Parenting Under the Stars

If I hear someone say that “It’s not the heat, it’s the humidity” one more time I will snap. I think a couple of us had mild cases of heat stroke. I know I did anyway and the heat definitely gets to your head if you’re not used to it.

We did purchase a new hose since it appears someone ran off with ours. There were a couple kids creeping around our back patio a couple days ago looking at our bikes as well. My son spotted them and the next day I heard another kid had his bike stolen.

We filled a couple kiddie pools up with the hose and jumped in once in awhile and that seemed to help. The water doesn’t last long in there though because half the neighborhood showed up to fill up their water guns.

It’s important to remind kids to drink a lot on hot days. Sometimes I forget to drink enough myself and end up with a headache, although that could also be caffeine withdrawal. We keep stocked up on freezies because that’s a good way to make doubly sure they’re getting enough fluids.

Does anyone make their own freezies? We do sometimes because it’s healthier and of course cheaper. Those plastic handled things are a pain in the butt in my opinion but I like putting real juice in them.

Freezie Recipes

• Good Thymes has a great summertime smoothy fruit freezie recipe with bananas, strawberries, orange juice and pineapple juice. Yum. I don’t have half this stuff in the house but sure I can improvise. It appears that they simply used a cup with a popsicle stick in it. Good thinking.

• This mango smoothie/freezie also sounds yummy from Barbara Northwood. I like the simple ingredients such as mangos, orange juice, milk and ice cubes.

If you’re a visual learner or just want to see a video on how to make a smoothie, see this Mom’s Mango Smoothie by dietition Janice Newell from MealMakeOverMoms.com

Today I made Sheppard’s pie and my family made me feel like a movie star because of it. It was quite plain really because I didn’t have that many ingredients. Those seem to be the ones they go nuts over.

I mixed the cooked ground beef with some onion soup mix, about a cup and a half of water, a spoon of cornstarch and a can of tomato paste.

The next layer was cream of corn, which nobody likes on its own. The final layer, mashed potatoes of course. I put a lot of milk in them because otherwise they’re too stiff to spread over the top.

A few days ago I blended some onion soup mix with orzo pasta and mixed vegetables and they acted like it was some great gourmet meal. Maybe I’m just catching them when they’re really hungry or they’re just relieved that I’m making something different.

Making your own baby food really isn’t that hard and it’s much healthier for your baby. Most jarred foods are very watered down, have added sugar, chemicals, additives and cost more.

Some baby foods that are easy to prepare and good for first foods include sweet potatoes, avocados, pears, apples, butternut squash and rice.

• Sweet potatoes are yummy baked; the insides scoop out easily and usually don’t require much extra blending. Bananas mash up easily when they’re ripe as well but it’s best to use a blender to puree them. You can add either a little baby formula or water to help it blend because otherwise it might be too thick.

• Cook peeled cored apples and pears with a little water on low over the stove for a yummy fruit blend. Once your child has tried a few foods you can experiment by blending a couple other ones together.

It’s better to make up a big batch and freeze it so that you can stock up ahead of time. I used ice cube trays and once they were frozen, just put them in zip lock bags.

Once your baby is around eight months you can start adding a little texture so don’t need to blend the food quite as much. Many babies can tolerate a little herbs and spices for flavor but that’s a personal preference.

• There’s an excellent blog called Simply Baby Food Recipes dedicated to homemade baby food with recipes, instructions and videos for babies from four months to toddlers.

I make so much of my own stuff you would probably think I was a freak if I told you everything but we’ll start with one thing a week.

Once I ran out of ketchup and read the ingredients on the bottle so made my own. The kids didn’t know the difference.

Today’s theme is coffee and there are a few tasty flavors I have tried. I don’t know about you but coffee often helps me get through the day with my family especially if I’m sleepy.

Vanilla Coffee: I simply add a couple teaspoons to a full pot of coffee. I make this the most so I have a monster jar of vanilla on hand. Everyone I serve it to asks, “What kind of coffee is this?” Even my husband keeps thinking its some new blend that I bought.

Cinnamon Coffee: This is great to flavor bland coffee and I simply add a half teaspoon to the pot.

