Kid-Friendly Archives - Page 2 of 13

DIY Fall Treats: Tasty Acorns

September 22, 2014 by amy 1 Comment

I just about had a fit when I started to put this post together because my SD card decided that it wanted to be corrupted and not let me have access to my pictures. But you know what? I showed it who is boss and it eventually gave me my pictures. So you can see the beauty of these adorable little fall treats!

Today is the very last day of summer did you know that? Can you believe that? I sure can! And I’m completely ready for fires and everything cozy. I love fall wardrobes. Everything gets covered up, tucked in, and just more comfortable. Less intense and less need to be in shape.

So you can eat chocolate, right?! Aren’t these acorns just the cutest little fall treats? They are so easy to make and adorable to just set around for a treat. Not to mention that they taste amazing. Anything with a Hershey Kiss on it is going to make your mouth happy.

I made a bunch of these one night and it took me no time at all. Such a fun craft for the kids to enjoy with you. And because it’s so easy you can just let them take over! Just don’t let them eat too many before bed or they may never sleep. Again…

I didn’t put together step by step pictures for you because this one is easy enough. If you have questions please don’t hesitate to ask!

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Filed Under: Appetizers and Snacks, Cookies, Crafts, Desserts, Holiday, Kid-Friendly Tagged With: acorn treats, acorns, diy fall treats, easy fall treats, fall, fall treats, tasty acorns, Treats

Parmesan Peas

September 15, 2014 by amy Leave a Comment

I’m not exactly sure what it is about peas that makes them seem so unappealing. Did you see what I did there? For most kids I think it may be because they are green. Both of my girls have a strong aversion to green food no matter what it is. So when my oldest came home from school one day and told me that she liked peas, you can just imagine my confusion.

1. She ate peas. Willingly. Without bribery or threatening.

2. She ate peas at school of all places. This is also the place that she discovered she likes green beans. (Which I promise are the only two green foods that she likes.) I mean. What are the schools doing to their green foods to make them so enticing? They have new standards for how healthy things have to be so I know it’s not that they are slathering it all in butter.

3. I gotta come close to making them at least half as good as the school. Woah. What is this world coming to with the statement that I just made?

I came across this recipe for Parmesan Peas and I figured it was worth a shot. If it doesn’t work then I may need to call my daughter’s cafeteria. Again. What weird statements I’m making.

I liked these peas, but I have a feeling that they weren’t as amazing as my daughter is used to. I will be tweaking these a little as I make them more. But for the most part, they are really tasty! The most important tip that I can give is to make sure that you serve them immediately after making. They do not taste the same after they get cold and sit there for a while. Just from my experience anyways.

Also, be sure to use freshly grated parmesan and not the powered stuff. It works, but is not near as good.

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Filed Under: Healthy, Kid-Friendly, Sides and Vegetables Tagged With: Cheese, cheesy peas, parmesan cheese, parmesan cheese peas, parmesan peas, peas, side dish, side dishes

Fun and Easy Crafts With Olives!

September 10, 2014 by amy 1 Comment

My oldest has only recently figured out that she likes black olives. It was by mistake that she realized that she did, but I’ll take what I can get. She grabbed a big handful of “grapes” only to come tell me “momma, those aren’t grapes”. Thanks honey for letting me know. I fully expected her to leave them on my plate while saying the everso common “I don’t liiiiiiiike it”. To my surprise, she ate every one of them. Small victories people. Small victories.

I haven’t done just a lot to foster her new relationship with black olives, but somehow it’s blossomed. She now gets them on her sub sandwiches and even requires them on her pizza. I just grin ear to ear when I hear her telling anyone about her love for olives. My husband can hardly believe it.

I got to pick up some California Ripe Olives in order to create to super duper cute little characters. I was just thrilled at how easy and adorbs they turned out. But I honestly think that the very best part was eating the creations. There is just something about cheese and olives man. A match made in hors d’oeuvres heaven. The versatile California Ripe Olive is the ideal ingredient for home chefs and food artists. Not that I consider myself a chef or a food artist even, but they are pretty versatile and are something easy I can add to most meals.

