Black Bean and Corn Salad

Black bean and corn salad is my family's favorite meal, EVER.

I always have all the ingredients on hand, and my kids love to help chop and mix everything together. Then they proceed to eat it by the spoonful.

The great thing about this concoction is that it can be a stand-alone dish, or you can use it to top a salad. We also have used it in lettuce wraps, we've wrapped it in a flour tortilla and fried it like a chimi, and, of course, we can always use it to dip tasty chips int.

Basically, there is no wrong way to eat this stuff. It's like heaven in your mouth.

YUM.

Black Bean and Corn Salad

• 1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 cup corn
• 1 cup spinach, chopped (optional)
• 2 roasted red peppers (or 1 fresh) chopped 
• 1/4 cilantro, chopped
• 1/4 green onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• juice from 2 limes, plus 1 tsp zest
• salt and pepper to taste

Mix all ingredients in bowl. Chill for extra flavor. Enjoy.

75+ Weeknight Dinner Ideas

Guys, I have a confession to make.

I'm the totally annoying lady that knows what she's making for dinner every night for the next month.

I have a whole SYSTEM, you see, with menu cards, and grocery lists, and all that good stuff. What I've noticed over the years, though, is that my system doesn't work for everyone, and that’s okay! Your family is not my family, and what we like to eat might not be your thing. For example, before kids, I was all about the seafood. But now, I have a child with shellfish allergies. BOOM! New plan. Menu planning is an ever evolving art as your family grows and changes.

What IS helpful, is finding out what other families eat.

You just need ideas! Some simple inspiration! Sometimes, you just need a reminder of what types of meals you COULD be eating. I personally have pulled out my menu, and thought to myself, “Oh yeah, I forgot we like to eat that!”. So that’s all we’re doing today. I’m going to share some of the dinners that I like to make for my family. I’ll even include what I do for the side dish! (But sometimes there is no side dish. That’s just how it goes folks.)

Mexican:

• 7 layer Burritos
• Shredded Beef Tacos
• Chicken Mole Tacos
• Pollo Fundido
• Chicken Tortilla soup
• Enchiladas (TONS of variations here!)
• Bean and cheese quesadilla
• Fajita’s
• Fajita quesadilla
• Nachos Supreme

*standard sides are beans, rice, salad, and fresh salsa, mmmm.

Asian

• Stir fry (my all time favorite stand by. most of the time, it’s strictly veggies too!)
• Teriyaki Chicken
• Orange Chicken
• Sweet & Sour Chicken
• Moo Shu Pork
• Teriyaki Salmon with asparagus

* standard sides are rice, noodles, and egg rolls

Italian:

• Spaghetti and Meatballs (meatballs are not mandatory) with green salad
• Lasagna
• Chicken Cacciatore
• Pizza (lots of variations here too. My favorite is spinach and feta or fresh tomatoes, husband likes ham and pineapple, kids like pepperoni and veggies. Served with celery and carrot sticks.)
• Fettuccini Alfredo
• Fettuccini with Pesto
• Roasted red pepper and clam pasta bake
• Green bean and bacon pasta toss
• Ravioli and green beans
• Calzones
• Herbed chicken with tomato balsamic vinagrette

* I think green beans taste great with anything Italian.

Grill:

• Hamburgers
• Hot dogs (go crazy with the toppings)
• BBQ Ribs
• Kabobs
• Lemon Pepper Salmon with baked potato and wilted spinach

Casseroles:

• Enchilada casserole
• Mexican lasagna (this one is fun!)
• Thanksgiving Casserole (stuffing, chicken or turkey, peas, and gravy. Serve with cranberry sauce)

Breakfast for Dinner:

• Pancakes
• Crepes
• Frittata
• Quiche
• Waffles
• Potato Surprise (It’s like a hash. potatoes, onions, peppers, veggies, then add an egg at the end and scramble it up. It’s a surprise because the ingredients are ever changing.)
• Cherry cheese blintz
• French Toast
• Omelets

* breakfasts usually include whatever fruit I happen to have, and sometimes bacon, sausage, and scrambled eggs and hash browns.

