ice pop containers

I have a few different ice pop containers. 

I do like and use all of them, but I thought I'd share with you my pros and cons.

On the very left we have Tupperware Ice Tups. These have lasted me quite a long time and really stand up to regular usage. They are of brilliant quality. The only issue I have is that they are not the easiest to put together and when I fill them and try to put the air tight lid I on. I often spill some contents. The ice pops are kept air tight so will keep fresher for longer. Once frozen you can remove the ice pop containers from the yellow tray and store the ice pops in your freezer door etc, saving room.

The middle one is from Ikea. Currently this is my favourite as the ice pops are a manageable and appropriate size for littlies {much the same size as the Tupperware ones} but the little stick is just placed in / on top which makes them easy peasy. The stand allows easy storage with no spilling while in the fridge. Like the Tupperware ones you can then take the individual ice pops out of the tray and store in your freezer so it takes up less space.

The ones on the right are fab as they have a little straw so kiddies can sip up the melted yumminess. I find they are too big for my little guy though - it's a bit much ice pop goodness. The whole thing does not separate so you have to have enough room to store it as a whole in your freezer, even when there is only one left.

I whizzed up some plain yoghurt and some fresh strawberries and filled the Ikea ice pop container the other day. It has been so hot lately we needed a little frozen treat.

I also found these awesome Ice Kebab molds at a $2 shop. 

How much fun are these?

I heart Organising with Super Organiser Mum

I am sporting a new button on the side of my blog - which I had meant to add a long time ago.

If you haven't been over to Jade's beautiful blog yet, please grab a cuppa and make your way, you will stay a long time, and return day after day. I am often inspired by Jade and her fabulous ideas designed to make life a little easier. A bit of organising goes a long way! I used to think I was organised, but I got nothing on Jade!

-

For years I have often chopped our veggies when fresh from the store to make life a little simpler and make cooking meals a little easier. But I never thought of making up a salad to keep in the fridge ready to eat! After seeing this on Jade's blog, I thought it was such a brilliant idea, as normally when I'm tired and I've rustled up just enough energy and enthusiasm to cook a healthy dinner, there is little energy left to wash and cut the lettuce, wash and grate the carrot, cut the red onion, chop the capsicum, slice the cucumber, cut up some cherry tomatoes, etc.

But now we make up a huge salad and it is there ready to go! This makes things so much easier, and means that making a healthy lunch for me is as easy as grab some bread, add some ham, add some of the ready made salad and eat.

Another thing I have adopted thanks to Jade is a water station. We weren't drinking enough water as a family {specifically my husband and I} and now we have a whole shelf devoted to water! It makes it so easy to grab an icy cold bottle of water even when you're busy busy.

Just the other day Jade posted about their trips to the local library and how she keeps the books in her house. Have a look here. She also sometimes themes the books depending on what is going on in that month. I absolutely LOVE this idea and is one I will be adopting, too.

pastry hearts

Ok, so I know it's no longer Valentines but who doesn't love hearts and having fun with making food special? I like to do things like this all throughout the year as a fun way of showing my family that I love them.

Stick one of these puff pastry hearts on top of soup or salad {or anything really - it's pastry! yum!}

Start with a sheet of puff pastry - cut it into 1cm strips.

Take a strip and make an upside down ribbon shape. {Bad explanation - hence photo!}

Please excuse these pictures - my kitchen has very bad lighting!!

Then bring one side down to the bottom of the ribbon, and then the other, and squish them together. 

Move your pastry heart onto a baking tray lined with wax paper. Once you've filled the tray, place in a pre-heated 180 degree oven for about 10 minutes or until cooked.

Part 3 of Noah's 4th Birthday - Adventure Is Out There - an "Up" inspired party

I thought this wooden cutlery was just the perfect touch for our Adventure is Out There Dessert table as it so beautifully matched the look and feel of the theme.

Tied with some lovely blue and white twine and it is just oh so cute.