California Ripe Olives are kid-friendly and the perfect option for creating tasty and creative food art for the back to school season. Think about lunch boxes and after school snacks. How cute would it be to put one of these little bumble bees in your kiddos lunch box? Sweet surprise at the lunch table. These may have been my favorite olive creatures.

California Ripe Olives provide a pop of color, texture, and flavor to a variety of dishes—including fun and delicious food art. Like these penguins for instance. Kids won’t even realize that they are eating healthy! These little guys were so easy to make and even tastier to eat! California Ripe Olives are the perfect pantry staple. They are good right out of the can, but mixing it up with little guys like this makes them even more fun.

California Ripe Olives are grown on over 1,000 multigenerational family farms that crisscross the warm inland valleys of California and processed by two family-owned canneries. I love knowing that what I’m feeding my family came from just another family. There’s just some kinda comfort that I get from family-owned companies. Aren’t these little spiders so cute? Perfect for Halloween since it’s just right around the corner!

There is a nifty sweepstakes happening and you’ll want to enter before it’s too late! The California Ripe Olives Back-To-School Sweepstakes runs August 18- September 12th. Follow California Ripe Olives on Facebook, visit the custom tab, and enter once per day for the chance to win an Amazon Kindle Fire HDX!

Want to make the cute little olive art from above? Here’s how:

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls Collective and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.

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Filed Under: Appetizers and Snacks, Healthy, Kid-Friendly, Sides and Vegetables, Sponsored

Mini Thin Crust Pizzas

July 21, 2014 by amy 2 Comments

A little over a year ago, I did a post on an Affordable Mickey Party. It was very popular post, but the most popular thing inside that post was the “Minnie” Pizzas that I did. When I was making them, I had no idea how tasty they would end up and since then they have become one of my family’s favorite appetizers.

And after a year, it’s about time that I shared it with you, right?

My oldest wanted to help out and she made such a fantastic little cooking assistant and picture model! She had a lot of fun helping me whip these up for lunch today. And of all 24 of these, only 4 were left.

I don’t expect those to make it to the evening…

This is what you’ll need for these. Off brand, on brand, whatever you can find on sale will work. You will need two muffin tins or you can make a pan at a time.

Start by using your tomato sauce can to cut out the perfect size circles for these. Remember, you’ll need 24 circles in all. And if your can isn’t doing the job, grab a similar size cookie cutter.

My OCD enjoyed lining these up. And then of course, I had to take a pic.

Then push each little circle into the bottom of the muffin tin. My lovely assistant did a fabulous job at this!

On each little crust, drop about a teaspoon of tomato sauce on top. Spread it out a little.

Top that with a tablespoon of cheese and then some mini pepperoni.

MMmmmmmm, MMMmmmmmmm. They are ready for the oven!

The waiting is the hardest part.

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Filed Under: Appetizers and Snacks, Kid-Friendly Tagged With: appetizer, appetizers, finger food, finger pizza, mini pizza, mini pizzas, Pizza, pizza appetizer, pizza recipe, pizzas, recipe

Easy Slow Cooker Green Beans

July 8, 2014 by amy 3 Comments

Today’s recipe is one that came from my grandmother! She has always been innovative when it comes to cooking and making things easier and tastier. This one is one that she came up with when having to feed a crowd. Seems like she is always having a get together with family and friends. It doesn’t matter what time of day it is when I stop by to see her, she will offer me FOOD! That’s what grandmothers are for, right?

So this recipe. It’s SO easy and will feed a crowd. It’s easy on the wallet as well. You can make this to take to an event or serve right out of the slow cooker when you have folks over.

It’s a fix it and forget it kinda side dish that honestly, I could eat as a meal. My Addie doesn’t think fond of my veggies, but this is her absolute favorite. It’s almost bribe-worthy. Almost, I mean come on, they are green beans.

