Both of my children love to help me in the kitchen and when I found this fun little recipe for a snack, I had to try it with them. Longtime readers may remember my failed attempts at pretzel-making. While I was discouraged by that experience, I haven't given up on it. I will say though that when I found a quick and easy way to achieve the pretzel goodness without the mess, I had to give these a try.
Store-bought bread stick dough is what makes this recipe so quick and easy. The dough is easy to roll, without any flouring of your surface, and little hands can help roll out the pretzels for you. Within fifteen minutes, we were able to eat some delicious pretzels and everyone enjoyed helping with this project in the kitchen.
This would make the perfect snack for after school or serve when tailgating with friends. I can't wait to make another batch of these fun little treats again and neither can my kids!
Soft Pretzels with Sweet Mustard Dipping Sauce 1 (11 ounce) can refrigerated bread sticks 1 egg white, lightly beaten coarse salt 1/2 cup Dijon mustard 1/4 cup maple syrup 1 tablespoon brown sugar
Roll out each breadstick into a 20-in. rope; twist into a pretzel shape. Place 2 in. apart on ungreased baking sheets. Brush with egg white and sprinkle with salt. Bake at 375 degrees F for 10-13 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove to a wire rack. For mustard dip, combine the remaining ingredients in a small bowl. Serve with pretzels.
Happy Freebie Friday, everyone! Enjoy all of the great freebies each week courtesy of Freebies 4 Mom. Heather's site offer freebies all week long and can keep you on top of all of the latest freebies. I encourage you to visit her site daily to get the scoop on all of the great freebies on the web!
Be sure to swing by our Apron Full of Giveaways for all of the latest giveaways, including our $100 Famous Footwear Gift Card and a lunchbox giveaway worth over $150.
Materials Needed: Please see Mighty Girl for the full instructions.
Results: I know we have talked a lot about making school lunches for kids, but I what I find with myself is that my own eating seems to take a backseat when I am busy. I think that is why I loved this fantastic idea for creating your own salad bar.
I stocked up on salad bar ingredients that I really like- romaine hearts, cherry tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, blue cheese crumbles, mushrooms, olives, and dried cranberries. I also prepared my favorite balsamic vinaigrette dressing and roasted chicken breasts for salads.
I had a little helper with me who was intrigued by all of the bright colors. This gave us an opportunity to talk about eating the rainbow of vegetables and, to my delight, she wanted to try every single thing that we were chopping.
Clearing space in our fridge was a challenge, but I managed to clear one of our produce drawers for the ingredients. I washed out and used cottage cheese and sour cream containers to store everything in. Everything looked so yummy and fresh! The best part is that one of my favorite things to eat when I go out is to visit places with a salad bar. Now I can enjoy all of that convenience at home with just an hour of chopping.
Conclusion: Thanks to Mighty Girl for this idea to help me eat healthier! It has been delicious salads all week and has even helped encourage my daughter to eat outside of her comfort zone.
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I am so excited to open our Notebook Experiments up to everyone and I hope that you will be able to participate this week or in weeks to come! I will be posting this each Wednesday so please mark your calendars if you plan to participate. You can post your entries at any time throughout the week and then leave your entry in the links below.
We have this handy banner that you are more than welcome to use, but it is not a requirement! It is just something you can add to add a little sparkle to your entry.
Rules for Participation:
1. Choose anything from any of our notebook entries (past or present) to do with your family. We have hundreds of bookmarked links of crafts, ways to save money, and organizing ideas. 2. Complete an experiment from the notebook and share about it on your blog or website. We would love to see pictures of what you accomplished or a detailed description of how your projects turned out. Please include a link to this entry, a link to the original posting of the entry (at the original crafster's blog), and (to help us relocate the project) the date or link of the notebook entry where you found it. You can use the same formatting as our entries or you can just include that information in your post in your own unique way! 3. Post a link below. Please include your name or blog name & a fast description of your project. Example- MomAdvice (WHO bread)
I can't wait to see what you create and what you find inspiring!
In our house, we celebrate just about everything. If there is a reason to do some celebrating, our family will find it. We had to break out the celebration plate twice this past week to celebrate our first day of school. Ethan started on Tuesday and Emily started on Thursday. Next year I plan to combine the celebration into one because doing this twice was a lot of work in that busy first week of school. Hindsight is always 20/20 though, but I wanted to share with you some pictures from our parties.
For Ethan's big day, we all worked together to make the Family Fun school bus cake (there is also a video tutorial here). This cake was absolutely adorable and will be the new Clark family tradition. We found angel food cake loaves at Aldi over by the bread which helped make this cake a little bit lighter. Four people fit on the bus, so we added our family on the bus, complete with a hair bow in Emily's hair! The kids adored this cake. After we cut into it, we headed over to the neighbor's house to share it with the other little boy in our neighborhood who just started his first week of school.
Served with the cake, I made my simple pizza crust in the bread machine so that we could enjoy a little pizza with our cake.
In case you missed Emily's theme for her school year it is purple and flowers. Unbeknown to me, as we sat down for the "back to school party" on Tuesday night, Emily said she could not wait for her perfect purple flower cake for her party. With weary eyes, I looked at my husband over our pizza. "I hope you like pizza," I said.
For her party, I just used store-bought cake mix and frosting. I used tip #129 to pipe flowers and then used tip #4 for the center dot in white on each flower. Prepared icing is a pain to work with, but the day had been too crazy to make a batch of icing. She is three so I didn't think she would mind that the flowers were not as perfect as I hoped.
