April Fools!

Mmm. Yummy. Grilled Cheese for dinner. NOT!

I saw this on Family Fun's website and just HAD to make it! We (obviously) made ours tonight which was great because I will be working tomorrow so Grandma will be picking up Josh from school and taking him out for dinner. And Josh can never have too many tricks! I just made a box cake - I made it in a loaf pan. Cut it into slices. Toasted them in the oven. Tinted our frosting (mostly yellow with a little red) and cut into sandwiches. Super easy. Super fun.

Chicken and Chips on a stick

So this is def. not the healthiest recipe out there. But, if you have kids it will be one of the quickest eaten meals! Experiment with different chips - BBQ, Sour Cream & Onion, Doritos, any kind will do!

Ingredients:

4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves cut into cubes

1 egg

2 tbsp. milk

2 cups crushed potato chips

lollipop sticks available at craft stores or party stores (Our Wal-Mart had some in the craft/cake decorating aisle)

1. Preheat oven to 350. Grease cookie sheet.

2. Crush potato chips on a plate. In a bowl, whisk the egg and milk together. Dip a chicken cube in the milk and roll in the chips. Spread on baking sheet.

3. Bake for 10 minutes. Turn and bake for 10 more minutes or until golden brown. Remove from baking sheet and skewer on a lollipop stick.

4. Serve with your favorite dipping sauces - honey mustard, ranch or ketchup.

SUCCSESS

I just HAD to blog about our dinner tonight - it was a complete succsess. What did we have? Meatball sandwhiches (or pizza sandwhiches as I had to tell Josh otherwise he wasn't going to eat it!). Not exciting right? But oh, how wrong you are! It was meatball sandwhiches on homemade whole-wheat flax seed added buns with homemade sauce. And in that sauce were tomatoes (duh.), carrots, celery, green pepper, parsley and onions. And he ate it. He said, and I quote: "This pizza sauce sure is good."

HAHAHAHA child it is just veggies thrown in the food processor!!! Here's another quote : "that was the deliciousest sandwhich I ever had."

Point mommy & team veggies.

I wish I had taken a picture but they got eaten before I could. Yum. And I have TONS of sauce leftover for the week and I had enough dough left from the buns to make a loaf of bread. And my house smells so good. Ahh such a good night.

Caramelized Banana Loaf Cake

Josh had so much fun helping me make this cake! I think that mashing the bananas was his favorite! Go to www.rachaelraymag.com/Recipes/rachael-ray-magazine-recipes/sweet-spot-dessert-recipes/Caramelized-Banana-Loaf-Cake for step by step picture directions!

Ingredients:

3-4 large bananas

3/4 cup sugar

2 tbsp unsalted butter cut in 1 piece

1 large egg plus 1 large egg white

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1. Preheat the oven to 325. Grease a loaf pan. Cut the ends off of 3 bananas to fit crosswise in the pans. Peel and cut longwise in half.

2. In a skillet bring 1/4 cup sugar and 2 tbsp water to a boil. When the water has evaporated and the mixture starts turning brown remove from heat and stir in butter. Add the bananas cut side down in mixture and heat on low heat for 1 minute. Transfer bananas cut side down to bottom of loaf pan and drizzle with remaining caramel.

3. In a medium bowl, mash up banana to make 1 cup. Add the remaining 1/2 cup sugar. Beat in the egg, egg white and vanilla.

4. In a large bowl whisk the flour with the baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Add the banana mixture and oil. Whisk until blended. Pour over bananas. Bake until toothpick comes out clean about 55 minutes. LET COOL FOR 10-15 MINUTES!!! Invert on a plate and let cool completely.

Yummy!

THIS WEEK...

Sorry if you all have felt neglected this week! Life has been a little crazy! The store is open (www.shopikeandella.com) and been doing great, I got promoted at work so I've been working much more, Josh is on Spring Break, I'm working on the Autism Fundraiser (if you would like to make something to donate to our Etsy store -100% of procedes will be going to the Autism Society!), and the weather has finally been nice so the hubs has been working his tail off! WHEW! :)

But neglected no more! We are going to start having themed days here.

Mmm Mmm Mondays - check each Monday for a yummy recipe!

Tutorial Tuesdays

Wild Card Wednesdays - you will have to come see to find out!

Trash to Treasure Thursdays - I think I'm really a hippie at heart!

