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Kids in the Kitchen, Pt. 2: Don’t Underestimate Your Kids!

March 11, 2008 by Laura 8 Comments

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My friend Anne has a husband, two daughters and a cow.

(The cow is relevant information…stay tuned.)

Anne is doing an excellent job teaching her kids in the kitchen. I am constantly amazed at what they are already capapble of.

One day, they were preparing dinner for company…and Anne realized that it was time to go milk the cow. (see?)

They had everything out and ready to put a lasagna together (including ingredients for homemade lasagna noodles)…

So she looked at her then eight year old and said, “Hannah…you’ll have to finish making this lasagna. Just put it into the oven when you’re done…and then turn on the oven so that you don’t burn yourself.”

And then Anne went out to milk the cow.

And when she came back into the house…she smelled lasagna baking.

Hannah knew how to put a lasagna together (using homemade noodles), all by herself… when she was eight!

So here is my point and my tip for today:

Don’t underestimate what your kids are capable of in the kitchen!

They can learn anything you teach them to do!

Get them in there and love your time together teaching and training!

For the next several days, I’ll continue to write about what to do with the kids in your kitchen!

I’ll cover topics like:

Little guys in the kitchen
Simple things for your kids to make
Teaching your kids about healthy eating
Kids cleaning up the kitchen
Kids helping with menu planning
More!

I’d love to hear your questions and ideas about your kids in the kitchen!

Kids in the Kitchen, Pt. 1

More Kitchen Tip Tuesday…

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Silliest Guy Ever

March 10, 2008 by Laura 6 Comments

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Today, when Malachi went out to play…he grabbed a fleece John Deere hat and stuck it on. No coat. No gloves. It’s not even really cold. But, he had to have that hat.

And I had to have that picture!

This is the guy who, when he flushes the potty and it doesn’t work ’cause he doesn’t hold the flusher down long enough…says, “Oh, I think it needs a new battery.”

This is the guy who, when he finishes his turn with prayer time and gets to tag someone else, says, “I pick Mommy! ‘Cause he’s my best friend!” (Poor kid…he rarely hears female pronouns around here…)

This is the guy who adds an extra “r” to most of his words…so he says things like, “Oh, gurd job Daddy! Can you read me a burk now?”

This is the guy who stands up on a chair with his microphone in his hands and sings “Jesus Loves Me” at the top of his lungs until his neck veins are bulging out. Then he gets down and reverently says, “Okay, now let’s prayer.”

This is the guy who, when he got up from his bed at naptime today when he wasn’t supposed to, gave this reason, “Mama! We forgot to do my reading lesson!” (Uh-huh…and of course I said, “No, remember, we did it right after we finished your Algebra…”)

Yes, this is the guy who makes us all laugh a lot…

The guy who, at the end of the day says to me, “Gurd night, Mama. You’re the best guy ever!”

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Kids In the Kitchen, Pt. 1

March 10, 2008 by Laura 3 Comments

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Almost everything I know about making my home a haven is from watching and doing and learning from my mom.

Especially in the kitchen.

I spent HOURS of my time growing up in the kitchen with my mom. I would pull up a chair and just watch. And stir. And help.

And when I went to my grandma’s…I would stand with her in her teeny tiny kitchen and just watch. And stir. And help.

By the time I was about eight or nine…my mom put me in charge of some of the cooking (usually the cookie baking part!).

We often had extra farm hands around in the summer time to feed, and I know that I was a big help to her. We would cook all day it seemed. I would bake about one batch of chocolate chip cookies per day during those summers. By the time I was ten, I could bake them in my sleep (and probably did sometimes!).

Now that I’m (10 x 3 + ?)…I love cooking!

And, my cooking styles are a lot like my mom’s…or my grandma’s..

My dad has told me from time to time when he’s here visiting…”These rolls taste just like your grandma’s did”…or “That dinner was just like what your Mom would have made.”

What an honor for my dad to rank my cooking up there with the two favorite women in my life.

Oh, how I miss them.

But, my memories are so clear and sweet.

My encouragement for all of us then…is to pull your kids into the kitchen and make some sweet memories.

Over the next several days, I’ll be writing about some fun things to do in the kitchen with your kids…and some fun ways to teach them. Be sure to check back in!

You’ll never regret the precious time spent alongside your children in the kitchen.

And the skills you will teach them will last them a lifetime.

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Healthy Treat For Today: Strawberry Jelly Roll

March 7, 2008 by Laura 4 Comments

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Today, I asked Elias what we should make for our healthy treat…

He said, “Something with strawberries!! Some kind of cake!!”

Since strawberries aren’t in season yet…and I couldn’t really come up with any good ideas for a cake using frozen strawberries…

We came up with the idea to make a Strawberry Jelly Roll.

