Stuffed Zucchini Boats

I found a version of these in a Taste of Home magazine. I changed it to fit the ingredients I had in my pantry. They turned out really well. We all liked the filling so much, I am going to use it to stuff mushrooms as well. 

Ingredients:

2-3 large zucchini, cut lengthwise 

6-8 grape tomatoes, diced

3/4 pound ground sausage (I used the Bob Evans Sage)

1 cup panko bread crumbs

1/3 cup Parmesan cheese

1 tsp oregano

1 tsp basil

1/2 cup mozzarella cheese

I started by scooping the insides out of the zucchini. Place the hallowed out zucchini in a microwavable bowl and cover it with paper towel. Microwave one zucchini (2 halves) at a time for 2 minutes. 

Meanwhile, cook the sausage until it is no longer pink. Add the zucchini pulp. Let that cook for about 3 minutes. Stir in the tomatoes, bread crumbs, Parmesan cheese, oregano, and basil. Spoon the mixture into the zucchini shells. 

Place the zucchini in an ungreased 9x13-in. pan. Bake at 350 degrees, covered, for 20 minutes. Sprinkle with the mozzarella cheese and bake uncovered for about 5 minutes, or until the cheese is melted. 

Stuffed Shells

This recipe is very easy and goes together quickly after a busy day. 

Ingredients:

1 lb. hamburger

1 small onion, diced

1 jar spaghetti sauce

1 egg, lightly beaten

1 cup ricotta cheese

1 cup mozzarella cheese

1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

14-18 jumbo shells

Start by boiling your water for the shells. Cook them until they are al dente. Drain and set aside. 

Meanwhile, cook your hamburger with the onion until it is browned. Drain the grease and add the spaghetti sauce.  

Lightly beat an egg in a bowl. Add 1 cup of ricotta cheese, 1/2 cup of the mozzarella cheese, and 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese. 

Stuff the shells and place them in a greased baking pan. 

Cover the shells with the meat sauce. (I left some of sauce out because I wasn't sure the kids would like the texture of the ricotta. So, I boiled some spaghetti noodles and they had meat sauce and spaghetti noodles while my husband and I had the shells.) 

Cover the pan with tinfoil and bake the shells at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. 

After 30 minutes, uncover the baking pan and add 1/2 cup of mozzarella cheese over the shells. Continue cooking for about 5 minutes uncovered, or until the cheese is melted. 

Marshmallow and Potato Painting

For some different painting styles, we went to the pantry. Two of the kids used mini marshmallows as their brush, and one of the kids used a cut up potato. 

Here is the potato painting, using half of a potato...

I also cut some little pieces of potato for him to use to paint on the eyes, nose, and buttons. He used a mini marshmallow to paint snow. 

The other two kids blotted snowmen with mini marshmallows. 

Chicken Marsala

This Chicken Marsala recipe is easy and tastes a lot like the Chicken Marsala at Olive Garden. 

Ingredients:

1/2 cup flour

1/2 tsp salt 

pepper

1 tsp oregano

4 chicken breasts

4 Tbsp Olive oil

1 cup Marsala wine

2 cups sliced fresh mushrooms

Place the flour, salt, pepper, and oregano in a bowl. (I only had frozen chicken breasts. Thawed chicken would take less time, but the frozen worked fine if that is all you have.) I ran the chicken breasts under water and then dredged them in the flour mixture. 

I placed the oil in a skillet and let it heat up. Cook the chicken for 3-5 minutes on both sides. I then added the wine and covered the skillet. I let it simmer for about 10 minutes. 

Then I added the mushrooms, flipped the chicken over, and covered the skillet again. Let it simmer for about 10-15 minutes, or until the chicken is fully cooked. 

I served this with oven baked potatoes (http://workingmomwonders.blogspot.com/2014/01/oven-baked-potatoes.html) and steamed asparagus.  My husband ate his over brown rice. 

Oven Baked Potatoes

These are the kids' favorite type of potatoes. 

