Kids are naturally curious. "Why?" is a favorite question. So is "how?". Sometimes it's best to show "why" and "how" with hands-on training! Think outside the box and come up with something age appropriate and tasty for your kids to help you make. Keep in mind, attention spans are not very long for the very young; they prefer quick, easy jobs and like quick results. That's not to say you shouldn't try something that requires cooking time, but the job of "helping" should be quick and fairly easy. Children that have a hand in preparing food have a better chance of eating it, which is great if you have a picky eater.
Little hands need a few little tools. Popsicle or craft sticks become great knives for cutting soft foods such as bananas. They are also amazing little spreaders for cream cheese and peanut butter. Here are a few hands-on, fairly simple recipes to try:
Bean Dip: In a plastic baggie, put 1/4 cup canned beans, such as pinto or red. Close the bag and have your child push and mash and squish those beans until they have it pretty mushed. Open the bag, have them toss in a little cheese if they prefer and let them dip tortilla chips.
Fruit & Cheese Kabobs: Wash and cut strawberries (you will do this with a knife so you can hull) in chunks. Have kids peel and cut bananas with a plastic knife (with supervision, of course!) or a craft stick. Trust me, the tiny hands can manage! You might have to start the banana but they can peel it the rest of the way. Cut 1 inch squares of cheese. Wash red or green grapes. Have your child slide the fruit and cheese onto a skewer. We use coffee stir sticks. Have your child create a pattern and ask them what they like best about the kabob they just made!
Apple Wraps: Place a glob of peanut butter in a small bowl. Give your child a paper plate, a tortilla and small chunks of apple or banana. Using a craft stick, have your child smear peanut butter on the tortilla. Then have them sprinkle the tortilla with the fruit. You can even have them sprinkle on a little cinnamon if you'd like. Roll the tortilla up and enjoy!
These are super simple recipes that almost all children will enjoy. There are many, many more hands on experiments you can do with food with even the youngest, pickiest eaters. Don't be afraid to step outside the (cereal) box and try. It's good for kids! They learn a few things like early math skills (measuring, patterning) and a little bit of independence. And they get to spend time with YOU!
Help Us Cure Diabetes!
I've been a part of a lot of different teams over the course of my life. I've joined a new team recently that I want tell you about. It's the Step Out team to end diabetes. Diabetes sucks. Type 1, Type 2, it doesn't matter, it still sucks. It's scary, it's confusing, it's heart breaking. It's sad.
The ADA has started a walk to raise money for research and to find a cure for diabetes and I'm honored to participate. We've started a team called No Moore Diabetes and we will walk a mile or run a 5k here in Phoenix in October. We've pledged as a team to have 10 walkers and raise $1000 dollars. We're at 45% of our goal and we only have 93 days left. If you are in the Phoenix area and want to walk with us, please click on the link and we'd be happy to have you join. If you aren't in the area or can't walk with us, please feel free to make a donation to the team. Any amount would be appreciated! If you have any questions, please, please feel free to contact me.
Together, when we Step Out, we get one step closer to No Moore Diabetes!
The ADA has started a walk to raise money for research and to find a cure for diabetes and I'm honored to participate. We've started a team called No Moore Diabetes and we will walk a mile or run a 5k here in Phoenix in October. We've pledged as a team to have 10 walkers and raise $1000 dollars. We're at 45% of our goal and we only have 93 days left. If you are in the Phoenix area and want to walk with us, please click on the link and we'd be happy to have you join. If you aren't in the area or can't walk with us, please feel free to make a donation to the team. Any amount would be appreciated! If you have any questions, please, please feel free to contact me.
Together, when we Step Out, we get one step closer to No Moore Diabetes!
Vegetarian Burritos
Yesterday I made vegetarian burritos from items I received in my Bountiful Basket. My family, huge carnivors, devoured them and asked for more! I should have taken pictures of the process and end results but I just never think to do that when I'm making stuff. Anyway, here's the super delicious info:
Mexican gray squash
Grape tomatoes
Green chiles (roasted by me!)