Cafe Mocha: Add five or six spoons of cocoa to the pot and add milk. Chocolate syrup works well for this too.

Mexican Coffee: This is my favorite but I don’t make it as often. Add both chocolate and cinnamon to the coffee and top with shaved chocolate and whipped cream. Yum.

Black Forest Coffee: I have not tried this yet but it sounds delicious. It’s flavored with maraschino cherries, chocolate and whipped cream. See Sean Paajanen’s Black Forest Coffee Recipe for more.

Also, check out Sean’s excellent list of coffee recipes. There are iced, hot, alcoholic and espresso coffee recipes listed.

I haven’t made apple crisp in a long time and the kids don’t seem to be eating up the apples so I thought I would make it tonight.

This is the first time that I have used this apple corer thing but it did speed things up. We bought it from the Pampered Chef but I imagine you could find it just about anywhere.

I base the recipe on the fruit crisp in the Joy of Cooking, which is my favorite cookbook. I’m not crazy about oatmeal so this doesn’t have any. If you wanted a smaller batch, just cut everything in half. I have a full house here so usually go bigger.

Apple Crisp

• 8 or 9 apples (mine were very small)

• 2 tsp. lemon juice

• 1 cup of flour

• 1 cup of brown sugar (I use white when I don’t have brown and it still tastes good)

• 1 tsp. cinnamon

• 1 half cup of butter

After you cut and peel the apples, toss with the lemon juice and line them in a pan. Then combine the flour, cinnamon, butter and sugar.

Crumble them together in a bowl with your fingers until it’s mixed together but still has small lumps. Spread this mixture on top of the apples and bake at 350 Fahrenheit for at least 30 minutes. Mine usually takes 45 minutes but my oven isn’t the hottest.

Apple Crisp is comforting, delicious with ice-cream and it never fails to cheer me up. I made a big pan of it once for Thanksgiving instead of pie and everyone loved it.

Most kids love to create gifts for mom and here are a few ideas I wanted to share with you.

Family Fun’s colorful apron craft with paint-dipped hand prints would be fun or try them on towels or potholders.

If your children can write their own name with a fabric pen, get them to do that but otherwise do it for them.

Either way it makes a pretty and practical keepsake. If you have a few children participating, the apron or towel would hold more hand prints.

Personalized mugs are always a hit and I posted previously about a set I bought and had fun with our family creating Xmas gifts. We made one for my husband, my mother and I made one for myself.

Picture Frame & Holder Project Ideas

I love receiving picture frames especially when they have pictures of my kids in them.

Children can decorate frames with buttons, feathers, shells, paint, sparkles or glue fabric around a cardboard frame with a couple flowers or fake jewels for décor. I sometimes see little paper mache frames at the dollar store that would be perfect to decorate.

A unique way to display pictures is in a mouse pad. You can find them with a 4 x 6 opening and insert a favorite photo in there for your mother or grandmother.

I adore this cat picture holder made out of modeling clay I found at Top Ten Guides. Of course, it could be a dog, pig or anything else you think mom would get a kick out of. You could also use salt dough.

A simple salt dough recipe:

• 2 cups flour

• 1 cup salt

• 1 cup water

• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil (optional)

These kinds of things are fun projects for families to do together any time of the year so have fun creating!

We have decorated candle holders with rub on transfers and also made mosaic ones. Just make sure you glue on the jewels, rocks or tile pieces with a glue gun and then put grout around them. I didn’t the first round and a bunch fell off.

Now that we have dyed and decoupaged our Easter eggs we’re preparing for the egg hunt. The kids look forward to it every year and my husband comes up with a list of hilarious clues for them to go by.

Last year he hid the eggs so well however that I only recently found one. Luckily it was not a hard boiled egg but a small chocolate one.

They get so much chocolate it’s ridiculous. Some goes in the freezer but it’s only good for so long like that. It starts turning this weird gray color after awhile and I wouldn’t even eat it, and I’m not that fussy. None of my kids are fussy either, which is a good thing because I make the same meal for everyone and I guess they caught on to that.

I don’t get much chocolate for them anymore but other people do. They enjoy getting toys like skipping ropes, balls and bubbles too.

