Tag Archives: Food

Homemade Baby Ice Cream

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You may have seen “1 ingredient ice cream” recipes before. But, I call it baby ice cream! I recently had an ice cream party for my birthday, and since all the guests were bringing babies, I whipped up a batch of this frozen banana puree for them. Two out of three babies loved it!

Here’s what we did:

This is really tasty – and not just for babies! You can add a dash of vanilla for an adult palate if you’d like. It’s really good with chocolate syrup!

Adorable Rainbow Cupcakes

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To celebrate my birthday week, I am going to feature some fun party ideas I’ve tried in the past. I love planning parties and always do it on a small budget. I hope you enjoy these projects! Let me know if you try them!

A couple years ago I had a party for my birthday with no real theme other than cutesy, girly things. Being a summer baby growing up with just a dad, my birthday parties usually failed miserably (like two guests would show up, but my rocket scientist dad would let us play maze games on the Apple II. Ah, the ’80’s!)

This party would indulge all the childish whims I missed out on… Crafts! Twister! Balloons! Pink and blue puppy plates! And cupcakes…

Rainbow cupcakes, to be exact! And, these adorable cupcakes couldn’t be easier.

Here’s what I did:
I baked two kinds of cupcake for variety so guests could choose chocolate or yellow (both vegan to accommodate a guest). If you want to go all the way rainbow, try this recipe for a colorful surprise when your guests take a bite! Because my favorite cake is yellow with chocolate frosting, I used both chocolate and white frosting. Obviously your rainbows will look more realistic on white clouds, but chocolate clouds are oh so tasty!

To ice my cupcakes, I put the frosting in a icing gun (mine is a cheap dollar store version) with a star tip. I swirled and swooshed till my hand ached to make fluffy clouds. Then I used plenty of sprinkles: blue sanding sugar, rainbow nonpareils and little stars!

And now the fun part… Buy a few packs of Airheads Extreme Rainbow Belts, cut them to size and stick them in the frosting to create your rainbow!

Because I had a vegan guest, I also make a few cupcakes without the sprinkles and candy (which tends not to be vegan). I also filled some cupcake papers with jellybeans and stuck them in my cupcake stand for pops of color.

Let me know if you try this out!

Yum!

Keeping Raspberries Fresh

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Yum! Raspberry season! I love to throw fresh raspberries into my yogurt or oatmeal in the morning, and frozen berries are great in smoothies. But how do you keep them fresh?

I was getting so frustrated when I’d by a pint of raspberries and 2 days later, half of them would be moldy. What a waste! If I was going to keep up my raspberry addiction for the summer, I had to start doing something different.

Here is what has worked for me:

I just bought two huge containers of raspberries that were buy one get one free. First I threw out any berries with a hint of mold. Then I made a box of berries for me to eat fresh this week by lining a box with a paper towel and putting only perfect, dry berries in there in a single layer. I’m usually the only one eating them, so I didn’t need to many. I close the lid and stick them in the fruit drawer. I’ve had them easily last 5-7 days this way. I always choose the softest ones to eat first when I do this.

Because I bought so many, I planned to freeze a lot of them. If I didn’t, then any crushed or mushy berries would be eaten the day they came home, as those are the first to start molding. This time, I tossed the softest ones into the blender and made a mango-raspberry smoothie. For the rest, I just washed them and put them in a container to freeze.

What do you do to keep your raspberries and other fruit fresh longer? The NY Times has an article suggesting you bathe your berries in hot water when you get them home. I’d love more tips!