My Little Chefs

JM drew and wrote down a recipe for her lunch today..

1.  Mashed Potatoes, topped with shredded cheese
2.  Peas
3.  Grilled Cheese
4.  Cherries and panda ice cream

Panda ice cream they named after having vanilla ice cream and sprinkling chocolate chips on it.  So, This is the plan, this is what we made, and this is what we are eating.  :-)  With our art and theatre camp this summer I thought it was an artsy summer, but maybe a cooking summer.

In other cooking news..we are just into it!  Oh my how they want to cook.  Most of our cooking revolves around dessert, but I seriously don't need more sweets so we ventured into real food today to freeze for later.  The girls helped me make 2 family portions of Shepherd's Pie and 2 family portions of turkey and cheese enchiladas!  4 meals!!  woo-hoo!  They are quite the potato peelers!  Who knew!  And they both love to chop with real knives!!  Aaaaa!  Okay that part made me nervous, but we didn't have any casualties and they really did do a lot!  And for birthday and Christmas I got a great deal on come kid cooking lessons!!!  So I am so excited!  They will pleased!  Although I'll give myself some credit because we have quite the learning experience in our home!  :-)

And my camera battery is dead and we were listening to music on my phone, so no pictures today, but I shall leave you with our Shepherd's pie recipe:

Easy Shepherd's Pie

• 5-8 potatoes, peeled and quartered
• 1 pound lean ground turkey
• 1 pkg sliced mushrooms
• 1 (15 ounce) can mixed vegetables
• 1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of mushroom soup
• 1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of celery soup
• salt and pepper to taste
• 3 tablespoons butter
• small onion
• small tomato
• shredded cheddar
• milk

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Coat a 9x13 baking dish with cooking spray.  (I split into 2 smaller ones for freezing)
2. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Cook potatoes in boiling water until tender, about 15 minutes. Drain. Mash potatoes with a little milk and a little butter and some salt and pepper. Set aside.
3. In a large skillet, cook ground turkey until brown over medium-high heat, add some chopped onions in there, then the chopped tomato. Drain fat if any from pan. Stir in chopped mushrooms, drained mixed vegetables, mushroom soup, celery soup, and salt and pepper; heat through. Pour into prepared baking dish, cover with mashed potatoes.
4. Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes, or until potatoes are golden and turkey and vegetable mixture is hot and bubbly.  Cover with shredded cheese if you like...I like.

Shoe Fetish and Frozen Lemon Yogurt

Thanks to a friend we have an excess of baby shoes for my baby girl. And the big sisters want to be sure she makes use of them!

Time for a recipe isn't it?  We have one of those ice cream makers that you freeze the canister and it seems perfect for frozen yogurt..maybe..  Today was lemon.  It didn't thicken much but I found it tasty. I think the girls thought it was a bit bitter, but they liked it, so the benefit of this recipe is they don't eat too much.  I used fat free yogurt instead of low fat.  I think it thickens better with fat maybe.

Lemon Frozen Yogurt

Ingredients

1 tablespoon grated lemon rind
3/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 cups plain or vanilla low-fat yogurt
1 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt 

Instructions

1. Combine lemon rind and juice, yogurt, sugar, and salt; mix well. Pour into canister of an ice-cream freezer; freeze according to manufacturer’s instructions.  Serves 4.

Nutritional Information

Per serving: 210 calories, 1.5g fat, 10mg chol., 6g fat, 51g carbs., 2g fiber, 210mg sodium.

Recipe from Spryliving.com

Valentine Cookie Decorating

Our friend Ms. J is a wonderful cookie and cake decorator and of course has all the stuff for the kids to do it! Perfect! JC and I got to go to her play date to decorate cookies. I was so bummed JM was at school and so was she. Thankfully she was able to get over it with the help from some yummy cookies we brought her! We'll have to do real play dates again this summer because I know she misses that!

