Last of the Halloween candy

Last week I realized we STILL had some Halloween candy lying around. I have been secretly dumping a handful a day for a few weeks and the bowl was almost empty. I wanted to give my kiddos one last hurrah with the candy before I trashed the rest of it. My favorite way to win the battle of mom vs. kid in the candy department is to find something healthy and stick enough candy/sprinkles/whipped cream on top so that it feels special and indulgent.

Here is how the Halloween candy went out:

2 single serving no-added sugar applesauce cups
1 fun size pack of Skittles
2 small shakes of the rainbow sprinkles

I split the Skittles pack between the two--each child got 8 skittles and gave each a little shake of the rainbow sprinkles. Voila! Super special applesauce for dessert. Everyone wins!

 

And look at these happy faces!

And if you stir it up a little the colors will streak and make rainbow applesauce. . . until you over stir it and then its just that ugly brownish color.

Anyhoo, if you want to be the coolest mom tonight, throw some sprinkles on fruit and call it a treat!

Here are a few of my other special desserts:

Toast with peanut butter and use chocolate chips to make a happy face

Any kind of canned fruit with a squirt of whipped cream

Peel a banana and stick little surprises in it--pretzel sticks, candy bits, chocolate chips

Peel a banana and drizzle with chocolate syrup. Top with a squirt of whipped cream and a cherry--like a sundae without the ice cream.

Yogurt with graham cracker squares stuck in the top for dipping/scooping

Yogurt with a shake of sprinkles

Yogurt "milkshake." I have made these for my kids since they were babies. This is especially good if you need to get yogurt in them for medical reasons (aka, too many antibiotics :) ) Fill a lidded cup halfway with yogurt. Make sure it doesn't have fruit chunks in it. It should be smooth. Fill remainder of the cup with milk. Place the lid on top and shake vigorously until combined. I'm not sure that my kids yet know that milkshakes are actually made with ice cream.

Get creative. My kids will pretty much eat anything if I put a little shake of sprinkles (or anything I call sprinkles. . . hello Parmesan cheese! or Sea salt!) on top. One shake goes a long way so it doesn't take much. 

Pin 153

The last of my Halloween posts. . .

Original pin:

http://www.moredesignplease.com/moredesignplease/2010/6/6/diy-recycled-t-shirt-tote-bag.html

I'm not going to lie to my faithful Pinspiration followers. Here is the truth. I did make these. I did not make these this year. In fact, I made them for last Halloween. When I was pulling out all the holiday decor I came across them and decided to share them with you now. So here they are: Recycled t-shirt tote bags.

This was one of the first projects I ever did from Pinterest. It is really, really easy. Last year I thought I could make some really cute upcycled trick-or-treating for the boys. Daddy had this bright orange Halloween shirt that was just begging to be turned into a candy sack. I dug another orange shirt out of his drawer and went to work. In no time at all I had two trick-or-treat sacks ready to go.

The jack-o-lantern shirt was a men's XL and the elephant was a men's L. These made really, really large bags. The boys, then 4 and 22 months, were too small to carry them without dragging. Older brother carried the jack-o-lantern bag trick-or-treating, but it wasn't easy. The bag stretched with the weight of the candy and made it harder for him to keep from dragging. The main difficulty with using these as trick-or-treat sacks was that it was hard for little hands to manipulate the handles to open the bags.

On the flip side, their stretchiness makes them perfect for when you are at the market and need to cram just one more thing in. They are fairly sturdy. Since the armholes are the handles, it is easy to slide the bag all the way up on my shoulder to carry multiple at a time.

Total cost: $0

Total time: I think I made both of these in less than 30 minutes.

Final verdict: Great for shopping, poor for trick-or-treating with little ones. I just may start using them to give gifts in though. It would be really easy to make a bunch in lots of colors or thrifted shirts. Also, you could make them in all sizes based upon what size shirt you buy. Hmmm. . . I have an idea growing. . .

Pin 151 & Pin 152

A trick AND a treat for Halloween!

