Cinnamon Rolls the Lazy--and Natural--Way

We had a mega sleepover at our house last night. And since I knew I wouldn't be doing a lot of sleeping (who does at these events?), I wanted a yummy breakfast (read: I wanted to be "the cool mom") for the kidz that would also be easy for me. I found Immaculate Baking Company's Cinnamon Rolls at my Super Target. And they. were. awesome.

First off, these rolls are huge. They're absolutely loaded with cinnamon, and the icing is a great consistency. I bought 2 packs of 5 for 6 Kidz and they were gone within minutes. I ate what was left of my Kidz' second one and it was amazing. Tender, flaky bread with just the right amount of sweetness.

And the bonus? In making my purchase I was supporting a local company whose founder has a pretty great story.

Mmmmm.....Natural Indulgence

First off, let me be clear: this post is NOT intended to share a "healthy" food/product/habit. It's about indulgence, and what day more deserves indulgence than a birthday? Of course, this being NatureKidz, I will share my pictures and attempts at making an all-natural (albeit full of fat, sugar, and other bad stuff) birthday cake that I made for my youngest Nature Kid, who recently turned eight.

One of the toughest parts about raising Nature Kidz is that typical mainstream food that is marketed to kids is almost without exception full of chemicals. Petrochemicals to be clear. Artificial flavors like Vanillin (which has absolutely no chemical relation to vanilla), and colors (anything beginning with "FD&C") and other additives are petroleum based chemicals, and the truth is that they can make some people sick. Plus, who wants to eat petroleum? Not me!

So, I have spent the past couple of years experimenting with various natural colors. I reviewed the India Tree colors here. This time I ordered Chefmaster natural colors from Baker's Nook online (can't find them anywhere locally that I am aware). The pictures show the results.

The first rule for those who want to try this is that you just can't expect the brilliant colors you find in the "flavor blasted" fish crackers or in ice pops and that sort of thing. But my Nature Kid, an animal lover, designed the cake herself. I merely put in the hard labor.

What we ended up with is a yellow cake in 2 tiers with buttercream frosting (real butter, sugar, and cream--no shortening here!) and gumpaste figures for decoration. The "dog food" in the bowl is actually Whole Foods' 365 brand Cocoa cereal. The gumpaste figures and the floral border/trim are all colored with the natural food colors. The result? Absolutely sinfully delicious. And Nature Kid was completely thrilled. Mission accomplished.

Another Holiday, Another Batch of Cookies!

I love holidays. Holidays=sugar cookie baking and decorating. And these photos show the pretty pastel colors than can be achieved with the India Tree natural food colors. You won't get brilliant brights, or the deep reds and greens you might want for Christmas, but I was really excited for Easter because I knew I could get some nice colors! As you can see I didn't have great luck getting a pale springlike grass green, but the pink, light blue, pink, and yellow turned out great!

I used the sugar cookie recipe I have posted here on this blog, and made 2 different icings; one is Alton Brown's Royal Icing that I used for thicker icing that can be piped or spread. The other is a smoother, glossy icing (recipe on this blog--check the tags to the right under "recipes" or "cookies). I made it a bit runny this time--next time I'll remember to make it a bit stickier (and that's easy to do by adding powdered sugar).

My elder Nature Kid has a sleepover with 2 friends tonight, so she decorated some cookies for her friends to take along. We had cousins over last night to decorate with us--it's a great, inexpensive, fun way to spend time with family!

Recipes for a Snowstorm, Part 3

Home made whole wheat pancakes with whipped cream

Well, the snowstorm has long since passed by now and the weekend is predicted to be in the 70s. Snow day on Monday, family cookout on Saturday!

That being said, I'd planned to put all 3 of my snow day recipes on the blog so here's the last.

My kidz love pancakes. Sure, you can buy the frozen ones but they're really just empty carbs and even though they're not terribly expensive, making a large batch and freezing the leftovers is healthier and very inexpensive--the ingredients are average household items. You'll pay a bit out of hand for a bottle of real maple syrup and heavy cream but they'll last, are far more natural and taste much, much better.

I made these on the morning of our snow day and have plenty in the freezer for a week's worth of breakfasts for the kidz. Yummy!

Pancakes:
1 3/4 whole wheat flour (or 1/2 and 1/2 or use white wheat flour)
2 T sugar
4 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp. salt
1 3/4 Cups whole organic milk
2 eggs
3T vegetable oil

sift dry ingredients together. In another bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, and oil. Mix into dry ingredients with a wooden spoon just intil combined. My ladel onto hot, greased griddle (I use an electric griddle) and turn when bubbles come to surface. Yield depends on size of pancakes. Top with whipped cream, maple syrup, butter, or berries.

