Kids Bake! Watermelon Poke Cupcakes

Watermelon recipes remind me of the sweet tastes of summer. Whether it's for a picnic, birthday or just a family barbecue, these watermelon poke cupcakes are easy for kids to make and look fabulous on your cookout table!


What You Need

1 box white cake mix
1 C. boiling water
1 small box of watermelon Jell-O -- or any red Jell-O
1 - 8oz container of Cool Whip, thawed
red & green liquid food coloring
mini chocolate chips

Getting Ready

Cover table with a plastic table cloth, or even an old shower curtain.

Gather supplies and have everything ready at the work table and within reach.

Make sure that children use pot holders and have some handy wipes or a sink nearby to
wash hands.

Now you are ready to start making watermelon poke cupcakes...


What You Do

Mix cupcakes and bake as directed on box, using cupcake liners. Cool cupcakes.

Stir boiling water into powdered Jell-O until dissolved. Pierce tops of cupcakes several times
with a meat fork or straw. Spoon Jell-O over cupcakes, making sure that the liquid is going
down into the holes. Refrigerate 30 min. Remove from pans.

Tint Cool Whip with red and green food coloring. Using plastic baggies to hold the whipped
topping, pipe a green circle around the outside rim of each cupcake. Fill in the middle with
pink whipped topping. Add mini chocolate chips to represent watermelon seeds.

Store in refrigerator. These cupcakes taste best if eaten the same day as they are made.

Linking up to:

Cupcake Tuesdays @ Hoosier Homemade


Gooseberry Patch Kids Recipe Round Up

Chicken & Peppers Pasta

Here's a hearty, delicious meal that takes just a few minutes to stir together.

I created this chicken dish out of using what I had in the frig. and not wanting to run to the store for anything. All of the flavors blend together so well. Everyone enjoyed it --even my daughter- who claims to hate tomatoes and tomato sauce.


Chicken & Peppers Pasta
1 - 2 lbs of pasta --I used Barilla Rigatoni
3 boneless chicken breasts,
cubed into medium-sized pieces
2 large green peppers, sliced into thin strips
2 small cans of mushrooms, drained well
fresh thyme
minced garlic
red pepper flakes
Italian seasoning
olive oil
1 large can crushed tomatoes
1 can of mild Rotel tomatoes

Cook pasta. Drain well and keep warm.

At the same time...

Into a large frying pan, add 1/3 C. olive oil, 3 sprigs of fresh thyme (leaves pulled from stems), 2 tsp. minced garlic, 1 tsp red pepper flakes, 2 tsp. Italian seasonings and cubed chicken. Cooked over medium-high heat until the chicken is no longer pink - do not brown chicken. Remove from heat and pour into a bowl. Cover and keep warm.

Into the same frying pan, add 3 TBSP of olive oil, green peppers and mushrooms. Stir frequently, cooking over medium heat until peppers begin to soften. Stir chicken mixture back into the pan of peppers and mushrooms. Stir in Rotel tomatoes and crushed tomatoes. Mix well. Cook until warmed through.

Ladle sauce over warm pasta.

Store leftovers in the refrigerator.

Makes a great casserole the next day. Stir together remaining sauce and pasta. Pour into a casserole dish. Sprinkle with shredded mozzarella cheese. Cover with foil and bake for 45 minutes @ 350*.

Cookie Carnival - Strawberry Shortcake Cookies

After spending 4 days on the couch with an aching back, I decided that I needed to try to get back into the swing of things. I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to squeeze in the time to make the cookies for this month's Clean Plate Club Cookie Carnival. Since we ate dinner early tonight, my son and I decided to go ahead and make them.

The recipe was simple enough for him to follow. As I cut up the strawberries, he measured out all of the dry ingredients. I didn't have enough all-purpose flour so I ended up using self-rising flour and leaving the baking power out of the recipe. I also didn't use sanding sugar, I just topped mine with extra granulated sugar.

Looking at the batter, I'm wondering how these will turn out--it looks a little soupy to me. I'm going to go ahead and bake them anyway.

I'll write more later on once they are done baking.

It's starting to smell really good in here. :)

******

I just took the cookies out of the oven. They baked for 25 minutes. They've spread a lot more than I thought they would so I have really big strawberry cookies. lol!

They're really pretty cookies. Great for a July 4th celebration where you want to add touches of red color in your dessert table.


They really do taste like strawberry shortcake. My husband and daughter liked them. Me, I'm not crazy about them. That shouldn't take anything away from these cookies because I really don't care for real strawberry shortcake.

While we were busy trying the cookies, my son was busy filling a bowl with chocolate pudding and whipped cream. I grabbed his spoon and added a dollop of whipped cream (with a little chocolate pudding in there, too!) in between 2 shortcake cookies. Much better! :)


Thanks, Kate, for another great month! I'm looking forward to next month!!

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

My husband really likes pineapple upside down cake. Me, I've never really been a fan of it. Every once in a while I make it for him.

I found this recipe in an old cookbook of mine. I decided to give it a try since it didn't require much time in the kitchen.


Most of the ingredients in this recipe are staples in most kitchens.

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

1/4 C. butter or margarine
2/3 C. packed brown sugar
9 pineapple rings (from 14-oz can), drained
9 maraschino cherries
1 1/3 C. all-purpose flour
1 C. granulated sugar
1/3 C. shortening
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
3/4 C. milk
1 egg

Heat oven to 350°F. In 9-inch square pan, melt butter in oven. Sprinkle brown sugar evenly over melted butter. Arrange pineapple
slices over brown sugar. Place cherry in center of each pineapple slice.

In medium bowl, beat remaining ingredients with electric mixer on low speed 30 seconds, scraping bowl constantly. Beat on high
speed 3 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally. Pour batter over pineapple and cherries.

Bake 50 to 55 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Immediately place heatproof serving plate upside down
over pan; turn plate and pan over. Leave pan over cake a few minutes so brown sugar mixture can drizzle over cake; remove pan.

Serve warm.

Store cake loosely covered.


***Comments*** The cake turned out really moist but I think that it's lacking flavor. I should've added some vanilla to the cake mix. It has potential but it definitely needs some added ingredients to please me.

***Update*** My husband loved this cake. He took two pieces of it to work with him since he didn't have any dessert last night. He told me that he doesn't want me to change a thing with the recipe.

BBQ Beef Sandwiches

I'm trying to come up with simpler meals for our busy summer schedules. Tonight's dinner worked out great because I cooked beef for the sandwiches in the crockpot during last night's beef stir fry dinner. The homemade bbq sauce took just a few minutes to put together and cook.


BBQ Beef Sandwiches

2 lbs beef, cooked and shredded
12 oz. ketchup
1/4 C. brown sugar
1/4 C. sugar
1 TBSP Worcestershire sauce
2 tsp. chili powder
1 tsp garlic powder
1 TBSP liquid smoke

Cook beef and set aside.

In a medium pot, over medium-high heat, stir together remaining ingredients. Once mixture comes to a boil, reduce heat and simmer 5 minutes. Stir in shredded beef and heat thoroughly.

I served these bbq sandwiches on store bought Ciabatta rolls.


I had planned on corn-on-the-cob and microwaved potatoes to go along with the sandwiches but there wasn't a decent ear of corn to be found around our area. So...on to plan B....BBQ sandwiches, potatoes and canned corn.