KIDS COOK

There comes a time when you are just not in the mood to cook a lavish dinner for the family, so why don't you have once a week kids choice and cook night. I am lucky enough to have a 9yr old daughter who can cook if I let her, but for those of you who have smaller kids, they can still pick the dinner and help out with the cooking. I love when my kids want to help me cook now cometimes that means I actually work harder, but it is totally worth it for the time I get to spend with my kids, plus you never know I could be helping shape them into some fine chefs someday.

Here is a great kids recipe:

PIGS IN A BLANKET
This is a classic recipe, that I remember making with my mom when I was a kid

What you need:
•1 package hot dogs
•1 package cresent rolls
•4 slices of cheese
•1 tablespoon butter

Directions:
1.Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2.Open can of cresent rolls, and roll out each triangle.
3.Place hot dog inside of the triangle, if you want cheese add half slice of cheese and roll dough around the hot dog.
4.Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until the cresent rolls are browned

Now I know this is not the most elaborate dish, but sometimes we need to have some fun when we cook with the kids, Worry less about how fancy or nice the dinner is and focus more on how much fun and time you spent with the kids doing it.

The Overwhelmed Parent

Being a busy parent is one thing, but being an overwhelmed parent it another. I am sure many of you are overwhelmed right now especially those of you doing the last minute tax filing. grrrr those taxes. So what do we need to do. I say we find a good way to calm down and relax. Now if that means throwing your kids into some project that will occupy them, or even throw in a movie and let them veg while you sit in a quiet corner of the house with a good book, crocheting, knitting, scrapbooking, cruising around on the internet, gardening etc. Every parent needs downtime, but I find it hard to find the time for downtime. So I have started making it a point that during the times my kids are home and i need sanity time, I make them either watch a movie, color in their coloring books, play their video games, espeically the V-smile, something to keep them busy for a good hour, and then I either grab a good book, or put on a fabulous old movie I love and just relax. Its hard to take that time when you are busy, but you need to.


Here is a 30 min. dinner idea

SKILLET LASAGNA
serves 4

WHAT YOU NEED:
1 lb ground beef
1 jar spagetti sauce
3 cups egg noodles
Salt and pepper to taste
16 oz cottage or ricotta cheese
8 oz shredded mozzarella cheese


DIRECTIONS:
Brown beef in skillet, then drain. Cook noodles as directed on package.
Pour half the jar of sauce over the beef on medium heat.
Spread with cottage cheese.
Then add noodles.
Pour the rest of the sauce over the noodles and top with mozzarella cheese.
Cover and simmer 10 minutes
~big thanks to parentsconnect.com for this recipe

here are some great deals going on right now

WALMART:
don't forget to check out your local walmart, right now they are clearancing alot of childrens items, for some super cheap deals

TARGET:
$5 licensed kids tshirts
10 for $9 gerber two pack food

AMAZON:
Apples to apples game for only $6.99


One of the things I love to do is browse the amazon outlet, overstock.com, and jcpenney outlets

These are just fun things that I do when I have a little bit of downtiime. I am on a search for some great things to do with the kiddos I am on a mission to save us some dough and time.

No sleep? Here are some suggestions

Its Tuesday but yet I feel like its monday, I am very tired today, long night last night. I know there are many of you out there that have the same problem. This is the greatness of having kids. My son lost his tooth yesterday while munching on a few pieces of his Easter Candy. So you can just imagine how excited he was last night when it came bedtime. Speaking of bedtime this blog is going to be a helpful hint for those of you that have children afraid to go to sleep.

My son from the time he turned 5 would wake up about 5 times a night with nightmares, night terrors, you name it he had it. I was a walking zombie, it got to the point that I was starting to get mad at him, but trying very hard not to show it. I finally decided to talk to him and find out what was going on. Funny thing is he didn't remember getting up 90% of the time. This as you can imagine frustrated me even more.

Here was our solution:
He was afraid of monsters, so we developed a monster spray. He would spray it around the room at night before bed, then when he woke up in the middle of the night scared he would grab the monster spray and shoot it at anything he thought was a monster.
We also had him "protected" by his big superman and dragon pillows
The last thing we did was leave a nite lite on for him. Over the course of a few weeks he actually started sleeping through the night.

Also here is a great idea for those busy sleepless parents:

If you are a coffee drinker,(I am a huge coffee drinker, but they say tea is a better boost for the really tire parent) grab yourself a big cup of coffee and some fresh fruit for breakfast, this will help wake you up

If your not a coffee drinker, grab some tea, or a smoothie, both of those will help jumpstart your day too.

Now when that lag time starts in the middle of the day, grab some raw nuts or veggies these will give you another natural jump to the day.

Hopefully some of these things will help you with those nights full of no sleep intermixed with battling monsters and ghosts.

Eggs, Eggs, Eggs everywhere

So Easter came and went. I hope everyone had a fabulouse time. I know we did. The kids woke us up about 7:30am, they were so excited to go easter egg hunting, we ended up locking them in our room with us until we were up and ready to go. Once the hunt was on it didn't take long for them to find them all. After that was over we did the normal going to church and then going to the grandparents for some more Easter egg hunts. I was lucky enought to find the $10 dollar egg. Yep thats right I got $10 hmmm at this moment all I am thinking about is buying some great tasting coffee with that money. LOL Anyways all was great.
This morning i realize I have a ton of leftover hardboiled eggs, which brings me to todays blog.....