Whipped Cream:
1 Cup heavy cream (I use Horizon organic)
1/2 cup sugar (or evaporated cane juice)
2tsp vanilla (add 1 at a time to taste)

Place metal mixing bowl and whisk in the freezer. I use a large stand mixer, but you can do it by hand. Pour very cold cream into bowl just out of the freezer. Whip until cream just starts to thicken; then add sugar and vanilla slowly to taste (we tend to like ours sweet). Beat until peaks form and it's desired thickness for you.

My kidz like their pancakes silver dollar sized with the syrup and whipped cream on the side for dunking.

Do you miss Rice Krispy Treats?

RECIPE:  Crispy Rice Treats 

with Erewhon Organic Crispy Brown Rice cereal & Elyon Natural Vanilla Marshmallows

My Nature Kidz really missed those neat white squares of sugary, marshmallowy goodness.  But regular marshmallows are anything but natural, containing such ingredients as artificial colors (blue is used to make them more white) and flavors (such as vanillin, which is artificial vanilla derived from petroleum).  And that mainstream rice cereal, well, it *seems* benign but contains added sugar, high fructose corn syrup, and preservatives.  

In order to avoid these issues, I picked up a package of natural marshmallows from my local health food store.  You can make your own homemade marshmallows, of course, but I wanted a shortcut.  All it takes is butter, rice cereal, and marshmallows. Here's the recipe:

1/4 cup (half stick) butter (I actually used more because I misread the instructions, and they turned out great)

1 pkg. Elyon marshmallows (4 cups)

5 cups Crispy Brown Rice cereal (I used Erewhon)

Melt the butter in medium saucepan.  Add marshmallows and stir constantly until melted and mixture is smooth.  Remove from heat and immediately stir in rice cereal.  Press into 9x13 pan or 9x9 pan if you're like me and prefer them thick.  Let cool and enjoy.

I really like this version, and even more I like that the cereal is whole grain brown rice based and has no secret ingredients.  Nature Dad approves, too!

Remember Home Made Play Dough?

The consumer in me had never really thought to make play dough, especially when there is Play-Doh at the stores and it's so cheap.  But we don't have any at home right now and I'm not sure the ingredients are all safe and natural, so I decided to make my own. It's incredibly easy, cheap, and fun. All it takes is a few ingredients and some cookie cutters and scissors (and even those are optional) and your kidz can have hours of fun!

I used my India Tree all natural food colors to color this batch, though you can use other natural colorants.  I don't like the flavor of these for food, but they are an excellent idea for decorating!  

Here's the recipe:

1 cup flour
1/2 cup salt
1 cup water
2 tablespoons oil
2 tablespoons cream of tartar

Mix flour, salt and oil, and slowly add the water. Cook over medium heat, stirring until dough becomes stiff. Turn out onto wax paper and let cool. Knead the playdough with your hands until of proper consistency. Use as is, or divide into balls and add a few drops of coloring and knead until distributed evenly.

Product Review: Tom's All Natural Cookie Dough (Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip)

Dadz Rating: Solid B. 

Kidz Rating: Kid 1: A- "Yummy! So chewy, just right!" Kid 2: B+ --"kinda thick"

I found this brand of cookie dough at my local Super Target; it looked promising as the only ingredients were things I could pronounce and had, myself, put in cookie recipes, like unbleached flour, peanut butter, butter, sugar, and the like.  There was not one mystery ingredient.  A visit to the brand's website provides more information: Tom's Cookies was originally a small San Francisco, CA bakery that has blossomed into a pretty big business (it must be if it's selling its wares at Target!).   

The packaging really does draw this Nature Mom in--its folksy and has that endearing, mom-and-pop feel of companies like Ben & Jerry's.  It certainly was easy to prepare: the website says to cook for 20 minutes at 325; the packaging said 15-18 minutes.  Well, I burned the first batch of 6 and it only came with 12!  The second time I cooked the dough (already formed and waiting to be baked) I shortened baking time to 12 minutes.  They were a little undercooked inside but on the verge of overcooking on the bottoms.  Not good.  

Would I recommend these? Well, that's a tough call.  $4.99 for 12 cookies in a cute box seems like a lot, especially when 20 minutes and a 9x13 pan is all you need for some awesome homemade bar cookies out of stuff you probably already have at home.

12 Days of Conscientious Christmas, Day 7

Hand Painted Gift Boxes, Cookies, and Ornaments.

