Recipes Category
Easy Nutritious Recipes for Your Family That Even Your Kids Will Love
“Mom what’s for dinner?” A statement that can put you in a full out panic if it has been “one of those days”. Not to fear, Weelicious is here! We love this website because this mom is serious about good nutritious meals that don’t take hours to prepare.
Her motto? Fast, easy & fresh baby food, toddler food and recipes for the entire family! What’s not to love? She also involves her kids in the cooking process with age-appropriate tasks giving them hands-on experience. The result? Her children learn about good health, how to cook and how to perceive food in a positive, healthy way. Best part? She teaches us to do the same!
Check out her site! You will love the recipes, food group info, weekly menu, daily recipe sent to you, healthy tidbits and more!
You can also follow Catherine from Weelicious on Twitter & Facebook!
Easy To Make Fruity Treats for A Hot Summer Day
There is nothing like a yummy popsicle treat to cool off you and your children on a hot summer day. We recently came across this Frosty Tropical Pops recipe from Kraft. We love that it’s easy to make and uses real fruit!
What you need:
- 4 cups of strawberries
- 1 tsp Kool-AID Sugar Free Tropical Punch Flavor Low Calorie Soft Drink (For a healthier alternative use real fruit juice instead)
What to do:
- Blend ingredients in blender until smooth; pour into 6 paper cups or reusable popsicle molds.
- Insert wooden pop stick into center of each cup. Freeze 3 hours or until firm.
- Remove pops from cups just before serving.
- Enjoy!
What is your favorite summertime treat?
St. Patrick’s Day Recipes for Your Family
Tomorrow is St. Patrick’s Day so we had to share some yummy, easy-to-make recipes for your family’s St. Patrick’s Day dinner.
Growing up on the Southside of Chicago where there is a large Irish population, Irish Soda Bread was always a hit and of course a competition of who could make the best Irish Soda Bread!
Irish Soda Bread
What You Need:
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 cups whole wheat flour
- 2 tsp. baking soda
- 1 tsp. salt
- 4 tbsp. butter or margarine
- 1-2/3 cups buttermilk
What To Do:
1. In a large bowl, mix the flours, baking soda and salt. Using your fingertips, rub in the cold butter or margarine until the mixture resembles a coarse mixture. Pour in most of the buttermilk; you may need slightly less, depending on the balance of white and whole wheat flour. Mix well, turn out onto a floured cutting board and knead until smooth, about 5 minutes.
2. Shape dough into a round loaf. Cut a cross in the top with a sharp knife and put the loaf in a greased round pan, such as a cake pan or pie plate. Bake at 400 degrees for about 40 minutes. Let cool before cutting. Makes one 6 inch loaf.
3. Enjoy!
Interesting Fact:
Using baking soda in bread started out of necessity. Yeast won’t make dough rise unless the baker uses “strong” flour, which was scarce in parts of Ireland. Baking soda, however, did leaven bread made of different flours. The baking soda has to be combined with something acidic in order to do its magic so buttermilk is used. Irish Soda Bread is a heartier bread and pairs well with soup and stews which are ample in Ireland.
Easy Corned Beef & Cabbage
- What You Need:
- 4 cups hot water
- 2 tbsp. cider vinegar
- 2 tbsp. sugar
- 1/2 tsp. freshly ground pepper
- 1 large or 2 medium onions, cut into wedges
- 1 3-lb. corned beef round or brisket, packaged with spices
- 8 small white or yellow potatoes, scrubbed and cut into quarters
- 1 head of green cabbage (about 1 1/2 lbs.), cored and cut into 10 wedges
- What To Do:
- In a 6-quart electric slow cooker, combine water, vinegar, sugar, pepper and onions. Be sure to mix them well. Put corned beef in the mixture and scatter the potatoes over the top and along the sides.
- Cover and cook on the high heat setting for 4 hours. Remove the lid and place the cabbage wedges over the top. Cover and continue cooking on high 3 to 4 hours longer, or until the beef is tender. Serve by carving the corned beef into slices and serve with the cabbage and potatoes, with some of the broth.
