Snack Quarry Mix +

The Snack Quarry is my take on Chex Mix minus the Chex.

And another fun snack from The Dinosaur Party.

Snack Quarry Mix

I mixed:

• 1 bag of Bugles (Dinosaur Claws!)
• 1 bag of shaped pretzels -waffle, etc. (Foilage!)
• 1 bag of Peppridge Farm Rainbow Goldfish (Dinosaur Food!)
• 1 bag of Yogurt covered raisins (Dinosaur Eggs!)

Mix it all up in one, big bowl...

Place a new, cleaned, Kid's shovel in the bowl...

And you have it... a Prehistoric

SNACK QUARRY.

The kids LOVED it. Loved "digging" food.

It's the simple things.

Speaking of Simple things... Prehistoric Punch & Party Horns.
For Gabriel's 3rd Birthday, we had a Space theme & served Tang. It went over so well... People ran out to buy, well, Tang. So I thought, well, serve Tang again since it's orange for the dinosaur theme & call it "Prehistoric Punch".  As for the "Party Horns" for any triceratops in the crowd, they were just dime candy sticks.

<3 Lishie

Gabriel's Mommy

Apple Cupcakes for Teacher

Apple Cupcakes for Teacher

Teacher Appreciation Week 5/6- 5/10.
Thank you...
For teaching my baby boy...
For taking the time to care...
For everything you do...
For the little things...
For the big things...
the kindness,
the stern-ness,
the gentleness...
the urging on...
the tenderness...
the love.
Thank you for it all.

<3 Lishie
Gabriel's Mommy

Apple Cupcakes for Teacher
1 Vanilla Cupcake Recipe.
1 Cocoa Frosting Recipe (see below).
Red Sprinkles.
Pretzel Sticks.
 Spearmint jelly leaves.
Gummy Worms.

Cocoa Frosting Recipe

• 1/2 c butter, softened
• 3 c powdered sugar 
• 1 c cocoa
• 1/3 c milk
• 1 tsp vanilla

Combine all ingredients together until smooth.

