Cute Ideas for Moms!

I haven't tried these out yet, but saw them at the Family Fun website (here) and couldn't resist sharing!

Butterfly Cheese Sandwich


Ingredients

1 pat butter or margarine
2 slices bread
2 slices cheese
Vegetables (such as celery, carrots, cherry tomatoes, red bell pepper)





Directions

Melt butter in frying pan
Assemble the sandwich, as you would a normal grilled cheese sandwich, with the exception of putting the rounded tops of the bread at opposite ends. then grill.
Cut the sandwich in half so the rounded tops go out to the sides, cut out 2 small triangles from each side's middle to form each wing.
Place celery stick in the middle, with cherry tomato as head, carrots as antennae, and slice carrot or peppers to make spots on wings.
----------OR------------
**Put out the vegetables in bowls and let the kids decorate their very own butterfly!**


Strawberry Shortcake Snake

Ingredients
2 cups all purpose flour
6 tablespoons confectioners' sugar (plus a little extra for berries)
4 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine
1 quart strawberries
Whipped cream
M&Ms
Green fruit leather


Directions:

Heat the oven to 400 degrees. Sift together the flour, 2 tbs confectioners' sugar, baking powder, and salt into a large mixing bowl. Cut in the margarine with pastry cutter. Once the dough is crumbly, slowly stir in the milk. Turn the dough onto a floured working surface and gently roll or pat the dough into a 1 inch thick rectangle (It should measure about 6 by 8 inches) for best results handle the dough as little as possible.
Slice the rectangle into 4 1 1/2-by 8-inch strips. Place the strips on an un-greased baking sheet, then mold and curve them into S-shapes to resemble snakes. Bake for 10-12 minutes, until the bottoms are golden brown. Transfer the baked shortcakes to a wire rack to cool.
Slice all but 4 of the berries lengthwise into a mixing bowl. Toss with the remaining confectioners' sugar.
Carefully slice the cooled shortcakes in half lengthwise, arrange the sliced strawberries on the bottom half of each one cover with shortcake top. "Frost" with whipped topping and sliced strawberries as scales. Add whole strawberry for head, dab small amount of whipped cream to hold M&ms in place for eyes, and add a fruit leather tongue. Serves 4!

Grilled Pizza

Grilled Pizza! Mmm!!

Pizza Dough (By Rebecca T)

1 C hot water

1/2 c margarine

1 T yeast

2 1/2 c flour

1 t sugar

1 t salt

Melt margarine in hot water. Add yeast and sugar and sit for 5 minutes. Add flour and salt and knead well. Roll.

Place rolled dough on a hot grill 5 minutes (with grill cover). Turn dough over, remove from grill and put your toppings on the grilled side (do the cheese last). Return the dough to the grill for 5-7 minutes.

Or, place the dough in your pan or stone, place toppings on, and bake at 450 for 12-15 minutes.

*We grilled the pizza and I have a couple of recomendations. Next time, we will make smaller, personal pizzas as they are easier to turn and handle. Also, take the dough off the grill to do the toppings. When we removed the dough, we lifted one side and slid a large cutting board under it. Also, I substituted half whole wheat flour for white and added 1 tablespoon of Italian seasonings. Toppings we used were sausage, olives, onions, pineapple, green pepper, onions, zuchini. Also, I am not a sauce person so we omit the sauce from the pizza. Instead, I sprinkle it with a little bit of parmesan cheese and some basil, oregano, and garlic powder.

Enjoy!

Chicken Pasta Pomodoro

Boil approximately half a pound of your favorite pasta al dente.

While pasta is cooking, cook the following in a large frying pan on medium heat:

1/2 c. chicken broth

1/4 c. olive oil

3 medium tomatoes diced - canned tomatoes also work

1 zucchini, diced

2 Tablespoons minced garlic

2 Tablespoons fresh basil (If using dried, use about 2 teaspoons)

Salt and Pepper to taste (I usually add quite a bit)

Add 2 or 3 cooked chicken tenderloins or 1 cooked chicken breast.*

Simmer until tomatoes are soft and zucchini is tender.

Pour over pasta and top with grated Parmesan or Romano cheese. Enjoy!

Serves 4-6.

*You can easily make it meatless by omitting the chicken or add shrimp or sausage for variety.

Angel Hair Pasta with Shrimp Scampi

This is so good and relatively fast to make because both shrimp and angel hair cook quickly. Make it even quicker by buying already cooked shrimp. The end result isn't very saucy, but it's very flavorful.
You could use spaghetti or linguini instead if you have those, but I love angel hair. And you can find fish sauce in the asian/thai section of most grocery stores. I'll post another recipe or two that uses it later!


1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 pound medium (16-20) shrimp peeled, deveined, and split in ½ lengthwise 1 C seasoned flour, seasoned with
½ teaspoon salt and ½ teaspoon black pepper
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 Tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
8 ounces (1/2 pkg) angel hair - cook/drain at the last minute
2 Tablespoons fresh herbs; basil, rosemary, marjoram, or parsley combined OR 1 tsp. dried of each
¼ cup clam juice or fish sauce (I used fish sauce)
1 Tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 cup heavy cream (I used evaporated milk)
¼ cup romano cheese

Toss shrimp in seasoned flour. Shake off excess flour. Meanwhile, in medium skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat. Add shrimp to the hot skillet, cook until lightly browned then turn over. Add garlic to the middle of the pan, when garlic begins to turn golden, pour lemon juice over garlic. Sprinkle in fresh herbs, then add clam juice and reduce by half. Add Worcestershire sauce, heavy cream, and cheeses. Heat through. Toss with Angel Hair and season to taste with salt and pepper.
Makes 3-4 servings
Prep time: 20 minutes