Tea Biscuit Pizzas

Last Friday was an insane day, we spent half the morning at a library program and the afternoon was crazy with a colicky baby and a cranky toddler. Dinner had to be quick and easy, and since nothing had been thawed, with stuff from the refrigerator. I was craving pizza but didn't have dough, and the last time I made it was a flop. I jumped on Pintrest to see my options, and found several recipes using store bough biscuits. Going to the store was not an option, so I made my own using my Mom's recipe, found Here.

I keep a bag of cooked hamburger in the freezer for pizzas and pulled out some leftover pepperoni, it thawed in the time it took to make the biscuits. The biscuit recipe, using a larger cutter than I usually do, made 17 mini pizzas.

Miss Salean ate one with me, and another later when Daddy came home. I ate four! And Mr Man ate 4 as well. The remaining I wrapped and threw back into the freezer for quick lunches later.

So long as they reheat for lunches well, I will be making these again to keep in stock. Cheaper than buying them in the deli at the grocery store and easier to restock!

Have a good day, everyone!

~Natasha,

Tot School: B is for Balls and the Colour Blue

Our second unit of tot school went over quite well. Miss Salean really enjoyed the activities we did, and loves to see her artwork hanging in her play area. Once again, all printables are courtesy 1+1+1=1, Thank you! 

Each morning, we put a sticker on our calendar page. It took a few days to get used to only having one sticker a day, but after a couple weeks she is looking forward to it and pointing to her calendar each morning. I have to show her where to put the sticker every time, and once she gets it on there, I count the numbers that have been done already. 

We started our adventure into B with a colouring page of a ball, with a blue crayon. I am trying to get her to make the letter sound and say the word. We were successful with Apple last unit, but not the A sound. This time it was opposite, she easily made the B sound but would not say Ball.

As I mentioned before, I wanted to start doing a baking session weekly. The first week, we made muffins. Week two was a little more busy, so we didn't have a chance to get into the kitchen.

Another activity we tried was a sequence puzzle. She really didn't get it, even after several explanations. She played with the squares for a few minutes and then I substituted with another colouring page. We will go back to the puzzles later.

Again, when I gave her the colouring page with a blue crayon, I got her to make the B sound and attempted to get her to say Ball and Blue.

Another colouring page, this time I gave her a visual along with the page, This came out of a basket of a couple dozen different balls that I had put out this week. Usually, with the toy rotation I put out about six, this time I put out all of them in a big basket.

Another day, we played with blue play dough. She loved it, and it distracted her for about 45 minutes. After a while she started tossing it around the room, so it went away.

At the end of the week, I tacked on a mini Valentine's unit. Friday, we went to a library program, they did a puppet show and story time then passed out Valentine's cards and chocolates. I continued the fun Saturday with breakfast, pancakes with homemade apple jelly and a sliced apple cut like a heart. Lunch was a grilled cheese made with bread that I cut with a giant heart shaped cookie cutter, 

We had some store bought Valentine's that she grabbed off the shelf one day while we perused the dollar store. She doesn't ask for much, so I got them. I labeled them for everyone and let her colour the backs with pink and reds.

I packaged them up with some homemade sugar cookies, I made them using This Recipe that I found a few years ago.

Books we used this week: My Many Colored Days by Dr Seuss How do Dinosaurs Learn Their Colours? by Jane Yolen Little Critters ABCs by Mercer Mayer Treasure Hunt: Counting Colours by Priddy Books.
So that is it for our B unit! Next week we are into the letter C for Cat. I haven't picked a colour to go with it yet, since there are none that I can think of that start with the letter C.  Have a good week, everyone!! 
~Natasha. 

We are linked up to:

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.