Showing posts with label Recipes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Recipes. Show all posts

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Letter C week

I had more ideas than I had time to implement for this week!  

We studied Christopher Columbus (history), contentment (Bible), the calendar (math).  

In Science, we studied crabs, and did an experiment with celery.  You know the one where you put the celery in a glass of water with food coloring?  Then you get to see the food coloring moving up the stalk as the celery absorbs water.  Never gets old! 

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We made cookies, chicken pot pie, and ate chocolate!  I altered the pot pie recipe a bit, and made my crust from scratch, but I’ll type that out later.

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We had our dear friend “Aunt Chelle” over for dinner.  Not just because it was “C” week, but it worked out nicely! 

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Bug clipped her fingernails for the first time all by herself! (No blood! Yay!)

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She made a cat craft where the legs and tail were all made out of letter Cs.  I turned her loose with the glue on this one, and let’s just say that it’s a good thing that stuff comes cheap! Ha Ha!

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She also decorated a letter C with cereal.  I was so proud when she said “Look Mommy! I made patterns!”. 

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For sensory development, we played with clothespins, played catch with a ball, and made sensory balloons (I guess I should have done those on B week!)). 

I made 2 sets of sensory balloons filled with popcorn kernels, salt, birdseed, oatmeal, pinto beans, and lentils.   The idea was for Bug to simply feel the balloons and match one from the pink group to the same one from the orange group.  She amazed me by completing this in record time!  I don’t know why I was surprised.  This is the girl that notices every little detail, and can tell if there is a single stitch out of place inside her shoe.  Later, she used the balloons and an empty laundry basket to make a tossing game in the hall.  That was a little trickier, as motor skills were involved.  Great practice though!

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Other snacks included crackers, cheese, oranges (citrus), & more chocolate!  Also pictured is the sewing card I made for the week.

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I also bought a new set of cookie cutters!  101 of them, to be exact! They were at Walmart for only $10, and I’ve been eyeing them for a while.  If you follow that link, those are the same cutters, but my box did not have a see-through window, and I paid $10, not $14.99!

I have to say, I was super impressed with this set! I fully expected them to be teeny tiny cutters for the price, but I was surprised to see how large they were.  I wanted a set of alphabet cutters, so I was willing to deal with them being on the small side, but they are actually a good size.  Some of the cutters, like the gingerbread people and the pumpkin, are 4-5 inches.  There are several sizes of hearts and circles, and a great variety of other items.  I LOVE it!! Bug had a great time spreading them all out on the floor and playing too.

Saturday, April 18, 2009

Muffin Tin Meals

This isn’t a unique idea, but I wanted to share it anyway since I’ve been using it for quite a while.  I had seen it on several blogs & in magazines and thought it was a cute idea.   My daughter, Bug, LOVES samples, and will eat almost anything on a toothpick.  Often she even requests for me to make her a “sample lunch” (lots of bite size items and toothpicks for utensils).   So, when I saw this idea, I knew she would love it! 
Turns out, I love it too!   In fact, I now do it at least twice a week.  I love it even more when our house is full of kids, because I like to keep lunches simple, healthy, and interesting.  I line up the muffin tins and in pure assembly-line style, prepare lunch for everyone.   Grapes…some here, some here, some here, some there.  Cut up cheese….same routine.  And on it goes.
If I include sandwiches, I only have to make 1 or 2 because everyone just gets part of one.  If I heat something up, I just heat up one bowl and everyone gets a small serving in one of the tins.  That’s another bonus for anyone paying attention to portion sizes – each muffin tin is approx. 1/2 cup.  Good way to make sure they get their fruits & veggies if that’s a problem in your house.

You can Google “muffin tin meals” and get a tons of ideas, but here are a few of my examples.

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From top-left:  Apples, ranch dressing, quiche muffins, peanut butter, celery, carrots

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These had frozen peas (my kids love them), apples, 1 gumdrop (made with natural coloring!), cheese & crackers, & 2 spots of plain yogurt w/applesauce mixed in.

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From top-left: apples, cheese, candied ginger, homemade jello (gelatin & no-sugar-added juice), crackers, & hummus

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Another take on the idea for snack time: peanuts, raisins, & mini PB crackers.

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From top-left: a piece of whole wheat biscotti, green bean casserole, chicken breast, grapes, veggies, ranch dressing

Another reason I love it is because it makes my daughter do fun, creative things like dip her grapes in ranch dressing (ewww!), or make a “sandwich” with celery, carrot, green pea, and a piece of chicken.  LOL

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