Cute Car and Palm Trees Snack

Sometimes, your child, or the child in you, is a very picky eater. Try a change in presentation. I got this idea from bento boxes, a Japanese method of turning lunch into art. It doesn't take long to make and you can use whatever you have available. The most difficult part is coming up with a concept. I made this up as I went.

To start, I picked out a car mold that I had available and molded the bread, then I made them into peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. At first, I made the PB&J sandwich, then tried to mold it after I decided I wanted cars, and it was very messy. So, lesson learned: mold the bread first.

After washing the grapes, I cut them in half and laid them out to make the grass (and dirt). Then I placed the cars above them.

The plate still looked a little empty, so I checked the fridge and found some strawberries and bananas that I had for smoothies. I cut the bananas in half (so that I had two short halves), then peeled it from the center of each half. They peel into thirds, and I used these as the trunks of my palm trees. The strawberries are just cut in half almost all the way, then fanned out. I used two strawberries per tree.

For the sun, I grabbed a Ritz cracker and a slice of cheese. I had a tiny flower cookie cutter for Easter, but you can use anything to cut the cheese to fit your cracker.

This took me about 15 minutes to make, a chunk of time was due to the sandwich mishap. It's pretty and delicious and healthy, so try it out next time you'd like a snack.

Trader Joe's Breakfast

Here's a simple, quick, and healthy breakfast option. I recently discovered what many Americans already know as Trader Joe's, a healthy but wallet-friendly grocery store chain with a market vibe to it.

The main part of this dish is the chocolate croissant. I bought it at Trader Joe's in a pack of four for $3.99 + tax. You have to let it proof, or sit out and expand, overnight, so the night before, just lay them out on some wax paper on a pan and sit in a cool oven. In the morning, take them out and they'll be big and fluffy. Then just preheat the oven as directed while you whip up an egg in a cup and dust the croissants with the egg.

Since the oven will probably still be heating up at this point, I spread out the bacon on their own oven rack, so that when the oven is ready, I can put in the croissants and the bacon. I like my bacon soft, so this works for me, but if you like it crispier, you may want to have the bacon in the oven before you dust your croissants with eggs.

When there's about 5 minutes left on the oven timer, I make the eggs. Adding a small amount of milk will make your eggs fluffy. Too much will make it watery and possibly smell like socks, so err on the safe side and only add a little bit. You'll figure out what works with how many eggs you have eventually. A bit of salt and pepper for flavor. Sometimes I add cheese or chives, but this morning, it's just salt-and-pepper eggs. Just remember to use medium heat and start out by rubbing butter on the pan so the eggs don't stick to the pan or burn.

The strawberries are just washed well and eaten as they are. When everything is ready, add it to the plate with the strawberries. Pour yourself a glass of orange juice, and now you have a picture perfect breakfast! Enjoy the rest of your day!

Tres Leches Cake

This is my recipe for a "tres leches cake". Granted, it's always worth it to get the real one from a Mexican bakery. I still like theirs better, but from what I've gathered in my research, this is the recipe I've come up with.

I used fresh strawberries, canned mandarin oranges, fresh kiwi, fresh blackberries, and fresh mango to decorate.

To make the cake:

1.5 cups of flour
1.0 tsp baking powder
0.5 tsp baking soda
0.5 cup white sugar
5 eggs
0.5 tsp vanilla extract

NOTE: The purpose of the baking soda is to get a better rise in the cake.
NOTE: Try pure vanilla extract instead of imitation vanilla extract.

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F for darker pans and 350 degrees F for lighter-colored pans.
2. Grease, then flour the baking pans.
3. Sift flour, baking power and baking soda together.
4. Whip butter, then add sugar bit by bit until the sugar is all added and the texture is fluffy.
5. Separate egg whites and egg yolks.
6. Beat egg yolks into butter-sugar mixture.
7. Meringue (beat until fluffy) egg whites, then add vanilla.
8. Fold meringue mixture into butter-sugar mixture.
9. Gently fold flour mixture in too. Don't beat or over mix, otherwise, the cake will be flat.
10. Pour batter into pans and bake until a toothpick can be inserted into the middle of the cake and come out clean. This will probably be about 20-25 minutes, more or less.


