Sour Grapes

We've been exploring different tastes lately. When it was time to try something sour, I found a really fun recipe to try. Sour grapes. You may have already seen it on Pinterest (if you are as addicted to Pinterest as I am). They are also known as sour patch grapes. It's a super easy recipe, which means it's great for kids to make. All you need are grapes (obviously) and jello mix, we picked lime. All you do is dump out the jello mix in a bowl and then stir in some recently washed, slightly damp grapes. 

I made my kids do every step of this process, included pick the grapes off the stem. It's recommended to put the grapes in the fridge and let them sit for a bit, but there were some sneaky hands that just couldn't wait. I didn't snap any pictures of the cooking process, but I did get an after shot of the sour tongues. Can you tell which tongue ate more?

Have Yourself A Lolly Little Christmas

This weekend the kids and I made Christmas gifts for their friends. My daughter saw me looking at Pinterest, saw these lollipops, and insisted that we make some. We got all the supplies and sat down to make them. That's when I realized I don't have a candy thermometer. I wasn't sure what to do next, so I turned to my good friend the internet. Did you know you can make hard candy in the microwave?? I know. I blew my mind as well. That solved our problem because you don't need a candy thermometer in the microwave. This is how the first batch turned out:

             The kids were in charge of sprinkles and sticks. They did a pretty good job, huh?
           
After we made the first batch, we tired using some white peppermint chocolate instead. The first    batch was prettier, but the second batch tasted better (in my opinion). 

 

The kids of course had to sample both kinds. 

It was hard convincing them  to only eat one of each kind. There was some grumping involved (especially from the youngest one). Then I had an idea: Bananas on sticks dipped in sprinkles! They like the banana lollipops just as much as the chocolate!

Sneaky Snacks

Sometimes being a parent is all about being deceptive. Recently, trying to sneak move veggies into my kids diet, I started adding carrot puree when I make mac and cheese. Doesn't look very out of the ordinary, does it? I don't think they would actually mind if I told them (like do like vegetables, they just like cheese more), but I know my husband would ABSOLUTELY mind (I hope he doesn't read this post!).

 I feel like I'm constantly struggling to get protein in my kids. While they're big fans of nuts, they are usually not to thrilled about meat. I decided to try getting them to eat some 'eggs in a basket' (toast and eggs). The plan was to throw on some sprinkles and call it 'Party Toast'. They went for it, hook, line, and sinker.

Now let me clarify, I'm not really a proponent of sugaring up regular meals, but I figured it couldn't hurt when trying something new, right? Oh, and just for the record, this picture was taken before I finished cooking. I didn't actually serve them raw eggs.

What creative things do you do to get your kids to eat something they wouldn't otherwise?

2 Ingredient Dough

Oh how I love Pinterest! I pinned this recipe a couple weeks ago, and I am so glad. This is a bread dough recipe that uses 2 ingredients. That's right. 2. I know, this picture looks like we used WAY too many dishes for a recipe that only requires 2 ingredients, but I'm learning that whenever I cook with these two, it ends up looking like I cooked a ten course meal. Anyway, back to this dough.

All you need is:
1. Self-rising flour.
2. Greek yogurt.

Use equal parts of both, or a little more flour if it is sticky, and just mix it up and bake at like 375 for 10-15 minutes.

The beauty of it is that you can do whatever you want with it. Flatten in out and make a pizza. Mush it together an make bread. Whatever. We made little balls and then squashed in some shredded cheese and ham.

The result?
It was pretty delicious. It tasted kind of sourdoughy (is that a word?) because of the yogurt. The kids really liked it. I'd call the whole thing a success.

The Perfect Cupcake for Those Kids Who Eat Entirely Too Much Batter

My little girl looks forward to everyone's birthday in the hopes that cupcakes will be involved. This little girl absolutely adores cupcakes! She especially loved helping to make them and snitching more than just a little batter. I always worry about the raw eggs. My husband had salmonella many years ago while he was in England. He said it was the most miserable he has ever been. I would like to say that the paranoia of that happening to my children keeps them from eating cookie dough and cake batter, but that's just not the case. However, I found this recipe the other day that makes me feel much better. The recipe is very simple. It goes as follows:

Combine 1 cake mix and one can of diet soda. Mix and bake according to the directions on the back of the box.

Yup, I told you. It's pretty simple.
The best part about this recipe is that when you add the diet soda to the mix, it makes lots and lots of bubbles, which my girl loved. It turned into a science experiment and a snack.

