Yummy Dirt Cups Recipe

I found this great recipe for Yummy Dirt Cups on Kaboose.com. I made some small changes to the recipe to save time. I thought their serving suggestion of using new foil-lined clay pots cute for parties but very impractical for everyday use.

Ingredients

• 4 cups of chocolate pudding (you can buy the ready made cups or you can make the pudding yourself)
• 1 - 8 ounce container of whipped topping, thawed
• 1 -16 ounces package of chocolate sandwich cookies
• Gummy worms or insects

Equipment:

• Medium mixing bowl
• Rubber scraper or large spoon
• 8-10 paper or plastic cups (8 ounce size)

Cooking Instructions

1. Crush the cookies into tiny pieces in a plastic bag
2. Stir whippped topping and 1/2 of the crushed cookies into the pudding (very gently) with rubber scraper until mixture is all the same color. Place about 1 tablespoon of the remaining crushed cookies into the bottom of each cup.
3. Fill cups about 3/4 full with pudding mixture. Top each cup with the rest of the crushed cookies. Add gummy worms and insects to decorate. Put cups into the refrigerator for about one hour to chill. Enjoy!

Tip of the Day

I recently came across a great article on raspberry leaves from Mothering Magazine. Below is a synopsis of what the article said along with a great recipe for Raspberry tea.

Raspberry leaves have been used throughout history to encourage safe, easy childbirth, to speed recovery from birth and to stimulate milk production afterwards. The astringent and stimulating properties strengthen and tone the uterine and pelvic muscles, while the soothing properties relax the uterus. In birth, the tonic and relaxing action of the leaves reduces the pain of uterine contractions and makes them more effective and productive, thereby easing and shortening the duration of childbirth. Raspberry leaf tea also has many uses well beyond the pregnancy and breastfeeding months—as it soothes the kidneys, allays diarrhea, stops hemorrhage, quells nausea, sedates, and relaxes. Raspberry leaf tea is the most popular herb used during pregnancy, and is particularly useful during the third trimester. Its astringent and stimulating properties strengthen and tone the uterine and pelvic muscles, while its soothing properties relax the uterus. Raspberry leaf tea also tones the mucous membranes, soothes the kidneys, allays diarrhea, stops hemorrhage, quells nausea, sedates, and relaxes. Raspberry leaves have been used throughout history to encourage safe, easy childbirth, to speed recovery from birth and to stimulate milk production afterwards. The tonic and relaxing action of the leaves reduces the pain of uterine contractions and makes them more effective and productive, thereby easing and shortening the duration of childbirth.
 
To make the tea
1. Fill a teapot with cold water and bring to a boil.
2. Meanwhile, fill a clean teapot with hot water from the tap. Let it sit until the water boils, then empty the teapot.
3. Place 2 tablespoons dried raspberry leaves or 4 tablespoons fresh raspberry leaves into the teapot.
4. Add 1 pint of boiling water to teapot.
5. Steep for 10 minutes.
6. Strain, pour into a cup and sip slowly.
To make a cup of tea, use half the amount of leaves and water. Drink 1 cup a day during your second trimester, and three cups a day during your third trimester.

Tip of the Day

If you have been following my blog then you know I am always looking for easy & wholesome recipes to make for my family. I don't have very much time, as I know most mothers don't, to cook in the evenings and I don't want to have to buy 30 ingredients to make just one meal. I came across Weelicious.com on a friend's recommendation and I love this site. They have lots of great recipes for the whole family, even for my infant daughter, and best of all this site really strives to make wholesome food. My husband and I use to eat out a lot since neither of us had time to cook but all that changed when my daughter was born. I want her eating healthy foods made at home, just like I use to have. Weelicious is just another great resource I can use to help me feed my family.

Product Review - Deceptively Delicious

I first learned about Deceptively Delicious when I saw the author on Oprah. At the time I didn't have any children but I thought the book would be good since my husband hates eating healthy food. I was always trying to find new ways to get my husband to eat healthy food so I decided to buy the book.

