The whole family will love breakfast or brunch with these delicious cornmeal pancakes filled with pineapple and a touch of coconut flavor! Pancakes are a breakfast favorite with kids, but these cornmeal pancakes give your family a new twist on a favorite by infusing the tropical flavors of pineapple and coconut. Check out this simple recipe for pineapple and coconut cornmeal pancakes for a wonderful weekend breakfast!

Pineapple Coconut Cornmeal Pancakes {Recipe}

Ingredients

• ¾ cup water
• ¼ cup cornmeal
• ½ cup cake flour
• ½ cup all-purpose flour
• ½ tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp baking soda
• ¼ tsp salt
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• ¼ cup coconut cream
• ¼ cup crushed pineapple, fresh or canned & drained
• Butter or margarine
• Pancake syrup

Directions

1. In a small saucepan, bring water to boil and add the cornmeal, cooking 4-5 minutes.
2. In a medium bowl, sift together the flours, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
3. Add vanilla, eggs, and coconut cream. Mix well.
4. Add cooked cornmeal and pineapple.
5. Heat a griddle or skillet over medium heat. Place a small amount of butter on the griddle and pour a spoonful of the pancake mixture onto the griddle (to desired size).
6. Cook pancake until the surface is full of bubbles, then flip it over until both sides are golden-brown.
7. Serve immediately with pancake syrup!

Jeannette Quiñones-Cantore is the CEO and founder of Sazón Boricua. She started her blog from Puerto Rico in 2008 to share recipes, advice and tips for the home. She collaborates with Qué Rica Vida, has been selected as a Top Bloguera by LATISM 2012, and is also the founder of Red Bloguera de Puerto Rico. You can follow Jeanette on Facebook, Twitter, or via her blog Sazón Boricua.

Photo © Jeannette Quiñones-Cantore

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Recently, Walmart asked if we wanted to try out the new Rust-Oleum Ultra Cover 2X spray paint, which covers twice the area compared to regular spray paint. Sold at Walmart for $3.77 a can, Rust-Oleum claims each can will act like two, so you’ll need less paint and can save money. I took the opportunity to create a unique Mother’s Day gift and painted a garden pot using some of the bright colors available from Rust-Oleum. Check out the how-to below and see how we created a bright, decorative garden pot as a Mother’s Day gift that’s also perfect for spring and summer!

DIY Decorative Garden Pot

Materials Needed:

• Clay planter pot
• Painter’s plastic or newspaper
• Rust-Oleum American Accents Ultra Cover 2X spray paint, 2 colors of your choosing
• Painter’s tape
• Stencils (optional)
• Gloves (optional)

How to spray paint and decorate a clay garden pot

1. Cut (approx.) 2-inch strips of tape and place on pot in a zig-zag pattern.

2. Cover top of pot with plastic or newspaper to protect it while spray painting the bottom.

3. Using your first chosen color, spray paint from the bottom of the tape line down as far as you’d like to see the color.

4. Once the first color has thoroughly dried, repeat step 1 below the first color, matching the pattern previously used. Then, cover the painted area with plastic or newspaper.

5. Using the second color, spray paint the remaining bottom part of the pot, plus the bottom surface.
6. If you’d like, once the paint is completely dry, you can either use a stencil to spray paint a design onto a chosen area of the pot or you can hand-paint a design using acrylic paints.

What is your favorite way to use spray paint for DIY projects?

Disclosure: As a participant in the Walmart Moms Program, I received samples and compensation for my time and efforts in creating this post. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

All photos © Melanie Edwards/modernmami™

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Mother’s Day is a two-fold celebration for me since I’m a mom and a daughter. I see my mom on a regular basis since I’m lucky to live near her, but I do make it a point to visit her on Mother’s Day. So, my Mother’s Day celebration is always split in two with half spent with my husband and children and the other half spent with my mom (or all of us). She’s a special lady in my life, of course – despite normal growing-up frustrations, she really has been (and continues to be) a great mami. I even told her online, so it’s official.

When Kohl’s asked to partner with us for a Mother’s Day celebration, I knew it would be a great way to celebrate all the great moms out there – including you! Plus, it was a good excuse to go shopping with my baby girl and pick out a great gift for her abuela - someone that is as equally dear to her as she is to me! My baby girl and I shopped the Kohl’s Mother’s Day sale and put together a nice gift for my mom. Here’s what we found:

• Sonoma Life + Style Jar Candle in Hibiscus Flower scent (similar to this one) that my daughter thought smelled great and would make a nice addition to the other candles my mom has.
• Two Sonoma Life + Style photo frames to fill each with a school picture of my kids. From what I could see, pretty much all photo frames were on sale for 50% off in the stores!
• A bracelet and pair of earrings my baby girl picked out because she knows abuela likes to wear jewelry. There were a lot of sale items in the jewelry department too.

