Kung Fu Panda Dinner

Kung Fu Panda 3 comes out this weekend and to celebrate, we did a Kung Fu Panda dinner!  

To eat, we had Mr. Ping's Noodle Dream Soup, Master Oogway's Eggrolls with Spicy "Sacred Peach" Dipping Sauce, Master Shifu's Inner Peas, Skadoosh Juice, and Po's Panda Cupcakes. 

Mr. Ping's Noodle Dream Soup

I found the recipe here and tweaked it a little. 

Ingredients:

8 cups of water

1/4 cup of soy sauce

1/2 teaspoon of sesame oil

1/8 crushed red pepper flakes

2 teaspoons of sugar

1 inch of freshly grated ginger

1/2 of an onion, chopped

1 clove of garlic, minced

1 large carrot, sliced thin

4 stocks of celery

4 oz of basil fettuccine noodles

1/2 of a head of Bok Choy leaves shredded (I did mine by hand)

4oz of mushrooms, sliced

1 lime, cut into wedges

4 green onions, sliced 

Directions:

1. In a large pot combine water, soy sauce, sesame oil, crushed red pepper flakes, sugar and ginger and bring to a boil.

2. Once boiling, add onion, garlic, carrot, celery, noodles, Bok Choy and mushrooms.

3. About 10 minutes of boiling will cook the noodles thoroughly

4. Soup is done, serve with a lime wedge and green onions. 

Master Oogway's Eggrolls with Spicy "Sacred Peach" Sauce

We bought the egg rolls from the grocery store and the peach sauce recipe I found here and made it a bit less spicy because I am very Norwegian (i.e. salt is sometimes too spicy) and I'm growing a very bland eating baby.  Tim, however, LOVED it!!! 

 Ingredients:

3/4 cup of peach jam

1/4 cup of chili paste

2 tablespoons of Sriracha 

1 teaspoon of hot Chinese mustard

1 teaspoon of soy sauce

1 teaspoon of sesame oil

1/3 cup of rice wine vinegar

Directions:

1. In a small pan, mix together jam, chili paste, mustard, and soy sauce and cook on low heat for ten minutes, stirring occasionally until jam thins out.

2. Remove from heat, stir in sesame oil and rice wine vinegar.

3. Let cool and serve cold. 

Master Shifu's Inner Peas

Tim boiled frozen peas (covered) for 4-5 minutes

Skadoosh Juice

4oz of Malibu Rum

1oz of Midori Melon

2oz of Pineapple Juice

*For those of you who have tuned in every week, you can probably guess that I had just a full glass of pineapple juice.

Po's Panda Cupcakes

I used our cupcake recipe from the Lorax dinner and decorated it all fancy.

Ingredients for decorating:

White frosting (I bought the kind in a tube)

Sugar

Chocolate Chips (for base of eyes, ears and nose)

White icing (for whites of eyes) 

Black Sprinkles (for mouth and eyeballs) 

Directions:

1. Cover cupcake in white frosting

2. Coat the top of cupcake with sugar.

3. Place toppings on to look like a panda!  

We had a great dinner and can't wait to see how Kung Fu Panda 3 is! 

Frozen Dinner

We travel to the other side of the world from last week's tropical Hawaiian feast for Lilo and Stitch to a wintery Norwegian blowout for Frozen!  Our friends KC and John were here to join in on the festivities!

For dinner, we had Arendelle's Lefse, Elsa's Snowy Mac and Cheese, Sven and Kristoff's Shared Carrots, Troll Stones, the Cold Front Cocktail, and for dessert, Olaf's Snowy Macaroons. 

Arendelle's Lefse

I love lefse and use any excuse to eat it!  We just bought some at the grocery store and doctored it up with butter and sugar. 

Elsa's Snowy Mac and Cheese

I got this recipe out of this amazing cookbook and changed it up a little bit.