It starts with everything above. 1 LARGE can of green beans. It’s a 101 oz or 6 lbs, 5 oz can that you can get at Walmart, Kroger, or most grocery stores. Sam’s Club usually has the best price on these around $3.68 (ish). You will also need a 12 oz package of country ham seasoning pieces. This is fairly inexpensive too. I got this package for just $1.88. That makes this entire side dish around $6 bucks total. Not bad!

Ok, so start by opening up your can of green beans and draining out EVERY LAST DROP OF WATER. This is essential. The green beans will create their own water while cooking and if they have too much moisture, they will become mushy. Draining them gives just the right amount of juice.

This is so hard so far, right?

Refrain from complaining too much.

The country ham is already in pieces, but I usually cut it into smaller pieces. I also DO NOT remove the fat from the pieces. You could, if you were really serious about fat, but honestly it gives it even tastier flavor.

We had these last night and Addie was so excited to be getting her favorite beans. I’m pretty sure that I had 3 helpings and many bites of them while putting the leftovers away. Do you do that? It’s hard not to steal a few tastes while getting it all prepared for the refrigerator. Even though I was stuffed to the gills!

Let me know if you try these!

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Filed Under: Crockpot, Healthy, Kid-Friendly, Sides and Vegetables Tagged With: easy beans, easy green beans, Green Beans, homemade green beans, Slow Cooker, slow cooker beans, slow cooker green beans, slow cooker recipes

Simple & Sweet Chili Mac

March 12, 2014 by amy Leave a Comment

In our penny-wise minds, there are few dishes that scream frugal more than macaroni and cheese. Don’t you agree? Some nights there just isn’t enough energy or even time to give to a full-on, oven-baked, gourmet dinner. And some nights you just bust out a box of the mac.

It’s ok. I promise, I do it too.

And if you aren’t one of us closet macaroni makers, then you are way ahead of the game and I need you to teach me your ways!

I’m a big fan of taking simple recipes and throwing in a little of this or a little of that to make them a little bit different. You can call me inventive if you’d like. One of my recent inventive meals was a little twist on Ragu’s Family Favorite Chili Mac. It honestly is already so yummy like it is, but a big favorite with my girls is corn sometimes in our chili so I thought why not add a little sweetness?

This entire recipe has only 5 ingredients and can be whipped up before you can say Bob’s your uncle.

It’s really easy to use Ragu Old World Style Traditional Sauce to create the base for the mac. You simply season it to create whatever flavor you going for and in this case, it’s chili mac!

Each jar of Ragú® Old World Style® Traditional Sauce is made with 11 juicy tomatoes making it its richest, thickest recipe. Ragú® has the Authentic Italian taste American family’s love and a variety of great tasting, quick and easy to make family favorite recipes.

And of course if you aren’t a huge fan of corn in your chili then you can leave that out. But I really like the sweetness that it adds to the kick of the chili powder!

You can visit Ragu’s facebook for additional quick, easy and delicious recipe ideas too. And be sure to enter the Ragú Better and Better Sweepstakes for a chance to win great Authentic Italian themed prizes and a grand prize trip to Venice for a family of four!

Simple & Sweet Chili Mac

Recipe Type: Main Dish, Pasta

Cuisine: American

Author: Adapted from Ragu’s Recipe

As easy as macaroni and cheese, this chili mac takes the cake!

Ingredients

1 lb lean ground turkey or beef
1 jar (1 lb 8 oz) Ragu Old World Style Pasta Sauce
1 and 1/2 tbsp chili powder
8 oz elbow macaroni, cooked and drained
1 can (15 oz) whole kernel corn, drained

Instructions

Cook ground meat in a large skillet over medium-high heat until browned.
Stir in pasta sauce and chili powder. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat and simmer about 10 minutes.
Stir in macaroni and can of corn and heat through.
Serve with shredded cheese and sour cream, if desired!

Abbreviated Sweepstakes Rules: NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Legal residents of the 50 United States (D.C.) 18 years and older. Ends 5/6/14. To enter and for Official Rules, including odds, alternate method of entry, and prize descriptions, visit www.RaguSweeps.com. Void where prohibited.

