Ham and Swiss Mac n Cheese

                          Ham and Swiss Mac n Cheese

 Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups milk
1 12 oz can evaporated milk
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted, cooled to room temp to prevent curdling
3 large eggs
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 pound elbow macaroni or mini penne tubes, par cooked and drained (this means cook them for about five minutes until tender but not completely cooked), cooled to room temp to prevent curdling
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 cup diced ham
1 Tbl Paprika
8 oz shredded Swiss cheese
8 oz shredded fontina cheese
1/4 cup bread crumbs toasted in pan with olive oil
 

 Whisk together milks, cooled butter, eggs and seasonings until combined and smooth.

Add Swiss, fontina, ham and cooled macaroni.
Stir together to coat the pasta.


 Sprinkle the parm on top and cover
Cook on LOW 2 1/2 hours (ok to keep on warm an addtl 1/2 hr but no more or it may curdle).





 Sprinkle toasted bread crumbs on top and serve.

Chicken Primavera Alfredo Lasagna

                       Chicken Primavera Alfredo Lasagna

Ingredients:
12 cooked lasagna noodles
2 jars Alfredo sauce
1/2 head finely chopped broccoli (about 2large stalks)
1/2 head finely chopped cauliflower
3 carrots shredded
2 boneless chicken breasts cut into 1" cubes
1 8 oz container ricotta cheese
2 bags shredded mozzarella cheese
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2tbl Italian seasoning
Salt 
Pepper
Olive oil

Heat 2 Tbl olive oil over medium high heat in a large pan
Season chicken cubes with salt and pepper
Cook chicken cubes in pan (about 5 minutes each side) until golden brown on the outside and thoroughly cooked inside.
While chicken is cooking, steam cauliflower until very tender.

Put cooked cauliflower in a medium bowl and mash until very fine.
Add ricotta cheese, Parmesan cheese and italian seasoning to cauliflower and mix well.




 
Take cooked chicken and dice into small pieces.
Place chicken into a medium bowl and add broccoli, carrots, and 1 jar of Alfredo sauce, mixing well.





Preheat oven to 350*
In a 13x9 baking pan, pour half of the second jar of Alfredo sauce at the bottom, spreading it around to throughly cover the bottom of the pan. Place 3 lasagna noodles along the bottom.





Spoon 1/3 of the ricotta mixture on top of the noodles, spreading it out to cover noodles
Spoon 1/3 of the chicken mixture on top of the ricotta mixture, spreading it out to cover the noodles.
Sprinkle 1/3 of one of the bags of mozzarella on top of the chicken. Place 3 more lasagna noodles on top and repeat the layers of ricotta, chicken and mozzarella. Repeat above step.

Place last 3 noodles on top, then pour remaining Alfredo sauce on top.  Sprinkle entire second bag of mozzarella cheese on top.  





 

Cover with foil and bake 40 minutes.
Remove from oven, remove foil and then bake an additional 10 minutes until cheese is bubbly and sides are golden brown.
Let cool 5 minutes then serve.

Spider Lollipop Treats

With my favorite holiday right around the corner, I just had to make one of the crafts I recently found on my Disney Family Fun craft app for my IPad. I tweaked it just a little bit, but my son just had a blast making it, and has actually for once not fought me to eat a lollipop. This is a great craft to do at a kids Halloween party, for your kid's class, or to do with your kids and pass out on Halloween night to all the trick or treaters. So get your bag of dum dums or tootsie pops ready and get to crafting! Materials: 1 round lollipop black tempera paint (non toxic) 4 black pipe cleaners 2 googly eyes glue Take your 4 pipe cleaners and lay them side by side. Place the lollipop in the center of the pipe cleaners, with the first one flush against the lollipop. Wrap the pipe cleaners around the lollipop stick two times, ending with four "legs" sticking out of each side. Bend the pipe cleaners so that they resemble spider legs. Paint the lollipop wrapper and exposed stick with the black paint. Let dry Once dry, glue the googly eyes onto the lollipop wrapper, and you now have an adorable spider that even my kid won't eat.

Earth Day Chia Pet

This one is in honor of Earth Day, and is a homemade chia pet (or as my son lovingly named his, "Robot Cup").

What you need:
Plastic cup (hopefully recycled)
Cupful of dirt (go dig up some from the yard)
2 googly eyes
pom poms
pipe cleaner
feather, sequins, whatever you would like/have lying around to embellish)
grass seeds (or if you have a cat and REALLY want to make it happy, get catnip seeds)



What to do:
1) Glue on googly eyes, a pom pom for a nose, and the pipe cleaner for the mouth.
2) Decorate and embellish to you hearts content until your cup looks just like the Chia Pet you child always wanted.  :)
3) Fill cup with dirt to almost 3/4 of the way.
4) Pour in a generous amount of grass seeds
5) Pat seeds down gently and then top off cup to almost full with remaining dirt
6) Water your Chia Pet cup, place in window and watch it grow!

