100 Felt Hearts

I had to get someone early from school today because she wasn't feeling well. She seems fine to me now.

In an effort to avoid public TV for a bit, we spent a couple of hours cutting out 100 felt hearts for the 100th day of school.

After cutting them out, we sewed them all together to create a garland. This will serve two purposes, 100 items for the 100th day of school and decor for the Valentine's Day party!

Here is another version of a heart garland at Made By Rae.

Jennifer Hoech

Baked Sweet Potato Slices

This is an easy snack that the kids love. Plus, they're a healthy alternative to processed foods.

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

-Start by slicing your sweet potatos into 1/2" rounds. Leave the peel on as this gives it a lovely texture.

-Place the slices in one layer on baking sheets that have been coated with cooking spray.

-Brushy with a light drizzle of olive oil.

-Sprinkle with pepper, salt and garlic powder.

-Bake for 30 minutes or until slightly crisp, flipping each slice after 15 minutes.

Serve warm to ravenous children.

Visit The Grocery Cart Challenge for more recipes.

Jennifer Hoech

Thanking You Now

Menu Plan Monday

Each week I make a menu plan. It resides on the side of my fridge and is difficult to find the recipes each night. In an attempt to keep the recipes in one place, I've decided to start making menu plan posts each Monday.

Most of these recipes are great but I do change some of the ingredients to make them healthier. For example you can substitute whole wheat flour for white flour, brown rice for white rice, skip the butter, add more veggies, use yogurt instead of sour cream etc.

Hope this will give you some ideas as well!


Breakfast:
Pancakes

Bagels with cream cheese

Whole wheat toast with egg

Cereal/Green smoothies

Amish baked oatmeal

Lunch:

Tortilla wrap w/mini carrots and hummus and mini orange

Mini pizzas on WW English muffins w/grapes

Chicken tenders with honey mustard w/apples

Egg Muffin Sandwich w/yogurt and mini orange

Dinner:

Tikki Masala w/broccoli

Butternut lasagna
Picture courtesy of Tasty Kitchen.

Baked potato soup

Red Beans and Rice

Tofu Lo Mein

To Bake for snacks and lunch boxes:

Granola bars (These are so easy and delicious! I use brown rice rice crispies)

Banana muffins (Another crowd pleaser. Sub WW flour for white and vegan butter for regular butter.)

For more Menu Plan ideas check out

Tooth...Lost!

That's right, it's lost. Well not really, it's just out of its socket.


It was a fun filled 20 minutes while the tooth was manuvered this way and that. Finally, I just pulled it out because that baby was not going to stay in there overnight.

We were going to put it in this handy dandy tooth fairy pillow.

However, after discussing many options, we have decided on the tooth fairy jar.

If you haven't tried, it please do!

Can't wait for the tooth fairy visit. Someone is very concerned she will have a hard time getting into the house. We may need to leave a window open!

Embroidery

The girls each did a little embroidery project over the summer.

I really wasn't sure if the little one would be able to do the stitching but she loved it. She would just sit there and work on it for the longest time.

These are their own drawings that I transfered onto the fabric. I got the idea from Skip to My Lou.

The big girl even sewed her pillow together.

Felt Easter Eggs

I had so much fun making these felt hearts for Valentines, I thought I would make some eggs for Easter.
















The hearts stayed up way too long because I loved to look at them.

This is an easy and fast craft.

Cut out your egg shape from two pieces of felt. If you would like ric-rac or ribbon as the stripes, glue down first, making sure they area bit longer than the egg for ease of sewing. Cut an extra length of ribbon for the hanger. Once the ribbon has tried, sew around your egg (sandwich the hanger of ribbon between the two pieces of felt and sew in while sewing around edges). Leave about an inch open to stuff with filling. You can cut off the extra ribbon at this time.

Have your child lightly stuff with filling. You can call this fine motor skill work or sweat shop labor. Whatever the PC term is at the moment. While your child is stuffing, work on sewing your next egg.











Once they are all filled, finish sewing the opening closed.




You can finish embellishing with hot glue and any little items you wish. I chose some fun roses, sequins and bows.

Hang on door knobs, pictures or anywhere you need a little holiday spirit!



I can see making these for many different holidays, shamrocks, ornaments, pumpkins etc.

Breakfast Tacos

Yes Sir! That there is gonna make me a whole lot of Breakfast Tacos.


To see the full recipe go to Full Bellies, Happy Kids.

