Happy 4th of July (Quarantine Weekend)

It felt a bit complicated to celebrate Independence Day in the midst of both a pandemic and racial injustice happening in the US. And if we lived in the US, I’m not sure I would have participated. But since we live in Singapore, we try to ‘do up’ the American holidays, to give a sense of what is means to be American. And interestingly, focusing on the good parts of the American ideals was heartening; thinking about being the mother of democracy, welcoming all people, and people can have any dream and work hard to achieve it. Unfortunately that’s not really the case for all people, which is not fighting for the fairness the US was built on. But it felt good to be reminded of what we Americans are fighting for, and what we expect have to expect from each other.

I made this cute banner, that’s actually quite easier than it looks! Instead of wrapping the paper around a toilet paper, like she suggests, I just used card stock, painted them, and stapled them into tubes. The whole thing took about an hour– not too bad. (And I did most of it while chatting on the phone to my bestie.)

Our Saturday started with the kids outside, while Mama worked out and showers and Papa worked on a special lunch. The kids came back from the store with thier nanny and brought back watermelon for snack.

Shortly after they started work on thier afternoon snack of popsicles. I wanted to do the striped ones (like in the banner) and we didn’t want it to be too sugary. We blended strawberries for the bottom layer, coconut for the white layer and lemonade died blue for the top, freezing in between layers. We let them freeze over nap and took them out to eat by the pool.

In between freezing layers, we did a craft of q-tip firework art. I still have cut q-tips from the Under the Sea weekend’s sea aeonomes, so I pulled out some black cardstock and paint and we were good to go.

Continue reading

Campfire Treats

Doing any camping this summer? If so, you might be looking for some tasty treats that go beyond the basic s’mores. Kick it up a notch with some of these campfire baked snacks.

collage camping

 

1. Bake muffins in an orange! What a great camping hack.

2. I love these elevated s’mores. Belgian cookie crackers, giant marshmallows, chocolate, and strawberry sauce.

3. Skillet brownies . (yours don’t need to be so healthy. Unless you want them to be.)

4. Baked apples, rolled in cinnamon and sugar.

Unprocessed Mounds Bar

Recently I am obsessed with coconut. Maybe because we are using more coconut oil at home, or maybe because it’s so darn tasty, I want it all the time.

So when I saw this instagram video for how to make Mounds bars in a healthy, whole foods way, I was in.

collage bounty bars

 

Unprocessed Coconut Bars 

1 cup shredded coconut (unsweetened) ➡️

4 tablespoons honey

2 tablespoons coconut oil ➡️

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract ➡️

2/3 cup dark chocolate chips melted {I used 1.5 chocolate bars, because that was more accessible}

Mix the first 4 ingredients together {or blend them for a smoother texture} then scoop them into a silicone ice cube tray and into the freezer for 20 minutes. Once out, pop them out of the tray, and dip into the melted chocolate. Then get them back into the fridge or freezer as quickly as possible. Pretty easy!

This treat is healthy and tasty and perfect for guests. Just be careful, as I bet they will melt quickly with no chemicals.

Enjoy!