Baking for Easter

Wow, today was a doozie! (by the way, recipes of baked goods mentioned today will be posted within the next few days)


I went to the mall today to find a smaller sized dress (yahoo!), but I had to take Elizabeth with me, and that made my mission an impossible one. She was in one of her defiant, you can't do anything to me to make me do what you want, kind of moods, which means we walked at a snails' pace and meandered around a lot. I guess it was okay though because the Mall had NOTHING. It was either "Hi, I'm a hooker" or "I'm too old to go shopping" types of dresses. And the one stylish dress I did find, it was all black and dark purple, which is not very Easter-y. Bummer.


I did manage to find a t-shirt on sale, and just for kicks I tried on a size: Medium. No way it would fit, I thought, but it would give me a good gauge on how far I need to go in order to buy smaller sizes (I was an XL before GP) ---and to my surprise, it did fit. I was shocked. And happy.  Unfortunately, I think all the weight from my middle fell to my hips, so this is not true of skirts or pants. Well, that's okay, I'll take what I can get at this point. 


Anyway... Regina (8) had a very sick hamster and after visiting the vet it was decided the hamster had to be put down since he had developed a tumor. So in the midst of all the other Easter preparations, we had to have a burial. 


I made a pan of brownies. This time I used cashew butter instead of the sunflower butter. The cashew butter made a heartier brownie. It didn't crumble as much. And I think it will be more satisfying. I just ate a bite to test it out... we'll see tomorrow!

I had wanted to make the Coconut Cowboy Cookies for the kids (for tomorrow morning), but they ate all the bananas. Again.  Then I thought I'd make a cheesecake instead, but then decided I didn't feel like going through the 15 different steps for it. So I settled on a decadent chocolate cake. 

Tomorrow the kids can have the brownies. I'll have the cake. But that leaves Tom without anything... so I found a berry tart I could make him, but I'll do that tomorrow sometime. 


In the meantime, I had to make dinner, but all I had was ground beef. So I made the kids burgers. Now, the grocery store did not have any organic ground beef, so I bought the range-free, organic Bison meat. Blah, I thought. Anyway, the kids ate it without complaint... they didn't even notice a difference! I pilfered a piece from Elizabeth's portion and thought it tasted a bit bland, but it really wasn't that bad, surprisingly. 

Elizabeth gives her bison burger a "thumbs up"

 Then we dyed eggs, which did not hold the dye so well for some reason. 

Stuffed mini-bell peppers:

Buried Muffin. 

Stuffed Easter baskets.

Now it's 10:30 and I've realized I have only eaten once (chicken) today. Seriously, this is getting annoying.

Our Easter Baskets

                         (I haven't stuffed the baskets yet, so no photo today, but there will be tomorrow!)


I went to the Health Food store and bought some basket stuffers. They didn't have a lot to choose from, so I did the best I could.


Chocolate covered cherries
Coconut bars (shredded coconut covered in dark chocolate)
Cherry/black licorice
Gummy worms
Peppermint patties
Chocolate Coconut Milk (individual sized boxes)


When I asked the kids what things the Easter bunny brings, they each said "A chocolate bunny, and those little chicken things ( I'm guessing that means Peeps)."


 I searched around for a chocolate bunny in the Health Food store, but there were none to be found. I do want them to have something familiar, so I bought a Dove-brand dark chocolate bunny. It's not Primal, but I found that this brand has the least amount of bad stuff in it.

Easter fun!

Then I bought a couple of movies (Dumbo and something else, I can't remember). Crayons and color book. And a few items from the party section in Wal-Mart (you know those things you use to fill party-favor bags): stickers, bouncy balls, necklaces, pens, etc. 

Now I'm trying to figure out how to bake chocolate coconut cookies, coconut bread, and chocolate cake (all primal, of course) with four crazy kids running around, and me only having 1 cup of dark chocolate chips left. 

Happy Easter everyone!