Daddy's Girls Reviews: Bedtime for Monsters

We read a lot of books in this family! Every night the girls get to pick out two books each. They have their favorites that get read again and again, and then they had some we didn't get past the first four pages. I noticed my girls had their opinions of what made a good and not so swell book. So I had a crazy thought, "why not start a review blog and share what these two girls think?" So I asked the girls. They were all for it. Why not? This would make sure daddy didn't cop out when it was reading time. (Yes, sometimes when I am tired, reading a picture book is the last on my list, but I do it for my girls.) So we started Daddy's Girls Book Reviews. We plan on making posts that share our reviews and opinions on picture books, chapter books, and lower-level middle-grade books. We not only post our reviews here on the blog, we share our reviews on amazon.com, b&n.com, and goodreads.com. Our hope is to encourage those fantastic authors and illustrator to create more fabulous books for us to read together. 

Bedtime for Monsters
by: Ed Vere
 

Summary: “In this hilarious bedtime story, a monster is licking his lips . . . maybe he’s thinking about eating a bedtime snack? And what if that snack just happened to be you? Gulp! He’s getting closer and closer . . . and his tummy is rumbling really loudly. But all this monster actually wants is a sloppy monster-sized goodnight kiss!”

Daddy’s Girls Review: This was a book we read again and again! It was engaging and fun. 3-year-old Bean says, “I thought the monster was going to eat me! It turned out he only wanted kisses. I liked the monster, he is cute! The art is fun, especially the ‘pickle thorns’.” We recommend this book to anyone who wants a fun story with a surprise at the end.

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

Strawberry Cream Cheese Cake Pops

This was last years Valentines Day treat that I had lots of fun creating with a friend. I shared on my last blog but thought I'd share it again here this year. Hope you have fun making them!

Ingredients:

1 box strawberry cake mix

3 eggs

1 cup milk

½ cup sour cream

1 container cream cheese frosting

Lollipop sticks

Candy melts

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl combine the cake mix, eggs, milk and sour cream, mix well. Pour batter into a greased 9x13 baking dish and bake for 25-30 minutes. Remove from oven and cool completely. Crumble the cake into a large bowl. Add the frosting and mix with your hands, or the back of a spoon. Form into small bite sized balls and freeze for several hours until firm. Remove from freezer. Reshape balls so they are completely smooth. Push the lollipop sticks into the center of each ball. Melt desired color of candy melts according to package directions and dip cake pops, place on parchment paper to harden. Store the leftovers in the fridge.  Enjoy!

Tip:

I make the cakes balls a few days in advanced and leave them in the freezer. The day I need them is when I decorate them.

Bean's Valentines

Ever since Daddy took Bean and Buggy to see the Disney movie Frozen they have been obsessed! They both can sing every song word for word as they do the actions/dancing that goes along with them. So naturally, when it came time for Bean to choose the Valentines she would like to take to preschool she wanted Elsa and Anna ones. After searching for them in lots of stores, I was only able to find them online but wasn’t impressed, so we did the next best thing and made our own. I got my idea and with Daddy’s Photoshop skills it came to life!

Do You Want to Build a Snowman is one of the girls’ favorite songs from the movie so I had the idea to use that and give treats for building a snowman. So included in the bag are: Three large marshmallows for the body, two small marshmallows for his feet, two pretzel sticks for arms, five raisins for eyes and buttons, and of course an orange candy for the nose! I found a picture online that we liked, and Daddy added in the words I came up with on Photoshop. Hence our Frozen valentine was created! Bean absolutely loves them and can’t wait to give them to her friends on Valentines day!

 I left a boarder on the top of the cards when I cut them out to fold over with the bag then to attach the card and close the bag I stapled at the top corners. On the back white boarder I wrote, Love Bean.

3 Ingredient Red Velvet Cookies

I came up with this recipe the other day while grocery shopping. I knew I wanted to create a new dessert recipe for Valentines Day, yet at the same time I'm trying to eat healthy and lose weight. So what better way to indulge in sweets than to make them healthy right? I hope you enjoy these cookies as much as I do! Seriously, how much easier (and  healthier) can making a cookie get...