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Ragu brought to you by Yummly. All of the opinions expressed are 100% my own.

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Filed Under: Kid-Friendly, Main Dishes, Sponsored Tagged With: Chili Mac, Easy Dinner, easy recipes, macaroni, macaroni and cheese, Pasta, Pasta Sauce, Ragu, Ragu Old World Style

Easy Spasagna

February 19, 2014 by amy 1 Comment

It’s been an awfully crazy last few months here in the Pennywise Cook household. You may have noticed by my lack of posts. I’ll catch you up soon.

In the meantime, I have managed to create a really tasty spin on an original Ragu recipe that I wanted to share with you guys. I made a few changes to this recipe for Ragu No Boiling Lasagna that was a huge hit at our house. At one of our favorite restaurants around here, they have this dish that is a mix of lasagna and spaghetti and it is absolutely to die for. It has something to do with the way the noodles are mixed with the cheesy goodness that makes it so amazing.

You know me. I like a challenge.

If we’re being honest here, and I’m not ashamed of honesty, I kinda made it up as I went. And you never know if things like this will actually be edible so it was a 50/50 situation. This one made it in our Hall of Fame for yummy dishes!

Side story: As I’m preparing to take pictures of this tasty dish (and trying my darnedest not to eat it), there wasn’t enough light inside so I took my Spasagna outside on the balcony to take pictures. My 2 year-old comes outside and shoots a very inquisitive look my way. Then in a very puzzled tone says, “Momma, why are you taking pictures of macaroni?”. I died laughing!

You know you’re a food blogger when….your 2 year-old asks why you’re taking pictures of macaroni! I won’t even get into the conversation I had with her informing her it wasn’t macaroni, but “spasagna”. Talk about a really confused toddler.

Back to the recipe! This one is SUPER easy. It uses Ragu Old World Style Traditional Sauce so you know it has to be simple. I love that stuff. I used the meat flavored kind since I didn’t plan to add any meat. Each jar of Ragú® Old World Style® Traditional Sauce is made with 11 juicy tomatoes making it its richest, thickest recipe. It’s affordable (especially with coupons, y’all!), tastes great, and makes any recipe a breeze. Ragú® has the Authentic Italian taste American family’s love and a variety of great tasting, quick and easy to make family favorite recipes.

Besides that, there are just 4 other ingredients in this recipe. And it isn’t very time consuming either. That’s a big thing for us these days. My girls have no patience and neither do I!

Easy Spasagna

Recipe Type: Main Dish

Author: Pennywise Cook

Spaghetti never tastes so much like lasagna! This twist on a traditional lasagna is an easy go-to meal for the family.

Ingredients

1 package whole wheat spaghetti noodles
1 jar Ragu Old World style Pasta sauce
1 15 oz Ricotta Cheese
1 and 1/2 c mozzarella cheese
2 eggs

Instructions

Preheat oven to 375°.
Prepare 1 package whole wheat spaghetti noodles according to package directions.Be sure to season the water with a little salt before dropping your pasta!
Once cooked, let cook in strainer.
Meanwhile, in a large bowl, combine tub of ricotta cheese, 2 eggs, and 1 cup mozzarella cheese.
Mix cheese mixture with cooled noodles and flatten into a greased baking dish.
Sprinkle with 1/2 c. mozzarella cheese. Bake 10 minutes.
Remove from oven and pour entire jar of Ragu over noodles. Bake an additional 10 minutes.
Cut into squares and serve!

Notes

You can use regular noodles, but I prefer whole wheat for added nutrition!

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Ragu brought to you by Yummly. All of the opinions expressed are 100% my own.

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Filed Under: Healthy, Kid-Friendly, Main Dishes, Sponsored Tagged With: Easy Lasagna, Lasagna, Noodles, Pasta, Pasta Sauce, Ragu, Ragu Old World Style, Spaghetti, Spasagna

4-Ingredient Fudge Cookies

December 22, 2013 by amy Leave a Comment

It has been cookie mania at my house for the last month or so. It could be that Christmas is coming up. It could be that we’ve had a lot of parties to make them for.

