Food Hug: Meatballs

Because we are on such a tight rotation of foods that I know my little ones will eat, I find myself trying to cram as many extra ingredients into each meal as possible…that they won’t notice.

You are looking at: onions, spinach, ricotta cheese, garlic, Parmesan cheese, carrots

This isn’t new. I know moms everywhere do this. So…me too. I think I would probably add carrots to their milk if I could get away with it.

These meatballs are really tasty and if I can make a double batch, the meatballs freeze beautifully for a quick weeknight meal or lunch.

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Birthday Tea

My youngest just celebrated a birthday and I was looking for a special way to celebrate at home.

A tea party turned out to be the perfect idea. My kids love ‘hot’ tea; my daughter loves to dress up; I love an excuse to have more than one kind of sweet on the table.

Here’s how it went down:

-I used REAL fine china…a tip from a friend took me to two different Goodwill stores where I found a ton of options. None of the sets were complete so I created one, choosing complementary colors from my theme. I scored big time! Less than $15 for all of the cups and saucers. If there had been more guests, I’d have let them take one in a goodie bag. Bonus: there was no added stress about expensive broken dishes. (No dishes were broken during the making of this celebration).) A rrrrrreally good soak and scrub and these delicate dishes made the party special.

-My daughter requested a coconut cake. For real. Did I mention that she is newly 2? I had no idea she knew what a coconut cake was! I asked repeatedly in the days leading up to make sure, and I got some variations…something with strawberries and cream…chocolate…and then a complete freak out that it really needed to be coconut cake. So, I made them all! I used this delicious recipe for the coconut cream cake as my guide: http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/incredible-coconut-cake
It was soooo delicious! I very highly recommend this recipe. One variation I made was to cook the cake in a sheet pan. I used cookie cutters to create small two-tiered cakes for each guest. I sliced up pound cake into mini portions and set each with its own strawberries and cream. I made a batch of chocolate buttercream to get some variety.

-The fabric bunting flag had to be in there because. It has become tradition!

-Initially I figured this to be an early afternoon event, requiring only the cakes. But an off-schedule nap turned this party into a weird early dinner time. I scrambled to add more substantial eats, like mini quesadillas and mini house made chic-fil-something chicken sandwiches and the crudités.

-For added flare I made some no-sew bow ties in the color family (a quick google search will show tons of how-to’s), and props like fake flower boutonnières, party hats and feather hair accessories. It made everyone so festive!

The guest of honor wore a seafoam green tutu (Old Navy) with a chambray shirt and statement necklace (Target clearance!) and was sooooooo happy to twirl in her outfit…for about 30 minutes. Then she insisted on removing it all to enjoy the rest of her party. Whatevs, mylady! You only turn two once, right?

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