Friday Five: Summer Family Friendly Activities

If you read my post about trying to make every second count this summer, you'll understand where this Friday Five is coming from. We're trying to save money with a larger mortgage and a big empty house in need of furniture looming in the immediate future, but want to make the most of our free time with the kids. Here are some fun ideas I've been brainstorming that cost very little...

1. Have a picnic - for breakfast! Picnics at the park for lunch and dinner BBQs with friends and family are expected during the summer, but the typical morning meal remains about the same year round. Honestly, this makes no sense to me because the morning is a PERFECT time for a summer picnic! The sun isn't as bright and in your face. The weather isn't as hot, humid, or unbearable. And, most kids are in a great mood after getting a full night of rest. You can trek to a park or just spread a blanket in your own yard. Serve easy to eat finger foods like "breakfast sandwiches" (nut or soy butter with fresh sliced strawberries), hard boiled eggs, slices of cheese and meat, fresh fruit (bananas, sliced apples, berries, or oranges), and raw veggie sticks (carrots, cucumber, raw zucchini, peppers). Bring along your own milk, juice, and coffee - never forget the coffee - and enjoy!
2. Go swimming! There are few things my children love more than splashing through water like madmen. I want to give them that joy as often as I can during the summer. From a parenting standpoint "swimming" or "going to the beach" sometimes sounds like a nightmare because of all the stuff it requires. It really doesn't have to take a ton of effort to get them to a body of water if you plan appropriately. Keep a swimming bag stocked at all times that contains a swim suit for each person, a towel for each person, sunscreen, and diapers (if applicable). You'll still need to get life jackets, snacks, etc but you're more than halfway there!
3. Start a Summer of '14 time capsule! This year is especially momentous for us because of our big move and my bug starting kindergarten in the fall, but I think this is a really fun idea for anyone. First, you'll need to get a shoe box - bonus fun, let your kids color and decorate it! Then, make a list of all the things your family plans to do for the summer (family parties, day trips, vacations, hikes) to put in the box. As your family goes on all of your adventures check off your completed activities and don't forget to add "pieces" of your summer to the box. Ideas: family pictures, "journal articles" about certain days, ticket stubs from concerts, movies, or amusement park admission, receipts from a fun meal out, scorecards from mini golf, and anything else that your kids want to add. At the end of the summer seal the box up tight and bury or store it until the date you choose - 2 years? 5 years? 10 years? Your choice!
4. Make your own popsicles! First, you'll have to get a mold - we bought this one from Target for about $3, I have no idea why it's so expensive on amazon. I'm sure you can find about six dozen links on Pinterest to pop recipes, but it's much more fun to let the kids decide. Throw some combination of fruits, water, juice, milk, or yogurt, and, if needed, sweetener (maple syrup or honey to keep it natural) into the blender, pour into the molds, and see what happens! Surprisingly, my bug's decision to make watermelon, orange juice, and whole milk yogurt pops turned out delicious.
5. Have a Family Field Day! You can invite extended family and make this a big deal, or keep it as a small, silly family event. Big or small, the idea is to keep the adults and kids playing together. Let each family member create or choose (from a list you make) their own event with the goal being to have fun, not to win. Some event ideas: water balloon fight (make sure you pick up the balloon pieces afterwards so none of our furry friends eat them!), three legged races, sandcastle building, carnival style games, beach ball volleyball (or just keeping it in the air), and silly relay races (jumping, walking backwards, crab walking, etc). At the end of the events, you can have ribbons that you can award your kids for things like "great attitude" and "happiest player" or get more specific to the events you planned like "tallest sandcastle builder" and "silliest crabwalker". 

Friday Five: Real Food Recipes

For some time now I've been looking harder at the foods I feed to my family. Many times my best intentions have been crushed by the time consuming nature and financial burden of providing real food three meals a day for three (now four!) people. I've also been so lost weeding through all the different claims regarding which foods are REALLY the best that I can't shop without spending hours reading labels and find myself staying awake at night worrying about what I am going to cook the next day.

