This is a family favorite of ours…  I often make this for the boys when we are going out because it is so quick and it’s something that the boys and the babysitter will eat!   An added bonus, NO FILLERS…  It is one of those recipes that you really can just mess with the amounts on.  I have seen a variety of recipes for these, so you might have another one that you love… This is just the one we use!

Ingredients:

Chicken (boneless skinless is very easy), I usually use 4 breasts

Buttermilk (it is low fat, did you know that????)  I usually buy a 16 ounce container

Bread Crumbs (any variety, I like either plain or italian) I usually start with about a cup and add if needed

Salt and Pepper

Cooking spray

Directions:

Cut the chicken into strips….  Put the chicken in a bowl and pour the buttermilk over it (it really depends on how much chicken you have to how much buttermilk you are using).  Sprinkle with salt and pepper.  If you don’t have buttermilk you can whisk an egg and soak the chicken in that, as well…  I soak the chicken in the fridge for as long as I have, but you don’t have to soak it at all if you don’t want to.  Put the bread crumbs in a bowl or plastic bag… You can add parmesan cheese to the bag if you like it…  Take your coated chicken and toss it in the bread crumbs until coated…  Lay your chicken strips in rows on a greased cookie sheet (I use cooking spray).  I usually give it another quick sprinkle of salt and pepper.

BAKE your chicken at 375 for 20-25 minutes, or until cooked through.  You may want to flip your chicken after 10 minutes… ENJOY

As we approach that special night when our kids get to dress up and go house to house asking strangers for candy I am thinking of a way to get them to not eat so much of it…  My plan this year is once trick or treating has commenced, I am going to “TRADE” my kids some of their candy for a NEW BOOK (and try not to eat the candy myself, ha)….  I know that they will love this because they absolutely LOVE new books… Here are some books I might consider for the trade or even just to “rent” from the library…  They are favorites of mine at school and I know the boys would love them at home too….

This is a craft that I have done for years with Third Graders, First Graders and Kindergarteners.  This year I decided to try it with my 2 & 4 year old.  Basically the older the child the more independent they are with each of the steps.  With my little guys I just did the cutting and let them glue.  You know your child and his/her ability!   Our house is now starting to look a little bit like a pumpkin patch!

STEP 1:  Cut a pumpkin out of orange paper;  I traced a bowl to get a more accurate circle, but pumpkins are rarely accurate so free handing it is just fine!

Step 2:  Draw two zig-zag lines down the pumpkin.  Again, older children can do this themselves, I did it for my preschoolers…

Step 3:  Cut along the Zig Zag Lines and glue your “puzzle pumpkin” to a black piece of paper…  I used a glue stick and let my little ones  glue….

Step 4:  Draw pumpkin eyes, nose and mouth on yellow construction paper and cut out.  Glue these onto your puzzle pumpkin.  (Again, older kids can draw and cut their own pumpkin face, I asked my guys what shapes they wanted and then cut them for them.  They glued them on).  I made a variety of faces….  My little guy’s art is much cuter than mine… Their finished product pics are at the bottom of this post!

Step 5:  My Preschooler’s Finished Products… They really had a lot of fun!

Yesterday was my son’s 4th birthday.  We had his birthday party over the weekend…  He is really into music so I decided to do a music theme… At first I thought I’d hire a high school guitar player to come over and play a couple “favorites” while the kids danced around.  Then I remembered that I had been thinking of taking a Kindermusik class this fall and did a little research.  It turned out that a Kindermusik teacher in our area also did birthday parties.  I quickly signed up for class, fell in LOVE with our teacher, and hired her to come to S’s birthday party!  She spent about 45 minutes at my house with 11 toddlers (which qualifies as a saint) and it was truly AWESOME!  After she was done, we had just enough time for lunch, cake, gifts and one final dance song!

Here are some of my “party tips”

*  Create space… Move furniture to the edge of the room to make space for people!

