My first attempt at a garden produced HUGE zucchini. The irony is that my family doesn’t eat zucchini. But they were willing to give zucchini bread a try. I ended up combining a couple of different recipes and came up with the Zucchini and Chocolate Muffin recipe below. We tried out our new Slice products while making them (video at the bottom). The end result was a huge hit! The kids love them and all 24 were gone in 3 days. Luckily I froze enough shredded zucchini to make 2 more batches!

Zucchini and Chocolate Muffins (make 24)

Dry Ingredients
3 c all-purpose flour
1-1/2 c sugar
2 t cinnamon
2 t baking soda
1 t salt

Wet Ingredients
2 eggs, beaten lightly
1 c  vegetable oil
1/2 c milk
2 T lemon juice
1 t lemon zest
2 t vanilla extract

2 c shredded zucchini
1 c semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:
Mix dry ingredients in one bowl. Combine wet ingredients in separate bowl. Stir wet into dry ingredients until moistened. Fold in zucchini and chocolate chips. Fill greased, paper-lined muffin cups 2/3 full. Bake at 350 F for 22-25 minutes.

(I really don’t like spelling zucchini! I ended up looking for “zucini muffins” “zuchinni muffins” and a bunch of others before I finally got it right!)

With only a few weeks left before my kids go back to school, I’m pulling out all of my favorite summer recipes to make sure that we get through all of them at least one more. This is one that everyone asks me for each time that I make it. When I got it, it was called Celebration Cake, but I have heard other people call it Sunshine Cake, which I like better. It also helps clear up the confusion between this cake and the Celebration Cake that you can get on Disney cruises. It’s simple and low fat and great for summer!

Also, you can experiment with the cake flavors and pudding flavors. I like to use lemon in one or the other (but not both, it’s overkill–trust me). I also top with colored sprinkles.

Celebration Cake (Sunshine Cake)

Yellow Cake Mix — 1 box
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
4 eggs (I use eggbeaters instead)
11 ounces mandarin oranges — 1 can

“Frosting” Ingredients
8 ounces Cool Whip Lite® — 1 small container
1 ounce fat-free vanilla instant pudding mix — small box
15 1/2 ounces crushed pineapple in juice — 1 can

Preheat oven to 350*. Stir together all ingredients by hand for 2 minutes.
Spray 9×13″ pan w/ cooking spray. Pour batter into pan. Bake 30-40 minutes.

FOLD all frosting ingredients together when cake is cool. Spread icing on cake & refrigerate.

Per serving: 215 Calories (kcal); 5g Total Fat; (20% calories from fat); 3g Protein; 39g Carbohydrate; 47mg Cholesterol; 248mg Sodium Food Exchanges: 0 Grain (Starch); 0 Lean Meat; 0 Vegetable; 1/2 Fruit; 1/2 Fat; 1/2 Other Carbohydrates

Serving Size: 16

If your daughter never misses an opportunity to play dress up, chances are good that she will love having a tea party with her closest friends and you. In fact, she may have already asked you about hosting one in your home for her upcoming birthday. Especially with somebody’s royal wedding coming up, chances are that “tea party” will again mean tea, crumpets and silly hats!

The Invitations

Given that tea parties are about your daughter’s first attempt at being a grown up, you could offer to have her invitations printed up. Indeed you would likely never indulge this luxury if she were having a party with 25 of her closest friends, but a tea party to be “just right”, you’ll want to have no more than the number of girls that matches your daughter’s upcoming age.

The invitations could read something like this:

Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Payne
Request the honor of your presence as they celebrate the joyous occasion of
their daughter Emily Jane’s eighth birthday.

Please wear your fanciest dress as we sip tea and eat sandwiches.

Hats and gloves are encouraged

Tea starts promptly at 4 o’clock in the afternoon of 16, April 2011
Please RSVP by or before 10, April 2011

If you don’t already own a formal tea set, you can easily find one at your local vintage shop. If you do not live near one or they have one, but it’s missing a teacup or two, eBay will undoubtedly have one that your daughter will fall in love with. Given that it’s eBay, you’ll likely be able to bid or one for a relatively inexpensive. It may have been used before and perhaps quite antique. It may also be a new one, still in its original packaging. You never know precisely what you’ll find (and sometimes that’s very cool!)

The Table Centerpiece

Depending on the length and shape of your table, you can add a few adornments to the centerpiece, such as something she holds dear – a stuffed animal, or perhaps or a photograph of her grandmother or other ancestor. Be sure to place at least one sugar and one creamer at either end of the table to avoid spills and too much reaching with little arms.

Might I Suggest a Sandwich to Accompany Your Tea, Mademoiselle?

Traditionally, cream cheese and cucumber sandwiches, with a touch of dill, are served at formal teas. Below are some recipes to consider making:

Cucumber and Cream Cheese Sandwiches

Ingredients

• 10 whole wheat bread slices
• All natural cream cheese
• 2 Cucumbers, peeled and sliced thinly

Prep:

Let cream cheese sit out for about two hours to soften up. (Alternatively, you can put in a food processor).