Ingredients:

3 cups of cauliflower 

1 box of elbow macaroni

3 tablespoons of olive oil, separated 

2 tablespoons of butter

3 tablespoons of flour 

1.5 cups of milk

7oz of sharp white cheddar cheese

2 cups of mozzarella cheese 

1/4 teaspoon of ground nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon of ground cayenne pepper

2 teaspoons of salt

Directions:

1. Chop up the cauliflower into bite size pieces (using a whole head of cauliflower, we used about 1/3).

2. Over medium heat, warm 2 tablespoons of olive oil and add chopped cauliflower.

3. Cook cauliflower until golden brown, stirring often. Keep on low heat. 

4. Cook macaroni according to package directions. Set aside. 

5. Over medium-low heat, add  remaining oil and butter to a large pan.

6. When butter is melted, add flour and whisk together for 2 minutes.

7. Add milk slowly and turn the heat up to medium.

8. Once the mixture begins to bubble, reduce heat.

9. Add both cheeses, nutmeg, cayenne pepper, and salt.  Mix together well.

10. Add cauliflower and macaroni to the mixture and serve warm.

Sven and Kristoff's Shared Carrots

We just washed and peeled carrots!

Troll Stones

I found this recipe here and it's so simple and amazing!

Ingredients:

18oz of grape jelly (per the recipe, I bought the used Welch's squeeze bottle of Concord Grape Jelly)

18 oz of Sweet Baby Ray's Hickory barbecue sauce

2lbs of frozen prepared meatballs (I had to get two packages)

The Cold Front

I found the ingredients here but we didn't have the recipe so we just did all equal parts!

Ingredients:

2oz White Chocolate

2oz Peppermint Schnapps

2oz Malibu

2oz Milk

*I just had 8oz of straight up milk. #pregnancyproblems

Olaf's Snowy Macaroons

I found this recipe here and changed it a bit. 

Ingredients:

1 1/3 cups of flaked coconut

2 tablespoons of flour

1/3 cup of sugar

a dash of salt

2 egg whites

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees

2. In a bowl, combine coconut, flour, sugar and salt.  

3. Stir in eggs and vanilla

4. Shape round teaspoons and put it on a greased baking sheet.

5. Cook for 17 minutes until it's golden brown.

*I had made these for Christmas and they were fabulous and looked perfect!  However, I made them for this dinner and they didn't stay as beautifully round...  I might add a bit more flour to make it less sticky??  The flavor is amazing! 

We had an awesome dinner and the food went together really well!!

I did have to break out my fabulous Elsa sweatshirt for the occasion!

Lilo and Stitch Dinner

For dinner to accompany Lilo and Stitch, we had our own little luau with our friend, John! 

For dinner, we had Luau Chicken with Peanut Sauce, Hawaiian Coconut Rice, Pudge's Peanut Sandwich, Ohana Colada Cocktail, and Mini Pineapple Upside Down Cakes. 

Luau Chicken with Peanut Sauce:
I got the recipe here for chicken satay but I changed it to fit our kitchen better.  (We didn't really want to grill in January.)

Ingredients:
2 chicken breasts, cut into cubes
1/2 cup of coconut milk
2 teaspoons of ground coriander
1 teaspoon of turmeric powder
1/2 teaspoon of ground ginger
2 teaspoons of soy sauce
1 clove of minced garlic
A sprinkle of red pepper flakes
1/2 teaspoon of salt

Directions:
1. In a bowl, mix together coconut milk, coriander, turmeric, ginger, soy sauce, garlic, red pepper flakes, and salt. 
2. Once mixed together, add chicken.  Cover and let marinate for at least an hour.  
3. Once chicken is done marinating, cook in a large skillet until chicken is cooked.

The peanut sauce we just bought from the store.   Yum!!

Hawaiian Coconut Rice
I found this recipe and it was SOO easy!

Ingredients:
2 cups of white rice
1 cup of coconut milk
2 cups of water
1/2 teaspoon of salt
3 tablespoons of shredded coconut


Directions:
Put all ingredients in the rice cooker and set to cook.  Once done, serve warm. 

