TMNT birthday party

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!

Heroes in a half-shell.

Turtle power!

I love that my kids watch a show that I watched as a kid!

My middle son has become a fan of TMNT. So we decided it would make a fun theme for his 7th birthday party.

I created this invite in my SCAL2 software and cut it on my Cricut.



 I made him a banner in the turtle colors and the balloon idea is from here. It's just crepe paper and paper eyes. I cut white ovals and drew the black pupils. Only I forgot to give mine mouths!

 (p.s. I know there is supposed to be an orange turtle and not a yellow one. But I could not find orange crepe paper in my town!)

We served pizza for lunch since that is the turtles' favorite food after all!

He wanted his cake to look like a pizza too. I baked the cake in a large round cake pan (14" maybe), frosted with tan frosting (white frosting tinted with brown, yellow, and peach color gels) , used red frosting for the sauce, grated white chocolate for the cheese, fruit rollups for pepperoni and bell peppers, and licorice for the olives.

 

I found these cute Lego candles and just had to use them! (nothing to do with TMNT but they are cute.)

I made these cute mini pizza boxes from kraft paper (I think the svg template came from here) and gave the kids a decorated sugar cookie to take home.

 I set up a cookie bar with sugar cookies, red, green, black, and white colored frostings, sprinkles, and lots of candies. There are these pouches of cookie icing from Betty Crocker that are easy for kids to squeeze out. And it dries fairly quickly making it somewhat easy to get these home without too much mess. I set out a pizza and a turtle cookie for inspiration. Here's what's left of poor Leonardo...

I'm told he was delicious! His mask is fruit rollup and the candy eyes are from the baking section. The kids may have eaten the fruit rollups and had to create the masks from icing which worked out even better!

These pizza cookies are made with red icing, shredded coconut, grated white chocolate, black licorice, and green fruit rollups.

The kids came up with all kinds of crazy cookies. I wish I took pics of them! I only got one plate that one of my kids made:

 Our little cookie taste tester!

The boys also got to make their own Mutagen Ooze! This was such a huge hit and everyone loved it. It was so easy to make too. Recipe found here. It's just made of water, borax, clear school glue, and food coloring. Instead of the cool container in the link I just used these food containers I found at Walmart. They were inexpensive (a pack of 4 for a buck-something), the lime green lid matched the party!, and the container is wide enough that kids can play with the ooze without removing it.

 Such a fun party!

My birthday boy:

 Oooooohhhhhh....I almost forgot! See that green punch the boys are getting above?

We called it Ooze punch. I wish I took a pic of that too. It was just powdered lemonade mix and soda. Take enough powder to make 4 quarts. Add just enough water to dissolve it. I probably used a couple cups. Stir and add lots of green food coloring. Then add in 2 2-Liter bottles of lemon-lime soda. I just happened to use Sierra Mist. This got more compliments than I ever expected it would.

 It's a really weird and fun green color:

I decorated the table with a black tablecloth and added strips of yellow washi tape to make it look like a street. (The turtles live under the streets in the sewer you know.) I spray painted a small bucket so that it looked like a sewer pipe (idea from here) and added some of his turtle figurines for décor around the pipe. Of course at this point someone had already spilled punch and everything was moved. See all the wet blue napkins?? :)  Believe it or not I just happened to have a bunch of 12" pizza pans from Dollar Tree just laying around left over from another project so I used them as a charger at each place setting. I thought they went with the pizza theme, of course, but also looked a bit like a round sewer cover too!

The kids left with an armful of goodies. I found these giant coloring books a few weeks ago for $1 at Wal-Mart and snatched them up. I also found TMNT cups at Wal-Mart that we used at the party. They each took their cup, pizza cookie (not pictured here), picked a balloon, plus took all their cookies and ooze.

Thanks for stopping by today!

I would love to know if you use any of these ideas. Please leave me a comment with a link to your blog so I can see your party too!

Linking up to:
Think Pink Sundays
Making the world Cuter Monday
Take it on Tuesday
Link it up Tuesday
 Time to Sparkle
Your Whims Wednesday

April Fool's Day

Do you "celebrate" April Fool's Day? I was never big on it until my kids got big enough to have fun with it. I have no idea what I'm doing this year, but here's what happened last year:

 

On the menu for dinner was meatloaf, mashed potatoes with gravy, and cupcakes for dessert.

Here's the joke - the "meatloaf" is really rice crispies treats made with chocolate rice crispies and shaped in a loaf pan. The "mashed potatoes" are really vanilla ice cream and the "gravy" is caramel sauce. I would have liked to have cut up green and orange candies (like laffy taffy or starburst) into little pieces to look like mixed vegetables but didn't have any in the house.

