Oh Christmas Tree! (Take Two)

Merry Christmas Eve!! I don't know about you but Eliana can hardly wait to open all of her presents under the tree.  She has been staring at them for weeks now (maybe we shouldn't have put them out so early haha) and since she knows how to spell her name and how to spell our names she knows which presents are hers and which are ours!  The difference between last year and this year is amazing.  Last year she was excited but she didn't comprehend everything as much.  This year she is almost four and she knows what is what and she talks a mile a minute :) 


These past few weeks Eliana and I have made quite a few versions of our original Christmas Tree sandwich and this one I'm sharing today was our favorite. Since we had all our Christmas presents under our tree I decided to add some edible presents to the lunch!

For this lunch I used a Christmas tree cookie cutter and cut the sandwich from a spinach tortilla, turkey and cheese (or whatever fillings you prefer). The star on the tree is cut from cheddar cheese.  The "Christmas lights" are red and yellow bell peppers and carrots.  The "presents" are fruit leather with cheese "ribbons". The cute little surrounding trees are Goldfish Holiday crackers.  Somehow goldfish tree crackers taste so much better than the fish ;) 


This was very simple to do, it looks amazing and Eliana loved it! Again, this is a lunch you can change up and be creative with whatever you have in the fridge.  This time I didn't add a garland to the tree but you could always add a garland of cheese, fruit leather or bell peppers, etc. You could also add bows to the presents... whatever you choose to do will look great and it will be fun to make with your kids :)

Merry Christmas!!

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Gingerbread Man Lunch

I had this brilliant idea of making a gingerbread man lunch..It didn't come out as well as I pictured in my mind but I figured I'd still share it :)

This was a very simple and easy lunch to do!  I made a jelly sandwich and cut it out with a large gingerbread man cookie cutter.  The decorations were simple: buttons are mini M&Ms, edible candy eyes and a fruit leather mouth. 


I used a mini gingerbread man cookie cutter and made some mini cheese men and women.  You can use a food safe marker to decorate them with more detail (you can see my markers have seen better days... time for some new ones!).  I cut some cucumber strips for the border and also added a gingerbread boy cookie.


While I wasn't too happy that this wasn't the gingerbread man lunch I had envisioned, Eliana really enjoyed it.  And that makes me happy too :) So it works!


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Christmas Ornament Sandwich

We decided to make something other than a Christmas Tree for lunch! :) I had an idea of making a Christmas ornament in my mind and this is what I came up with..

This was an easy and fun lunch to make!  All you really need is a circle cookie cutter! I took a big circle cookie cutter and cut up a tomato basil tortilla (you could easily use bread instead), ham and cheese.  I placed the cheese on top.  I used a knife and cut some fruit leather to make the top of the ornament.  For the decorations on the ornament I used a small circle cutter to make circles of red bell pepper and then i used a knife and cut a zigzag design out of cucumber.


For the holly berries I again cut more small circles of red bell pepper and used a small holly leaf cookie cutter to cut leaves made of cucumber.


You could always make different designs on the ornament, with different fruits and vegetables or different shapes--the options are endless :) It would be the perfect snack or meal to munch on while decorating the tree :)


Until Next Time.. :)


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Christmas Tree Cake Balls

Yes. Christmas Tree again. I sense a tree theme this year :) I can't promise that I won't make anything else Christmas Tree related again since Eliana has asked for more Christmas tree sandwiches and well we may just have to show you what we make! :)  So the other weekend was my grandpa's birthday party.  All the family got together and we had such a good time! I usually make more than one dessert but this year I was running on four hours of sleep from Eliana being sick the night before and me trying to finish my 9-11 page paper!  I decided that I wanted to make some cake balls. If you have never heard of cake balls feel free to check out Bakerella, the Queen of all things cake ball and cake pop related. I love making cake balls and have been making them for over a year now. You can use your own made from scratch cake recipe, or a boxed cake mix. If you are running on low sleep may I suggest the latter ;)


Here is what I came up with..

Christmas Tree Cake Balls!

I'm really happy with how it turned out! And they all disappeared--so it was a hit! I made chocolate cake balls and covered them with dark green candy melts (I got mine at A.C. Moore). I chose to drizzle some of them with red candy melts and red sugar sprinkles (add the sprinkles before the drizzle dries completely). With the rest of the cake balls I used yellow candy melts and made little "lights" and the star on the top. The "trunk" I left the cake balls bare.. but if you aren't as lazy (or sleep deprived) as me you could coat them with chocolate :)


Cake balls are a dessert that anyone can make.  Seriously--go out and try to make them.  You can tweak them and use different cake mixes or frostings, or even try it with brownies instead!  They taste amazing and look adorable. Once you've had one, you'll understand how amazing they are! :)


Until next time.. :)


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Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree!