…Or it could just be that we really like cookies.

Whatever the case, we’ve made a LOT of cookies lately. One of my most favorite that I’ve made are these Fudge Cookies. Not only are they incredibly fudgy and tasty, but they are also super easy. Only 4 ingredients!

And here are Pennywise Cook, we really like recipes that call for little ingredients don’t we? That means that there is little moolah involved and that keeps smiles on our little cookie-making faces. I think I spent about $2.50 to make these because I already had eggs and oil on-hand.

The dough is made from devil’s food cake mix, 2 eggs, 1/2 cup oil, and 1 cup of chocolate chips. After mixing all the ingredients together it becomes very thick and easy to roll into balls. So when you’re making these, don’t be concerned when your mixer starts to slow down and the mixture is very thick.

The stiffer that the dough, the better!

Hey, who knows. Santa may just like to have these Fudge Cookies this year.

I can tell you that this Santa is making Rice Krispie Treats this year, because this Santa may just be cookied out!

4-Ingredient Fudge Cookies

Recipe Type: Cookies, Dessert

Author: The 4-Ingredient Cookbook

Homemade cookies don’t have to be hard! These fudge cookies are simple and taste great!

Ingredients

1 pkg devil’s food cake mix
2 eggs
1/2 c. oil
1 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350°.
Mix Cake mix, eggs, and oil until combined. Stir in chocolate chips. Mixture will be stiff.
Shape dough into small balls and place 2 inches apart on a cookie sheet.
Bake 10-12 minutes. Let cool on a wire cooling rack.

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Filed Under: Cookies, Desserts, Kid-Friendly Tagged With: 4 ingredient cookies, Cookies, Dessert, easy chocolate cookies, easy cookies, Fudge, Fudge Cookies, Fudgy Cookies, ingredients, Low ingredient cookies

Triple Thick Banana Cranberry Smoothie

December 16, 2013 by amy Leave a Comment

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Carton Smart for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

One of the forgotten ingredients around the holidays that can tend to get a bad rep is of course, the cranberry sauce. Typically at the family gatherings that I attend, someone always buys it "just in case" and then it never makes it to the table. However, this all changed last year when my oldest realized that she is in love with such cranberry sauce.

Now it is simply a requirement.

Don't get me wrong, I like cranberry sauce. I'll even eat the kind out of the can. Although sometimes it can have a tinny taste to it depending on the brand. I got to try out some pretty cool products from Tetra Pak that are packaged in cartons, not cans! How perfect is that? No tinny taste and not only that, but they use 1/3 less packaging compared to cans.

Tetra Pak doesn't just package cranberry sauce either. You can find a variety of products for making your upcoming holiday meals!

The products that I got to try out seemed so much more compact in their little cartons. I love the fact that they make less waste than your regular everyday food packaging.

Here are the beauties I got to try out. Look at that cranberry sauce. You can even enjoy a different shape than the famous can circle when you get it from a carton.

I think what I loved most about the carton was how easy it was to open

I used some of my cranberry sauce to surprise my daughter with as an afterschool snack. We found out that my youngest is also a very big fan of cranberry sauce now too. Had to break up a sibling fight over it!

How can you be Carton Smart this holiday season? Well, you could make something up like I did! I some of the cranberry sauce to whip up a quick smoothie for my hubby while he was working. You know me and my experimentations. I threw this together in about 5 minutes and it was really good! A great way to use up leftoever cranberry sauce if you ever need to.

Triple Thick Banana Cranberry Smoothie

Ingredients

1 whole banana, frozen
1/4 c. cranberry sauce
1/4 c. water

Directions

Blend all ingredients in a blender until smooth. Viola!

In the meantime, you should Become Carton Smart and check out the other products that you can get in a carton. It makes a difference, it really does!

