I am SO THRILLED to have Jill from The Little King guest blogging again today both because she is amazing and I completely took this weekend off and unplugged for a much needed family vacation (but more on that later). Jill is the mother to Rachel, Cordelia and Kingsley, a sincerely adorable toddler who also happens to have Spina Bifida. Jill is a Warrior Mom. So much so that I wrote “What Inspired Me This Week” about her.
I invite you all to visit Jill at The Little King if you’re ever in need of a little inspiration and follow her on Pinterest (she’s got the best pins!) by clicking here.
And now onto the good stuff…
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I’ve been a little bit obsessed with Pinterest lately, like most people it seems. It took me a little while to get into it, but now I just can’t. stop. pinning. I’m determined to not make it a waste of time though, so I’ve also been trying out as much as I can.
Zucchini Chips (Baked)
I love recipes and trying new foods, so my menu plan’s have been mostly pins the last couple of weeks. I plant a lot of zucchini in the summer and without fail end up with far more than I could ever eat in one season. I’m constantly on the lookout for new ways to eat it. Chip form? Yes, please!
It’s pretty simple – slice zucchini, dip in milk, dredge through crumb coating, bake. I don’t know what dredge means, exactly. I was tempted to put them all in a ziplock baggie and shake with the coating, but dredge made it sound too fancy for the shake ‘n bake method.
Verdict: Oh, so delicious! My 2- and 3.5-year old ate them without a seconds hesitation. My 5-year old balked and didn’t believe me when I called them chips. She squinted her eyes and asked what gross thing was hiding in the ‘chip’. She eventually ate a couple then her sister stole the rest when she turned her head.
Next Time: I’d make them again, but I will definitely do the shake ‘n bake method and try to get a lighter coating on them. Mine were not pretty enough to serve for guests, but I suspect that is because I need learn what dredge means.
Almost Lasagna
My kids, like most kids, love pasta. I liked the idea of this recipe because it didn’t use lasagna noodles and for some reason, my kids think that pasta you have to cut up is gross. I tried to make it moderately healthier by using cottage cheese instead of ricotta, whole wheat penne and my own sauce. I had to skip the parmesan since I used used it up on the zucchini chips (oops) and I used only 1 1/2 cups of mozzarella instead of 2 cups. I also forgot that I was supposed to add veggies, so just tossed in extra zucchini from the zucchini chips. I cooked it without foil on top because of my foilaphobia and it was just fine. That sounds like a lot of modifications, but it really isn’t.
Verdict: If this is almost lasagna, then I am almost certain I don’t want the lasagna recipe. It was almost the same effort with the meat, cheese, pasta parts, the difference being no layering. So, you save yourself the 10 minutes of layering and instead stir it together and make it a horrid colour that resembles ABC lasagna, if you know what I mean 
It tasted fine, but was a bland. It needed garlic and herbs. It also closely resembled my go-to Pasta in a Pan where I put pasta, sauce and cheese in a casserole pan and cook it together to trick my kids into thinking it’s something fancier than just pasta. The kids ate it (but picked out the zucchini). It’s not worth the effort. If you’re a working mom, this can’t be done quickly on a weeknight. If you’re home all day and have the time, just make lasagna.
Next Time: I will skip the eggs and cottage/ricotta cheese, add some seasoning and call it what it is: Pasta in a Pan.
No Heat Curl
Like most mom’s, I’m on a constant hunt for fast hair do’s that are more than a ponytail, but let me give my flat iron a break at least once in a while. The idea of wrapping my hair, going to sleep and waking up with gorgeous waves is a dream come true. I was bouncing-off-the-walls excited to try this one. The video on the blog is pretty simple. Put the hairband on your head, sweatband style. Wrap your hair around the hairband. Done. I did both my hair and my three year-old’s before bed.
Verdict: The woman in the video says repeatedly how flat and straight her hair usually is. My hair is neither straight nor flat. It holds curl and has a bit of wave. When I woke up in the morning and shook out the head band I got… 80′s prom curls. It was dreadful. I had to braid it back to get it under control. My daughter ripped her headband off sometime through the night and had no curls at all.
Next Time: Yes, I’m a sucker for punishment and will definitely try this again. I’ll do bigger chunks of hair and wrap it loosely. I will also be sure to do this on a morning when I do not have to go anywhere, just in case.
Valentine’s Cupcakes
I think everyone I know has pinned this one and it makes me salivate a little bit every time I see it. I decided today that I was going to just go for it and make it. I was a little disappointed when I got to the actual recipe and saw that it was just cake mixes, I won’t lie. Against my better judgement, I used a brownie mix instead of making my own. This filled 18 cupcakes 1/3 of the way. Instead of strawberry cake, I used my favourite Simple White Cake recipe (because making your own is so simple and so much tastier than a box) and topped it with strawberry buttercream icing for the pink colour. I halved the cake recipe and it filled 16 of the 18 brownie cupcakes.
Verdict: I was surprised that it baked perfectly and they came out evenly. I should’ve just made my own brownies or used a chocolate cake recipe. The bottom was a bit tasteless. I’m the only one that noticed though! The kids inhaled them and my girls were over the moon excited when they saw the different colours/layers.
Next Time: My mind is spinning with the different colour/flavour combinations for every holiday!
Dried Strawberries
Every now and again, I will cave and buy that huge bag of dried mangoes and berries from Costco. My girls will fish out all the strawberries, I’ll eat the mangoes and we’ll end up tossing the blueberries. I was very excited to stumble on this recipe for DIY dried strawberries. They were on sale this week, so I gave it a whirl.
Verdict: I did something wrong. I don’t know what, but they did not come out dried, just cooked. The recipe also says to sprinkle with salt and pepper. For the love of all fruit, do not do this. I only seasoned half since it sounded like an odd thing to do and my mouth just did not know what to do with that flavour combination. It was so wrong.
Next Time: I don’t know, I love strawberries and it was hard throwing out this batch. I will wait and see if anyone else is brave enough to try these before giving up on this one.
This looks pretty AND impressive and aside from chopping apples into itty bitty pieces it is not complicated at all. I agree with the person who posted this recipe though – it is too difficult to salvage the inside of the apple that you core to chop for the actual apple pie filling. Make sure you buy double the apples you need in case you’re equally inept as I am.
I know this recipe doesn’t call for a blender but I couldn’t help but it was sitting right there on the counter and seemed like a good idea. Instead of using regular root beer I used diet (you can’t fault a girl for trying to have a low-cal beverage) and threw it, the vodka and about 6 ice cubes into the blender hoping for more of a frozen beverage feel. Then I topped it with fat free Cool Whip. Not quite what the recipe calls for but again, you can’t really blame a girl for trying.
When the train had passed, the sun began to rise. The road became clear and my lane became distinguishable from the prairie that surrounded it.
I know it’s hard to tell from the pictures but I had splashes of baked on food all over my microwave. I followed the instructions exactly (how could you not – super simple!) and guess what, it worked!
