Valentine's Day Treat

My boys and I made some yummy treats for Valentine's Day today.  It isn't so much as a recipe, but an idea.  I got the idea from a friend in my card group named Ouizee who made it recently.

Here's what to do....

Mix together any sweet and salty snacks you have in the house plus some cereal!

We used Rice Crispies, Special K, mini-marshmallows, broken pretzels, peanuts, cut up Fruit Rollups, Valentine's candy corn & red Sixlets.

Melt some white chocolate according the the directions on the package... we used 4 of the blocks from this....  

but you can use white chocolate chips.  I melted this in a double boiler, but you can use the microwave.

You can also add some peanut butter at this point. 

Pour it on and stir it up!  Drop in piles on a Silpat liner or on waxed paper.  We topped them with Wilton's Sour Cherry Sprinkles and heart sprinkles.

You can also put it in

a dish and cut it after it it is cold.  I sat ours outside on our porch and it got hard in about 5 minutes.

Yummy Tummy Love!

"No Pancakes Today, I'm Afraid!"

I love this quote by Parker Posey in "The House of Yes"....totally making fun of Pennsylvania where I am originally from. 

My kids love pancakes.  I don't really get it.  I think it is more about the syrup than the pancakes.  Pancakes offer very little nutritional value, so I've found a recipe made with whole wheat that I like.  They like it, but not as much as those fluffy buttermilk ones they get at, say, IHOP.  I've discovered that adding mini-chocolate chips or M&M's to the whole wheat ones make them disappear very quickly.  This morning they wanted pancakes but I had no chocolate to add to them.  What was I to say?  "No pancakes today, I'm afraid?"

Noooo.... I found that we had THESE in the cupboard.

So I added the marshmallows to the pancakes and they went down very well, thank you very much, Swiss Miss....  Here's the pancake served upside-down so the colors show.  Looks like a party on the plate, don't you think?

Here's my favorite recipe for whole wheat pancakes.

For pancakes (yields 2-4 pancakes)

• 1 1/4 cups whole-wheat flour
• 1/3 cup cornmeal
• 6 tablespoons buttermilk
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/4 cups water
• 2 large eggs
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• butter for oiling the pan

Whisk together dry ingredients in a bowl, then add water, eggs, and oil and whisk until smooth. Let stand 5 minutes (batter will thicken). If batter is too thick to pour easily (whole-wheat flours vary in how much liquid they absorb), thin with additional water, 1 tablespoon at a time.

 

Brush a griddle or 12-inch skillet with butter and heat over medium heat until hot but not smoking. Reduce heat to medium-low. Pour 1/4 cup of batter into hot pan to form one large pancake. Cook until bubbles appear on surface and pop, edges are set, and undersides are golden, 45 seconds to 1 minute. Flip pancakes with a spatula and cook until undersides are golden and pancakes are cooked through, 45 seconds to 1 minute more. (Lower heat if pancakes brown too much before insides are cooked through.) Transfer pancakes to plates and brush griddle with butter between batches. Serve with syrup.

Happy Morning!

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How To Make Thai Spring Rolls

When I lived in San Diego, I found the tastiest treat EVER at Saffron on India Street.  I fell in love with this low-cal, low-carb treat.... really, a hand-held salad.  It was heaven.  I had my husband pick them up about once a week on his way home from work. 

Eventually, I moved to Upstate NY and could no longer get these yummy lunches/dinners, so I learned to make them myself.  It really is easy if you can find the spring roll wrappers at your grocery store.  I've found these at Wegman's in NY and hopefully you can find them at yours too.

These are the ingredients you need:

Spring Roll Wrappers

Roast Chicken breast sliced - Great from leftover roast chicken or you can buy a roast chicken at the grocery; Large leaf lettuce (mine is red leaf), cucumber sliced the long way, cilantro, peanuts (chopped or not)... I also sometimes add thin carrot sticks to the mix. Some people like fresh mint leaves in theirs too, but I'm not a fan.  I have also seen them made with cooked shrimp instead of the chicken.

Optional... but oh so good... a peanut sauce and a Thai Sweet Chili Sauce.  These are my favorite brands...

You can actually find them at our Walmart, but not sure about yours.

To assemble:

Take one of the Spring roll wrappers from the package.  They are hard and feel a little like plastic.

In a large frying pan, heat about a cup of water to simmering.  Turn off the heat.

Have a pair of tongs ready.

Put the wrapper into the water.  It will roll a bit, but use your tongs to keep it down

a bit.  Just after you get it wet, flip it over carefully.

Get the entire other side wet.  You don't want to keep it in too long or it will get too soggy and rip

easily.

Remove from the pan to your work surface.  Try to keep it from doing this!

In order to do so, while you pick it up with the tongs, grab the other side with

your fingers.  It will be hot, so be careful.   If it does turn out like this, throw it

out and start over.  I guarantee one will do this.

This is what it should look like. 

 Add one leaf of lettuce in the top middle.

 Cilantro on top of that....

 Cucumbers on top of that...

Chicken pieces on top of that...

 Peanuts on top of that.  I like mine whole, but you can chop them if you like them less chunky...

I add the peanut and chili sauces right inside so I don't have to dirty a dish to dip in, but you can dip them if you like!

Next, fold the bottom half of the wrapper up over the filling....

Fold the left side over the fillings and roll it all up to the right side.

 In the end it will look like this...

I generally eat 4 of them for a meal.  Hope you enjoy this tutorial and love these as much as I do!

If you can't find the wrappers at your store, you can order them online at Amazon... Same goes for the sauces... but they only hvae a 6 pack of peanut sauce on there.  I'm sure you can find the single bottle online somewhere....

 Spring roll wrappers (rice paper)- 12 oz
  House of Tsang Bangkok Peanut Sauce, 11.5-Ounce Bottles (Pack of 6)

 Sweet Chili Sauce - 25 oz