Today Sydney and I have an assembly line of handprint christmas ornaments going. I remember making one when I was a kid, and it still goes up on my mom’s tree every year. Now, we’ll have one to put on our tree every year!
We made a dough using 2 c. flour, 1 c. fine sea salt, and 1 c. water. Mix all ingredients together and knead for about 5 min. Then roll the dough out, about 1/2″ thick, and use a cup or bowl to cut out circles. Continue reading
After a very chilly night of tricks and treats, and a little too much candy, Sydney and I are feeling a under the weather today. As a result, we have decided to spend the entire afternoon relaxing indoors and getting healthy again. So, today I thought I would share some of my favorite rainy day craft ideas for kids. Enjoy!
1. Making Slime is always a fun time!
2. With $1 Birdhouses just break out some craft supplies and get creative!
3. Glow Jars are a reader favorite
4. Play pirates and Make your own telescope!
5. Stick People are a fun craft, and they promote imaginative play and story telling
6. With some oil and whole wheat flour, have an indoor beach day with Moon Sand fun.
7. And the classic homemade Playdoh is always a kid favorite!
8. Have some unmatched socks laying around? It’s Sock-topus time!
9. Make Pasta Necklaces with some dry pasta, food coloring, and rubbing alcohol.
10. Chances are you have all the ingredients for some homemade Puffy Paint art.
And, I will most likely be spending some quality time on Pinterest during nap time today, so be sure to follow me here!
There are a lot of great pumpkin pie pancake recipes out there, but I opted for a quick and easy version this morning. I made my usual pancake batter, then set it aside. In a small bowl I mixed 4tbsp pumpkin puree, 1/8 tsp nutmeg, 1/8 tsp ground ginger, and 1/4 tsp cinnamon. The add the pumpkin mixture to your pancake batter, and you can add a couple more tablespoons of pancake mix if desired. Then cook as usual. I warmed our maple syrup, and added a sprinkling of cinnamon to make them extra yummy.
If you have a little more time on your hands, Martha Stewart has a great recipe.
Happy Monday! We have been enjoying our last days of vacation spending as much time as possible with our family and friends out here. In fact, we had a nice bbq last night, feasting on local food and sipping sangria. We came up with our own concoction, and aptly called it Hawaiian White Sangria. It was super yummy, and so I had to share the recipe! Continue reading
I had a major sweet tooth last night, and was craving some yummy chocolate chip cookies. I also wanted pretzels, sweet and salty is my favorite combination. So why not pretzel and chocolate chip cookies?! And what the heck, I had some cream cheese I needed to use up, that sounds like a good addition… right? Right. Continue reading
Good morning! Many of you probably already know that I’m always trying to come up with creative ways to get Syd to eat and enjoy her veggies. Well this weekend I came up with a way to get her excited about eating raw veggies, including salad. We had tons of fun making spring rolls!
I filled the table with fun plates and bowls of carrots, rice, salad, chicken, and boiled eggs.
Then, I let Syd go to town building and rolling her own spring rolls. (with just a little help) Continue reading
Sticking with the BabbaBox theme from earlier this week (Sun, Moon, & Stars), we decided to explore and play with moon sand. I found several recipes for cloud dough online which include mixing flour with baby oil. Our moon sand is actually just a slight modification to cloud dough. Instead of baby oil we used Continue reading
We have an entire loaf of cocktail pumpernickel bread leftover from the birthday party this past weekend, and I didn’t know what to do with it. Then I realized, the cute little slices are perfect for fun kid sized sandwiches! Continue reading
Today Sydney and I are planning to spend the afternoon at the pool, which of course won’t leave me much time to cook dinner tonight. On these types of days, I have a go to pasta dinner thats fairly quick and easy but not your ordinary spaghetti dinner.