Finally, I've found a way to simplify matters:

• I buy the highest quality meats, dairy, and produce I can by mini-shopping multiple times per week.
• I'm only buying local dairy from Meadowbrook Farms or Battenkill Creamery and looking for a more local source for eggs.
• I am anxiously awaiting fresh local produce, but I am also accepting the rule that conventional produce is better than no produce.
• I've stopped cooking things like potatoes, rice, or pasta just because I think there needs to be a "starch" on the table.
• Anything I can make, I am trying to make myself including sandwich bread, rolls, pita bread, granola, yogurt, ricotta, etc. I've also started juicing (more on that later...).

I'm premiering my new focus on nutrition with a Friday Five featuring some of the meals I've made in the past few weeks.

1. Crock pot Free-Range, Organic Chicken. Original recipe can be found here - I left out the cayenne pepper to make sure it wasn't too spicy for my bug. The chicken cooks up so tender it literally falls apart when you take it out of the crock pot. The huge advantage of cooking a whole chicken is that I can get at least two meals out of it. The first night we eat it straight out of the crock pot with veggies as a side. Second meal ideas? Chicken salad, chicken/cheese/veggie quesadillas, chicken fried rice, etc, etc, etc!

2. Homemade Chicken Stock with the leftovers from above. Recipe can be found here. I used some of the stock right away to make a delicious chicken, alphabet noodle, and vegetable soup and froze the rest in ice cube trays so I have a freezer bag full of stock cubes on hand when I need them.

3. Eggplant stacks with homemade ricotta. Eggplant slices were pre-salted to draw out the water and then prepped with egg wash, dipped in homemade whole wheat breadcrumbs, and pan-fried in olive oil. Ricotta and fresh basil were sandwiched between the slices and topped with marina sauce and fresh mozzarella before baking. This was delicious and I can't wait to try it again with fresh eggplant this summer.

 

4. Cobb Salad tweaked from a recipe found here. I added shrimp because the bug loves it and shrimp made the salad into more of a "meal" for my husband. All of my produce was store-brought organic, but I can't wait until we start getting fresh, local tomatoes and cucumbers to make it with. I used feta cheese instead of blue cheese because I always have it on hand. The salad dressing recipe was delicious with either red wine or apple cider vinegar and feta instead of blue cheese, but I recommend reducing olive oil to 2-3 TBSP.



5. Homemade yogurt! In the past, one of my co-workers and his wife told me that they made their own yogurt. At the time I was confused and slightly put-off by the idea. After reading up on the technique, I realized how easy it was and decided to give it a try! I followed the instructions here, but halved the recipe as it was my first batch ever and I didn't want to waste milk if it didn't work out. I started with whole milk from Meadowbrook Farms and Stonyfield Organic Whole Milk yogurt. I've been eating this for breakfast all week with bananas, frozen berries, and homemade granola. If I really want to sweeten it, I add a swirl of maple syrup or honey. FYI - I never used to look forward to eating yogurt for breakfast because I would always feel hungry an hour later - this is SO not the case when you have real yogurt made from real milk.

 

Here's a listing of some of the reading and viewing I've done recently to help me along:
Nina Planck's Real Food for Mother and Baby
Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma
Real Food Tastes Good
100 Days of Real Food
Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead
Hungry for Change

Friday Five: Non-candy Easter Baskets

When my bug was first born I was all about good nutrition. She was exclusively breast-fed for the first five months and then started on (mostly) organic purees. As her diet advanced I would bake bread for her, make homemade entrees like mac and cheese from scratch, and served a fruit and vegetable at every meal. She didn't drink juice until she was 2 and even then was only offered a few ounces a week. I was so proud of myself for following all the rules I preached each day at work. 

I can't pinpoint how and when it happened, but somehow the sweets started creeping into her life - some of it was my fault because I loved to bake and some of it was over-eager family wanting to shower her with treats. Before I knew it, my bug was addicted to sugar! If I didn't resort to hiding all the excess treats she was given she'd probably weigh twice as much. Without checking, I know there are a box of peeps, at least two chocolate lollipops, a bag of Hershey's kisses, more than three Pez dispensers, three large decorated sugar cookies from a cookie bouquet, a few dozen lollipops, and mini packets of holiday jelly beans in the treasure trove right now. I feel guilty to throw it away, but I can't let her eat it.