I love to pipe a little border on the cake plate to go along with the toppings on cupcakes. I think it pulls it all together. Just as her brother's party, Emily's flower cupcakes were served with my simple pizza crust in the bread machine so that we could enjoy a little pizza with our cake.
I am thinking we will be skipping our Friday night pizza routine this week!
What are your back-to-school traditions? Do you do anything special for the big day?
Welcome to our Apron Full of Giveaways, where we round up all of the best giveaways on the web. This is the spot where you can share your blog contests or where you can find fantastic stuff to enter.
We have a new giveaway this week that we are offering to one lucky reader. This giveaway is for a $100 gift card to Famous Footwear. With school starting, we thought it would be great for those back-to-school shoes for the family.
This week we still have a really amazing giveaway running for our readers. We are giving away a lunchbox filled with goodies that is valued to be over $150 to one lucky reader. It is everything a kid could ever want for the back-to-school season so be sure to check that out!
Below are the contest links-if you are hosting a contest please link it up below. Sorry, we aren't giving away the aprons just showcasing them! Please put your site name and then what type of contest you are hosting. For example, "MomAdvice (Children's Movies)."
Please let me know if you have any questions and good luck to each of you!
If you have a big eater like me, making a breakfast that will fill your child up in the morning can be a real challenge. Although my little guy looks like a lightweight, he has been known to put away three to four bowls of cereal in the morning. This makes breakfast one of those meals that can really add up in our grocery budget.
Since his school year started, I am getting up early with him and have been making affordable breakfasts a priority in our house. Eggs, bread, oatmeal, and milk are inexpensive ingredients that I am trying to work into our morning meals.
One thing that I know my children really love is milkshakes. When I happened upon this recipe for banana cream pie smoothies, I knew that this would be a thrifty solution to get my kids fueled in the morning... in a really fun way.
When I got home from the grocery store, I sliced bananas and put them in this little dish in our freezer for our smoothies in the morning. I can get a whole bag of bananas at Aldi for $.99. I also bought the large tubs of low fat vanilla yogurt to add to the smoothie mixture. This is also an affordable steal compared to those small containers of yogurt. One tub equals approximately four batches of smoothies (eight smoothies in all).
To round out the meal, I make one or two slices of whole grain toast with a little smear of peanut butter on it. The kids love the combination and feel like they are getting a special treat in the mornings. I love to have one of these myself because they fill me up in the morning and have been a nice addition to my "only coffee" routine.
Just as one more fun idea to add to your morning routine, my son gets to choose his favorite breakfast on Fridays. They have a, "Fun Friday" at school where they get to wear their school t-shirt instead of a uniform. To go along with that theme, I make a "Fun Friday Breakfast." He gets to choose what the breakfast will be that morning and all other days, I get to choose based on our time constraints. Can you guess what he chose this week?
I highly recommend adding this fun and thrifty smoothie to your morning routine!
Banana Cream Pie Smoothie (Courtesy of Cooking Light Magazine, makes 2 servings or 4 smaller servings)
1 cup sliced ripe banana (about 1 large) 1 cup vanilla low-fat yogurt 1/2 cup 1% low-fat milk 2 tablespoons whole wheat graham cracker crumbs (about 1/2 cookie sheet- we have been omitting this ingredient) 1 tablespoon nonfat dry milk 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract 3 ice cubes (about 1/4 cup) Graham cracker crumbs (optional)
Arrange banana slices in a single layer on a baking sheet, and freeze until firm (about 1 hour). Place frozen banana and remaining ingredients in a blender. Process until smooth. Sprinkle with graham cracker crumbs. Serve immediately.
Happy Freebie Friday! As we do each week, Freebies 4 Mom is sharing her weekly round-up of amazing freebies with our readers. Since I know you guys love giveaways, be sure to check out the 5 new giveaways that Freebies 4 Mom is offering up to their readers. A huge thanks to Heather for helping us with our weekly freebie feature!
We also are giving away a little loot of our own. Be sure to enter to win a lunchbox with over $150 in prizes, including an iPod shuffle, for the back-to-school season. We also host our weekly round-up of great giveaways each week so don't miss that.
Her face is pressed against the window and tears are rolling down her face. "I want to go to school. Why can't I go to school?" Gently I tell her, "Sweetie, you can go next year, I promise." For one entire month, this was part of our morning routine, as her brother would ride away on his school bus.
We would talk about what her perfect first day of school would be like when that big day came. "I will have a flower dress. I will have flower shoes. I will ride a flower bus. I will have a purple backpack." We would play pretend school and talk about what she would learn.
To Emily's delight, her year is finally here. I drove all over town to find her flower dress, her flower shoes, and her purple backpack. I couldn't find a flower bus to drive her in, but everything else was exactly as she envisioned it.
As we pulled up, my eyes filled with happy tears for her. This was her big day that she had waited for. As I opened her door and leaned in to grab her backpack, she put her two hands on my cheeks and said, "Mommy, I will be right back!" It was a voice I did not recognize. A voice of a little girl who has suddenly become independent. A girl who won't always hold my hand, who has to get in her seat by herself, a girl that would rather wear her clothes backwards then let her mom assist her.
My big girl grew up and her big eyes were filled with delight when she arrived. There were no tears and barely a nod in my direction as I left.