ABCs/123s Cupcakes
1 Vanilla Cupcake Recipe.
1 Cocoa Frosting Recipe.
ABCs/123s Sprinkles.

~~~~~

Teacher Appreciation Days 1 & 2 are HERE.
For Day 1:


For Day 2:


For Day 3:



For Day 4:



And now, for Day 5, to cap off the week:
Apple & ABC/123 Cupcakes for Teacher

Italian Chicken Meatballs

So just in case you think I only bake... here's a savory meal for you ;) We've been eating a lot of standbys in the DeMaria house & this is one of them. If you cannot tell from all of the celebratory cake, it's been busy & that is not to mention the other things going on! I don't want to exhaust you by listing them so, here, read this tasty recipe instead! Happy Friday!!!

<3 Lishie
 

Italian Chicken Meatballs

• 1 1/4 lbs. ground chicken
• 1/2 c breadcrumbs
• 2 TBSp chopped onion
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1 TBSp chopped parsley
• 1/2 c Parmesan cheese, grated
• s & p
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 tsp fennel seeds
• 1 egg, whisked
• zest of 1/2 a lemon
• 3 TBSp olive oil
• 29 oz canned tomato sauce

Preheat oven to 400°F, setting rack to top of oven. In a large bowl, using your hands, gently mix together first 11 ingredients. Shape into 3" size balls & place a few inches from each other on a foil-lined baking sheet. In a small bowl, mix one spoonful of your sauce with olive oil. Brush this mixture on top of each meatball. Bake for 15 minutes.

Remove meatballs from oven & add to your simmering sauce (below) for 5-10 minutes. Serve with pasta. And shredded fresh parmesan, yes, don't forget the parm!

Sauce- saute 1 small onion, chopped in olive oil w/ 1 tsp oregano, 1 tsp garlic powder, 1 TBsp tomato paste... Add the rest of the tomato sauce... Simmer on low...

Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

We had a very grey, wet day in New York so what better than to brighten it? A work birthday. I love work birthdays... I love to bake for work birthdays. Win, win :) Only thing is, how to transport a 2 layer cake via bus & a 1 mile walk?! Well, in pieces, of course. I clandestinely prepared this in the break area with a view. And I think it turned out pretty... 
Bunting is my new favorite obsession.
 
Make a Wish...

<3 Lishie

Carrot Cake

adapted from Paula Deen/Grandma Hiers' Carrot Cake

• Baking Spray, for pans
• 2 c all-purpose flour
• 2 c sugar
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp salt
• 4 eggs
• 1 1/2 c canola oil
• 3 c grated carrots

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray 2 (9") round pans.

In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger & salt. Add eggs &  oil. Blend until combined.Fold in the carrots.

Pour into pans. Bake for approximately 40 minutes. Remove from oven & cool for 5 minutes. Remove from pans & allow to cool completely before frosting.
Frosting:

• 2 (8-oz) packages cream cheese, room temperature
• 1 stick salted butter, room temperature
• 1 (16-oz) box powdered sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Mix all ingredients until fluffy.

Photo Courtesy of Jeremy Kelley (THANK you!!!)

Boulder Bars ~ Trix® Crispies

Another fun, colorful, full-of-sugary-goodness recipe from Gabriel's Dinosaur Party.

Boulder Bars!!! Beautiful snacks that harken back to the dinosaur age... Never heard of them? They were created by the bright Lava from the Lava Cake Pops! Anyway, these too were loved by all so much so that mommasaurus here did not get one! Ha.

<3 Lishie

Gabriel's mommy

Boulder Bars ~ Trix® Crispies

adapted from Kelloggs

• 3 tablespoons butter or margarine
• 1 package (10 oz., about 40) regular marshmallows
• - OR -
• 4 cups miniature marshmallows
• 6 cups TRIX® cereal

1. In large saucepan melt butter over low heat. Add marshmallows & stir until completely melted. Remove from heat.

2. Add TRIX® cereal. Stir until well coated.

3. Using buttered spatula or wax paper evenly press mixture into 13 x 9 x 2-inch pan coated with cooking spray. Cool. Cut into 2-inch squares. Best if served the same day.

MICROWAVE DIRECTIONS:
In microwave-safe bowl heat butter & marshmallows on HIGH for 3 minutes, stirring after 2 minutes. Stir until smooth. Follow steps 2 and 3 above. Microwave cooking times may vary.

IF I could take good pictures, this is what they'd look like up close & personal... From Cravings of a Lunatic:

Cream Cheese Carrot Cake Muffins

It's Teacher Appreciation week & today is Teacher Appreciation Day. My son has a great teacher & I've been throwing ideas around in my head for a week-long thank you celebration. Day 1: flowers & a handmade card (see picture below. The "card" is a pair of paper ice skates with yarn laces, all laced up. G's teacher is also a figure skater & skate teacher. The card says, "I APPRECI-SKATE you! Love, Gabriel").