Apple of My Eye

Of course these girls are the apple of my eye. So, when they found a recipe on the Noggin website they wanted to make - we made it! It was some sort of apples on skewers and you roll it in boiled sugar...They licked the sugar off.

Sugar Cookie Man and Leader of the Pack

Cousin Sissy gave us sugar cookie mix for Christmas which is perfect for my little bakers. We used our new gingerbread men cookie cutters.


JM was also Leader of the Pack this week. She had to decorate a husky and answer questions about herself. She doesn't like much help from me on creative issues so all I did was write the answers to the questions. I knew she wanted neat writing. And she insisted on having a picture of Mia on it. JC made her own art as well. See all the pom poms and eyeballs? And glitter glue on the eyes of the picture she used? ha. JM was sick 3 days that week, so her teacher let her be Leader of the pack for 2 weeks.

Cheerio Fever

So Miss JC has been out of school for 2 days now for a mysterious fever. No other symptoms, just fever. And through most of it she has felt fine. Thankfully I had a toy for school that hasn't gotten to school yet so I let her play with it. And also I was making a few file folder games and she worked on those. This is her in her favorite boots that are from a neighbor. I can't believe they still fit.

JC's activity and snack of choice is stringing Cheerios...long necklaces of Cheerios, then she eats them.

She was bummed to miss school again, so I promised baking. We made homemade granola bars. I obviously had to take the day off too, but that's ok. I can't say I minded today.

I was trying to find something for an easy breakfast bar, but these are pretty crumbly and almost too sweet for me. But, they do have lots of healthy stuff in them. I need to judge again after I haven't been munching on it. Too much of anything can make you change your mind. Because when I first tasted it, I thought it was awesome! Here's the recipe:

To make your own homemade chewy granola bars, you will need:

For Granola:

2 cups oats

3/4 cup puffed rice cereal

3/4 cup sunflower seeds, raw

1 cup crushed peanuts, salted and roasted

1/2 cup raisins

2/3 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup honey

4 Tbsp. butter

2 tsp vanilla extract

For Chocolate Addition:

1/4 semi-sweet chocolate chips

Spread oats on a baking sheet and toast in a 400 degree oven for about 10 minutes. Be sure to stir them every few minutes to avoid burning. Once oats are done toasting, set aside and turn off the oven. Line a 9 x 13 inch glass baking dish with wax paper and lightly spray with non-stick cooking spray.

In a small sauce pan over medium heat, mix the brown sugar, honey, butter and vanilla. Stir frequently, until butter is melted and brown sugar is dissolved. Mix all dry ingredients in a large bowl. Add the melted butter and sugar mixture and mix all ingredients very well.

Sprinkle chocolate chips on the prepared wax paper. Spread the granola out into the bottom of the prepared baking dish over the chips. Add a sheet of wax paper to the top and press down firmly to make sure your bars are well compacted. Let cool completely (about 2 hours).

Carefully transfer granola onto a large cutting board and cut using a very sharp knife and pressing down firmly to make a clean cut. Store in an air-tight container.

Kids in the Kitchen Thanksgiving

JM's little Kids in the Kitchen group cooked at our house. We made sweet potatoes, whole grain macaroni and cheese and Pumpkin Pie in a Bag. Amazingly JM ate it all! Wasn't sure she'd eat the sweet potatoes or pumpkin pie, but I think her taste buds have changed. JC didn't like much.

Look at JM in that top pic. She looks like a little teen sitting there eating talking to R. Also we tried a side pony tail which is a first for us but I think it was cute!

And then there is JC who has to be different in the hammock picture. I guess making binoculars as they pose? I dunno. Anyway we have a small KIK group and they always have a lot of fun.

Cheetos

No this post is not really all about Cheetos - sort of! The kids did some cooking at Mom J's house. The Pottery Barn Outlet Queen BTW. She totally gets into all the super cute holiday decorating. We read a Halloween book and did some Halloween food decorating.

