So, yes. This.

We happened upon a small diner last week with a soda fountain counter, burgers, fries and malts. They even had an old PacMan game and a Juke Box. We threw health to the wind and licked our fingers, dipped fries in vats of ketchup and slurped pop. It was gooooooood. For dessert? Hand-dipped paddle pops.

I just had to make them on my own after that. It wasn’t an option.

It’s crimincal how easy these are to whip together. So lets talk brass tax …

You’ll need:

Ice cream
Popsicle sticks
Chocolate chips
Coconut oil
Good Life Granola

I also had a small pan, wax paper and a sharp knife ready to go.

I started out by opening my half gallon of ice cream so the cardboard laid flat and I could get to the block of ice cream unhindered.

With your knife, cut one inch slices out of your ice cream and transfer the slab to your prepared pan – once on the pan, cut the slab in half. So you’ll get two “paddles” out of one cut.

Ready your popsicle sticks and insert them in the middle, bottom of your “paddles”.

My ice cream was a tad too soft so I did the best I could. You might want to stick your ice cream back in the freezer in-between steps just to ensure it’ll keep shape.

(At this point, once all sticks are in, place your Paddles in the freezer to harden up for 15 to 20 minutes depending on how soft it got.)

Now to make your Magic Shell! You need a small pan or microwavable bowl. 1 1/4 C semi sweet chocolate chips to 1/2 C coconut oil. Combine, heat til melted and let cool.

After you’ve let your Magic Shell cool down (it won’t harden – keep at room temperature, do not store in fridge) and you’re Paddles are frozen hard – you can either fashion a way to dip them or just scoop the magic shell over your paddles.

I didn’t wait long enough for my ice cream to re-freeze AND I didn’t let my magic shell cool all the way. I was very excited. So I had some melt-age. It’s ok. It’s still gonna work just fine.

Now for the topping! Nuts are fun and everything, I have nothing against them but putting Good Life Granola on my Paddle Pops took them to the next level. This is the best granola I’ve ever had (and no, I’m not being paid to say that. I’m not being paid at all for this post actually – just honestly the best ever).

Just sprinkle a bit over the magic chocolate shell and then stick your pan back in the freezer to harden up.

Your pops will result in groans, it’s that good.

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We had my dad and {step}mom over for dinner last night and recently my {step}mom was given a list of foods that she needs to stay away from. (Think wheat, sugar, etc).

Having been through numerous rounds on the restricted diet circuit I knew that dinner was going to need to be creative and I was excited to deliver just that.

On our menu we had:

# Sausage and quinoa stuffed squash
# Fruit salad
# Green salad with #GrilledEssential Lemon Pepper Chicken Breast from Hillshire Farm
# Garlic bread (for the wheat eaters)
# Cabbage
# Apple crisp for dessert

The green salad we had is one of our favorites with mandarin oranges and dried cherries but cooking chicken breasts usually means I won’t eat them. I’m weird like that, handling raw meat for consumption makes my stomach turn.

And I had heard about Hillshire Farm’s Grilled Essentials but couldn’t find them locally … until now. We went to Walmart to pick some up (near the lunch meat).

They have a variety of seasonings but I knew I wanted the Lemon Pepper package for my salad.

Quick jaunt to another aisle for oranges and then we were done! But my helper had other plans….

Tangent: They make BACON SPAM?

I’m officially disgusted.

After that we headed to the produce where my daughter decided we needed a few more things.

Like 3 pounds of kiwi, for example.

And my cart just kept growing …

Seeing the day-old bread carts in the bakery and all of a sudden I was part of the problem. It’s so cheap!! I can’t help myself.

We finally make it to the check out counter but not before I’m accosted with yet another SOMETHING I must try. Nutella to go?

And I always thought the checkout was a trap for my kids.

I finally made it out of the store with everything I needed and everything I had no idea I needed … went in for two items and came out with 31.

Surprisingly it still cost under $40 – and I left a happy girl.

You see those coconuts? Yeah, they had milk in them and I couldn’t wait to show my kids how to drink from them. It was delicious. And adorable. And so much fun.

When my dad and {step}mom arrived I asked my {step}mom to help with the salad – she’s Peruvian and an expert cook. I love her cooking and watching her in the kitchen – she tore the Romaine because cutting it browns it faster (TIP!) so in order to save leftovers, she tears for freshness. I love picking this stuff up from her.

Then we got out our #GrilledEssentials Hillshire Farm Lemon Pepper Chicken and sliced it up.

Added our mandarin oranges, dried fruit and put it on the table.

Along with our stuffed squash, fruit salad and everything else.