Classics and Comforts:

• Roasted chicken with root vegetables
• Meatloaf and mashed potatoes plus a green vegetable
• Macaroni and cheese (Try new variations! Right now, we’re big into jalapeno and bacon mac&cheese)
• Beef Stroganoff and peas
• Chili and cornbread (I make chili a hundred different ways. no recipe. just throw it in the crock pot and let it go)
• Ghoulash with green beans
• Grilled cheese and Tomato Soup
• Pork Chops with applesauce, peas, and stuffing
• Chicken and dumplings
• Shepherds Pie
• Chicken Pot Pie
• Stuffed Peppers
• Pot roast with carrots and potatoes
• Honey glazed ham

Family Favorites:

• Chinese Sundaes aka Hawaiian Haystacks (Bonus: use the leftovers to do a veggie stir fry the next day. Also, we add maraschino cherries to top our sundaes off. It sounds weird, but it’s delicious)
• Baked Potato Bar
• Sloppy Joes
• Submarine Sandwich (I get a french roll, and make one giant sandwich, then cut it into smaller pieces)
• Chicken Wings
• Indian Fry Bread
• BLT’s with four bean salad
• Reuben sandwich with fries and a pickle
• Fish and Chips
• Black bean and corn salad
• Pulled BBQ Pork sandwiches

Soups:

• Posse Stew
• Taco Soup
• Chicken Tortilla Soup
• Clam Chowder
• Baked potato soup
• Cabbage stew
• Hamburger soup
• Chicken noodle soup
• French onion soup
• Broccoli Cheese Soup

Salads

• Grilled Chicken Caesar Salad
• Spinach Strawberry Salad
• Cobb Salad
• Ham and Cheese Salad
• Cranberry Spinach Salad
• Taco Salad
• Fajita Salad

Emergency Dinners - because sometimes, it's that kind of day

• Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich
• Cheese Crisp
• Oatmeal
• Cereal.... from a box. with milk. no judging. 
• Corn Dogs
• Cold Sandwich (tuna, ham, turkey, veggies, whatever.) 
• Ramen 
• Leftovers
• The Drive Thru 

Now tell me: what do YOU eat for dinner?

Faux Eggs and Bacon Snack

This snack is STICKY.  But awesome.  And I sent it to school, so it wasn't like I had to deal with all the messy preschoolers.

For two "fried eggs" melt about 12 marshmallows and 1 tsp. of butter on medium-low heat.  (You can multiple this by however many finished snacks you'll need.)

Pour the melted goo into two globs on some HEAVILY GREASED tin foil (I suggest greasing with butter or butter flavored spray, because it will pick up a little of the flavor).  And smear the globs into egg shapes.

Take a couple of dried apricots, smoosh the centers with your thumb so they look like bubbled yolks and stick them to the centers of your marshmallow globs.

Let them cool before you take them off the tin foil.

(I found this idea here, where it has a few more details, you know, if you like details.)

For the bacon I bought some raspberry flavored fruit roll ups and cut them into bacon shaped strips.  Then, when I placed them on the plates, I made them look wavy, like cooked bacon tends to look.  (I think it would have looked better with thicker fruit leather, but I couldn't find bacon colored fruit leather.)

I wonder if the preschool teacher was mad that I sent highly sugared food glue to class?  Because I think I'm making this one again.

Snacks celebrating the number 100

We took this snack to school on the 100the day of school, but it would be great anytime you want to highlight the number 100 in a yummy and fun way.  Our snacks were: 100 Skittles, 100 green grapes, 100 purple grapes and 100 curly herb breadsticks (recipe found here).

I had the glass containers just hanging around, but I had to make the big box -it's one of those massive goldfish cracker boxes with the top cut off.  I just covered the outside in scrapbook paper.  It was amazingly easy and the kids thought it was fab.


Then I cut out the number 100 on some matching scrapbook paper and taped it to some bamboo skewers to put in the containers of snacks.

I love when snacks are easy and fun and can be passed off as a lesson about numbers.

Raspberry Crumb Bars

YOU GUYS: I have to share one of my favorite recipes today. Long, long ago, before the days of pinterest, I used to tear pictures and recipes out of magazines, and this one... this one has become a family favorite.

Raspberry Crumb Bars

• 2 cups all-purpose flour 
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt 
• 1 cup almonds (about 4 ounces) 
•  3/4 cup butter, at room temperature 
•  1 teaspoon vanilla 
•  2/3 cup sugar 
•  1 egg 
•  1 jar(12 ounces) raspberry preserves

Directions: 

1. Heat oven to 375 degrees F. Coat 13 x 9 x 2-inch baking pan with nonstick cooking spray.

2. Stir together flour, baking powder and salt.

3. Whirl almonds in food processor* until finely ground. Add butter and vanilla. Whirl until well blended. Add flour mixture and the sugar. Whirl to mix. Reserve 1/2 cup mixture for topping. Add egg to remaining flour mixture in container of food processor. Whirl until well combined and dough forms. Press dough over bottom of prepared pan.