Yes, this was her day and my day too. We worked hard for this day.
And then it was just me, in a house by myself. I have not been alone in my house like that for over three years. It felt strange and very quiet to be alone.
Welcome to our Apron Full of Giveaways, where we round up all of the best giveaways on the web. This is the spot where you can share your blog contests or where you can find fantastic stuff to enter.
This week we have a really amazing giveaway for our readers. We are giving away a lunchbox filled with goodies that is valued to be over $150 to one lucky reader. It is everything a kid could ever want for the back-to-school season so be sure to check that out!
Below are the contest links-if you are hosting a contest please link it up below. Sorry, we aren't giving away the aprons just showcasing them! Please put your site name and then what type of contest you are hosting. For example, "MomAdvice (Children's Movies)."
Please let me know if you have any questions and good luck to each of you!
I was doing good. So much better than last year. We walked down to the bus stop and he looked up at me with his big brown eyes. "Mama, I am going to miss you so much!" He squeezed my hand and leaned into me.
I cried all the way back, tears dripping in my coffee.
My son will be attending school all day now and this means that he will be eating lunch at school. I have been gathering supplies and ideas over this last month on ways to make his lunch fun and healthy and wanted to share with you some of the information I gathered.
One idea that I am excited to start with him is adding Knock-Knock jokes each day to his lunch. My girlfriend told me about someone doing this at her school and I thought it was such a cute idea to do with my children. I used our free lunchbox notes printable and found this website for ideas on knock-knock jokes to write to him.
I stocked up on small plastic containers that I plan to fill with batches of boxed pudding, applesauce, trail mixes, or raisins to cut down on the cost of the individual serving cups. We also bought stainless steel water bottles that can be filled with juice instead of the juice boxes. Sundays will be spent filling mini-containers and bagging up veggies for the week so that the mornings will be easier on everyone.
He used to eat lunch at preschool each week and the only thing he would ever eat was peanut butter sandwiches. To save on time, I would make five peanut butter sandwiches, put them in baggies, and then I would put them the freezer for the week. In the mornings, I would pull one out and it would be thawed by the time lunchtime rolled around. It was a time-saving strategy that worked really well for us. Unfortunately, he has moved on from peanut butter jelly so I can no longer implement that!
Last month I was hired by Sara Lee to act as a consultant for the company to help them plan a nutritional summit to share with moms ideas for creating a healthy and nutritious school lunch. It was such a unique opportunity for me to help in the planning stages of a blogger event and it is one that I hope I can repeat again with future companies.
Their emphasis was on creating balanced lunches and educating consumers in the bread aisle. I have to say that I have already added many of the ideas that were shared as well as implementing many of the shopping tips and I wanted to share with you some of the best information I got at this summit.
Instead of juice, which can add a lot of calories to a child's diet, try making fruit-flavored waters. I loved this idea for infusing water with mint, strawberries, or oranges for a fun way to make inexpensive flavored water.
Get your children to eat the rainbow of fruits and vegetables by hanging a rainbow on the refrigerator. As they eat from each color, they can add a star to it. This helps them see what colors they need to eat and what colors they are doing really well on.
Trail mixes are a healthy and satisfying snack in lunches or before/after athletic events. An easy formula to remember for making trail mix is 1/2 cup of dried fruit, 1/4 cup of nuts, and 1/8 cup of chocolate.
One of the easiest ways to incorporate whole grain into your child's diets is to to pack a fun whole grain snack like popcorn!
When examining nutritional labels on bread, make sure that the first ingredient listed is, "whole wheat flour." If the first ingredient listed is, "enriched flour," look and see whether whole wheat flour is listed and where it is listed on the ingredient list.
If you have any nutritional questions or if you are needing guidance on packing a school lunch, you can contact Sara Lee through their Facebook page. They have added all of the great recipes that they shared with us while we visited the facility and they have Chef Jill checking the site and sharing ideas daily so it is definitely a page worth peeking at.
I think that the main message that I walked away with, is to do the best you can with nutrition, but don't beat yourself up if you can't do it perfectly. Lunch is supposed to be fun and not a chore. Educate yourself about nutritional labels, do your best sharing fruits and vegetables in their lunch, try to incorporate whole grains into your child's diet, and pat yourself on the back for trying... and don't forget that cookie cutters, knock-knock jokes, or a sweet little note can be a fun way to make lunchtime fun for your children.
(Full Blogger Disclosure- This was an all-expenses paid trip to their Chicago headquarters which included air travel, a one-night hotel stay, and a gift bag. All thoughts and opinions on this trip are my own.)
What are some of your favorite ideas for making lunches fun & healthy? This is our first year packing lunches and I would love your ideas!
Sometimes it is nice to have a recipe in your back pocket that you can throw on the dinner table in minutes and that will leave everyone feeling full and satisfied. This week my children will both start school and for the first time in my life, I am going to have a few hours on my own. I am sure there will be many more blog entries about this momentous occasion, but in the meantime I want to focus on the usefulness of that slow cooker that might be gathering dust in your kitchen.
When the school season starts, our slow cooker is the best tool that I can arm myself with to get dinner on the table. There are so many things that you can make in the slow cooker that are satisfying and will leave you with lots of yummy leftovers for the week.
