Jungle Birthday Party

Connor's 1st Birthday party turned out great and was a lot of fun! Thank you to everyone who came to celebrate with us!

The party was jungle themed, with an emphasis on monkeys, since we call Connor our little monkey :).  I found a couple of pins on Pinterest to help expand on the ideas I had for the decorations and menu. 

Of course, I took pictures of everything to share here with everyone in case anyone out there needs some inspiration for a kid's jungle party!

Favors Table:  "Thank You" sign, kid favors, adult favors, monkey banner

For the monkey banner (which I also used in several other areas of the house) was made from the scraps from the "Happy Birthday" flag banner, brown yarn I had from a previous project, and monkey cutouts I found at a local education supply store when looking for green construction paper.

"Thank You" sign

 The "Thank You" sign was made from scrapbook paper I've had for years and leftovers from the "Happy Birthday" flag banner.

Party Favors

Big Kid/Adult Favors

For the Adult/Big Kid Favors, I used a monkey pop mold from Michael's (they're about $2) and put melted chocolate in them. Yum!

Kid Favors

For the Kid Favors, I had a hard time trying to figure out what to get/make. I had bought a cute monkey straw cup from Target* for Connor and he seemed to really like it and after not being able to think of something better, I decided to get one for each of the kids coming. The teal ones were for the boys and red/pink ones for the girls. I washed them ahead of time and wrote their names on them in case they wanted to use them at the party. Then, while at the Dollar Tree, I found cute little jungle animal puppets that I thought would be fun and rounded off the favor with a little bag of animal cookies, decorated with jungle animal stickers I also found at the local educational supply store. 

(*The monkey cups are currently in Target stores for Valentine's Day, so if it's past that time and you are thinking of favor ideas, start with the Dollar Tree and see what you come up with!)

Spotlight on the Birthday Boy: Highchair monkey banner, party hat, "Happy Birthday" flag banner, cupcake liner balls, balloons, jungle animals & baby book

Since we were using the table for the food spread, there was no room in the kitchen for the highchair so I chose to put it by the fireplace where I was hanging the birthday banner (a disposable table cloth was used to catch the smash cake). 

Birthday Boy's Highchair

I used a monkey banner to decorate the highchair and made the party hat out of felt. 

Mantle Decorations

For the "Happy Birthday" flag banner, I used scrapbook paper and yarn. The number 1 was made from leftover scrapbook paper. I made cupcake liner balls because I had bought jungle animal print cupcake liners a while back thinking I would use them for the party but decided not to make cupcakes so I made them into decorations instead. Then to top it off, I put two of Connor's stuffed jungle animals and his completed baby book on top of the mantle. 

Jungle Vines: green crepe paper, green paper leaves, monkey

Jungle Vines

I saw this idea on Pinterest and had to do it. We used the ceiling fan as the focal point and my husband and sister hung green crepe paper vines coming out in all directions and then the leaves I cut from green poster board (because I couldn't find construction paper) hung down from the vines. Then a monkey I found at the Dollar Tree hung from the fan. We also used green balloons to decorate various areas of the house.

Food Table (decorations): green balloons, monkey banner, grass skirt, green material

Food Table

I saw on Pinterest someone who had used grass skirts to decorate the food table. She had apparently gotten them cheap around Easter time... but it's not Easter time right now and they were $8 a piece and we were going to need several so we went with a roll of craft paper instead and cut it to look like a grass skirt instead. Then I used an extra green curtain I had lying around for the top of the table. 

FOOD:

Main Dish

Since the party started at noon, we served lunch. The main dish was bbq pulled pork, we I dubbed "BBQ Boar", served atop a bun with "Crocodile Coleslaw". (And as you can see, I used a monkey banner to decorate here too.)

Jungle Juice

 The "Jungle Juice" was something I came across on Pinterest; pineapple juice and ginger ale. It was delicious! Just watch out when you pour it as it fizzes up a ton! (More monkey banner and balloons hung from the counter.)

Hyena Humus

I love humus and typically like to make my own since it's so easy, but to minimize all that I had to do/make, I just bought some at the store and served it with carrots. 

Cheetah Chips

 Nothing special about the chips... I just love to dip them in hummus and they needed a fun name too!

Zebra Cakes

 A play on Little Debbie's Zebra Cakes (something served at a jungle party I found on Pinterest), I made brownies and used zebra brownie tattoos to make them "Zebra Cakes" sine I can't eat the Little Debbie version (due to gluten-intolerance).