Start by preheating the oven to 425 degrees. Place about 2 Tablespoons of olive oil in the bottom of a 9x13 inch pan. Peel about 6-7 medium potatoes and dice them into bite-size pieces. 

Put about 1/2 cup of Bakin' Miracle into a gallon-size ziploc bag. Add the diced potatoes to the bag. Shake until the potatoes are coated. 

Put the potatoes in a single-layer in the pan. 

Bake for about 20 minutes, or until potatoes are tender. 

The kids like to dip the potatoes in ketchup. 

Creamy Garlic Shells

I saw this recipe on Pinterest last night (http://iowagirleats.com/2013/03/06/creamy-garlic-shells/) and had to try it. 

It was delicious and very easy! 

Ingredients:

8 oz mini shells pasta

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 Tbsp butter

3 cloves garlic

2 Tbsp flour

3/4 cup chicken broth

3/4 cup milk

salt and pepper

1/4 tsp garlic powder

1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

2 tsp parsley

Cook mini shells until tender. Drain and set aside. In a medium pot, melt the butter with the olive oil on medium heat. Add the garlic. Cook the garlic (being careful not to burn) for about 30 seconds. Whisk in the flour. Let it cook for a minute. 

While continuing to whisk, slowly add the chicken broth and milk. Keep whisking until the mixture is smooth. Add salt and pepper. (I did about 1 tsp of salt and 1/4 tsp pepper.)

Switch over to a wooden spoon. Continue stirring constantly for about 4-5 minutes, or until thickened. I turned up the heat a little bit. 

When the sauce is thickened, remove from heat and add the Parmesan cheese, garlic powder, and parsley. When the cheese melts, add the cooked pasta. Stir and serve. 

Borax Snowflakes

I found this recipe on Pinterest, and since we had already been told there would be a snow day today, last night seemed like the perfect opportunity to try these. 

We started by making a snowflake shape out of two white pipe cleaners. I tied a string around one of the pipe cleaner loops. Then I placed 1/3 cup of Borax into a pint jar. I added boiling water to the jar and stirred the mixture. 

I tied the string to a pencil so the pipe cleaner would hang in the jar without touching the bottom. We let it sit overnight. 

When we woke up, this is what we found:

Winter Bathtub Activities

I saw a lot of pictures of people bringing in snow for their kids to play in the bathtub. Well, the temperature dropped a lot today, and I didn't want to go out and haul in snow, so I created a warm environment for snow play. 

I started by making "hot cocoa" snow. I dumped a packet of hot cocoa in a container filled with shaving cream. It created a great scent. 

Then I made fake snow. I dumped a mound of baking soda in a bowl for each kid. Slowly add a little bit of water to the baking soda until it becomes moldable. It doesn't take a lot of water. It does feel just like snow too. They had fun making fake snowballs. 

The kids put on their bathing suits, I ran nice warm water in the tub, dropped some blue food coloring in it, and they set out to play. 

They made a snowman on the walls of the bathtub. I gave them three squirts of shaving cream so they could make their snowballs. I had already cut out felt eyes, hats, and noses, so they applied those to their snowman. 

 The hot cocoa paint was the 2-year-old's favorite. She painted all over the walls of the tub. The boys were more interested in the fake snow and making "potions" out of the mixtures. 

When they were all done playing, we added some vinegar to their fake snow potions and watched it fizz. When they were all done in the tub, I turned on the shower and rinsed them all off. They had a blast! 

S'more Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies

I saw a picture of s'more stuffed chocolate chip cookies on Pinterest today. I decided to use my own chocolate chip cookie recipe and create these stuffed cookies. 

They are as simple as they sound...It is a traditional s'more stuffed inside chocolate chip cookie dough. 

Cookie Dough Ingredients:

3/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup brown sugar

2 sticks of butter, softened

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

2 1/4 cup flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 cups dark chocolate chips

Add the white and brown sugar to a mixing bowl. Cream together. Add the eggs, one at a time, and then the vanilla. 

