Saw It > Pinned It > Cooked It!

Pinterest: where have you been all my life! I like to think of you as my ‘most creative friend’, the avenues of inspiration are endless and who doesn’t need another time wasting web trend in their life? It’s my social networking dream site where personal information isn’t blurted around like verbal diarrhea (that’s right, I don’t want to know about every menial task you are performing in your day to day existence! If you want to talk about crap and think that everybody you know is actually interested in reading about it –  just start a blog instead ;P) and yet you can learn more about a person you have known for the last decade just by following their boards.

I never thought I would go off cooking as a way of expression, but since the combination of minimising sugar in my diet and becoming a Mum intertwined its way into my life, this medium of self expression has all but diminished.  Upon reflection, Baking was my real cooking passion and well there is just too much naughty, naughty and naughty involved! (Did I mention toddler M is having a Morning tea of cakes & sandwiches for his second birthday? ….. so yeah, my ex-passion does get to rear its ugly head on special occasion).

Where does Pinterest come in? It has made it easier to find Mummy friendly recipes and fumbling  across healthy snacks by accident is slowly reigniting the cooking flame in a new healthy-ish reincarnation.

So I saw these, Pinned them and cooked them:

Raw Energy Bars: Make again? Yes. These were super yummy! I substituted 100% peanut butter for the Cashew butter, omitted the apple sauce and halved the honey. It probably doesn’t need the honey, so next time I’ll omit the honey too.

Flax Seed Oat Crackers: Make again? Yes. A healthy cracker for Toddler M, I don’t think they need any salt added, so next time get rid of the salt. *Disclaimer* these are prone to falling apart easily and can fast make a mess in the hands of a tiny tot… so I you are adverse to using a vacuum, then think twice before making 😛

Mini Chicken Parmesan Meatloaf Cupcakes: Make again? Yes. I served these on top of a brown pasta vegetarian bolognese. I used a chedder cheese I had on hand which didn’t ooze out like in the pics, so next time I’ll try it with the advised mozzarella.

Smoothie: Ginger, orange, lemon, and carrot. Make again? Maybe. Something didn’t sit right in my stomach with this smoothie. Maybe I used too much ginger? Or was it the lemon juice? I think I will give it another go or two, trying it without the ginger first and re-evaluating from there.

Fabulous Felt: Strawberries

I had always found felt a rather boring craft medium… and then I became a Mum and the world of felt opened up before my very eyes. I have to eat my words as I say ‘FELT IS AWESOME!’ (Yep, this is what your life amounts to when you become a crafty Mum, you’re excited by the idea of FELT, I don’t know whether to laugh or cry!)

Strawberries were my first food of choice for toddler M’s play food assortment and why stop at one when you can have a whole punnet (20 hours or crafting later…)!

I followed this picture tutorial as a rough guide, making my own little adjustments along the way. 

I think toddler M likes them, he’s been throwing them around the lounge room all afternoon!