Living The Mad Dash

Those few hours between work and bedtime that we must cram in a whole day's worth of quality family time in between dinner, baths, bedtime stories... It's a mad dash for sure! Sometimes you don't even have a moment to sit and catch your breath. I don't particularly aspire to have it all- but whatever 'it' is, I must find a way to make it happen...quickly. Here is where I curate flashes of inspiration for productivity, child-rearing, creative expression and entertainment. Because if I don't write it down some where - I'll forget! Follow on Instagram: @livingthemaddash

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Friends, come on over and visit Living the Mad Dash at our new home: www.livingthemaddash.com All of our posts will be live at the new address going forward. Be sure to subscribe! Looking forward to seeing you soon... Don't forget that you can follow along on Instagram too: @livingthemaddash

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Had I known that carrot cake and cookies as one would be so right, I would’ve been making these a long time ago. Read on if you want to know more about the cookie that almost got away from you...

As usual, the idea for this recipe was born out of a desire to get my kids to intake some kind of vegetable into their stomachs (yes, I’m aware that this is still a cookie). The ingredients aren’t fancy.

I had one of my baking sidekicks around to ‘help’ out although, really, she was just using me for my ingredients. 

The result is a very moist, almost cake-like cookie that still has that chewiness of an oatmeal cookie. They aren’t super sweet- in fact, I’d say they are juuuust sweet enough. Add the cream cheese icing and then wow. WOW.

Carrot Cake Cookies

14 tablespoons softened butter

1 cup dark brown sugar (loose, not packed)

2 eggs (at room temperature)

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 tablespoon coconut oil

1&1/2 cups of all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1&1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

3 cups of old fashioned rolled oats

For carrots:

1&1/2 cups shredded carrots

1 tablespoon maple syrup

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

For icing:

4oz of softened cream cheese (softened)

2 tablespoons softened butter

1 cup of powdered sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 tablespoons milk

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Combine the carrots, maple syrup and vanilla in a bowl and allow the carrots to absorb the liquids. In a separate bowl, combine the measured flour, salt and baking soda, set aside. Next, cream the butter and sugar together until well mixed on medium speed. Add the coconut oil. Add the cinnamon until just mixed in. Mix in the eggs. Slowly incorporate the flour mixture by adding it to the mixer by the heaping spoonful, allowing it a chance to disappear into the dough before adding more. Batter will look like this:

Add the oats in batches, letting them become one with the dough before adding more. Then add those carrots, liquids and all. At this point, you should be looking like this:

I scoop giant mounds of dough onto the sheet for baking, but you have to press down the middle of the mound so that you don’t have a wet-in-the-middle cookie. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.

For the icing, cream the cheese butter together. Add in the vanilla. Then slowly add the powdered sugar. Watch this closely because you don’t want to make this too thick. I was looking for a near glaze for the cookie, so adding in the milk by the tablespoon got the right texture going. Once cookies are cooled, slather ‘em up with this sauce. Then grab a cookie. Sit down. Take a bite and close your eyes. You’ll need a moment to collect yourself.

Sidekick-approved. Enjoy!

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Ohhh man. We capped off a good week with a goooood sundae. I've been looking for what to do with this box of chocolate krispies for a while, lucky day! Vanilla ice cream+hot caramel and fudge+choco krispies+frozen Reese's peanut butter cups+whipped cream and a cherry on top. The caramel and the krispies really made this! I'd like to thank my boy for having a good week at school, and all the ingredients already in my house who made this happen- special shout out to the caramel and krispies. Happy Friday, y'all! #livingthemaddash #instayum #yumm #icecreamsundae #tgif #reesespeanutbuttercups #chocolatericekrispies #imnotgonnacrashatall #sugarrush

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Baking French yogurt cake with my bébé...

Ever since I read the book Bringing Up Bébé: One American Woman Discovers the Wisdom of French Parenting by Pamela Druckerman I have been thinking about that damn yogurt cake that all the French kids eat (and help make) for their single snack of the day, or goûter. I’ve been thinking- this cake must be insanely good if it can make a kid wait patiently for their snack. AND they help bake it?? My imagination has been getting the best of me. Until now. I baked it with my 2 year old.

My children tend to approach baking tools and ingredients like they’ve just come out of a piñata: all hands touch everything, grab everything, and try to pocket or eat most things. Sooooo, we don’t bake together all the time.  I tried this recipe out while I had just one child present (highly recommended).

I followed a googled recipe for “French yogurt cake,” choosing the one that included ‘simple’ in the title. The ingredients are indeed simple. It was a typical grab-fest with the little one. She really wanted to taste the raw eggs. But because there were so few steps in the recipe, I was able to stay ahead of those little hands (this made me happy).

In about 45 minutes total we had two warm little cakes out on the racks to cool.

The verdict: this cake was just...okay. It tasted like a cake, but not like a good cake. I would be sad if this is what I’d waited all afternoon for as my only snack. It was extremely basic. I don’t know that frosting would make it much more than that. I did end up adding some fresh fruit and whipped cream on the side for my second serving (hey, I wasn’t going to let even a basic cake go to waste). My older kid had one bite and was like, I’m good instead of asking for more.