The girls of course ate all of the available Cheetos they possibly could!! Jumping tables to get to them practically! haha Poor things! We NEVER eat Cheetos because we ALL love them and I would hear begging for Cheetos 24/7 if they were in teh house. SO, they make great treats and great bribery! :-) Umm, yup that happens on occasion! So yes, huge treat today - Cheetos! J could have had only that and the girls would have been totally happy.

These are some owl face cheese sandwiches they made. JC's expression about her owl face pretty much sums up how she thought it tasted too. It's one of JC's patented expressions. :-) But hey Cheetos went with it so..great meal!

Here is where they hit the sugar jackpot! Pretzels dipped in orange or green white chocolate and then covered in sprinkles and candy! The girls both napped today! I think there was a sugar crash involved!

Absolutely wonderful! We are so glad to have our fun play group of creative moms willing to put this stuff together!!

Muffin Tin Monday - TAKE ONE

Does it count as Muffin Tin Monday if I use silicone muffin pans!? :-) We made dinner like this for fun today. (L to R)Cucumber, peas, substitute scrambled eggs with tomatoes and flaxmeal, carrot match sticks, ranch dressing, red pepper strips. Besides the eggs this is NOT normally a well-received meal. In fact JM asked for eggs with tomatoes which is why I threw it in there. BUT, due to the cool packaging and their participation in the process they did TRY everything which is a bonus! We will try to continue this fun little Monday activity but it's doubtful I'll keep up with pictures.

Sigh..life is hard for the Nalley Girls! :-) I love finding them collapsed..asleep! So cute.

And Happy Birthday to my SWEET JM...FIVE..You are such a little lady.

Not So Classic

Not So Classic Chocolate Chip Bran Muffins

• 3 cups wheat bran
• 2 cup light buttermilk
• 2/3 cup apple sauce
  
• 1/2 cup substitute egg product
  
• 1 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
  
• 2 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup chocolate chips
• 1/4 cup flaxmeal
  

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Grease muffin cups or line with paper muffin liners. (I spray the flour baking spray in silicone muffin pans and it's GREAT)
   
2. Mix it all up and then add in chocolate chips slowly and gently.
3. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean. Cool and enjoy!

Ms. J made this recipe from a website for her cooking group with the kids. But, she changed it a lot to make it healthier, and then I changed it some more, so it really doesn't resemble the original recipe at all. We made them today and the kids love them! Despite the health factor she added chocolate chips to make them yum! Raisins could be substituted.

It made 12 regular size muffins and 24 mini-muffins. You can half this recipe and leave out flaxmeal if you like.

B is for Butter

Once again something I did with my two year old class and came home and did with the girls! Heavy cream and some salt - shake shake shake! They put our super yummy butter on a pancake for an afternoon snack.

Fudge in a Bag

Today's play date was cooking at C's house. We made fudge in a bag. This is the kids in the squishing phase.

Eating Phase! Yum!

Recipe for Fudge in a Bag:
2/3 c powdered sugar

1T butter

1/2 oz cream cheese

1 1/2t cocoa

Put it all in the baggie and squish

L and JM "wrote" a story in a journal then performed/read it to us. They didn't seem to be on the same page as far as what the story was about, but it was totally cute. JM kept wanting to add some weird part about eyeballs. L would look in the book as if she was reading and JM would look up during her turn and start telling, not reading. It was funny how different they were in their 'story-telling.' Both perfectly wonderful!

Mashed Bananas

So, if you can get about 7 pounds of really ripe bananas for $.99 what should you do? Make LOTS of banana muffins!