These are some gift boxes I created which can be reused by the recipients.  I bought them at my local craft store along with the unpainted wooden ornaments.  My kidz painted the ornaments and I painted the boxes.  We've been baking loads of holiday cookies using all natural ingredients (see my recipe in an earlier post by clicking the "cookies" label to the right) and I decided this would be a great way to present them. The snowflake cookies got a box to match, as did the Christmas tree cookies.  The Kidz can really have fun with this, as they helped me make the cookies and then decorated them with royal icing (I have a new recipe--Alton Brown's--which I like a lot) and India Tree colored sprinkles.  It really bummed out my 9 year old that I couldn't find green sprinkles for the trees, so we did mix up some  of the India Tree blue and yellow natural food colors, and got a green similar to the color on the box above.  Not too bad!

Practical and Creative Ideas for the Holiday Season

Featured Photo:

Kristin Phillips' Home made Christmas Card. 

Here are the creator's own words describing how she made this card: 

"I stamped the reindeer image (Stampin' Up) on plain white cardstock with Nearly Navy Ink. I cut out the image and mounted it onto silver cardstock (Bazzil Basics). I stamped the upper corner o fhte same image again with Versamark Ink, making sure to get the little flower motif. I then embossed the image with silver embossing powder. I cut out the little flower motif using a 3/4" square punch and placed it over the original blue images with dimensional adhesive. I put the whole thing on a folded piece of dark blue cardstock (Bazzill Basics).  The glittery snowflakes are buttons (Dress it up) with the shanks removed."

Do you have a home made Christmas card you'd like to share?  Email it to me with your name, details about how it was made, and what inspired you to make it.

I promised that in this post I would start a list of creative, family-oriented, and/or green Christmas gifts and ideas, so here it is.  Send me your ideas on how you plan to spend the holidays and I'll add them to my list!

1.  Make home made ornaments and bring the kids into the fun for a double benefit: family time + checking off some names on the Christmas list. Some specific ideas: applesauce/cinnamon ornaments (see previous post).  Use to decorate your tree, as gifts, or to tie to gifts as tags.
2. Make personalized stationery.  If you're really crafty, make your own folded note cards and stamp or otherwise embellish them.  You can also go simpler and add a pretty monogram or personalization with your computer.  Tie with leftover grosgrain or giftwrap ribbon and you have a great gift.  
3. Bake cookies and consider having a cookie exchange in the neighborhood or with family and friends. I like the neighborhood idea because it brings neighbors together during a festive season when people decorate their homes but it might be too cold to run into each other on the street regularly.  I'll have a separate post explaining the tradition. 
4. Bake cookies as gifts.  Home made cookies are a great treat at the holidays.  Have the kids help decorate them.  To gussy them up, be sure to make up pretty recipe cards.  You can also buy simple cardboard boxes at your craft store for a couple of dollars, paint them with craft paints, and put the cookies in them and tie them up with a bow.  You can even trace cookie cutter outlines on the box to hint at what's inside! Then you have a beautiful gift box that can be reused for another purpose.
5. Here's a great idea shared by Karen of Karen's Kitsch: buy cute shopping bags at stores (she saw some great ones at Ikea; a girlfriend of mine had the same idea and got some great ones at Trader Joe's) and use them as gift bags.  These bags are all the rage now at grocery stores, even at my local Hallmark!  So not only are you wrapping up a gift in an attractive fashion, you're giving the recipient a shopping bag for future use. How cool is that?  You can even find fabric bags in a variety of sizes at Oriental Trading in bulk.
6. Use newspaper as gift wrap.  The comics are a colorful and fun way to reuse, and then recycle, your newspaper.  It's practical, it's funky, and it's eco-friendly.
7. Have a clothing swap: find other Momz who are about your size and who have kidz who are either your kidz' size or one up/down.  Pull out the clothes that don't fit your kidz any more or those pieces that, let's face it, you bought and they just never wore.  Find things of your own that you bought without trying on and just didn't work; the shoes that turned out not to be as comfy on you as you thought; or things you might not have use for any more (such as business attire when you're working from home or in a less formal environment).  Have everyone over, make hot cocoa and offer some of your home made Christmas cookies, and go "shopping!"
8. Make things from scratch. Yes, I know, you want to smack me. Who has time, especially during the holidays?  But if you can set aside a Sunday afternoon you can probably knock out several entrees in large batches and freeze them in portions sized for your family.  You can also save money this way--processed, prepackaged food is more expensive than buying whole ingredients.  We pay for convenience with our wallets and our health.  Make your own cocoa instead of buying the boxes with the mystery ingredients: Hershey's has the recipe right on the can and it's nothing more than milk, cocoa, sugar and vanilla.  My kidz love it! 
9. If money's tight, make an agreement with the family that this year will truly be about the kids.  Skip the ties and the itchy sweaters for the adults and just do presents for the kids.  You'll save tons and have less "stuff" to clutter up your house.  Or, just do home made gifts that the kids had a hand in making.
10. Make shadow box picture frames.  You can make them yourself or buy them at a craft store.  One year I bought smallish shadow box frames on sale (my craft stores are perpetually offering 40% off a single item coupons).  I used scrapbooking paper for a mat, mounted a photo of my children at the beach and a seashell or two they had collected, and personalized by writing or printing out a related quote on vellum.  Voila! A grandparent gift.  This is an especially good idea if you have pictures from a special time your kids spent with their grandparents.

