How to Spice Up a Package Brownie Mix!

I have been on a huge chocolate fix lately....

I love to make a batch of Brownies and enjoy them for a few days.

The great thing about chocolate is that is has so much flavor and dark color that you can add almost anything to it and no one will know! 

So I asked myself, how can I have the ease of package brownie mix but add nutrition to it!?!

Here is the simple answer!

Get yourself a package of brownie mix....whichever one is your favorite!

I got the Reduced Guilt Brownie Mix from Trader Joes! It is great because all you add is 3/4 cup of vanilla yogurt to the mix and bake. They also have a Gluten free brownie mix!

Simply follow the directions on your box to make your batter and now here's the fun part.

Use about 1/2 cup of black beans and a large handful of fresh spinach and blend it in your food processor! Or, if you have the ingredients already from making "Hale the Kale" Salad that I just blogged about, use up the rest of your Kale instead of Spinach!!!!

These measurements aren't exact....if you want to add more it will still be yummy!

      

It will make a green paste. This is what it looks like before I mix it into the batter. However, once mixed up, you could NEVER tell!

This next step is optional: I love peanut butter and chocolate together. So what I did was pour half of my batter in the baking dish. 

Then, I melted a little peanut butter and poured it over the batter and then add the rest of the batter on top! Now bake as box instructs!

When there is about ten minutes left to baking I sprinkled a handful of dark chocolate chips to the top of the brownies! You don't have to do this step either, I just love the texture the chocolate chips add!

Enjoy a yummy treat thats actually not so bad for you after all! =)

Hail the Kale Salad: Copycat Recipe

There is a restaurant in Overland Park, KS. that our family is ADDICTED to! It is called Sheridan's Unforked.... It was developed by the same guys that own Sheridan's, a dessert place with mostly Frozen Custard. Because of this, you know their dessert menu is AWESOME!!! However, they also have GREAT food! Two of their core values are to provide quality meats as in a five star restaurant and  to buy, promote, and support local ingredients first! There is only one location so far so if you are ever in the area you have to try it out! 

To find out more, click HERE for their website!

Any chance I get, I will tell people that they HAVE to go to this restaurant and try out the Kale salad! I'm telling you, it's so good that our kids even gobble it up! 

You will never find a more tasty way to eat fresh Kale!

I figured that most of the people that view my blog will never be in Kansas so I decided to try and make this salad so you can all have a taste of Unforked! 

What you will need:

• One bunch of fresh Kale (4-5 cups after chopped up)
• 1/4 cup of toasted bread crumbs
• 1 cup of fresh grated Parmesan cheese
• 2 1/2-3 Tablespoons of Olive Oil
• 2 1/2-3 Tablespoons of fresh squeezed lemon juice
• pinch of salt and pepper

If you are just trying this out or have a smaller family, I suggest that you cut the recipe in half

because this makes a large bowl of salad.

The first thing you will do is toast your bread crumbs. Just put them on a baking sheet in the oven,  

250 degrees for about 10 minutes. 

 While you are toasting the bread crumbs, whisk together olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper.

Then set aside.

 Now you are going to prepare the kale. All you have to do is wash it, cut the leaves away from the stem, and chop into small pieces. This would give you about 4-5 cups of kale. Put your chopped up kale in a large bowl and massage it a little with your hands, this helps the texture. 

Then add your bread crumbs, cheese, and dressing.

Toss and serve immediately!

 I had to add something to the end of this post! If you ever make it to Unforked you also have to try the Brownie Bling Pothole for dessert! It is our FAVORITE custard! It is fresh vanilla custard, blended with peanut butter and brownie bites, and then they cleverly add a hole of Chocolate syrup in the center to make the "Pothole"! 

You can simply try to make your own at home buy buying a half gallon ice cream with peanut butter  added to it. If you want to make it cakey,  the way Sheridan's does, I suggest fresh brownies mixed in and don't forget your "pothole" of chocolate syrup in the center! SO GOOD!

Enjoy a taste of Sheridan's Unforked!

Soapy Water Game

My Daughter was asking me to play a game or do a craft with her. I walked over to the table, where we would do the activity and I just thought, Man the table really needs to be washed!

So out of my mouth came.... "Hey, let's play the SOAPY WATER GAME!"

At first I thought this would entertain her for 15 minutes and my table would be clean at the end.... but it turned out to be so much fun AND educational if you can believe!

This actually ended up being a two hour activity! 

We started off just with a bowl of SOAPY water and a sponge. If you don't want it to be all over the floor, try not to put too much water in the bowl. 