I used plain kraft paper bags for the take home goodies. Inside were a pair of binoculars for each child and playdough. I had 2 other items to place in here, a bouncy ball and an airplane shaped pencil sharpener but when you're silly like me and don't count how many siblings may end up coming - you end up not having enough and then just omitting them from the take home bags all together. Yep no lollies in our take home bags - I felt the kids would get enough sugar from the cupcakes and cookies I made!

On the bag I placed this label saying "thank you for being part of my adventure".

 I love to wrap according to colour scheme, and this time what better way to wrap than to use many of the elements that made up the table. The strips of map I used to wrap the home-made rice bubble bars on the table were used here to accent some plain butchers paper I used to wrap his gifts. Again adding some of that delightful twine and it's all just too cute. 

I've had a couple of emails asking for the instructions for the chocolate dipped oreos. They are really easy! I am no expert but I will share how I made them.

I melted my chocolate in the microwave in small bursts, stirring after each 30-40 second go. Once it had melted and was quite a runny consitency, I used small metal tongs to dip the oreo into the chocolate. It was helpful to also have a spoon to help cover the cookie in chocolate. Then I shook off as much of the excess chocolate that I could and placed the cookie onto a baking sheet on a cookie tray. After I made them all I placed them in the fridge to set.

For the N's I used some of the left over chocolate from dipping and coloured it using oil based chocolate / candy colouring. I spooned it into a zip lock bag and snipped a tiny hole in one bottom corner in order to use it as a piping bag. I then just piped the N's on, and placed the cookies back in the fridge to set again.

Easy and yummy and really great to look at!

Part 2 of Noah's 4th Birthday - Adventure Is Out There - an "Up" inspired party

In keeping with the Disney / Pixar "Up" movie, and wanting to incorporate balloons without them taking over the Adventure is Out There theme, we added a large bunch to his outdoor cubby house to look like the house and balloons from the movie. I actually think we could have doubled the balloons but I wasn't sure how many we would need to achieve the look and under-ordered, seems 15 wasn't enough! :)

But he didn't mind - and anyway, who doesn't love a big bunch of balloons!

We also had a small bunch sticking out of a cute little wooden doll house that was featured on the food table. I saw this cute idea at this Up inspired party. Actually looking at it now, it looks like I have almost exactly the same house, we just didn't complete the assembly of ours, or paint it! :o}

In over 500 photos of the party, the decorations, the tables, the dessert table, the kids, the activities etc, I don't have a photo of the whole food table. The party was during lunch time, so we organised for the kids to make their own pizzas {this was popular, very easy but a little hectic! hence no photos!}.

We also had preservative free sausage wrapped in puff pastry, meatballs, spinach, leek and mushroom quiche, crackers & dip, veggie sticks {capsicum, celery, carrot & cucumber}, fresh fruit and dairy free fairy bread. 

I made a little "My Adventure Book" for each of the kids. Inside was a bunch of little 'tasks' to complete in order to earn a badge / sticker. This was in lieu of party games since my little guy isn't big on participating in party games. This book is based on the printable "My Adventure Book" that you can download from here. I changed it to suit the party, and also the fact that all the little kiddos were only 3 & 4 years old.

Inside the book and a look at some of the badges. The badges are a mix between some from the printable book, the internet and self-made.

So once the kids completed a task they got a badge in their book. 

'Wear a disguise' consisted of this:

These are such a cute idea, and a free download from Living Locurto. 

Next I will share a few more little table details, the take home bags and some gift wrapping.

Part 1 of Noah's 4th Birthday - Adventure Is Out There - an "Up" inspired party

My little guy turned 4 last week. It has been a blur, these last 4 years. I can hardly believe it! They have been the best years of my life. Being a parent is the most beautiful blessing and I am truly honoured to be the mother of this little boy.

Noah loves the Disney / Pixar move "Up" and for his 4th birthday I wanted to incorporate the movie into the theme. We decided to go with the catch phrase from the movie "Adventure is out there!".

I designed the invitations, cupcake toppers, bunting and other things with vintage maps {from here} to tie in the adventure aspect. I used a lot of blues and a hint of green. I also used a lot of natural colours, kraft paper, calico fabric and wooden accents.

This is the invitation we sent out. 

This was the dessert table.

