Recipe FAIL: Cheerio Treats

This may surprise some of you, but I have never made Rice Krispies Treats before.  I didn't even realize it until last night, when my kids (okay okay, and me too) were asking for a treat and I needed to do something quick.  For some reason, my first thought was, Rice Krispies Treats!

Since I had never made them before, I had to look up the recipe.  Funny enough, I didn't actually have any Rice Krispies cereal (or any fakey counterparts) and so I googled around to see if it was common to sub-in Cheerios instead.  (because what LDS mom doesn't have Cheerios on hand at all times?)  Turns out, I found this recipe- basically the same as the other, but with Cheerios in place of Rice Krispies.

Score.

Except...

I'm still trying not to eat dairy for Hazel, so I decided to sub out the butter for coconut oil.

I go to my closet and check on the marshmallows.  I have one almost-full bag of regular marshmallows (the campfire ones) that I'm pretty sure I bought over a year ago when Iris was still living with us, that we only whipped out once to roast some (probably a grand total of 6) over a fire.  Alternatively, I had another, unopened bag of fresh, new, mini marshmallows I just got, in case we ever had another hankering to make some marshmallow-toothpick sculptures.  (because I discovered at conference that the ones we had were pretty stale and hard.  As you can see, we're not typically a marshmallow eatin' family.)

So, of course I pick the old bag of large marshmallows, so I can get rid of them.  (Jay always makes fun of me for proclaiming, "we need to get rid of this, so we're having it for dinner."  Waste not, want not!)

These powers combined resulted in a large mass of clumpy, gooey marshmallow mash that refused to melt and started browning and toasting.  I was pretty sure that wasn't supposed to happen, so I just decided that this must be as melty as it gets (although it wasn't the vision of "melting" that I had foreseen) and plopped it in with the cheerios in another bowl.

Well, it shouldn't surprise anyone that I ended up with a giant, white, gooey glob, now coated in cheerios.  So, I did what any logical person would do (oh wait.  they'd probably throw it out at this point.  waste not, want not!  carry on...) I started stretching it apart, two handed, trying to get some of the Cheerios inside the glob, hoping to make the mass a bit more homogeneous.  Satisfied that I had done my best, I quickly spread/mashed it out into a pan while nearly breaking my teeth, trying to scrape some of the hardened goo off my stirring spoon.

The Frog wanted to add his finishing touch and dumped a bunch of chocolate chips in the middle portion of the pan.  (which I quickly tried to spread around before they all melted there).  There were tons of unincorporated Cheerios left in the bowl, and for some reason I felt like they belonged with the others, so spent some time spreading those around, hoping they might stick as well.  (theyyyy didn't)

Excited by our scavenging success, we all sat around the table with our plates, awaiting our Cheerio creation...

Let's just say it was sometimes dry and crunchy (and gum-scratching), sometimes stretchy-gooey-yummy, but mostly hard and tooth-removing sticky.

After we devoured our bits of disaster (The Frog actually proclaimed it to be "fantastic", clearly excited to show off a new word he learned recently, though I know the truth, since neither child finished their portions...) I put the kids to bed (after a good tooth-brushing session) and promptly threw the rest in the trash.  (sorry, no photo)

After a bit more googling, I discovered that there are a few things that can go wrong with Rice Krispies Treats:
1) don't use margarine (and maybe coconut oil either?)
2) fresh marshmallows melt better (oops)
3) mini marshmallows melt better than campfire ones (oops)
4) browning marshmallows = bad.

Yep.  I love to bake bread.  And now pie.  I can make a roux in my sleep, yet I royally screwed up "The classic, original, no-bake dessert that is easy to make" and have still never made Rice Krispies Treats.

The end.

Hazel Accomplishments!

Jay was gone all last week, and most of the week before, so I'm a bit lacking in the photos etc. to share this week, after being in "survival mode" for so long.  But, I'm excited to say that Hazel has:
1) started scooting backwards!
2) started spending quite a bit of time in "crawling position", though has yet to figure out how to actually crawl yet.
3) been doing great with her baby food eating!  Yesterday she set an all-time speed record- less than 10 minutes to eat her serving of sweet potato plus 1 T baby rice.  I feel selfish for celebrating such a feat, but baby food feeding gets really tedious and messy and isn't one of my favorite things about having a baby...
4) been taking terrible naps lately (as in, for the last few months) and I've finally decided it's time to help her out and get her on a more predictable schedule.  She finally took a long afternoon nap yesterday, and after crying to sleep last night, she only woke up once to eat!!  I'm sure I'm celebrating too early, but it looks like a longer chunks of sleep might actually be in my future!  (if I could just get The Frog to stop wetting the bed... through his pull-up...)

Baby Food Friday: Easy No-Cook baby foods

Prunes!
I love prunes! I know they have negative connotations associated with old people and... certain issues... BUT they are delicious and naturally very sweet.  I especially like to have some ready to go on hand, in case all this solid food makes my baby constipated.  It's a great natural fix for that.  What's even better?  They are sooo easy to do.  No cooking needed:
I'm sure I just bought whatever was cheapest...  Notice they are being advertised as "dried plums" more and more, probably in an attempt at getting people to not be scared of "prunes".

put some in a container and cover them in hot water.  Let them soak until you have time to get back to them.  (at least 30 minutes)

 blend and I don't usually fill the ice cubes.  I just put a blob in, because they are so effective and babies are so small- I don't want to evade one intestinal problem and get another.

They are great to add to a food that maybe your baby wouldn't eat because of not being sweet enough.  And as I've said before, if you end up with extras, they are great in smoothies :)

Here's another easy (slow-cook) recipe that I make fairly often that uses prunes.  And here's one I want to try.

Other easy, no-cook baby foods:

just add warm water (or formula or breast milk):
baby cereals (I always start with single-grain rice because it's supposedly easiest to digest)

ready to eat:
no sugar added, apple sauce
canned pumpkin
plain, whole milk yogurt (I usually mix this with other foods)
ricotta cheese (I usually mix this with other foods)

mash fresh with a fork:
banana
avocado

put through a baby mill: (or do a large batch and freeze extras)
canned peaches/pears in juice (not syrup)
prunes (dried plums) soaked in hot water until squishy (at least 30 minutes)

great finger foods- 9 mo +: (or put through a baby mill for earlier feeding)
canned green beans
canned black/kidney/pinto/etc. beans
frozen peas (especially great when teething)
diced melons (can freeze for a great teething treat too)
I'm sure I'm leaving things out...  suggestions?

Happy Birthday Gampie!

The kids helped me make a movie for Gampie's birthday on Monday. 

 Check it out!

Hazel Eats!

Last week, Hazel turned 6 months old!!  I was going to wait a few days to give her solids (because I really don't look forward to this time.  Nursing is just so quick and easy...) but The Frog and Peach were playing so nicely outside together, I had some time and she just happened to need to eat... 

What the heck?

Here she is, sitting in the high chair for the first time.  She could tell something was up, not not really sure what.

 She quickly discovered the munchability of the new addition to her outfit.

 It was tricky getting her to keep it out of her mouth...

 As you can see, some of the baby rice cereal did make it into her mouth.  (at least briefly...)  Despite what this picture shows, I don't think she particularly enjoyed it.  She made a lot of funny faces that I wish I could have captured on camera.

In the end, I let her have the spoon as a prize.

Happy May!