This recipe is one of my favorites from our One Month with Your Slow Cooker article. If you haven't seen this article, it is THE best tool for busy moms who want ideas for slow cooker meals that are true show-stoppers in the kitchen. I entertain with these dishes, I share them when I bring meals to families in need, and our family eats from these thirty recipes about once a week.
You will notice that few of our recipes have convenience foods or mixes in them, but this roast is my one exception to the rule. Do your best to look for low-sodium mixes though and avoid adding any salt to this recipe. These three little mixes and some water make the most flavorful roast. Not a hint of dryness in this roast and the leftovers heat up perfectly for a special lunch.
I shared the leftovers with my mom and served these sandwiches with multi-grain chips with salsa and a delicious batch of blueberry iced tea.
To Die For Pot Roast
1 beef roast - any kind (I look for roasts that are between 3-5 pounds) 1 package dried brown gravy mix (look for low-sodium varieties) 1 package dried Italian salad dressing mix (look for low-sodium varieties) 1 package dried ranch dressing mix (look for low-sodium varieties) 1 cup water
Place beef roast in slow cooker. Mix the dried mixes together in a bowl and sprinkle over the roast. Pour the water around the roast. Cook on low for seven to nine hours.
Do you have a favorite slow cooker recipe to share? I would love to get some new ideas for the school year! Please share!
Finally, visit our Apron Full of Giveaways this week for some really great giveaways. Next week we are coming back with a few amazing giveaways of our own that you won't want to miss.
Materials Needed: Please see ohdeedoh for the full instructions on this task. I used the vinegar and a lavender essential oil to make my homemade disinfectant, but you could also use tea tree oil. For extra credit, grab some baking soda and use this to scour the sink before disinfecting.
Results: I will admit that I really used to love bleaching my sink. I am all about cleaning the sink and have been ever since I read Sink Reflections. There was just something so therapeutic about having a fresh clean sink and there is just something so cleansing about that sparkling white sink after a good bleaching. To this day, if I smell Comet cleanser it makes me think of my mom and her sink cleaning days when I was a little girl.
But the times, they are a changin' and I am trying to incorporate more green living into my life. I have talked a lot about implementing homemade cleaners into your routine, but I was still dragging my feet on cleaning my sink with the green stuff.
I really wanted to try this homemade disinfectant and thought I would give my sink a good scrubbing with baking soda instead this time.
I just sprinkled my sink liberally with baking soda and ran a tiny bit of water. This made it more of a scouring paste and I scrubbed it with a little brush (or whatever else you have on hand). Once I scrubbed it well, I gave the sink a rinse and then wiped it out with a towel. I finished the routine off by spraying my homemade disinfectant and wiping the sink down again.
If you are a bleach user, I wouldn't say it was exactly the same type of white, but it came very close. It did require a bit of elbow grease and took longer, but it was oh-so-worth-it!
Oh, and did you notice that sweet little dishcloth hanging over my faucet? I made that! It is a gift to myself after all of the gifts I have made. It isn't even a reject one (which is what I normally give myself). It is the first item that I have knitted for myself since I have learned how. Oh, and it also happens to be green- just like my new sink routine!
I feel like this is something that I can do regularly and am proud that I have finally given the bleach up for good! Thanks ohdeedoh for this great idea!
What are some of your favorite ways to green up your household routines? ********************
I am so excited to open our Notebook Experiments up to everyone and I hope that you will be able to participate this week or in weeks to come! I will be posting this each Thursday so please mark your calendars if you plan to participate. You can post your entries at any time throughout the week and then leave your entry in the links below.
We have this handy banner that you are more than welcome to use, but it is not a requirement! It is just something you can add to add a little sparkle to your entry.
Rules for Participation:
1. Choose anything from any of our notebook entries (past or present) to do with your family. We have hundreds of bookmarked links of crafts, ways to save money, and organizing ideas. 2. Complete an experiment from the notebook and share about it on your blog or website. We would love to see pictures of what you accomplished or a detailed description of how your projects turned out. Please include a link to this entry, a link to the original posting of the entry (at the original crafster's blog), and (to help us relocate the project) the date or link of the notebook entry where you found it. You can use the same formatting as our entries or you can just include that information in your post in your own unique way! 3. Post a link below. Please include your name or blog name & a fast description of your project. Example- MomAdvice (WHO bread)
I can't wait to see what you create and what you find inspiring!
By now, most people are familiar with Twitter and how it works. If not though, we have a handy article, What in the World is Twitter?, that can help you decide if Twitter would be beneficial for you personally or for your blog/business.
There are many applications and tools that you can use to help bump up your Twitter experience. Here is a gathering of great tools to make your tweet time a little more effective.
Reminder & Organizational Tools:
Twitter Timer: Add this guy to your list of friends and send him a direct message (DM) when you need to remember to go to the dentist or a friendly reminder that next week is your best friend's birthday.
Remember the Milk: We highlighted Remember the Milk in our family planning tools, but Remember the Milk can also be used through Twitter as well. Add Remember the Milk to your list of friends and send DM's to remind yourself to pick up milk...or your kids. You know, those important things in life!
Commuter Feed: Wouldn't your morning commute be smoother if you knew where traffic was backed up or where accidents have occurred? Commuter Feed is a free service that lets you see reports on traffic incidents in your local area using Twitter. It works for any city that has an IATA airport code worldwide. Even if you don't input the information yourself, you can look up your city and see what was recently posted to keep up-to-date on what is happening in your neck of the woods.