Onion
Refried beans
Tortillas
First I added the roasted, diced green chiles in a non stick pan, topped with halved cherry tomatoes, diced squash and diced onion. I added two packets of Swanson's Vegetable flavor packets and a little bit of water. Add pepper and garlic powder to taste. Simmer until squash is soft. Heat refried beans. Heat tortillas. Spread a little bit of the beans on one end of the tortilla. We added a little cheese, put the tortilla in the microwave for about 15 seconds to heat the cheese a little and then added our hot mess of veggies to the cheese and beans. Wrap like a burrito and enjoy! It was so good!!
Variations or additions:
Corn
Cilantro
Avocado
Black Beans (we LOVE black beans in a lot of our dishes but with 3 men in the house I figured one type of bean was enough)
Regular zuccini if you don't have Mexican gray squash
Use your imagination, you seriously can't go wrong with this!
Mexican gray squash
Grape tomatoes
Green chiles (roasted by me!)
Onion
Refried beans
Tortillas
First I added the roasted, diced green chiles in a non stick pan, topped with halved cherry tomatoes, diced squash and diced onion. I added two packets of Swanson's Vegetable flavor packets and a little bit of water. Add pepper and garlic powder to taste. Simmer until squash is soft. Heat refried beans. Heat tortillas. Spread a little bit of the beans on one end of the tortilla. We added a little cheese, put the tortilla in the microwave for about 15 seconds to heat the cheese a little and then added our hot mess of veggies to the cheese and beans. Wrap like a burrito and enjoy! It was so good!!
Variations or additions:
Corn
Cilantro
Avocado
Black Beans (we LOVE black beans in a lot of our dishes but with 3 men in the house I figured one type of bean was enough)
Regular zuccini if you don't have Mexican gray squash
Use your imagination, you seriously can't go wrong with this!
Vegan Lip Butter ~ Nature's Garden Candles
Recently, I was one of the lucky blogs chosen to receive a kit from Nature's Garden Candles. It was like Christmas opening that package, I had no idea what I was going to get. Vegan Lip Butter is what I got!
The kit comes with the following:
Candelilla wax
Coconut oil
Cocoa butter
Vitamin E oil
Flavoring (mine came with Black Cherry Boom)
Stevia sweetener
Lip tint (mine came with Prissy Pink)
16 lip balm pots
Plastic tansfer Pipettes
I was a little worried when I first opened the package. Due to the extreme Arizona heat, some of my oils were a little mushy and or flat out melted. I waited for them to reconstitute a bit (the next day!) and got started melting them again. I wanted to be sure to start out as close to how they were originally sent as possible. Anyway...
I have never worked with some of these oils and I never used color. I LOVE IT! This is so smooth and silky with just a hint of color.
The kit gives you everything you need and an instruction sheet. Follow those directions and you get this:
The kit comes with the following:
Candelilla wax
Coconut oil
Cocoa butter
Vitamin E oil
Flavoring (mine came with Black Cherry Boom)
Stevia sweetener
Lip tint (mine came with Prissy Pink)
16 lip balm pots
Plastic tansfer Pipettes
I was a little worried when I first opened the package. Due to the extreme Arizona heat, some of my oils were a little mushy and or flat out melted. I waited for them to reconstitute a bit (the next day!) and got started melting them again. I wanted to be sure to start out as close to how they were originally sent as possible. Anyway...
I have never worked with some of these oils and I never used color. I LOVE IT! This is so smooth and silky with just a hint of color.
The kit gives you everything you need and an instruction sheet. Follow those directions and you get this:
A silky, smooth Vegan Lip Butter with a hint o' color and a bold Black Cherry Boom flavor. If you are a novice and interested in creating wonderful, good smelling, useful products, definitely go with a kit from Nature's Garden Candles. Even if you are experienced, you seriously can't go wrong with a kit. It makes it super simple and gives you a wonderful product!
Oh, ye of little pop culture knowledge!
So the other day I woke Ryan up to go to weights for football. I said, "Come on Ryan. Time to make the donuts." His reaction... "What?!" It was too early and I was too tired to explain. This morning the same thing happened. And I thought, how sad that this young generation doesn't know about Fred the Baker from Dunkin Donuts or "Where's the Beef" lady, Clara Peller from Wendy's.
