Five Fun Ideas for Halloween and Fall Foods

One thing that always brings a smile 
to the faces of children (and adults)

are the fun food treats served 
for a holiday or party.

Here are five super fun ideas 
that have been linked up 

to our Halloween and Fall Fun parties!

Mummy Pizzas

{ Leapfrog & Ladybugs }

I love these little pizzas!  
Before trick-or-treating, we always make "Mummy Dogs" 
with hot dogs and crescent rolls.  
I think I may have to change up the menu 
this year and make these instead.

Rice Krispie Treat Pumpkins

 { Preschool Alphabet}

How cute and yummy do these pumpkin Rice Krispie Treats look?
They'd be a perfect little Halloween treat.

Nutter Butter Ghosts

{ Phaedra's Adventures }

And these Nutter Butter Ghosts?  So cute.
I always joke that I'm not much of a baker, 
but I'm pretty good at dipping ready made cookies
into melted chocolate! ;)
These would be the perfect little treat for me to make.

Candy Corn Pudding (with Printable)

{ Plum Adorable }

I love candy corn and these puddings are adorable 
(especially packaged up with a cute little printable!)
They'd be easy to just make a couple, or make up a big batch of pudding and put together a whole bunch.

Fall Leaf Toast

{ Having Fun at Home }

What a great idea for edible fall leaves.
I've seen the idea to paint on toast before,
but doing it on leaf-shaped toast is just so clever.

And don't forget these two yummy treats from here at Come Together Kids!

Candy Corn Cupcakes

Donut Hole Acorns

Thanks, ladies, for sharing your great ideas,

Feel free to grab a featured button from my sidebar!

I hope these great ideas for Fun Halloween and Fall Foods have inspired you to add a little fun to your menu-planning!

 Please check out our on-going parties 

for even more Halloween and Fall recipes and ideas!

Sharing at:
Be Different, Act Normal

Candy Corn Cupcakes

Here's a really cute Halloween version of the Rainbow Cupcakes we made in the spring.  They're really simple to make and don't require any kind of fancy baking skills.  Plus, because they only have three colors instead of a full rainbow, they're not nearly as time consuming as the rainbow ones.

Here's how you make them:

1.  Make up a batch of regular white cake batter using your favorite recipe (or your favorite box of Betty Crocker white cake mix!).  Divide the batter evenly into three bowls.

 

2.  Leave one bowl white, but use food coloring to color the other two bowls yellow and orange.  (Mine took a LOT of food coloring to get the bright colors I wanted, probably 20 drops or so in each one!)

3.  Spoon the batter into your cupcake liners in layers, first the yellow, then orange, and finally white.  You'll want to make sure you get the batter of each layer all the way up against the sides so the layers are clearly visible when you peel back the wrapper.  (I accidentally overfilled with the yellow and orange so I just had a really narrow white layer)

4.  Bake as directed.  Let cool, then peel off the wrappers to reveal your candy corn striped cupcakes.  Frost and decorate however you'd like.  (My kids don't like frosting, so I just added a little whipped cream and a real candy corn or two.)

That's it!  Some super cute cupcakes that are super easy to make!

Sharing our colorful cupcakes at:


Happy Hour Projects, Craft-O-Maniac  Design Dazzle  Ladybird Ln  Tatertots and Jello  Sun Scholars The Creative Paige  Be Different, Act Normal  Sunday Showcase  Flamingo Toes  I heart Naptime  Under the Table and Dreaming  Running with Glitter  C.R.A.F.T.  The Girl Creative  Creative Jewish Mom  Craft-O-Maniac  Lines across my Face  Delicate Construction  Skip to My Lou  Today's Creative Blog  Sugar and Dots  Blue Cricket Design   The Mommy Club Gluesticks  The Frugal Girls

Donut Hole Acorns

To celebrate the First Day of Fall today and inspired by this cute idea at Family Fun, the kids and I made some super cute acorn treats out of donut holes.

Aren't they cute?

They were really easy to make and the kids loved helping.

Here's what you need:

* Donut holes

* chocolate frosting (or peanut butter)

* chopped nuts (or sprinkles)

* pretzel sticks

Here's what you do (it really doesn't even need explaining!)

1. Dip your donut hole in the frosting, 

then in the nuts or sprinkles...

2. Add a piece of a pretzel stick as a stem...

3. Put them on a cute plate and enjoy!

*NOTE* ~ We used the boxed glazed donut holes, which, although delicious, had the tendency to crumble a bit when we were dipping them.  When I do it again, I may use some "sturdier" donuts.