First, the trick:

http://becomingbetty.blogspot.com/2011/03/crock-pot-ravioli-casserole.html

Crock pot ravioli casserole.

I have totally over-thought this one. First--where is the ravioli??  This is farfalle. But it looks good and the recipe sounds good. I thought a crock pot dinner on Halloween would be the way to go to avoid the rush that comes in the evening. But when I started reading the directions I had to change my plan. You brown the ground beef and onion and then put it in the crock pot with the canned tomatoes and tomato sauce for 7 to 8 hours?? And you have to precook the pasta too??  That just seems excessive--and a little pointless. What is the crock pot for then if not just to keep it warm? I just couldn't bring myself to chop onion and brown ground beef at 8 this morning so I took a sharp detour on this one.

Ditch the crock pot. I started boiling water for the pasta in one pot and browning the onion and ground beef in the skillet. The pasta and beef finished almost simultaneously. I drained the pasta and added the beef and onion mixture to the pasta. I added the herbs, tomatoes and tomato sauce to the pot with the intent of simmering it together to develop some flavors. There was no where near enough liquid. I only used 1 lb of meat (recipe calls for 1 and 1/2 lb) and 12 oz of pasta (recipe calls for 16 oz) so I can't possibly imagine how this doesn't burn after 7 hours in the crock pot. I even had a little extra tomato sauce I had tossed in since I had two 8 oz cans (recipe calls for 15 oz).  I added an additional can of stewed tomatoes to try and spread the sauce a little. Due to the small amount of sauce, I couldn't really simmer it much so I just left it on the stove on medium-low long enough to heat it through. My grocery store was out of frozen spinach this week so I omitted it. I tossed in the cheese just before serving it up--on special Halloween plates, mind you.

I know that sounds like a lot of negatives for this recipe, but really, it was fairly tasty. I would put this in the category of kid food because it is pretty kid friendly. Not unlike a Hamburger-Helper sort of meal, but with better ingredients (i.e., no powder to mix sort of ingredients).  Both the boys ate it--which you probably know by now means it is a keeper. And it wasn't hard at all. Here is what I would change next time: While the beef and noodles are cooking in their separate pots, I would simmer the tomatoes, tomato sauce, and herbs together in a separate pot so the flavors can mingle before mixing them all together. I would use diced tomatoes instead of stewed tomatoes--mostly for their bite-sized quality and I would increase the tomatoes to at least two cans, if not three.

Total cost: $8 for 6-8 generous servings

Total time: Without using the crock pot I pulled this together in about 30 minutes.

Final verdict: It was an easy weeknight meal. I can't imagine how it would pull together in the crock pot. It just doesn't seem like there is enough liquid. However, it had a good flavor and I think if you allowed the sauce to cook on its own you really could get some nice flavors out of it. When our neighbor came trick-or-treating he said, "mmmm! Smells like spaghetti in here!" to which my husband replied, "Not spaghetti. Almost spaghetti." And this meal may be forever known as almost spaghetti. It's pretty accurate. . . if you changed the farfalle to spaghetti noodles, what would you get?

And now the treat:
 
http://www.navywifecook.com/2012/10/halloween-week-candy-corn-fruit-cups.html

A little "candy corn" dessert. This just looked so refreshing to me! I dished up the pineapple and oranges into cups while the "almost spaghetti" cooked. When the boys saw them they just went gaga over the fact that I was making a dessert! Oh poor deprived children whose mother never makes dessert. Sir Lancelot's eyes lit up, he clapped his hands, and he cried out with glee, "Oh, momma! It's a HEALTHY dessert!!"  Wow. All this and they didn't even know about the whipped cream yet.

So after they gobbled up their plates of "almost spaghetti" with peas they were served up these little delicious items--now topped with whipped cream. Seriously, they were gone in 45 seconds. Before I had even had time to top my serving with a little whip and sit down Sir Lancelot was drinking the juice from the bottom of the glass.