Friendly Fridays - Guest bloggers, lots of link-y love (If your interested in guest blogging let me know! I've got a few people set up already!)

Sharing Saturdays - the 'must make' things I've found this week

Family Sundays - family activities

So this week make sure to check back each day!

later today I'm posting the how to make a caramelized banana loaf!

Tuesday - Picture chart - we use these a lot for special needs children but all children (and parents!) could use them to help make morning / bedtime routines easier!

Wednesday - Napkins

Thursday - Use up those old dryer sheets in this project!

Friday - I've got a guest blogger - you will just love her. I do!

Saturday - My theme this week is Tractors/Farm.

Sunday - An idea to help teach your kids to try to always think positive!

I hope to see you later this week! :) Talk to you soon!

St. Patrick's Rainbow Cupcakes

Me + Cupcakes = L.O.V.E

No. Scratch that.

True love.

I saw these babies on familyfun.go.com and just knew that I had to make them! Hello - the insides are rainbow!!!

They are easy - a little time consuming but totally worth it. I am sending them to school with Josh tomorrow for his class. They will be so surprised when they unwrap them and take a bite! :)

Want the how to? Well you need a box of white cake mix, the ingredients to make it, white frosting, food coloring, and 6 plastic baggies. *I know that the rainbow has 6 colors, but really indigo? For real?

Mix the cake as directed (I used 2 boxes of cake mix and 2 tubs of icing. The first batch of cupcakes came out HUGE and the second more normal. Sorry half of the class. But I did get about 30 cupcakes from using both)

Then I used my big old spoon to pour about 5 BIG spoonfuls into each baggie. (It was about 3/4 full I'd say. There about. No need to be exact)

This was def. just a mommy job. It wasn't bad but man. I can't imagine having a helper for dumping batter into a sandwhich bag. :) BUT the next part is cool! Perfect for kids! You need to dye each batter a different color. Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue and Purple (Violet. Whatever.) Put a few drops in. Seal the bag. Seal the bag. Seal the bag. LoL. Make sure you get the air out, and mash it together in your hands to mix. In the end you will have all of your color baggies.

Pick a color to start with. The first batch I did the traditional Roy B Giv color scheme. But the second time around I started with purple and ended with red. (well as red as I could get). I would suggest ending with a lighter color, yellow would be perfect because it stays that pretty color. Not that it really matters - your putting icing on the top anyways! :) So snip a small corner - small - seriously small - corner and pour a little bit of each color in.

Then layer each color on top. See the picture below. Those were my HUGE cupcakes! You don't need to put that much of each color!!! :) Unless. You like massive cakes and then by all means. Fill away!

Cook. Let them cool. And frost! I frosted ours green with green sprinkles. And I'm running to buy some chocolate coins to put on top of each one! Ordinary cupcakes they are going to think. But ohhh no. Inside is rainbow-y goodness.

WINNERS WINNERS WINNERS

I have winners to announce!!!

BUT...
Before that I need to say thanks to some folks.

First, thanks to the gals at Giggle Junction. They are the ones who make those fabulous I Spy bags. Well, they asked if they could make one for my son. Uhhh yea! And they did and seriously, pictures do not do it justice. It is so stinking cute. And he loves it. And I love it. I've been 'spying' items ever since it arrived in the mail. So thank you! :)

Second, thanks to all the fabulous ladies who helped spread the love about Ike & Ella. If you haven't checked out any of these blogs -- you should. They are wonderful.

http://www.sumossweetstuff.blogspot.com/
http://www.firefliesandjellybeans.blogspot.com/
http://www.brownpaper--packages.blogspot.com/
http://www.thecreativeitchboutique.blogspot.com/
http://www.bridgetbaxter.blogspot.com/

Thanks ladies!!!!

Third, to everyone who started following this blog, joined our mailing list (http://www.shopikeandella.com/), facebooked us and shopped with us. THANK YOU! I had 62 people enter the giveaway! :) Today is the last day for all products to benefit Autism Speaks and we could still use your help to reach our goal!

Without further ado the winners:

1. The Little Miss Jr. Bag - Summer from http://www.sumossweetstuff.blogspot.com/ - Hooray!
2. The Felt Chocolate Bunny - Trina - Woo Hoo!
3. Crayon Wallet - Mommy2Luke2008 - Yeah!
4. Grocery Tote - News around the blogs - Yippie!

Congrats! I will contact you all individually so we can find can get information! Have a great rest of the weekend!