I mean seriously, it's so easy to personalize a thank you, ignore that pinterest stuff! Do something FOR the teacher. I don't know about you but I had some great teachers myself. You know who they were... the ones who didn't count down the days till summer & who took a real interest in YOU. Yes, YOU. Well, I want to say a big thank you to all of them. They helped me so much.

I found out through G's teacher's sister that Ms. F loves carrot cake... I decided Day 2 would be cream cheese carrot cake muffins for the teacher & for the classroom aides. And these came out soooo yummy!!! You'll have to stay-tuned for Days 3 through 5 ;)

Love,
Lishie
Gabriel's mommy

Cream Cheese Carrot Cake Muffins

slightly adapted from King Arthur Flour

Filling one 8oz package cream cheese 1/4 c granulated sugar 1/2 tsp vanilla Muffins 2 1/4 c, a-p flour 1/2 c granulated sugar ¼ c light brown sugar, firmly packed 1 1/2 tsp baking powder ¼ tsp baking soda 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon 3/4 tsp ground ginger 3/4 tsp salt 2 large eggs 3/4 c water 1/3 c vegetable oil 1 c grated carrots, lightly packed; about 2 medium-large carrots 1) Preheat the oven to 400°F. Lightly grease a standard 12-well muffin pan. Or line the pan with paper muffin cups, & grease the cups. 2) To make the filling: Place the cream cheese in a microwave-safe bowl, & heat on low power for 40 seconds. Stir in the sugar & vanilla. Set aside. 3) To make the muffin batter: In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients. 4) In a small bowl, whisk together the eggs, water, & oil. 5) Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. 6) Fold in the grated carrots, stirring to combine. 7) Drop about 2 TBsp of the batter (a TBSp cookie scoop works well here) into each muffin cup, spreading it to cover the bottom. 8) Dollop on a heaping TBSp of filling; a level TBSp cookie scoop works well here. 9) Cover with enough batter to fill the muffin cups quite full. The batter will come to within about 1/4" to 3/8" of the top of each muffin cup. But don't try to use all the batter; unless you have particularly deep cups, you'll have abut 1/3 cup batter left over. Bake it in a separate custard cup, if desired. 10) Bake the muffins until a toothpick inserted into the cake part of one (not into the cream cheese filling) comes out clean, about 20 minutes. The tops of the muffins will feel firm to the touch. 11) Remove the muffins from the oven, & as soon as you're able to handle them, transfer them to a rack. If you serve the muffins warm, the filling will be molten. If you wait for them to cool, it'll firm up. Yield: 12 filled muffins

carrots in a row

ooey-gooey goodness

"I APPRECI-SKATE you! Love, Gabriel"

Dinosaur Chocolate Chocolate Cake

 

The Cake.

The centerpiece of a party... I wanted it special & fun & I wanted to make it myself for Gabriel's Dinosaur party. And, funny as it sounds, since the kids were dressing as dinosaurs, I did not want the cake to be dinosaur shaped. So, incorporating Jen's beautiful dino silhouette, I created this bunting- thought the upside down "R" & pinwheels were a cute touch. Some grated/shredded chocolate for "dirt", dinosaur candles & speckled jelly bean "dinosaur eggs" (which ALL of the children wanted) were finishing touches.   

Hershey's "Perfectly Chocolate" Chocolate Cake Recipe

Hershey's "Perfectly Chocolate" Chocolate Frosting Recipe

<3 Lishie

Gabriel's Mom

Lava Cake Pops

I think these little cakelets were the guest favorite of my son's dinosaur party! And they are really easy to make.

Lava Cake Pops
All you need:

• 1 chocolate cake recipe
• Wilton's Candy Melts (in orange)

You can either make cake pops, or, as I did, brownie pops. Or you can make mini cupcakes without the wrapper & turn the cupclakes upside down.

After the cake has cooled, add the "lava". Drizzle the melted candy over the cake pops.

These are the perfect size for little hands. And, as I found out, large hands too because all of the daddies loved them!!!

<3 Lishie

Gabriel's mom

"Fossilized" Cinnamon Sugar Cookies

 

So my son Gabriel just turned 4 & we had a big dinosaur party. The kids all became LittleOsauruses & had a great time. One of the treats I made were these cookies. They were a hit! Here's how I made them...

Besides the itemized baking list below, you'll need a plastic dinosaur with rather large feet. Give him a dishwash-detergent bath in the sink first...

Cinnamon Sugar Cookies
adapted from Taste of Home

• 1 c butter, softened
• 1 c sugar
• 1 c confectioners' sugar
• 1 c vegetable oil
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 4-1/3 c a-p flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp cream of tartar
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon + a little more to "sprinkle"

In a large bowl, cream the butter, sugars & oil. Add eggs & vanilla; mix well. Add flour, salt, baking soda, cream of tartar & cinnamon. Cover & refrigerated for 3 hours or until easy to handle.