Pudge's Peanut Butter Sandwich
Just a regular peanut butter sandwich 

Ohana Colada
I found the idea for this drink here.  There were no amounts so we got creative and added our own. 

2 parts Mango Malibu Rum
4 parts Blue Curacao
1 part Pineapple Juice
Crushed Ice 
2 gummy worms

My (pregnant lady) version was Pineapple juice and Pina Colada mix with a pineapple and cherry garnish.

Mini Pineapple Upside Down Cakes
I found this recipe here!

Ingredients:
2 eggs
2/3 cup of white sugar
4 Tablespoons of pineapple juice
2/3 cup of flour
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1/4 teaspoon of salt
1/4 cup of butter
2/3 cup of brown sugar
1 can of pineapple rings
12 maraschino cherries

*makes 12

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray your muffin tin with cooking spray.
2. In a mixing bowl, combine eggs, white sugar, pineapple juice, flour, baking powder,  and salt.  Stir for 2 minutes.
3. In a sauce pan, melt the butter and stir in the brown sugar.  Stir on low for a minute to combine.
4. Once a syrup is created, spoon a small layer into the bottom of each cupcake.
5. Place a pineapple ring on top of the syrup (you will have to cut this to fit).
6. Place a cherry in the center. 
7. Pour cake mix into each cupcake pan about 3/4 full.  *you might be able to see the top of the cherries and that's ok! 
8. Bake for 23 minutes.
9. Remove from oven and let cool in the pan for about five minutes. 
10. Pry each cake out with a knife and flip over to serve. 

This was one of the most cohesive dinners we've had to date!  It was so good!!

  

And just because we have one, here's a little pic from our Disney World Vacation which was almost three years ago to the day!

Winnie The Pooh And A Very Merry Pooh Year Dinner

As we embark on a brand new year with our themed dinners, we begin with Winnie The Pooh And A Very Merry Pooh Year.  Winnie the Pooh also happens to be the theme of the nursery for our little lady, which is why we have so much fun Winnie the Pooh stuff!!

For dinner we had Hunny Ham, Rabbit's Carrot Soup, Gopher's "Wood" Chips, Hunny Vanilla Chai Toddy, and Hunny Holiday Tarts... YUM!  

Hunny Ham:

We actually received leftover ham from Tim's mom and dad.  So we just heated it up!  Boy, was it tasty!

Rabbit's Carrot Soup:

We bought organic creamy carrot and bunny pasta soup at the grocery store and heated it on the stovetop for a few minutes until warm.  The soup has cute rabbit and carrot shaped noodles too! 

Gopher's "Wood" Chips

We picked up some Hickory BBQ chips!

Hunny Vanilla Chai Toddy
We adjusted this recipe here!

Ingredients:
Boiling Water (about 5 oz per cup)
1 teabag of Vanilla Chai Latte Tea
1 tablespoon of Honey
3 oz of Seagram's Dark Honey Whiskey
1 teaspoon of cinnamon

*pregnant lady version is the exact same thing without the Whiskey and still tastes pretty damn good!

Hunny Holiday Tarts 
I found this recipe here and tweaked it a bit!

Ingredients:
1 sheet of Frozen puff pastry, defrosted
1 green apple, sliced thin
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
1 teaspoon of sugar
Honey

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper (I used to think parchment paper was dumb/unnecessary... I have seen the error of ways.  Buy the parchment paper!)
2. Cut the puff pastry into 6 rectangles
3. Place apple slices on puff pastry, as many as desired
4. Mix cinnamon and sugar together in a bowl, sprinkle mixture on each pastry
5. Bake the tarts for 12 minutes until apples are tender and the pastry is golden brown.
6. Drizzle honey on tarts and serve warm!

They were quite tasty and SO simple!

  

We had a great dinner and are counting down to see our baby girl!  We only have a little over 9 weeks to go!