Traditional Easter Food

It depends on where you’re from but around here it’s mainly ham and lamb or perhaps a turkey. We’re not crazy about ham or lamb and I forgot to get a turkey but FamilyFun has a yummy collection of Easter recipes.

Alternative Easter Food

I’m making the Streusel Coffee Cake since I have all the ingredients and it’s easier than hot cross buns. Their dinner recipes are heavy on the ham though so will have to keep thinking about the rest of the menu. If you would like to explore some different food this Easter, check out BBC Food- Easter Around the World.

I rarely go exactly by a recipe, which is how I end up creating new things our family likes but thought I would share this cabbage roll recipe with you. Cabbage is a good source of vitamin C, K, B6, calcium and fiber.

I began with Cabbage Rolls II, thanks to Dasha on All Recipes. I could have simply thrown some rice and meat together but wanted an idea about proportions.

I haven’t made these in ages but the kids went nuts. It’s probably partially because I have been feeding them the same old things for weeks and a change is as good as a rest. I boiled the cabbage for a couple minutes and the first few leaves came off fine but underneath they were stiff so had to cook them again.

The filling

• I used about a pound and a half of ground pork because that’s what I happened to have but beef would work.
• For the rice I used two cups of cooked leftover curried basmati rice that had peas in it.
• I small chopped onion because I add onion to just about everything.
• 1 clove of minced garlic
• 2 eggs helped hold it all together. (Mix it all together like you would meatloaf)

If the leaves are soft enough they roll up easily. I put about a quarter cup of filling in each and wrapped it the same way you would a burrito. I did not add the milk that Dasha had in her recipe, but if you want a juicier filling, go for it.

The sauce

• For the sauce, I used a large can of tomato paste with two cans of water, two tablespoons of lemon juice and two teaspoons of sugar. A bit of salt and pepper too.

After all the cabbage rolls were filed in the roasting pan I poured the sauce on top and cooked them for a little over two hours in the oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit. If you’re taking off for the day, do like Dasha and use the slow cooker on low for eight or nine hours.

Vegetarian Cabbage Rolls

Try carrots, onions, celery, zucchini, peppers, mushrooms, peas or any combination of these or others in place of the meat and mix with rice. Here’s a vegetarian cabbage roll recipe video that sounds delicious. Maria J. Ronquillo uses crumbled veggie burgers along with the veggies and brown rice. Maybe next time.

Sorry for the lack of posting the last few days. I really don’t have a great excuse but I was reading about Jamie Oliver and his work with kids today and wanted to share with those who may not have heard about it.

Fifteen Foundation is a registered charity and social program that helps train disadvantaged youth with the skills to become a chef. Fifteen restaurant started out in London 2002. Jamie Oliver (the famous “Naked Chef”) is one of the trustees and came up with the original idea. The concept caught on and has since expanded with restaurants in Amsterdam, Melbourne and Cornwall.

• That Jamie believed in these teenagers and saw a spark that others may not have is fantastic. Besides having a big heart, Jamie Oliver is a creative genius in the kitchen. He has commented a couple times about not being very bright in various interviews but he does not give himself enough credit.

I read some of the teenage graduate’s stories; one was a former car thief/drug dealer but now excels at a fulfilling job as a junior chef at Fifteen in London. Another was an unemployed single mother and another admits to simply sitting around smoking too much pot.

Fifteen Foundation’s Mission:

“Fifteen Foundation exists to inspire disadvantaged young people – homeless, unemployed, overcoming drug or alcohol problems - to believe that they can create for themselves great careers in the restaurant industry.”

Jamie as Activist for Kids Health

Jamie has his own kids and says that it has helped him see other children not as horrible little kids but someone else’s children. He has also been very active in promoting healthy school lunches and brought attention to the fact that the kids were eating junk at school and did not have enough funding for healthy food.

You can read more about the progress made at JamieOliver.com. There’s also a forum there and lots of free yummy recipes. He also has a podcast there and sells cookbooks, DVDs and lists all his television shows. Jamie makes you smile and shows how cooking can be fun. Gotta love him.

