I'm not good at frying... in fact I'm horrible at it. That hasn't prevented me from attempting it! The oil is either too hot or too cold... which makes the food gross no matter how you spin it.  But I managed to make chicken tenders from scratch and it didn't take too long. We had kale and mac and cheese (from scratch) as well.  It was pretty decent.  

The recipe is below, but the measurements are not perfect.  I'm not the best at perfect measurements so you will have odd measurements like "shakes"... Anyway, here's how it all went down:

We pack our lunches because, it's cost effective and also, I know what they are eating.  I remind them that what isn't consumed at lunch should be brought home (and eaten as the snack for the afternoon).  Food is not wasted.  But lately I've had a difficulty with creativity in their lunchboxes.  The kids have no access to a microwave so the variety of hot/thermos items is very limited... so I thought.  

Since the school year began, my kids have been begging me to provide sushi in their lunches.  Sushi? Really guys, how shi-shi for you to ask.  But a coworker brought in some really cool sticky-rice balls for lunch one day and I thought, my kids would love that.  She let me know how easy it was.  So I decided to grab up some sticky rice, but while in the market the kids asked for seaweed chips for snack and I said to myself, I'm making sushi.  How hard could a California roll be?  I mean, we've eaten hundreds of them at restaurants.  I know what's in them. May as well go for it!  I didn't buy the bamboo mat, but I did buy sushi rice and I rolled it like a burrito or a roti.  All in all the kids were pleased. So was I. It tasted light, fresh... amazing.  Next time I'll add rice vinegar, but to make it briny I suggest mixing a bit of soy sauce in the rice before applying to the nori sheets. 

Here's what I used...the video will walk you through it in 20 second:
2 Nori sheets
1 cup Sushi rice- don't rinse it!
1/4 avocado
3 sticks of imitation crab meat

soy sauce
wasabi
ginger

Tis the season to be jolly!  I got up and decided to experiment with all of the candy canes that we have lying around. Why not make mint chocolate waffles.  Take a look at this video. Don't ask me what the measurements are b/c it was an experiment.  As I perfect it, I'll have more finite measurements.  Turns out they were quite tasty.  Not sweet but very flavorful.  (I added icecream and whip cream on top so the kids actually didn't even notice they weren't sweet.)

What I learned for later:

1. If I want them sweeter add a bit of turbinado or sugar
2. If I want them more chocolatey add some semi sweet chocolate chips
3. If I want more mint add another candy cane or sprinkle crushed candy canes on top
4. I love cooking by throwing things in  bowl... (I think I knew that already)
   

All-in-all I'm pretty satisfied with the final product!

We love waffles! I mean what isn't there to love about a warm delicious, light, fluffy but also crispy waffle.  We've added everything from meat to fruit and have come up with some pretty amazing combinations (which we will share).  Recently we made banana bread waffles.  What made these guys super special was the secret lentils added to the batter without the kids knowing until it was too late (days later).


Ingredients:

• 1.75 c  all purpose flour
• 1 over rip banana
• 1 c buttermilk
• 2 eggs
• 1/3 c turbinado
• 1/3 c vegetable oil
• 1/3 c lentils (soaked over night)
• 1/3 c coconut flakes
• 2 Tbl baking powder
• cinnamon, nutmeg to taste

Honestly there is no method to our madness.  We aren't top chefs so we literally mix everything at once in a big bowl and then put it on the waffle griddle.  If you do not want the lentils to show up in the mix (which I recommend) blend them with the banana.  It may smell weird but you can't taste it in the waffle once it's cooked.  We paired ours with chamomile tea, and kids got to choose between chocolate sauce, honey or vanilla ice cream as their topping.

We love chocolate chip cookies and we love oatmeal cookies.  We decided to combine the two for a deliciously, delectable treat. Our twist, blending the oatmeal into flour.  It was AWESOME! And we think it was healthy, even though, it probably wasn't. 

Ingredients:

• 1 c butter
• 1.5 c brown sugar/turbinado
• 2 eggs
• 3 tsp vanilla
• 2 c flour (all purpose)
• 1 c oats
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 3 tsp hot water
• 1 pinch salt
• 2 c chocolate chips
  

We love oatmeal, check out our other oatmeal-icious creations on Twitter #50ShadesOfOatmeal!

Like most people, we are always strapped for time.   With daylight hours lasting longer, summer playdates often run into dinner "prep time".  Rather than buy dinner every other night, were are looking for reasonably quick and delicious ways to create the meals we love.

This time we made pizza.  I love making my sauce from scratch, but you can use store bought sauce as well.  Add a four tortilla and cheese and herbs and you have the perfect crispy flatbread pizza. It literally took 17 minutes to create this meal and the kids loved it.  Looks like this will be a go-to dinner option at our house.

It's summer time and that means... ICE CREAM!  And the best way to enjoy it... MAKE IT!  Fortunately for us, when granny came to visit she got us an ice cream maker!  I remember having one growing up. We would make ice cream and experiment with fruit flavors and candy mix-in.  The flavor I remember the most was vanilla with M&Ms.  I remember how delicious it was but what stayed with me the most was the sound of the ice cream maker and the feeling of anticipation for our tasty frozen treat. 

Here we made a delicious Mango Ginger and paired it with raspberries.  We only used half the sugar required by the recipe and it turned out velvety, delicious and FLAVORFUL!   Happy Summer!

We got up and got ready twice on a two hour school delay. (Not sure how to explain this one). No biggie! We headed to Dunkin' Donuts to have  a quick, sweet treat before heading to school!  Dunkin' Donuts is a special treat for us, so everyone was delighted to bide our time in this sugar shack!

Brownies are pretty basic.  More basic than a box recipe. We were shocked at how easy it was to make these awesomely delicious treats!