok... I know that these are probably to late for anyone to create them for school, but... I was shocked how many people hadn't seen candy trains! Teachers even! So.. I wasn't going to post these but decided to just in case my rendition was helpful. Both if my kids watched Polar Express this last Thursday and I took the opportunity to create a fun gift for all their friends!

Below are pictures of what candy I uses and my process. I won't note you with any more explanation other then... Watch you fingers with that hot glue gun!! (Not that I am speaking from experience. Unless Santa is reading... Then I am!)