I loved shopping with my baby girl to find a great gift for my mom and it was wonderful to see her truly thinking about what her abuela likes and what we should pick out. I think my mom is going to love her gift, especially because my girl personalized it for her. Now it’s your turn to have fun shopping at Kohl’s and perhaps treat yourself to your own Mother’s Day gift! Check out the giveaway details below.

Kohl’s Mother’s Day Gift Card Giveaway

To celebrate Mother’s Day, we’re giving away a $100 Kohl’s gift card!

How to Enter

Required entry: If you’d like to enter this giveaway for a $100 Kohl’s gift card, simply leave a comment telling us about a special mom in your life. Is it your mom, grandmother, mother-in-law? Tell us all about her!

Extra entries (optional):

Each of the following will count as 1 extra entry. You’ll need to leave a separate comment for each entry.

1. Follow @modernmami on Twitter.
2. Tweet the following (1 time only): Celebrate moms – enter to win a $100 @Kohls gift card from @modernmami! http://bit.ly/YKImml #giveaway #Kohls
3. Receive post updates by subscribing to our RSS feed. You can do so either via email or through a RSS reader. Leave a comment saying you did so or are already a subscriber.
4. Write a blog post on your own blog sharing the details of this giveaway. Be sure to include a link back to this post. Leave a comment with your post link.

All entries must be in by Sunday, May 19, 2013 at 11:59 pm EST. You must be 18 or older and a U.S. resident. No purchase necessary. Remember to leave a separate comment for each entry. The winner will be chosen using Random.org and will be notified via email. (Please be sure to provide a valid email address with your entry.) Winner will have 72 hours to respond and claim prize, otherwise a new winner will be chosen. Prize will be provided and fulfilled by giveaway sponsor and modernmami™.com is not responsible for lost or damaged goods.

Disclosure: I received a Kohl’s gift card to shop the Kohl’s Mother’s Day sale and facilitate this post. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

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Strawberries are in season for spring, so it’s a great time to buy them at lower prices than you might find the rest of the year. Strawberries are great for many recipes, like these strawberry and cream cheese pastelitos (a puff pastry dessert) you’re sure to love. We also love to make smoothies with strawberries – other than eating fresh strawberries, it’s probably one of our most preferred ways to eat strawberries. My girl absolutely loves smoothies – in fact, you can see our pineapple mango smoothie recipe I shared a while back!

One thing that does stop me from buying fresh strawberries more often is the fear of them spoiling before I can use them all; I just don’t like wasting fresh fruit. But, a little tip I learned is to freeze strawberries before they spoil and use them later, which is perfect for making smoothies! Since the strawberries are already cold, they really work well for mixing in smoothies. This helps so that I can take advantage of strawberry season and buy fresh strawberries from stores like Walmart.

Smoothies for an after-school snack or breakfast are perfect for kids. They’re easy to make, plus you can add a few fruits to get the most out of them and pack those vitamins in for the kids (or yourself). I love mixing strawberries with bananas for a strawberry banana smoothie, but recently I added mango in as well and we loved the flavor! Check out this simple, easy recipe for making your own strawberry, banana, and mango smoothie at home!

Tropical BananaBerry Smoothie Recipe: A Strawberry, Banana, Mango Fusion Kids Will Love!

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups strawberries, sliced (fresh or previously frozen)
• 2 bananas, peeled and sliced
• 1 cup frozen mango chunks
• 1 cup milk
• 2 Tbsp honey

Directions

1. Combine all ingredients in a blender and blend well until desired consistency is reached.
2. If you want smoothie to be less thick, simply add more milk and blend again.
3. Serve and enjoy!

I’d love to hear about your favorite smoothie flavor or if you have your own tip for fresh strawberries. Share in the comments below!

Disclosure: As a participant in the Walmart Moms Program, I received compensation for my time and efforts in creating this post. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

All photos © Melanie Edwards/modernmami™

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I know it’s hard for us moms to consistently find me-time. Sure, we can occasionally make time for ourselves and take a little break, but let’s be honest, very few moms do this on a weekly basis. Right? Something more achievable, though, is to periodically squeeze in a mini-break. Let me share how I’ve been able to add me-time and hopefully inspire you to take a break for yourself!