- Enjoy!
Interesting Fact:
The Irish were the first exporters of Corned Beef. Today corned beef and cabbage is not very Irish, but corned beef is. The area of Cork, Ireland was a great producer of Corned Beef in the 1600’s until 1825. It was their chief export and sent all over the world, mostly in cans.
What yummy St. Patrick Day recipes do you have to share?
Super Bowl Fun With Your Family
Super Bowl is a great time for families and kids to bond. We have a few easy recipes and games so that the kids can be part of the Super Bowl fun!
Super Bowl Hot Potato Use a brown balloon to represent a football. Gather kids in a circle. Start playing music while the kids try to keep the “ball” off of the ground with gentle taps.
Football Hide and Seek
Hide small football erasers, stickers, pencils and coloring books around the party area and then send the kids to search for them…It’s just like an Easter egg hunt!
Decorate cookies
Use a football cookie cutter to make sugar cookie cut outs. Then provide frosting and sprinkles for decorating. You can use Popsicle sticks will make frosting the cookies easier for the kids.
Here are some delicious recipes:
Healthier BBQ Chicken Tenders
Makes about 24
- 1 cup prepared barbecue sauce
- 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 1 1/2 pounds chicken tenders
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
- 2 large eggs
- 1 3/4 cups coarse dry breadcrumbs, preferably whole-wheat
- Olive oil or canola oil cooking spray
Combine barbecue sauce, mustard and honey in a large bowl. Set aside 1/2 cup of the sauce in a small bowl. Cut any large chicken tenders in half lengthwise, then add all the tenders to the large bowl with the remaining sauce; stir to coat. Marinate in the refrigerator for 30 minutes to 1 hour.
Preheat oven to 450°F. Coat a large rimmed baking sheet with cooking spray.
Combine flour, salt and pepper in a shallow dish. Lightly beat eggs in another shallow dish. Place breadcrumbs in a third shallow dish. Coat each tender in flour, shaking off any excess. Dip in egg and let any excess drip off. Then roll in the breadcrumbs, shaking off any excess. Place the tenders on the prepared baking sheet. Generously coat both sides of each tender with cooking spray
Bake for 10 minutes. Turn each tender over and continue baking until the outside is crisp and the tenders are cooked through, about 10 minutes more. Serve with the reserved sauce for dipping.
Ranch Dip and Crunchy Veggies
- 1/2 cup nonfat buttermilk,
- 1/3 cup low-fat mayonnaise
- 2 tablespoons minced fresh dill, or 2 teaspoons dried
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- 1 teaspoon honey
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 6 cups vegetables, such as baby carrots, sliced red bell peppers, snap peas, broccoli and cauliflower florets, cucumber spears, grape tomatoes
Whisk buttermilk, mayonnaise, dill, lemon juice, mustard, honey, garlic powder and salt in a bowl until combined. Serve the dip with vegetables of your choice.
What activities does your family enjoy on Super Bowl Sunday?
Indoor Sunny Beach Day Activity for Kids During Winter
For those of us battling below zero temperatures, it can be difficult to find indoor activities for our children. Even if warm beach days are rare in Winter, you can bring the beach indoors with this fun activity for your kids.
What you need:
- Deep blue construction paper, felt or material (even a sheet will do)
- Light blue construction paper, felt or material (again a sheet will do)
- Tan material, sheet or blanket
- Yellow construction paper, felt or material
- Beach Towels
- Non-toxic glue or safety pins
- Beach umbrellas (optional)
- Various colors of green & blue tissue paper
- Beach/Hawaiian music, sounds of waves crashing or anything else that reminds you of summer
- Summer snacks
- Summertime reading books. If you don’t have any at home, take a trip to the library.
What to do:
- You and your kids can create your own indoor beach by hanging up the light blue material or construction paper on a wall for the sky.