Total cost: For four servings (two child sized, two adult sized) I used two medium sized cans of oranges, one large can of pineapple chunks. $3

Total time: 3 minutes to drain and dish

Final verdict: These were so good. And I don't feel guilty one bit for eating them. Winner. Sir Lancelot, you'll see these again, my dear. We've got a whole can of whipped cream to finish off.

Pin 150

Original pin:

http://www.etsy.com/listing/58441969/black-adult-tutu-long-black-skirt-sewn

This fun adult tutu is sold on etsy at the link above for $395.00. I attempted to recreate this skirt for my Halloween costume this year. . .

I did not do this the easiest way, I am certain of that. That is just one of the consequences that comes along with sewing without a pattern.  This is the way I did it:

First I created an underskirt from a cheap black sateen. I took a length that was 1 & 1/2 times my waist, finished the edges to prevent running, and sewed it shut along the short edge so that I ended up with a big circle of fabric.

Next I pressed about a two inch casing along the top edge. I pressed it with RIGHT sides together so that the casing would fold down over the front of the skirt.

I had estimated 25 yards of tulle to create a tutu this full. I didn't want to do the cut-into-sections-and-knot technique of tutu making that is common with kid tutu's. I just couldn't bear the thought of cutting 25 yards of tulle into strips. So instead I started by measuring the length I needed to reach the floor from my waist. I measured this out in tulle and then zig-zag folded the tulle until it was about four to six thickness. I cut it off from the bold and stitched along the top to hold the zig-zag together. Once I had folded and stitched the tulle I then started gathering  See Pin 147 so read how I did that. So I ended up with 6 or seven sections of tightly gathered, layered tulle.

I started pinning the sections around the top of the skirt, lining up the edges of the tulle with the pressed fold of the casing so that the casing would fold down over the top of the tulle.

Turns out, 25 yards was not quite enough.

So I ran out and bought 10 more yards to fill the gap. Once it was filled I basted all the tulle in place. Then I folded the casing down and stitched it into place. I tried a few techniques with the elastic but I am only going to share the one that worked!

I took black 2 & 1/2 inch elastic and sewed it along the top of the casing. I created a sash, from the same cheap sateen, that was ridiculously long--but that is the way I like it. Then I slipped the skirt on, wrapped the sash around my waist about a million times and tied it in a bow. Here is the final reveal!

(I had fun taking these pictures! Even more fun when I started playing with the effects!)

Channelling the original pin model

 At our first Halloween party I popped on a tiara, some cobwebs, and a spider and went as a Spider Queen.

My little mermaid and me

Total cost: 35 yards of tulle, 2 yards of sateen, and a dollar store t-shirt = $50-ish. A little more than I generally spend for a Halloween costume, but way, WAY cheaper than the etsy version.

Total time: I couldn't even guess! This was a lot of playing around to see what worked. And handling 35 yards of gathered tulle is no small feat! It got so thick that it wouldn't fit under my machine foot. I broke 3 needles on this skirt!

Final verdict: So fun for Halloween. . . but I may be wearing it for every Halloween for the next decade! Whew! This was a project. But what girl doesn't want a giant, fluffy tutu?

Pin 149

Original pin:

http://www.ghoulfriday.com/terrifying_tortilla_chips

Make your own tortilla chips in fun Halloween shapes. The take away here was the cookie cutter fun shapes for Halloween.

I have been making my own tortilla chips for some time now. I finally perfected the recipe just the way we like it that wasn't too crispy and wasn't too soft and wasn't too burnt-tasting. I usually only make them when I am making chicken tortilla soup. Since that was on the menu tonight I decided to jazz up our chips with some fun Halloween shapes. Below is my recipe, adapted from many, many, many attempts at finding just the right technique:

Tortillas (I usually prefer corn. Tonight I only had flour. Here's the thing--I but these giant bags of corn tortillas and then stash them in the freezer because I really only use them for these chips. I assumed I had some there but when I opened the freezer I only had flour tortillas there. They were a little stale but I just tossed the top tortilla out. Stale is okay because you are going to bake them anyway. I digress, back to the recipe)
Cooking spray
Salt (I like to use a sea salt grinder--it makes me feel a little gourmet)

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Cut your tortillas to the desired shape. I usually just use a pizza cutter to make quick work of tortilla stacks into cute little triangles. Tonight I used the Halloween cookie cutters. This step definitely slowed me down here.

