Valentine Silly Slime!

When I was teaching preschool, the children loved to play with homemade goop / silly slime.  I made it a few times each school year for the kids to enjoy.  It can be a bit messy so I had the children put an over sized t-shirt or apron on over their clothing.  I also gave each child a tray / cookie sheet to keep their small batch of slime on while they played with it.

I came across this recipe for Valentine Slime.  It's the same recipe that I used but I usually added food coloring to white glue and sometimes I added glitter too.  I like the ides of buying colored glue and also adding confetti for some extra Valentine sparkle!   Enjoy!

Fourth of July Fun Ideas! Fireworks Art & Food!

This would be an easy & fun patriotic art project for preschool and Kindergarten children. You will need a fork, red, white and blue paint and construction paper to make these Fireworks!

How cute and yummy is this Fourth of July toast for breakfast?  Give it a try and find out!  Patriotic Flag Toast!

For a fun and healthy Fourth of July snack, make fruit kabobs into the shape of the American Flag.  Patriotic Fruit Kabobs!

Lot's of Snow!

Here in Michigan, we are getting dumped on with snow!  Today is a snow day at our house.  Usually on snow days, my kids love to go outside to build forts, sled down our side hill in the yard, and make snow art.   I fill several plastic spray bottles with water and food coloring.  My kids go outside and spray paint designs in the snow.  My yard usually fills up with neighbor friends too so it's nice to have a few spray bottles handy.   Today (and tomorrow) it's too cold to go outside.   When my kids were toddler and preschool age, I used to bring the snow inside.  I also used to put snow in the sensory table bins when I taught preschool.  At home,  I used a big plastic Rubbermaid style bin or filled the bathtub with snow.  Just have the kids wear mittens, put towels on the floor and let the fun begin.  Snow ice cream is also lots of fun to make and eat.  Here is a recipe that I posted awhile back for some yummy snow ice cream.   Another fun thing to do is have an easy arts and crafts day.  Coffee filter snow flakes are always fun and easy to make.  They look pretty hanging in the windows.  Homemade play dough is great for keeping those little hands busy on indoor days too.  I recently saw a recipe for super soft play dough.  The ingredients are 1 part conditioner to 2 parts corn starch.  You can also add a couple drops of food coloring if you want to add color.  Put the conditioner in a bowl and add the corn starch.  Stir together and then add the food coloring and work it through with your hands.  I suggest wearing some latex or vinyl gloves so your hands don't get stained.   I have not personally tried this version of play dough but it sounds like it would be worth a try.   Happy snow day fun!
 

Fourth of July Treats!

My sister's birthday is on July 4th and every year we have a family get together for a combined holiday / birthday celebration.  My girls and I are making cupcakes.  I was thinking of doing either red, white and blue cupcakes or a flag cake.   I did some searching and found the best of both worlds, a cupcake flag cake!  So easy and cute!   Cupcake Flag Cake.  

Another cute and easy idea that would be fun for little kitchen helpers is Red, White and Blue Strawberries.  Instead of using white chocolate, you could substitute yogurt instead.  Of course, the yogurt would not harden and you would need to keep it cold.

When I was growing up, my grandma used to make a fun flag cake each Fourth of July.  It was so easy and cute.   She made a white cake, frosted it with whipped cream and then used blueberries and strawberries to make it look like the USA flag.    I was always so impressed with that cake as a child :)  It looked a lot like this flag cake.

My kids and I went sweet cherry picking a couple of days ago and we are also making sweet cherry muffins today.  We'll eat them for breakfast Fourth of July morning.  I'm going to try this cherry muffin recipe.  We're not going to add blueberries this time but I was just thinking you could make them more festive by adding blueberries too.

For those of you celebrating America's birthday, have a fun and safe Independence Day! 

Hydrangea Cupcakes for May Day or Mother's Day!

