May 2015: Eat Like a Bird

Hey everyone, and welcome to Caitlin’s Corner! This month I cooked up a tasty article. I will be presenting you all with different foods that are bird-related. These are not things to actually feed your birds, but rather for yourself. Just make sure with an adult that they are fine to eat in case of allergies and other concerns:

· Peeps: These are colored-sugar covered marshmallows that are usually in the shape of birds. They are very popular around Easter, since chicks are usually associated with this holiday. Though, the company that makes them extended their use to year-around, so I’m sure you can find them in your nearest candy store now. There have been some interesting recipes to try, using Peeps, such as cookies, brownies, and frosting. If you are more interested in these recipes, I suggest looking them up online (with a parent’s permission, of course).

· Honey Maid/Cheese Nips Angry Birds: I love a snack that consists of crackers every so often. These are your typical honey maid gram crackers and cheese nips cheddar crackers, but they are in the shapes of the birds and the pigs from Angry Birds! This is the moment where your favorite electronic game turns into crackers…I’m sure it is extra hard not to play with your food now!

· Enjoy Life: Seed and Fruit Mixes: Guess what? This is a healthy snack that you can actually eat like a bird! But still, I repeat, do not feed it to any birds, because this is solely human food. Anyway, these mixes are great because they contain lots of healthy things that still make stomachs happy! I also think these are pretty neat because if you have a nut allergy like I do, you don’t have to worry about eating nuts. Lots of the Enjoy Life foods are nut-free, and are geared to avoid common foods people are allergic to. The mixes are Beach Bash and Mountain Mambo. Beach Bash has sunflower kernels, dried pineapple, apricots, cranberries, and pumpkin seeds, while Mountain Mambo contains sunflower seeds, fruit, mini chocolate chips, and pumpkin seeds. I suggest these as a healthy choice, while the other foods in this article are treats.

· Cadbury Eggs/Mini Eggs: These candies you can usually find in stores around Easter, but I am sure there are probably a few around still by this time. Cadbury Eggs have to be one of my favorite seasonal candies because they have a chocolate shell and are filled with cream. It’s pretty hard to describe how good each tastes, so you will just have to try one for a treat sometime! There are also Cadbury Mini Eggs, which have a colored candy shell and chocolate on the inside that are just as awesome!

· Bird Cakes/Cupcakes: I believe I did save the best for last: cake! Cake is pretty general, and can be baked with a recipe, oven, and proper ingredients with not too much trouble. If you do love birds, like I hope you do if you are on the Wild Bird Club website, I suggest trying your hand at cooking with an adult with cake recipes. Then, you will be able to frost it to fit a bird theme. I suggest taking green-dyed vanilla frosting to ice it. Next, use chocolate chips to form a nest, and then take Cadbury Mini Eggs, that are suggested above, to be the eggs in the nest. Ta-da! If you have a birthday coming up, making bird cupcakes or a cake would be pretty cool! Here are pictures of some of my favorite bird cakes that I found online:

I’m surprised if you aren’t hungry by this point; I sure am! I’m going to go grab some Mountain Mambo Mix to appease my appetite, so see you next month on Caitlin’s Corner!