Roll into 1" balls. Place on greased baking sheets; (normally, at this point, you would flatten with the bottom of a glass dipped in sugar. However, to make the "fossils", I...) Here's where that plastic dinosaur's roll comes in... STAMP the the 1" ball down with the dino's foot. Bake at 375° for about 5 minutes, take the sheet of cookies out & STAMP them again with the dino's foot. Sprinkle with a little cinnamon. Bake at 375° for 5-7 more minutes or browned a little. 

<3 Lishie 
Gabriel's mom

Dinosaur Excavation Jell-O

 

Got pluots? Anyone, anyone? My subtlety may be lost but I found it punny. Pluots are fruit- a cross-pollination of plums and apricots nicknamed dinosaur eggs. So since Jell-O is fruity... hopefully you see how my mind came up with this! Ha!

Anyway, these cups were a huge hit at my son's dinosaur party. Most children love Jell-o & these fit the theme nicely, color-wise & "activity-wise". I used orange & lime Jell-o to match my green & orange color scheme. Made the Jell-o in small, clear cups. Placed the cups in the refrigerator... waited about 30 minutes, then added a gummy dinosaur to each cup.

The children quickly excavated those dinosaurs from that Jell-O & finished off the cups!

This technique can be used for so many themes! For an Ocean theme- blue raspberry Jell-O with Swedish Fish... For a Pirate theme- blue raspberry Jell-O with an orange slice on top for a sail... For a sleepover party- any color Jell-o to match your theme with a gummy "teddy" bear... For a Monster Party-any color Jell-o to match your theme with a gummy worm... For a Picnic- any color Jell-o to match your theme with gummy cherries...I could go on & on...

<3 Lishie

Gabriel's mom :)

Celebrate, Roar, Gabrielosaurs is 4! Gabriel's 4th Birthday Party!!!!

 

I make a huge deal of my son's birthdays. Why? He is important to me & with each year passing, each day, I love him more & more & want him to have friends & a wonderful life. I want him to celebrate life. See, my son has autism & he is non-verbal. But, autism does not have him. He's the sweetest, happiest child I've ever seen & he is social. He seems to run on the peripheral of everything, watching in & feeling part of it all at the same time. He enjoys other's happiness. And how much more to make him happy than to throw a fun-filled party?!

This year, I dubbed, the Year of the Dinosaur. 

And rightly so. Everything has been dinos with us- Valentine's, Easter eggs, etc. And Gabriel seems to love them! We are even redoing his baby boy dino room into a big boy dino room! 

So for his party, I made the little ones dinosaurs themselves. I ordered masks then hand made foam dino feet to match the masks. They even had name tags:  "_____OSAURUS" They had to ROAR to get them ;) And they kept on roaring all through the party... to the dig/scavenger hunt at "the excavation site" (a tub of orange sand filled with tiny plastic dinos) The kids had a checkoff list paper of the 4 kinds of dinosaurs they could "hunt" & collect in their plastic baggy... to take to create air dry clay "fossils" by stamping either the "hunted" dinos they found or some of the other objects on the table (including plastic centipedes, bats, etc.) Then onto coloring personalized GABRIELOSAURUS dino pages & crafting w/ dino stickers on constuction paper. A huge T-Rex was awaiting them (DinoSAWus!!!) for pictures... And besides pizza, they had all sorts of dino-themed foods to snack on... Carnivores (pepperoni pizza), Omnivores, Herbivores & Snackivores!!! The favor- a big plastic dinosaur to adopt & take home! A Roaring good time!!!

Cakeage
Click HERE for recipe!

Welcome Wreath

Dessert table- Carnivores, Omnivores, Herbivores & Snackivores!!!

SIGNAGE by The Doodle Jar/Jar of Designs

Prehistoric Punch!
(Click HERE for recipe)

Lava Cakelets
Click HERE for recipe!

Excavate the dino from the Jell-O (Pluots are dinosaur fruit)
Click HERE for recipe.

Fossilized Cookies

Click HERE for recipe.

Snack Quarry (Click HERE for recipe)complete with shovel to dig out, Boulder Blocks (Click HERE for recipe) & Triceratops "Party Horns"

Celebrate, Roar, GABRIELOSAURUS is 4!!!! Cute pinata we didn't bash ;)

Dinosaur Gear

Masks & Handmade feet!

Modelsaurs!

Excavation Site

Checkoff list paper of the 4 kinds of dinosaurs they could "hunt"

Excavating fun!

Crafting table

Personalized GABRIELOSAURUS coloring pages & crafting w/ dino stickers on constuction paper

Some finished clay Fossils

Uh oh!!!! Big T-Rex Dino SAW us!!!!

Dinos get presents too!

The favor- a big plastic dinosaur to adopt & take home!

Us with the birthday-saur

More beautiful SIGNAGE by The Doodle Jar/Jar of Designs

Follow the prints to... the party!

SIGNAGE by The Doodle Jar/Jar of Designs

 And this is how he celebrated on the actual day at school:

Dinosaur Pull-apart Cupcake Cake

Favors:

If you enjoyed this post, please consider giving my Dinosaur birthday a "Cupcake" on Catch My Party!

I <3 my Gabrielosaurus!

<3 Lishie