It was a great dinner.

I’ll definitely be adding the Grilled Essentials to my menu rotation. It’s so easy, I don’t have to mess with raw chicken, it tastes amazing and it’s fast. Considering I’d pay $8 for a salad at a restaurant I have no problem paying less than $4 for two pre-cooked and seasoned chicken breasts (which I’ll usually only use one at a time).

I could have used the chicken instead of sausage in our stuffed squash too – or made an easy grilled sandwich. I can dice it up in chunks for snack time or add it to my daughters school lunch with some dip … The ideas really are endless.

Your turn: How would you use it?

Yum. I made this just for you.

You’ll need:

I’m still working on the lighting in the kitchen – it does not bode well for photographs. Artificial light and green floors – I battle the yellow 70′s glow in all food photos unless it’s 6pm and the door is wide open and things are just so and well … you get it. I’m working on it.

For this recipe you need Flour, Sugar, Oil, an Egg, Salt, Cinnamon/Sugar, Buttermilk (or milk and vinegar) and Baking Soda.

You start by mixing your Buttermilk with 1 tsp baking soda but if you’re like me and never have buttermilk in your house, you make some. Like this:

Measure some milk (right now I have Almond milk) just shy of your 1 cup marker. Top it off with Vinegar and let sit for a minute or two.

It curdles.

Yay!

Now, add your 1 tsp baking soda and let the mixture sit for 5 minutes.

Pour the milk mixture into your bowl and add the rest of your ingredients.

1/2 Cup oil.

One egg.

1 Cup sugar.

1/2 tsp salt.

Two Cups flour.

Mix.

Prepare your loaf pan (or muffin tins). I had parchment paper so I used it, otherwise I just oil it.

Pour half the batter in your loaf pan and sprinkle a generous amount of your Cinnamon Sugar on top (1/2 C Sugar to 1 TSP cinnamon ratio). Use a clean knife to swirl around, top with other half of batter, sprinkle a bit more and swirl one last time.

Bake at 350 for 55 minutes to an hour.

Try not to eat it all at once.

Enjoy!

Printable Recipe.

Tuna melts are comfort food for me. They’re also easy and a quick dinner so, you know, bonus.

The weather is finally screaming Fall and the leaves are turning. It’s soup weather, chai, and a steaming cup of cocoa kind of season … my favorite. This weekend we’re finally carving pumpkins, roasting seeds and making Halloween cookies. We’ll probably make these again, too.

You’ll need:

Whatever you have on hand – but the essentials are Tuna, cheese, mayo/mustard, onion and english muffins. Tomatoes, green onions, green peppers and spices to taste. The pasta is there for a reason … we’re killing 2 birds with one stone today.

I always make enough of the “filling” (not unlike tuna salad) for extra’s – sandwiches or salads etc. For this recipe I made enough for the Tuna Melts and a pasta salad as a bonus for lunches.

So start by boiling your water, adding the pasta and cooking to the boxes specifications.

While that’s going chop your onion, green pepper and drain 2 cans of tuna – add it all to a bowl and mix to integrate.

Add your mayo and mustard, salt and pepper to the mix. Measurements? Um. More mayo than mustard … About 1/2 C mayo – 1/8 C mustard. You can always add more.

Ready your english muffins for toppings by lining a 9X13 cookie sheet with halves open faced.

And top them!

Now add cheese to the tops, a slice of tamotoe on a few of them … mmmmm.

Put them in the oven either at 350 for 10-12 minutes or on Low Broil for 5. Just until the cheese bubbles.

With your extra Tuna filling and your cooked pasta – you can make a tasty salad to use for lunches or a side dish another night.

Add them together:

I like to jack it up a bit and add a few more things to the salad – red wine vinegar if I have it, a little more mayo or canned green chilies … then stick in the fridge to marinate overnight.

Your tuna melts are ready …

Enjoy!

Really? Never?

Ok, well – WHEN YOU DO I have a tip for you.

You can place the newspaper right on the counter or over your cooling rack.

Then place your right-out-of-the-oven cookies on top to cool.

Here’s the secret – the newspaper soaks up grease from the cookies. The cookies are still moist and delicious but no more shiny fingers (or faces) when you grab one for a treat.

When you’re done cooling all your cookies (can re-use for each and every pan per batch of cookies) you just recycle the newspaper. Easy!

I learned this tip from my mom when I was about my daughters age (6) and have been doing this since. We still buy wax paper and what not but this is one of those things that I saw over and over and over again that stuck.

Do you have any fun kitchen tips or tricks that you picked up from watching your mom/dad/grandma/someone constantly in the kitchen?

