Banana-Graham Butterflies

Posted on April 27, 2013 by happyhooligans

Make snack-time fun with our Banana-Graham Butterflies!

It feels like winter might well and truly be over, so we’ve been focusing on Spring crafts here. We’ve made tissue paper butterflies, paper towel butterflies, butterfly magnets. Last week, in keeping with our theme, I made these simple and sweet Banana-Graham Butterfly snacks for the hooligans. They were easy to make, and the perfect treat for celebrating the arrival of Spring.

You’ll need:

one banana
2 graham crackers
2 chocolate chip “eyes”
smarties or m&m’s
peanut butter
antennae: toothpicks or coffee stir sticks

To assemble your butterfly:

Peel a banana and cut a slit into each side. With the tip of your knife, scoop out a small amount of the fruit. Set the banana aside for a moment.
Spread a small amount of peanut butter on each smartie, and stick them onto the graham crackers.
Gently press each cracker into the sides of the banana.
With a tiny amount of peanut butter, attach the chocolate chips to the front of the banana butterfly.
Trim your antennae to about 2 inches in length, and pop them into the top of the banana.

Enjoy!!

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orange cup bird feeders

Posted on January 31, 2013 by happyhooligans

orange cup bird feeders filled with nuts, berries and seeds…

To keep us on our game, and one step ahead of the cold germs, my hubby has been making us fresh squeezed orange juice every morning. We’re talking “hand-squeezed” here. It tastes amazing, and we’re staying healthy (yay!), but those orange peels pile up quickly, and they’re so pretty that I kinda hate to just toss them in the composter, so the other day, the hooligans and I turned a bunch of them into these gorgeous orange cup bird feeders to show our feathered friends some love.

What you’ll need:

Some empty orange halves and a variety of nuts, berries and seeds and grains.

Use whatever you happen to have in your cupboard, just as long as a bird or a squirrel can make a meal of it.

Here’s what we used:

How we made our orange cup bird feeders:

My helper poured all of the ingredients into a shallow pan and gave them a good stir.

Doesn’t this look good? Kinda makes you wish you were a bird, huh?Mixing it up with your bare hands is great fun too! The sound, the smell and the feel of the mix as you run your fingers through it makes this a wonderful sensory experience.

Then I melted about 1/4 cup of butter and 1/2 cup peanut butter together over low heat.

This will firm up as it cools and provide a base for your bird-food to bind to, and keep it from falling out of the cup.

Pour a tablespoon or two of the peanut butter/butter mixture into each cup.

Now sprinkle a handful of your nut and berry mix into the cup and pat it into the base.

Today we headed outside with our bird feeders, and we scattered them throughout the gardens in our backyard. To keep them in place, and to prevent the high winds from blowing them away, I speared the bottom of each orange with a sturdy twig or branch. I’m happy to say that after a full day of really high winds, the feeders stayed in place.

Now we’ll just have to watch and see if the birds and squirrels find them! We’ll keep you posted. If this is your first visit to our blog, I’d love for you to pop over and like us on facebook!

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Black Forest Trifle

Posted on December 27, 2012 by happyhooligans

This Black Forest Trifle is absolutely delicious, super-simple to make, and it’s big enough to feed a crowd.

It’s not fancy or finicky, it takes just 5 ingredients, and it tastes as wonderful as it looks.

You’ll need just 5 ingredients:

1 540 mL can cherry pie filling
1 1L Cool Whip (thawed)
1 pkg brownie mix
2 pkgs chocolate mousse
4 Skor bars

Bake, cool and crumble your brownies.

Prepare chocolate mousse according to directions on package.

Crush skor bars (I put them in a large sealable bag and smash them with the can of pie filling).

In a large trifle bowl (or large glass salad bowl), layer the ingredients in the following order:

1/2 crumbled brownies,
1/2 cherry pie filling
1/2 chocoloate mousse
1/2 cool whip
1/2 crushed skor pieces

Repeat layers with the remaining ingredients, and you’re done!

Black Forest Trifle! How easy was that? And doesn’t it look amazing?

If you’re interested in more of my favourite dessert recipes, you can check out our Quick and Easy Coffee Cake. Its is absolutely fabulous, and calls for only a handful of ingredients. And there’s our Best Ever Banana Cake with Cream Cheese Icing. It’s another really easy cake to make, and it is seriously to. die. for.

Bon Appetite!

easy way to peel a pomegranate

Posted on November 5, 2012 by happyhooligans

If you’ve ever deprived yourself of the pleasure of eating a pomegranate simply because you didn’t know how to peel one, or couldn’t be bothered with the effort, my friends, I have good news. Life-changing good news.

There is a mess-free, easy way to peel a pomegranate. So simple, you may just find yourself putting pomegranates in your shopping cart from now until the end of the season. In case you’re wondering, in the northern hemisphere, pomegranate season runs Oct-Feb, while in the southern hemisphere, it’s Mar-May. (I did not know this before today. I am not an expert in all things pomegranate. I did some googling earlier today).

Ok. Prepare to be amazed. Prepare to grab your wallet and your keys and rush out to the grocery store to buy a pomegranate just so you can try this yourself! It really is kinda fun, and your kids will get a kick out of it.

Here we go… grab a pomegranate, a knife, a bowl of cold water, and set yourself up at the kitchen sink. (I set my bowl right IN the sink).

Slice off the “flowering” end of the pomegranate and SCORE the peel 4 times (at 12, 3, 6 and 9 oclock, if you know what I mean). You don’t have to score deeply. You can see how deep I went in this next photo, and I probably went “down” the side of the pomegranate about an inch to an inch and a half. (warning: Do not do this while sitting on a white sofa, or even while wearing a white shirt for that matter. Pomegranate juice does stain).
Pop the pomegranate into your bowl of cold water and let it sit for 4-5 minutes. (I don’t know why the 4-5 minute part. I’ve skipped straight to step 3 before, and it’s been fine.
With the pomegranate submerged in the bowl of water, gently pry it apart. (keeping it submerged prevents berries and juice from spraying and staining you). (These are not my hands in the next 2 pics. My 15 year old offered to be my hand model when it became apparent that I couldn’t hold a camera and pry apart a pomegranate under water. ( I realize in this next picture, the pomegranate is not actually UNDER water. We just wanted to show you the prying apart process.)
Now, (still under-water), use your thumbs and fingers to wiggle and pry all of the seeds, which are actually called ARILS, free from the white pith of the pomegranate.
Use your hands or a seive to skim any pith out of the water. The seeds will sink to the bottom of the bowl, and the pith, for the most part, will float, making this fairly easy to do.
Lastly, scoop up the arils by the handful, and run them under some cold water to rinse any last little bits of pith away.

And there you have it! A super easy way to peel a pomegranate! Start to finish, that took about 5 minutes. Not bad, eh? Now grab yourself a bowl, and enjoy!

Mmmmmm!!

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