Spread your cream cheese onto half the slices of bread. Add 4 cucumber slices and a sprig of dill. Knowing how much little girls despise edges, best to remove them. Lastly, create fun shapes – triangles, rectangles, circles, etc.

Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwiches

Make these sandwiches as you would normally. Again, slice off the edges and cut into fun shapes. If there’s still some room on the platter with the cream cheese and cucumber sandwiches, add them.

Ham and Cheese Sandwiches

Ingredients

• 10 slices whole wheat bread
• 1 pound your favorite ham, sliced
• ½ pound sliced cheddar cheese
• ½ pound sliced Swiss cheese
• Mustard and mayonnaise

Prepare these sandwiches as you normally would. After you’ve removed the edges, and cut into cute shapes, add to a platter.

Your Daughter’s Favorite Fruit and Whip Cream

Whipping cream is very easy. In a mixing bowl, blend 2 cups of heavy cream and 4 tablespoons of sugar. Mix until whipped. Pour over berries.

Preparing Tea

You may use tea bags or a strainer filled with your daughter’s favorite black tea. If you have concerns about giving that many little girls such a large boost of caffeine to go with their already “amped up” energies, (given all the sugar in the cookies and jelly), use decaffeinated or herbal teas. A teaspoonful of tea leaves per cup of boiling water promises the best flavor.

As Guests Arrive

Be sure to greet your daughter’s guests by referring to them as “Miss” or “Mademoiselle” and welcome them into your home, offering to, if appropriate, remove their coats. Show them to the table and ask your butler (aka your husband) to begin the festivities. Do ensure you take plenty of photographs. Enjoy!

About the Author: Chris has 2 preschool daughters, and his eldest has already been to a fairy princess tea party. Daddy will definitely be a butler for her and her friends this spring! Chris writes about party themes and is editor of Themeaparty.com.

We are big Chex Mix eaters in our house. You name a variety and we have had it. If you come to my house for any get-together, you will see Chex Mix of some kind. Sometimes I make my own, but often I just buy a couple of different varieties. At any given time I always have a bag of the Traditional as well as the Cheddar in my pantry. My personal year-round favorite is the Dark Chocolate, and I always load up on the limited edition Cocoa during the holidays.

You can make the Original Chex Party Mix in about 15 minutes and it is incredibly delicious when it is slightly warm coming out of the oven. But you shouldn’t stop there. The Chex Recipe website is full of recipes for everything from Buffalo Chex Mix to Gluten Free Snickerdoodle Chex Mix. My family always makes one with white candy coating for Christmas, and it was the first treat we started with this holiday season. After looking at all of the different recipes on the Chex site, we are going to be trying a lot of new ones!

Now that you are good and hungry, how would you like to win a Chex Prize Pack? To celebrate Kroger offering Chex cereal for their lowest price of the year from December 2-December 25, MyBlogSpark, Kroger, and Chex sent me a prize pack plus one to give away. The pack includes 2 BIG sample of Chex cereal and a $25 gift card to the Kroger Family of Stores.

To Enter:

1) Leave a comment below telling which Chex mix is your favorite–it can be either a prepackaged variety or a recipe from the site your own own recipe box (one entry).

2) Post on Twitter about the contest and leave a comment below with your Tweet (one entry).

3) Sign up for our newsletter on the right and leave a comment below (e-mail will be verified) (one entry).

4) Blog about this contest or post the contest in your giveaway section and leave your link to the post below (two entries).

Drawing will take place December 22 at noon Eastern. Must be a US Resident, age 18 or older to enter. Winner will be notified via e-mail and have 24 hours to respond or a new winner will be selected.

This bread pudding recipe is very similar to the one that the restaurant in Lazarus used to serve. Every time I make it, I get requests for the recipe. It’s a pretty standard custard, but the sauce really makes it.

Bread Pudding with Whiskey Sauce

3/4 lb Bread, French or Sourdough
1/4 c Pecans
4 oz Butter, melted

Custard:
2 c Sugar
1 tsp Salt
8 Eggs, large
5 1/2 c Milk
1 tsp Vanilla

Whiskey Sauce:
8oz Butter, melted
2 c Powdered sugar, sifted
2 Eggs, large, beaten
1 oz Whiskey (hint: buy a “plane sized” one if you don’t usually drink it)

Custard:
Break bread into medium pieces. Add pecans and melted butter. Pour into 9×13 pan.

Blend eggs, salt and sugar with a wire whip. Add vanilla and milk. Blend and strain. Pour over bread and nuts mixture.

Bake at 350F in a pan of water (creating a double boiler effect) for 20-25 minutes. Do not put too much water in the bottom pan or the custard will take too long to bake. Test with knife.

Whiskey Sauce:
Melt butter. Whip in sifted powdered sugar. Fold in eggs. Add whiskey. Serve warm.

Makes approximately 8-10 servings. Terrific reheated the next day.

My family and I get tired of eating the same things week after week. Pizza night on Saturday is always a hit but it’s the weeknights where I need to get more creative. I tend to stay with basic dishes that can be made without buying and measuring a lot of different spices and ingredients. It’s hard enough to fit in time to cook between working and the kids’ activities. I need simpler solutions! The problem is that a lot of the pre-made and boxed kits do not fit into the health requirements that I set for my family meals.

