Top Creative Fun Food Posts of 2012!

With today being the last day of 2012 I decided to do a round up of the 
top 10 Creative Fun Food posts of 2012!

2012 is almost over! Is it me or did this year fly by? I don't know about you but I am ready for 2013. Ready for a new year, a new beginning, a fresh start. There is something so wonderful about a clean slate. I hope and pray that 2013 is a wonderful year!

Here are the top 10 most viewed posts of 2012: 
(click on the link or picture to see more detail)

1. Baby Chick Chocolates

We made these cute Baby Chick Chocolates out of leftover M&M's from Eliana's birthday party. They were such a hit and so easy to make! And they are Sooo cute! No wonder they were one of the most viewed post of 2012! :)

2. Vanilla Bean Ice Cream Shamrock Jello 

We made this super simple jello dessert recipe for St. Patrick's Day! Vanilla Bean Ice Cream Jello cut into Shamrock shapes! The ice cream floats to the top and makes a separate layer.

3. Rainbow Party!

Eliana wanted a rainbow birthday party for her 4th birthday.  Like I mention in the post there are millions of rainbow party ideas out there but what I wanted was simple. No printouts. No labels. No incredible amounts of candy. And most of all I did not want it to be super expensive.  It was the perfect party! We had only family and a few close friends.  My friend Kristen of Pixelated Crumb made Eliana's birthday cake! It was GORGEOUS! :) Her husband Joseph took this amazing picture of our display table :)

4. Red Angry Bird Lunch

Eliana loves Angry Birds (and is better at the game than me...) so I made a simple lunch based loosely on the Spring version of Angry Birds Seasons for her. It was made complete with a pretzel rod slingshot :)

5. Ladybugs

We made some ladybug pancakes and then I reminisce and share pictures from Eliana's 3rd birthday party (which was ladybug themed!) You'll find lots of cute ladybug ideas in that post! :)

6. Angry Birds Lunch

This is probably my favorite lunch of the year.  It wasn't the easiest lunch I've ever made but the look on Eliana's face was priceless and worth all the trouble!  It also taught me the importance of planning your creative lunch ahead of time instead of making it up on the spot :)

7. The Very Busy Spider Lunch

The spiderweb made with pretzel sticks and vanilla candy melts (or white chocolate) sits ontop of a full sandwich. You can easily make the spiderweb beforehand to save time :)

8. The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Eliana had requested a Very Hungry Caterpillar lunch after refinding her book so we made a simple snack and a bento lunch! I used a straw to make holes in the strawberries because on Thursday the Very Hungry Caterpillar ate through 4 strawberries :)

9. Oatmeal Energy Bites

When I stumbled over this recipe I knew it was going to be a hit with our family! This is a family favorite recipe now and it is seriously the simplest snack to make!

10. Graduation

I graduated this year!!!! and I made some Chocolate Graduation Caps for ME :) (if I ever make some again I'd use suncups (peanut/nut-free) so Eliana could eat them! When I made these Chocolate Graduation Caps we were unaware of her allergy, we just knew she didn't like peanut butter and wouldn't eat it)

Bonus Posts: (They were Sooo close to the top ten I had to include them!)

Kids DIY Turkey Snack

A simple Do It Yourself snack for Kids. Perfect for Thanksgiving! They can put together their own turkey crackers and snack on them while Thanksgiving dinner is being prepared :)

Car Lunch

With the use of a sandwich stamper I made this super cute and simple car lunch!

Circus Elephant Bento

Who would have known? A peanut free Circus Elephant for my peanut free princess! (also includes a discussion on her allergy)

Butterfly Lunch

A butterfly sandwich that was almost too beautiful to eat ;) It was so simple to make! I just used what vegetables and fruit we had, but you can easily use what you have in your fridge!

Frosty the Snowman

Even though I just made Frosty this month he is quickly becoming one of my (and your!) favorites.  Such a simple, healthy and creative lunch :) Eliana has already requested more Frosty lunches, and of course I will make them! I love that she will eat all that cucumber and bell pepper with no complaints :)

So those were the top Creative Fun Food Posts of 2012!
Thank YOU for making these the top viewed posts of Creative Food! I love them all. I had so much fun this year making every single one of our creations in 2012!  I can't wait to see what creative and fun food we will make in 2013 :)

Happy New Year!! See you in 2013! :)

Happy New Year 2013!

2013 is almost here!! Make this healthy and simple lunch to celebrate!

With New Years Eve being tomorrow (!!) I decided to make Eliana a fun lunch!

The clock is open faced sandwich, cut with a circle cookie cutter.  The provolone cheese is placed on top. I used more cheese (jalapeño pepper jack cheese) and apricot organic fruit leather to add decoration to the clock. I wrote the numbers with my edible food marker... that looks like it is in need of replacement ;)  The 2013 is cut out of cheese with my mini cutters.  The "fireworks" are red, orange and yellow bell peppers :)

I must say that this lunch took way longer than it should have... that is one problem with eating the food scraps while you are making lunch.. but I promise it really is simple to make :)

Since we are in New Jersey with family until the New Year I had wanted to make something very simple to make for Eliana so I looked for inspiration from from our lunch last year.  This was last years lunch:

I love the carrot fireworks! I actually prefer them to the bell pepper fireworks. It was much easier to cut the carrots for the fireworks than the bell peppers... but we went for colorful fireworks this year :) Either way both of these simple lunches are healthy, simple and creative :) A great way to celebrate the new year! :)

Happy New Year!

Creative Fun Food for Christmas

Here is a round up of 7 of our favorite Christmas themed Creative Food in no particular order. Click on the link or picture for further details! :)

1. Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree!