It’s a lovely idea to bake with the kids though. And we did have a nice time. Buuut...I probably won’t make this one again.

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I love ice cream. I love espresso. Sometimes I want both as an afternoon pick-me-up. So I pulled together my two friends and let them meet for the first time in my house. And they’ve been together ever since, teehee!

You’ll just need a shot of espresso and a scoop of whatever ice cream you have on hand. Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough and Starbucks espresso pictured, above.

Bonus: you can have your treat right alongside any little one who has earned it by eating all of their peas (theirs without the espresso, of course).

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Rise and shine! My mother is the true master juicer. I can get down with a green juice, but it’s hard when you can taste EXACTLY how healthy it is for you. This juice has a ton of spinach which, to me, has a milder taste than some other greens like kale. Try spinach+green apple+clementine = a refreshing green juice that does not taste like the bottom of a lawn mower. Bonus: the pairing of vitamin c from the citrus helps your body absorb the iron from the spinach. Follow me on Instagram! @livingthemaddash #livingthemaddash #homemade #foodpost #foodphotography #rawfood #juice #greenjuice #juicingforhealth

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I discovered this little gem the other day when we stopped by for story time. This visit we walked the trails all around. It was peaceful (minus all of the noise that we brought). A buck crossed our path about 5 yards in front of us, gave my little guy a whole bunch of side eye. A mix of wooden walkways, natural trails and bridges with lots of variety kept my littles’ interest. It’s worth about 40 minutes of your time if you have a little sprinter like I do. Follow me on Instagram! @livingthemaddash #autreymillnaturepreserve #livingthemaddash

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I know everyone is all pumpkin spice crazy right now- that’s a big ‘nah’ for me. This change of season makes me think of savory flavors like these caramelized onions. They are ridiculously good. They are so easy to make. They store in the fridge for at least a week (I’ve made it to two weeks before). They freeze nicely. They make for an extraordinary accent flavor in a variety of dishes: pizza topping, sautéed kale or spinach, scrambled eggs, toast. Basically, they make my artwork come alive. I’ve found these come out best when I make them in the oven. Roasting the onions really brings out the flavor vs just sautéing them. It’s not necessarily a fast process, but I promise it is worth it! It’s something that I just have cooking in the background while I’m doing other things around the house. It requires minimal supervision and because I get a lot of comments from my family (“it smells like Thanksgiving!” to “wow, I can STILL smell those onions.”) cooking in the oven reduces the onion smell in the house. You need: •4-5 huge onions •3-4 tablespoons of olive oil •1 teaspoon of high heat oil (vegetable or safflower) •1 tablespoon salt •an oven safe pan (I use my trusty cast iron skillet) Heat oven to 375 degrees. Coat your skillet with the vegetable oil. Add sliced onions to skillet and toss with the olive oil and salt, taking care to coat all of the onions). For the first 30 minutes, stir onions in the skillet every 10 minutes to distribute their exposure to the heat more evenly. After that your pan will be nice and hot so you can check on them less frequently. These will take about 1&½ hours to cook. When they are nicely browned- you’re done! Store in a glass container in the fridge, or freeze them by storing them in a large freezer-friendly resealable plastic bag. Make sure to press them flat in the bag so that you’ll have a thin layer of onions. Trust me, it’ll make it easier on you when it’s time to defrost them- you can just break a chunk off as you need it. P.S. You can speed up the cook time by increasing the heat. Just make sure to check and stir them more frequently! 450 degrees will get you done in 30-45 minutes, just check on them every five minutes to make sure they don’t burn. Follow me on Instagram! @livingthemaddash Enjoy!

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Testing a theory…will the kids eat cookies for breakfast? Hahaha. I started with the basic oatmeal cookie recipe, subtracted some sugar and added a bunch of substantial breakfast ingredients. Think bananas, pistachios, raisins, flax seed (a few mini choc chips)… Like a bowl of my oatmeal that fits into the palm of their little hands. Testing these this morning!

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My youngest just celebrated a birthday and I was looking for a special way to celebrate at home. A tea party turned out to be the perfect idea. My kids love ‘hot’ tea; my daughter loves to dress up; I love an excuse to have more than one kind of sweet on the table. Here’s how it went down:

-I used REAL fine china…a tip from a friend took me to two different Goodwill stores where I found a ton of options. None of the sets were complete so I created one, choosing complementary colors from my theme. I scored big time! Less than $15 for all of the cups and saucers. If there had been more guests, I’d have let them take one in a goodie bag. Bonus: there was no added stress about expensive broken dishes. (No dishes were broken during the making of this celebration).) A rrrrrreally good soak and scrub and these delicate dishes made the party special.