The Best Potato Leek Soup

I love serving soup. Then I get to yell, "Soup's on!"

This is seriously the best. This soup could be eaten in any fine restaurant. Add the appropriate ingredients even if it sounds wrong.

Ingredients:

Olive Oil
One half a tube of breakfast sausage (like Jimmy Dean)
one half a tube of spicy sausage
5-6 small to medium baking potatoes peeled and diced
3 large leeks cut in half length wise then rinsed and sliced thin
1 large diced onion diced
Enough chicken broth to cover (about 6-8 cups)
3 bay leaves
1/2 cup Heavy cream (or any type milk to reduce calories)
Vanilla
Balsamic vinegar
Salt and pepper to taste

Pour 3 TBS of Olive Oil in a large heavy soup pot.
Brown the sausage. Add your sliced leeks and onion and cook for 5 minutes while stiring. Add bay leaves and your potatoes and enough broth to cover.
Bring to a boil then reduce heat and cook until potatoes are fork tender.

Add cream, and a dash (about a table spoon of each) of vanilla and vinegar. Just do it, you can thank me later.

Salt and pepper to taste.

If you would rather omit the sausage, please add a dash of Tabasco at the end. You need a little spice to even out the sweet.

You can either remove bay leaves or state before serving with a very British enthusiastic voice, "if you get a bay leaf in your bowl, you have good luck for a week!"

Mermaid Islands

I read about this great Mermaid Island made of play dough.


It looked like such a great idea after about four batches of play dough were made, the girls had a blast.

They decided to make their own Islands instead of one huge one. Such fun!

Haunted House. Boo!

Freya wanted to make a haunted house. So I got some ideas from this website on how to construct ghosts and pumpkins from egg cartons and we ran with it.

We started by cutting holes for windows and a door.
Then we painted the boxes black and made them look spooky by doing a little dry brush with white.


Cut paper to fit the inside, put a few pieces on the inside of the windows and doors then decorate with your egg carton creations.

The girls made witches and pasted them to the outside of the houses. There are lots of ghosts hangin' around inside and out. And if you look into a window, you may see some eyes staring back at you or maybe the Great Pumpkin.

There is even a tombstone made from tin foil.

Jonah got into it and turned some bottle caps into pumpkins and mummies. Very clever.

Hedgehogs, Pumpkins and Turkeys, Oh My!

We finished the salt dough creations last night.

The turkeys look a bit white because they aren't completely dry in the pic but you get the idea.

I think they turned out rather well considering it was a spur-of-the-moment craft.

Jonah made this super cute hedgehog.

He is saving his money (well not really as there is always a book he HAS to have and thankfully can't seem to save the $150) for a hedgehog. He has hedgehog on the brain.

For the pumpkins, we used glitter Mod Podge. While I like the look of it, it is expensive and would have been just as easy to add glitter to regular Mod Podge. If you notice, Freya's are green. She really wanted to mix the colors and couldn't stop painting when they were orange.



I recommend just covering the counter with butcher paper or newspaper. Put the paint on the paper and use that as your pallet. This makes for an easy clean-up and lets them easily mix colors as needed.

Into the oven you go

The middle child is sick but feeling up to crafting after her drug cocktail.

So we're making salt dough crafts. The dough is very easy to make and you probably have everything you need on hand!

This recipe will make lots of little crafts and have enough for play-dough play after.

Salt Dough Recipe
(That Artist Woman)
2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup salt
1 cup water

Mix ingredients in bowl until combined.


Turn out on floured surface and kneed until dough consistency. I have read that you may need to add more flour but didn't need to.



Make your shapes, bake on a cookie sheet at 250 for 2.5 to 3 hours. Cool over night then paint! Mod podge for a shiny finish.


My eyes have been opened up to the many possibilities. I am thinking that ghosts with pumpkin lanterns will be the next craft.


We made these pumpkins and these turkeys. It will be a long wait until they are cooked and cooled but once they are, we will paint and I'll post those pics then

It's not love

but I don't hate it either.



My dad is going to add a shelf under the super high shelf so I can actually reach the laundry soap.



I picked this color on a whim. Just knew I wanted something bright and chose it from the millions of swatches.

While very sick to my stomach during the painting, the color has grown on me. I may even like it by tomorrow.
I am thinking of painting a catchy phrase on the wall. Maybe something like, "laundry sucks."

What do you think?