 



They could tell it didn't look right but no one was sure what was going on.

The 12-year old asked if the meatloaf was made with rice and she just stared at it. Of course I am just dying waiting for them to take a bite. So is the hubby. Finally, the 8-year-old takes a bite and proclaims that "These are the best mashed potatoes EVER!"

 

And so the "cupcake" was really the meatloaf baked in a cupcake liner with mashed potato frosting.

I used a metal liner so the grease wouldn't leak through and give it away. 

Here's what it looks like without the wrapper.

 

This was totally fun and no one got hurt! The kids talked about this for months. And they've been asking what I am doing this year. So if you have any ideas please share with me!!!

 

Or do you do anything else fun that doesn't involve food?  I need some fun ideas. :)

 

Thanks for stopping by today!



Cupcakes

I wanted to make a thank you gift for about 20 people that were volunteering their time for one of our MOPS events. And I needed an excuse to bake and get it out of my house fast so I wouldn't eat it!

That's how this was born:

 These are some of my favorite cupcakes to make. They are from Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook. White cupcakes with a Strawberry Meringue Buttercream frosting. YUM! Find the reipe for both cake and frosting here.

 To make the toothpick flags you just need toothpicks and cardstock. I, of course, had to stamp mine! I used SP & Company's Ultimate Sentiments II set and Mix 'n Match Sentiments: Friends. I just love these stamps. They have so many possibilites to mix and match! The stamps are small enough to fit on the flag and yet bold enough to stand out.

 One side of the flag said "Thank You" and the other said "You are Super Sweet"!

I cut cardstock into long strips just long and wide enough for the stamps. Sorry, I didn't write down any measurements. After I stamped I cut out the notch and inked the edges in yellow. Then I applied glue and wrapped around the toothpick.

Now came the tricky part. I wanted these all individually wrapped so each volunteer could carry it home and keep it covered in the process. But I wanted a container that was both clear (so the cupcakes could be seen) and that was tall enough to allow for the flag. I didn't have time to custom make 20 boxes. The only premade cupcake boxes in my town were the Wilton ones at Wal-Mart that were neither very cute nor would fit the flags. The only bakery in town is at Safeway and I begged them for ideas. And the brilliant lady there showed me these boxes that they use to sell caramel apples in. Brilliant!! Clear and tall! And only 50 cents each.

So I wrapped each one with a bright spring-colored bow and tucked in a little thank you card containing a small gift card.

 Tada!

These are guaranteed to make them ooh and ahhh. : )

Thanks for stopping by. For more inspiration using SP stamps stop by the blog at http://sp.thescrapmaster.com/.

I have another post there today showing you how to make this pop-up card:

Neighbor gifts...with recipes!

 I finally got around to baking a couple of our new neighbors some welcoming gifts.

Again.

We ate the first batch.
: )

They each got a Chocolate Chip Banana Bread and Lemon Poppyseed loaf.

I wrapped each loaf in parchment paper and then wrapped with some patterned papers. The wrappers I made were about 4"x12" and ended up being perfect to go around the loaf. I just taped it on the bottom and then tied some twine to secure it. Oh, and made a little tag so they'd know what they were eating.

I was in such a hurry to finish these so they could be delivered while still fresh and while there was still daylight outside and before we could eat them again! Well, I put the wrappers on before I stamped them. Then I was too lazy to take them off. So... I stamped the sentiment onto the soft bread. Not my best idea! But it mostly worked : )

 Please forgive any smudges!

I stamped the word Welcome from the Ultimate Sentiments II set. It actually says Welcome Baby but I didn't ink up the Baby part.

Then I used Mix 'n Match Sentiments: Basics for the FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS part.

Whew! They also got a cute little card but I didn't get a photo of that.

Here are the recipes in case you're interested!

Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

1 stick butter

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 1/2 cup mashed banana (about 3 bananas)

1 tsp vanilla extract

8 oz sour cream

1 cup quick cooking oats

1 1/4 cup flour

1 1/4 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1 cup chocolate chips, give or take

Cream butter and sugar until blended. Mix in eggs. Add banana, vanilla, and sour cream and mix well. Combine oats, flour, soda, and powder and then slowly add to creamed mixture. Stir in chocolate chips. Pour into two greased and floured loaf pans. Bake 40-45 minutes at 350 degrees.

