Nutella Three Ways

 I hear it's going to snow.  Again.  Three to six inches.  *sigh*  I'm ready for winter to be over now.  My Florida born babies, on the other hand, are loving this.  While Noah was at school this morning Mikayla begged to go out and play in the snow.  So out we went.  After a few minutes I look over to see her burying her legs under a pile of snow.  (Think burying someone in sand at the beach).  I (perhaps foolishly) ask her what she's doing.  "Feeding my snow pants" she tells me.  I look at her, baffled.  "Why?"  "Because they're hungry, Mom, and they eat snow."  Well OK then...

For his school party on Monday, Noah needed to make a box to collect his Valentines in.  This afternoon we broke out the stuff for his to decorate it.  When we discussed it earlier in the week, we had thought it would be fun for him to cover it in conversation hearts and stickers.  So that's what he did - all by himself.  I know it's kind of hard to see in the pictures but he even made a pattern with the colors and stickers.  Go Noah and his creative streak!

Today's celebratory food is Nutella.  I can honestly say that I've never had Nutella before.  I know what it is but as chocolate isn't one of my faves and I can take or leave hazelnut (though it is a great coffee flavor...) it has never been up on my list of 'must haves'  Well that ended today!  And to properly introduce it to the whole family I created three different Nutella dishes for them to sample; bananas topped with Nutella, Nutella hot chocolate and Nutella stuffed muffins with a sugar and cinnamon topping.

The bananas (that don't look appetizing at all, just a warning) were a huge hit.  Noah's disappeared before I even knew he had started eating it.  And hot chocolate of any kind is always enjoyed here, especially if it is topped with marshmallows.  I was a little worried about the muffins but it turns out I shouldn't have been.  Grant said that while the Nutella itself was just an okay additive the muffins themselves were fabulous.  I have a recipe (that I was going to use in kid kitchen earlier this week before we came across the red velvet cookies) to use the same batter base to make powdered sugar covered mini donuts.  Looks like we'll be trying those out sooner rather than later :-p

Also, it was brought to my attention by multiple sources that I missed National Pancake Day yesterday.  Apparently IHOP was giving away free pancakes to celebrate 'national pancake day' if you made a donation to St. Jude's.  While I am THRILLED with the amount of money IHOP raised for St. Jude's, they were sadly mistaken about it being National Pancake Day.  Next Tuesday (Fat Tuesday) is known as International Pancake Day, and the fourth week of February is known as National Pancake week.  And you might remember we already celebrated National Blueberry Pancake Day in January.  Further research has shown that IHOP is officially calling it "IHOP National Pancake Day" so I suppose I can let this one slide ;-)  But worry not, faithful followers, we didn't miss any celebrations here at the Gatchel's.

If you like Italian, check us out tomorrow.  Until then...

Noah working on his Valentine's Day box

 He did good

 Bananas with Nutella

 Nutella stuffed muffins

 Nutella hot chocolate

The muffin inside :)