4. Bake in 375 degree F oven 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove from oven; cool slightly.

5. Spread raspberry preserves over dough. Sprinkle reserved crumb mixture on top.

6. Bake 12 minutes more or until top is golden brown. Cool in pan on wire rack. Cut into bars to serve.

*I do not have a food processor, so I whirl my almonds in the blender. Whatever works, right? 

too many tomotoes

Before the first frost set in I picked a bunch of super really green tomatoes from my garden.  I know that you can finish ripening a tomato on your window sill, but I wasn't super if that would work with these because they were just so very green.  But there was like 10 of them, and I wasn't going to just let the frost get them.

Well, good news, really green tomatoes will, in fact, ripen on your window sill.  It just takes FOREVER.  At least mine did.  But eventually I had juicy red tomatoes, and I had TEN of them at one time.

Some people might be able to use 10 tomatoes quickly enough without them going bad, but no matter how much I try my family just aren't big tomato lovers.  (Sometimes my boys claim to love them, but that's when Venus is in retrograde and the north star points west, or in other words, it's RARE.)

So I had to do a little tomato saving trick that I learned from a friend a few years ago and I wanted to pass it on to anyone else who ever finds themselves with too many ripe tomatoes at one time:

And there you have it.  You can easily save your extra tomatoes before they go bad. 

Plus it makes cooking super duper easy later because you don't even have to remember to thaw the tomatoes out before using them - just open a frozen baggy toss them in the pan while you're cooking sauce or whatever.  They thaw and cook quickly.

Apple Party Recipes

If you're having a party themed around apples then you better be serving some tasty apple-y foods.  Here are three suggestions for easy, healthy, and fun apple recipes.

Mini Caramel Apples

You can get the recipe and instructions for these mini caramel apples on the Disney Family Fun website.  They're great because everyone loves caramel apples, but who wants to make 30 full sized apples?  Not to mention, how many people can eat a big caramel apple in one sitting when other yummy goodies are to be had?

I made these for a kindergarten party once and my only suggestion is to try and scoop your apple circles as closely as possible to get the most out of each one.

Hot Apple Cider

You can throw a quick pot of apple cider together with this recipe from Making This Home.  Get the right mix of zest and spice and warm it to perfection.  No one can resist a warm glass of apple cider.  In fact, I really want some RIGHT NOW.  With cinnamon and cloves in it.  mmmmmmmm.

Whole Wheat Apple Muffins

This recipe for whole wheat apple muffins from Dear Stella is a healthy alternative to cupcakes.  With big chunks of apple, these muffins are as mouth watering as they are beautiful.  Plus, I can smell them just from this picture.  (Does that make me weird?  Because I'm sniffing my monitor...)

Other great apple party foods could be:
• dried apple slices
• cinnamon applesauce
• apple pie
• apple fritters
• apple dumplings
• apple crumble
• applesauce cookies
and lots more, because apples are awesomely compatible when it comes to food.

Things of Pinterest: Dessert

I'm trying to force myself to be on a diet.  Pretty much, I'm starving.  So what else would pinterest tempt with than super delicious looking desserts?  It's torture, I tell you, TORTURE.

http://www.kwestiasmaku.com/desery/torty/tort_pina_colada/przepis.html

Pina colada cake?  Yes, please.  I think I'm getting fatter just looking at this picture.  You will need to use a translating program to get this recipe in English (unless you can read recipes in Polish, in which case good for you!)

http://www.melskitchencafe.com/2012/07/no-bake-peanut-butter-chocolate-bars.html

 Dear no bake peanut butter chocolate bars, why oh why can't you be low fat, low calorie, sugar free, and still delicious?  WHY?!

http://www.thenovicechefblog.com/2012/06/red-velvet-crinkle-cookies/

These red velvet crinkle cookies are making me all slobbery.  I'm just going to imagine how good they taste.  It's kind of hard because my imagination is really good at visualizing food and I want them for real.

http://picky-palate.com/2009/09/10/caramel-apple-cream-cheese-cookie-bars/

Caramel apple cream cheese cookie bars - are you kidding me?!  How am I supposed to stick to a diet when recipes like this exist?

http://vanillakitchen.blogspot.com/2009/04/coconut-truffles.html

Coconut truffles that taste like Almond Joy candybars = I think I might die.  I love coconut desserts.  Ok, fine, I love ALL desserts.  I don't see this diet lasting very long....