Lemon Poppyseed Bread

1 box of lemon cake mix (standard 18.25 oz size)

1 box instant lemon pudding (3.4 oz)

1 cup water

1/2 cup vegetable oil

4 large eggs

1 Tbsp poppy seeds

2 Tbsp sugar

1/2 cup lemon juice

Combine cake mix, pudding mix, water, oil, and eggs. Beat on medium speed until well blended. Stir in poppy seeds. Pour into two greased loaf pans. Bake at 325 degrees for 60 minutes. Combine lemon juice and sugar. Brush all over warm loaf

ENJOY!

For more inspiration using SP stamps head over to the blog at http://sp.thescrapmaster.com/.

Thanks for stopping by.

Fried Pickles

Fried pickles??? Yes, fried pickles. They are sooooo good. This recipe is from the June issue of Food Network Magazine. And they go great with the Cheeseburger Salad recipe below.

Pretzel-crusted Pickle Chips with Mustard Sauce

For the sauce:
1 1/4-inch-thick slice red onion, finely diced
3 Tbsp spicy brown mustard
1 1/2 Tbsp yellow mustard
3 Tbsp mayonnaise
1/2 tsp paprika
3/4 garlic powder
Kosher salt

For the chips:
vegetable oil for frying
6 large dill pickles, sliced diagonally into 1/4-inch-thick rounds
2 cups salted mini pretzels
2 large eggs
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
celery salt, for sprinkling (optional)

1. Make the sauce: Mix the onion, both mustards, mayonnaise, paprika, garlic powder and salt to taste in bowl. Set aside.

2. Make the chips: Heat 1/2 inch vegetable oil in large skillet over medium heat. Gently pat the pickle slices dry with a paper towel.

3. Crush pretzels into coarse crumbs; transfer to a plate. Whisk eggs in shallow bowl and put the flour in another bowl. Dredge the pickle slices in flour, shaking off excess. Dip in beaten eggs and then in pretzel crumbs. Working in batches, fry the pickles until golden crisp, about 1 minute per side. Drain on paper towels and sprinkle with celery salt. Serve warm with the mustard sauce.

So I wish I had some pics to post, but I don't : (   I guess sticky, floury  pretzel-coated fingers and splashing hot oil don't make for good photo-taking opps. Maybe next time I'll remember.

Cheeseburger Salad

So, is it a cheeseburger or a salad??

It has all the flavor of a burger, but with less carbs and more veggies! This is one of our go-to meals for the week.  It's easy, affordable and the whole family likes it! And, of course, it's a Pampered Chef recipe again.



Deluxe Cheeseburger Salad

4 sesame seed hamburger bun tops

1 small red onion, divided

2 plum tomatoes

3/4 lb 95% lean ground beef

1/2 cup finely diced pickles

3/4 cup ketchup

1 Tbsp yellow mustard

8 cups thinly sliced romaine lettuce

1 cup (4 oz) shredded cheddar cheese

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Slice buns into 1/4-in. strips. Arange on bar pan and bake 8-10 minutes until slightly toasted. Let cool.

(I didn't have sesame buns so we just used regular. And I use the bottoms too.)

2. Cut onion in half crosswise. Slice half of onion crosswise into thin rings. Cut tomatoes into quarters lengthwise and slice crosswise.

3. Cook ground beef over medium-high heat 5-7 minutes until no longer pink. Meanwhile, chop remaining onion half using food chopper. Finely dice pickles using chopper as well. In large bowl, combine chopped onion, pickles, ketchup and mustard. Add cooked beef and mix well.

(This seems really gross to me, but it does taste so good.)



4. To serve, arrange lettuce on large serving platter. Spoon beef mixture over lettuce. Top with cheese, tomatoes and sliced onion. Arrange hamburger bun croutons around edge of platter. Serve immediatley.

 We like to serve this with fried pickles! Also sounds gross, but so good! I'll have to post that recipe later.



I'm sure you probably have all the ingredients on hand anyway so try this recipe and let me know what you think!

Cappuccino Mousse Trifle

This is one of my favorite recipes. I take it alot to events and people always seem to love it. It's great for breakfast or brunch or even as a dessert. Since it's a Pampered Chef recipe it's also easy and quick.

Since I was in a hurry when I last made this to take to MOPS I didn't stop to take photos before or during. So all my pics are after we started eating. I apologize for the unprettiness of it!!

 The recipe actually fills this trifle bowl up even more but since we started eating it it sank down.

This is what it looked like before I cleaned it up for the pic above! See how much higher it went??

From the top. I don't know why but this just makes me laugh.

