Chinese-American author Kat Zhang has 3 different Amy Wu books, but since I'm a total sucker for children's books that involve food, I had to feature "Amy Wu and the Perfect Bao!" The story chronicles little Amy Wu's struggles as she attempts to make the perfect bao like her mother, father, and grandmother. 

Before I continue, I feel like I should clarify what bao are for those who don't know. Bao (pronounced bow as in, "She bowed before the princess") are amazingly delicious steamed buns. We get them all the time from the Asian market in town. They come in a variety of sizes with all sorts of fillings. We've had ones filled with various meats, vegetables, red bean, and custard. The kids' favorite is one called a Phoenix bun, which is filled with a sweet runny eggy custard.

Ok, now I can get back to the story. So Amy tries over and over and over to make the perfect bao but they're just not coming out right! Can she figure out the secret to making the perfect bao her own way? Watch the read aloud below and find out!

I never made a big deal out of Valentine's Day...until I had kids. Kids seriously bring new meaning to every holiday - even the random silly ones like ice cream for breakfast day and silly sock day! It's become a tradition now that every year I make some fun Valentine-themed meals for everyone. 

Above you can see our I<3U breakfasts - sliced strawberries, heart shaped pancakes, and bacon or sausage U's. 

This year I made heart shaped cinnamon rolls - Squidgy actually asked me a few days ago if I could make bloody guts again so I figured I'd give the cinnamon rolls a Valentine twist instead. To make the hearts you unroll the bun halfway, then coil the loose end. Try to pinch the bottoms to get a sharp point because the rolls have a habit of curving in while they bake.

I served the heart rolls with bacon (that I attempted to shape into hearts!) and berry sauce. The berry sauce is super easy to make - all recipes are at the end of this post. 

If you want something a little more on the healthy side, this pink smoothie bowl is for you! Full of delicious fruits, it's naturally sweet and beautiful! Scroll down for the recipe.

Place 3 cups frozen berries* in a saucepan over medium-low heat. Cover and heat 5-10 minutes until the berries are thawed and softened. Mash the berries lightly. Add 2 tablespoons of sugar and 1 teaspoon of cornstarch and stir together. Bring to boil, simmer 1 minute, then turn off the heat. Add in a tiny splash of lemon juice and give it a final stir before pouring on top of your cinnamon rolls, pancakes, waffles, or French toast!

*Note: you can use a single type of berry or a mix.

In a food processor, combine the following:

- 2 frozen bananas, broken into chunks (if you want a thinner smoothie base, use 1 1/2 bananas - as is, this recipe has the consistency of ice cream)

- 1 cup raspberries

- 1/3 cup blueberries

- 1/4 cup walnuts

- 1-2 tablespoons maple syrup (optional)

- 1/2 cup milk

- topping ideas: chia seeds, shredded coconuts, mini chocolate chips, nut butter

Blend until everything you have a smooth uniform consistency. Top as desired.

This smoothie is like pumpkin pie in a glass! To make it extra festive for Halloween, draw some jack-o-lantern faces on your glasses!

- 1/2 cup vanilla Greek yogurt

- 3/4-1 cup water

- 1/2 cup pumpkin puree

- 1 frozen banana

- 1 cup frozen peaches, pineapple, and/or mangoes

- 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

1. Combine all ingredients in a high speed blender until thick and smooth. 

2. Pour into glasses and enjoy!

October 21st is a day for celebration - it's national apple day, international day of the nacho, and world reptile day! When I saw that, I decided I just HAD to combine the first two and make some delicious apple nachos! (There were no reptiles involved in my apple nachos, but for reptile info and activities, check out my Read and Rise post featuring the story "Verdi" by Janell Cannon.)

These apple nachos are absolutely yumma-licious and reminded me of those crazy caramel-chocolate apples you get from sweet shops or Edible Arrangements. However, they are MUCH easier to make and also easier to eat! Plus you can vary the toppings to use whatever you have on hand (or think is most delicious!).

- 1 or 2 apples

- peanut butter (or other nut butter)

- caramel sauce (or leftover dulce de leche frosting from Halloween Surprise Cupcakes...)