I realize that with technology and progress and all that other stuff, commercials have to change, marketing has to be different. But I think some things were better then than they are now. McDonald's commercials come to mind. Way better back then. Same with Charmin commercials. "Don't Squeeze the Charmin!" Now there are talking bears that, apparently, shit in the woods. "School House Rock" was never the same when they tried to revamp it recently. "I'm Just a Bill" just can't be redone, retooled or remastered. I've tried to explain that, yes, the commercials from back then are really, really cheesy but better than what they are now but they just don't get it. If Dunkin Donuts brought back Fred the Baker with the "Time to Make the Donuts" slogan, I don't think it'd be as funny for them now as it was for us then. Not that I think they should try to bring stuff like that back. It's just kind of a generational thing.
Remember Madge the Manicurist shilling Palmolive Dish Detergent? Calgon, Take Me Away! Got ring around the collar? Use the Ancient Chinese Secret! Spuds McKenzie sold beer and 2 old guys hawked wine coolers ~ Bartles and James.
So, for all my fellow 70/80's kids here's a stroll down memory lane through pictures I boosted from Google images. Enjoy your trip through the way back machine! Oh, and whatever happened to Pudding Pops?? I miss those!
I realize that with technology and progress and all that other stuff, commercials have to change, marketing has to be different. But I think some things were better then than they are now. McDonald's commercials come to mind. Way better back then. Same with Charmin commercials. "Don't Squeeze the Charmin!" Now there are talking bears that, apparently, shit in the woods. "School House Rock" was never the same when they tried to revamp it recently. "I'm Just a Bill" just can't be redone, retooled or remastered. I've tried to explain that, yes, the commercials from back then are really, really cheesy but better than what they are now but they just don't get it. If Dunkin Donuts brought back Fred the Baker with the "Time to Make the Donuts" slogan, I don't think it'd be as funny for them now as it was for us then. Not that I think they should try to bring stuff like that back. It's just kind of a generational thing.
Remember Madge the Manicurist shilling Palmolive Dish Detergent? Calgon, Take Me Away! Got ring around the collar? Use the Ancient Chinese Secret! Spuds McKenzie sold beer and 2 old guys hawked wine coolers ~ Bartles and James.
So, for all my fellow 70/80's kids here's a stroll down memory lane through pictures I boosted from Google images. Enjoy your trip through the way back machine! Oh, and whatever happened to Pudding Pops?? I miss those!
Summer Bucket List
The secret to a great bucket list is to make it things that are pretty easy to obtain. Duh, makes perfect sense, right? I have gone back and forth on a bucket list for a while and I had lofty goals. I don't know if these things really need to be on a bucket list per se but these are things I really, really want to do. Things that I want to do SOON, things that are totally obtainable and fairly easy. A trip to Prescott for sure and I really want to go to an Irish pub and listen to a Celtic group. I don't know why, I just do. I also want to take the boys to a concert. Outdoors if it's in the fall or indoors if it's before October. I'll definitely be checking out venues! I think I'll have more soon, but for now, this is enough.
Attack of the Zombies!
Ok, so what's up with this cannibal/zombie attack in Miami? I'm not making light of it, it's definitely a tragedy for both families and all the responders and witnessess. I mean, how do you ever forget seeing something like that? It's disturbing, disgusting and flat out weird. And of course the media is running rampant with ideas, theories, and sensationalism.
My kids are convinced though, that this is the beginning of the zombie apocolyps. Seriously! Anyone that has ever been around my boys (and some of their friends!) knows that zombies are a huge topic for them. They even have a plan. IF (when!) the zombie apocolyps happens we are all supposed to head to Cole's house because his family has lots of guns. The boys will hang out on the roof picking the zombies off one by one as they try to approach the house. I'm not expected to survive. In fact, they've said they think I'll be the first one to go. It's ok, I'm realistic about the whole thing. I WANT to be the first to go if a zombie apocolyps happens. Who really wants to deal with all that? Not this girl.