I’ve actually never made a jelly roll before…

Um, because, they’ve intimidated me.

I admit it. I have Jellyrollaphobia.

I’m usually a mix-up-a-cake-and-throw-it -into-the-pan kind of a girl. The idea of whipping my egg whites and folding in my flour mixture…blah, blah, blah…

And then rolling the cake thingy and spreading the filling, and rolling it back up without the thing breaking apart all over the place really scared me…

Jellyrollaphobia.

But today, everyone…

Today, I have overcome my fear of the Jelly Roll.

I have learned that Jelly Rolls are nothing to be afraid of.

This was very easy to make…and not at all scary.

Strawberry Jelly RollYum

1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 t. baking powder
4 eggs yolks
1/2 t. vanilla
1/3 cup rapadura
4 egg whites
1/2 cup rapadura
Strawberry Jelly – the kind made with only fruit, of course

Stir together flour and baking powder. Set aside. In another bowl, beat egg yolks and vanilla and 1/3 cup rapadura. And in another bowl, beat egg whites until soft peaks form. Add 1/2 cup rapadura to the egg whites and beat some more until hard peaks form.

Then, fold the egg yolk/vanilla mixture into the egg whites. Next, fold the flour mixture into the egg whites.

Spread the batter onto a buttered piece of parchment paper lining a cookie sheet. Bake it for 12-15 minutes at 375 degrees. The cake should “spring back” if you gently touch it in the middle.

Immediately pull the cake off of the parchment paper and lay it onto a tea towel. Roll it up in the towel. Allow it to cool completely.

Unroll it, spread jelly all over it, and roll it back up.

Done.

Slice it, eat it, share it, exclaim over it, be amazed by it.

We all really liked this treat.

And I will definitely make it again sometime.

I’ll probably even play with it and make different fun variations to the Jelly Roll.

Pumpkin Roll, Chocolate Roll, Cream Cheese something or other Roll, Chocolate-Pumpkin-Cream Cheese-something or other Roll…

I am a Jellyrollaphobic no more.

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Email…and Kids

March 6, 2008 by Laura 2 Comments

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Recently, my two older boys got themselves each an email account…

They have had SO much fun emailing their buddies back and forth (and then calling each other on the phone right away to let each other know that they just sent an email…) :)

And sometimes they email our family members…

What aunt or uncle or grandparent doesn’t love that?!

We’ve decided it’s a super way for our big kids to learn more about computers and to learn to write…you know – complete sentences…equipped with capital letters and punctuation and everything. They don’t even complain about this kind of “writing” like they sometimes do about other writing assignments.

And, my most favorite way to use email with the kids?

Emailing back and forth with Mom and Dad!

I’ve had so much fun surprising them with an email letting them know how proud I am of their hard work that day, or how great they did on their math assignment, or whatever.

Here’s my email to my oldest son a couple of days ago…

Asa,

You are SO the best 10 year old boy EVER!!

Thanks for making lunch and helping with everything else while I didn’t feel well.

Love you,

Mom

And here’s his reply:

Hi Mom! You are SO the best 34 year old Mom EVER. HeHe Asa

Isn’t he “oh, so clever”?

I should get him started on a blog.

In the meantime…I’ll just enjoy this completely free way to send encouragement to my kids…and this great tool to get my kids writing more!

Healthy Treat for Today: Mudballs

March 6, 2008 by Laura 35 Comments

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Who wouldn’t want to eat a Mudball?! These treats give the idea of making mud pies a whole new meaning!

These are great fun to make…and great fun to eat!

Just ask my boys…who have gone through about 4 double batches of them since Jayme sent me the recipe!

As Jayme put it…

“Sometimes we eat them warm right out of the pan…sometimes we eat chill them and then eat them…but mostly…we just EAT them!”

Perfectly said!

You have to try these! They are a great snack to have on hand in the fridge. And they really do just take about five minutes to make.

MudballsYum

1/4 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup wheat germ
1/2 cup oats
1/4 cup chocolate chips
1/4 cup sesame seeds or flax seeds

Cook the peanut butter and honey over low heat until melted. Add remaining ingredients. When cool enough to handle roll into oohey gooey mud balls.

Have fun! Let me know if you don’t like the name of these treats just as much as my boys do!

UPDATE

Every time I make these, I have to do way too much mental math to figure out how to make a large batch. Finally I realized that I needed to update this post with an additional recipe card to help us all just make these without having to stretch our brains to figure out how many 1/4 cups are in 40 ounces. Oy.

You may wish I had some sort of happy medium recipe – somewhere between Tiny Recipe and Monster Recipe. I suggest that you might want to cut the Monster Recipe in half, or make the big recipe and then wrap/freeze some Mudballs for another time!

