Pig Pancakes

For those of you with young kids (or those who've had young kids) you probably know there are oodles and oodles of ideas of how to make food "fun" for your kids. From the traditional Halloween "mummies" made from biscuits wrapped around hot dogs to the most complex sandwiches designed to look like a monster, you can do just about anything with your kids' food.

However, if you are anything at all like me, you are not willing to spend even more time in the kitchen on your kids' food than you already do! But I felt guilty one day; I decided to google ideas for kids' food. I found the cutest, and most simple, kids' pancake ever! It was an instant hit with my kids, and they always request it when we are having pancakes. The great thing about that is that it's so easy, I readily agree when they ask! So here we go, pig pancakes!

You'll want to start out with making a pancake batter. Any batter will do, whether you like to make it from scratch, or you're good friends with Betty, Bisquik, or Krusteaz. The pancakes in these photos were made from a Quaker Oatmeal mix.

For each pig, pour one "large" circle and two small circles.

You can see these large pancakes are still relatively small...we are making them for little kids, and they can't eat much.

Try really hard not to turn your little piggy in to Humpty Dumpty when you flip them. :-) Luckily, I always pour a few extras...Mom can handle a broken sow.

Yum!

Start with the large circle on a plate, and place one of the small circles in the center for the nose. (Nose? Snout?)

Next, take another small circle and tear it in half, place these "triangles" under the top of the big circle to form the ears.

And what could make better little pig eyes than a couple of chocolate chips?

And, of course, no self-respecting pig would be without his mud!

Gotta really slather him up...Mmmm!

Viola! Just like that, you have a pig pancake masterpiece; your little ones will rave and you didn't have to slave!

Kid Friendly {Mini Pizzas}

This is not necessarily a hot new recipe, but one I haven't done in awhile, so thought I might remind you of it too! What kid doesn't love pizza-okay, I actually do know a couple-but this is a sure fire bet for a quick and tasty lunch in most households!
What you need:
~refrigerated biscuits (the cheap ones that make you jump when they *pop*)
~pizza sauce
~cheese
~any other pizza toppings you like


What you do:

~Using one, two, or three biscuits (depends on how big you want your pizzas to be) flatten dough into a round(ish) thin crust and place on cookie sheet. (be sure to spray cookie sheet-they tend to stick!)
~Spoon sauce on the crust and top with cheese and other pizza toppings.
~Cook for 8-10 minutes or until biscuits are golden brown and cheese is melting.

I let my kids do there own little pizzas and this time we put their first initial on it using string cheese so when they came out of the oven, everyone knew whose was whose! They loved it!

Hamburger Cookies

This weekend I tended my grandsons and wanted to have a fun kitchen craft. I remembered a few years back making these cute little hamburger cookies and thought it would be perfect for the boys. They loved every minute of it and all 3, from ages 2-7, helped with the project.

Ingredients:

Vanilla wafers

Small chocolate mint cookies (I bought mine at Wal-mart, the Great Value brand)

1/4 cup flaked coconut

Green food coloring

Small tubes of red and yellow "writing" frosting

1 T. sesame seeds

Very small amount of white corn syrup

In a small bowl, combine 4 drops green food coloring with a few drops water. Add coconut and cover the container. Shake until coconut is tinted. Assemble vanilla wafers (buns), chocolate cookies (patty), red & yellow frosting (ketchup & mustard), small amount of green coconut (lettuce).

Then brush a little corn syrup on the top "bun" and sprinkle a few sesame seeds on top. Voila!

Best Birthday Cake Website

I found the coolest website for birthday cake ideas a couple years ago and now use it every time I have a birthday coming up!

Here's the link to it:

http://www.coolest-birthday-cakes.com/


You can find TONS of pictures of cakes people have submitted, and some of them have step by step instructions, but most are so easy to make, you just need to see the idea and go from there. On the left hand side bar, you'll also see links with ideas for Cool Party, Costume, Showers, etc. It is a great site and hopefully you can find something on it to help your next party be awesome!

Fruit Flowers

This was super easy and it turned out really cute! I didn't get a picture of mine, but it looked very similar to this picture (minus the elephant vase.... I used a basket). Here is a link to instructions on how to make it! You could also use apples, kiwis, or anything else you can think of. Very fun!