To see more of our favorites check out our pinterest boards!

Things of Pinterest: Yumtastic Cupcakes

I'm in a cupcake mood.  Because cupcakes are amazingly fun to look at and also delectably delicious.  And luckily Pinterest has lots of pictures of cupcakes to drool over.  Plus, they come with recipes and instructions, so, you know, YAY!

http://madewithloveby.me/2011/03/how-to-bake-a-heart-into-your-cupcakes/

How the how?!  I'm too intimidated to try this, so one of you needs to do it and then you need to tell me how hard it was.  Then I can really decide if I'm up to the heart in cupcake challenge.

http://www.ohcupcakes.net/recipes-hi-hat-cupcakes.php

How cool are hi hat cupcakes?  Neeeeat-o.  And also it makes me think of Dairy Queen, which is all nostalgically happy.

http://www.bakedperfection.com/2011/04/key-lime-cupcakes-with-blackberry.html

I'm making these for my hubby.  He loves keylime flavored stuff, and with the blackberry filling and frosting I can only imagine that these are drool worthy.

http://catesworldkitchen.com/2010/01/oreo-cheesecake-cupcakes/

Three words that live in harmony on my tongue: oreo, cheesecake, cupcake.  NOM.  nom nom nom.

http://www.glorioustreats.com/2010/07/hydrangea-cupcakes.html

These hydrangea cupcakes are all summery and pretty and there are pictures and tips to frost these on the site where this pin came from.

To see more of our pinnably favorite things check out our Pinterest pinboards!

Minnie and Mickey Kid Snack

Cheese and bread - two absolutely guaranteed foods that my kids will eat.  (Even the picky ones.)  But sometimes it's fun to make the cheese and bread a little less boring, so one day I made Disney style Mickey and Minnie Mouse.  (Which received much applause and praise from my 3 and 4 year old.)

They're made entirely out of 2 pieces of bread and a few slices of cheese.  I have minnie and mickey head cookie cutters, so that part was super easy - although their heads are just one big circle with two little ear circles, so it's not like it's horrifically difficult to cut freehand, right?

The bread for the rest of their bodies was made out of the scraps after I cut the heads out.

You can cut and place the cheese however you'd like.  I decided on a skirt and shorts for them, but even if you just made the ear/head part out of cheese your kid is going to know what it is and be excited.

And have I mentioned that these are ONLY BREAD AND CHEESE?  Seriously, easiest fun lunch ever.

Snacks: Rainbow Cupcakes

I have seen these cupcakes around and I thought I would, for sure, mess them up if I tried making them.  But they were actually really super easy.

Prepare a white cake mix according to the instructions on the box.

Separate the mixture into 6 bowls, and die each of those bowls a different color.  Make sure you have these colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple.

Line a muffin pan with baking cups (I used four leaf clover ones).

Pour the mixture into the cups in this order: purple, blue, green, yellow, orange and red.  I suggest pouring one color in all the cups before moving on to the next color.  Also, you should probably smooth out each layer a little with a spoon before you pour the next layer.

Bake the cupcakes according to your cake mix directions.

They may look funky on the tops, but the insides are FAB-O.

I was going to send these to school in a big pot with the cupcakes on top of a pile of gold wrapped chocolate coins.  But I couldn't find chocolate coins in any of the stores near me (although, why?  I don't know) and I didn't have a leprechaun-y enough pot.  But the IDEA is awesome.  And I give you permission to use it.

Superbowl Game Day Food

The Superbowl is this Sunday, (Go Patriots!) and, as we all know, besides halftime, the food is the best part.

Our Favorite Savory Picks:

1. Homemade Soft Pretzels
2. Salad on a Stick
3. Slow Cooker Spinach Dip
4. Swiss and Bacon Dip
5. Grilled BBQ Potato Skins
6. Roasted Tomatillo Salsa

Our Favorite Sweet Picks:

1. Praline Ice Cream Sandwiches
2. No Bake Reese’s Peanut Butter Bars
3. S’mores Pizza
4. Almost Famous Maple Butter Blondies
5. Chocolate Mint Brownies
6. Chocolate Mini Nutty Mini-Football Treats

And come back tomorrow to pick up some free game day printables!