I can’t wait to hear someday what my kids remember most about the hours I spend above a mixer

We know how to have a good time.

Obviously.

Related: a couple years ago (seems like decades) I did a live cooking-demo and we made this same salmon. Turns out fish is a tricky thing for most people … I’ve had many questions about fish and lots of interest when I write about fixing it. So … how about I we get down to business?

We’re using fresh, wild caught salmon sent to me all the way from Alaska. My dad recently retired from American Airlines and got his dream job flying float planes in Alaska. Once in a while, when he’s not working, he gets to fish and then once in a while – he’ll send some home to us. Yummmmmmmmmmmm.

You’ll need:

Salmon
Butter
Brown sugar

Start by “brushing” some butter on to the salmon fillets.

Tip!

When grilling fish – always use tin foil as your barrier – the skin will stick to it when it’s done so serving it is a breeze.

You can melt the butter and actually brush it on (and use less) or you can just go with it and butter each fillet like a baguette. We were professional about the obsession …

Hindsight is 20/20. We used a tad too much. Oh well!!

From here you simply sprinkle with brown sugar.

Then … GRILL.

Ask your helpers for frequent refills on grilled french bread or “salad” (weeds) …

On hot coals … tin foil turned up to catch run off (butter, ehum).

Salmon only takes a few minutes on the hot grill.

That’s it! You’re done!! Serve it up, enjoy.

My after photos aren’t that awesome, but that’s because it was hot and ready and I was hungry. And there was wine. Just being honest.

We served it with homemade tartar sauce, a pasta salad and a potato salad.

We danced in celebration:

For being someone who loves to cook for her own family I generally feel COMPLETELY stuck when asked to cook for someone else’s family. We eat some pretty “out there” stuff and my kids don’t bat an eyelash … so I’m not always sure that our tried and true favorites are going to be a blessing to a new mom. Especially when there are other children at home, too.

I used to try extravagant meals for the new mom, thinking I was pampering her when really it was just a difficult meal to prepare from home, enjoy or accept as a gift.

I try to stay away from Chicken dishes, but not everyone loves red meat … or meat free meals for that matter. And in general, I end up making a last minute decision.

Here are a few good tips and guidelines for bringing families a meal (that I need to remind myself of!):

Keep it simple, first and foremost. The most a new mom should have to do is re-heat or stick a pan (throw away pans) in the oven for a specified amount of time.

One dish meals are ok! But easy sides or a non-dinner add on (muffins, quick bread, brownies etc) are always lovely to have on hand for visitors or mornings when the milk has gone bad and you have no eggs in the house.

Always include instructions, if needed. It should take only a few extra minutes to type up, print or hand write the recipe with instructions but if all you end up doing is scribbling down the temp, oven time and possible allergy-inducing foods (milk, nuts, even broccoli for new moms who breast-feed or spicy ingredients) that saves a WORLD of time when people are in and out of your house for a few weeks.

Mom brain lasts longer than pregnancy!

It’s always nice to ask the new mom if there are foods she knows bother the baby (if breast-feeding) or if she herself (or other family members) have sensitivities or allergies. For us, we try very hard to be a dairy free home because of allergies. Gluten is a culprit at times too – and knowing that before deciding to bring a family a meal is a great way of getting the awkward conversation over your dish out of the way before you’ve already prepared something to deliver.

Freezer foods are amazing!

Andrea’s Breakfast Burritos

Cheesy Garlic Bread – make a batch or two and before putting it in the oven, flash freeze for 10 minutes and then pack in ziplocs or plastic wrap. An easy, super yummy side dish that can be ready in minutes from the freezer.

Homemade pasta sauce stock their freezer with easy dinners, and gift them with a box or two of pasta for their pantry.

Granola bars perfect for the sleep deprived parents or those nursing hunger pangs. A homemade, delicious snack ready to eat.

More from my site:

Make a summer salad – salads are a great dinner for a busy family. Add meat on the side so the family can build their own plate at dinner time.

Curry and Rice Bring all the pre-cut fixing in baggies, some rice to re heat and a crock pot of the chicken curry gravy. Left overs are amazing.

Tuna Pasta Salad Cold salads with tuna, eggs or chicken are easy lunches when you’re busy. A great add on to any dinner or potluck as well.

Walking Tacos – For a family with older siblings this could be a super fun and hands on meal for them. Give more than the gift of food when you can prep for the older kids to get dinner on the table, Mom’s night off! Re-heat the taco meat and go!

Chicken Enchilada’s – There’s no photo but I assure you, if Chicken is the dish you want to bring … it should (at some point in time) be this one.

