More Baby Shower Fun: The Food

As promised earlier this week, here is the menu and recipes from the shower.  Samantha and I got together on Friday and spent the day baking and preparing our refreshments.  That was almost as much fun as the actual shower!  All of the food was very very good, and we received lots of compliments and requests for recipes.  I think a good recipe deserves to be enjoyed, not hidden away in my recipe box, so I'm happy to share them!

The Menu:

 Breakfast pizza (the shower was at 11 a.m.) purchased from a local pizzeria and cut into triangles to dress it up a bit.

Fresh fruit: grapes, strawberries, and apple slices.

Veggies, apple slices, and Peanut Butter Yogurt Dip.  This peanut butter dip is amazing, and healthier than most dips.  It is great with so many different things.  Pretzels, mini rice cakes, apples, bananas, veggies... I'm sure there is more that would taste good with it that I haven't thought of yet.

Peanut Butter Yogurt Dip
1 cup Vanilla flavored yogurt
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1 tsp vanilla

Mix all ingredients together until smooth and serve with your favorite fruits and veggies.

These sticky buns are AMAZING!  I mean, the best I have ever had by far.  Mmm.... I'm getting a craving for them right now just thinking about how good they are.

Easy Sticky Buns
16 frozen  bread dough dinner rolls
1 lg pkg (or 2 small) cook & serve vanilla pudding (NOT instant)
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup margarine

The night before place frozen roll dough in greased pan.  Mix pudding, brown sugar, and melted margarine together and spread over top of frozen dough.  Let rise overnight.  Bake in the morning at 350 for 20-30 minutes.  Turn sticky buns out of pan upside down while still hot or they will stick in the pan.  These are just as good cooled as they are warm.

These frozen fruit cups were a great cool refreshing treat.  These would be great to make and keep in the freezer for the summer as a healthier alternative to popsicles.


Frozen Fruit Cups
6 ounces frozen orange juice concentrate, thawed slightly
6 ounces frozen lemonade concentrate, thawed slightly
11 ounces can mandarin oranges, drained
20 ounces can crushed pineapple, drained
20 ounces frozen strawberries (2 pkgs), thawed slightly
10 ounces frozen raspberries, thawed slightly
3 to 4 bananas (more if desired), diced
4 cups ginger ale (more if desired)

In a very large bowl, mix all ingredients together. With a measuring cup, fill individual plastic cups with mixture. Place cups on a flat surface such as a baking sheet. Cover loosely with wax paper and freeze. Thaw at least 30 minutes before eating. (note: if you don't thaw them a little they will be hard as a rock and very difficult to eat)

Instead of doing a typical shower cake, we decided to make cupcakes.  We made a batch of Pillsbury Funfetti cupcakes, and used store bought icing tinted blue with chocolate sprinkles on top.  We also made a batch of Rich Chocolate cupcakes with store bought chocolate icing and little white sprinkles on top.  I don't care for chocolate cake mixes so I found this recipe.  I thought it turned out very good, although I think I overcooked them slightly.  I have a much harder time telling when chocolate things are done since I can't easily tell by the color.

Rich Chocolate Cupcakes
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2/3 cup baking cocoa
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup butter or margarine
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup milk

Mix dry ingredients, add wet ingredients one at a time.  Mix well.  Pour 1/4 cup batter into muffin cups.  Bake @ 350 for 18-20 minutes.

And to add the finishing touch to our table, Aunt Laurel made these cute little molded candies. I'm not sure you can tell by the pictures, but they are in the shape of booties and pacifiers.  They looked absolutely perfect and were the extra little bit of teal that our food table needed.  I don't have the recipe for these, although I believe she just used the little melting wafers that can be found at most craft stores.  Aunt Laurel also made the cutest little feet cookies to give out as the favors.  Unfortunately, I don't have the recipe for those either, but I may have to ask her for it because they really were very good!

So there you have it, our party menu.  We had 32 people at the shower, and we had more than enough food. However, I did have a mini panic attack  the morning of the shower and sent my husband to the store to get more, but I  shouldn't have worried, we had plenty with lots left over.