Thanksgiving Blessing Mix

Every year around the holidays I like to make some munchies to share with family and friends. For Christmas I love making some Peppermint Bark and Sugar Coated Pecans(recipe to follow).This year I thought I'd look for an easy snack to put together for Thanksgiving too. I came across the "Thanksgiving Blessing Mix" online and found it be very meaningful, it is a reminder of this great nation's blessing. All you need to do is bag this snack which you can put together in 5 minutes into favor-sized gift bags. You can use them as favors for you Holiday party or just share them with your family and friends. You also attach the the Blessing Poem with ribbon/raffia to make it look festive. I found some Thanksgiving themed treat bags with twine from Walmart for $1.99 and ribbon from Michaels (Sale 3 for $0.50). I got the poem printed at Staples on heavy card stock.
Here is the link to the poem-
http://christmas.organizedhome.com/sites/default/files/image/pdf/gift_tags_blessings_mix_thanksgiving_cornucopia.pdf

Ingredients
Bugles-2 cups
Pretzels-2 cups
M&Ms-1 cup
Raisins-1 cup
Peanuts/Nuts-1 cup
Candy corn- 1 cup
Hershey Kisses-16

Directions
1.Mix all of them together except the hershey kiss.
2.Pour about 1/3-1/2 cup into each favor bag and before tying place a Hershey Kiss into each bag.
3.Print out the poem ,useing a hole punch, punch a hole on them and thread a ribbon through.
* I doubled the quantities to make 16 bags and the bags were half filled. I was a bit more lavish on the snack.

Thanksgiving Blessing Mix Poem

Bugles: Shaped like a cornucopia or Horn of Plenty, a symbol of our nation's abundance.

Pretzels: Arms folded in prayer, a freedom sought by those who founded our country.

Candy corn: Sacrifices of the Pilgrims' first winter. Food was so scarce that settlers survived on just a few kernels of corn a day.

Nuts or seeds: Promise of a a future harvest, one we will reap only if seeds are planted and tended with diligence.

Dried fruits: Harvest gifts of our bountiful land.

M&Ms: Memories of those who came before us to guide us to a blessed future.

Hershey's Kiss: The love of family and friends that sweetens our lives.

That's it your favors are ready! A great snack to share this Holiday season.

Hershey Kiss Cookies

It has been a while since I added anything to the blog. The past couple of  months have been busy. In a couple more weeks I'll be more regular with the postings,I hope The blog has been neglected , I know.
I remember making these cookies for a bake sale when I was at Franklin Avenue Elementary School back in the day. The original recipe calls for peanut butter, but I wanted to try making it without it. The girls really don't like PB and it was a spur of the moment thing. My oldest daughter comes homes after school, telling me that it's Diwali-The Festival of Lights and that we Have to Celebrate! This festival is  very common in the northern parts of India and celebrated with sweets and firecrackers. Even though it isn't very significant down south in Kerala especially among Christian households, trying to make a 5 year old understand all that was too much of a hassle so I decided to make some anyway. If you're wondering, that's why the pictures of the cookies are alongside a "diya" or lamp.

Ingredients
Butter-1 cup
Sugar-1 cup
Egg-1
Vanilla extract-1 tsp
All Purpose Flour-1 1/4 cup
Unsweetened cocoa powder-3/8 cup
Baking powder-1/2 tsp
Salt-1/4 tsp
Sugar-1/6 cup (for decorating)
Hershey kisses-20

Method
1.Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2.Cream together the sugar and the butter until its nice and fluffy.* Make sure the butter is at room temperature.
3.Next add the egg and vanilla extract and mix until smooth.
4.Now before adding your dry ingredients to the creamed mixture sift them to avoid any lumps.
5.Once all mixed, roll them into 1 inch balls and coat with the sugar and place in an ungreased cookie sheet spaced apart.
6.Bake for 8-10 minutes and cool on a wire rack and place the Hershey kiss into the center while they are still warm. We only did half the batch with the Hershey kiss, but they are delicious either way.
Enjoy!!!Happy Baking!!! The holidays are around the corner too, so Happy Holidays Everyone!!!