Spanish Rice short cuts for those of you who like a little spice in your dinner. **Double check with family on their tolerance of spicy food.

Ginger Chicken Stir-fry – a good hot meal. Bring this one ready to eat.

Desserts, Snacks and extra’s

Chocolate Chip Cookies! Having a dozen or two of these on hand … life savers.

Cold Press Coffee No longer need to restrict caffeine? Perhaps you haven’t slept in 4 days? GIVE THE GIFT OF ENERGY.

Garbanzo Bean Brownie A healthy chocolate treat. That is correct. Don’t even tell the kids … and frost them if you’d like. They will disappear.

No Bake Cliff Bars protein pack for nursing moms, mornings of running errands or kids who can’t make it from nap to dinner without a breakdown. **Contains nuts.

Chocolate Mararoons and Power Balls again, perfect snacks for nursing moms, new moms, old moms, kids, lunches, any time, before dinner, running errands … on and on. These are great.

6 Week Bran Muffins Bring the batter over with a gift of a muffin-tin (or make sure they have one) with the instructions attached. The gift of homemade, warm muffins every morning for up to 6 weeks. Yummy. (Batter keeps in fridge for 6 weeks.)

Peanut Butter Cup Bars … this just has to happen.

If you’re the one in charge of setting up meals for a family – Take Them a Meal is a great service for everyone involved. You can sign up and the family you’re bringing food can see what/who is coming that evening – has your contact information in case of changes and you no longer have to have 14 forwards going through your email with sign ups. It’s awesome.

If bringing a meal to a family isn’t an option for you – your work schedule gets in the way or you aren’t confident in the kitchen … there are still options for you to be a blessing to the prospective family.

Here are a couple of ideas:

Offer to take care of older children for a few hours a night or two. Whether or not the new parents get out of the house – some times peace and quiet or the option to catch up at home are priceless gifts.

Gift cards to their favorite take out. Been a long day and the freezer’s empty, no meals are being delivered, leftovers are moldly in the fridge. The baby spikes a temp and the toddler’s teething? CEREAL IT IS! This is a great time to have the option to pull out the stash of take out menus and have dinner paid for.

Gas Cards. For families whose babies are still in the hospital. Traveling back and forth can be trying on more than your emotions.

You can offer to pay for a couple months of a grocery/menu planning service like Oh! Dinner. My cousin just launched this (Hi Bonnie!) and I think it’s pretty cool. (I’m not being paid to tell you about it.) For a small monthly fee you get a weekly menu plan and a corresponding grocery list. Dinner, solved. I’d wait to offer this up until the new babe is at least a few months old – but letting the new mom/dad know about it so they can help you decide when a good time to begin is always a great idea.

I’m sure I missed something – leave your best tips and tricks (or go-to delivery dishes) in the comments!

Let’s pretend that’s the technical recipe name because to be honest, I’m not really sure. My step-mom is Peruvian and makes some of the best meals I’ve ever had. Like me, she doesn’t use a recipe in the kitchen but has an arsenal of amazing family recipes she knows like the back of her hand and our family meals at their house are always filled with the freshest ingredients and most of all – the love of cooking for others.

Yesterday I took my kids to Sams Club with me to grab some of the needed items for dinner last night (you can see more about our shopping trip here).

Specifically I needed Ore-Ida Sweet Potato Fries by Heinz. I love my fries and the first time I my step mom made this beef stew and then added fries to it I was like “WAIT! What are you doing???” but then I ate it and everything made sense in my world again.

We hit SAMS right at Sample time and got lucky with the Ore-Ida Sweet Potato Fries by Heinz coupled with Tilapia as a sample. So so good. My daughter gave it a whirl and loved it, too.

The rest of my day was running back and forth to Grand Rapids because we were down to one car again, all the while my son spikes a 102 fever and somehow I managed to make dinner before midnight.

I don’t have photos of the process because of the above however;

You’ll need:

1 pound stew beef or chunked beef
Onion or 3 green onions, chopped
1/2 C. grape tomatoes, halved
4 TBS butter
Ore-Ida Sweet Potato Fries by Heinz

Simply heat the butter in a skillet ad brown the stew beef – add the chopped onions and simmer together. Sprinkle with salt/pepper to taste. When Ore-Ida Sweet Potato Fries by Heinz are cooked (to package directions) toss some (I added about 3/4 C) to the beef and lastly add your tomato halves – stir to combine and heat through. Toss with some Balsamic Vinegar or top with Heinz Ketchup and serve!

This project has been compensated as part of a #OreIdaFries shopping mission for Heinz with #CollectiveBias. All thoughts and opinions are my own. For my full disclosure go here.