1 frozen prepared pound cake (16 ounces)

2 1/2 cups cold milk

1/3 cup instant coffee granules

2 packages (3.4 ounces each) vanilla instant pudding and pie filling

2 containers (8 ounces each) frozen whipped topping, thawed, divided

1 square (1 ounce) semi-sweet chocolate for baking

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1. Cut pound cake into 1-inch cubes.

2. Whisk milk and coffee granules. Let stand 5 minutes or until dissolved.

3. Set aside 1 cup of the milk mixture. Add pudding mixes to remaining milk in large bowl. Whisk until mixture begins to thicken. Gently fold in one container of whipped topping.

4. Place one third of cake cubes in trifle bowl. Pour one third of reserved milk evenly over cake cubes. Top with one third of pudding mix, pressing lightly. Grate 1/4 of chocolate over mix. Repeat layers 2 more times. Reserve the remaining chocolate for garnish.

5. Set aside one cup of remaining whipped topping. Spread the rest of the whipped topping smooth over the top of trifle. Pipe remaining cup of whipped topping ointo rosettes around edge. Grate remaining chocolate in center; sprinkle lightly with cinnamon. Refrigerate 30 minutes, or overnight.



...in the Kitchen

Does anyone else have the same problem I do? Figuring out what's for dinner. It seems every day when 4:00 rolls around I'm in a panic, frantically rummaging through the pantry and freezer to see what I can scrounge up. And it doesn't help that this is the exact time the kids seem to want to have a melt down. The two older kids are outgrowing naps but are still waaaay tired and grumpy at the end of the day. And the baby will just cry from about 4-7 if he's not being held. It's a madhouse around here! Have you ever tried to hold a baby and make dinner? Even if I wear him in a carrier it's still very difficult! And most of the time I can't even do that because of the dangers of the stovetop or oven.

Anyway....

So how do you go about planning your meals for the week? I so wish I could have it all planned, do my shopping and be done for the week. Anyone have suggestions or websites or anything to recommend???????

I'm finding myself stuck in a rut making the same few things over and over again. Not that they're bad things, it would just be nice to try new things. Speaking of new things, I tried a supper swap group the other week. Ever heard of it? I think it's brilliant! In this particular case (I'm sure they are all pretty different) there are 4 members. Each member has a day of the week (Monday - Thursday) she is responsible for. On that day she makes dinner for all 4 families and delivers the meal. So 3 days of the week she doesn't have to cook. I was a substitute for this particular group filling in for one of the members. I really liked it and even though we can be picky eaters my family was fine with everything we received. I may look into starting my own group.

But until then here is one of my go-to recipes that my family loves. It's seseame chicken, steamed broccoli and white rice. I also make sesame tofu for me and my oldest. These are very easy and yummy recipes!

Sesame Chicken (third photo)
3 Tbsp honey
2 Tbsp sesame seeds
2 Tbsp soy sauce
1 garlic clove
2 large egg whites
1/4 cup cornstarch
1 1/2 lb chicken, cubed into bite-size pieces
2 Tbsp oil
In small bowl combine honey, seeds, soy sauce and garlic.
In large bowl whisk eggs and cornstarch. Add chicken, season with salt and pepper. Toss to coat.
In large skillet heat 1 Tbsp oil over medium-high. Add half the chicken, cook until golden and opaque, about 6-8 minutes. Remove from skillet and repeat with other half . Return all chicken to pan. Add sauce and toss to coat.
Sesame Tofu (last photo)
1 package firm or extra firm tofu
sauce:
1/3 cup honey
3 Tbsp tamari (substitute soy sauce if needed)
3 Tbsp ginger, finely chopped (I sub about half the amount of dried)
2 Tbsp sesame oil
2 Tbsp rice vinegar
2 cloves garlic
1-2 tsp red chile flakes
1/4 c cornstarch
oil for frying
2 Tbsp sesame seeds, lightly toasted
1 bunch sliced green onions, optional
Drain tofu in paper towels for 20 minutes. This removes the moisture so it is not soggy. To do this I slice the block of tofu into about 5-7 rectangular slices. Lay a few paper towels on a plate or something flat. Next, lay the tofu in a single layer over the towels and cover with more paper towels. Place another plate on top of it all and ideally, way it down with something like a big can.
Meanwhile make the sauce and keep warm.
After the tofu is drained, cut into bite-size cubes. Dust with the cornstarch. Heat oil over medium-high. Saute tofu until golden brown. Add sauce, sesame seeds and green onions.
...
The  tofu recipe makes a lot of sauce. Use the extra over rice and veggies or just let the tofu swim in it. Or what I do is mix the extra in with the sesame chicken. That doesn't have as much sauce as the boys would like so this helps!