To make the filling:

0.5 cup milk
1.0 cup heavy cream
1 14oz can of sweetened condensed milk
1 12oz can of evaporated milk

1. Combine all four ingredients.
2. When cake is ready and still hot from the oven, poke lots of holes about 1/2 inch apart.
3. Pour milk mixture on top of cake.
4. Cover cake pan and let the milk mixture soak into cake in the refrigerator for several hours.


To make the topping:

1.5 cup heavy whipping cream
1 cup white sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
fruit of your choice

NOTE: To save time, you can replace the first three ingredients with storebought whipped cream, preferably in a tub, rather than a can.

1. Whip the whipping cream, sugar, and vanilla together until thick.
2. Spread whipped cream over cake.
3. Decorate with fruit.

NOTE: After the cake is finished, keep it refrigerated.

Cute Bunny and Turtle Snack

Using some of those Easter cookie cutters, I made this healthy, cute snack for when the picky-eater in us takes over.

This snack didn't take but a few minutes to scramble together. I bought a few cookie cutters and thought I'd try them out. The sandwich was just a Nutella hazelnut spread sandwich, then I cut it in the shape of a bunny. It's easiest to get out if you cut it and then wiggle the cookie cutter a little bit to separate the bread. I added a dab of Nutella to make the nose. You can always do more if the mood strikes you.

For the turtles, I used Ritz crackers as the base, then used the small flower cookie cutter to cut slices of cheese for the shell. The arms and legs are grape halves, but I used whole grapes for the heads. I cut off a slanted piece from the turtle heads so that they wouldn't roll around.

Done! Very quick and easy, and still a healthy and pretty snack for you or your loved one. Enjoy!

What's the Point of Life?

I was wondering what's the point of life, as I'm sure everyone does at one point or another in their lives. It's just a draft response right now, but maybe it's just to enjoy as much of the world as possible.

Exhibit A:

God created the world for all living things. The purpose of the world is for the living things and the living things were created for the world. Circular logic at its best. Nothing wants to be lonely. That's why everything looks for a mate. That's why jelly was made for peanut butter.

Exhibit B:

If God made something incredible (i.e., the world) and had no one to share it with, what fun would it be? So he made us. Like any game, there should be some rules on how to win, thus, the Bible. When my siblings and I play poker, the loser would have to do jumping jacks or push-ups, when we lose God's game, the stakes are a little bit higher (for example, an eternity in Hell or whatnot). But even when we lost at poker, my siblings and I still love each other, so I don't think God would love us less if we lost at Life.

Thank you, Milton Bradley, for making Life relateable for children.

I'm Grateful For..

Ten months since the last post. So, here's what you get for Thanksgiving.

When Rascal Flatt's "God Blessed the Broken Road" makes sense to you, you might've found home. I'm grateful to God for taking care of me. I'm grateful for the failed relationships because I might've ended up with the wrong person. I'm grateful for tough situations because I know who cares about me. I'm grateful for family and friends because I know I'm not alone and even better, that I'm loved. I'm grateful for my family because I didn't know luxury, but I didn't [and don't] know poverty and hunger either. I'm grateful that I've never been lied to when I've been told that "everything's going to be alright", because no matter how long it takes, eventually, everything IS alright. I'm grateful for hope.

The blessings in my life:
All the people in it.
My health
My job and the wonderful ability to pay my bills
Being calm
My cars
The ability to go wherever I want, whenever I want
Air conditioning
Heating
Toilets
Hot showers
Toiletries
Food in the fridge and more at the store
The internet
Video games
My cell phone
Having lots of clothes

Seems petty, doesn't it? I feel like I could live without anything mentioned, but the fact that I have them makes me happy to go from day-to-day.

[Yes, I noted "my health" on the list, but I stand by it. I can still be alive if I'm unhealthy.]

Unpacking is like Christmas where you love every present.