Early on in the year I scheduled a recurring weekly block on my calendar for just me. I don’t always get to take my weekly break, but I’ve managed to do so every now and again. My weekly break is used for whatever I choose – anything from a long shower to properly wash and condition my hair to taking time to watch a recorded show. The great thing is that your breaks don’t have to be long or complicated. If you can even find 20 minutes, it can be a great thing! Here are some ideas for how you can enjoy a quick break from your routine, plus my own me-time kit I put together.

5 Ideas for a Quick Me-Time Break

1. Pamper yourself with a mini-facial using a homemade face scrub or a store-bought mask.
2. Enjoy a little treat, like the new KIT KAT Minis available at Walmart starting this weekend. I’m a huge fan of chocolate, so the samples I received from Hershey’s were definitely included in my me-time kit.
3. Listen to your favorite songs – you can create a break time playlist or make a CD for an on-the-go quick break in the car.
4. Read a magazine or part of a book. You can keep the most current issue of your favorite magazine or a book you’re currently reading in the car or in a special corner of your home for easy access when you take your break.
5. Enjoy a relaxing drink of tea, coffee, or your favorite beverage.

In building my own me-time kit, I headed to Walmart and treated myself to some tea and a new facial mask to go along with the KIT KAT Minis sent to me. Walmart also has books, magazines, CDs, and many other items you can add to your own me-time kit – just think of some of your favorite activities you can quickly enjoy to quiet your mind a little from the everyday hustle and bustle.

What would you add to your personal me-time kit?

Disclosure: As a participant in the Walmart Moms Program, I received samples and compensation for my time and efforts in creating this post. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

All photos © Melanie Edwards/modernmami™

Although I think mami should be celebrated every day, why not celebrate in an extra special way on that one day a year dedicated solely to her? How about making something just for her, something she can enjoy and admire for days, weeks even?!

I love flowers. I love to see them, grow them, cut them, receive them, and give them. So it should come to no surprise that flowers are what we plan to make this Mother’s Day for all the lovely mothers we know – tissue paper flowers to be exact. Tissue paper flowers are easy for little hands to make and lovely to look at. Besides, who doesn’t like to get flowers?

Would you like to learn how to make these tissue paper flowers?

DIY Tissue Paper Flowers Craft

Materials Needed:

• Tissue paper
• Pipe cleaners
• Washi tape
• Twigs
• Scissors

You can purchase all these materials (with the exception of the twigs) at Walmart.

How to Make Tissue Paper Flowers for Mother’s Day:

Begin by cutting your leaves. You can cut several at the same time (I cut 6 at the same time). Then, with the yellow tissue, cut a thin strip, about 3 inches in width, and whatever length you choose. Do the same with the pink tissue (or any other color you choose), but this time it should double in thickness (about 6 inches) and keep the same length.

Make the flower center and petals following the steps in the photo below:

Add the stem and leaves following the steps in the photo below:

Make one or make a bunch of tissue paper flowers and gift to that special mami you know!

Disclosure: As a participant in the Walmart Moms Program, modernmami™ received compensation for the time and effort in creating this post. All thoughts and opinions are our own.

All photos © Lisa Renata

Cinco de Mayo is coming up and though this isn’t a holiday our family particularly celebrates, I know many of you may be looking for simple and easy recipes you can make to celebrate Cinco de Mayo with friends and family. A simple yet fun appetizer idea is to make empanadas! Empanadas are traditionally meat-filled patties you can eat as a snack or appetizer and are common to most Latin American and Caribbean cultures, though known by different names. In Puerto Rico, we typically call them pastelillos de carne, though parts of the island also call them empanadas.

Empanadas are most commonly filled with ground beef, though they can also be filled with chicken, crab meat, or cheese. Growing up in Puerto Rico, I also ate many pizza-filled pastelillos! For these Cinco de Mayo inspired empanadas, I decided to give my carne molida recipe a southwestern twist, making this the perfect appetizer for your Cindo de Mayo celebration! (Truly, these southwestern empanadas are a great appetizer idea for any occasion!) Check out the simple recipe below, with most ingredients easily found at Walmart!

Southwestern Empanadas Recipe

Ingredients

• 3 lbs ground beef
• 1 Tbsp adobo
• 3/4 tsp black pepper
• 1/2 Tbsp meat tenderizer
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• Sazon, 1 packet
• 1 1/2 Tbsp tomato paste
• 2 1/2 Tbsp tomato sauce
• 2 Tbsp sofrito (or recaito)
• 10-11 green olives (Spanish salad olives) + 1-2 tsp of olives’ liquid
• 2-3 small potatoes, peeled, rinsed, and cubed
• about 10 baby carrots, rinsed and chopped
• 1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 can corn, drained
• Empanada discs, 1 package thawed per instructions

Note: To see pictures and links for some of the ingredients used, read 5 Must-Have Ingredients for Cooking Puerto Rican Food.

