Whole Wheat Blueberry Lemon Muffins

Something about these muffins remind me of Summer. 
Lemon.. blueberries.. a light breakfast on a warm morning with a cup of coffee.. 

I needed a little something to get me out of the Winter funk. These are great!
My toddler gobbled these up. She prefers them sliced in 1/2 with some cold butter on them. 
mmm mmm good!

Serves 12. (Would also make a great bread!)
Weight Watchers: 5P+ per serving


What you need: 
3/4 Cup All Purpose Flour
3/4 Cup Whole Wheat Flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
6 tbsp unsalted butter, softened
1/2 Cup Organic Raw Sugar (or regular granulated sugar)
2 eggs
1/2 tsp Vanilla extract
Zest of 1 lemon 
1/2 Cup Fat Free Milk
1 Cup Blueberries

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray muffin tin or line with cupcake liners. In a bowl, whisk together flour, salt & baking powder. 
2. With electric mixer, beat flour until fluffy. Slowly add in sugar. Add eggs one at a time, mixing in between. Beat in vanilla extract and lemon zest. Be sure to scrape down sides of bowl as needed. 
3. Slowly add flour to butter mixture, beating in between. Then add milk slowly. Mix until combined and gently fold in blueberries.
4.  Scoop mixture (about 1/4 cup for each muffin) into muffin tin. Bake 12-15 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean. 

Glaze:

3/4 Cup Powdered Sugar

Juice of 1 Lemon

In a small saucepan, add sugar and lemon juice and whisk until combined. 
Allow muffins to cool and pour glaze over muffins.  

Bento Lunch

Kielbasa with chicken pick

Baby carrots

Wheat crackers

Babybel cheese - I used food safe markers on her (please excuse my lack of artistic skills on this :)

Shortbread Jam Cookies

I love Valentines Day because it's just another excuse to create cute & girly tools in the kitchen. 
Like these easy and delicious heart shortbreads. 
This recipe has been around forever. Shortbread dough is pretty simple to make and the possibilities are endless for fillings. 

- 1 cup (2 sticks) of softened unsalted butter
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
- 2 eggs
- 4 cups flour (I use 1/2 whole wheat and 1/2 all purpose)
- 2 tsp baking powder 
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/8 cup fat free milk
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- Raspberry Jam or other filling
- Powdered Sugar (optional)


1. Beat butter with electric mixer 
2. Slowly add in sugars and mix well. Add eggs one at a time, mixing in between
3. In another bowl, combine flour, baking powder, & salt. Add to butter mixture, a little at a time, alternating with milk. Add vanilla extract and mix
4. Divide dough into 2 separate disks. Refrigerate for 1 hour


5. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cookie sheets with silpat or parchment paper. Roll out dough on floured surface until about 1/8 inch thick. 
Use a heart shaped cookie cutter and cut out shapes from dough. 
Use a smaller heart cookie cutter and cut out centers from half of the larger hearts. (I also baked the tiny hearts that we cut out of the centers and my girls enjoyed those for snacks)
6. Bake 10 minutes or until just before golden brown. Serving size and baking time depends on how large or small your cutters are. 
7. Allow to cool. Sprinkle tops of cookies with powdered sugar if desired and spread 1 tsp of jam or other filling on bottom of cookie and place other half on top.


Other fillings that would be good:
- Fruit Preserves
- Any kind of jam/jelly
- Nutella
- Fluff (or strawberry fluff for Valentines Day)  

Valentines Day: Crayon Hearts

You don't have to throw away those broken crayons anymore. Recycle them instead! There are so many shapes you can create to make new crayons out of your old crayons. 

1. Peel and break crayons. Kids can be great helpers with the peeling.
Place crayons in a silicone tray. I am using a heart shaped silicone ice tray.

2. Bake at 275 degrees for 10-15 minutes or until completely melted.

3. Allow to cool completely before removing from tray.

Color away!

Recycled crayons make great party favors for birthdays and classrooms as well. 

This year Kaya will be giving her classmates heart crayons for Valentines Day.

I picked up cute little boxes in the dollar bin at Target.

I filled up the boxes with crayons and put them in decorative cello bags. 

Bento Lunch

In our house we have 1 picky eater and 1 who will eat anything. 
I have been making "bento style lunches" for a little over a year now and have found that my girls will try new things if it's fancied up and fun.. so we love bentos here. You can get really creative with these. But today I just did some basics. It is Monday morning after all ;)


Here is Scarlet's lunch for today:
Turkey & Cheese wraps 
Pickles
Pirate Booty
Apples w/ Lemon Juice to prevent browning

Here is Kaya's lunch for today:
Turkey & Cheese Sandwich w/ Candy Eyes & Fruit Leather Crown 
Goldfish Snacks
Carrot Sticks
Ranch Dressing in the mini dipper 

I used the PlanetBox for this lunch.  

Sprinkle Cookie Sandwiches

In my eyes, life is more fun with sprinkles.

These chocolate cookies are covered in sprinkles and have a yummy butter cream center.

Leave out the frosting if you desire, and just eat the cookies as is. 

{{Or for a fun party treat, sandwich a lollipop stick in between each cookie for a cookie pop!}}

For the Cookies:

-10.5 tbsp Softened Butter

-1/2 cup Sugar

-1/4 cup Unsweetened Cocoa Powder

-1/4 tsp Baking Soda

-1/4 tsp Salt

-1 Egg

-1 tsp Vanilla

-1 1/4 cup All Purpose Flour

-approx 1 cup Rainbow Sprinkles

1. In a large bowl, beat butter with mixer until creamy

2. Add sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, & salt. Mix until well combined

3. Mix in egg & vanilla. Scrape down sides of bowl and then beat flour in, slowly

4. Fill a small bowl with sprinkles. Measure out dough by the tablespoon and roll into balls in the palm of your hand. Lightly roll balls into sprinkles and place on parchment paper lined cookie sheets. (Makes 24 balls)

5. Refrigerate balls for 30 minutes. In the meantime, preheat your oven to 375 degrees 

6. Bake for 12 minutes and allow to cool completely

For the Filling:

-1 Stick of unsalted Butter, softened (8 tbsp)

-1 1/2 cup Powdered Sugar

-1 tsp vanilla

1. Cream together butter & sugar. When well combined, add in vanilla and beat until light & fluffy. 

2. Spread or pipe frosting in between 2 cookies

Enjoy!
(1 Cookie WITHOUT frosting = 3 WW Point+ or 2 Cookies WITHOUT frosting = 5 WW Point+)

Snow Painting

Today we had our first real snow storm of the Winter. This is the longest I can remember going without snow. So we are very happy to have some white stuff to play in! 

I saw this idea on Pinterest with spray bottles and just had to try it out. We did some coloring of the snow. 

 What you need:

Plastic Squirt Bottles (I got ours at Walmart) 

{You can also use spray bottles}

Water

Food Coloring

A Snowy Day

*Warning - This may possibly stain clothing*

- Fill bottles with water

- Add desired amount of food coloring 

(I used the Neon colors and about 3 drops per bottle)

- Go outside and see what you can design in the snow!

I should start off by introducing myself.. 

I'm Krystina. Stay at Home Mom to 2 spunky little girls - Kaya & Scarlet.

I love to cook, clean, & craft!

..And this is my new blog. 

I will be sharing my favorite healthy recipes (for both adults & children). 

I also love creating "Bento Style" lunches for my kiddies,
so they will be a big part of my blog. 

And I'm a serious craft-a-holic! I love new projects, along with sewing. 

Very excited to start this new journey and I'm so happy you will be following me :)