We had cupcakes with a delicious buttercream swirl. I made the toppers and cupcake wrappers and bought the lovely pale blue cupcake stand from The Princess and The Pirate. The stand is reusable, and collapses completely so it is so easy to store. Love it, especially as I am terribly short on storage!

I changed the letters on the compass to spell out Noah.

We also had a double layer sponge cake with buttercream frosting and cute mini bunting

Don't you love the twine? I *heart* twine.

The white paper straws are from The Princess and The Pirate.

 These home-made rice bubble bars were wrapped in map paper and tied with more delicious twine. {The twine is from B&M Felt + Twine}

 We also had oreo pops dipped in white chocolate and white chocolate dipped oreos with blue chocolate N's. I also made mini oreo stuffed cookies with 4 m&m's on top and decorated mini kids water bottles with an 'adventure water' label.

Tomorrow I will share more of the little details that made this party just so much fun!

make your own crayons - valentine's style

I've taken a little break from the blog this weekend to celebrate my little guy's birthday. More on all of that very soon!

For today, the last of our Valentine's craft for this year was making our own heart shaped crayons.

This is seriously easy. We do this for Halloween, Christmas, Valentine's, Easter, any occasion you can get a mould for you can make crayons for! :)

You start out with crayons. Usually I use the little broken bits of random crayons that I collect through the year, but this time we started with some new ones because we had used up all the old ones!

Break them into bits, they will melt faster.

Put them into a clean tin can. Place the can into hot / just boiling water. You don't have to keep the water on the boil though, the crayons will melt pretty fast. Use tongs to hold on to the can, it gets hot!

Pour into your mould. Of course we are using a heart shaped mould! {I think I paid about $1 - From Ikea - I bought two, one for things we would eat like ice & chocolates etc and one for crafts, so we don't mix the two} 

I filled one heart with just red, and then only had enough red to fill a bit of another heart. No problem! Just use another colour.

I then placed our mould in the freezer for the crayon wax to set. Pulled it out after just a few minutes and on some I added another layer in a different colour to two of the hearts. Put in the freezer to set again and then added another layer to one of them. End result ...

See the layers? I was impressed too. 

Then enjoy!

{I have made crayons by breaking them into bits and putting the bits into the mould and then putting the mould into the oven - but I wasn't sure if this mould could go into the oven as it is designed for ice and not baking, so to be safe, I melted the crayons in the tin as shown. I actually found this to be a much easier and much quicker process anyway, so will be doing it like this from now on}

basic cookie recipe & a valentine's twist

I love this recipe for basic cookie dough. It is simple, doesn't use a lot of ingredients and so it is quick to make. Of course it tastes delicious too! It also makes A LOT of dough, so I always freeze about half of it for use later. It freezes well, and then I just defrost and bake up a batch with no mess, love it.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup of Sugar
• 500g of Butter, softened
• 5 Cups of Self Raising Flour {I use half wholemeal self raising}
• 1 can of sweetened condensed milk {I use the light one}

Preheat oven to 180C

1. Cream butter and sugar with a mixer. 
2. Sift the flour into the butter and sugar mix, then add the condensed milk. Mix.
3. Then you add what ever you want to the cookies, chocolate chips, 100's and 1000's, nuts etc. 
4. Roll into balls and place on a cookie tray lined with baking paper.
5. Bake for 10-12 minutes

I add chocolate chips and oats usually, but not to the whole amount as I freeze the dough plain so I can do whatever with it when I defrost it. 

This time I just kept the cookies plain and put 3 red M&M's on them to form a sort of heart shape. They were so yummy ... but I think they could have been even better with some mini choc chips added into the dough. I was just trying to keep them simple this time.

I recently bought a silicone heart shaped muffin tray {$8 at Kmart!} and thought I'd try it out with some cookie dough instead of just using it for muffins or cupcakes.

I am really happy with how they turned out! They cooked beautifully and you just can't beat the shape when you're talking about chocolate chip cookie dough. The M&M 'heart' shape also kept where as with the traditional cookies the M&M's spread apart more.

I also think these would have been so so good with more chocolate, but they were really quite delicious like this, too. 

The best part about baking? Eating it.