After doing much research I have found 8 different ideas for your hard boiled eggs, I hope you can put some of them to use:

1. There is the usual egg salad sandwich

2. The egg salad salad (basically make the egg salad sanwich filling but put it on a bed of lettuce instead of bread

3. Use those eggs for part of cobb salad or any salad

4. you can make deviled eggs

5. potato and egg casserole
•6 medium potatoes, peeled
•1 cup (1/2 pint) sour cream
•1 (10 1/2 ounce) can cream chicken soup
•1 teaspoon salt
•1/4 teaspoon pepper
•1/4 teaspoon curry powder
•4 hard boiled eggs, sliced
•1/2 cup soft bread crumbs, combined with
•1/2 cup shredded sharp Cheddar cheese

Cook potatoes whole in boiling, salted water until tender. Drain. Slice about 1/4 inch thick.

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Combine sour cream, chicken soup, salt, pepper, and curry powder.

Layer bottom of a 2 quart casserole with 1/3 of potato slices, then 1/3 egg slices, then 1/3 cream mixture. Repeat layering 2 more times.

Sprinkle bread crumb/cheese mixture over top. Bake, uncovered, in preheated 350° F oven about 30 minutes, or until heated through and browned on top.
Serves 6.
~thansk to inmamakitchen.com for this recipe

6. Eat them plain for Breakfast, or a snack

7. Make potato salad

8. This one is a little different but totally worth a shot
Hard cooked egg cookies
Zest of 1 lemon + 1/2 tsp lemon extract
10 tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup butter
4 hard cooked/boiled eggs, peeled
1 egg
3 cups ap flour
1 egg white, lightly beaten
1/2 cup sugar

Preheat oven to 350 F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Cream together lemon zest, lemon extract, sugar, salt and butter in a food processor. Add in hard boiled eggs and process until fully incorporated. Mix in egg. Add flour and pulse until dough just comes together.

At this point you can chill the dough for a bit if your kitchen is very hot, otherwise roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface until it is 1/4 inch thick and cut into rounds with a 2 inch cookie or biscuit cutter. Dip the cut cookies into the egg white then dredge in the sugar. Arrange on baking sheet - cookies will not spread - and bake until just beginning to brown at the edges, about 12 minutes.

Remove to a wire rack to cool.

Makes 4 dozen.
~THanks to bakingbites.com for this unique recipe

Easter is right around the corner

Ok being a busy parent is never easy, but it seems this is the norm for todays families. We are so busy that the realization hit us, the easter egg dying won't be done until Saturday night. Haha. I thought I was going to be getting it done way earlier, but htis time no such luck. So I have one really great suggestion, when you take the time out to dye your eggs turn it into a family time. Get some snacks so after the dying is done you guys can have some family fun. One thing we are going to do, is find some easter movies, then when we are done dying the eggs we will sit and veg with movies and snacks. I have alot of homework to do, but I will make the time to sit with the family and do whats important.

Here is a great dinner idea it can cook while you are dying the eggs

Just make simple soup and sandwiches. Its quick easy and fuss free, There are also many soups that you can just throw into a crockpot and let it simmer all day while you are out doing stuff.


Also don't forget to take advantage of all the great websites out there with printable coloring pages for Easter. This is something to keep the kids busy when you need to get all the egg decorating prep done.

Here are a few great ones
Coloring pages 1

Coloring pages 2

coloring pages 3

3 days until Easter

The Easter countdown is on at our house. I think my kids love Easter almost as much as christmas. My son loves being able to find the eggs he doesn't really even care about what he gets in his basket. The adults love going to the grandparents house, they always host an easter egg hunt that involves money and presents woohoo!!! So here is another idea on how to decorate your easter eggs, but this time it will be using dye.

There are so many ways to dye easter eggs nowadays it can get overwhelming. What we do is buy just the normal egg dye, then we use rubberbands and white or yellow crayons. With the rubberbands, make sure they are thick, you wrap it around the egg and place it in a dark color dye, then when you get the color you want take it out pat it dry, next take the bands off and put the egg in a different color. thats it when you get the look you want take it out and let it dry. The crayon we use to write messages or draw things and the dye won't stick to it.



Here is a no fuss recipe for Ham.....This seems to be the favorite for Easter dinners
~this is a slow cooker recipe, so you will want to put it in as soon as you get up
WHAT YOU NEED:

2 cups packed brown sugar
1 (8 pound) cured, bone-in picnic ham

DIRECTIONS:

Spread about 1 1/2 cups of brown sugar on the bottom of the slow cooker crock. Place the ham flat side down into the slow cooker - you might have to trim it a little to make it fit. Use your hands to rub the remaining brown sugar onto the ham. Cover, and cook on Low for 8 hours.
~ Thanks to Allrecipe.com for this fabulous recipe

Note: if you buy a smaller ham time will need to be adjusted I found that a 3lb ham cooks in about 2 hrs. just keep your eye on it, if you go with a smaller one.