I was searching for a cute May Day treat and I came across these adorable Hydrangea Cupcakes!  They would be really cute for a Mother's Day dinner / lunch dessert too.  I love hydrangeas, especially the light blue and purple color!  I have three big hydrangea plants in my garden. They are so pretty.  I have several Wilton cake tips and I'm pretty sure I have the one used for these cupcakes.  I'm going to give it a try!  My kids love decorating cookies and cupcakes.  It's fun for them to take part in baking / decorating even if the end result doesn't always look exactly as we've envisioned.  Here is another link with a Duncan Hines hydrangea cupcake recipe. 

Kid's Favorite Homemade Potato Soup!

My kids really like my homemade potato soup so I thought I would share my recipe here.  It's a great way to get them to eat a bunch of vegetables.  I've been enjoying the cooler soup weather lately :)  I rarely measure anything but I'll do my best to give you a good idea of how to make my soup.  I hope you enjoy it as much as we do!

Ingredients:
Two large carrots peeled and chopped
About 12 medium to large potatoes peeled and chopped
1 stalk of celery rinsed and chopped
Dried Parsley
Favorite seasoning if desired  (I like Zehnder's chicken seasoning)
Salt and pepper
Cream cheese (I use about 2 Tablespoons of Fat Free)
Milk (I use about 1/2 cup of 2% milk)
Butter (about 2 Tablespoons)
Chicken Broth (32 oz)
One small onion (chopped)
Yellow bell pepper (you could omit this, I normally don't put it in but I had about 1/4 of a pepper that needed to be used and it turned out to be a nice addition)
Shredded cheddar cheese (I used a couple handfuls)


Directions:
Wash, peel & chop all veggies and add to a cooking pot.  Pour chicken seasoning and milk over the veggies and add to stove top.  Sprinkle seasonings, herbs and add butter if desired.  Simmer for about 30 minutes or until tender enough to mash.  When mashing veggies, you may want to leave a few chunks.  I like ours this way.   After mashing, add desired amounts of cream cheese and cheddar cheese (this will help thicken the soup).  Enjoy!

Fun and Cute Apple Themed Treats!

The leaves are just starting to have a hint of color and the temps are getting a bit cooler.  Fall is in the air!  This has me thinking of apples!   Today I was looking for some apple themed treat ideas and I found some cute stuff to try.  Check these out!

The Apple of our Eye Cupcakes from Family Fun


Krispy Apple Treats from Gourmet Mom on the Go


Caramel Apple Cookies (on a stick with no caramel or apples) from The Decorated Cookie


Mini Oreo Apple Pops from The Crafting Chicks

Dairy-free, soy free, gluten free and peanut free "ice-cream"

My daughter has some food allergies so it's always wonderful when we find good frozen treat alternatives for her.  I'm going to give this super easy recipe a try.   We have SunButter in the pantry and frozen bananas in the freezer.  We're going to a birthday party today and since she can't have cake or ice cream, I think I might bring some along.   A two ingredient "ice-cream" made with SunButter and frozen bananas.  Doesn't get much easier.   Enjoy!   SunButter ice-cream

Snow Ice Cream.

One of our all-time favorite winter activities is making snow ice cream.  We've not been very fortunate in the snow department of late but when it does come we are sure to make some.  Rather than repeat the recipe you can click here to see an older post about this fun and delicious treat.
Do you have any other "cool" ideas for snow food?  Leave a comment below!

The finished product!

Red, White and Blue Chocolate Dipped Stawberries!

I recently brought home a bunch of juicy red strawberries from the strawberry farm. We've been eating them everyday. I've been making jam, freezing strawberries, making smoothies, Popsicles, etc. I was looking for a strawberry muffin recipe and somehow I stumbled upon a really cool recipe for red, white and blue chocolate dipped strawberries. They are so cute and look yummy too. I think I'm going to give these a try for the Fourth of July. I know my girls would love to help me make them and they would for sure help eat them! Red, White and Blue Strawberries. Enjoy!