Ingredients:

1 box red velvet cake mix

1 ½ cups vanilla Greek yogurt

1 cup milk or white chocolate chips or ¾ cup mini chocolate chips

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. In a medium bowl combine the cake mix and yogurt. Mix well. Fold in the chocolate chips. Scoop cookie dough in about 1 inch balls onto a parchment paper lined cookie sheet. Bake for 12-14 minutes. Remove from oven, cool for 5-10 minutes, then remove cookies to a cooling rack to cool completely. Store the cookies in an air tight container. ENJOY!

Tip:

This recipe is also good as a dip, serve with Vanilla Wafers and/or pretzels.

Microwave Potato Skins

This is a super easy, yummy, and fun snack to make for the "big game" on Sunday. Hope your families enjoy them as much as mine!

Ingredients:

4 medium sized potatoes

2 tablespoons butter

4 pieces of bacon

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Salt

Sour cream for dipping

Method:

Wash potatoes very good. Prick each potato several time with a fork. Place potatoes in microwave at least an inch apart and cook on high 4-6 minutes or until slightly firm, turning in two minute increments. Set aside to cool. Place bacon on a plate between two paper towels, microwave for 2-4 minutes, rotating every minute, until crispy. Cut each potato in half and scoop out the centers leaving about a ¼ inch boarder. Place the potato centers into a small bowl. Once all the potatoes are scooped, mash the centers with butter until smooth (add a little milk too if desired), salt to taste. Arrange skins on a plate. Place filling back into skins making them level. Top each with cheese pressing into the filling slightly. Crumble bacon and sprinkle on top. Microwave for 2 minutes or until the cheese is melted. Serve with sour cream for dipping. (You can also broil them to melt the cheese if doing a larger quantity). ENJOY!

Dress Up Aprons...Part 1

Bean and Buggy LOVE to dress up, I love to encourage their imaginations and play but at the same time putting dress up after dress up on and off drives me crazy! I saw ideas for dress up aprons on pinterest, there are a lot out there! So I do what I do best, show daddy my idea, tell him I want them for the girls, and I put him to work! That's right Daddy does the sewing in this house! I'm all for making blankets and quilts but daddy does everything else! We came up with a list of all the Disney princesses and then added other people the girls know, we came up with 25+ ideas. We are hoping to have them all done for the girls for Christmas.

I thought I would post the first few that we have done so far and will post the others as they get done. Keep in mind these are Daddy's original ideas of what each princess/character's apron should look like. He did use a basic apron pattern for the general shape and size but has created each unique one himself...I know he is talented, much more than me in this aspect, hence he does the sewing projects! Enjoy!

 Snow White

Princess Sofia (Sofia the First)

 Merida

 Minnie Mouse

 Belle

 Strawberry Shortcake

 Aurora

 These are the ones we have done so far, stay tuned for more fun dress up aprons to come, some include: Doc McStuffins, Sally (from nightmare before Christmas), Tinkerbell, Silvermist, Jasmin, Ariel... and many more!

Chocolate Mint Sandwiches

Christmas is by far my all time favorite holiday! I love everything about it, the decorations, giving gifts, the reason why we celebrate, and of course all of the baking and candy making! I grew up making candy with my grandma and mom for every Christmas for as long as I can remember! I have so many memories of that and love that my girls get to enjoy it as well. It's now four generations making candy not three and I love that my girls get to make the same memories as i have of this beautiful holiday season! We only made two kinds of candy when I was growing up but now I have created more recipes and fun candy recipes. This one was created especially for my dad, he absolutely loves mint and his favorites are mint sandwiches so I came up with a super simple way to make them at home! Hope you can use this easy recipe to create many memories of candy making with your family!

Ingredients:

6 cups milk chocolate wafers, divided

3 cups green mint wafers

Method:

Melt 3 cups chocolate wafers in the microwave for 30 second intervals, stirring each time, until melted. Pour melted chocolate onto a parchment lined jelly roll pan. Spread evenly across entire pan. Let set until barely tacky. Melt the mint wafers in the microwave for 30 second intervals, stirring each time until melted. Pour over first layer of chocolate, spread evenly. Let set until barely tacky. Melt remaining chocolate the same way. Pour over the mint layer, spreading evenly. Let set until hard. Remove from pan by lifting out the parchment paper. Cut candy into squares. ENJOY!