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425° F.
2. Cook ground beef per this carne molida recipe (picadillo-style). You can leave the potatoes and carrots out, if you prefer.
3. Add black beans and corn.
4. Cover and continue cooking on low heat until black beans and corn are heated.
5. Line a cookie sheet with wax paper and spray with cooking spray.
6. Line empanada discs on cookie sheet, leaving ample space between each one.
7. Fill each disc with ground beef mixture in the middle. It’s up to you how much filling you want to add – use your discretion so that it’s not over-filled, but so each empanada has enough filling when eating.
8. Fold each empanada disc half-way to make a half-moon shape and pinch closed with a fork around the edge.
9. Brush each empanada with olive oil and bake in preheated oven for about 10-15 minutes, until golden brown.

Serve with your favorite dip or sauce. I served these with this mango dipping sauce recipe I found.

What is your favorite appetizer recipe for special occasions?

Disclosure: As a participant in the Walmart Moms Program, I received compensation for my time and efforts in creating this post. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

All photos © Melanie Edwards/modernmami™

If you’re looking for simple recipes with ground beef, you may want to give this carne molida recipe a try. Carne molida is a Puerto Rican ground beef recipe that is similar to picadillo (a name that might be more familiar). However, Puerto Rican carne molida is slighty different than Cuban picadillo and is cooked with potatoes and carrots. They’re both delicious dishes, though!

I grew up eating carne molida and it’s still a regular part of my weekly menu plan. It’s such an easy ground beef recipe and it’s pretty versatile too, since you can use it as a filling for other foods. I love to eat it served over white rice as does my husband. Something I often do is substitute the ground beef with ground turkey to make my carne molida recipe a bit healthier. If you want to learn how to make the real deal, here’s my family’s recipe for carne molida!

Puerto Rican Carne Molida (Ground Beef) Recipe

Ingredients

• 3 lbs ground beef
• 1 Tbsp adobo
• 3/4 tsp black pepper
• 1/2 Tbsp meat tenderizer
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• Sazón, 1 packet
• 1 1/2 Tbsp tomato paste
• 2 1/2 Tbsp tomato sauce
• 2 Tbsp sofrito (or recaito)
• 10-11 green olives (Spanish salad olives) + 1-2 tsp of olive liquid
• 2-3 small potatoes, peeled, rinsed, and cubed
• about 10 baby carrots, rinsed and chopped

Note: To see pictures and links for some of the ingredients used, read 5 Must-Have Ingredients for Cooking Puerto Rican Food.

Directions

1. Season ground beef with adobo, black pepper, and meat tenderizer.
2. Heat a large pan to low-medium heat and add seasoned ground beef.
3. Add olive oil, sazón, tomato paste, tomato sauce, sofrito, green olives, cubed potatoes, and chopped carrots.
4. Cover pan and cook on low-medium heat until ground beef is browned, stirring occasionally.
5. Turn heat down to low and continue cooking until potatoes are tender and ground beef is well cooked. Stir occasionally.

Serve your carne molida with a side of white rice (or right on top of the rice as I prefer). Here’s an easy white rice recipe using a rice cooker!

What is your favorite recipe for ground beef? Have you ever tried carne molida or picadillo?

All photos © Melanie Edwards/modernmami™

Healthy skin is super important for anyone, but, in my experience, women tend to focus on this more than men. I moisturize every day and have done so ever since I was a young girl. My mami taught me to apply lotion every day, and I’m doing the same with my girl. It’s essential that we keep our skin hydrated, especially with our dark complexion, which rapidly shows if we’re not well-mosturized.

We use a variety of lotions, but I’m excited to partner with Eucerin this year, a brand we’ve been using since baby boy was born, due to his eczema. Eucerin has a wide variety of lotions, and cremes, and this month they sent me a complimentary sampling of their products plus a few goodies to have an in-home hydration spa day. Since me-time is something I’ve been working on having more of this year, I welcomed the opportunity to take an afternoon to focus on my skin.