Fuel Frog: This great site works with Twitter and help you easily track the gas mileage on your vehicle. This can be a great way to track the fluctuating gas prices, see how you are doing on your gas mileage, and keep track of mileage for your job.
Twitter Efficiency Tools:
Twitter Snooze: Is someone being a tad too chatty and you are feeling overwhelmed with their tweets? Is someone live-blogging at an event and you just want to tune their tweets out for a bit? You can visit Twitter Snooze and put their posts to sleep until the event is over, without blocking your friend or ruining that great relationship.
Twitter Search: This is great if you are off of Twitter for a long time and want to double-check to make sure you didn't miss any posts about yourself. Just search for your username (in my case, momadvice) and it will pop up all of the conversations you have had or any tweets that were intended for you. You can also use the search to keep up with something/someone you are interested in. You can read what everyone is talking about in the current events, politics, fashion and find out what people are sharing on your favorite topics.
Twitter Feed: This service works with your blog's feed and automatically sends out a message to let everyone know when your feed (blog) has been updated. This is a great way to automate the process to let your readers know when you have new and amazing stuff on your blog.
TweetDeck: This is great for people who like to micro-manage their micro-blogging tools. TweetDeck enables users to split their main feed (All Tweets) into topic or group specific columns allowing a broader overview of tweets. You can group people into groups (locals, PF Bloggers, Must Read Mommas) so you never miss an important tweet again. Once created these additional columns will automatically update allowing the user to keep track of a twitter threads far easier. Basically, it makes it so you can see exactly what you want to see and you are able to view up to 48 hours worth of the tweets that you have deemed the most important, without having to hunt.
Lifestyle Improvement Tools:
Tweet What You Eat: If you are working on improving your eating habits, then this tool should help you in tracking your caloric intact for the day. Tweetwhatyoueat (TWYE for short) is a Twitter-based food diary. Use Twitter to track what you eat, and now your weight, by ‘tweeting’ food items to your personal food diary on Tweetwhatyoueat.com from your mobile phone, IM or through Twitter.
Qwitter: This tool can help you if you trying to quit smoking. As with most of these tools, you can add Qwitter as your friend and then let them know when you have had a cigarette and journal how you are feeling as you taper off the cigarettes. This tool was brought to you by the state of Florida and I just love anything that can help people make a positive lifestyle change!
This list only encompasses ten great tools, but if you are looking for even more great ways to use Twitter, check out this list of 140 great Twitter Tools from Mashable!
Do you use any tools for twittering? Let us know what tools you find most helpful!
Welcome to our Apron Full of Giveaways, where we round up all of the best giveaways on the web. This is the spot where you can share your blog contests or where you can find fantastic stuff to enter.
Below are the contest links-if you are hosting a contest please link it up below. Sorry, we aren't giving away the aprons just showcasing them! Please put your site name and then what type of contest you are hosting. For example, "MomAdvice (Children's Movies)."
Please let me know if you have any questions and good luck to each of you!
Sinfully Sweet Cornbread & Chicken Caesar Pasta Salad
POSTED BY Amy at 7:00 AM
This sinful cornbread is a "sometimes food" in our house, but a delicious addition as a special side treat. My family is from the South so I have a deep fondness for sweet tea and sweet cornbread. This cornbread takes the cake literally, in my opinion, because it is deliciously sweet and tastes almost like a little bakery cake with your dinner. Unlucky for me, it is made with all the items I have in my pantry so it is far too convenient to make!
You need to balance this side out with something nice and light though to make up for it so I love to pair this with a delicious summer salad. My Chicken Caesar Pasta Salad is loved by all and is a favorite recipe from my Cooking Light Magazine.
If you have a garden, don't be afraid to work in whatever you have on hand. I tossed in a handful of fresh parsley and garden tomatoes from our little patio garden. Whatever you have on hand or see at the farmer's market is fair game for this yummy dish.
Sinfully Sweet Cornbread
1 cup all-purpose flour 1 cup yellow cornmeal 2/3 cup white sugar 1 teaspoon salt 3 teaspoons baking powder 1 egg 1 cup milk 1/3 cup vegetable oil
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray or lightly grease a nine inch round cake pan. In a large bowl combine flour, cornmeal, sugar, salt, and baking powder. Stir in egg, milk, and vegetable oil until well combined. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake in a preheated oven for 20-25 minutes.
Chicken Caesar Pasta Salad
1 pound chicken (about three small breasts) ½ pound penne pasta (can do regular or whole wheat pasta) 1 romaine heart, chopped ½ pint cherry or grape tomatoes (I did regular tomatoes from our garden, but placed them on the side for those that wanted them) 1/3 cup Caesar dressing (I love the Kraft fat-free Caesar Dressing) A sprinkle of Parmesan cheese on top
Bake chicken breasts as directed on package on a cookie sheet. While the chicken is baking, chop the romaine heart and halve the tomatoes. Cook pasta until al dente, as directed on package. Drain and rinse pasta with cold water. Dice the cooked chicken and put this in a bowl. Toss in pasta, tomatoes, lettuce, and the dressing. Mix until all the ingredients are incorporated. This can be served with a little sprinkle of Parmesan cheese.
Amy's Notes- Because I wanted plenty of food for leftovers, I actually cooked the entire box of pasta and kept all the other ingredients the same. This stretched the dish further and we have enough for four more lunches. Additional dressing can be added to leftovers to keep pasta from tasting dried out. Basically, for forty more cents you can feed another four people! That makes this a great dish to entertain with!
