Love This

Hope you get to try this soon. =)

Babyfood - Summer Squash and Rice

Summer Squash and Rice

Ingredients:

2 yellow squash

2 zucchini

1 sweet onion

1 tsp garlic

1 cup water

1/2 cup brown rice

Directions:

Cook the rice according to directions.

In a skillet, add about a teaspoon of olive oil and a teaspoon of butter. Cut the squash and onion into equal-sized pieces. Add to the pan with the garlic over medium heat and sautee until very tender. When the rice is done, stir into the veggies. Puree in small batches thinning with water or chicken broth as needed, and freeze in ice cube trays overnight. Serve with chicken or on its own.

Babyfood - Chicken Noodle Stew

I spent the entire day today in the kitchen making a bunch of baby food and thought I'd share some more recipes and a hint.
First, the hint. I decided to start making actual dinners last time I did a big cooking day instead of just doing one thing at a time. I whipped up some recipes, and it took quite awhile. But when I was done I realized I had a TON of just three different dinners. All that work didn't lead to much variety. This time I decided to do several recipes but to keep the chicken separate. That way I can add variety by adding it to one of the dinners or pairing it with something else entirely or serving it alone.

Okay, now for the recipe:

Homemade Chicken Noodle Stew

Ingredients:

Chicken broth (make your own without the salt or use a low-sodium variety)

Whole-Wheat Noodles (I use these:)

Celery

Carrots

Corn

Peas

Onion

Garlic

Chicken

(I typically just use handfuls of each and don't bother measuring. It really doesn't matter how much of each ingredient you use.)

Directions:

Cut up all the veggies to equal-sized pieces.

You can see I used canned corn (no salt added, drained, and rinsed) and frozen peas. In a skillet, add a sliver of butter and some olive oil. Throw in all of the veggies and sautee until tender stirring often.

Meanwhile, cook the noodles according to the directions. I usually add a couple of minutes to the recommended cook time to make sure they are very, very soft.

When the veggies are tender and the noodles are cooked, stir everything together in a large bowl. Add the chicken (if desired), and stir to combine. Puree the mixture a little at a time, and add chicken broth to thin as needed. When it is a peanut butter consistency, spoon into ice cube trays and freeze overnight.

Party Favor

I'm helping with a baby shower for my sister in law next weekend (although I'm scheduling this post to appear after the shower so she doesn't see everything before the big day!), and I thought I'd share this super simple and affordable favor idea. We're using these as prizes for the games.

Materials Needed:Scissors (or a rotary cutter), Ruler, Scrapbooking Paper, Double-sided tape, Candy Bars

Directions:

Unwrap one of the candy bars to determine the size of the wrapper. I bought the Hershey minis. The scrapbook paper needed to be cut to 3" by 1 1/2" rectangles. Then promptly eat that chocolate bar. =)

Place one piece of double-sided tape on the back of the original wrapper, and attach the end of one of your rectangles. Wrap the paper around the candy bar and stick with another piece of double-sided tape.I'm going to wrap these in little bundles using white tulle and a coordinating ribbon. So easy, and so cute!

Sopapilla Cheesecake

Here's another dessert that's easy and delicious. I've only had this once and have never made it, but believe me. It's worth it. I had it at a party this past summer. It was made by Charla, who found it on Beth Moore's blog, and this recipe was passed on to me by my sister, Amy (who made some modifications that I've put in parentheses).

Sopapilla Cheesecake

Ingredients:

2 (8 oz) packages cream cheese (Amy used reduced-fat cheese)

2 (8 oz) packages refrigerated crescent dinner rolls (Again, Amy used the reduced-fat version)

1 cup sugar (Amy used 3/4 cup)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract or almond extract (Amy used 1 tsp of each and said it really made a huge difference)

1/2 cup margarine or butter, melted (Amy's had 1/2 stick of a half butter blend like Smart Balance)

1/2 cup cinnamon sugar (combine about 1/2 cup sugar with 1 TBS cinnamon)

Directions:

Using a 9x13 baking pan, unroll one package of refrigerated crescent rolls and line the bottom of the pan, and flatten. Mix together the cream cheese, sugar, and extract, and spread over the crescent rolls. Unroll the other can of crescent rolls and place on top of cream cheese mixture. Pour one stick of melted butter or margarine over the top and sprinkle with about 1/2 cup of the cinnamon sugar mixture. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

Butterfinger Cake

This is the most delicious, rich, and easy cake ever. I had a couple of requests to post the recipe, and I'm finally getting around to it. I found the recipe here, and there are many, many more on this site that look so yummy. Happy baking!

Butterfinger Cake

Ingredients:

Yellow cake mix

1 can sweetened condensed milk

1 jar caramel topping

3-4 Butterfinger candy bars

Cool Whip

Directions:

Bake the cake mix according to the package. While hot - poke holes all over it. Mix together the sweet milk and caramel and pour over cake. Crush up the butterfingers and spread on top. Allow to cool and refrigerate. Once completely cool - top with cool whip.

Sick and Tired

I've been under the weather for what seems like an eternity. I think I'm finally on the mend, but I thought I'd do a little post along the lines of feeling crummy.

1) Handwashing Ideas: I am really surprised by how few kids know proper handwashing techniques...especially when this is the only way to prevent certain germs from spreading. Here is a great idea for teaching kids good techniques. Here is a great product made for teaching kids. When I taught school, there were certain times throughout the day when all of the kids would wash hands (i.e. before lunch or snack, after recess, after art projects). I would line the kids up, give each child a squirt, then they'd scrub while we sang "Twinkle, twinkle little star" or another song that's about 20 seconds long. Then everyone would rinse. It was cute to hear them sing a song on their own when they'd wash hands.

2) Sick Day Activities: Fill a bucket with all of the McDonald's Happy Meal toys, birthday party favors, etc. and keep it in a closet. Pull it out only on days when the kids are sick. For meals, serve store-bought or homemade chicken noodle soup, and add alphabet pasta. Let the kids play with their food by pulling out letters and spelling words on a paper plate. Then let them slurp the broth with a straw. Another idea is to do a floor puzzle on the bathroom floor with the shower running super hot to create a steam-room to relieve coughs. Or have the kids draw on the mirror with their fingers in the steam from the shower.

Hope these ideas help to relieve a little bit of the stress associated with sick days!