Slime

The girls and I had fun making slime.

Here are the directions:

1. Empty an entire 8 ounce bottle of Elmer's glue into a mixing bowl. Fill the empty bottle with warm water, but the lid on then shake. Pour the water mixture into the mixing bowl and use a spoon to mix well.
2. Add a drop or two of food coloring.
3. Measure 1/2 cup of warm water into a plastic cup and add a teaspoon of Borax powder to the water. Stir the solution.
4. While stirring the glue in the mixing bowl, slowly add a little of the Borax solution. When firm enough mix with your hands, keep adding the Borax to the glue and don't stop mixing until you get slime. The more you add the more firm it will get, make it as stringy or as firm as you like.
We put all of the Borax and water in, but may not add so much next time. The girls had fun with this stuff for hours. It keeps in a plastic bag for days.

Christmas cookie puzzle

I found this on the internet (somewhere?) and i can't wait to give a try with the little ones:)

Christmas Cookie Puzzle

This is a fun gift or activity for the child (or child-like person) in your life. An edible puzzle, to be decorated to your heart’s content and then eaten afterwards. Who says you can’t play with your food?

These are a lot of fun to make and after snapping the above photo, I let my son have at ‘er. He had a blast smearing the frosting and mixing all the colours together into an unappealing grey mass. It may not have looked very appetizing but he had so much fun and after scraping off an inch of frosting, it was still very edible. :)

You can make these as intricate or as simple as you like. It’s all left up to your imagination… or time.

The process is simple:

• Roll cookie dough into a rectangle (you’ll want it to be a little thicker then normal for stability). Lay desired cookie cutters on top of the rolled out dough to figure out placement. Press cookie cutters into the dough, then press walnut, pecan or almond halves into the dough to create handles. Remove cookie cutters and bake according to recipe instructions.
• Once baked, immediately re-cut the shapes with appropriate cookie cutters. Allow to cool completely before carefully removing them (it’s best to roll these out and bake them on the same piece of parchment paper so that you can pop the pieces out easier).
• Once removed, decorate all pieces with frosting (recipe below) and allow to dry before putting the puzzle back together, to avoid smudging. Package up in cellophane to give away or eat and enjoy. :)

The frosting I used is perfect for kids. It can be made thick enough to spread or watered down just a tad more so you can put it into resealable plastic bags and pipe it on. It also dries nice and hard so you don’t have to worry about any of the pieces smudging if you are wanting to gift it. But of course, you can use royal icing if you prefer.

Sugar Cookie Frosting

7 tablespoons of milk will give you a frosting thick enough to spread, add additional milk to reach your desired consistency.

• 5 cups icing sugar (confectioners sugar), sifted
• 1/3 cup unsalted butter, melted
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 7 + tablespoons milk

Mix together all ingredients until smooth, adding more milk as necessary to get desired consistency.

Tip: If piping onto cookies check the consistency by doing the 10 second ribbon test. Drag a knife through the frosting and lift to make a ribbon. It should smooth out in 5-10 seconds. If the icing comes together before 5 seconds, add more sugar. If it comes together after 10 seconds, add more liquid. This will ensure that it is firm enough to pipe but still loose enough to flood the cookie.

Hummus

Hummus

1 (15 ounce) can garbanzo beans (or about 5 oz. of dried chickpeans or garbanzo beans which have been soaked overnight and cooked for)

1/2 cup vegetable oil (typically olive oil is used)

2 tablespoons fresh parsley or 1 1/2 tablespoons dried parsley

2 tablespoons lemon juice

1 whole scallion

2 garlic cloves

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon water

Directions:

1 Blend all ingredients except for beans in a food processor.

2 Add beans and process until it resembles a chunky dip; not completely smooth.

3 Enjoy!

Asian Ramen Noodles

Ok, so we were craving asian food and this is what Lanning came up with. Brilliant! 

First:  Make top ramen according to package directions....add the seasoning packet then

drain most of the broth but leaving enough so the noodles are moist and the seasonings are diluted

Then: add cooked chicken and cooked(or raw) vegetables. We added spinach but it would be 

yummy with anything. 

Finally: eat as is! So good. Or if you want to add your own spices that is yummy too. Our favorite is the curry powder or the cumin. If you like it hot, crushed red pepper is a hit. 

Banana Cake

ingredients:
2 cups flour
1 1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup ripe mashed bananas
1/2 cup buttermilk (i just put 1/2 cup regular milk mixed with 1/2 T vinegar let sit for 5 min)
1/2 cup shortening(i used 1/2 cup butter)
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla

Mix flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt....add bananas, buttermilk, shortening, eggs, and vanilla....beat on low til combined than beat on medium for 3 minutes
Bake 30-35 minutes in greased pan or in two round pans at 350 degrees.  I just used a white frosting with butter, milk, vanilla and powder sugar...but i'm sure it'd be good with a cream cheese frosting too.

meat loaf

from my friend Gina Larson

2 lbs ground beef
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup bread crumbs
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup grated carrot
1/2 cup ketchup
1/4 cup barbecue sauce
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. pepper
1 tsp. thyme
1 tsp. sage

combine all ingredients, mix well. Place in 9x6 pan or 8 inch square.
Bake at 350 for 1 hour.
Remove from oven, pour off excess juices. Spoon enough meatloaf sauce to cover top. Reserve additional sauce for passing. Return to oven and bake for 20 more minutes or until done.
(sometimes I add a chopped up green or red pepper, if I have one)


meatloaf Sauce:
2 cups ketchup
1 cup brown sugar

mix and heat in microwave.

*and you have to serve meatloaf with green beans and a backed potato! yummy.

power smoothie

Julia was a little skeptical of the spinach smoothie, but she ended up wanting seconds!
Recipe by Our Best Bites

1 cup orange juice (preferably the good stuff, like the not-from-concentrate orange juice)
3 tablespoons oat groats or 2 tablespoons steel cut oats (optional…kind of…)*
3/4 cup fat-free vanilla Greek yogurt (make sure it’s Greek and not Greek-style)
1 1/2 cups frozen blueberries
3 cups baby spinach leaves
1 1/2 cups crushed ice

*To help your blender out, you can soak the oak groats in the orange juice overnight (either in the jar of your blender or in in a glass). This will make it easier to blend and will also eliminate a lot of the grittiness from the oats.

Combine ingredients in the jar of your blender and blend. You may (read: probably will) need to run it through twice. Serve immediately. Makes 1 giant smoothie, 2 smaller smoothies, or 3 snack-sized smoothies.