The Toddler Wants to Bake Pie UPDATED

For two days now, A has been begging me to make a pie. I have no pie fruit, no cans of pie filling. What to do?! I scrounged around in the cupboard and found two boxes of instant pudding. Can you make a decent pie out of INSTANT chocolate pudding? We'll find out!

Without further ado, the "Toddler wants to bake pie and the cupboard is bare" Pie recipe:

A's Chocolate Pie
10 graham crackers, crushed
1/3 C butter (or whatever's left in the tub in this case)
2 Tbs sugar
2 boxes chocolate pudding
2 squares of baker's chocolate, melted
2 cups milk

Melt the butter in the pie pan in the microwave.

Add grahams and sugar and press into the pie pan to make a crust.

Blend pudding mix with 2 cups of milk with an electric mixer.

Fold in melted chocolate and scoop into the pie crust.

Refridgerate for an hour.



It's cooling right now so we don't know if it's any good, but the spatula tasted wonderful! A went through three clean shirts while licking various chocolate-covered tools, so it will probably be a hit.


UPDATE: Served chilled with cool whip on top, this pie is definitely a repeatable experience. It disappeared and the adults fought over the last two pieces.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Cookies

The toddler informed me, upon picking her up from daycare, that she wanted to make cookies. So, we went home and put together some peanut butter chocolate cookies with dark and milk chips. They're in the oven now and I can only imagine that they'll be delicious. The original Dark Chocolate and Chip cookie recipe has been easy to adapt to a number of different variations over the years and all have been fabulous. 8 minutes until we know!

The Chocolate Cookie
1/2 C butter
1 1/2 C sugar
2 eggs
2tsp vanilla
2C flour
1/2 C cocoa powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1-2 C chocolate chips, mixed milk and dark
1/2 C peanut butter

Beat butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla until smooth.

Add cocoa, baking powder, salt and flour, mix.

Fold in chocolate chips and peanut butter.

Bake at 350F for 11 min.

Red and Green or White and Red

This week's recipe: Quinoa Salad with Black Beans and Corn. We liked it so much, we had it twice! The first time, we used white quinoa with a red pepper, and the second time we used red quinoa and a green pepper. You wouldn't think it would make a difference, but it does! I picked this gem up from the babyfit.com website.

Quinoa Salad
1 1/2 C raw quinoa
1 15 oz can of black beans, drained and rinsed
1 can of sweet kernel corn, drained
1 1/2 Tbs red wine vinegar
1 bell pepper, chopped
4 scallions, chopped
1 tsp garlic, minced
1/4 tsp cayenne
1/4C cilantro, chopped
1/3 C lime juice
1/2 tsp salt, plus more to taste
1 1/4 tsp ground cumin
1/3 C olive oil

Prepare the quinoa as directed on package.

Mix beans with vinegar and salt and pepper to taste.

Add beans, corn, bell pepper, scallions, garlic, cayenne, and cumin to quinoa and mix well.

Whisk together lime juice, salt, cumin, and add oil while whisking. Add to the salad and salt and pepper to taste.

This tastes even better as leftovers.

The husband requested an immediate repeat, while the toddler turned her nose up the second time I served it. I think that's more about her being 2 years old than her not liking it, though.

Toddler-Adult Translation

"Feek, Mama!" Speaks, Mama! as in Martha Speaks.

"you fink." you think and tell me the answer.

"I need foon." I need a spoon.

"Fwirrel!" squirrel!

"I'm so cold!" Pick me up and snuggle me. I don't care if it's 90F out.

"I need tension." Come sit next to me while I poop on the toilet.

"Here you go! I got the momter!" Here's the baby monitor, I brought it up from downstairs, even though you don't need it up here.

"Next time I listen." Please stop lecturing me. I already had my time out and want to go play.

"I only wub you foh much." I always love you so much.

Sloppy Garden Joes

Another husband-approved dish! This one comes originally from www.babyfit.com. I have made a few small alterations to it, with great success. It has officially been placed on the "make again" list with a recommendation to try it out with various types of BBQ sauces.

Sloppy Garden Joe's Chili

• 1 onion, chopped
  
• 1/2 green pepper, chopped
  
• 1 lb. ground turkey
  
• 1 8 oz. can tomato sauce
  
• 1 15 oz. can stewed tomatoes, not drained
  
• 1 8oz. can mushrooms, drained
  
• 1/2 cup barbecue sauce
• 1 15 oz. can of black beans, rinsed
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/4 tsp oregano
• 1 tsp liquid smoke
  
• salt and pepper to taste

1. Sauté onions, green pepper and ground turkey in a pan over medium-high heat until turkey is cooked through. I added a little canola oil to the pan to keep the turkey from sticking since I was not using a non-stick pan.

2. Add tomato sauce, crushed tomatoes, mushrooms, beans, garlic, oregano, liquid smoke, barbecue sauce and seasonings and bring to a boil.

3. Reduce heat and simmer until the children are down for the night, stirring occasionally.

4. Serve with cheese, if desired.

Serves 8.

Nightly Prayer by A

"Dear God,
thank you for Papa, Nonna, Micky, Minnie. Once upon time I hurt elbow in the morning. Once upon time, once time. Daddy, Mama, Maggie.
Amen."

Pizza Crust Nirvana

I finally found a pizza crust recipe worth repeating! I have been searching for 15 years for one that I liked! Oh, my, stars! It's grand. The whole family devoured it!

Here it is: pizza crust.

We topped it with:

pepperoni
Italian sausage (chicken, with mozzarella cheese in it)
red pepper
black olives
feta

I used Ragu's jarred pizza sauce, gourmand that I am. LOL. It was divine. Seriously, the toddler ate three pieces all by herself! My husband did not complain about it being too doughy, and I did not complain about it being too hard/crunchy.

Next stop, grilled pizza...