Inspiration here.

I’ve done this every week since I saw it on Pinterest and l-o-v-e them. In this tutorial I’ll show you how to make Egg Salad for the stuffing, but please just sub Tuna or Canned Chicken or whatever your fav is for the Egg and you’ll make a delicious discovery.

You’ll need:

Eggs (or Tuna, Chicken etc), Celery, peppers, cilantro, avocado (not avAcado as I’ve been spelling it), mayo, mustard, paprika and salt/pepper to taste.

We’re going forward with eggs for Egg Salad:

Put the eggs in a large pot and fill with cold water.

For a great tutorial on how to hard boil eggs go here – this is the method I follow every time.

Bring to that lovely boil, keep it rolling for a minute or two and then turn the heat off, but leave your pot on the stove. Let cool.

Once that’s all done – you can get everything together – drain the eggs and prepare your base for the salad.

I have an Egg Slicer because we boil eggs all. the. time. And I add them to salads or snack plates whenever I have a chance – it’s nifty, I’ll show you why. (You could just coarse chop the eggs for the same effect, I do not like applesauce texture for egg salad so I love the chunks this gives the salad.)

You place the egg between the layers and then push the top down – it’ll cut through the egg nice and easy.

See?

Then I pick the whole thing up, no big deal, turn it 180 degrees and chop again:

(That would be marker on my finger from my son, the picaso of this house – his entire body ALWAYS his canvas, and today – my hand as well.)

And DUMP in the bowl. Rinse and repeat – I had 6 eggs, so I did this six times.

Chop the celery (I used 2 stalks) and your pepper (I used 1 baby red pepper)

Coarse chop some cilantro and throw it in the bowl.

Stir to combine.

Halve an avocado (and for a great tutorial on that go here.)

Fill with a spoonful or two of your egg salad, top with a sprig of whatever herb you have on hand (cilantro works well, oregano, thyme, chives … ) and ENJOY!

(I know, I know – you all want measurements and exacts. Welcome to my kitchen: every recipe is a suggestion – rules are made to be broken. I almost never make the same thing twice. TRY IT!)

It’s about time we talked about this. My son’s birthday was May 5th – he requested a Tractor cake and so I went about building one.

My most favorite memories of birthdays (of any one in our house) growing up are the cakes because my mom made shape-cakes that we requested for every birthday.

Butterflies, Trains, Bears, Under the Sea adventures with the Little Mermaid (Jodi’s turns 10!) and so on.

I have the very same book my mom used while we were all growing up on how to build cakes. A tractor it did not include.

I turned to Pinterest for inspiration on the general shape. Then whipped up a PW Chocolate Sheet Cake.

Go ahead, drool.

Get a knife ready – I free handed the general construction of the cake by cutting it into squares that I would then later layer on top of each other to form a tractor.

You could get picky and measure things but maybe we haven’t met yet? I don’t do perfect.

The edges? Are discarded because they’re not “flat” … they round down. This means we eat them.

I then wrap each individual cut/layer in plastic wrap and stick it in the freezer until I’m ready to decorate and build the cake. This usually happens over 4 to 7 days. (Freezing the cake that is.)

Magically days pass by and now you’re ready to decorate a cake!

Remove from freezer and assemble your tray that you’ll later present the cake on, usually wrapped in foil (for easy clean up).

Start by laying down your base – one larger square centered on one smaller square.

The frosting I used I was not very impressed with. If you’re looking for a great cake frosting – may I direct you here.

However, with whatever frosting you have when you’re building the cake apply a crumb layer. My cakes are still frozen when I do this and it’s just a very thin layer that catches all the cake crumbs and fills in imperfections so when you’re ready for the real deal you can apply a smooth coat for a finished look.

I applied a thicker bit of frosting for the “filling”.

Stack another layer on top, apply more frosting.

From here you can eyeball how big you want the tractor to be. How many people are you feeding with this cake? We had a smaller party so I just added one more large square to build the rest of the “body” of the tractor and left the last smaller square off (which was building the front, engine part of the tractor).

Apply final layer of frosting for crumb layer.

Assemble your color frosting and decorative accents.

You’ll need:

Green Frosting
Dots Candy
Black licorice
Chocolate covered donuts

Frost the entire cake in green.

Place 2 whole donuts for the rear wheels and cut one more donut in half for the front wheels.

Place 2 yellow Dots candies in front for lights, cut a black licorice to length and place on front of larger squares for the smoke stack thing and place 2 red Dots candies in back for brake lights.

Enjoy!

Featured on One Pretty Thing.