Sweet Sandy B can cook?

As a mother, and a single mom at that- I'm constantly thinking of what to make for dinner. I'm lucky though- my kids are easy.

By easy I mean they will ALWAYS eat ANY of the following things. Get ready, this list is gonna change your life.. ahem..:

-Mac n cheese (as long as it comes from the 'favorite' blue box. they aren't fooled by Annie's Organic Blue Box mac n cheese)
-Hot dogs (NOT soy dogs or Turkey dogs. They want the real deal encased meat)
-Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (don't even think about natural peanut butter. it's gotta be Jiff)
-Go-gurts (or any yogurt in a tube really. even stoneyfield. but they appreciate the pandering to their artistic side. as in graphics make it more palatable)
-Cereal. most any kind of cereal. this is where they do me proud. Moochie loves Rice Chex and Owen likes Life. Over Cinnamon Toast Crunch! crazies.
-Pancakes
-Chicken nuggets- obviously they prefer those from the golden arches, but they do get down on those I bake in the oven

I'm sure you are thinking- wait wait wait. What about fruit and veggies?
My kids will promptly laugh in your face if you offer them a raw carrot. They aren't swayed by the addition of a dipping sauce or some cute description of calling broccoli "trees" or some such nonsense.

They will however eat watermelon, pineapple and apples (#1) and strawberries, apples and bell peppers- preferably red (Moochie) and both will on occasion, eat a banana

Needless to say they aren't fooled by any of that "Sneaky Chef" nonsense and I can't puree food into other foods to get them to eat it. They can taste the difference.
I've thus been reduced to plain old "Eat it because it's good for you and, hey, look at me, I'M eating it. And you know who else eats ________ (fill in the blank)? Spiderman. Spiderman LOVES _______!"

this works. Trust me! sometimes.

Perhaps you are in the same boat. I try to get in healthy and new things when possible and I do the best I can. They are healthy and not underweight or undersized. Even though Moochie is a tiny little thing, her heft is surprising. Trust me, the girl gets enough to eat.
Maybe there are other moms out there that want some inspiration. So I recorded a couple of how-to quick dinner videos and put them on YouTube.

To wet your whistle:


The other day, #1 shocked everyone and requested TUNA. after I picked up my jaw off the floor I quickly made him a tuna sandwich. And, they did drink those Kefir smoothies the other day... So, MAYBE I'm on the right path here

Kefir Anyone?

do you see this happy child- my PICKY Moochie drinking this smoothie?! It's a Kefir smoothie. More on this in a minute..

Over the past year and a half, I noticed that my stomach had developed its own personality. Quite literally, it would speak. I didn't really notice at first what triggered the 'talking' especially because it didn't hurt. At first it was amusing. Then embarrassing. Especially when people would accuse me of not eating to cause my stomach to growl that loudly.

Case in point. My YouTube video:



Around my birthday I finally brought it up to my dr. It was more because I wanted to get my insurance dollars worth of my visit so I had a list of possible questions/topics we could tackle in the situation that my Dr. wanted to skip out of our check up after 3 minutes.

my list:
-my hair...
-my toes, specifically my big toe
-his son (went to culinary school)
-his wife (how does she put up with living w/ a chef?)
-my loud stomach

I have priorities, ok?

Anyhow. After I gave him a plate of chocolate chip cookies and the shadowing intern kept asking me questions about my eyebrows (not kidding), I said in an offhand way- "So, my stomach is really loud. It is sometimes embarrassing. I'm not sure what the trigger is, except to say it's after I eat. Not before."

In his authoritative dr. way says "it's the dairy. Stop eating cheese, yogurt and drinking milk for two weeks. See what that does for you." He ate a cookie and we spent another 10 minutes talking about them. I tell you these cookies could bring peace to the modern world! BUY SOME from my Etsy shop! (www.etsy.com/shop/sweetsandyb)

I was heartbroken. Or heart bruised at least. I LOVE milk. I'm a pastry person- I put butter in EVERYTHING. and cheese. sweet cheese- brie, blue, munster, aged cheddar, monterrey jack, colby... feta and goat, gruyere and absolutely anything in between. I LOVE cheese. I lamented my break up with dairy and was given a life raft in the form of Natalie Slater.... She suggested I try out some Lifeway products.

New Year, new ideas. Why not, right? I'm taking baby steps into this so I decided to try out a fruit smoothie first. And have my kids go along for the adventure. Plus we were having a playdate and you know how kids are like pack animals. One tries it, they all try it.
Here is what we did:

Helios Organic Gluten Free Kefir in Raspberry (Helios and Lifeway = same), raspberry sorbet (no dairy), Lifeway frozen strawberry Kefir, and frozen strawberries

into the smoothie blender it goes and...


Bottoms UP!




The kids KILLED the smoothies.

Confession. I kept taste testing the smoothie as it was blending and by nature, Kefir is a bit tart and tangy. I really enjoy that. I know my little monsters do not have the tart/tangy thing going on in their little monster palates, yet. So, I added some honey to get some sweetness, without adding pure sugar.

It was the perfect introduction to Kefir- so search some out in your local grocery store. I would say that was my largest issue- hunting down different Lifeway products. Four grocery stores later and who would have THOUGHT, my local smallville grocery store had a few options. Maybe it's not so bad here, after all (try telling that to my boyfriend though....)
Check out their website- www.kefir.com or better yet- like them on Facebook: www.facebook.com/lifewaykefir

while you are at it- you can like MY fan page- www.facebook.com/Sweet-Sandy-B

Dear Blog, I've been missing you!