I am 19 hours and 7 boxes deep into unpacking my apartment. In two days, I will have lived here for a year. Among my best finds are my books, pictures from Lollapalooza, the itinerary for a trip to Spain, and a piece of paper that reads:

"they did something dumb one day, like kiss you or smile at you, and then your life isn't your own anymore. Love takes hostages. It gets inside you. It eats you out and leaves you crying in the darkness, so a simple phrase like 'maybe we should just be friends' turns into a glass splinter working its way into your heart. It hurts. Not just in the imagination. Not just in the mind. It's a soul-hurt, a real gets-inside-you-and-rips-you-apart pain. I hate love.♡Love me when I least deserve it because that's when I really need it.♡Love comes when manipulation stops; when you think more about the other person than about his or her reactions to you. When you dare to reveal yourself fully. When you dare to be vulnerable.♡We come to love not by finding a perfect person, but by learning to see an imperfect person perfectly.♡And now here is my secret, a very simple secret; it is only with the heart that one can see rightly, what is essential is invisible to the eye.♡Perhaps love is the process of my gently leading you back to yourself.♡Life has taught us that love does not consist in gazing at each other, but in looking together in the same direction.♡Find a guy who calls you beautiful instead of hot, who calls you back when you hang up on him, who will lie under the stars and listen to your heartbeat, or will stay awake just to watch you sleep...wait for the one who kisses your forehead, who wants to show you off to the world when you are in sweats, who holds your hand in front of his friends, who thinks you're just as pretty without makeup on. One who is constantly reminding you of how much he cares and how lucky he is to have you...The one who turns to his friends and says, 'That's her.'♡The love that lasts the longest is the love that is never returned.♡I don't pretend to know what love is for everyone, but I can tell you what it is for me. Love is knowing all about someone, and still wanting to be with them more than any other person. Love is trusting them enough to tell them everything about yourself, including the things you might be ashamed of. Love is feeling comfortable and safe with someone, but still getting weak knees when they walk into a room and smile at you.♡One of the hardest things in life is watching the person you love, love someone else.♡If you love somebody, let them go. If they return, they were always yours. If they don't, they never were.♡One of the hardest things in life is having words in your heart that you can't utter.♡Trying to make someone fall in love with you is about as pointless as trying to control who you fall in love with.♡Love is just a word until someone comes along and gives it meaning.♡Just so you know, there a space in my heart that only you can fill. Just so you know, I loved you then, and I guess I always will.♡Love is just love. Unexplainable.♡Have you ever been in love? Horrible, isn't it? It makes you so vulnerable. It opens up your chest and it opens up your heart and it means that someone can get inside you and mess you up. You build up all the defenses, you build up a whole suit of armor, so that nothing can hurt you, then one stupid person, no different from any other stupid person, wanders into your stupid life...You give them a piece of you. They didn't ask for it.♡There are four questions of value in life: What is sacred? Of what is the spirit made? What is worth living for? And what is worth dying for? The answer to each is the same. Only love.♡You can close your eyes to the things you do not want to see, but you cannot close your heart to the things you do not want to feel.♡Love is not blind; it simply enables one to see things others fail to see.♡It is better to lose your pride with someone you love than to lose someone you love with your useless pride.♡Love is saying 'I feel differently' instead of 'You're wrong.'♡True love burns brightest, but the brightest flames leave the deepest scars.♡The worst thing you can do for love is deny it; so when you find that special someone, don't let anyone or anything get in your way.♡We say we love flowers, yet we pluck them. We say we love trees, yet we cut them down. And people wonder why some are afraid when told they are loved.♡You've spent your time running and running, trying to catch up with something that has never been there for you. And all you've done is go farther and farther away from the precious love that's been waiting for you all the time.♡The one who loves you will make you weep.♡You don't love someone for their looks, or their clothes, or their fancy car, but because they sing a song only you can hear.♡I would rather have eyes that cannot see, ears that cannot hear, lips that cannot speak, than a heart that cannot love.♡Spiteful words can hurt your feelings, but silence breaks your heart.♡Eventually, you will come to understand that love hears everything, and love is all there is.♡There is a sacredness in tears. They are not the mark of weakness, but of power. They speak more eloquently than ten thousand tongues. They are the messengers of overwhelming grief...and unspeakable love.♡Love is when you shed a tear and still want him, when he ignores you and you still care, when he loves someone else but you still smile and say, 'I'm happy for you,' when all you really do is cry.♡To love someone is nothing. To be loved by someone is something. But to be loved by the one you love is everything.♡If I never met you, I wouldn't like you. If I didn't like you, I wouldn't love you. If I didn't love you, I wouldn't miss you. But I did, I do, and I will.♡In love, it is better to know and be disappointed, than to not know and always wonder.♡To love is to risk not being loved in return. To hope is to risk pain. To try is to risk failure, but risk must be taken because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing.♡"