This is my absolute favorite Christmas Lunch we've made. An edible Christmas Tree with yummy fruit leather presents underneath :)

2. Santa in a bento box!

Santa in an EasyLunchbox! Our Santa is very simple to make and so cute!

3. Christmas Wreath Pancake Platter

To make this platter I layered multiple mini holly leaf pancakes on top of each other and shaped them into a wreath! Perfect for Christmas morning! You could make the pancakes ahead of time and put them in the freezer, only to reheat them that morning :)

4. Christmas Ornament Sandwich

You can decorate your edible ornament any way you like! Here we decorated with cheese, cucumber, red bell pepper and fruit leather :)

5. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

This Simple Rudolph Bento, packed in an EasyLunchbox, was so easy to put together and we made sure there were red noses in every section!

6. Christmas Tree Pancakes

These Christmas Tree pancakes were so much fun to make! We used some breakfast sausage to make the trunk :)

7. Christmas Tree Cake Balls

We don't post many sweets here but these were so popular last year I had to share again :) We made some chocolate cake balls (inspired by Bakerella) and coated them in green candy melts. It was a really simple dessert to make and everyone loved them! :)

To see all our Christmas themed Creative Fun Food click here! :)

Linking up here :)

Merry Christmas!!

Rainbow Pancakes and a Virtual Baby Shower!

I was so excited, thrilled and in awe when I was asked to participate in Meaghan's virtual baby shower among many bloggers I virtually stalk admire! (now imagine me squealing like a little girl and jumping up and down. Ok. that is me right now!!) Meaghan of The decorated cookie just had a gorgeous baby named Violet!! I love her blog and all of her edible creations, especially her skills with marshmallows :)

Meaghan loves all things rainbow so of course she would have a rainbow themed shower!

In the summer Meaghan made some awesome decorated pancakes and she always has shared my pancake creations so we made some rainbow pancakes for her :)
These pancakes would also be perfect for St. Patrick's Day!

To make these rainbow pancakes:

First mix up your pancake mix (homemade or boxed.) Mix it well so there are no bumps.  Separate the batter into five bowls for each color. Once your batter is fully mixed, pour into individual squeeze bottles and you are ready to draw!

On a skillet (on low heat) draw the first line of the rainbow.  Then continue and draw one line for each color of the rainbow (remember to leave space to fill in later).  When you get to blue you will need to make two blue lines, and you will need to close the rainbow so that it all connected (it will be covered by the clouds later).  Let your hollow rainbow cook until it gets all nice and bubbly.  Then fill in each color of the rainbow and again let cook.  Once it is almost fully cooked, gently flip your rainbow pancake so it can cook on the other side.

We added some sliced banana as clouds and there you have it! Rainbow pancakes!  Eliana was beyond thrilled with these pancakes! For her 4th birthday party she chose it to be rainbow themed so she shares a love of all things rainbow with Meaghan :)

Congrats Meaghan!! Baby Violet is gorgeous! 

Wishing you good health and some well-needed sleep :)

All of these other awesome bloggers are also participating in the rainbow shower too! Make sure to check out all of these amazing rainbow goodies made for Meaghan! :)

1.  Vanilla Bean Baker - Baby's First Christmas
2.  Not Your Momma's Cookie - Rainbow Swaddled Baby Cookies
3.  Crazy for Crust - Rainbow Peanut Butter Cookie Cups
4.  Dollhouse Bake Shoppe - Rainbow Sprinkle Sugar Cookies
5.  Creative Food - Rainbow Pancakes
6.  Hoosier Homemade - Rainbow Jar Cupcakes
7.  Kitchen Fun with My 3 Sons - Rainbow Smores Pops
8.  Pink Little Cake - Baby at the End of the Rainbow Cake
9.  Love From the Oven - Rainbow Cake Pop Cupcakes
10. Munchkin Munchies - Rainbow Balloon Cookies
11. The Baked Equation - Rainbow Baby Shower Cookies
12. Sweetology - Marshmallow Baby Pops
13. Sugar Swings - Rainbow Madeleines
14. Pint Sized Baker - Rainbow Meringue Tarts
15. Bird on a Cake - Rainbow Petal Cake
16. Haniela's - Rainbow Centerpiece
17. Miss Candiquik - Marshmallow Baby Bottles

I link up--check it out! 

Santa Bento Lunch

Ho Ho Ho! Merry Christmas!

Eliana and I made this simple, fun and healthy Santa bento in our EasyLunchboxesyesterday for lunch. It was SO simple and easy to make!  I tried to simplify Santa so I could make him easily and quickly--I think he turned out cute! :)

In the main compartment is Santa of course! Santa is a WOWBUTTERand honey sandwich cut with a circle cookie cutter.  On top he has a cheese beard that I cut with my circle cookie cutter. His hat is red bell pepper with cheese details.  I had wanted to use fruit leather but I didn't have any the right color so we made do with bell pepper! Enjoy Life Foods mini chocolate chips were used for eyes, and his nose is red bell pepper cut with a mini cutter. I used a food safe marker to draw his mouth. All details could be easily "glued" down with a touch of honey or WOWBUTTER (or any nut butter).

In the upper left compartment Eliana had frozen peas. 

In the upper right compartment she had vanilla yogurt with a few sprinkles inside a mini dipper.

Eliana loved this Santa lunch! She ate it all up, which always makes me happy :)

While we don't "do Santa" in our house we still have fun with him! :) David and I had decided together that as a family we would always tell Eliana the truth about Santa--that he is a character--not our focal point on Christmas, because Jesus is the reason for the season! We wanted her to know that her presents came from her family and friends who love her, not Santa.  Even though Eliana knows Santa is a character she loves him just the same. I couldn't agree more: This Santa is certainly lovable. And delicious ;)

Creative Food Supplies

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