- granola

- mini chocolate chips

- toasted and chopped pecans or walnuts

1. Slice apples and arrange on a large plate.

2. Warm a tablespoon or two of peanut butter in a microwave in 10 second increments until it is pourable. Do the same with the caramel sauce.

3. Drizzle peanut butter and caramel over the apple slices.

4. Sprinkle granola, chocolate chips, and toasted nuts on top.

5. Find a few people to share your apple nachos with so you don't eat the entire plate yourself!

This crazy cupcake actually started with an ad from Walmart. The ad popped up online and it showed chocolate cupcakes with orange and green "slime" oozing out of the middle. The slime was simply made of dyed vanilla pudding and it looked so cute and Halloween-y I couldn't resist. Since Hispanic heritage month just ended and Dia de los Muertos is coming up in a couple weeks, I thought a Mexican chocolate cupcake would be good to use. So then I started searching for Mexican chocolate cupcake recipes and came across this: Mexican Chocolate Cupcakes with Dulce de Leche Cream Cheese frosting. I honestly don't even know how I found it. It wasn't one of the results in my original search. It somehow just popped up while I was reading through other recipes but as soon as my brain read "dulce de leche cream cheese frosting" my stomach went "yes, please!!" But I still wanted the surprise "slime" element so I rummaged in the pantry and found a box of pistachio pudding mix, which, being green, I thought would be perfect. And that's how we ended up with this weird not really Halloween-y at all on the outside cupcake with bright green pudding on the inside. It's like the Frankenstein's monster of cupcakes, a random mish mash of ideas and flavors! 

Anyway, here's the process:

Step 1: Make dulce de leche the day before you want to make cupcakes. It's actually SUPER easy to make at home. Just take a can of sweetened condensed milk, put it in a slow cooker, and cover with water - make sure it's completely submerged (you don't have to remove the label, but I chose to so I wouldn't end up with soggy label bits in the slow cooker later). Put the lid on the slow cooker, set it to low, and let it cook for 8 hours. Once the time is up, carefully remove it from the hot water using tongs and place it in a bowl of cold water for about 10 minutes. Once the can is cool enough to handle, open it, transfer the deliciousness to a jar, and put it in the fridge until you're ready to use it. Oh, and make sure you taste a little - I mean, quality control, right? 

Step 2: Bake the cupcakes according the recipe. Here is it again: Mexican Chocolate Cupcakes with Dulce de Leche Cream Cheese frosting

Step 3: While the cupcakes cool, make the pudding according to package directions.

Step 4: While the cupcakes cool and the pudding chills, make the Dulce de Leche Cream Cheese frosting.

Step 5: Once the cupcakes are completely cooled, cut out the middle of each cupcake using a sharp pointed knife. 

Step 6: Spoon chilled pudding into the middle of each cupcake while the kids watch and argue over which has the most pudding because maybe that one just looks like it has more because the hole is smaller...

Step 7: Pipe frosting over the top of the cupcakes and add sprinkles or decorations if desired. (Yes, my frosting is droopy. I didn't have heavy cream and decided to experiment and see if half and half would work ok since it's half cream...fyi, half and half only half works, I think I should've seen that coming...but the frosting is still DELICIOUS!)

If you like the concept don't want to mix bold flavors, stick with vanilla pudding and color it green or orange. At the very least, you must try the Mexican chocolate cupcakes with dulce de leche cream cheese frosting. I'm pretty sure it is now my favorite frosting and I will find other flavor cakes to make it with. Oooh, maybe an apple spice cupcake? I have apples and half a batch of dulce de leche left...stay tuned...

Freshly plucked and frozen monster eye nestled in a bed of whipped swamp slime with a sprinkle of cave-cured earwax (aged 9 months).

I randomly decided that I should create gourmet descriptions of my creepy Halloween dishes and this is my first creation! I presented this to Lil C and Squidgy and they didn't bat an eye when I told them what it was but just picked up their bowls and walked away. However, Lil C did pause halfway to the table, turned and asked, "But, what is it really??"

Read on to find out how to make your own creepy ice cream sundaes at home!