Pumpkin Mousse Recipe

It's Pumpkin Time!  Do you enjoy pumpkin treats?  My kids like to help me make Pumpkin Mousse.  It's easy and delicious.  It's also diabetic friendly.  My dad was diabetic so I often made this yummy dessert for Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners.  The credit for this recipe goes to Mr. Food.
Creamy Pumpkin Mousse:  Ingredients: 1 can (16 ounces) of solid-pack pure pumpkin.  1 package (6-serving size) instant sugar-free vanilla pudding mix.  1/4 cup low-fat (1%) milk.  1 teaspoon ground cinnamon.  2 cups frozen light whipped topping, thawed.  Directions: In a medium bowl, with an electric beater on medium speed, beat the pumpkin, pudding mix,milk, and cinnamon until well blended. Fold in the whipped topping until thoroughly blended then spoon into a serving bowl. Cover loosely and chill until ready to serve. 

Nutritional Information Per Serving (1/2 cup):Calories: 65, Fat: 2 g, Cholesterol: 0 mg, Sodium: 207 mg,Carbohydrate: 11 g, Dietary Fiber: 1 g, Sugars: 3 g, Protein: 1 g Diabetic Exchanges: 1 Carbohydrate

Irish Soda Bread

Tomorrow is St. Patrick's Day and I found a quick and easy recipe for Irish Soda Bread to share with you. Check out this Irish Soda Bread from Family Fun. This would be a good recipe for the kids to help make. You can find more great St. Patrick's Day recipes by visiting this link to Family Fun.

Winter Fun with Homemade Snow Ice Cream!

I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream! Okay, well maybe I don't actually scream but my kids did start bouncing up and down shouting for joy when I told them we were going to make snow ice cream.

We had a lot of new snow and I knew that my kids would enjoy making and eating snow ice cream. It's really fun and easy to make. All that you need is clean snow, milk, vanilla extract and sugar. You can adjust the amounts to your liking. We made a lot because we wanted to test out some different flavors and we also wanted left-over ice cream. We put about 10 cups of clean snow into a big bowl (it melts fast when you bring it inside) and mixed in 1 tsp of vanilla extract, 1 cup of milk and about a 1/2 cup of sugar. We just mixed it all together with a spoon. You can adjust the amount of milk and snow until you get the consistency that you like and adjust the amount of sugar to your desired sweetness. We enjoyed the vanilla ice cream first and then we experimented with adding a little baking cocoa for chocolate ice cream. We placed our left over vanilla ice cream in the freezer.

Later in the day, my kids wanted to surprise daddy with our yummy after dinner dessert of snow ice cream. Our left-over ice cream still tasted great and we sprinkled "malted milk" on top for some extra goodness. If you haven't tried snow ice cream before, give it a try. It's easy and fun for the kids to make and even more fun to eat!

Cooking healthy and yummy foods with kids!

I enjoy cooking and especially making healthy meals that my kids enjoy. Tonight one of my children requested that I make extra baked potatoes because she loves them so much. My other daughter wanted asparagus. I was happy to cater to their dinner desires tonight.

I want to share with you a new food blog that my friend Kendra has started. She also loves to cook healthy meals for her family. She is a home school mom and enjoys including her children in the cooking process. In addition to her healthy meals recipes, I think you will also enjoy her kitchen school posts where her kids get involved. Check out Kendra's yummy blog. The Queen of Brussels Sprouts.

Magic Reindeer Food!

I was busy last night assembling 21 reclosable bags of Magic Reindeer Food for a classroom full of Kindergartners. It's an easy and fun little project that I thought you might enjoy doing for your children or classroom too. It's perfect for preschoolers and early elementary children who have fun believing in Santa and the reindeer.

To make the Magic Reindeer Food I used about 4 tablespoons of dry oatmeal per reclosable bag and then mixed in about 2 teaspoons full of glitter. I mixed a few colors of the glitter together for extra color. I then attached a note to each bag telling the children to sprinkle the magic reindeer food on their lawn on Christmas Eve night. The smell of the food will help guide the reindeer to their house. Be sure to verbally explain to the children not to eat the food themselves as it does have glitter in it! Last year on Christmas Eve just before bedtime, my husband took our kids outside all bundled up in their PJ's and they sprinkled the mixture onto our snow covered lawn. We're looking forward to doing it again this year.