Sharing our Fall treat at:

Tatertots and Jello 
Ladybird Ln. 
Happy Hour Projects 
Sun Scholars 
Someday Crafts 
Just a Girl 
Lolly Jane 
Be Different, Act Normal 
I heart Naptime 
The Sunday Showcase 
Under the table and dreaming 
Six Sisters' Stuff 
Creative Jewish Mom 
C.R.A.F.T. 
Running with Glitter 
Homemaker on a Dime 
Lines Across my Face 
Delicate Construction 
Skip to My Lou 
Reasons to skip the Housework 
Today's creative Blog 
Sugar and Dots 
Somewhat Simple 
Gluesticks 
It's Playtime 
The Frugal Girls 
Design Dazzle 
The Girl Creative 
Blue Cricket Design 

Easy Peach Cobbler

Fresh, local peaches are now in season here.  It was a gorgeous day outside on Friday so we headed out to a local orchard for some peach picking.  The kids had fun and we ended up with a half bushel of yummy peaches.  

Picking a perfect peach

That's a lot of peaches!

As soon as we got the peaches home, the kids started begging me to make their peaches into a peach pie.  Unfortunately, I'm not much of a baker and I know a homemade pie crust is way outside my skill set, so I set off to find an alternative that was more do-able for me.  I found THIS recipe on the Food Network site for an Easy Peach Cobbler ~ what a hit!!  It wasn't hard to make and we all thought it was delicious.

Right out of the oven

INGREDIENTS

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 cups sugar
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• Pinch  of salt
• 1 cup milk
• 4 cups peeled, pitted and thinly sliced fresh peaches (5 to 6 medium peaches)
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• Several dashes of ground cinnamon or ground nutmeg (optional)

DIRECTIONS:

1.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2.  Pour the melted butter into a 13" x 9" baking dish

3.  In a medium bowl, combine the flour, 1 cup of sugar,  baking powder, and salt and mix well. Stir in the milk, mixing until just combined. Pour the batter over the butter but do not stir them together.

4.  In a small saucepan, combine the peaches, lemon juice, and remaining cup of sugar and bring to a boil over high heat, stirring constantly. Pour the peaches over the batter without stirring them together. Sprinkle with cinnamon or nutmeg if desired ( I used a little bit of cinnamon).

5.  Bake in the preheated oven for 40 to 45 minutes or until the top is golden-brown. Serve warm or cold.  (We loved it warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream!!)

We have a ton of peaches left, so we'll probably make this recipe again soon and try out a few other peach dishes too.

Sharing the peachy goodness at:



C.R.A.F.T. 
Running with Glitter 
Under the Table and Dreaming 
I heart Naptime 
Craft-O-Maniac 
Homemaker on a Dime 
 Making the World Cuter
Skip to My Lou 
The Girl Creative 
Sugar Bee Crafts 
Sugar and Dots 
Gluesticks
Somewhat Simple 
Tatertots and Jello 
 Be Different, Act Normal

Magic Message Bananas

Thanks again, Pinterest, for helping me find another cool idea, this time from Cute Food for Kids.

I think these fun little magic messages might replace paper lunchbox notes in the kids' lunches when school starts.  They definitely got a kick out of them for a summer snack.

Best thing is, they were SUPER easy!

Here's what you do:

1.  Using a toothpick, draw a picture or write a message on your banana peel.

2.  At first, it will be rather tough to see.

3.  But after several minutes, your magic message will begin to darken.

4.  After about an hour (or by lunchtime if you pack it in a lunch box), you'll have an easy-to-read special message that your child will love to read.

** NOTE **  I've found that the message tends to show up more quickly when the banana is more ripe. 

Cake & Ice Cream Sandwiches

When we made our yummy Cake Mix Waffles, I knew they'd be perfect for ice cream sandwiches.  We got the great taste combination of cake and ice cream, but because we made our "cake" in the waffle iron, we didn't have add any more heat to our summer day by turning on the oven.

They were so easy, I really don't even need to give directions, but here they are:

1.  Allow your cake mix waffles to cool on a baking rack, then put them on a cookie sheet in a single layers with waxed paper in between. Put them in the freezer to get a bit colder and a little more firm.

2.  Take out your ice cream and allow it to soften slightly so it's easily scoopable and spreadable.

3.  Scoop out some ice cream and spread it on your waffle, then add another waffle to make your sandwich.

Oops, forgot the picture of putting the top waffle on, but I know you can do it! ;)

4. Put your waffle sandwiches back in the freezer until ready to eat.

Cake Mix Waffles

We're in the middle of a heat wave here this summer.  We wanted a little baked treat, but because it feels like an oven outside, there's no way I'm turning on my oven inside!  Then I remembered seeing the great idea of making cupcakes using a waffle iron at Random Thoughts of a Supermom ~ what a perfect solution.  We could have a little treat without sweating any more than we had to. 

It was so easy (and yummy).  Here's what we did:

1.  Gather your supplies ~ a waffle iron, cake mix and the ingredients to make the cake. ( I think I might add some chocolate chips to our next batch.)

2.  Heat up your waffle iron and mix the cake mix according the directions.

3.  Pour the cake mix batter onto the waffle iron.  Check your manual for amounts and times.  Mine used about 1/4 cup of batter per waffle and cooked for about 3 minutes.

4.  Put the finished waffles onto a cooling rack to cool, then enjoy.  We ate a couple just plain since we didn't have any frosting on hand, and then made the rest into some yummy Cake and Ice Cream Sandwiches.