 

Deceptively Delicious

Most of the recipes require you to puree vegetables but you can add some finely shredded vegetables in some recipes. I liked the concept of the book but you have to make sure you have the time to puree the vegetables ahead of time. If you wait until you are going to cook the recipe then it will take a long time to make the meal. Some of the recipes were very good, my husband loves the turkey meatball soup, but most of the recipes were rather bland and not that great. The point of the book is to get your family to eat vegetables and this book really does acocmplish that. My husband hates cauliflower but he didn't even taste it in the mash potatoes that I put it in. Since this book is $15 I wouldn't recommend buying it. I would recommend you get it from your local library and try the recipes out. If you do in fact think the book is worth $15 at that point you can buy it to have at home.

Tip of the Day

I am always looking for new recipes to cook for my family and when I subscribed to Mothering I found a good recipe resource. You can sign up to receive Peggy's Kitchen Newsletter, it's free you don't have to subscribe to the magazine to receive it. The newsletter comes every two weeks or so with six to seven recipes. A menu suggestion list is provided for each of the recipes. They also provide a grocery list so you can purchase everything you need for the meals. Another great feature is the green kitchen tip and a video demonstration from Cookus Interruptus. The Mothering website is also another great resource. They have a recipes tab with lots of great information. Vegetarians can easily find recipes using the Recipe Index on the Recipes tab.

Fantastic Banana Bread Recipe

This banana bread recipe is so good I had to share it. If you don't like almonds you can use any nut you like or you can leave out the nuts. I use almonds because they are my favorite nut.

Ingredients
1 1/4 cups sugar
1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups mashed very ripe bananas (3 to 4 medium)
1/2 cup vanilla yogurt
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup slivered almonds

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease  2 loaf pans, 8 1/2x4 1/2x2 1/2 inches, or 1 loaf pan, 9x5x3 inches.

2. Mix sugar and butter in large bowl. Stir in eggs until well blended. Add bananas, yogurt and vanilla. Beat until smooth. Stir in flour, baking soda and salt just until moistened. Stir in almonds. Pour into pans.

3. Bake 8-inch loaves about 1 hour, 9-inch loaf about 1 1/4 hours, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes. Remove from pans and place top side up on wire rack. Cool completely before slicing. Wrap tightly and store at room temperature up to 4 days, or refrigerate up to 10 days.

Easy Guacamole Recipe

If your running short on time try this guacamole recipe. It's easy, quick, and delicious.

Prep Time: 5 mins

Ingredients
2 large ripe avocados
1 ripe roma tomato
1 serrano pepper (Mild use 1/4 of the pepper, Medium use 1/2 of the pepper, Hot use the whole pepper)
1 lime
salt

Directions
1. Cut the avocados in half. Using a spoon scope out the avocado.
2. Wash the tomato and cut in four pieces
3. In a food processor place the scooped avocado, cut tomato, and serrano pepper. Chop for about 2 mins. For a thicker guacamole chop for 1 min.
4. Add salt and lime to taste.

Tip of the Day

Are you tired of buying unhealthy products at the grocery store? Since my daughter was born I have been noticing how unhealthy the products my local grocery store carries. I would never want to feed my daughter this food. So I decided to make her baby food from scratch. While I was looking for good recipes I came across this site Cookus Interruptus.  They have tons of recipes and video demonstrations. Their videos are very entertaining and they really focus on making eating  local organic wholesome foods easy for a busy family.

How to make Poached Pears in Pomegranate Sauce with Mascarpone

Tip of the Day

I work full time so when I get home I don't have much time for dinner. I was trying to find quick and easy dinner recipes online and I came across Betty Crocker.com. This website has tons of recipes and is a huge time saver. You can search recipes by meal types, cuisine, main ingredients, and they even have a quick and healthy section. You can sign up for an account and store the recipes you like under your account. These recipes usually don't have very many ingredients, are easy to follow, and taste great. They list nutritional values and most recipes come with useful tips. You can also review each recipe or read other peoples reviews. They are constantly updating the site based on the season. Of course Betty Crocker promotes their own products in the recipes but I usually just buy the generic version of the product to save money. For Thanksgiving I made the classic cranberry sauce and the impossibly easy pumpkin cheesecake and they were a huge hit. Best of all it only took me 1 hour to make both! Enjoy.