First we used a random recipe for banana muffins and decided it was good! Then, we made a healthier version! It was still good! Yay!! The girls are eating these for breakfast and look forward to me putting them in their lunch tomorrow! Sort of funny because they don't like bananas much, but they like these! I may try all whole wheat flour next time and additional flaxmeal, but here is what we have so far-

Here is the Bananas Muffin recipe, our healthier alternative is in the parenthesis:

1/2 c room temp. butter
1 c sugar
1 1/2 c flour (We used 1/2 of this as whole wheat flour)
1 tsp baking soda
1tsp salt
1 c mashed very ripe bananas
1/2 c sour cream (fat free)
1 tsp vanilla
(2 TBS flaxmeal)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream butter, sugar, eggs. Add dry ingredients. Blend well. Add bananas, sour cream, and vanilla. Mix. Pour into muffin pan. You can put in muffin cups, or spraying a silicone muffin pan with oil/flour baking spray works great too. (They pop right out.) Bake about 30 minutes, maybe a little less. I did this with mini-muffins and regular size muffins. One batch filled 12 regular muffins and 12 mini muffins! This was a great one for the kids to help with too!

Labor Day

Well, it's Labor Day and it was full of labor! How fitting! Hubby was busy working at home and we had ZERO plans out and about, so I proceeded to keep the girls busy, away from hubby, no TV on, and get some cleaning done too. This is always harder when hubby is home cuz of course they want to be with him and are drawn to him! So, we try to get creative. Although eventually we went to Target and shared some popcorn while getting a few things we needed like laundry detergent.

Well I was cleaning out old markers with no lids and I read somewhere you could wet the tips and use them some more like paint sticks, so we did it on coffee filters...that gave us a few minutes of entertainment!

We made a cake in a mug!

You need: a mug, 4 tbs of sugar, 4 tbs of flour, 2 tbs of cocoa, 3 tbs of milk, 3 tbs of oil, and an egg. Combine the dry ingredients, add the wet ingredients, and mix WELL. Put your mug of cake mix in the microwave, and cook it for 3 minutes. Eat it if ya can! I got this off another blog that has great crafty ideas for tots called Chasing Cheerios.

Not really sure what happened, JM and JC sort of had rock cakes, but mine was ok! Not exactly the best cake in the world, but this was a good cooking project for the girls cuz it was single serve and ya mix it right there in their mugs. The process was worth it!

Oh an dHappy Birthday to my big brother!! Hope you actually took some time off!

Melting...

We went to a play date for 2 year old Science today. Attendance was light...It was just JC and this cutie pie S! It's unfortunate that there were so few people though because we had a blast swimming!

On to the experiment-Where will ice cream melt faster? metal pan, glass dish, hot concrete, plastic bowl? Our two 4 year olds - guessed right - hot concrete!

We also made home made ice cream in plastic bags! We had to shake, shake, shake!! And when I say "we" I mean ME, and the other Momma! My girls didn't last too long, but the big girls tried to do some jumping to shake it up. I can't blame them for quitting - it was COLD! Mom C brought towels to hold the bags with but it was tricky. But in the end, it was some tasty ice cream!

Magic Monkey Bananas

One of JM's favorite books is "No More Cookies" by Paeony Lewis and illustrated by Brita Granstrom. So, for our "Kids in the Kitchen" playdate today we read this book and made the recipe in it for "Magic Monkey Bananas." Basically a chocolate covered banana with sprinkles! YUM. Chocolate and sprinkles? How can you go wrong? We had a great time with our friends and even played Twister Scram (the girls are sharing a red dot in the picture I copied from C's blog above) and Hullabaloo while our bananas were in the freezer. It's always fun to have some friends over to be able to actually play some games with more than 2 people playing! Also a great way for my kids to get some practice being "good sports." Yup we need some help in that department! :-) Oh well, there are other things they do that impress me quite a bit lately, so I can hardly complain. Just something to work on.

Strawberry Shortcake

Had a play date at our friend S's house and made the Strawberry Shortcake from that book Cook-a-Doodle-Doo! Turned out great!

Aspiring Chefs.

Secretive Chefs!

Fun game! I need to find out the name because it was fun and active!

Picture of N I liked!