Chocolate Cake for Breakfast? Yes, I think I will.

Today we had leftover chocolate cake for breakfast! Have I mentioned how much I love summer... so much! On my defense, I did look up recipes for "what to do with leftover chocolate cake" there was a lot out there on how to make cake balls from it, or how to crumble it and put it in pudding... but I'll admit... I was looking to have it for breakfast and those ideas just were telling me to make other things and that required work. So, here's what I did. I toasted it like toast (in the oven under broil) and then buttered it. For my kids, I drizzled a little bit of chocolate syrup on it too. :) OH YES I DID! -with a 'z' snap! I'm cool like that! Hey! I made them eat strawberries with it too.. and yogurt! It's all good. Fresh fruit and yogurt with it makes it healthy, right? Summer vacation is great. I love time off to play with my kids. Here's what we had for breakfast today:

On Monday nights our boys go to Boy Scouts and it's just me and the girls here... so usually we do something just with us.. take a walk and look for lightning bugs, or go to the park... So tonight, they had a meeting that was supposed to last a long time, so it was just me and the girlies for dinner. I decided to try one of my favorite plates from one of the blogs that I love "Meet the Dubiens" She has great ideas for making food fun. Here is our attempt at our 'girlie' dinner making 'girlies' with our food. I wish so badly that I had taken a picture of Josie's that she made... she loves scrambled eggs and kept piling hers on. In the end her girl looked a little like Marge Simpson.

Fun! Thanks for the idea, Jill at Meet the Dubiens. Check out her blog here:

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I say.. Let Them Use Knives!

Today, when talking to an old friend of mine, she asked me about a picture that i put on FB last week of the dinner that my son cooked for us. She said, "I can't believe that he made that and you let him." -- what??? I don't understand.... First of all, my son is 11 years old and has been cooking since he was 3, but has been making things on his own without help since he was probably 6 or 7. I have taught him to cook. Sure, it started with pudding and cookie dough, but now he makes several things on his own, including dinners. He's home after school and most days, while driving home, I will talk him through how to AT LEAST start dinner while on the phone, so that I can finish when I arrive. Sometimes he can go ahead and finish it before I get there. HOLD ON TO YOUR IPAD NOW>>> he also uses knives to chop veggies... whoa.(eye roll) I also have a 7 year old with Down syndrome that cooks and cuts and a 3 year old that is beginnining now... NO, I am not a chef or anything, I just think that cooking is a missing art that should be shared but has gone missing somewhere. I don't let them run around my living room with knives swordfighting.. but I do teach them how to use them properly to slice tomatoes or carrots or potatoes. "Aren't you scared of them chopping their finger off?" she says... well, I guess I am because.. gross!! But, is that really going to happen? Probably not. I have showed them how to properly use them and to be careful. They probably will cut themselves. Don't gasP! They're probably going to burn themselves while stirring a pot too... Don't GasP! They'll be ok. I'm NOT going to let them carry boiling water across the kitchen yet... but I've seen my 11 year old make a pot of water for tea and not even blink before carrying it to a pitcher (that was safely placed into the sink by him first to pour into without me telling him) and pour it out while carrying on a conversation with me. I didn't teach that.. it just comes with maturity and confidence in the kitchen. He was ready - on his own terms. I swear that my 7 year old could make spaghetti for herself and WOULD DAILY.. if she ever got to go through with it without us catching her. She knows to put the pan on "M.E.D" she knows to break the pasta and put it in and wait for it to get soft. I'm quite sure that if she could figure out how to get that big spaghetti jar open, she would make this for herself with complete confidence and we would not even have to know anything... OF COURSE, I'm not sure that this would be from learned confidence as much as sheer desparation, not to have to eat what we are having. Sometimes Down syndrome brings along with it... picky eaters. It's ok.. have your spaghetti, sweetie! You made it! :) So anyway..here's what the 11 year old made for dinner.. nothing you can't do for your family today... it's sooo easy...

Here's how you can make this at your house: Take 2 PKGS OF CRESCENT ROLLS unroll them and put them on a cookie sheet flat and kind of press all of the perforations together so it makes one giant crescent pizza dough.. cook it. Follow the directions on the can. While it's cooking brown your meat and add taco seasonings. Use a packet if you want... - by the way - on a side note, I usually buy my meat in 4- 5 lb pkgs and brown the whole thing and season it , then I separate it out in freezer bags and keep it for dinners like this. Then I can just go to the freezer and pull out a bag and go for it!- so when the crescents are done pull them out. Spread out a can of refried beans on top (no, I didn't cook them) then your meat, then lettuce, tomatoes,sour cream and I did green onions and black olives and avacadoes. Notice that Jack added fancy stuff to our side.. but left their side blank, and left some without sour cream for my 3 year old who only likes hers cold.. Add your shredded cheese all over the top and back into the oven for about 10 minutes of so, until your cheese is all melty on the top. YES, IT IS REALLY THAT EASY. Make it tonight and eat it together at the table. Enjoy it and teach your kids to cook even with knives!