As for frosting, we went the healthy route and plopped some non-fat 'whipped topping' on the top.

Spaghetti Monsters

My husband is home late four nights a week because of school. Some days it's hard to get inspired to cook dinner for me and two kids. However, the advantage is that we can cook meals like this: spaghetti noodles threaded through hot dogs and then cooked according to the spaghetti instructions. It definitely wasn't my favorite meal, but there is a good chance that it was my daughter's favorite.

Ediable House

Crackers+Peanut Butter=One edible house. Yum...and fun.

Orange Ice Cream

Yesterday we made ice cream in a bag. Here's the recipe:

To make ice cream in a zipper bag you will need:

• 1 quart zipper freezer bag
• 1 gallon zipper freezer bag
• 1/2 cup half and half, or whole milk
• 1Tbsp. sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• Enough ice to fill the gallon bag about 1/2 full
• 6 Tbsp. salt --Table salt works fine for this.

1. In the small zipper bag pour in the milk, sugar and vanilla. Seal tightly and set aside.


2. In the large bag pour in the ice and the salt. Carefully put the smaller bag with the milk mixture inside the larger bag with the ice.


3. Shake the whole thing for about 5 minutes then remove the smaller bag and enjoy your ice cream!

We added some food coloring to make it orange so it could go with our theme for the week. I'd say it was a success.

Milkshake

We got the CD 'Songs for Wiggleworms' from the library recently and it is one of our favorites. My daughter's favorite song is called Milkshake Song. It describes making milkshake and then the chorus says, "Milkshake milkshake, shake it up, shake it up, milkshake, milkshake, shake it all up." Finally today, we put the song into action.


A little milk, a little ice cream, and she sure shook it up!She was very pleased with the results.

Cake

The best part of putting in birthday candles.....

is licking the frosting off your fingers!

Can't Elope

At Trader Joe's there were two word bubble signs attached to some melons. On the Honeydew it said, "Honey, do you want to get married?" and on the cantaloupe it said, "Yes, but we can't elope!" I liked the signs just about as much as my daughter liked scooping the seeds out of the cantaloupe with a giant spoon and then, even before it was cut, taking a giant bite out of this delicious fruit.

A Lesson in Produce

At the grocery store today I decided to let my almost 2-year-old pick out whatever she wanted from the produce section. She wanted some ears of corn. I thought it was a great choice. She carried around her two ears of corn our whole trip around the store. I kept telling her it was corn, but I'm not sure she believed me until we got home and peeled off all the leaves. She was pretty surprised when she saw the kernels underneath all the green. She carried her cleaned ears of corn around the house with her for a while, and even tried to take a bite out of one. She then helped me fill up the pot of water and put the corn inside. She was so excited when I put the corn on the table for dinner. I asked her who made the corn and she replied, "MEEEEEE!!!"

Little Chef

Lately I've been really trying to involve my daughter in the dinner making process. It's not easy. Usually, it results in a bigger mess than I would ever have flying solo, but I believe it's been good bonding time for the two of us. Recently I discovered a good way to involve her. I have her transfer lots of little items into the dish. For example, this was a pasta casserole. I had her put the noodles in one at a time from the box to the dish. The other day we made chocolate chip muffins. She was in charge of moving the chocolate chips from the little bowl and put them in the big bowl while I put together and stirred the other ingredients. Hopefully I can keep finding ways to involve her in the dinner making process.

Popcorn Popping

For Christmas we got a popcorn popper. You know, an air popper. My daughter loves watching the popcorn pop and loves eating it even more. Entertainment and a healthy treat!

Playing Spices

This 'game' often gets me through that long half hour of making dinner. My little one loves to take all the spice jars, put them all in a big bowl, stir them around with a wooden spoon, put them in a pot, stack them up on top of each other, and on and on.

Unsanitary but Fun!

Is it gross to make cookies on the floor? Even if it is, we had a blast doing it. Using the cookie press was just as exciting (if not more) that using the Play-Doh spaghetti factory!

Play Dough

While we've been waiting for some sunnier days to go out and play, we've had a lot of fun inside. Today we made homemade play dough for the first time. This was the recipe we used (and we doubled it):
-2 cups plain flour
-1 cup salt
-2 cups water
-4 Tablespoons vegetable oil
-2 Tablespoons cream of tartar
-food coloring
-1 Teaspoon Vanilla extract
Mix together dry ingredients in a sauce pan. Add wet ingredients and cook on low until the dough thickens to play dough consistency.
Oh, we also added one last ingredient as we were playing: sprinkles.