Lasagna

Lasagna has become a family favorite dinner. It is also something that I can put together quickly on a busy school night.

 

1 lb hamburger or turkey burger

1 jar of spaghetti sauce

1 box Lasagna noodles

16 oz mozzarella cheese

about 3/4 cup parmesan cheese

 

 

Start by browning up about one pound of hamburger or turkey burger. Drain the grease.

 

Meanwhile, while the hamburger is browning, get a large pot of water boiling on the stove.

 

When the hamburger is brown, add the jar of spaghetti sauce. Sometimes I add Italian seasoning to the mixture, but that is optional. Let the sauce simmer.

 

When the water boils, cook the noodles for about 2 minutes under the suggested cook time.

 

 

In a 9 X 13 inch pan, spread a thin layer of sauce along the bottom. Sprinkle the sauce with a little bit of parmesan cheese. Then add the first layer of noodles. Top the noodles with more sauce and parmesan cheese. 

Add a thin layer of mozzarella cheese.

Repeat layers (noodles, sauce, parmesan cheese, and mozzarella cheese) until ingredients are gone. Sometimes I have extra noodles. If you like your lasagna a little saucier, add more sauce.

In a 400 degree oven, cook lasagna for 30-40 minutes, or until cheese is melted and browned to your liking.

Thank You Cake for Daycare Provider/Teacher

I wanted to do something special for our amazing daycare provider's birthday, so I searched for some ideas for a thank you cake. When I saw the picture of a notebook paper cake, I knew we could come up with something that would fit her perfectly.

 

I piped on the blue frosting to resemble the notebook paper. I made an outline around the cake with a  star tip, and wrote the words with black food gel.

 

The pictures are just filled in with food gel. It was a huge hit!

 

Star Craft

Our 4th tie of the Father's Day Activity Wall led us to this star craft. This craft worked out great because we had baseball games tonight. It only took about 10 minutes to complete.

We started out by cutting out a star shape from their choice of colored construction paper. We glued on legs and arms and little stars to represent the "hands" and "feet".

To give this a little more jazz, we used glitter glue pens to add some sparkle to the stars. We finished by putting on some eyes and drawing a mouth.

Lobster Hand/Foot Craft

The third tie of the month got us in the mood for summer:  A hand and foot lobster! (Too bad the weather isn't cooperating!) Yes, this craft is a little messy, but the giggles from my 1-year-old made it so worthwhile. :)

We started by moving everything to the bathroom right before bath time. I put red paint on a paper plate and gave each kid a piece of white paper. The ten-year-old had to tape two pieces of paper together in order to fit his foot and hands on it. They took turns dipping their hands and feet into the paint. As soon as they were done, they used a towel to wipe the paint off of their feet.

When the paint was dry we glued on eyes.

Father's Day Activity Wall Crafts

 

For the Father's Day Activity Wall (http://workingmomwonders.blogspot.com/2013/05/fathers-day-activity-wall.html), I decided to have the boys help me decide what activities to put on the ties. I went on Pinterest and pinned a bunch of ideas under a summer craft board. They each took turns picking a craft that looked like fun. I wrote their ideas on the back of each tie and hung the ties back on the wall.

 

Day 1 of our activity wall was actually playing a board game. The boys played Junior Monopoly. This is a great game for both of them. It isn't too hard for the four-year-old, and it isn't too easy for the ten-year-old. They both really enjoyed playing together.

 

Day 2 of the activity wall was to build paper bag houses. We started with a brown paper bag and filled it with wadded up scrap paper. I folded and stapled the top over. The boys then picked out scrapbook paper to be used as a roof. We glued the paper to the house. They cut out windows and doors and glued those to the house. We made trees out of construction paper. We had to use a couple of pieces of brown construction paper to get the trees to stand up. Finally, we cut a road and sidewalk out of construction paper. We drew in a handprint and their name and year on the "cement" of the sidewalk.

 

I just so happened to have a sport pack of scrapbook paper. (That is where we found the grass scrapbook paper.) Green construction paper would work fine too, though.

 

 

Perfect Cupcake Frosting

My mom perfected this frosting recipe and passed it on to me. I am not a huge frosting fan, but this combination is absolutely divine. I won't make another frosting again. It works great for getting the perfect cupcake swirl as well. I made a wedding dress cupcake cake last weekend and Memorial Day cupcakes this weekend with the frosting.

The recipe:

1 8oz package of cream cheese

1 stick of butter

3 cups powdered sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

8oz cool whip

 

Whip cream cheese and butter together with a mixer.

Add vanilla and powdered sugar (one cup at a time) Whip together.

 

Add cool whip and mix on low-medium speed until light and fluffy.

 

Using a large star tip, pipe frosting on cupcakes. (I just used a ziplock bag with the tip pushed through one corner of the bag.) These cupcakes are great for Memorial Day or 4th of July. I dipped half of a strawberry in melted white chocolate and dipped the tip into blue decorating sugar and placed the berry on top of the cupcakes.