Continue to cream. 

In a separate mixing bowl, add the flour, baking soda, and salt. 

I use my tsp to mix/sift the dry ingredients together. 

Slowly add the flour mixture to the creamed mixture. 

Using a spatula, fold in the chocolate chips. 

Next, grease your baking pan. I use real butter for this. 

Sprinkle a little flour on the pan and pat the bottom to spread the flour around. 

For the s'more part, break graham crackers into 4 pieces. Cut large marshmallows in half. Break Hershey chocolate bars into three-square pieces. 

Place a scoop of cookie dough on your baking pan. Place the s'more on top of that. Put another scoop of dough on top of the s'more. Then place another scoop of dough on each side of the s'more and completely cover. 

Bake at 325 degrees for about 20 minutes. These cookies are huge! I only got 5 cookies to fit on a large sheet pan. They were so good!

Q-tip Snowman Art

The kids and I painted today while we were off from school. I gave each of them a little paper plate that had white, black, and orange paint on it. We each got a couple of q-tips and created a snowman picture. 

Snowman Cheese Bread

Ingredients:

1 Tbsp yeast

1 cup warm water

1 Tbsp honey

2 tsp salt

2 Tbsp olive oil or canola oil

3 cups flour (I used 2 cups white and 1 cup wheat flour)

1 Tbsp butter

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 tsp garlic salt

1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

1 1/2 cups mozzarella cheese

Start by dissolving the yeast with the warm water. Add the honey. Let sit for a couple of minutes, until the mixture starts to bubble. 

Add the salt, oil, and 1 cup of flour. Stir with a wooden spoon. Slowly add the remaining flour. Knead with the hook attachment on your mixer for about 8 minutes. If you don't have a mixer, knead on a lightly floured surface for 8-10 minutes. 

Grease the mixing bowl, cover with a towel, and let rise for about an hour in a warm location (or until doubled). I warm my oven by setting it to 170 degrees for 30 seconds. I then turn the oven off and place the dough in the warm oven. 

When doubled, punch the dough down and place on a surface that is lightly covered with corn meal or flour. Shape into a snowman. 

Spread about 1 Tbsp. of butter over the dough. Then spread on about 1 Tbsp. of olive oil.  

Top with about 1 tsp. of garlic salt, 1/4 cup of Parmesan cheese and 1 1/2 cups mozzarella cheese. I cut bacon for a hat, eyes, nose, mouth, and buttons. (I decided not to bake the bread with the bacon pieces. I just used them as a decoration when serving.) 

Bake at 425 degrees for about 12-15 minutes. Replace the bacon and serve with pizza sauce or ranch as a dipping sauce. 

Snow Day Scratch-off Activity Tickets

The kids enjoyed the New Year's Balloon Activities so much (http://workingmomwonders.blogspot.com/2013/12/new-years-eve-balloon-countdown-for-kids.html), I decided to follow a similar method for snow days. 

I found an idea on Pinterest for Scratch-off Lottery Tickets. I decided to write activities on the tickets for them to uncover throughout each snow day this year. 

To start, mix acrylic gray paint and dish soap (any color of paint will work, but gray will make it look more like a lottery ticket). I didn't measure the paint and soap, but it is approximately 2 parts paint to 1 part soap. 

I took a piece of white cardstock and created 8 Snow Day tickets. My activities are: 

Build a Blanket Fort

Create a living room movie theater

 Rainbow Snow Painting

 Borax Snowflakes

 Read for 20 minutes

Do IXL.com for 20 minutes

 Make toothpick/marshmallow snowflakes

 Make snow ice cream. 

I then took a white crayon and colored heavily over each activity.

The final step is to paint over the white crayon with the gray paint/soap mixture. When the paint dries, you can scratch the paint off with a coin to reveal the activity. 

The best part about these tickets is I can create a new ticket pretty quickly if I find another activity I want to do for that day. Plus I can create tickets ahead of time and just pull them out whenever we get an unexpected snow day.