• Here’s a video of Jamie Oliver talking with Parkinson about what inspired him to invest his money on Fifteen and disadvantaged kids in Britain.

I was up very late last night making candles for a wedding shower so dozed off today during the time I would normally be cooking.

I made some lovely scented candles and decorated some glass holders. I just used some rub on silver heart transfers I found at the craft store and was quite pleased with the results.

It was great fun but took longer than I thought it would. The wedding shower was fun and I was surprised to see so many people because there was a lot of snow out there. Cars were swerving all over the place so was grateful to make it home intact.

My eldest daughter is 19 but she’s not into cooking. The twins asked her what she was making and she told them to nuke Jamaican patties. They weren’t too impressed but ate nonetheless. One said, “You could have at least made a burger.”

I think now that I have my second wind I will cook a late simple supper for the kids. Simple because there is a huge mess that still needs tidied and no fun creating more mess on top of another mess.

My simple meal creation that they always go crazy over is macaroni and cheese with tuna and peas. I like it with lots of pepper but just dose my own later.

The recipe:

• Two boxes of prepared Kraft dinner
• One can of tuna
• Half a can of peas

After that, I shall bask in the glow of my lovely candles because of course I kept some for myself.

• If you’re interested in learning how to spend less on groceries, check out Frugal Mania’s “How to spend less on groceries” post.

I love tricking my children into eating more vegetables. I also love experimenting with recipes and taste testing things, which may be apparent by my chubby cheeks.

Anyway, here’s how to make a tasty pretty striped cake with vegetables in it. I’m not making the cake from scratch this time, so use two vanilla cake mixes. Mix those both up according to the directions. (Usually add an egg, a cup of water and/or milk etc.) Then cook a small beet or half a big one until its tender, blend it up and add some of that to one third of the two completed white cake mixes. Add enough so that you will get a pretty pink color. Do the same thing with a carrot to another third of the mix. Last but not least, measure about an eighth of a cup of peas, blend them up and add them to the last third. You can use your imagination here and use what you happen to have on hand. Green beans would work and so would spinach or zucchini.

Grease a large cake pan and carefully place one layer on top of the other, trying not to mix them together too much. Bake according to directions, which will probably be about 35 to 40 minutes or until the cake bounces back when you touch it in the middle. After it cools and you cut it, you have your triple striped vegetable cake.

I like cream cheese icing but it’s not necessary. In case you like it too, here’s the recipe:

• 1 8oz. package of cream cheese

• 1 cup of icing sugar

• 1/4 cup of butter

• 1 tsp. vanilla

Cream the cheese and butter before adding the sugar and vanilla. Yum!

I have had neighbors ask me for the recipe because kids seem to love samosas. They’re cheap, not too messy and they can eat them on the run. Sometimes I stick weird things in them depending on what I have on hand.

Generally, all you need is potatoes, onions, oil, peas and spices for the filling and the pastry is just flour, oil, baking powder and salt. They’re fine without peas too but it’s a fun way to sneak veggies in.

I roll them out until they’re about four inch circles and then cut them in half. Sometimes if I’m in a hurry and I want a big nighttime snack I’ll just make a huge one to save on rolling. Then you wet the edges of the half circles and fold them together until they’re sealed into a cone shape.

If you like spices, don’t be shy about adding more cayenne. I like it with kick too but nobody else around here does.

Pastry:

• 2 cups all purpose flour

• 5 tablespoons of vegetable oil

• 1 tsp. Salt

• water (enough to make it thick but pliable)

• ½ tsp baking powder

Knead for three or four minutes. Leave this sit covered for a few minutes before rolling out.

Filling:

• pinch of cayenne

• 1 tsp garam masala (use more or less if desired)

• 2 tsp lemon juice

• ½ tsp ginger powder

• 5 or 6 cooked and chopped large potatoes

• I small minced onion

• ¼ cup green peas

• 1 to 2 tsp. salt

• ¼ cup oil

I make a ton of filling ahead of time, keep it in the fridge and fry them for a couple days. They only take a few minutes and they turn a light brown when done. You can also freeze them after they’re cooked but they won’t be as crispy when you nuke them.