A week away from my manifesto and I have been missing it so...
I have a lot of random thoughts that I'll put in the other normal spot- go look! But, have some quick pictures to get up here.

FIRST, here is a little tease of my bestie's 30th birthday cake:



My camera is M.I.A. and it has the real deal pictures of this cake. Silly Rebel, where did you run off to??

This was a BIG cake. Bottom tier was chocolate banana cake and banana cake w/ a malted chocolate ganache. Middle tier was ALL yellow cake w/ chocolate frosting (Bestie's FAV), and top tier was chocolate and yellow cake with the chocolate frosting.
All covered in Swiss Buttercream frosting and fondant designs. The top decoration was wire with beads on the end.

I drew up the design on a 'break' from my class last week, and got giddy excited to make it. It took quite a bit longer than anticipated- I felt REALLY out of practice, I haven't done a cake in a while... wait... scratch that-I DID make a cake last Tuesday! Yipes, how did I forget!? I had the FAIL with frosting. oooh, more on that in a hot minute...

You know how some people remind you of a color? (lol, remember the move Baby Mama where Amy Poehler says your aura has a color? wow I love that movie). So, my bestie's color is yellow. I don't know why- I think or brighty, sunshine-y yellow when I imagine her 'aura'. So that's how the color theme came about- sunrise colors.

Now, back to the frosting fail. We had a brief spring warm up last week. We got to EIGHTY on Thursday, and starting Tuesday afternoon/evening the house started to warm up. I didn't think it was that warm, but as I was making the buttercream I noticed it wasn't setting up like it normally does. Something was AMISS! But I kept whipping it and slowly it cooperated. hmph... I didn't give it too much thought.
THEN I started to frost the cake (I don't have pictures of this cake EITHER, as it's on the pesky little missing Rebel)... the dirty frost went on ok... It was a chocolate cake which I don't like frosting because it's so messy. But, it seemed to be going ok, and I put it in the fridge to set up.
queue music as I take a break to go and pack for my class for the rest of the week...
I come back downstairs, take the cake out and start to do the second layer of frosting.
THE FROSTING WOULDN"T STICK TO THE CAKE. It became too warm, the house was too warm, it didn't want to cooperate. I freaked out. I thought I did something wrong w/ the frosting. I took a big spoonfull and tasted it. It seemed fine, what was going on?!

I feel bad admitting, I seriously gave up on this cake. We got in a fight, the cake won. I did what I could, but I was in a rush to get it delivered- no excuse, I realize. But it wasn't my best work and not until I was packing it up did it all dawn on me that the temperature in the house played a huge role in the cake fail.

I totally blocked that from my mind. weird.

OK, wait here is something good to end on until I get the Rebel back and can post pictures of the Bestie Birthday cake:




Libby, I <3 you!! Didn't she do a great job? She is the cutest pregnant person I have ever been around, she was so sweet and I can't wait to do more business with her. We are crafting up an evil genius plan to help promote each other, and frankly- the idea is SWEET. PLEASE, go check her out: Elizabeth K Photography and become her fan.

Get ready! (part I)

This is gonna be a long one! And will have to be in two parts... Part 2 will have to come tomorrow because I just realized I didn't download all the pictures.. dang!

SO, FIRST- had a very last minute cake to make at the end of last week. My dear friend at work decided to leave and follow a new adventure with another company. My dear Miss Marsha bid us farewell and I made her a BIG square cake. I wanted to practice covering a square cake again so this was a good opportunity. It was a simple affair- (5) 8" square layers. 4 layers were marble cake and 1 layer was strawberry, just for fun. There was either strawberry ganache or amaretto ganache all covered in the usual Swiss Buttercream and then chocolate fondant over the top.
Check it out:



Then... Then I had a very important date on Saturday with a new friend, Libby. She and I are hatching up an evil genius plan together and the first step was to get her stellar photography skills over to my kitchen to snap some of my attempts at greatness and me attempting to make them great. ;) Here is the cake I made and one of the cupcakes I made for the photo shoot :




You can check out one of the pictures she took of me on my facebook fan page, look for Sweet Sandy B and become my fan if you aren't already. I can't WAIT to see the rest of the pictures. giddy!
**Cake was 3 layers of Chocolate Creme de Menthe w/ a mint ganache and covered in Swiss Buttercream. The cupcake is Clementine Creamsicle w/ Swiss Buttercream.**

Then, Easter... It was a beautiful day- just gorgeous out. #1 and Mooch had a fab time hunting for eggs, and thankfully the kiddos don't like looking at the camera for pictures so I have a few to share of them hunting for those eggs left by that pesky Easter Bunny:




And, like a lot of American homes, we had ham for dinner.. lots and LOTS of ham. and lots of LEFTOVER ham... I found a yummy recipe for what to DO with all of that leftover ham and made some Scalloped Potato and ham gratins in my muffin tins. Seriously, they are delightful and nothing but BAD for you... butter, cream, cheese, ham, potatoes... sigh.. heaven in a muffin tin.




and then... I wanted to make carrot cake and try out this recipe for "the best pound cake ever". My idea was to do it on Saturday or Sunday, but that didn't happen (as things often DON'T go as planned lately). And then I started to feel under the weather and tired... so, they kept getting put off.

But then, a few twists and turns later, THIS was created:




And I'll tell you MORE about it tomorrow when I have the pictures lined up to tell you the story.. it's a good one! :) Happy Hump day! (ew, I HATE that saying. yuck and YUCK)