Spaghetti Squash Pizza Casserole

Last weekend, I went to a local-ish Winter Market and bought some new veggies. Well, new to the family, not new to me. The first was spaghetti squash, it's been a couple of years since I have had it, but it is delicious! To help the fussies ease into something new, I decided to attempt cooking it into something somewhat recognizable.  I found THIS recipe on my go-to recipe search engine: Pintrest. 

I didn't have any onions, so I used green peppers; and instead of sausage I used some leftover hamburger from the night before. I have to tell you, it looked really nasty stirring it up, bit it cooked nicely.

I gave Miss a small portion, with a small salad and half a bread stick that I also got at the Market. I only give her a half portion of bread because she loves it so much that she will fill up on it.

The verdict? I liked it, Miss tasted it and made her blah noise, it was returned to me. Mr Picky wouldn't touch it. So, that means remaking is not an option. I guess the next time I get a spaghetti squash, I will find another recipe.

Have a good weekend, everyone!

~Natasha.

Carrot and Apple Oat Muffins

As I said last week, I am going to try to start baking once a week with Miss Salean. I decided muffins are an easy place to start. We almost didn't get them done because baby sister decided not to take a nap today, but we put her in the bouncy seat beside us and went at it. I had some extra carrots, so I decided a carrot muffin would be a good idea. I found THIS recipe on Pintrest, of course.

 I premeasured all the ingredients while she was eating lunch. Eggs, apple, oil, milk, spices, brown sugar, flour and oatmeal. All lined up and ready to go.

The last time we baked, Miss just wanted to watch, this time she was very interested in dumping the ingredients into the mixer. In goes the oatmeal!

The dry ingredients, apple and carrot are in the mixer, giving the wet ingredients a stir (after some help breaking up the egg yolks and blending a bit).

The batter complete. It was thick and very easily scooped out without drips, something I love in a batter.

Lining the muffin cups, she took this job very seriously. We counted the liners as we put them in.

After we scooped them and I rechecked the baking time, I closed the laptop and saw this behind it...oops. So, these are sugar free muffins!

A little blurry, but we got exactly a dozen muffins. We had a bit of a temper tantrum because we had to wait for them to cool before eating.

But finally, the best part! She picked apart this one and one more later in the day. She liked them but I don't think she loved them. I really like them but can taste the oil, so maybe with the sugar added they would be better.

Our first real baking adventure was a success, we both really enjoyed the kitchen time. Hopefully little sister does not have any more napless days and we will be able to bake often! We have to do something to pass the time, we have been housebound because we keep getting massive blizzards!

Have a good week, everyone!

~Natasha.

A Return to Tot School: Red Apples

We finally are able to make a return to Tot School, at about 25 months, Little Miss is still not talking but understands everything and stays out of nothing! We have plenty of space in our new home to work on focused activities, and she loves doing everything we have tried. I decided we are going to try doing small unit studies every two weeks or so. I am not expecting her to master anything, just dabble in it and introduce it, and hopefully get her talking more. 

I started with a calendar, since it was mid-month I let her fill in the dots up to the date. She enjoyed it and went a little dabber crazy, so I decided to start over at the beginning of the new month with stickers. Expecting her to make only one dab a day on a calendar is to much right now. 

All of our printed material are courtesy the blog 1+1+1=1, I am very grateful to have found this resource and plan to use it as much as I can! Here is January's calendar page that she did on the 19th.

This week's theme was apples and the colour red. Each day we read through a book or two and then did an activity. We had an apple snack one day, another day I gave her the below colouring sheet. She is using a green crayon because the red was packed away in the diaper bag to keep her entertained the next day at the Doctor's office.

I dug out a new puzzle this past week, to, it is a number one, with 1-10 on it and she loved it! She has been hauling it out almost hourly to play with both Mommy and Daddy. 

Another worksheet I used was the apple lines. I held her hand and showed her how to follow the line on the top apples, and let her have at it. She almost got it, and had a lot of fun!

