Mini "Caramel" Apples

I've been hanging onto this Family Fun Mini Caramel Apples clipping since September 2008. With two apples in the fridge, peanut butter chips in the pantry, some stray lollipop sticks in a cupboard (although I got to thinking that cotton swabs minus the cotton would work for this too), and a play date scheduled, it was the perfect time to try it.

As in other reviews I've read, I found it difficult to get the melted chips to stick to the moist apple center. And because I couldn't coat them fast enough for the kids' liking, I decided to use creamy peanut butter mixed with honey. Worked well, tasted great, and healthier than caramel.

I set out bowls of toppings (chocolate chips, sprinkles, and walnuts--guess which bowl was left untouched?) and the kids rolled their apples themselves and got back in line for 2nds, 3rds, etc. with sticks in hand.

This snack activity was another reminder of how much fun we all have with the simplest of ingredients, some creativity, and good company. Stella's friend John gave his thumbs up rating when he requested that I please send the instructions to his mom--which I'll do now...

Grover Food Face

My friend, Cathilee, sent me this "fun food" idea from Parenting magazine for my blog.

[aside: Can I just say that I love that there are still people in the world who not only clip things out of magazines, but actually put them in an envelope, add a stamp, and mail them? Even though you're high tech on Facebook now, don't ever change your caring, snail-mail ways Cathilee!]

It is a 2 page Sesame Street advertisement and shows a Grover face made out of fresh blueberries (face) & raspberries (smile), hard boiled eggs (eyes), Roma tomato (nose) and raisins (inside of mouth and eyes). Of course, the finished product is perfectly completed and there's no mistaking that it's Grover.

I think the reason I'm in this whole "pushing piles of paper" habit is that I've always torn out these ideas, had high hopes of recreating the activity or recipe to exact specifications and then never get around to purchasing every ingredient.

Yesterday I proved to myself that I'm changing my ways. As an after school snack I started to remove blueberries from the freezer and had an "Ah Hah!" moment. I grabbed the Grover pic and decided I'd match the ad to the best of my abilities using the closest ingredients I could find. So what the blueberries won't be the pretty, fresh blue? Something tells me my kids won't mind.

In addition to the frozen berries, I used: 2 raw eggs (removing them from the plate once the kids dug in) with grape halves instead of raisins, and was lucky enough to have a Roma tomato in the fridge, which I sliced in half.

I put Stella to the test and asked if she could guess whose face I created and was relieved when she squealed and answered: Grover! She and little sis then gathered around the plate and gobbled up the little purple monster.

So, my blog might not contain magazine-worthy final product shots, but they pass the giggle test, and that's all I could ask for.

"I do it!" Ice Cream (ziploc bag technique)

There are only two sweet words capable of breaking my month-long blogging hiatus: Ice Cream.

I heard about this tip a few times this summer and then read it in Parents. I clipped the "Make Ice Cream" blurb (dated Sept 09) and sat down at my computer today in anticipation of hosting a play date for my daughter and her classmate. Much to my disappointment, I entered the URL and received an "Oops!" message from Parents.com. Fortunately, it was an easy one to track down via Google.

Ice Cream in a Bag instructions.

Knowing that I had rock salt tucked away in the pantry, my goal was to avoid a trip to the grocery store to accomplish this after school surprise. Sure, half and half would've been even tasty but my toddler's whole milk worked great too. It resulted in a refreshing ice milk texture.

The best part about this activity was that each of the three kids had their own serving to shake, toss and enjoy. In the favorite words of my youngest: "I do it!" seems like an appropriate name for this fun and delicious tip.

One word of advice, we were too anxious to sample the ice cream and didn't rinse the outside of the inner bag, so every few bites were a bit salty. Next time, I'll rinse the bags before digging in.

Makes me feel kind of silly that I have an ice cream maker in the garage as well as a camping ice cream ball and all it really takes is a couple of ziploc bags!

Kids' Garden Salad as seen in Parents (07/08)

I've found that my 5 year old daughter enjoys food even more when she's had a hand in preparing it. So, rather than replicate the flower as impeccably pictured in Parents, I prepared the ingredients (she picked her own basil stem from her garden) and she created her own version of a garden salad flower "Look! Mine has nectar!" she declared as she added a yellow tomato on top of the cheese center. My 17 month old also got in on the fun.

Parents instructions:

1) Slice tiny yellow tomatoes in half lengthwise and arrange them, cut side down, in the shape of a petal.
2) Put whole red grape tomatoes on top and fill center with mini mozzarella balls (we used mini babybel instead).
3) Break off a piece of a basil plant to resemble a stem and, voila, you've grown a healthy snack.