Once Again....Angry Birds

I was in the Angry Birds mood after playing Angry Birds Space over the weekend. So I decided on another more elaborate Bento for L's lunch. I used different kinds of cheeses for the two birds and kiwi fruit for the lil piggy.

For the sandwich angry bird I used Yellow American cheese and accented with ham, carrot, Nori seaweed and white American cheese.(The sandwich is just a chicken breast sandwich, if anyone was wondering.) For the red angry bird, I used a Mini Babybel cheese(softened cheese snack in red wax coating from "The Laughing Cow"....have you laughed today???). Again accented with Nori seaweed and white and yellow American cheeses. Added some height and crunch with some baby carrots. And last but not least the mischievous lil green piggy. He's a kiwi slice with some cream cheese and mini chocolate chip. Hope this Bento put a smile on your face! :)

"Chick in a Nest" Bento

Wanted to up the complexity of the bento this morning. With some trial and error this was what todays lunch looked like.Not bad for an amateur???

So tried to make a chick from a boiled egg. The first time didn't go so well. So after boiling the egg for 10 minutes ,I let it cool and placed it in the refrigerator. Then with a paring knife in a zigzag pattern went around the egg to make it look like a cracked egg. Then for the eyes added some sesame seeds and carrot beak. The "nest" is some spaghetti with marinara sauce and grated Parmesan cheese. Added some starred plum slices, carrot peels rolled and placed on a pick and some stacked pita, ham and cheese to complete. No "treat" today because Kindergartners get to buy a snack today! (if she finishes her lunch)
Happy Friday Everyone!!!

Good Morning from Ni Hao Kai Lan

Ni Hao Kai Lan is my middle child's favorite character from Nick Jr. And I'll do anything to make her eat. 

So we're starting the day off with a  healthy Ni Hao Kai Lan boiled egg. I used Nori to make the hair and eyes and mouth.  Hair accessory with strawberry and her little buns I used grape halves. Inspiration from  http://happylittlebento.blogspot.com/2010/08/kai-lan-bento.html

Happy Bento-ing!!!!

Breakfast for Lunch Bento

My daughter loves having breakfast anytime of the day. You can never go wrong with waffles, sausage and egg. So I thought I'd try it for her Bento. I toasted a waffle and cut it in half and added some syrup to the little bear containers. Made a thin omelette, cut into strip and rolled them up with a cute little animal pick. Also heated up some sausage and threaded them on a little pick. Added some strawberry eyes and mouth to complete.

Waffles-1 Toasted

Egg-1

Jimmy Dean's Sausage-2

Syrup

Starwberry-1

Crayola Lunch box

Animal picks (Amazon)

Syrup Container(Amazon)

Bento Lunches

A new craze of mine. I love how these lunches look and 'yes' it does take some time and effort. For those of you not familiar to Bento lunches-
Bento is a single-portion takeout or home-packed meal common in Japanese cuisine. A traditional bento consists of rice, fish or meat, and one or more pickled or cooked vegetables, usually in a box-shaped container.(according to Wikipedia)

My eldest started Kindergarten this year which meant sending her with packed lunches. Thank God that she isn't a picky eater, which makes lunch prep a breeze. I wanted her lunches to be special which made me curious about how I could go about it. With a little bit of Googling I found Bento lunch making and thought I'd give it a try.

Supplies

Lunch box

Vegetable cutter

Bento picks

Nori cutter

Nori/Seaweed

Egg Moulds

Mini Baking Cups(silicone)

The list could go on...You can find a lot of these supplies on Amazon.com.

Today's bento lunch was a turkey sandwich with a Cinderella theme. I followed the template from http://family.go.com/food/recipe-996743-cinderella-bento-box-t/. Then I just added some cut cucumbers, flower carrots and strawberries and a little treat-Hershey Kiss to make it extra sweet.