Books we used this unit, both from our collection and the library.

Apples and Pumpkins by Anne Rockwell
Apples Away! by Megan Bryant
Little Critter: Numbers by Mercer Mayer
Treasure Hunt: Counting Colours by Priddy Books

Other things we have been doing during our tot school time (when Baby Sister takes her long nap in the afternoon) are singing, dancing, sticker sticking and reading lots of books. As well, because we have been having so many bitter cold days and unable to get out, we have been playing chase the ball down the hall; an easy activity when I am stuck in one spot feeding the baby. I hope to start incorporating a baking session into each week as well.

So this is our first two weeks back at Tot School, we didn't do much, but it is a start! Hopefully our next unit (Blue / Balls) will go better.

Have a good week, everyone!

~Natasha.

We are linked up to: 

Homemade Whole Wheat Cheese Crackers.

My child loves crackers. She would live on them if we allowed her to. Any why not? They are perfect toddler sized, you can put anything on them and usually quite delicious! But, everything in moderation, and I am hoping to get her into a little healthier habits. This recipe came up on my Facebook feed by a group that shares healthy recipes for kids, their link led HERE.

I added way to much butter (and used Becel) so my dough was very wet. I ended up adding more flour, including some all purpose when I ran out of whole wheat. 

 Eventually it rolled and I used a mini shortbread cutter to make two trays of decent sized crackers.



They turned out quite nice, but I could really taste the Becel, so I wasn't crazy about them. I also found them quite dry, but that is most likely from adding the extra flour.

Little Miss seemed to like them the first day when they were warm, but after the first serving she rejected them or just enjoyed crushing them into powder, an easy task since they were so dry. 

All in all, I'd say it might be a recipe I would try again, but I would have to take care with measuring the butter (and not just eyeball it). They were definitely better warm, so they would have to be made bigger or for a party, to get eaten up. Maybe we are just not cut out for homemade crackers.

Hope everyone is having a great week! We are getting a crazy amount of snow here!!

~Natasha,

Toy Rotation

Since we moved here last September, I have done toy rotation. We have so many toys, it is insane! I had a dozen mesh boxes that I had all the toys divided up into, and every Sunday night I pulled four new ones out, along with some new stuffed animals, books and puzzles. The remaining stuff, I stored in the nursery. Of course, with Salean's birthday right on the heels of Christmas, we got another influx of toys. Every night, the house was a mess and even though the toys were divided, Salean was still overwhelmed and had to much to play with. So, the day before her birthday, I decided I had to do something about it. I started by dumping everything in a pile in center of the floor. 

When I had the toys divided in the bins, I tried to have them evenly distributed. Each one had an equal amount of cars, animals, balls etc. into each bin. This time, instead of dividing equally, I divided toys by type. I have a bin of balls, one of cars, bath toys, Little People, toy food & dishes, building toys, toys from meals out, and a diaper box overflowing with stuffed animals. There are a few other ones not pictured here, and I also put all the random toys that didn't seem to go with anything else into one bin.

I got these small baskets at the dollar store, and I put out 12 at a time. I meant to switch them every Monday-Wednesday-Friday, but it has turned into about once a week. She has a basket of food & dishes and one of instruments that stay out all the time. Rotating, I have one for puzzles (2 at a time), Little People (or Weebles), 2 play sets (in this case her purse and the Fridge Phonics set), cars, meal toys, random toys, a building set (legos etc, not pictured) and balls. I also have out a basket of stuffed animals and a stacker toy along with about a dozen books, plus up to 3 library books, on her shelf.

And here is my work, with her birthday gifts from us. The microwave is where it is sitting and the three smaller appliances are on the shelves of her kitchen. The food and dishes are stored in the oven of the kitchen, all the others on the shelf. The boots are an old pair of Daddy's that she loves to play with. Of course, it has not looked this neat and tidy since about 10 minutes after she got up the next morning.