My kids are convinced though, that this is the beginning of the zombie apocolyps. Seriously! Anyone that has ever been around my boys (and some of their friends!) knows that zombies are a huge topic for them. They even have a plan. IF (when!) the zombie apocolyps happens we are all supposed to head to Cole's house because his family has lots of guns. The boys will hang out on the roof picking the zombies off one by one as they try to approach the house. I'm not expected to survive. In fact, they've said they think I'll be the first one to go. It's ok, I'm realistic about the whole thing. I WANT to be the first to go if a zombie apocolyps happens. Who really wants to deal with all that? Not this girl.
Yay for meatless Monday!
The boys don't know it yet but they are in for a treat tonight for dinner. I picked up stuffed portabella mushrooms today at the store and we're going to grill them. None of us have ever had them. And if Steve doesn't read this before I have him start the grill he won't have time to complain and stick his nose up at trying something new. I'm excited to try them too. I'll roast sweet potatoes and make a fruit salad to go along with those mushrooms. At least I know they won't starve!
Warning: DO NOT read if you don't like strong opinions on breast feeding!
First let me make it clear that I don't have a problem with anyone breastfeeding their babies. I don't care that anyone feeds their baby in the McDonald's lobby while my kids are chowing down on their Happy Meal's. I don't want to see exposed breasts, like plop it out there and let it all hang out, but really, why would anyone want to just leave their boob hanging in the breeze like that anyway? I personally have never seen anyone be anything but discreet about it so I typically don't notice when anyone is breastfeeding anyway. So, again, I don't have a problem with anyone breastfeeding their baby.
I draw the line when that "baby" can wipe his own ass. If the kid is freakin age eligible for preschool and even kindergarten why would you ever, ever have him still attached to your boob?? Yes, of course I'm talking about the Time Magazine cover/controversy. Some are standing with the mother saying there is nothing wrong with her feeding her child in this way. I say, honey, you are standing, STANDING! and your kid is feeding off of you...there is something so wrong about that.
Like I said, I don't disapprove of breastfeeding, I have no problem/issue with anyone wanting to feed their baby that way. I have no problem with mothers feeding their babies in public places as long as there is no nipple exposure (again, why would anyone want to let it all hang out anyway?) and I would never insist that someone go into a bathroom or dressing room to feed their kid like so many companies are getting in trouble for lately. But I would so completely freak if I saw any mom let her 3 or 4 year old attach on!! And by the way, mother of nearly 4 year old boy on Time Magazine cover, way to go on NOT giving anyone a reason to ridicule your kid. What happens when he's old enough to realize that he was "that" kid on the cover?? Good luck with that!
I draw the line when that "baby" can wipe his own ass. If the kid is freakin age eligible for preschool and even kindergarten why would you ever, ever have him still attached to your boob?? Yes, of course I'm talking about the Time Magazine cover/controversy. Some are standing with the mother saying there is nothing wrong with her feeding her child in this way. I say, honey, you are standing, STANDING! and your kid is feeding off of you...there is something so wrong about that.
Like I said, I don't disapprove of breastfeeding, I have no problem/issue with anyone wanting to feed their baby that way. I have no problem with mothers feeding their babies in public places as long as there is no nipple exposure (again, why would anyone want to let it all hang out anyway?) and I would never insist that someone go into a bathroom or dressing room to feed their kid like so many companies are getting in trouble for lately. But I would so completely freak if I saw any mom let her 3 or 4 year old attach on!! And by the way, mother of nearly 4 year old boy on Time Magazine cover, way to go on NOT giving anyone a reason to ridicule your kid. What happens when he's old enough to realize that he was "that" kid on the cover?? Good luck with that!
Sunday, Sunday
Time for meal planning again! In no particular order:
Pizza with side salad
Grilled chicken with zuccini and yellow squash
Baked potato bar
Sloppy joes with baked beans
Bean burritos with mexican rice and homemade salsa
Soup and salad
Pizza with side salad
Grilled chicken with zuccini and yellow squash
Baked potato bar
Sloppy joes with baked beans
Bean burritos with mexican rice and homemade salsa
Soup and salad
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