Deviled Darter Eggs

 And because everyone loves deviled eggs and they are so easy to make... we had "Deviled Darter Eggs". If you're wondering... a darter is a bird found in Africa.

Hungry Hippo Salad

 My "Hungry Hippo Salad" was a mixture of baby greens, bell peppers, tomatoes, and cucumbers. Served with homemade salad dressing. 

Caracal Carrot Salad

 My mom loves carrot salad and wanted to make it for the party, so we found it a fun name for it. 

Gorilla Grapes

The "Gorilla Grapes" were totally something I found on Pinterest and had to use. Aren't they cute?

Last, but not least.... CAKE!

Jungle Cake

I found a cute idea for a jungle cake on Pinterest and thought it would be fun to give fondant a try since I've never used it to decorate a cake before and you can do so much more with it than regular frosting. The fact that it's gluten and dairy-free made it even more appealing. Well, I love how it turned out, but it took ALL DAY before the party to do. But it looks great and I would do it again! Just be prepared that it takes a long time. My sister made the monkey on top and my mom made the leaves on top, which saved me a ton of time. I will also say that to save myself some time, I just used box cake mix and fancied it up a little by adding strawberries to the chocolate one and chocolate chips to the vanilla one. They were both pretty yummy! (Tip: to get the grassy look around the layer edges: put green fondant in a cookie press with the multi-hole disk.)

Smash Cake

Connor's smash cake was made from an allergy-free mix (Cherrybrooke Kitchen) and coconut milk frosting (with brown food coloring since he hasn't had chocolate yet). I used the Wilton monkey pan I had gotten at Michael's a while back when I saw it on sale. It was a good size and Connor loved it!

Happy 1st Birthday Connor!

First Birthday Party = Success!

**Pinspiration links: Jungle Vines, Food Ideas, Jungle Cake (pin link not working: cakecentral.com)

Chocolate Balsamic Strawberry Cupcakes

Ok, so I'm not very good at coming up with names for my recipes, maybe I'll get better as time goes on...

I wanted to make cupcakes for a neighborhood get together and since I don't have the time to make a lot from scratch since having Connor, I resort to using box mixes. There's nothing wrong with this, except that I typically get the urge to make it into a little more than your basic baked good. I pulled out a gluten-free chocolate cake mix and decided I would use the strawberries that needed eating. At first I was just going to add strawberries to the mix and bake them in the cupcake, but then I decided that a balsamic strawberry filling would be way better! So here's my recipe for chocolate cupcakes filled with balsamic strawberries and topped with vanilla frosting and a little decoration.

Ingredients

chocolate cake mix (I used Betty Crocker's Gluten-Free mix) and ingredients called for (substitute coconut oil for the butter)

Filling:
2 cups chopped strawberries
2 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp water
1 tbsp cornstarch

your favorite vanilla frosting (I used Betty Crocker's Rich & Creamy Vanilla as I have yet to try making dairy-free frosting)
6 strawberries, halved
melted chocolate

Directions

1. Bake cupcakes according to the package directions. Allow to cool completely.

2. While cupcakes are baking, combine the filling ingredients in a small saucepan on medium heat. You will want to dissolve the cornstarch in to water before adding it to the mix to prevent lumping.

3. Stir frequently and cook until the mixture starts to bubble and thicken, then simmer about 5-10 minutes and it should thicken even more. Remove from heat and cool (it should continue to thicken as it cools).

4. Using an apple corer, create a hole in the middle of each cupcake for the filling.

5. Fill each cupcake with the cooled strawberry filling. It's ok to slightly overfill as you will be covering them with frosting.

6. Frost the cupcakes, top each with a strawberry half, and drizzle with melted chocolate. Enjoy!

Farmer's Market Breakfast Bake

Ok, so I actually made this for dinner but it is more of a breakfast food. This recipe arose from the need for a quick, easy meal that I could whip up with what I had in the house. This would be a great breakfast to make after a visit to the farmer's market. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

Ingredients

Canola oil spray
16 oz package frozen hash browns
10 oz package frozen cut spinach, thawed & drained (use paper towels to soak the water out)
6 eggs
1/2 cup milk substitute (I used coconut milk drink, you can use regular milk if you don't need to be dairy free)
1 lb. gluten-free breakfast sausage (I used Jimmy Dean's maple pork sausage)
2 cups of chopped vegetables (I used bell peppers)
salt & pepper

Directions


Preheat the oven to 350F. Spray a 9x13 inch baking dish with canola oil spray.