To avoid adding to the collection, I need to get creative this Easter and come up with non-candy treats for bug's basket (and fillers for the eggs for her Easter egg hunt!). Here are my top five non-candy basket and egg filler ideas!

Basket Gifts

1. Books are my favorite for every holiday! Easter books, books from a favorite series, or a completely new book are all great suggestions.
2. BPA-free water bottle. Spring is here and summer is coming, a stylish new water bottle with a promise of an outing in the great outdoors is a practical and fun idea.
3. Figurines to inspire make-believe play. Disney store online has tons of play sets. Bug just discovered My Little Pony and will be getting her favorite pony in her basket.
4. Swimming gear. A new swimsuit, sun hat, and/or sunscreen are an especially good idea if your family is traveling somewhere warm for Spring Break.
5. Something crafty/artsy. Go to your local Joann's/Michael's/Hobby Lobby and look around at the sets they offer to find something that suits your child's interests (paint sets, molding sets, model kits, jewelry making, etc).

Egg Fillers

1. Stamps. My bug loves to craft and I found multiple small Disney stamps in a dollar bin at Joann's crafts that will be perfect size for eggs. 
2. Money! My parents would put quarters and dollars in our eggs so we could buy ourselves a treat and I plan to carry on that tradition.
3. Stickers and tattoos. You can sometimes find sheets that perforate into small squares that would be perfect to fit into a plastic. Otherwise, you can buy any stickers you want and cut them up.
4. Bubbles. I don't know why, but kids LOVE bubbles.You know those tiny bottles of bubbles that people hand out at weddings ? They are the perfect size to fit in Easter eggs! You can find them at party stores and some dollar stores.
5. Small toys (like Squinkies) are popular right now and perfect size for kids over the age of 3.

I hope these ideas help someone else out there who is looking to decrease the Easter sugar overload.

Friday Five: St. Patrick's Day Yummies!

Just in time for this St. Patty's Day this weekend I'm sharing some of the yummy things I've whipped up in the past week or so to celebrate at home, school, and work.

 

Start St. Patrick's Day off right with a well rounded breakfast. I used my favorite basic pancake recipe with whole wheat white flour and tinted with Wilton icing colors to get vibrant hues.

For the kiddos: "Rainbow" pancakes, banana "clouds", and a scrambled egg "pot of gold"

For the grown-ups: Rainbow silver dollars

If you're looking for a treat that is colorful and only requires a few ingredients (but a bit of time to assemble), try out these rainbow rice krispie treats. I was inspired by this blogger, but I think that her recipe made them too crisp and if I made them again I would add more marshmallows and perhaps a dash of heavy cream during the cooking phase to make them chewier.

The colors didn't come out nearly as vibrant in this photo as they were in person

The in production shot before I portioned them...

These St. Patty's cake pops are stunners, but require MANY hours of dedication to create. I got the idea for a rainbow cake pop from this blogger's beautiful picture tutorial, but wasn't confident I could handle the wrapping of layers of cake without just squishing it all up into a mess. Instead, I opted to roll each color out between sheets of wax paper and then layered them in rainbow order. After a 6 hour rest in the fridge, I cut the big block of cake into small rectangles. I realled wanted to make sure they stayed together when dipping in the chocolate, so I rested them in the freezer for another 30-60 minutes before inserting the sticks and dipping them.

Funky lighting because I snapped this as they were chillin' in the fridge while I dipped another batch 

Outside: Green chocolate and some festive sprinkles

Inside: Surprise! Rainbow cake!
The poor lighting in my kitchen at 11pm when I finished these does not do them justice:-(

This "adults only" Guiness/Jameson/Bailey's cupcake will leave you with a buzz as well as a sugar rush. I shared these a few years ago (see my old post here) and have been making them yearly ever since.

 

Once again, not a great photo because I finished them at night and then I snapped this in our lunchroom just now

For those of you who are trying to behave and follow a diet (like me!) here's a healthy St. Patty's Day treat - Green Fruit Salad!

Diced kiwi, honeydew melon, and green grapes

 

Friday Five Favs: Pumpkin Recipes

Fall is absolutely, positively my favorite time of year for baking and pumpkin is by far my favorite main ingredient. I have been lazy so far and been using canned pumpkin puree, but I promised the bug we would try our hand at roasting our own pumpkin very soon. Here are some of my favorite pumpkin recipes that I've discovered this year - be warned I like my baked goods heavy on the spices and usually double what is called for in most recipes.

