Veggie Mash

I'm working to get my 13.5 month old to enjoy feeding himself and using a spoon. He's real picky...not that  he's picky about what he will eat, but about how much. He's always been difficult getting him to eat...he even weaned himself from day time bottles at 9 months.

Anywho, I made a veggie mash last night with grilled chicken. The consistency is like mashed potatoes but has more veggies, and takes little time and prep to make.

Ingredients:
3/4 pound red potatoes chopped
3/4 head of cauliflower chopped
5 large carrots chopped
1/2 cup greek yogurt or sour cream, whatever your preference
salt and pepper to taste

Boil a large pot of water and add chopped vegetables. The water should just cover the vegetables.
Boil for 15 to 20 minutes. Drain. Place veggies back in pot, add yogurt and salt and pepper to taste. Use masher/hand mixer to bring veggies to the consistency you want and you are done!

See, that was easy! It's yummy too! Nolan went crazy for the stuff and even did well eating it with his spoon.

Cravings

You know when you see something fantastic, and all you can think is, "So pretty...I gotta have that!" That's what I thought when I saw the following two desserts. 

Sweetapolita

Just when you thought the outside looked good, take a bite of this surprise:

six (6!) chocolately layers of cake with pink icing between each!

Raspberri Cupcakes

Now that you have seen these lovely photographs, I'm sure you are hungering for some beautiful deliciousness...but how's a girl to decide which dessert to make first? Hmmm....

Children's Winter Party

We had a winter themed party for the tots at church. The food was to be wintery too. So I chose to do a veggie platter with cream cheese penguins. You can find tutorials on these little guys all over the internet. They are easy, yummy and cute as can be!

I actually have to give a shout out to my cousin Ginger....she made these for the holidays and posted pictures on Facebook.  I knew I had to make them for the kiddo's party when I saw her pictures! Oh, and the kids did love them! Nolan ate a bunch of them. He had never had cream cheese before and he was definitely liking it!

I put the tray together there and then walked it to the table...big mistake. I lost a couple carrot trees.

The poor penguins didn't fare well and most of them ended up leaning on other penguins. The directions called for toothpicks in the penguins, but with feeding children from 1 to 5, I thought it was better to leave them out. Oh, my trees also went dry on me. 

Check out that snowman cheese ball(s). Talk about yummy! I could have ate the whole thing but I didn't want the other moms to thing I was piggy.

Here's another shot of the food table. My mom decorated it and it was darling! Everyone's food came out so nice...wish my penguin vegetable tray hadn't turned out so mediocre. Cute idea but in true Ashley fashion, I was hurrying and it didn't come together the way I wanted it to.

Here's Nolan when we got home. He slept on the floor in the living room for two hours. He was just partied out!

Favorite Things

I'm so glad Trader Joe's came to Kansas City! They have so many things I just love! I do wish they weren't located so far south, so that it didn't take 40 minutes to get there. I only make it out there every other month because of the distance.

One of my favorite things at Trader Joe's is their Chocolate Lava Cake! Can we just say yum!

If you are a Kansas Citian, you may have eaten at Morton's (formerly located at Crown Center). Morton's had one of the best Chocolate Lava Cake's I have ever eaten. Well, this little lava cake from Trader Joe's is pretty close to being just as good! Unlike Morton's lava cake, which you had to order at the beginning of your meal, this bakes in a mere minute...so they are ready in a jiffy!

Ta-da! I perfectly baked chocolate cake with molten center! Yum, yum, and yum!

It's also good with a scoop of Trader Joe's cherry chocolate chunk ice cream.

Don't forget to get all that yummy goodness that stays in the tray after you heat it! It's a full bite's worth!

Yum, yum, yum! Double Dark Chocolate Pomegranate Cookies.

Made these today from Dana over at Made! I ate them up and forgot to take a picture. Sorry! You'll just have to go see Dana's pictures.

Note: The first batch of these I over mixed, which broke up the pomegranate seeds and gave the cookies a woody taste. So don't over mix! The second batch was heavenly!