Archive for recipes
Bean Sprouts and Bean Appetit Cookbook
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Have you been trying to get out kids to eat healthier? Last month was National Nutrition Month and to keep with that theme, I’ve been trying to find ways to get our kids to eat more fruits and veggies. While researching recipes I found Bean Sprout Cafe, an innovative cafe that gives families the opportunity to get away for 30 minutes. They offer healthy, yummy food including organic baby food. They can hold birthday and tea parties for your little ones special day. There are classes and a month full of events. It sounds like the perfect place to introduce your children to new foods. The only problem: Its in Wisconsin. I’m thinking we’re not going to be visiting for awhile.
The good news: They have created a fun cookbook filled with recipes and activities to make your child want to eat their beans. Bean Appetit has captured accolades nationwide including being on Martha Steward Radio. I was excited to see how well the recipes would work. We made the High Note Nibbles. The kids were a little put off at first by the rye bread but I asked them to just try it. Charlie wound up loving it so much that he ate the whole “piano” and asked for more. There are so many other recipes we want to try. I love the ones that give your recipes for staples like pancakes. We’re trying the Stick Stacks. Homemade pancakes, strawberries, kiwi and blueberries. Sweet but nutrious.
You can try some of the recipes by checking out Bean-go. Make sure if you test a recipe that you let me know because I want to know how your little ones liked it as well as letting Bean Sprouts know by filling out their survey.
Keep an eye out for Bean Sprouts on your favorite morning TV shows.
BUY IT: Make sure you purchase your copy of Bean Appetit: Hip and Healthy Ways to Have Fun with Food
I was sent a sample of this product to review. All opinions are my own and are not swayed b the company.
National Nutrition Month and SuperKids Nutrition
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It’s National Nutrition Month and what better way to celebrate than to get the family interested in healthier eating habits. By the time a child is 6 s/he has more than likely already developed their eating habits for life. (I’m hoping this is true in the broccoli stage in our house.) To make this easy I found an awesome site called SuperKids Nutrition. You can mold and shape your child’s eating habits now by getting tips and advice.
Melissa Halas-Liang, a mom and registered dietitian created SuperKids Nutrition to give tips and ideas for healthy eating/lifestyles. The website offers information that is simple to read and understand, activities (including coloring book pages), children’s books and more.
One of my big fears while pregnant was not taking the best care for my little one that was growing. I carefully watched what I ate, didn’t smoke or drink alcohol. But with both kids (especially Rachael) the one thing I HAD to have was Diet Dr. Pepper. But how much caffeine is really safe? According to the March of Dimes, the answer is 200 mg a day. SuperKids Nutrition had tons of information including where caffeine is found, what caffeine does to the body and best of all tips to limit caffeine intake. These tips are beyond the just don’t drink it, like switching white chocolate for your dark/milk chocolate.
I’m super lucky that for the most part our kids will eat healthy foods. Rach has been going through a snack food phase. She wants to eat cookies and cakes but the next minute she’ll be chowing down on the chicken I made for dinner. Charlie’s favorite food is broccoli. He would eat it at every meal if I would let him. So I’m hoping that it sticks with him.
So what information would you be looking at on SuperKids Nutrition?
I am partnering with SuperKids Nutrition Inc for this post. All opinions are my own.
Splenda Granulated Sweetner
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Because of my PCOS I have to be careful with my sugar intake. I’m definitely not as good as it as I should be but I try. I can’t remember the last time I had a glass of tea with sugar in it. I’ve been using Splenda for the past 5/6 years. While pregnant with Charlie, I was informed by the OB that Splenda was the only sweetner he wanted me to use. Then we had Rachael. While pregnant with her I had gestational diabetes, and the maternal-fetal medicine specialist I saw again told me the only sweetner she wanted me to use was Splenda. My one problem was baking with it seemed to cause some issues. Obviously Splenda has changed the formula some since that first baking experience 5 years ago because now it’s a dream to use. My parents both have Type II diabetes and I’m always looking for a sugar-free dessert that tastes great.
Splenda just launched a new portion to their website The Splenda Tastebook, a hard cover spiral cookbook that you can add recipes too. When you purchase the Splenda Tastebook, it will arrive with 40 recipes but you can purchase other recipes in packs or by single cards. I was lucky enough to receive a Splenda Tastebook to try out.
This weekend was the perfect weekend for it. We had the opportunity to celebrate my mom’s birthday with the whole family. I chose to make two desserts as my dad had already planned out the main meal. I went with the Cinnamon Swirl Coffecake and the Gale Gand’s Apple and Pear Crisp. I made the coffeecake before we headed over. Charlie was able to help pour the dry ingredients in so it was a joint effort. My mom couldn’t wait to try the coffeecake and had a slice before dinner was even started. I was surprised at how moist it was. The coffeecake was super easy to make even with the fact that it was a cake made from scratch.