Since Eucerin also makes cleansers, I was able to begin treating my skin from the bath, not just after. From using Eucerin’s hydrating cleanser, anti-wrinkle lotion, and body lotions, to the face mask and cucumber eye pads they also included, I had a lovely and relaxing afternoon right in my home. More importantly, though, I need to continue a skin hydrating routine (beyond the daily moisturizing I already do) and will begin to try some of these tips that Eucerin provided for maintaining healthy skin.

3 Tips for Maintaining Healthy, Hydrated Skin (Provided by Eucerin)

• Drink lots and lots of water (9-13 cups per day).
• Eat moisture-rich foods such as vitamin-loaded citrus fruit, nuts, whole grains, broccoli, sunflower seeds, egg yolks, and milk.
• Protect your skin from sun damage by using lotions with SPF protection, like Eucerin Daily Protection SPF 15 Moisturizing Body Lotion.

You can also check out the Eucerin Skin Solution Center on their Facebook page to see what products Eucerin recommends for your skin and gain more information.

Eucerin Skin Hydration & In-Home Spa Giveaway ***Giveaway Closed***

We want you to begin caring for your skin too, so thanks to Eucerin, we’ll be providing one of you with a wonderful in-home skin hydration gift pack (similar to the one pictured above), which includes a sampling of Eucerin products, a face mask, cucumber eye pads, a $15 iTunes gift card, plus a $125 Visa gift card! How’s that for getting your in-home spa day started? See giveaway details below.

How to Enter

Required entry: If you’d like to enter this giveaway for a skin hydration gift pack and a $125 Visa gift card, simply leave a comment telling us about your current skin hydration routine. Do you moisturize regularly, use lotions with SPF, and drink plenty of water? Tell us all about it!

Extra entries (optional):

Each of the following will count as 1 extra entry. You’ll need to leave a separate comment for each entry.

1. Follow @modernmami on Twitter.
2. Tweet the following (1 time only): Win @EucerinUS skin hydration pack + $125 Visa gc from @modernmami & treat yourself to me-time! http://bit.ly/ZL4Umw #giveaway #SkinFirst
3. Receive post updates by subscribing to our RSS feed. You can do so either via email or through a RSS reader. Leave a comment saying you did so or are already a subscriber.
4. Write a blog post on your own blog sharing the details of this giveaway. Be sure to include a link back to this post. Leave a comment with your post link.

All entries must be in by Thursday, May 9, 2013 at 11:59 pm EST. You must be 18 or older and a U.S. resident. No purchase necessary. Remember to leave a separate comment for each entry. The winner will be chosen using Random.org and will be notified via email. (Please be sure to provide a valid email address with your entry.) Winner will have 72 hours to respond and claim prize, otherwise a new winner will be chosen. Prize will be provided and fulfilled by giveaway sponsor and modernmami™.com is not responsible for lost or damaged goods.

Disclosure: As a participant in the Eucerin Skin First Network, I received samples and compensation for my time and efforts in creating this post. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Rice is something I grew up eating nearly every night and it’s still a staple part of our nightly meals. Though we mix it up between white rice and yellow rice, white rice is super easy to make and requires little ingredients. My oldest daughter loves white rice, but hasn’t yet learned to love yellow rice, so I often make it for her. Though I know that white rice is easy to make, I also know that many people have a hard time cooking white rice. I often get asked, “How do you make rice?” and mostly get questions about how much water to add to the rice and how long to cook it. Even when using a rice cooker, it seems these questions remain for many.

My recipe for rice comes from my own mami, but I’ve adapted it for a rice cooker. I hope this white rice recipe helps many of you figure out how to cook white rice, plus trust me, it’s an easy and simple recipe. Here’s how you too can cook the perfect white rice in a rice cooker!

How to Cook the Perfect White Rice in a Rice Cooker

Ingredients

• 4 cups uncooked white rice
• 1 3/4 cups water
• 3 Tbsp vegetable cooking oil
• 1-2 Tbsp salt

Directions

1. Pour the uncooked white rice into the pot of your rice cooker and rinse the rice. (If you’re not familiar with how to rinse or clean your rice, it just means that you run it under water a couple of times and pick out the dark grains, pebbles, etc.)
2. Once you’re done rinsing the rice, be sure to drain out all the water used for rinsing.
3. Add 1 3/4 cups fresh water, the cooking oil, and salt.
4. Cover the pot and turn on your rice cooker.
5. You do not have to stir the rice when making rice cooker rice, but I find that if I stir it just once mid-way through, it helps the rice fluff up more.
6. Cook white rice for about 40 minutes total to be sure it’s not grainy or dry.

Do you often cook white rice?

All photos © Melanie Edwards/modernmami™