Week Fifty: Homemade Play-Doh

What a busy week!

The last week of work before break is always a blur of calls, grading, and endless emails from people needing one last thing before I'm unavailable for two weeks.

In the middle of all that craziness, I was also prepping {mentally, since I certainly didn't clean my house} for friends to come stay with us for the weekend. 

And because I can't seem to learn my lesson about trying to do too much, I also decided O and I needed to do a craft idea from his countdown to Christmas stockings!  

He has been absolutely obsessed with play-doh for a few weeks now, asking for "tay-doh" at least once a day. What a perfect time to try my hand at some home made stuff!! 

I found a recipe on a blog by an extremely dedicated play-doh enthusiast mom. She tested several different recipes and blogged about how they were initially, as well as a few weeks and a few months later! I picked her top recipe and went for it. I did substitute olive oil for the vegetable oil the recipe called for, only because I didn't have veg oil on hand. 

Plus I added glitter. Because...glitter.

I must say the finished product is amazing. Just as soft, if not softer, than store bought play-doh and seems to be holding up very well stored in a freezer ziploc.

O loves it, but still asks for the store bought play-doh because he likes to smoosh colors together. :) 

Overall, I give it an A+. Easy, quick to make {even with a toddler helping you measure ingredients}, and fun to play with!

Week Forty: Achievement Unlocked: Throw Together Dinner from Scratch

No food. We have no food in the house. Ever.


I'm not entirely sure how this is possible since one of us is at target or the grocery store at least every other day. And sometimes we get groceries delivered. But still. Nothing to eat.

Cut to the other night when we were hungry for dinner. I decided to throw something together. And I actually succeeded. It was an actual meal. And actually delicious!

I'm not so sure that's ever happened before. Not that I'm bad at cooking, I just don't often throw things together with success.

I got some water boiling, tossed in some whole wheat pasta, and made a garlic cream sauce while the broccoli steamed.

For the sauce {which is obviously the only impressive thing about my meal} I put a little less than half a stick of butter in a pan and got it sizzling. Then I pressed two cloves of garlic in, although I wish I had had more than two cloves on hand. It got all sizzly and smelled amazing. Then I added a little too much flour, and once that was a paste I whisked in some whole milk. {O drinking whole cow milk with meals has really been nice for cooking.} Salt and pepper and ta-da!

I realize for most people this isn't necessarily an accomplishment. But for me it is! :D

What are your go-to throw together meals?!

Week Fourteen: Here Comes Peter Cotton Tail!

Last week when we were in Florida, O's cousin had a hopping little bunny that sang "Here Comes Peter Cotton Tail" that he loved!

SO happy with himself for catching the hopping bunny. 

So obviously, I can assume that he is super excited for Easter! I'm a tad excited too. I can't wait to see if O will hunt for eggs or not care at all {my money is on finding one egg and being done for the day}. I am also excited for him to get his Easter basket. I bought the basket and a few things last year on clearance. Then over the past few months I've been picking up random things as I come across them.

Here is what I have so far:

Basket is from Target last year, as is the duck container and bunny sippy cup. The gator pull toy and the three books are all from consignment shops. I had coordinating letter stickers on hand to personalize the basket. 

Since he is a baby there is no need for candy, but I will make him a couple "cookies" to put in the duck container in his basket. Here's hoping I manage to leave some for him to eat. I kind of love them.

"Cookies" are bananas, oats, cinnamon, and zucchini {steamed and then pureed} mashed together and cooked for 11 minutes at 350. I don't measure anything- just mash the bananas and cinnamon with the zucchini and then add oats until it is a dough consistency. Then I plop balls {ping pong size or smaller} on a nonstick foil-lined cookie sheet and bake. 

Voila! Easter is still a week away, so you should all be super impressed that I have this put together so far ahead of time!

-H

Week Seven: Smooth Criminal

Have you been to Ikea lately? I have, just ask my bank account.

I happened upon a new item {or at least new to me} last time, and it inspired me to do a *finding*fifty*two* post about it!

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These pretty straws caught my eye at first just because of their color, but upon further inspection I saw that they are wider than an average straw- making them perfect for smoothies!

In the summer, we love to make smoothies for a snack or for breakfast. But in the cold months {all 10 of them, here in Minnesota} it is hard to get motivated to reach in the freezer, especially for breakfast.

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So, this week I'm challenging myself to get back on the horse with smoothies and try a few new concoctions as well.

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Here is my go-to smoothie recipe:

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To really challenge myself, I decided to branch out and try a green smoothie. *Gasp* I've never made one before. I know they are all the rage and I know they are super healthy. I'm not turned off by them at all, but I've never had the urge to make one either.

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I basically just added fresh spinach I froze ahead of time to my go-to "recipe" and crossed my fingers. It turned out really well! I liked it and so did O and his daddy. I'll definitely file this in the back of my brain in case O goes through a picky eater stage and we need to be sneaky about vegetables.

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And there you have it! Of course it was amazing to have smoothies again- I always feel so healthy when I have one. I really want to try a few new recipes, but we'll see how my motivation is during the next few days of sub-zero temps. ;)

-H

Party Pop & Crunch

You probably remember the delicious looking party mix featured at the Baby Blessing Party I threw. Well, here is the recipe! {I adapted it from a recipe on another blog.}

I used the recipe I found to give me a general idea of how much of each thing to add, but ultimately I just eyeballed it. 

What you'll need

*Rice Chex

*Pretzel sticks

*White popcorn {I grabbed a bag of the already popped variety because I'm lazy}

*White melting candies {I used Ghirardelli}

*Sprinkles

*M&Ms

What to do

Mix about 1+ cup each of the Chex, pretzels, and popcorn in a biiiiig bowl. 

Melt the melting candies {next time I am going to try almond bark instead just because we love it so much} and pour them over the mix 

Stir/fluff/fold to coat and then dump it out onto a cookie sheet right away {I lined mine with non-stick tin foil because I hate dishes}

Sprinkle with...well, sprinkles...while everything is still melty but don't stir any more or your sprinkles will disappear

Toss the pan in the fridge until it is set

Add M&Ms to the mix as you bag it up for gifting or serving {waiting until now to add the M&Ms will keep their color nice and vibrant and not coated with the melting candies}

I love this mix because you can really adapt it to your own theme- for this batch I only used purple, pink, and white M&Ms and sprinkles to match so it went with the color scheme of the party. 

You could easily skip the sprinkles or switch them to any color scheme, and same with the M&Ms. 

Try not to shove it in your face by the handful-- I dare you.