Hello friends,

Happy Halloween!  Compared to our crazy week last week, this week has been a freaking delight.  We had zero trips to the emergency room, zero surgeries, AND we were lucky enough to receive a gigantic shipment of Snap Sticks.  Snap Sticks are protein bars made by Power Crunch, and they come in several fun flavors for kids.  My kids were completely obsessed with the Birthday Cake flavor, and I was obsessed with the fact that they were crushing protein without even realizing it!

Anyways, after a few minutes of trying all of the flavors, my kids and I decided to make an easy Halloween dessert.  We grabbed a few different types of sprinkles, and a few tubes of pre-made frosting, (like these) to transform our protein bars into silly monsters for Halloween.  This was a great project, because not only was there no baking involved, but there was very little kid supervision required, as well.  Woohoo!  Cue the Netflix..

So fast forward thirty minutes and I walked back into the kitchen to find these hilarious little monster bars.  I was so glad that I didn’t help the kids when they were decorating the monsters, because my ideas would have been so lame compared to theirs.  In all my time baking with children, I have found that not only are kids fundamentally more creative than most adults, but they are also better than us at just letting go, and not worrying about things looking perfect.  How fun are these little guys…

If you are interested in trying this project, you can use any of your favorite protein bars.  I will admit that we enjoyed using Snap Sticks from Power Crunch, because the flavors were a bit more kid friendly than many other protein bars.  Furthermore, currently on the Power Crunch website, you can get five free bars for each box of Snap Sticks you purchase.

We hope you and your kids have a great time making these super kooky, spooky Monster Bars.  Have a happy and safe Halloween, sweet friends!!

FOR MORE RECIPES AND IDEAS, CHECK OUT SOME OF OUR OTHER HALLOWEEN DESSERTS!

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Happy New Year!

A strong start to the year is so important.  However if you’re like our family, we are lucky just to get a strong start to the day (especially on school days)!  That’s why this week I gathered the kids into the kitchen to help me create a new high protein breakfast recipe, and to establish some (awesome) new resolutions for the year ahead.

Recently we received an assortment of pancake and waffle mixes from our friends at Kodiak Cakes.  I really like these mixes because they are extremely wholesome and very easy to prepare.  One cup of mix, one cup of water (or milk), stir, and voila!

We decided to use the Buttermilk & Honey Flapjack Mix, and made a large batch of waffles.  Next, we topped each waffle with a big scoop of peanut butter, granola, bananas and berries.  No syrup required.  The result was outstanding, and we stayed full and energized throughout the morning.  This is also a great recipe to set up as a quick school day breakfast-bar.  If you have the waffles prepared (and frozen), the kids can add whatever toppings they want, and run out the door with a full tummy and a strong start to the day.

As the kids and I were playing around with this new recipe, I wanted to have them write down a few goals for the upcoming year.  The imaginary Pinterest-mom in me hoped they would come up with goals like learning a new language, serving the community or learning how to play the violin, however their ideas were a little more realistic…..

All in all, our time in the kitchen together was quality time at it’s very best.  I think our goals were great (even “ginastix”) and the waffles totally rocked.  In fact, I must say that as a mom of three little children, this is one of my favorite breakfast recipes.  It is practical, picky-eater approved and a powerful source of nutrition.  We hope you love this recipe, and it powers your family through great mornings and a prosperous new year.

For more of our favorite breakfast recipes click here!

The post Strong Start appeared first on Pie Crust and Pixie Dust.

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Do you remember the 80’s show, MacGyver?   Just to recap, the show was about this mullet-clad secret agent named MacGyver, who saved the day by creating amazing inventions from simple resources.  In one episode, I literally think he made an atomic bomb from a box of thumb tacks and a pack of chewing gum.  Too cool.  For those of you who are unfamiliar, delight yourself in this gloriously cheesy clip…

Is your mind blown?  Mine, too.

So why am I writing about MacGyver, might you ask?  Well, last week I felt like I became the stay-at-home mom embodiment of MacGyver, himself.  There were no mullets involved, but the kids and I made amazing things happen in the kitchen thanks to the goodness and versatility of these yummy little Snacking Rounds from Ozery Bakery.

Imagine a mini pita, combined with a bagel, chocked full of healthy ingredients and no sketchy preservatives.  We truly felt good eating these snack rounds, and had so much fun inventing recipes aplenty.   With flavors like Apple Cinnamon, Museli and Cranberry Orange, the kids and I were able to make breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snack options.  Here are just a few of our favorite inventions!

Apple Bombs:  Sliced and toasted Snacking Round, butter, peanut butter, sliced Granny Smith apples, Nature Valley Granola. 

Berry Bazooka French Toast:  3 eggs, 1/2 cup milk, 1/2 tablespoon vanilla, tsp cinnamon, 1/3 cup of sugar, fresh seasonal berries, whipped cream. Dip and place in buttered pan.  Add syrup and fresh berries. Voila!

Blackberry Baked French Toast Loaf: Pin our recipe, below!

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Baked Blackberry French Toast

This is an absolutely delicious baked French Toast recipe.  The type of bread we use in the recipe soaks up the egg mixture so well, and the fresh berries take the dish to the next level.  We hope your family enjoys this as much as we do!

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time 45 minutes minutes

Total Time 1 hour hour

Author www.piecrustandpixiedust.com

Ingredients

• 1 12 oz. bag "Ozery Snacking Rounds" (bread) broken into pieces class="wprm-recipe-ingredient-notes wprm-recipe-ingredient-notes-faded">Can substitute bread of choice, but this is our favorite for this recipe
• 3 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups whole milk
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp almond extract
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 cups seasonal berries We love blackberries and blueberries for this recipe

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Break Snacking Rounds (bread) into pieces, and place into a greased loaf pan. 
• With your bread pieces in your loaf pan, combine all remaining ingredients in a large bowl and stir carefully.
• Pour mixture over breaded loaf pan and bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes, or until bubbly!

So, if you are spending time at home with the kids this summer and you want to make some atomic bombs of snacking and baking, we recommend these delicious Rounds from Ozery Bakery. They are truly the Swiss Army Knives of culinary innovation!

MacGyver

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