Kenmore is running a new You Tube contest that I think you guys will be really excited about. They are hosting a Crazy Cleaning Confessions contest where you can submit your craziest cleaning confessions for a chance to win some really beautiful appliances.
I have to say that one thing I truly love about Kenmore is that they use a real mom as a spokesperson for their brand and that they chose to use me to showcase and share about their contest with moms. I spent two fun-filled days shooting this campaign in Chicago and was so honored to be a part of it.
They have only had one entry so far and I would LOVE to see a MomAdvice reader win their appliances. They are fantastic and would be great for any mom on a budget that is needing an upgrade!
As an aside, you can always find my articles for Kenmore here. I write on the topic of household management and I will soon be sharing videos on each month's topic with the Kenmore site. Our latest article is on throwing a great backyard barbecue and I share a cute idea for throwing a back-to-school carnival.
Happy Freebie Friday, everyone! We would like to thank Freebies 4 Mom for rounding up the best freebies of the week. Be sure to check out how you can shop at JC Penny for free this week on the site! Heather's site is a fantastic resource- be sure to visit it all week long for the latest in freebies! Thank you, Heather!
This summer has been a quiet one for our family. Intended trips were vetoed in favor of staycations and saving fuel. Our backyard update has been just the fix we needed though to enjoy quiet afternoons and evenings in our very own space. Our sweat equity has paid off and we have felt less impacted by the rising cost of fuel because all we desire is to spend time in our fresh new space.
I plop myself into a lawn chair and I look out over our large yard. I can see two sets of feet dancing behind the sheets, as the clothes blow on our clothesline. The children are giggling uncontrollably as they play peek-a-boo and try to catch one another, flipping the sheets back and forth.
I have set up all of their outdoor toys and it is always the laundry line that is the most fascinating to them. My daughter pulls off a towel and runs over to me shouting, "Queen, Queen." Yes, she has somehow moved up the chain of royalty and no longer considers herself a princess, but who can blame her? Given the choice, I would aim for the queen title myself.
My son has wrapped a blue piece of tape around his head and tells me that he is a Ninja. I laugh to myself as I see the Ninja and Queen are holding hands and running together. Only in my backyard would moments like these even be possible.
The kids run through the sprinklers and hold their mouths open to catch the water. Drinks rest on the picnic table, but there is nothing like a cold spray of water in your face to catch a drop of water in your mouth. They are soaked, but the sunshine keeps them warm.
I bring out the popsicles- the same exact color, design, and shape so no squabbles can form. I fear what would happen if a Ninja and Queen had to battle it out for the best popsicle in town. Thankfully, they are so excited for their treat that they forget to fight. They sit underneath our small tree for shade and laugh because it is so cold in their mouth.
My queen is getting tired though and I pull her into my lap and hold her close. Her beach towel is wrapped around her and I lean in to smell her hair. It is the smell of sunshine, of baby shampoo, of sweetness that is like nothing else. I curl my fingers around her pigtails and let them go so little wet ringlets form around my finger. In my head, just one word keeps coming to mind and I quietly chant it in my head, "Blessed. Blessed. Blessed."
No matter what happens in the economy, no matter how high the groceries get, and no matter how much the gas prices increase... I am blessed. It is the first thing I think when I wake up and it is the last thought on my mind as my head hits the pillow.
Materials Needed: Please see Tip Nut for the full instructions. I decided to attempt cooking the oatmeal in my slow cooker and followed the instructions exactly except I substituted the steel cut oats for regular rolled oats because that is what I had in my pantry. I wanted to see if the experiment worked well before heading to the store. My slow cooker is the standard size and I poured the ingredients in there. I was really intrigued by the water to oats ratio because it just seemed like far too much water. I flipped the slow cooker on and let it cook for eight hours.
Results: I programmed my coffeemaker for the same exact time and woke up to a steaming bowl of oatmeal and hot coffee this morning. The oatmeal still seemed a little thin, but I let it set up for a minute or two before I tried it. Within minutes, it thickened up and I had a perfect bowl of oatmeal.
This oatmeal is extremely creamy and tastes delicious! It tastes more on par with restaurant oatmeal because of the great consistency of it. With a lump of brown sugar and some dried fruits, it would make a wonderful way to start the day.
Conclusion: I will definitely be buying the steel cut oatmeal to eat this again. It was a wonderful way to walk up and motivated me to have breakfast which is very hard to do! Thanks Tip Nut for sharing all of your tips with your readers!
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I am so excited to open our Notebook Experiments up to everyone and I hope that you will be able to participate this week or in weeks to come! I will be posting this each Thursday so please mark your calendars if you plan to participate. You can post your entries at any time throughout the week and then leave your entry in the links below.
We have this handy banner that you are more than welcome to use, but it is not a requirement! It is just something you can add to add a little sparkle to your entry.
Rules for Participation:
1. Choose anything from any of our notebook entries (past or present) to do with your family. We have hundreds of bookmarked links of crafts, ways to save money, and organizing ideas. 2. Complete an experiment from the notebook and share about it on your blog or website. We would love to see pictures of what you accomplished or a detailed description of how your projects turned out. Please include a link to this entry, a link to the original posting of the entry (at the original crafster's blog), and (to help us relocate the project) the date or link of the notebook entry where you found it. You can use the same formatting as our entries or you can just include that information in your post in your own unique way! 3. Post a link below. Please include your name or blog name & a fast description of your project. Example- MomAdvice (WHO bread)
I can't wait to see what you create and what you find inspiring!