I start with radiatori pasta, it’s hearty and does a good job scooping up chunky sauces. While the pasta boils I prepare the sauce. First, chop and saute red, yellow, orange, and green peppers in olive oil. Once the peppers are nicely golden on the edges, add the sauce to the pan. Add a little extra drizzle of olive oil if you’d like. Simmer the sauce on low, and add a can of drained garbanzo beans. My husband it a big meat person, but he loves this dish and as long as these beans are in the sauce, he actually doesn’t miss the meat!
I then add the cooked pasta to the pan with sauce, and toss. Plate and top with fresh parmesan and basil. It’s really a fast and easy dish to prepare, and everyone in my family loves it, even Sydney!
Do you have a go to quick dinner recipe?
Woohoo! So happy it’s Thursday, Cola is feeling better, and the weekend is nearly here! Yesterday Sydney and I spent some time in the kitchen and baked a yummy summer treat. Jello Poke Cake and Strawberry Pretzel Dessert are two of my summer favorites. I found myself craving both, and so we combined the two and made a hybrid. It’s already half gone! Here is the recipe: Continue reading
Good Morning! I hope you had a great long weekend. We enjoyed relaxing, and enough sun to last us the rest of the week. But now it’s back to reality and getting things done. While I get caught up, I wanted to share some of the sugar scrubs I made for birthday and Mother’s Day gifts this past month. Continue reading
Happy Friday! I hope everyone has a wonderful Memorial Day weekend!
Speaking of which, I start off today’s post with a yummy recipe I saw on I Am Baker. It is from a couple years ago, but what a great idea for a festive Memorial Day breakfast!
We still struggle with Sydney and getting her to eat veggies. Chopping up some broccoli and sneaking it into her mac n’ cheese never fails, but I am always trying to come up new ideas. She never turns down muffins or cupcakes, so I decided to try and make some veggie muffin cups for lunch the other day. And it worked, she loved them! I just filled the muffin tins with dough; you can use puff pastry, crescent roll, or really any other kind of dough. I then filled them with a concoction of different veggies and added a couple eggs to hold it all together. Filled the cups, and popped them in the oven at 350 for about 15 mins. I have to admit, I quite liked them as well. They are super easy, and you can use whatever you can find in your fridge and cupboards. Get creative! Continue reading
So last night was girls night at our house, we watched a girly movie, gossiped, and ate cookies. It was a perfect cozy night in. I made salted caramel chocolate chocolate chip cookies, they were easy to make, and so so yummy to eat! I used this recipe from allrecipes.com, and changed it up a bit. I used dark chocolate chunks instead of semi-sweet chips, and added an entire bag of kraft caramel bits into the dough. Then, I sprinkled each cookie with coarse sea salt before popping them into the oven. Perfection!
With the rain carrying over from the weekend into this week, we decided to get crafty and experiment with some new things. And so, it was time for some slime! I found several recipes online, and ended up using this one from ourbestbites.com and this one from projects for preschoolers.com. All you need is school glue, water, food coloring, and borax. Easy peasy, we had success on our first try, and Sydney loved her pink slime! It actually entertained her way longer than I expected!
Yesterday was certainly a fun and productive day, especially in the kitchen. We made a fun lunch, baked, and even played around with some homemade slime. I’ll be posting the slime recipe later this week! Any how, today I feel as if the craziness from the weekend is finally catching up with me. And, thinking about the weekend, I thought I’d share my go-to dish for entertaining at home or taking over to a friend’s party (which we did both of this weekend). Olive tapenade. Continue reading
I actually discovered this sauce while making Guinness cupcakes a couple months ago. I couldn’t help but sample as I baked, and when I tasted about halfway through I thought, ‘holy mackerel, this would be fantastic with vanilla bean ice cream!’ And so I experimented and tweaked it abit, and came up with a rich chocolate sauce laced with that bitter Guinness flavor I love so much. Perfect for St Patrick’s Day! Enjoy! Continue reading
This recipe is inspired by the milk braised pork from the Purple Pig in Chicago, and it’s a slow cooker version based off of the recipe found here. Continue reading