I'll be writing more ideas in the coming days.  Do you have great holiday ideas?  Send them and I'll include them here!

RECIPE: iced Thanksgiving turkey cookies

I made these cookies for Thanksgiving, which is at our house this year and includes 8 chilren.  Nature Kidz helped me decorate them.  The cookie recipe I found online and tweaked to my own taste, and it's a winner.  I'm still searching for just the right icing recipe.  These are royal icing made with cocoa for a brown color, and the India Tree food colors for the accent colors; since the India Tree colors don't taste all that good I didn't want to use much of that.

Royal icing is nice because it dries nicely.  Another recipe I have which I have used is thinner and less effective for piping has a nice glossy finish.  I'd love a great recipe for a nice icing that can be worked for decorating and dries well so cookies can be stacked--email it to me!  

Till then, here's the cookie and icing recipe.  

Sugar Cookies

1 1/2 cups butter, softened

3 cups white sugar

4 eggs

2 tsp. vanilla extract

5 cups all-purpose flour (I use Eagle Mills' White/Ultragrain blend)

2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

Mix together butter and sugar; beat in eggs and vanilla.  

Stir together dry ingredients and then incorporate into sugar/butter mixture.  Cover, and chill dough for at least one hour---but if you let it stay overnight it can get tough to work with.

Roll out cookies to about 1/4-1/2 in thickness (I use 3-4 inch cookie cutters) and bake at 400 for about 7=8 minutes.  Allow to cool completely before decorating.

Chocolate Royal Icing

(from Recipezaar)

1 lb powdered sugar

1/3 cup cocoa (Hershey's)

7 T. warm water

3 T powdered egg whites (like Just Whites)

mix powdered sugar, cocoa and egg whites.  Slowly add water until you get the consistency you want.  It's important to remember that with royal icing, you sometimes have to beat the mixture up to 8 minutes with a mixer to get the whipped, workable texture you want.  

For the colors on these cookies, leave out the cocoa to make white icing and then use the colors of your choice.  If you want natural coloring, you can try blueberry juice, cherry juice, beet juice, or some other vegetable/fruit colorings

Product Review: India Tree Natural Decorating Colors

$22.99 plus s&h 

set of three: red, yellow, blue

Rating: C--

India Tree is a Seattle-based company that sells "sugar, spices, and other fine food products from around the world" according to their website. I have used their powdered sugar

 to make cookie icing and it's really quite good.  I recently was on the prowl for natural substitutes for the food colors you can buy in the grocery store, which are of course artificial.  I did a thorough web search and found that the India Tree brand was the only one that seemed to have any positive reviews.  Even this brand had some negatives, ones that turned out to be true.

I wish I could rave about these, but I can't.   The package of three costs anywhere from $17-25 online; I wasn't able to find them locally anywhere--my Whole Foods carries India Tree products, including decorating sugars, but not these colors.  Two of the three places I found them online ended up not having them in stock. 

Once I finally got them in the mail I was ready to make Royal Icing for my Thanksgiving cookies (recipe to follow).  I followed the instructions and put a few drops of the yellow and the red in the icing to make orange.  I was never able to get more than the palest of peaches, and there is a decided flavor to the colorings, which is not pleasant to me.  The Kidz said it tasted like orange tic-tacs.  Unfortunately, I am not fond of orange tic-tacs.  Plus, I didn't see the resemblance.

I did some more internet research and found some other ideas, such as using cocoa, coffee, and berry juice to color icing.  I even tried cherry natural gelatin and got a nice pink out of it and a nice taste, too!

So for now, I have to recommend against using these as real alternatives to the saturated, dense colors you can get from artificial food colors.  If you're okay with more muted, pastel colors, trying berries and other natural foods is a cheaper--and tastier--way to go.  I will probably buy some of the decorating sugars to accent white icing in the future and see how they taste; they come in lots of beautiful, rich colors.