- Vanilla or other mostly white ice cream (I used chocolate chip cookie dough and just made sure no big cookie chunks were showing)

- Raspberry jam

- Starburst candies or gummy Lifesavers

- Chocolate chips

- Whipped cream (homemade or store-bought)

- Gold or yellow sugar sprinkles

1. Line a baking sheet with waxed paper. Using an ice cream scoop and your hands, create an ice cream sphere about the size of a clementine. Place the scoop on lined baking sheet. Repeat until you have your desired amount of eyeballs.

2. Scoop a tablespoon of raspberry jam into a bowl and add water, a teaspoon at a time, until the jam is drippy and pourable. Use a small clean paintbrush to draw 6 squiggly "veins" going down each eye.

3. Place Starburst candies in the microwave for 5 seconds to soften slightly - you will need 1 candy for every 2 sundaes. Cut each Starburst in half, then knead each piece and form into a flat disc. Push a chocolate chip, pointy side down, into each candy disc and gently press onto the top of each ice cream eyeball. Alternatively, you could use gummy Lifesavers instead of Starburst.

4. Place baking sheet in freezer for at least 30 minutes to let the eyeballs firm up.

5. Just before serving, squirt a spiral of whipped cream into the bottom of each serving bowl. (I made homemade whipped cream and added a few drops of green food coloring, but you can use regular whipped cream).

6. Using a large spoon or spatula, remove the ice cream eyeballs from the baking sheet and place them on your whipped cream nest. Finally, sprinkle the whole thing with gold or yellow sugar sprinkles.

Viola! Now you have perfectly creepy and delectable monster eyeballs! Enjoy!

We love getting scallion pancakes when we order Chinese takeout so when I came across a recipe for some on The Hong Kong Cookery, I knew we had to try it! They are not quite the same as the ones from the restaurants - not as thin and oily - but I think I actually prefer them better! They're not necessarily hard to make, but they do take a good amount of time. What's great about this recipe, though, is that your kids can easily be involved with the entire process. So let's get cooking!

Chinese Scallion Pancakes (adapted from The Hong Kong Cookery)

- 2 cups all-purpose flour

- 1/2 cup boiling water

- 1/3 cup water (plus more if needed)

- 1 tbsp flour

- 1/2 tsp salt

- 2 tbsp olive oil

- 1 cup chopped scallions

1. Add boiling water to flour and stir with a spoon until the water is absorbed.

2. Add in room temperature water and knead until everything comes together into a soft dough. If needed, add water 1 tbsp at a time. Cover and let dough rest 20 minutes.

3. In a small bowl, combine flour, salt, and oil. 

4. After 20 minutes, divide your dough into 4 portions and shape into balls. Sprinkle some flour on your working surface and thinly roll out one of the balls of dough.

5. Brush the oil paste all over the round.

6. Sprinkle scallions over the dough - sprinkle a little or a lot!

7. Roll up the pancake, gently flatten it, and then spread the oil paste all over the roll.

8. Roll the pancake once more into a spiral, so it looks like a snail shell, and tuck the end underneath. Repeat this process with the other 3 balls. 

9. Now lay the spiral down with the tucked end underneath and roll it out into a thin pancake.

 

10. Heat a non-stick or cast iron pan over medium heat. When hot, add the pancake and cook until the top looks dry and white. Flip and cook a few more minutes.

11. Repeat with the rest of the dough. Finally, add a tablespoon of oil to the pan and cook each pancake a second time until both sides are golden and crispy. Cut into wedges and serve hot.

This week we are celebrating Eugenia Chu's book, "Brandon Goes to Hong Kong." Eugenia is Chinese-American and when her son was very young, she searched for books that touched on Chinese culture or included Chinese (Mandarin) vocabulary to read with him. Unfortunately, she didn't really find any! So she began writing her own! I think it is so admirable that she decided to take it upon herself to create the books she wanted to read her son. I suppose maybe it's not so different from me creating unit studies for my kids so I can teach them in the way that works best for all of us.

And so I decided to take inspiration from Eugenia and use her new book (which she graciously sent me a digital version of so I could check it out and review it) as the basis of a week long mini unit study on Hong Kong!