Spray a medium skillet (or add 1 tbsp of canola oil) and brown the sausage over medium heat, breaking into small crumbles, until cooked through.

Beat the eggs and milk substitute together in a small bowl. Add salt and pepper to taste, set aside.

Spread the hash browns on the bottom of the dish, making sure to break apart any chunks. Then layer the cooked sausage, spinach, and chopped veggies. Poor egg mixture over the top.

Bake for 45-50 minutes, until it's bubbly and the eggs are set.

Serves 6

S'mores Brownies

I came across this recipe on foodnetwork.com years ago and never got around to trying it... I had saved it to my recipe box and forgot about it. Then once I discovered Pinterest, I went back to all those recipes I had saved and pinned them so now I have them all in one place and will remember where to look for new recipes I want to try! (Can you tell I love Pinterest?) Well, now that I am gluten-free and also need to by dairy-free and nut-free for a while, I needed to modify the recipe accordingly and here is what I did:

Ingredients

Crust:

6 tbsp vegan buttery sticks, melted (I used earth balance)

1 1/2 cups crushed gluten-free graham cracker crumbs (I used kinnikinnik s'moreables)

2 tbsp sugar

pinch salt

Brownie:

Gluten-free brownie mix (I used Betty Crocker's but I also like the Gluten Free Pantry one)

ingredients called for in the brownie mix - substitute coconut oil for the butter most of the mixes call for

Topping:

4 cups larges marshmallows

Directions

Preheat the oven to 325F. Spray an 8x8 baking dish/pan (I used glass) with canola oil and line with parchment paper.

CRUST: Use some of the melted buttery sticks to lightly coat the parchment paper and then mixed the rest of it with the crumbs, sugar and salt in a medium bowl. Press the crumb mixture evenly over the bottom of the pan. Bake until golden brown, about 20 minutes.

BROWNIE: While the crust is baking, make the brownies according to the package directions (substituting coconut oil for the butter). Poor over crust and bake according to package directions.

TOPPING: When brownies are done, take them out of the oven and move the top rack to about 6 inches from the broiler and set the broiler to low (I put my custom broiler at the 350F). Layer the marshmallows across the top and toast under the broiler until golden, about 2 minutes. (Keep your eye on them the whole time don't walk away!) Cool on a rack.

Now I let mine cool in the pan and cut them the next day but it was a bit of a pain. I oiled a knife to cut through the marshmallows and then cut through the brownie and crust, re-oiling the knife often. Everything else was pretty easy! The original recipes has you lining the pan with foil but that has never worked well for me... the parchment paper worked out well. 

*This recipe was adapted from www.foodnetwork.com (link to the actual recipe can be found in the first paragraph of this blog post).

Cucumber-Avocado Chicken Salad Miniwiches

 

These lovely little appetizers were inspired by two things I saw on Pinterest. One pin was just a picture of cute little cucumber sandwiches but there were no instruction on the link saying what they put on it. The other pin was chicken salad made with avocado instead of mayo and there was a recipe but I didn't bother looking at it and just winged it! They turned out so well and everyone raved about them at the Scentsy party where I served these. Without further ado, here's the recipe:

Cucumber-Avocado Chicken Salad Miniwiches

cucumbers
roma or plum tomatoes
romaine lettuce
avocado chicken salad (recipe below)

Directions: Using a mandolin or very sharp knife, thinly slice the cucumbers and tomatoes. Tear lettuce into small pieces to fit on the cucumbers.
Assemble miniwiches: place a scoop of chicken salad atop a slice of cucumber, then lettuce, then tomato, and finally another slice of cucumber. I used a small ice-cream scoop to measure out the chicken salad evenly onto each miniwich.

Avacado Chicken Salad

1 large can of chicken, drained
1 avocado, mashed
lime juice
garlic powder
cilantro
salt and pepper

Mix ingredients together in a bowl. Unfortunately I didn't measure (as I often don't when creating a new recipe on a whim) so you'll need to add the juice and spices to your taste. My approximates are probably 1/4 tsp garlic powder, 1-2 tsp dried cilantro, sprinkling of salt and pepper, and about a tbsp of lime juice. It would probably taste even better with fresh chicken and cilantro but I didn't have time for that this time so this is how I made it :).

That's it... pretty easy and super yummy! If you don't like avocado, you could substitute your favorite chicken salad recipe or even use tuna salad instead. Enjoy!