Snowman Toast Snack

A lot of the time my kids are like, "Mom, why do we always eat the same exact junk for lunch everyday?"  And most of the time I just say, "Eat it or starve, it's up to you," but sometimes (rarely) I'm just awesome and instead of giving them different junk, I just make it LOOK different.

To make:

Grab a piece of bread, and some cheese, and some raisins, and a couple crackers and a carrot stick.

Place orange-y cheese on the bread.  Then take some string cheese and separate it into strips.  You'll need to place those strips in the middle of the bread in a snowman formation (head, middle, body).  Don't worry about making perfect circles, because I doubt your kids will care.

Melt the cheese by placing the bread on a cookie sheet in a hot oven (or a toaster oven).

Place a couple of raisins on the middle of your snowman for buttons.

Break your crackers so that you have a "brim" and a hat.  (I used wheat thins.) And put it on your snowman's head.

With a small knife or a grater or peeler, make a tiny nose out of a carrot and set it on the snowman's face.

I served this with carrots, because they seemed snowman-y.  Also I made hot chocolate because, like I said, I was being awesome that day.

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Thanksgiving Printables and Crafts ROUND UP

Hello fellow procrastinators.  Are you scrambling for something - anything - Thanksgiving-ish?  Have no fear, we have printables for your wall, party printables, crafts and snack ideas for this holiday of giving thanks.

Thanksgiving printables for your wall:

"I'm Stuffed" printable

Thanksgiving poem printable

Gobble banner printable and tutorial

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Thanksgiving party printables:

"Give Thanks" printable party pack

"Give Thanks" prtinable fry boxes

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Thanksgiving snack idea:

gumdrop turkey snack idea

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Thanksgiving kid craft tutorial: 

paper plate turkey craft

We are thankful for our families, and we are thankful for our warm houses, and we are thankful to have such great blog readers (pssst, that's YOU!)   Have an excellent Thanksgiving, from Peonies and Poppyseeds! 

Want to know when we post new printables?

Get Peonies and Poppyseeds newest posts by email or in your blog reader.

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Printables are free for personal, non-commercial use only.

Did you use our printables and love them? Send us your photos and we’ll showcase your event! contact us at caroline@peoniesandpoppyseeds.com

Gum Drop Turkey Snacks

Every Thanksgiving, as I was growing up, we made gumdrop turkeys.  And then we ate them.  So now I have the same tradition with my kids. 

Want to make your own gumdrop turkey with your own kids?

Sure you do!  And here's how:

First gather supplies (and children):

You will need: big gumdrops, little gumdrops, toothpicks and those orange slice gummy thingies (the orange slices are actually optional, but they do make the best "feet").

Now take a couple of toothpicks and stab one side into the orange slice thingy and the other side into the bottom of a big gumdrop.

Then take the little gumdrops and stick a toothpick in each one, and then stick them into the back of the big gumdrop to make a tail.  

Note: you can have as big of turkey tail as you want, but I must warn you that the bigger your tail is, the more likely your gumdrop turkey is to fall over once you're done - it's just a sad fact in gumdrop turkeydom).

Now, break a toothpick off so it's a little bit shorter than normal, but make sure you get all the wooden shards off of it so that you don't have to eat them later.  And then stick a small gumdrop on one end and stick the other end in your big gumdrop to be a head.

And then take a little orange gumdrop and pinch off a little chunk and stick it to the head for a beak.  Then take a little red gumdrop and pinch off an even smaller sliver and stick that to the beak for that red hangy thingy that turkeys have that I have no idea what it's really called.

That's it!  And hopefully it doesn't fall over too much (you can reposition the legs if your turkey doesn't stand very well).  

And your turkey will taste super yum when you eat it.  Unless you use white spice gumdrops, because whatever that flavor is, it's NASTY.

   

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Candy Corn Pizza Snack

'Tis the season of Candy Corn, but you don't always have to eat it in the actual candy form.  These are super duper easy to make, plus they're cheesy and cheesy always equals YUM. 

To make Candy Corn Pizza take a premade pizza crust and slice it into triangles.

On each slice, place white cheese at the tip, orange cheese in the middle and yellow cheese at the end.  I had a hard time finding really yellow cheese, so I just used Colby Jack, and it didn't end up like I wanted, but still tasted fab.

Heat up your slices on a cookie sheet in a hot oven (450º ish) for 5-10 minutes.  Just keep your eye on them so they don't burn.

Serve with pizza dipping sauce (lazy people like me will open up a bottle of spaghetti sauce and call it pizza dipping sauce).

I found this idea here.

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