*  Stick with a theme and a color scheme….  I chose orange so I had orange balloons, jelly beans, plates, cups, etc..

*  Get party favors that are “fun” and “usable”

* An hour and a half is plenty

* Pack kids food in little bags, buckets, boxes etc..  This year I packed the kids lunches in brown gift bags that I had decorated with their names and some musical stickers.  Inside each bag was a sandwich, goldfish, fruit snacks, juice box/water, and a napkin.  The kids had a carpet/hardwood floor picnic…  It was great.  We did cupcakes after this on little plates, but that was easy to pass out.

Here are some pics:

*  We hired Kim from Kindermusik with Kim to entertain our young guests….

We ordered these party invitations from Tiny Prints….

*  We gave out these inflatable guitars that we ordered from Oriental Trading Company…  We handed them out at the end of the party and had a dance party with all of them, so cute!

*  A few more party favors keeping with our orange theme…  I ordered these from etsy…  Gotta love that site!

I saw this craft while perusing through one of my favorite websites, Family Fun.  I am going to run out and get the supplies I need for this craft because it really is so “stinkin'” cute!  THANK YOU FAMILY FUN… I’ve stalked this website for years, but didn’t get their magazine until more recently.  If you don’t get it,  you really MUST.  A student’s parent got it for me as a holiday gift and I just love it!

MATERIALS

Red Delicious apple
5 red gumdrops
Toothpicks
4 whole cloves
Fruit leather or fruit roll up
Red shoestring licorice

HOW IT’S MADE:

Turn an apple on its side. Insert one end of a toothpick into a gumdrop and stick the other end into the bottom of the apple core to form a snout. Break toothpicks in half and affix four gumdrops as feet. Set clove nostrils in the nose and clove eyes above the snout.

Twist off the stem, poke a hole with a toothpick, and insert an inch-long piece of shoestring licorice into the hole to make a tail. Finally, cut a piece of fruit leather/ fruit roll up into a rectangle measuring 1 by 1/2 inch, then cut again on the diagonal to form two equal-size triangles. Affix upright triangles with small pieces of toothpick to create ears, then bend over the upper portion of each triangle to cover the spot where the toothpick shows.

picture and recipe courtesy of http://www.familyfun.com

Banana Chocolate Chip Cupcakes

Ingredients:
3/4 cup butter
2 1/8 cups white sugar
3 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
2 teaspoons lemon juice

1 1/2 cups mashed bananas (3-4 bananas)

6 oz mini chocolate chips

Frosting:
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
3 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease and flour a 9×13 inch pan or line 24 cupcakes. In a small bowl, mix mashed bananas with lemon juice, set aside. In a medium bowl, mix flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
In a large bowl, cream 3/4 cup butter and 2 1/8 cups sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in 2 teaspoons vanilla. Beat in the flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk. Stir in banana mixture.  Add chocolate chips.   Pour batter into prepared pan.
Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Remove from oven and place directly into freezer for 45 minutes. This will make the cake very moist.
For the frosting: In a large bowl, cream 1/2 cup butter and cream cheese until smooth. Beat in 1 teaspoon vanilla. Add confectioners sugar and beat on low speed until combined, then on high until frosting is smooth. Spread on cooled cake.

Yep, you heard me right!  POOP GOOP…  When my boys were babies my pediatrician gave us a recipe for “Poop Goop”  which was the best thing to cure diaper rash!  Well, my 2.5 year old has a bad rash on his bum because he is having some unknown food allergies and so I dug out the poop goop recipe and it worked it’s magic… It truly is the BEST thing EVER for a RED BUM (what ever the cause)…

Recipe:  You use equal parts of the three ingredients…

1 part diaper ointment

1 part Cortisone Cream (such as Cortaid)

1 part Mylanta

Mix them together and there you have it.  We keep it in a little tiny tupperware container…  I use half a tube of diaper cream, half a tube of cortisone cream and mix those together.  I add a little Mylanta at a time to thin it out…  Works like a charm!  Enjoy…