As a family we love Christmas season. Eliana is overjoyed to help decorate the Christmas Tree and she absolutely loves Christmas lights and decorations.  I decided to make Eliana a Christmas Tree Sandwich that she could help make.

This was a very simple creative lunch. To make the tree I used a Christmas Tree cookie cutter to cut a spinach tortilla and the ham and cheese inside it (or whatever fillings you prefer).  I made the garland out of cheese (to add a simple touch I used a crinkle cookie cutter edge to add a design on the garland).  I also put a cheese star at the top. For the ornaments I cut some red and yellow bell peppers and let Eliana decorate the tree.  The two angels are cut from fruit leather.


There are so many ways you can decorate this tree.. You could use different fruits and veggies for the decorations and have your child help you decorate their edible tree. I'm positive we'll be making more versions of this tree since Eliana loved it so much!


Until Next Time.. :)


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Christmas Tree Pancakes

Hello December?! I can't believe it is already December!  Beginning this month with some holiday cheer I have a cute breakfast that you can make with your kiddos.. or just for yourself (I won't tell). So the other day Eliana refused to eat anything for breakfast.  I had run out of ideas of what to make for her when I finally thought of making her some pancakes.  But not just your ordinary pancakes--Christmas Tree shaped pancakes!  Eliana was so excited that she could help me out by mixing the batter and putting in the food coloring.  She ate more than four of these cute pancakes :)

The tastiest Christmas Tree Pancake ever ;)

Shaped Pancakes are so much fun once you get the hang of it.  All you need is some food coloring and some squeeze bottles.  


First make the pancake batter (make sure to mix very well so there are no lumps) and then separate them into three bowls for the three different colors: green, yellow and red. I knew I was going to use more green batter so I made sure to have more batter in that bowl.


On my skillet I drew the outline of the tree.  Then I put the red and yellow ornaments and let those both cook until almost fully cooked.  Then I filled in the tree with the green batter and let that almost fully cook.  I flipped it over gently and let the other side cook.  I then made a separate pancake star for the tree and I cut a piece of sausage for the tree trunk.


This breakfast was a lot of fun and Eliana had so much fun helping--especially when adding the food coloring.  Usually breakfast is already made or being made by the time Eliana gets up but this time we made it together and we had so much fun.. we may just have to make these again :)


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Gobble Gobble

Even though we have had a difficult weekend/week with the tragic death of our bird I still think it is important to find things you are thankful for, especially around Thanksgiving.  And while it is a lot easier for me right now to say "nothing" there is always something you can be thankful for. I am thankful for my life--that I am alive and healthy and well.  I am thankful for my amazing husband, David, who is so caring and always thinking of me. I am thankful for our daughter Eliana who is a ray of sunshine in my life.  She lights up my world. And if I think harder there a lot more things to be thankful for.  It's always difficult to think of good things when you are in difficult times. But maybe it is when you are in difficult times it is even more important to remind yourself of the things you are thankful for...


Now onto food.  Last week I made two different turkey themed sandwiches for Eliana.  She loved them and they were super easy to make!

This is "Sally".  Whenever you ask Eliana to name an animal she will name it Sally. She usually just would say "bear" if it is a bear, or "cat" if it is a cat.  But if I really ask her to think of a name she will say Sally.  So we named this turkey shaped sandwich Sally.

This was very easy to make.  I made a grilled cheese sandwich and cut it into a circle with a cookie cutter.  I cut another circle out of whole wheat bread and made the face out of edible eye candies, carrot nose and a red pepper googly gobbly thing (what is that called?!).  I cut out feathers from red orange and yellow bell peppers.  I cut the feet out of carrot.  And I put some leaf sprinkles on the the plate.

Eliana loved it and ate it all up. Which I love. Win-Win. I also made another turkey sandwich.

Mini Turkey

On Mondays and Fridays I babysit a cute almost two year old (Sophia) and Eliana always comes with me.  I always make our lunches to go and since we still had peppers left over I wanted to make her a smaller turkey sandwich last Friday.  Again--so easy! I just made a jelly sandwich with whole wheat bread and cut it into a circle.  Carrot nose and carrot legs.  Bell pepper feathers and gobbly thingy.  I then cut out a few cheese pumpkins and drew on them with edible marker.  


This was by no means bento perfection.  This container is just a sandwich container and I usually make Eliana small cute lunches to go in it.  Eventually I will have to get her an actual bento container that will hold her food better--so it doesn't move around while traveling. Or I need to "glue" things in place with honey or something. When we reached our destination I had to rearrange her lunch because she was upset the feathers weren't all in place :)  Both of these lunches would be an awesome way to use up leftover turkey in a fun way! :)

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving :)

Here is what I used to make these lunches:

 
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