While my dad was prepping his steaks, I started on the Apple and Pear Crisp. We ate outside and the smell wafting from the kitchen was out of this world. As pears are my dad’s favorite I knew it would be a big hit with him. Little did I know how well it would go over with everyone else. I made a double batch and when we left there was a small cereal bowl of the Crisp left for my dad. The only issue we had with making the Crisp was somewhere, somehow my mom’s peeler went missing over the past week and at first I couldn’t find a paring knife.
Gale Gand's Apple and Pear Crisp
BUY IT: You can purchase your Splenda Tastebook for $17.95. If you act quickly the recipe packs are currently on sale for $2.50 and the individual recipes are on sale for $0.50.
I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour campaign by Mom Central on behalf of Splenda and received products necessary to facilitate my candid review. In addition, a donation was made in my name to the Meals on Wheel organization to thank me for taking the time to participate
How to Make Silly Putty
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As a kid didn’t you love to play with silly putty? It feels all slimy. Watching it pick up images from the paper. We always wound up with the gray nondescript silly putty. It was always such a let down. A vibrant red or cheerful yellow egg and inside was drab gray.
Our kids are lucky enough that we make our own silly putty. Add a few drops of food coloring to make a luscious purple or vivid blue.
Materials
Liquid starch
2 oz. white liquid glue
Food coloring (opt.)
How to Make Homemade Playdough
Posted by: | CommentsThe kids love to play with playdough. They mix colors and when we have friends over we never seem to have enough. Its fun to make different shapes. Our favorite this week has been snails. We learn shapes, colors and numbers
The problem is that it tends to dry out. So we’ve started making our own. The all natural ingredients means its safe for Rachael to play too. No worries about what she’s eating. Its also a great way to learn about colors and how to make different colors by mixing colors.
Materials
- Bowl
- 1 cup cold water
- 1 cup salt
- 2 teaspoons vegetable oil
- Food coloring
- 3 cups flour
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch
Directions
- In bowl, mix water, salt, oil, and enough food coloring to make a bright color.
- Gradually add flour and cornstarch until the mixture reaches the consistency of bread dough.
- Store covered.
Betty Crocker Tidbits
Posted by: | CommentsThis has some interesting tidbits about Betty Crocker:
Virtual Great American Bake Sale
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My wonderful blogging friend Kate has paired up with Share Our Strength to host a Virtual Great American Bake Sale. Kate was gracious enough to ask several of us to offer up a recipe or two to be included in an E-Book style recipe book. Here’s the information Kate passed on to us:
Welcome to the Virtual Great American Bake Sale. 100% of the proceeds from the sale of these ebooks will go toward Share Our Strength’s Great American Bake Sale program. Funds raised through Great American Bake Sale are donated to after-school and summer feeding programs–food programs that many kids depend on when school is not in session. Great American Bake Sale is a program of Share Our Strength, a national organization working to make sure no kid in America grows up hungry.
The ebooks are a compilation of recipes from submitters across the blogosphere and beyond. The ebooks are available for purchase based on any donation amount of the buyer’s choosing.
The Complete 2009 VGABS Recipes Ebook
Features all 170 of the submitted recipes. Many of the recipes include pictures. On the checkout page, manually change the amount (USD) field to your donation amount. 
Shopping cart courtesy of E-Junkie. Because we know file size may be an issue for some, the below ebooks have split the 170 recipes into 4 categorized ebooks so that you can choose just 1 or 2 of your favorites, if you’d prefer. Just like for the Complete ebook, many of these recipes include pictures. And again, they are available for purchase based on any donation amount of the buyer’s choosing.
Muffins & Breads
Features 24 recipes. On the checkout page, manually change the amount (USD) field to your donation amount.
Cookies, Candy, Cakes, Bars & Brownies
Features 50 recipes. On the checkout page, manually change the amount (USD) field to your donation amount.
Desserts
Features 49 recipes. On the checkout page, manually change the amount (USD) field to your donation amount.
Beyond Baked Goods (Appetizers, Breakfast, Main Dishes, etc.)
Features 47 recipes. On the checkout page, manually change the amount (USD) field to your donation amount.
I chose to offer up two recipes: Fruit Dip and Taco Roll-up. To entice you to buy the book, we made both dishes for dinner/dessert tonight. Like always I had a fabulous little helper, who of course is not 
complete without the proper attire. Today (as is most days since we’re potty training) he was wearing a shirt, a pull-up and socks. We gathered all the materials for the fruit dip first and away we went.
Marshmellow Fluff, cream cheese and fruit makes for a very happy Mommy. Charlie wasn’t so keen on this idea. It’s sweet and 
that explains 
everything. He just isn’t into sweets. Now if I had let Rach get ahold of it there would have been none left.
Next up was Taco Roll-Up:
Only problem this time was that Helper boy was to busy watching Little Einsteins and and doing a puzzle to bother with me.
At least until it was
time to actually eat. Then there was no stopping him. When dinner was done I think there was a grand total of one slice of this left, which is actually good since usually there is NOTHING left.
So Click on over to visit Kate and order up some of the tasty recipes to add to your collection and help fight hunger in your own neck of the woods.