I'm not sure if it was because the tortillas were flour or because they were a little stale or a little frozen, but cutting them with my cookie cutters was not easy. Differently than dough or soft, fluffy bread, you can't really wiggle the cookie cutter to cut straight through the tortilla. This was going to take a long time to individually cut these chips for my whole hungry family. Time to get creative.

Hmmm. How can I solve this problem. I need some good, strong force. . . AHA! A hammer should do nicely. So I grabbed my meat mallet and gently pounded away at the edges of the cookie cutter with the smooth side of the mallet. I was careful not to use so much force as to crumple my cutters. (They are from the dollar store, you know.)

This technique worked so well I decided to save some time and pound through stacks of tortillas. I found that three-tortilla stacks were just the right size to cut multiple chips at once, yet still cut through all the layers. Four was too many and the bottom layer was never cut completely.

Oh the pounding drove my family crazy! My kiddos were trying to watch TV in the next room and they were fairly irritated by the pounding until they came to investigate what I was making. Then they got a little excited about it. If they were a little older I totally would have put them to work on this job.

That weird square one is a Frankenstein head.

Next I lined the chips on a cookie sheet and gave a light spritz of cooking spray followed by a few turns of the salt grinder. Into the oven they go! After 9-10 minutes I gave them a flip, a spritz of cooking spray, and put them back in. Watch carefully and bake an additional 3-7 minutes depending on your desired level of crispiness and browning.

Then I had to rush out the door to make it to a PTA meeting. I didn't get any fresh-out-of-the-oven pictures for you. However, I was lucky enough that my family saved some for me.

When I walked in the door an hour and a half later, the first thing my husband said to me was, "What did you do to those chips??" Uh-oh. Why? "They were the best batch you have ever made." I think it was because I used the flour tortillas instead of the usual corn tortillas. They were less like a chip and more like a cracker. Here's the thing with crackers--my boys (including my husband) love them.  I sometimes just don't buy them because they eat them up so fast and leave all those cracker crumbs EVERYWHERE! But these chips did have a nice flavor and the boys loved the Halloween shapes.

Here are a few after shots. You can see how they brown up nicely:

If you are here for the recipe, then I am sure that was the longest-winded recipe you have ever read. Let me remove all the commentary and just write it plain and simple for you here:

Tortillas (corn or flour)
Cooking spray
Salt

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cut tortillas to desired size and shape and place in a single layer on cookie sheet. Lightly coat with cooking spray and salt. Bake 9-10 minutes. Flip chips and lightly coat with cooking spray. Bake an additional 3-7 minutes, watch closely and remove at desired level of browning.

Do not be discouraged if it takes you a few batches to perfect this recipe. Tortilla brands and ovens are different. I recommend a hot oven. Preheat the oven and then let it sit an additional 10 minutes to allow it to get good and hot before you start baking these. I found that when I made multiple batches, the second and third ones were always better than the first because the oven temperature was more stable.

And if you don't like my recipe, go try the one at the link at the top--its a little different.

Remember the pin here was the Halloween shapes?

Total cost: $0 for stale, frozen tortillas and cookie cutters stashed away in the top of the cabinet

Total time: Cutting these out was time consuming--well compared to the old pizza cutter way. 20 minutes to cut enough to fill 1 & 3/4 cookie sheets

Final verdict: It was a fun way to add some holiday cheer. I wouldn't do this regularly. I do think that corn tortillas would cut much, much easier with the cookie cutters (and maybe fresh ones too??) I will probably do it again, but only around holidays! Cutting with cookie cutters always leaves scraps. I am not one to waste but since the tortillas were stale I didn't care too much. Baked chips are a great way to use up old tortillas before it is time to toss them!