Materials:

Apple

Red Tempera Paint

Green Tempera Paint

Paper Towel

Paper Plate or paint brush

Directions:

Cut the apple in half vertically.  Dry the apple with a paper towel.  Dip the apple that still has the stem on it in the paint (that is on a paper plate) OR you can lightly paint the apple with the green or red paint.  Press it on the paper and you will have the cutest little apple.  You can draw a tree trunk first and then have your child paint apples all over it.  Another thing you can do is cut a second apple in half horizontally and it will make a star on the inside of the apple (there is a cute story about the house with no windows, no doors and a star inside you can google)…  Use the horizontally cut apple in the green paint and that can be your “leaves”.  Do the vertically cut apple in the red paint for the apples… This would make a very cute picture!

Today I made apple crisp for my book club…  I usually make it the traditional way, but today I made it in a more snazzy way… Both recipes are below…  I will post a picture of ours once we dig into it!

Traditional Apple Crisp:  Courtesy of Martha Stewart

• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
• 1/4 cup packed light-brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, cold, cut into small cubes
• 1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats (not quick-cooking)
• 3 pounds apples, such as Empire, Gala, or Braeburn, peeled, cored, and cut into 1/2-inch chunks
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a large bowl, mix together flour, brown sugar, salt, and 2 tablespoons granulated sugar. Cut butter into flour, using a pastry blender or two knives, until mixture is the texture of coarse meal. Add oats, and use your hands to toss and squeeze mixture until large, moist clumps form. Transfer to freezer to chill while you prepare apples.
2. In another large bowl, toss apples with lemon juice, cinnamon, and remaining 1/2 cup granulated sugar. Transfer to a shallow 2-quart baking dish, and sprinkle with topping mixture. Place baking dish on a rimmed baking sheet, and bake until golden and bubbling, 55 to 65 minutes. Let cool 10 minutes before serving.

SNAZZY APPLE CRISP

1-2 lemons (the zest and the juice)

1.5 cups of sugar

1.5 cups flour

1/2 t salt

1/2 t cinnamon

1/2 t nutmeg

1 stick of butter (cold)

2 pounds of apples, peeled, sliced and cored

FOR TOPPING:

Zest one to two of the lemons (one large or two small).  Put the zest of the lemon and the sugar in a food processor or blender.  Grind until very fine.  Add the flour and all of the spices to this mixture.  Add the cold butter and combine in the mixer.  Set Aside

For Base:

Slice all of the apples and place them in a casserole dish or baking pan.  Squeeze the juice from the above lemon(s) all over the apples.  Pour the crumb mixture from above (the topping) over the apples and pat it down.  Bake this at 375 degrees for 50 minutes or until the top is golden brown.

This week I am going to try to post different apple recipes that we love… Please add your recipes to the comment section and I will copy them to our recipe page!   It is a family tradition for us to go to the apple orchard in early October…   Make a trip to your local orchard, farmer’s market, or grocery store and enjoy apples a couple different ways!  It’s that time of year!  MMMM..

Homemade applesauce:

INGREDIENTS

• 3 to 4 lbs of peeled, cored, and quartered apples.
• Juice of one lemon, about 3-4 Tbsp
• 1 cinnamon stick (if desired) or 2 T cinnamon (we leave it out at our house)
• 1/4 cup of brown sugar
• up to 1/4 cup of white sugar
• 1 cup of apple juice or water

1 Put all ingredients into a large pot. Cover. Bring to boil. Lower heat and simmer for 20-30 minutes.

2 Remove from heat. Remove cinnamon stick.   Mash with potato masher.

Ready to serve, either hot or refrigerated.  Freezes easily..

The sugar amounts are just guidelines, depending your taste, and on the sweetness of your apples, use less or more. If you use less sugar, you’ll likely want to use less lemon juice. The lemon juice brightens the flavor of the apples and balances the sweetness.