- Make a sun out of the yellow construction paper and hang in the “sky”.
- Put the tan blanket or sheet on the ground as sand.
- Next to the “sand” put down fish and waves that you cut out of the tissue paper.
- Turn on the music & start your beach party.
- You can read to your kids, lay out on the beach towels, snack on summertime foods, etc.
- Have your kids wear their favorite summer outfit and sunglasses. If it’s too cold in the house to do that, you can have them put a bright colored summer t-shirt over their winter shirt.
We love this Pink lemonade pie recipe for your beach party sent to us from @StepanieCHicks on Twitter:
Thanksgiving Recipes, Crafts, Activites and More!
While it may seem like we just finished Trick or Treating with our children, Thanksgiving really is next week! We wanted to share with you some recipes, crafts and activities that you can take to your own Thanksgiving family celebration.
Recipes:
- We love Jamie Oliver’s very tasty and healthy Thanksgiving recipes. We give the roast potatoes, parsnips and carrots 5 stars! Check it out on the Jamie Oliver website.
- Food Network has some great side dish recipes that we love. We highly recommend Alton’s Superstar Mac & Cheese.
- These DIY Turkey muffins are so fun for your kids and healthy too!
- How about a healthy fruit turkey for the table?
- One of our favorites for your leftover turkey that is sure to delight kids and adults alike - Turkey nuggets!
Activities & Crafts:
- Have your kids color their own Thanksgiving placements with these Thanksgiving printable pages! Disney also has some cute printable Thanksgiving pages here.
- How about having some family fun with Thanksgiving BINGO!
- A mosaic cornucopia will add a great splash of color to your Thanksgiving decor and show off your child’s artistic talent!
- These adorable place cards will definitely bring smiles to your Thanksgiving table.
- Need to work up to a dessert appetite after your big meal? Try one of these fun family Thanksgiving games!
No matter if you have 2 or 20 people at your table, your Thanksgiving can be memorable. We especially love the tradition of going around the table and each person saying one thing they are grateful for from the past year. What Thanksgiving traditions do you have to share?
Easy Children’s Summer Recipes
Summertime brings outdoor fun and picnics. One easy recipe for children is ants on a log. We love this because it’s healthy, easy and fun!
What you will need:
- celery sticks
- peanut butter (we are fans of natural peanut butter)
- raisins
Directions:
- Wash the celery and have an adult cut it into pieces (about 5 inches long).
- Spread peanut butter across the u-shaped part of celery.
- Press raisins into peanut butter. We think 3 is a good amount.
You can also use cream cheese instead of peanut butter and nuts instead of raisins if you want variety.
What fun recipes do you like to make with your children?
Making Your Own Baby Food
You finally arrive at that stage where baby can actually start on solid food. You head over to the grocery store and stock up on all those yummy baby food flavors only to have sticker shock at check out. The good news is there are options – like making your own baby food. And it’s not as difficult as it seems. Michelle LaRowe has a great, easy guide to making your own baby food. (Remember the mom, nanny & writer that we interviewed this past Monday for Mom Monday?)
Here it is:
How To Make Your Own Baby Food:*
- Steam or bake fresh fruits or vegetables until tender.
- Puree cooked fruits or vegetables in a good processor or blender.
- Fill an ice cube tray with pureed food.
- Cover the filled ice cube tray with plastic wrap and freeze.
- Once the puree cubes are frozen, transfer them to a plastic freezer storage bag and label it with the food type and date. Cubes should be used within one month of freezing.
- Thaw and heat as needed. Breast milk, formula, or water can be added to thin the puree before serving. Each cube equals about 1 ounce of baby food.
Do you make your own baby food? What “tricks & tips” work for you?
Share your thoughts with us by leaving a comment & you will be entered to win a copy of A Mom’s Ultimate Book of Lists by Michelle LaRowe!
*Excerpted with permission from A Mom’s Ultimate Book of Lists by Michelle LaRowe, published by Revell Books, a division of Baker Publishing Group, 2010