Calendars, planners, and online software change each year so for the back-to-school season, I would like to share with you some of the family planning options available to you for the new 2009 school year.
Let's start with online planners since these are typically a free option for families. Online tools are ideal for clearing the paper clutter from your life and can be easily shared among family members. When using paper calendars, it can be difficult to get your family all on the same page (so to speak) so online tools can be a great option for making sure everyone is aware of those meetings and appointments.
Here is a quick round-up of our favorite online calendar tools:
Qlubb-This is a fantastic tool for getting people and events organized in your mommy life. Qlubb is a web-based group utility that enables real-world groups to easily connect, share and get stuff done. Qlubb brings all aspects of group interaction to one simple and intuitive place. With event calendaring, sign-up sheets, photo sharing, member rosters, file sharing, task reminder service, and bulletin boards, Qlubb provides all the functions needed to easily and actively participate within a group. This online tool is idea for room parents, club organizers, scout troop leaders, PTO, and playgroup activities.
Google Calendar- This seems to be a favorite among families because it syncs so well with everything in a busy mom's life. Busy families can easily link to one another's calendars to avoid scheduling conflicts which makes it a very appealing option. You can import events from other calendar programs like Yahoo! Calendar and Microsoft Outlook. You also can set up multiple calendars for different areas of your life, like one for your daughter's ballet schedule or one for your weekly night's out with your girlfriends. Party planning and invitations can be done through the calendar as well as setting up reminders for important events in your life. I love that you can share your calendar with your family (or the world, if you so choose) which should help trigger your spouse's memory for that dinner with your family that he was so not looking forward to.
Cozi- In my opinion, this is one of the best free online tools that there is. I really just love the look and the feel of this calendar. I loved this calendar when it first came out, but they have made a new recent addition and you can now sync to Outlook, which makes adding events a whole lot easier. This software is made with a mom in mind. It is easy to use, color-coded (for each family member), includes pictures of your sweet little ones, helps you with your grocery list, has calendars with alerts letting you know when your appointments are and you can send love notes to your hubby…all from one central location. Left your grocery list at home? Just call Cozi’s toll-free number from any mobile phone and have your list read to you or sent as a text message.
remember the milk- This site is great for our list-writing mommas. You can make as many lists as you like and no one will tell you to put your notepads away. Into tagging items on your blog? Use the task cloud to easily see what you have to do. Want to store notes along with your tasks? You can do that too. Saving gas is always a priority too and you can use the map feature to see where your tasks are located in the real world. See what's nearby or on your way, and plan the best way to get things done.
Ta-da Lists- Another great site for the list-writing mommas because that is virtually all this program is. It is simple, it takes about ten seconds to sign up for an account and you can make as many lists as you like. You could also be like, "Ta-da!" and have this open on your computer with a giant list of things you need your spouse to do... you know, if you were that kind of spouse!
Online planning has come a long way, but many families still rely on the good old-fashioned paper calendars to get their days organized. Despite using a computer to manage my business, I am still guilty of indulging in paper organizers to manage our hectic lives.
There are many budget-friendly organizers on the market and I wanted to highlight for you a few of my favorites for managing our schedules:
Family Facts On the Go Organizer & Planner- For the past three years, this has been my calendar of choice for my family. This calendar has everything that I need and is the perfect size to still tuck into my purse. My favorite things about this organizer is that it has tear off corners to mark what week you are on, it has a very durable waterproof cover that can withstand the elements, and it has organizing pockets where I can tuck in business cards or bills that need to be taken care of. The calendar starts in September, getting moms kicked off right to school with a brand new organizer. I have converted many friends over to this organizer because it has all of the tools you need right at your fingertips. (Price- $14.95)
BusyBodyBooks Academic Organizer- If you are attracted to a calendar with simplicity and lots of room to write down schedules, then this is the calendar for you. I would compare this organizer to a paper-format of the Cozi online calendar.
These organizers are roomy and have a weekly grid format with a spacious side by side view of your schedule. Each family member can get their own column of activities, making it easy to see who needs to be where. These columns can accommodate up to five family members on each page.
In addition to your standard calendar, the organizer offers extras like a planning calendar for birthdays and anniversaries, another calendar for the next year’s appointments, shopping lists, pockets to store items, a bookmark to mark what week you are on, and plenty of places to leave extra notes. (Price- $17.59)
BusyBodyBooks Wall Calendar- This calendar offers seven columns to arrange multiple and hectic schedules side by side. If you have less than seven family members, like our family, the other columns are helpful for organizing a chore/work schedule and your family's menu plans for the week.
Other fun elements that make this calendar a winner is the pocket for storage, a place to start tracking appointments for the next year (no more do you have to write in the margins until you buy your calendar) and a place to keep track of birthdays and important emergency information. I also love that this calendar is spiral-bound so that it can lay completely flat when I am filling it out or when being hung on the wall.
Each week is an an entire page in the wall calendar, offering a generous amount of room for recording all of life's little details. At the bottom of each page is a section for checklists and note taking. (Price- $14.65)
momAgenda- I keep two separate organizers to manage my business and my home life. For the last year, I have been using my momAgenda to organize everything for my website and I absolutely love it.