I was excited to learn about the new Lawry’s Complete Meal Ideas. Each packet includes the spices needed for the recipe, the recipe itself, and what you should add to it. I say “should” add to it because you can always adjust it to your family’s likes and dislikes (we don’t eat mushrooms, so I just left them out of the chicken marsala). The recipes all take approximately 20 minutes to prepare and come in 4 new varieties: Asian Style Beef & Broccoli, Chimichurri Burrito Casserole, Mediterranean Sundried Tomato & Garlic Chicken, and Tuscan Style Chicken Marsala with Garlic & Basil. The key is that you are making the dinner FRESH but at the same time getting some crucial shortcuts that will help you get the meal on the table faster.

I was lucky enough to be sent a Lawry’s Complete Meal Ideas gift pack from MyBlogSpark and they are going to give away one to one of my readers as well! I was able to try out 4 different meals for my family. To my surprise, the Chimichurri Burrito Casserole was their favorite, followed closely by the Sundried Tomato and Garlic Chicken (with extra black olives and the feta cheese on the side). Would you like a chance to try them with your family for free?

To enter:

1) Leave a comment below telling which variety of Lawyr’s Complete Meal Ideas you are most interested in trying (one entry).

2) Post on Twitter about the contest and leave a comment below with your Tweet (one entry).

3) Sign up for our newsletter on the right and leave a comment below (e-mail will be verified) (one entry).

4) Blog about this contest or post the contest in your giveaway section and leave your link to the post below (two entries).

Drawing will take place November 15 at noon Eastern. Must be a US Resident, age 18 or older to enter. Winner will be notified via e-mail and have 24 hours to respond or a new winner will be selected.

My family isn’t really into pot roast, but we eat a lot of chicken. I love using my slow cooker (crockpot) to make meals in the morning and have them ready for dinner. This is a meal that I came up with combining a few different recipes. It literally takes me 5 minutes to make and my family thinks I cooked all day!

Crockpot Roasted Chicken

1-2 pound of boneless, skinless chicken breast
1 can of cream soup (potato, celery, mushroom–whatever you like)
1 envelope of dried onion soup mix
2 cans of whole potatoes
1 small bag of baby carrots
half a stalk of celery

Put the chicken on the bottom of the slow cooker and pour the soup and soup mix over it. Layer the carrots, then the potatoes, then the celery over that. Cover and turn on low for 6-8 hours. Stir toward the end.

It’s okay if your chicken breasts are still a little bit frozen. Just account for that in your cooking time. I keep the veggies on top so that they don’t get too mushy. You can put them under the soup and soup mix if you would like. This is a really healthy meal that you can then serve with a side of fruit and even biscuits or bread.

I love to cook in my crockpot (I think we’re supposed to call them “slow cookers” now). The hard part is that not a lot of crockpot meals fit my Weight Watchers points. One of my favorite cookbooks, however, is nothing but healthy and low fat recipes that you can make in your crockpot. It’s called Fix-It and Forget-It Lightly. They have a whole line of slow cooker cookbooks, but this is the one with the great low fat recipes.

What I do is go through and pick out a handful of recipes and run them through the Weight Watchers point counter. Then I write the point totals into the book so that the next time I cook, I don’t have to look them up again. I also write in any alterations that I have made.

Tonight we are having Taco Soup. It’s a lot like chili except a little more soup-like in consistency and includes a ranch dressing packet, which gives it an extra kick. It’s 5 points a serving and everyone in my family loves it. We also make the Chicken Soft Tacos regularly as well as the Chicken and Dumplings. The key is just testing things out and then leaving notes in your margins so you know what to go back to later. With hundreds of recipes, you will be cooking new healthy and light recipes in your crockpot for your family for months to come!

You can pick up Fix-It and Forget-It Lightly at Amazon or most book sellers.

As a Work at Home Mom, for some reason I always feel like a total failure when I can’t have dinner on the table for my family by 6pm. Never mind that I am working all day while balancing getting the kids off to school, running to the school for PTO meetings, and getting homework and snacks when the kids get home from school. Plus the normal phone ringing, door knocking, and errands that sometimes happen. Why do I beat myself up? Whatever the reason, my saving grace comes in the form of a cookbook.

Fix-It and Forget-It Lightly is a way for me to make sure that dinner is ready for my family AND healthy. In fact, I’ve even written Weight Watchers point values into the margins of many of the recipes. At the start of the week, I pick at least 2 crockpot recipes for the week and buy the ingredients. Then I throw everything into the crockpot in the morning after the kids leave for school. By 6pm, a healthy dinner is awaiting my family.

Some of our favorite recipes are Chicken and Dumplings, Taco Soup, and Chicken Fajitas. All of them are 6 Weight Watchers points or less per serving. This week I’m trying baked apples to pair with tuna noodle casserole one night.

Fix-It and Forget-It Lightly is available at Amazon for only about $10. With over 500 low fat crockpot recipes, you can try something new every day for a long time!