I just let my daughter go to town scrubbing the table! =)

   

After about 10 minutes, I put a little more dish soap on the table in front of my daughter and smeared a thin layer of soap. Then we started writing our alphabet. I would write a letter and ask her what it was and then have her copy it. It is always fun to have an abstract surface when practicing writing because it gives it a new spin and makes it fun to learn!

Then I brought out some straws and bubble mix, if you don't have any  bubble mix then dish soap will work. 

I poured a little soap/bubble mix on the table.

 We dipped the straws in the soap and started blowing bubbles on the table! 

We even had fun blowing bubbles at each other!

   

Then I had my daughter get out her tea set and we played tea party with "bubble tea"!

If you don't have and actual tea set just use real mugs... It will be just as fun!

And YES, at the end of the game, I had a clean table!

SCORE!

Homemade Thor Hat

Here is the third post to the Homemade Thor costume. This is the instructions on how to make Thor's hat!

Here's what you need:

• Any plain cotton baby/toddler hat 
• one sheet gray felt 
• yellow pom pom/yarn
• silver spray paint
• hot glue
• needle and thread
• black sharpie marker

The first thing you are going to do is make the little spike at the top of the hat! You can make it as big or small as you like! Just roll a piece of gray felt as pictured below and hot glue it together!

After this step, I leveled out the bottom edge with a pair of scissors.

   

Then I hand stitched the "spike" to the top of the hat!

Next, you will make the wings for the side of the hat. I just drew out this shape on a piece of paper and then traced it on the gray felt four times. You can make these as big or as small as you would like depending on your hat. *Example: The longest line on my wing is about 2 1/2 inches long.

I then hot glued two of the wings together so they can be a little more sturdy. If you only used one it would be to floppy and wouldn't stick up! Then on the side of the wing that is going to show on the hat, I drew the lines to the wings with a black sharpie.

   

Then, simply hot glue the wings to the hat!

   

Next, I put the hat  on a glass jar. you don't have to do this but I found it easier to paint this way. Then spray paint your hat silver!

   

I wanted to have some hair sticking out of the hat. The dollar store is the best place to look for something that looks like blonde hair. Sometimes they have play yellow play dress up hair but they didn't have it when I went. However, they had these cool yellow and white pom poms! I just separated out the yellow from the white! You could also use yellow yarn for the hair.

   

I simply hot glued the yellow pom pom strips to the back of the hat. The hot glue is hard and I didn't want it to hurt my baby's head so I then glued a piece of fabric over top of it! What I am thinking of doing is once Halloween is over I am going to take off the hair so my son could still wear this cute hat during the winter!

  

This hat is the CUTEST!!! The hair adds such a great touch for Halloween but for everyday wear just leave off that step!

I love my happy chunky Thor baby! <3

If you would like to see how I made the costume click HERE!

If you would like to see how I made the plush hammer click HERE!

Plush Thor's Hammer

Here is the instructions on how to make a plush Thor's Hammer! This is actually pretty easy and it turns out SO CUTE! It is all hand stitch so anyone with a needle and thread can do it!

Here is what you will need:

• A piece of grey felt
• A piece of brown felt
• Black ribbon
• Needle and thread (I used brown)
• Black elastic
• Cotton balls

The first thing you are going to make is the handle. Measure and cut out a square of brown felt 6 inches by 3 1/2 inches.

   

Fold the felt in half and hand stitch the bottom and side, leaving an opening at the top. Then turn the felt inside out....like the picture on the right.

   

Stuff the handle with cotton balls till it feels tight and sew up the opening!

      

Now you are going to cut out the pieces of gray felt for the top of the hammer. The front and back panels are 5 inches by 3 1/2 inches. The top and bottom are measured 5 inches by 1 1/2 inches. The two side panels are 3 1/2 inches by 1 1/2 inches. So you will have to measure and cut out two of each size.

You are going to hand stitch the sides together, leaving the bottom open!

 With the bottom piece of felt, cut an opening about an inch and a half so the handle can fit into it. Just slightly put the handle through the slit and stitch it together.

   

 Now, start stitching the bottom on and when you are almost done start stuffing it with cotton balls. When it is filled stitch it up! 

   

 This next step you don't have to do but it really makes the hammer look cool!

I just stitched some black ribbon around the handle as pictured below.

   

 I found that the top of the hammer was a little floppy so I stitched the middle bottom seam to the handle for extra support! 

Then if you are making this for an infant who can't hold onto the hammer you can add black elastic to the handle. I measured the elastic around my babies wrist and then also up his arm a little. Then I simply stitched it to the handle.

Here is my two month old "holding" his hammer!

If you missed my first post on how to make an infant/toddler Thor costume click HERE!

For the instructions on how to make Thor's hat click HERE!