Halloween Fun with Food

theme meals and fun foods is one of the ways that I am trying to add a little something to our 3 million minutes.
some day I hope that I can come up with some of these creative ideas on my own but for now Pinterest is a great resource.

here are the two things that i made for Halloween to add a little fun to our time together as a family.

“Bloody” Bandaids

these are graham crackers with a strip of white frosting topped with a dollop of red gel frosting

next a common pinterest find

Candy Corn Fruit Cup

again super easy

clear plastic cups

layered with Pineapple tidbits, mandarin oranges

topped with whipped cream

12 Olympic Meals – Japan

OK so I wanted to try to make our 12 Olympic meals at home (instead of doing take out), but clearly trying to learn to make sushi within the time frame of the Olympics was a bit ambitious.  Especially since I have spent so much time everyday watching the Olympics.

so we found Sushi at a local grocery store.  I got ours at Harris Teeter, but I would imagine that most higher end grocery stores would carry some sushi.

we just bought 3 different kinds and I knew that my two younger daughters were not going to be that adventurous so i also made ham & cheese “sushi”

the ham & cheese is back there by the fake grass.  tortilla, cheese, ham & turkey rolled like a burrito but then cut into pinwheels.

we also have pot-stickers from the frozen food aisle.

If you wanted to be more authentic you could also serve your sushi on more geometric shaped plates (like square or rectangle).  I personally don’t have any of those in my vast china cabinet 🙂

we also had Raman Noodles

and for dessert

Mochi

these are very interesting.  They are actually pounded sticky rice “cake” balls filled with ice cream (which could be made from Rice Milk).  We found the Mochi at a local Trader Joe’s grocery store.

12 Olympic Meals – Denmark

Danish Meatballs

I used a recipe that I found at food.com

Danish Meatballs with Creamy Dill Sauce

I used store bought meatballs and just made the sauce

 

Cheese Danish for Dessert

 

of course the cheese Danish was a big hit and the girls are hoping to finish it off for breakfast.

An Olympic party

We had a big night planned for the Olympic Opening Ceremonies.

We planned to watch the ceremonies while eating Fish & Chips (a popular meal in London) and holding our paper Olympic torches.

but then… a big storm blew through our town

The storm knocked down this tree and knocked out our power 😦

so our Olympic party started the day after the opening ceremonies 🙂

we ate Fish & Chips

There really couldn’t be and easier meal.

I used frozen Beer Batter Fish and Frozen Steak Fries.  I baked both.

We made our paper torches

These were so easy to make.

we used:

• construction paper; black, orange & red
• tape
• scissors

you just rolled the black paper into a cone, and taped it shut and cut out the flames with the orange and red paper and use tape again to put the flames into the cone.

so even though we got off to a rough start we are still planning on have tons of fun watching the Olympics.

next up, we are planning 12 different menus each one representing a different country.

we chose 12 because it is 2012 😉

1. England
2. France
3. Mexico
4. Spain
5. Greece
6. Poland
7. Thailand
8. Denmark
9. Germany
10. Samoa
11. Italy
12. USA

of course all of these dishes will be simple, budget friendly and in no way “authentic”… they are just meant to be a fun and creative way to celebrate the Olympics.

Grill Pizza – Summer Bucket List

this was an easy and fun bucket list item.

we used store bought pizza dough and then just added our toppings.

this pizza was: mozzarella, bacon, garlic and tomato

YUMMY

Have a Picnic – Summer Bucket List

Check off another Summer Bucket List item…

Have a Picnic

with all of the sports that my kids play we are on the road or on an athletic field a lot of the time.  I have been trying to find some more creative things that we can eat when we are out and about.  below is what we had at a roadside stop on our way to the beach.

 

being a stay at home mom… eating on a budget is important.  packing a lunch and having a picnic is much less expensive and healthier than eating out.  And I think that the girls would agree that this was more fun than sitting in a fast food restaurant.

Our menu was:

summer tomato, corn, crab & avocado salad

I used a version of the recipe over at www.Skinnytaste.com you have to check her site out she has some amazing looking recipes.

in my version, I used frozen imitation crab and frozen corn.  I did this because I cut the crab frozen and added the corn frozen so that we could travel with it in the car and the salad would keep.  I also did not add the hot stuff (peppers & cilantro) or the oil.  I just kept it plain to make it more attractive to my kids.  next time I make this I will use the cilantro.

I served the salad on corn tostada

we also had veggies with store bought hummus

and for dessert refrigerated cinnamon pretzels – these were in tubes like biscuits at my local Aldi

 

what was even more exciting about finding a picnic location was what we found along the way.  Between where we live and the beach the state is very rural.  We got off the interstate and found a state park location that was a civil war battleground.  On the way we say a field being burned to get ready for the next crop.  I have always seen charred fields and knew that farmers did this but had never seen one burning right on the side of the road.  It made for quite a little adventure for us.

Eat Frozen Grapes – Summer Bucket List

Another Summer Bucket List item completed!

my kids love this snack and it is so easy.

I wash and remove grapes from the stems, put them in a freezer safe container, place in freezer and Viola!

my aunt would wash her grapes and remove from the stems, then she would roll them in jello mix before freezing.

I would suggest eating the grapes straight out of the freezer, by the handful if you live in this house 🙂

they thaw pretty quick and get kind of mushy once thawed

 

√

 

Hot Dog Octopus and Seaweed