NOTE: If you do the math, you’ll notice that not all of the ingredient amounts listed above are multiplied the same. This is because I refuse to use that much honey, which then changes the liquid consistency of the big batch. What you see below is how I make these now as I use a 40-ounce jar of our favorite peanut butter from Sam’s. (40-ounces is 5-cups, by the way. You can see then, that I don’t want to use 5-cups of honey!?!?! These are perfectly sweet with way less honey!)

Monster-Sized Recipe for Mudballs

Healthy Treat for Today: Mudballs

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Author: Laura

Serves: 50-60

Ingredients

40 ounce jar natural peanut butter
1 cup honey
1 cup wheat germ
1 cup flax seeds (ground or regular)
1 cup unsweetened coconut flakes
1½ cups chocolate chips
4 cups oats

Instructions

Cook and stir the peanut butter and honey over low heat until melted together
Add remaining ingredients.
Use a medium-sized cookie scoop to form balls.
Store in an air tight container.

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So Much Spam…So Little Time…

March 5, 2008 by Laura 7 Comments

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Here are 13 spam messages I’ve received the last few weeks:

1. Stop snoring tonight *I never knew I started snoring.*

2. Chat with singles in your area *Sure…I’d love to tell them all about my super husband.*

3. You qualify for a free power wheelchair *I’m curious…what might be the qualifications?*

4. Meet wealthy York men *I’m pretty sure I’ve met all the wealthy York men…both of them.*

5. Laura, want to win at slots? *Hm, is that a trick quesion?*

6. York singles want to meet Laura this weekend *To do what? Help me catch up on laundry?*

7. Casting for movies in the York area *So, someone is finally recognizing my acting talent, huh?*

8. Get rid of the buzz in your ears *I’m sorry, did you say something?*

9. Losing your hair? *I suppose if I were, you wouldn’t want me for that movie after all?*

10. What SHOULD Laura weigh? *None of your business.*

11. Are you a big beautiful woman? *Okay, now this is getting personal.*

12. A years supply of free diapers for your baby *We’ve done potty trained ’em all, thanks…but I would take a years supply of groceries…if you’re offering.*

13. Laura, back from the brink of death? *It sure feels like it somedays…and apparently I’m also losing my hair, snore and have a constant buzz in my ears. It’s okay though…the wheelchair I qualified for should be here any day…some single men are coming over to help me do some laundry…then, I get to be in a movie.*

More Thursday Thirteen

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Healthy Treat for Today: Applesauce Bread

March 5, 2008 by Laura 132 Comments

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Wanna know the biggest problem I had with my Applesauce Bread this morning?!

applesauce_bread

Yum

I only made one loaf! What was I thinking?!

We downed the whole loaf very quickly…

And then, “Mom, did you make anymore?” say all the boys as they peek around in hope at all the countertops and at the oven.

So, be warned, you might want to double this recipe if you’re going to wake your family up some morning to the delicious smell of this bread baking.

And, it is a great way to wake your family, I promise!

5.0 from 1 reviews

Healthy Treat for Today: Applesauce Bread

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Author: Laura

Serves: 1 loaf

Ingredients

1½ cups whole wheat flour
¾ cup sucanat or ½ cup honey
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon nutmeg
¾ cup applesauce
2 eggs
¼ cup melted butter

Instructions

Mix dry ingredients.
Make a well in the center and add applesauce, eggs, and butter.
Stir well.
Pour batter into one buttered bread pan or stone.
Bake at 350° for 45-55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the loaf comes out clean.

Check out these cutie boys eating their Aplesauce Bread this morning with butter melted on it, with a glass of milk…

See, Malachi has his green cell phone handy right there – ready to call someone to let them
know what a great breakfast he’s having. (I can’t believe my kids were actually this little once!)

This is one of our favorite fall recipes! Put some in the oven, and your whole house will smell like fall. Or Christmas. Or comfort. Or all of the above.

Hint: If you have some apples that are beginning to get mushy and no one wants to eat them – simply core them and put them into a food processor or blender. Puree them, then stir them into this recipe. Works like a charm!

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Hooray for the Sunshine!

March 4, 2008 by Laura 3 Comments

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Today…I am SO thankful for bits of sunshine we’ve been having lately!

So thankful!

It has been so nice to be able to send the kids outside for some fresh air and running around time.

It has been so nice not to have to put on 23 layers of clothes just to go get the mail.

It has been so nice to walk outside and not have an instant ice cycle hanging from our noses.

It’s been so nice not to be walking around inside the house with an ice cycle hanging from our noses.

Winter has some wonderful, cozy blessings that I really am grateful for too…

But today, I’m thankful for the sunshine and the hope of spring.

What are you grateful for this Gratituesday?

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