This calendar is clean and simple, but very elegantly bound. The calendar pages are set up in such a way that they provide ample room to get all of your scheduling needs in it. Each month has two pages devoted towards the month-at-a-glance and then it is divided by week (two pages per week). The weekly pages offer room to categorize which is very useful for a mom who needs to divide her work and home life or just wants to divide schedules. The book has two ribbon bookmarks to bookmark what week you are on and any area other area in your calendar you would like to keep bookmarked. Each page provides a great motivational quote and there are many other sections within the MomAgenda that make it a great tool for moms. For example, a party-planning section, a place to jot down favorite wines, and even a list of favorite websites.
This is higher priced than the other organizers that are highlighted, but I know many moms would get their money's worth out of this one. The momAgenda website does, however, offer oodles of free printables that can help you get organized this year including a great back-to-school checklist that I plan to use this year. (Price- $45)
Jumbo Dry Erase Wall Calendar- I love dry erase calendars and go to town color coding everyone and making notes on these. I requested this wall calendar as a gift this past year for Christmas, never glancing at the dimensions when ordering it. When I received this calendar, I was shocked to find that it is about the size of an actual wall. After getting over my initial shock, it has been a great addition to our office to organize everyone's schedules in one spot. If you have the wall space and a big family, I would recommend this calendar for your busy family. (Price- $14.99)
MomAdvice Weekly Planner- What list would be complete without our free printable weekly planner that we offer? I have heard from many families that this is a tool that they use when managing their busy lives. Unlike most planners, our design leaves just as much room for your weekend as the rest of the week. See all of your appointments, reminders and entire To Do list, all on one page. Fits any standard 8½ x 11" binder. (Price- FREE)
Family Facts School Years Memento Keeper- While this is not a calendar tool, I absolutely have to highlight this as a way to jot down all of those memories and as a way to keep track of all of those endless papers that are coming home from school.
This memento keeper is thoughtfully put together and is built to last with durable pages and a strong hardback cover to keep all of those precious glitter projects safe.
The book starts with pre-kindergarten and ends with your child’s senior year in high school. For each section, there is a section for information about themselves, a spot for their photo, a place for their school information, summer vacation memories, and special memories from the holidays. There are also clever sections that your child can write their signature, draw a picture of themselves, and memories that their siblings and parents can share about them each year. Thoughtfully placed is a pocket in each section for your child’s favorite mementos, report card, photos, or report card. (Price- $22.95)
Do you use any calendar tools for managing your day? What has been the most successful in your family?
Welcome to our Apron Full of Giveaways, where we round up all of the best giveaways on the web. This is the spot where you can share your blog contests or where you can find fantastic stuff to enter.
Below are the contest links-if you are hosting a contest please link it up below. Sorry, we aren't giving away the aprons just showcasing them! Please put your site name and then what type of contest you are hosting. For example, "MomAdvice (Children's Movies)."
Please let me know if you have any questions and good luck to each of you!
I love meals that are fast, elegant enough to entertain with, and will free up needed pantry space. This dish fit the bill when I overbought on pesto for my son's birthday. I kept thinking that the pesto would be fantastic mixed in a sauce. When I happened upon some chicken and cheese stuffed ravioli while perusing the wholesale club, I knew I would be able to whip something amazing up.
The flecks of green and foreign stuffing in the pasta would have been a turn off for many kids, but after a good five minutes of coaxing, the forks plunged into the dishes and quiet smacking was all that was heard the rest of the dinner hour...
Well, that and the request for more "honey" for bread by the sweet voices gathered around the dinner table. Yes, my children believe olive oil is a common commodity, much like other children request ketchup for dipping. Oh, if I only had such a gourmet palate when I was a child, I know I would be destined to create great things in the kitchen. Let's hope these extravagant luxuries can be endured on a teeny grocery budget.
Ravioli With Pesto Cream Sauce
1 pound fresh or frozen ravioli 2 tablespoons olive oil 2 tablespoons minced garlic 1/4 cup butter 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour 2 cups milk (we used skim milk) 1 pinch salt 1 pinch pepper 1 1/2 cups grated Romano cheese 1 cup prepared pesto Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook as directed and drain. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Stir in garlic and butter, and saute until garlic is soft and fragrant, about 1 minute. Dissolve flour in milk, then stir in. Season with salt and pepper, and simmer 4 minutes, stirring constantly. Add cheese, and stir until melted. Stir in pesto. Dish ravioli on plates and then drizzle the pesto cream sauce over it. Garnish with a little fresh basil or chopped parsley.
PS- Be sure to serve with oodles of bread with "honey" for dipping for those gourmet palates!
I just want to say a special thank you to each of you for visiting my website and sharing it with your friends, family, and your own readers. We had another great month and it is all thanks to you. I hope to continue offering support through our site, lots of giveaways for our readers, and a place where you feel valued and cared for. If there is anything you would like to see on here, please contact me (amy@momadvice.com) and let me know what you would like to see in the upcoming year.
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Both of my children love to help me in the kitchen and when I found this fun little recipe for a snack, I had to try it with them. Longtime readers may remember my failed attempts at pretzel-making. While I was discouraged by that experience, I haven't given up on it. I will say though that when I found a quick and easy way to achieve the pretzel goodness without the mess, I had to give these a try.
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