-My daughter requested a coconut cake. For real. I had no idea she knew what a coconut cake was! I asked repeatedly in the days leading up to make sure, and I got some variations…something with strawberries and cream…chocolate…and then a complete freak out that it really needed to be coconut cake. So, I made them all! I used this delicious recipe for the coconut cream cake as my guide: http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/incredible-coconut-cake It was soooo delicious! I very highly recommend this recipe. One variation I made was to cook the cake in a sheet pan. I used cookie cutters to create small two-tiered cakes for each guest. I sliced up pound cake into mini portions and set each with its own strawberries and cream. I made a batch of chocolate buttercream to get some variety.

-The fabric bunting flag had to be in there because. It has become tradition!

-Initially I figured this to be an early afternoon event, requiring only the cakes. But an off-schedule nap turned this party into a weird early dinner time. I scrambled to add more substantial eats, like mini quesadillas and mini house made chic-fil-something chicken sandwiches and the crudités.

-For added flare I made some no-sew bow ties in the color family (a quick google search will show tons of how-to’s), and props like fake flower boutonnières, party hats and feather hair accessories. It made everyone so festive!

The guest of honor wore a seafoam green tutu (Old Navy) with a chambray shirt and statement necklace (Target clearance!) and was sooooooo happy to twirl in her outfit…for about 30 minutes. Then she insisted on removing it all to enjoy the rest of her party. Whatevs, mylady! You only turn two once, right?

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Because we are on such a tight rotation of foods that I know my little ones will eat, I find myself trying to cram as many extra ingredients into each meal as possible…that they won’t notice. This isn’t new. I know moms everywhere do this. So…me too. I think I would probably add carrots to their milk if I could get away with it. These meatballs are really tasty and if I can make a double batch, the meatballs freeze beautifully for a quick weeknight meal or lunch.

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I love desserts. Carrot cake is a family favorite. In fact, I think I’ve made a carrot cake for every birthday and special holiday so far this year. Now I’m tired of carrot cake. I realized last celebration that maybe my little guy is too. I could get a few bites from him, tops. A few bites…of CAKE. Now, a doughnut is another story. He was recently introduced to them and I think they like each other! So I gave him something he wanted to celebrate the big “4.” And gave the adults an excuse to eat ‘Hot Donuts Now.’ (I had to warm them up again a little to get the sprinkles to stick.) Birthday success!

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All summer long I’ve been gazing longingly into gas station windows as I’m pumping gas, hoping for a glimpse of a slurpee machine. Listen, I’ve got two kids in tow. I’m not unbuckling those jokers and having an argument about why they can’t have that candy or that toy by the register only to get inside and find out that they don’t even sell slurpees. Or worse: they don’t have a flavor I like. I don’t want BLUE, thank you.

You can imagine my joy when I stumbled across my own little concoction one afternoon. This is so simple, I almost feel silly writing about it. But I’m so happy! Really, all you need is a rrrrrrreally bubbly soda (it can’t be something that loses its fizz soon after being poured over ice) and some ice. If you blend it long enough, the consistency will be the same as from a slurpee machine.

You need: - ½ can of your favorite soda - about ½ cup of ice (I didn’t just want lemonade flavor I added maraschino cherries and a bit of their juice. A lovely color, right?)

Combine and blend. Keep an eye on the mix- the longer you blend the better your consistency. But if you blend too long you’re just playing with your food.

Because the fizz is an important part of MY slurpee, after I blended and poured into my glass, I swirled in another glug of soda with my straw before drinking.

So, has the world been doing this all along and I’m just the last to know? Better late than never!

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My Gratitude Tuesdays

The truth: I don’t always have a great attitude. So I’ll try a little something to remind me of all the things I have to be grateful for.

I am grateful for texting. I know it isn’t the warmest of mediums to talk with another person. I’ve recently moved far away from an area that I called home for nearly eight years. Connecticut will keep a special place in my heart. We started and grew a family there, both with our children and friends. I realize that with my husband, merry little ones and dog, it won’t always be possible to get back to see the people and places that we miss. So it makes me happy that I can still quickly check in with old buds via text at whatever time is convenient for all parties: swap a pic; exchange a story about our days and families; get a check on the weather to remind me why I’m happy to be in a warmer climate but how I kind of miss the milder summer and the shoreline. And I’m so glad that it keeps us connected to the rest of our loved ones who live even further away. Three cheers for texting!

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This is another last minute scramble to create something special. This time, it was for a little end-of-the-year celebration for my kiddo’s classroom. Luckily I had some supplies on hand. And a ‘helpful’ toddler who could not contain herself around those cookies. “Right there! On the table, mom!” A quick run to the store for the sweets and I was back and ready to pull it all together. To spruce up the platter, I cut a thick cardboard base from the top of a pizza box and covered it with craft paper from Michael’s. It made all the difference! At least for me…I’m certain that the kids did not look that far into the box. I hope the teachers were able to appreciate it before the little ones had at it. It really only took about 30 minutes to put it all together. The cake box and covered base elevated my drop-off treats to more of a party platter. Done! Follow me on Instagram! @livingthemaddash

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B.L.A.T. I would consider this a lighter take on a B.L.T., amiright? Hearty romaine in place of bread. Add a drizzle of ranch and fresh lime juice to finish.

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