Sharing this easy little recipe at:

Tatertots and Jello 
I heart Naptime 
Skip to My Lou 
Today's Creative Blog 
Homework

Five Fun Ideas for Cool Summer Treats

One of our favorite things about Summer 

is beating the heat with yummy frozen treats.

Check out these awesome treats 

that were linked up to 

our Summer Fun Party

1.  Kool-Aid Slurpees

{ My World Made by Hand }

Don't these look great? 

(and so easy too!)

2.  Banana Ice Cream

{ Sleepytime Productions }

Ooh, a yummy cold treat that's healthy too?

Can't beat that.

( I've tried this before with just bananas and it was awesome,

I bet the addition of chocolate takes it up even another notch!)

3.  Ice Cream Mini Bites

{ This Chick Cooks }

Bite-sized treats are the perfect way to get a sweet bite,

without ruining your kids' appetite (or your girlish figure)

4.  Homemade Popsicles and Molds

{ Bugaboo, Mini Mr and Me }

What a cool idea!

I love the drip catcher.

5.  Melon Jello Boats

{ Greene Acres Hobby Farm }

Doesn't this look so fun?

What a fantastic way 

to add a little something extra to fresh fruit.



And, as a bonus, check out this great  idea 
to make holding a freezer pop a little more comfortable.

Freeze Pop Holder
{ Here Comes the Sun } 

Handstand Kids Cookbook - Review and GIVEAWAY!!

A few weeks ago, Yvette from Handstand Kids 

contacted me to see if I'd be interested in trying out 

one of her international cookbook kits for kids.  

This opportunity was perfect for us.  

My oldest daughter loves cooking and 

wants to be a chef when she grows up 

~ Well, a chef or a dolphin trainer, but says she'll figure out a way to do both! ;)    

My son loves maps and learning about other countries  

  and my youngest loves to do anything her big sister and brother do!  

Plus, one of the things on our Summer Fun Checklist was to "Try a New Food."

We chose the   Chinese Cookbook Kit because it would be the most different from our regular menu and give us a neat opportunity to learn about another culture.  When it arrived we thought the packaging was so creative ~ the cookbook comes with a set of chopsticks in a box that looks like a big Chinese food takeout container.  The Handstand Kids company also has an  Italian Cookbook kit and a Mexican Cookbook Kit (They would make AWESOME gifts!)

When I looked through the cookbook I was really impressed with both the variety of recipes and the fact that these were real recipes but presented in a kid-friendly way.  There are five Handstand Kids' characters you meet who lead you through the recipes and give interesting little facts and suggestions throughout the cookbook. 

Learning the Chinese terms for the ingredients we'd be using

One other feature that we thought was really cool were the pages that listed all the utensils and ingredients you'd be using.  Each item had a picture and both the English and Chinese word for each item.  The kids got a huge kick out of looking up and saying the Chinese term for each tool or food we picked up to use.

For our dinner, we tried the "Great Wall of Chicken Lettuce Wraps".  Everyone loved them and my husband even said they were as good as similar ones he's had at P.F. Changs.

My oldest (and chef-to-be) got to use a real knife to cut the scallions.

My son chopped the water chestnuts.

This was the first time the kids ever tried water chestnuts 

and they LOVED them.  

Seriously, they were snacking on them right out of the can.

My youngest cut up the mushrooms (easily done with a butter knife)

They liked how the ginger root "looked like a tree branch" 

and smelled "kind of like a spicy lime"

Using the grater was fun and felt a little dangerous! ;)

 After all the ingredients were chopped, grated, mixed and cooked, our dinner was ready!

Looks yummy, doesn't it?

Trying chopsticks was fun!

But fingers and forks got more food to their mouths!

Then for dessert, we made some "Banana-rama Spring Rolls".  Fun to make and totally yummy!

Fun using a pastry brush.

Rolling up the wrapper.

Ready to go in the oven.

A little heavy with the powdered sugar sprinkling! :)

Without a doubt, we'll be making more recipes out of our cookbook soon.  The kids had a blast learning and cooking and we all really enjoyed the food.

Now, if all that talk about cooking and eating has you hungry and wanting to try some recipes with your own family, you're in luck!  You can now purchase these awesome cookbook kits at these Bed, Bath and Beyond locations.  Handstand Kids will also be giving away one of their International Cooking Kits to one of my lucky readers!!

Please leave a separate comment below for each entry and include your email address if it's not on your blogger profile so we can contact the winner.

To enter:

1.  Visit Handstand Kids website, check out the SHOP section, then come back here and leave a comment telling which Cookbook Kit your family would most enjoy.  (one entry)

2.  On the Handstand Kids website, sign up to be a Handstand Kids Member.  Leave another comment telling me that you did so. (one entry)

3.  "Like" Handstand Kids on Facebook, and leave a comment telling me you're a new fan. (one entry)

4.  Share this giveaway post on your own blog or Facebook page, and leave a comment telling me that you did. (one entry)

The Giveaway will end next Friday, July 1st.