So for now I have tamed the toy masses. With the smaller baskets, she is getting really good at putting one away before taking another out, so it isn't as chaotic as it once was. Since they are still in the nursery, I have been swapping toys in the morning and Salean loves to help. She brings the baskets down the hall to me to empty and fill with new toys before taking them back to their spot on the shelf.

This formula works for now, and come November before both girl's birthday and Christmas,  I will be able to go start going through them all and getting rid of stuff they have outgrown or no longer play with. I haven't done this yet because the Newbie can still grow into Little Miss's toys.

Have a good week, everyone!

~Natasha.

Homemade Chocolate Cupcakes

It has taken me almost two and a half years to get to 100 posts, so this one is a special one! Little Miss Salean has turned 2 years old, and what a birthday!

She woke up at 3:30 AM on the 30th of December puking, poor kid! She was sick a few more times over the next few hours, but after that alright, although tired. That night, it happened again! And Mr Man and I spent that night sitting up with her while she played and slept for a few hours on his chair. Every time the newbie woke up for a feeding, we switched. Little Miss spent her birthday dozing on Daddy's chair, so we cancelled her birthday parties. We planned on having cake at his parents on her birthday, and at mine the next day; now the plan was to push cake off to Saturday at his parents, and whenever we could get out to mine. Saturday rolled around and we found out the rest of the family was sick! So, the party was pushed off once again. Finally on Sunday, January 4th, we had cake! I made cupcakes using THIS recipe that I got from a random internet search.

I decorated them with store bought icing and a few mini M&Ms that I had bought with a plan to make cookies.

I will definitely be using this recipe again, the batter was so thick and creamy; very fluffy so it scooped into the cups without much mess.

The cupcakes themselves were a little dry, but that could be fixed with a few minutes less in the oven. Otherwise, they were delicious, very chocolately.

And since I only needed a dozen, I had some extra batter to try out a new machine I got for Christmas, cake balls!

And a few pictures of the Birthday Girl, on her party night and on her actual birthday, poor kid.

Here's to the next 2 years, and the next 100 posts! Happy New Year from Savana and Salean, who is not getting to close to the newbie if she can help it :-) 

~Natasha,

Baked Sweet Potato Tots

Poor little Miss spent her 2nd birthday sick, and unfortunately had a visit to the hospital. The visit proved knowledgeable for us, though, and the Doctor asked us to try her on a 'no white' diet. This means no white bread, crackers, bananas, white rice, refined sugars, etc. A hard task for a little one who will only eat crackers, toast and some fruit. Looking for new recipes, I tried a Pintrest search for 'Real Food for Toddlers' and came up with THIS, homemade tater tots. Tater Tots are something Salean will eat sometimes, but my fussy eater is not crazy about them all the time.

While we were out getting groceries this morning, I picked up the ingredients. Both were on sale, yay! I broke in the steamer from my new pot set to make this, and I was quite surprised at how fast the sweet potatoes steamed compared to boiling time!

I used some mozza-cheddar blend in the tots as per comments below the post. I also ran out of Parmesan after rolling one pan, so the rest I just left plain. The coated ones I froze and the plain I baked off for her dinner, since she refused the pizza we were having.

Unfortunately, my toddler took one bite, made a finny gagging noise and spit it out. To her credit, she tried it a second time but with the same results. I liked them, though. I have plenty, so I will bake some more up and try them on her again, you never know she could be just having an off day!

So we now officially have a two year old and the terrible twos have begun! Her favorite word is No! and she refuses to nap, she has been taking them in Daddy's chair. I think maybe she senses that he will be going away again. He finally found a job that starts early next week, and Little Miss has become quite attached to Daddy in the last few months. But, we will stay busy, she starts speech this Thursday and I am hoping to start up Tot School again while the Newbie naps.

Have a good weekend!!

~Natasha.