*My son Connor loves going out to visit "Robot Cup" every morning to water him and talk to him, and give him haircuts.  Just make sure if you go out of town for a bit, have someone water your cup, otherwise you'll get home and he'll look like he used a bottle of conditioner on his hair!

Sock Bunny

Well, everyone I know loves sock monkeys (how can you not?), so we decided to post a really cute Easter version of a sock monkey...a sock bunny!  It's an easy and fun no sewing involved craft you can do with your kids, and you can alter and make this your own however you want.

So here's what you'll need:
-1 knee high kids sock (pink, white, blue, or whatever color you want your bunny to be)
-2 googly eyes
-2 rubber bands
-stuffing (polyfill, beans, cotton balls, whatever you'd like)
-white pom pom
-1 ft ribbon
-red and black marker
-glue
-scissors

And here's what you do:
1) Stuff sock with filling enough to create a body (about 3" tall) and then wrap 1 rubber band around until it is tied off.
2) Continue stuffing sock with filling to create a head (about 1 1/2" tall) and then wrap the other rubber band around until it is tied off as well.
3) Take the ribbon and tie it around the neck of the bunny into a bow. 
4) Glue the white pom pom onto the back of the bunny's body for a tail
5) Glue the googly eyes onto the bunny's head.
6) Draw a mouth, nose and whiskers for the bunny's face
7) Take the remaining part of the sock and cut it in half until you are almost to the top rubber band to make the ears.
8) Add any other embellishments you'd like to make the bunny your own
9) Commence cuddling!

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St Patrick's Day Green Candied Popcorn Recipe

Green Candied Popcorn

 

4 quarts popped corn
1 1/2 Cups sugar
1/2 Cup light corn syrup
2 Tablespoons butter
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar (optional, does make mixture slightly more creamy)
1/4 teaspoon vanilla (or for a flavored candied popcorn, substitute for liquid flavoring, like lime)
1 teaspoon baking soda
green food coloring (I used about 1/8 teaspoon Wilton paste color in Kelly Green)
In heavy saucepan on medium heat melt butter then add sugar, corn syrup, cream of tartar and salt. Increase temperature to medium high and bring mixture to a boil, stirring constantly to dissolve sugar. Once mixture boils, add in food coloring and stop stirring. Boil for 5 minutes (Do not stir). Mixture should be about 250-260 degrees. Remove from heat and carefully stir in vanilla and baking soda. Working quickly and while mixture is foamy, pour mixture over popped corn and gently stir to coat popcorn. Place popcorn into a large roaster or rimmed baking sheet (lined with parchment paper or sprayed with cooking spray) and bake at 200° F for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes.

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Florida Flamingo Valentines Cards

So, since it is almost Valentine's Day, I've been searching for a cute idea to post for a handmade unique Valentine.  Who would have thought I'd find in within the pages of my 2 year old's favorite magazine?  These adorable Flamingo Valentines are right up my alley...especially with us being based out of Florida.  So I had to share this with everyone out there.  The idea comes from Michelle Reyzer and the photo is by Mark Godfrey (Feb 2010 edition of Your Big Backyard by National Wildlife Federation).  Check them out, make them with your kids (or by yourself) as they are too cute to pass up!



What You Need:

-pink construction paper
-pink pipe cleaners
-pink feathers
-googly eyes
-scissors
-glue
-black marker (thin)

What You Do:
 1. Cut out two matching heart shapes and one beak shape (a
     rounded triangle) from the construction paper.
 2. Bend one of the pipe cleaners into an "S" shape to make the
     flamingo's neck.  Glue the pipe cleaner to one heart.  Glue
     feathers to the same heart to make a tail.
 3. Glue the other two pipe cleaners to the bottom of the heart.
                                                                      Bend them to make legs.
                                                                 4. Write a valentine message on the other heart.
                                                                 5. Glue the second heart directly on top of the first heart
                                                                     (valentine's message up!).  This will cover the glued ends of
                                                                     the pipe cleaners and feathers.
                                                                 6. Color the tip of the beak black as shown.  Glue on the googly
                                                                     eye.  Then glue the beak to the end of the neck.  Fluff up the
                                                                     pipe cleaner neck, and your Flamingo Valentine is ready to
                                                                     present!

So Happy Valentine's Day to everyone from Working Mommy Is Redundant and Beachside Treasures!!