Edible Thanksgiving Craft - Pilgrim Hats

Check out this how-to video for a cool Thanksgiving treat: Marshmallow Pilgrim Hats.
http://familyfun.go.com/how-to-videos/familyfun-marshmallow-pilgrim-hats-762347-v/

Scrumptious Spiders!

I wanted to share some easy spider treats with you that make a fun Halloween treat.

To make a scrumptious spider snack take two round crackers (such as Ritz) and spread peanut butter on one side of each cracker (don't put them together yet) Place four pretzel sticks (or you can snap two in half for four small legs) on each side of one cracker. Place the other cracker on top. Now you have a spider body and legs. To make eyes on the spider dot peanut butter and place two mini chocolate chips (or raisins..whatever your kids like) on the peanut butter. Enjoy!

Another yummy but not as healthy option would be to use cream sandwich cookies such as Oreos and then use string licorice for the legs.

You could also have fun making spider cupcakes using the same idea. Frost the cupcake and use black string licorice for the legs and M&M's or chocolate chips for the eyes.

I hope you get a chance to enjoy some spider snacks!

Pot of Gold Jello (St. Patricks Day)

Check out this link at Family Fun for a cute recipe of Pot of Gold Jello.

Family Fun has many other cute St. Patrick's Day ideas here.

I'll be adding several of my ideas soon too but wanted to give you some resources to get you thinking about St. Patrick's Day fun.

Indoor Winter Activities

It's freezing cold here so my kids have not been able to play outside in the snow for several days now. I've been trying to bring some of the outdoor fun inside. I thought you might like to try some of these ideas with your kids too.

~ Ice Skating: Use waxed paper and rubber bands or masking tape. Tape or attach a piece of waxed paper around each foot (preferably with a sock on the foot). Put on some music and watch your children skate.

~Fill your sensory tub (I just use a big plastic bin) with snow. Put mittens on the kids, give them a few gadgets and toys to play with in the snow and they will be happy for awhile. You can also provide magnifying glasses for the children to observe the snowflakes.

~Make Snow Play dough: It's actually just regular homemade play dough with some silver glitter but we like to pretend that it's snow play dough because it sparkles like the snow. You can find a play dough recipe on the Lesson Plans Plus website.

~Simple winter science experiment: Bring a container of snow indoors. Once the snow melts, add food coloring to the water. Place the container back outside until the water freezes into a colored block of ice. Bring the container back inside. The children can observe the changes as the ice melts.

~Bird Feeders: Another fun activity for kids is making bird feeders. Roll a pine cone in peanut butter and then roll (or sprinkle) the peanut butter covered pine cone with bird seed. Tie a string around the pine cone and hang it outside for the birds and squirrels to enjoy. Be sure to hang the feeder in a location where your children can easily see it by looking out a window.

Pumpkin and a Cake Mix

Not long ago I heard about a lower fat chocolate muffin recipe that is super easy to make. I love chocolate so I went looking for the recipe. I discovered the Hungry Girl website and found the recipe. All you need is a boxed cake mix and a 15oz can of solid pack pumpkin. I used a Betty Crocker chocolate fudge cake mix and one 15 oz can of all natural solid pack pure pumpkin. Don't add any other ingredients. Mix the pumpkin and cake mix together and then separate it into muffin tins. I used an ice cream scoop as the mixture is very thick. It says to bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes but I found that 20 minutes was a bit to long in my oven so I would advise checking them after 15 minutes.

If you want to make this recipe with your children, they can help pour the cake mix and spoon out the pumpkin but stirring will be difficult for little kids as the mixture is very thick. You could let your kids help scoop the mixture into the muffin tins when finished. My kids thought the best part of this recipe was getting to lick the spoon and ice cream scoop at the end. I don't usually let my kids lick the spoon for muffins and cakes because of the raw eggs but since this recipe didn't need any eggs or oil, they were able to lick the spoons clean. These muffins received a thumbs up from my kids.

I don't know if you have already heard of or tried these muffins but since they are so easy and turned out well, I wanted to share. I also read that you can use any flavor of cake mix with the can of pumpkin to change the muffin flavor.

Enjoy!