You can also follow them here:

Tweet @CartonSmart and Follow #CartonSmart on Pinterest

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Filed Under: Appetizers and Snacks, Beverages, Desserts, Healthy, Kid-Friendly, Reviews, Sponsored Tagged With: Banana, Banana Cranberry Smoothie, Carton, Carton Smart, Cartons, Cranberries, Cranberry, Cranberry Sauce, Dessert, Sauce, Smoothie, Smoothies, Triple Thick, Triple Thick Smoothie

Ideas for the Lunchbox: Grilled Cheese Rollups

November 4, 2013 by amy 3 Comments

The budget cuts aren’t just for the US government these days. Here at our house, we’re working on a new budget with the intent to save as much as humanly possible! I’ve always considered us a money-minded and frugal family, but we are working to try and be even more watchful about unnecessary spending.

Man, I really do sound like the US government now.

What is more frugal than a grilled cheese sandwich? Hmmm, I wonder if grilled cheese could be the answer to the US’s debt crisis?! Maybe if all the lawmakers up in Washington would agree to eat them, then we could start saving some REAL money around here. They could put them in their lunchboxes. Now THAT would be a sight!

I saw this idea over at Chin Deep as I was preparing some ideas for Addie’s lunchbox. I can’t claim I came up with these gems, but I knew I had to make them as she has recently found a deep love for grilled cheese. She gets that from her father. I hated them as a kid!

It all starts with some plain and simple sandwich bread. Whatever you can find or afford. Cut off all of the crust leaving as much of the meat of the bread as you can. You’ll also need the sliced cheese of your choice. I cut mine in half and then cut those halves 2 more times to equal about 8 small pieces from each slice.

It’s a pretty simple process. I spared you most of the step by step pictures as to not insult your intelligence. Place a piece of cheese on the very end. Roll. Add another little piece. Roll. And continue in this manner until you’ve come to the end of the bread. I used about 4 pieces for each of mine. Yours may differ depending on the size of your bread.

You can use a little bit of water on the end to help attach it and close it up for frying.

Heat up 2 tbsp of butter over medium heat.

This is where things get hot. The butter absorbs, the cheese melts, and the bread browns! It’s heavenly. It’s around 2 minutes or less on each side. You’ll just need to watch it and determine your favorite color of brown.

As a side note: you may need more butter depending on how many of these you are planning to make. The butter does absorb pretty quick so it’s possible you’ll have to refill a few times.

Voila! These are so simple and tasty. They would be great for eating with my Homemade Tomato Soup! These would also make a great finger food for a kid’s party.

UPDATE: After seeing how these fared in her lunchbox, we have decided that putting them in the microwave for a few seconds before placing them in the lunchbox helps. My Addie doesn’t prefer them to be cold, but room temp is fine. We’re going to keep trying and figure out a way to make them work. And if you have any ideas, they are surely welcome!

Ideas for the Lunchbox: Grilled Cheese Rollups

Recipe Type: Snack, Lunchbox

Cuisine: American

Author: Adapted a little from Chin Deep

A new way to enjoy grilled cheese and the perfect idea for the lunchbox!

Ingredients

6 pieces white bread
3 pieces sliced cheese of your choice
2 tbsp butter
Tomato soup or marina sauce for dipping (optional)

Instructions

Remove the crusts from your bread leaving as much as you possibly can.
Roll them flat with a rolling pin or with your preferred method of flattening.
Cut your slices of cheese into smaller little slits. I was able to get about 8 out of each of my slices.
Heat 2 tbsp butter in a skillet over medium heat.
Layout your bread and place a piece of cheese longways on the edge of the bread. Roll inward. Place another piece of cheese and then roll inward again. Until you’ve come to the end of your bread. Using a little bit of water, try to crimp the end so it attaches and closes up the rollup. It doesn’t have to be perfect, it just helps the frying process.
Place the rollups in the skillet and fry each side for about 2 minutes or until desired brownness.
Let cool on paper towels and serve with tomato soup or marina sauce!

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Filed Under: Appetizers and Snacks, Kid-Friendly, Meatless, Party Ideas Tagged With: Bread, Cheese, cheese rollups, grilled, grilled bread, grilled cheese, grilled cheese rollups, lunchbox, lunchbox ideas, rollups, Snack, Snacks

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