This frosting made a great wedding dress cupcake cake. The frosting maintained its shape and texture all afternoon.

Father's Day Activity Wall

 Our next activity wall for the year is centered around Father's Day. To start, I taped down some white paper on the floor. (Originally I was just going to trace the top half of my husband, but when my son saw how much fun it looked, he wanted a sheet of paper to lay on as well. So we improvised the wall a little bit.) The two lay side by side with their hands together. I traced them and cut out their shapes.

We taped the images on the "Activity Wall" and colored some clothing on them. I tried to draw on some faces, but they looked a little scary, so I just taped on a picture of my husband and son where the faces would go.

For the activity part of it, we cut out ties from different construction paper. There is an activity listed behind each tie. Every day the kids will pick one tie out of the "closet" (located on the other side of the hallway) to put on dad. The tie they choose will tell them the activity for the day.

Finger Painting Trays

All three of my kids will tell you that they love finger painting. They love to use their hands to create masterpieces. We have been doing this almost every night.

When we painted in the past, I put the paint on small paper plates. We seemed to be going through a lot of paper plates, so I tried to come up with a more resourceful way to go about this process.

We got some cheap tins from the dollar store and turned them into the kids' individual paint trays. I now have room to place many colors in this tin and the kids can do what they want with the colors. If they want to mix colors, they can. If they want to use them separately, there is plenty of room to avoid mixing.

I don't even bother washing out the tray when the kids are done. (The tin is becoming a masterpiece now too :) )

Banana Chocolate Muffins

My kids love banana bread.  I love baking, but I hate doing all of the dishes. This recipe takes care of all of those things. I found this recipe on Pinterest (http://myfriendsbakery.ca/blog/banana-muffins/)and altered it a little to fit my family's tastes.

You only need to use one bowl for this entire recipe.

Start by mashing three bananas in a bowl.

Add:
5 1/2 Tablespoons of melted butter
1 slightly beaten egg
1 1/2 cups of flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup white sugar
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

Mix until just combined. Be careful not to over mix.

Scoop into 12 cupcake liners and bake at 375 for 18 minutes.

Place pan on a rack for about 5 minutes when done baking. Remove cupcakes from pan and enjoy.

 

 

 

 

Taco Dip

 

 

Ingredients:

1 pound of taco meat

1 can of refried beans

1 cup of sour cream

2 teaspoons taco seasoning

lettuce

tomato

shredded cheddar cheese

 

Spread platter with refried beans. (You might not have to use the whole can, depending on the size of your platter.)

Mix sour cream and taco seasoning together in a bowl

 

Spread on top of refried beans

Sprinkle taco meat on top of sour cream.

Add shredded lettuce and chopped tomato.

Sprinkle with shredded cheddar cheese. Refrigerate until ready to serve. (Olives are a good optional topping on this as well.) Eat dip with Doritos or tortilla chips.

 

Three-ring Binder Dollhouse

 

 

I came across the idea of a three-ring binder dollhouse while browsing through Pinterest. I decided to take that idea and expand upon it.  I wanted to add a "little boy" touch to the house for my son. So...we started by making the bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, and living room and then added the garage and farm. Since then we have added a salon and grocery store. We have plans for a laundry room and kids' bedrooms. The room ideas are endless!

 

Start by picking out your "wallpaper" colors for each room. This is just scrapbook paper cut to fit the binder. For a couple of the rooms, I did one color on the top and another on the bottom. Put modge podge (or a mixture of glue and water) on the binder and the back of the scrapbook paper. Place the scrapbook paper on the binder. 

 

To cover the rings of the binder, I placed fabric through the rings. They resemble curtains. To get the fabric to stay on the binders, I sewed a slot where the top and bottom rings of the binder are. Slide the fabric through rings.  

Then I went online and found images for each room. I just searched in Google for things like shower, vanity, bathroom pictures, end tables, closet, clocks, lamps, tool bench, window seats, tv entertainment center, etc. Print the pictures off and arrange them on the scrapbook paper. Place modge podge on the back of each of the images and place on the "wallpaper".

Next plaster modge podge over the entire page. It will look glossy when you first apply, but when it dries it will look as one picture. All of the images will be sealed on each page.

 

Other rooms:

 

The Garage

 

The Bedroom

 (The bed in this bedroom is made from wood scraps. I glued a small piece of wood to a larger piece to resemble a headboard.  I hot glued a piece of fabric over the entire bed. )

 

The Living Room

 

(The couch and chair are pieces of thick cardboard with fleece hotglued to the cardboard.)

 

 

 

The Farm

 

The Salon

 

The Kitchen

The Grocery Store

 My kids are constantly changing the arrangement of the dollhouse. These are some of the recent set-ups. The best part about this dollhouse is the binders can be folded up when they are done playing and placed on a bookshelf. We put all of the furniture in a little tote that gets placed on the shelf with the binders.