Color Matching Game for Kids
I saw an idea for a color matching game on Pinterest (searching through many many unattributed pins on that site led me to find this post which seems original although not the one I saw). I made a set for each child and brought them along on our trip overseas to have as a surprise activity.
It was very easy to make – I got some paint samples from my friendly local hardware store and a handful of wooden clothespins from Dollar Tree. I cut each paint sample in half and used one half as the base of the match and cut circles from the other half. I happen to have a 3/4″ circle punch which made this easy; without the punch I would have just cut rectangles the same width as the clothespins. Then I glued the circles to the end of the clothespins and they were ready to go.
I made this set for my 3-year-old. For my 5-year-old I used paint chips that had more colors so she would have to work harder to match the gradients. Both kids enjoyed this activity and it was light enough to take on the airplane, and they’ve played with them occasionally afterwards.
Felt Boards for Kids
Over the next few days I’m going to post some of the projects I did during my ‘hiatus’ from the site.
Way back in August I started on a project to make felt boards for the kids, mainly for our trip to Germany to use on the airplane and during a long car trip. I started by painting white felt with watercolors and then mounting it onto cardboard after it dried. I made two scenes – day and night.
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| A daytime landscape |
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| A nighttime landscape |
Next I put together some stories and songs to use on the boards. I put together the images on my computer, then printed them out and used iron-on transfers to add them to white felt, and then cut them out.
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| Here are the felt cutouts for Five Speckled Frogs – I used clip-art for these. |
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| Here is the set for Five Little Pumpkins (Sittin’ on a Gate). I drew these freehand and then scanned them in and colored them on the computer. |
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| Here’s Mr. Bones for the song “Dem Bones”. |
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| Here’s the set for the story of Stone Soup. |
We also had a felt board set from “The Hungry Caterpillar” that we brought along. The kids liked them alright – they still play with them some and it did use up some airplane time.
Tooth Fairy Pouch
My little girl lost her first tooth last night, and I sewed up a little pouch that she could put her tooth in and stick under her pillow. I didn’t want the teeny tiny tooth to get lost under the pillow, and risk the tooth fairy waking her up during the tooth/loot exchange.
The tooth fairy left her $2 – its probably lower than some of her peers have gotten but she was excited about it so I’m glad the fairy didn’t second-guess herself and leave more than that.
I made the pouch out of felt. It was quite simple, just a rectangle folded over and stitched with crochet thread, with a button my daughter picked to keep it closed. I also personalized it with her name embroidered on the flap. Its kind of rustic, since she pulled her tooth out at about 5:45pm and I had to leave the house to go to a meeting at 6:45pm, and cook dinner at the same time.
I’ve linked up to this great link party – check it out! Fireflies and Jellybeans,
Pasta with Kielbasa and Peppers
In the same spirit of frugal dinners and using up things in the pantry before grocery shopping, dinner last night was pasta with smoked kielbasa, green peppers, zucchini and tomatoes. It was super yummy and easy – I just sauteed some smoked kielbasa (from our great local butcher D&D Meats) then added diced green peppers, zucchini and tomatoes. Meanwhile I boiled some assorted dried pastas, then added the cooked pasta to the sauce along with a bit of the pasta water. I mixed it all up, plated it, topped with some fresh grated Parmesan and that was that.
Two thumbs up from hubby and kids, so I’ll have to file this easy recipe away for future use!
Savory Spinach and Feta Strata
One of my New Year’s resolutions this year is to get our grocery budget under control. We spend much more than we should on groceries, so I’m using a four part plan to try and keep the cost down this year: 1) use a cash envelope with our monthly grocery budget to avoid overspending (this is for the initial months – I don’t think its sustainable for the long haul); 2) make more things from scratch; 3) try to avoid so much food waste; and 4) eat less meat – use it more as a garnish than as a main component of the meal.
Since part of the plan involves eliminating food waste, and part of it involves cooking from scratch, this savory strata fits right in. My neighbors are part of a gleaning cooperative and almost every weekend they drop by extra food for us from the surplus that didn’t get divided up among the members. This past weekend the bounty included a loaf of rustic rosemary bread from Trader Joe’s, and since its gone a bit stale I brainstormed what to do with it and came up with a strata (which also uses up some of the extra eggs I ended up with due to a scheduling mix-up with our dairy delivery service). Just the usual disclaimer that this recipe was only tested once, tonight, so although it was delicious I can’t guarantee your results!
Savory Spinach and Feta Strata
1 loaf of rustic bread, cut into 1″ cubes
1 tsp olive oil
1 medium yellow onion, diced
1 cup cooked ham, diced
12 oz frozen chopped spinach, thawed and with water squeezed out
1 cup feta cheese, crumbled
3 cups milk
10 eggs
2 tsp salt
Pepper to taste
Sauté the onion and ham in olive oil in a pan over medium heat until the onion softens and just begins to brown. Add the spinach to the pan and cook for a few minutes more. Meanwhile, combine the milk, eggs, salt and pepper in a bowl and beat with a fork to combine.
Grease the bottom and sides of a 9 x 13″ pan and add the bread cubes. Next add the onion/ham/spinach mixture on top of the bread evenly, followed by the crumbled feta cheese. Pour the milk/egg mixture over everything in the pan and the refrigerate the strata for at least two hours.
When you’re ready to eat, heat the oven to 350 degrees and cook the strata for 45 minutes.
This made a huge amount, a party-sized amount of food. The next time I get a loaf of bread to use for a strata I’ll divide it into two pans and save one for later, since we’ve even got a ton of leftovers. And just as a note, the kids wouldn’t touch it, and they’re pretty good about trying new things.
Happy New Year!
As I like to do on most New Year’s Days, I’ve made black eyed peas and collard greens for dinner. Folklore says that eating black eyed peas on New Year’s Day brings good luck in the coming year, and eating collard greens brings money – hopefully that’s true on both counts!
I put the beans in water to soak last night so they were ready to go this afternoon. I’m sure there are a million recipes for beans and greens on New Year’s, but I just made it up as I went along this year. Beans are pretty easy to make, especially with a pre-soaking overnight.
I took some smoked ham hocks and browned them/rendered some of the fat in a dutch oven, then I took them out and sauted some diced red onion in the rendered fat.
After the onion softened and started to brown I added the (drained, rinsed) beans and the hocks back into the pot and covered the whole mess with water. I simmered the beans for a few hours, skimming the scum from the top of the pot occasionally, then added the collards (cut into chunks) and let those cook down for a bit.
At the same time I pulled the hocks out and cut the meat off the bones, returning the meat to the pot. Finally I finished the whole dish off with a cup of rice and let it cook for a half hour more, seasoning it with salt, pepper and a few dashes of Worcestershire sauce.
Yum! It was great and the kiddos ate it, so success!
Coloring Night
We had a color-in this evening after we got back from camp. We needed a mellow evening.
Lunch Bags for Tomorrow
We’re off on a big school adventure tomorrow – overnight camp with all the grades, plus younger siblings.
Vivi and I decorated the brown paper bags for lunch.
Everyone Here Is Getting Excited
I helped the kiddo make a countdown calendar to mark off the days until our trip. It’s installed in our bedroom (so one little frequent visitor doesn’t mess with it) and the first day is marked off!
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