1. Almost Famous Pumpkin Cheesecake from the Food Network: I made this last week for our cousin's husband's birthday and it was a huge hit. The only changes I made were: to add some cinnamon and nutmeg to the graham cracker crumbs when I was making the crust, I didn't add pecans to the top, and I make my whipped cream with a dash of vanilla extract and a tablespoon or so of confectioner's sugar.

2. Pumpkin Pie Bars from Annie's Eats: I also made these for our cousin's husband's birthday because I wanted a different option because I didn't know what everyone would have a taste for. These really do come out with a creamy pie texture and are wonderful - my father-in-law liked these even better than the cheesecake (which was a big success). The only thing I changed was to omit the nuts because I didn't know if there were any allergy issues.

3. Pumpkin Whoopie Pies from Made in Melissa's Kitchen: I made these as a dessert the time before her husband's birthday when we went to our cousin's house for dinner - have you noticed a trend? Her husband loves baked goods so much that I find it very gratifying to bake for him:-) These were absolutely amazing! The cookie/cake batter is perfectly spiced and keeps the fall flavor prominent even with the sweet frosting. The only downside is the cream cheese in the frosting means you have to chill them and that makes the cake part get a little sticky and moist. I would like to try them again with a straight buttercream.

4. Pumpkin Cupcakes with Salted Caramel Buttercream from Made in Melissa's Kitchen: Bug and I made these for fun one weekend and everyone who tried them was blown away by how good they were. I was impressed with how spicy and moist the cake came out (I did double all the spices except the ginger) and how totally indulgent the salted caramel buttercream was. I had multiple coworkers in my office rave that this frosting was their favorite they have ever tasted.

5. Pumpkin Pancakes from The Curvy Carrot: We made these for breakfast last weekend and I thought they were quite yummy. Beating the egg whites gives the pancakes a really light and fluffy texture that is worth trying if you have never made a pancake like this. Definitely at least double the spice called for to get the fall flavor you'd expect from a pumpkin pancake.

Friday Five: Children's Books

I'm a book nerd. Always have been, always will be. I'm not ashamed either. I 100% embrace my love of books, reading, and quoting obsure Harry Potter literary references. It's who I am and I'm proud of it! I figured I would celebrate this love today by featuring the five children's books I most enjoy reading to my little bug.

1. The Very Hungry Caterpillar: We love reading this book! We have the small board book and it's in our regular bedtime rotation. After reading this literally hundreds of times, bug asked this week as the caterpillar was chowing through the "junk foods" - "Why doesn't he just eat the nice green leaf?! He's gonna get a tummyache!" - lesson learned.

 2. If You Give A Mouse A Cookie: This book has been one of the bug's favorites for as long as she could request books. She loves all the variations (If you give a cat a cupcake, If you give a dog a donut, etc), but I'm a traditionalist and prefer the original because the "flow" of the story feels like that of a child's trail of conscience - meandering here and there and finally back to the start all over again.

 3. Go, Dog, Go! This book has to make my top five because of my history with this book. Although it is definitely one of bug's favorites and she requests it on a regular basis, I have been reading and re-reading this book since my sister was bug's age. This was by far her favorite book (and she is NOT a book lover) and she used to ask me to read it to her over and over and over and over (you get the idea).

4. Ladybug Girl: I adore this feisty little protagonist. Although as Lulu she's "just a little girl", when she steps into the role of Ladybug Girl she "can do anything!" From overcoming scary obstacles (imaginary sharks), to making a difference in the world (picking up a rock to clear the way for some ants), to adding perspective to the situation (noting that her brother looks "little" from far away) there is a very empowering undertone and I love it!

5. The Lorax: I can't remember ever reading this book as a kid, but if I had I would have LOVED IT. I thought of myself as a little hippie-save-the-whales-recycling-club activist when I was younger and this book would have fit right in with that image. Now the bug loves this book and wants to be the Lorax for Halloween. Although she isn't quite big enough to really get what he stands for, it still makes me happy.