Dragons!

We got back into our alphabet work today since we were stuck in the house waiting on Fedex. Because I'm such a slack mama we are only on D! Anyway, we made a 'D' dragon (pics to come), put dumptruck and digger stickers in our scrapbook and had all things dipable for lunch! Apple and banana slices, cheese cubes, Just Tomatoes fruit munchies with strawberry applesauce and yoghurt. Yes, that is a plastic plate, in my defense it is 'safe' plastic, I am waiting on some stainless steel mess trays from a co-op I am running ;)

We also made oatmeal raisin cookies but they don't start with D, unless you count them being DELICIOUS.

After our D craft we read some books:
Duck on a Bike is one of Parker's favorites about a duck that gets a crraaazzyy idea.

A Dragon on the Doorstep
is also a really fun books with lots of animals to find hiding in the pages. We love Dragons!

And finally we read 'Hairy Clairy Dairy' ;) Hairy Maclary from Donaldsons Diary I am so glad P is beginning to really enjoy these books, they are classic kiwi children's books. The illustrations are beautiful and the writing rhymes cleverly. They have lots of dogs in them, and they start with D!

Make It Monday

I know I know, it's Tuesday, but I MEANT to make this on Monday, does that count?

I have searched EVERYWHERE for chocolate syrup that isn't full of BOTH corn syrup and high fructose corn syrup as well as hydrogenated oils, fats and other words I can't even pronounce. My search was unsuccessful. There are 20+ ingredients in Smuckers Chocolate Syrup and none of them are good for you. This recipe has 5 ingredients and tastes just as good, or even better. I halved the recipe and made enough to fill one standard sized chocolate syrup jar. Perfect! We had it tonight with crepes and icecream and P was even allowed to have some for a change!

Foodie Friday

This is apparently going to become a regular theme. P and I have had a busy week so we haven't done much 'Tot School' but he has of course still learned LOTS.

On to the food! Tonight I made some 'mini' turkey and beef meatballs. I say 'mini' because I didn't really make them as mini as I should have. I used this recipe but cut it in half because that's all the meat I had. They were a hit, even P ate them! We had them tonight with organic whole wheat pasta and an organic pasta sauce made from a mix I got from a Frontier co-op. I put the rest in the freezer for Swedish Meatballs next week!

I also made some ginger cookies tonight because I had no Cadbury Creme Eggs :( Ginger is said to be good for nausea... that may be true in low to moderate amounts but I sure do feel sick after eating 10+ of them in the last couple hours...

Happy Valentine's Day!

We didn't make it to the Little Gym, Gymboree or story time this week; P has been pretty sick and we didn't want to spread the germies so we've been taking it easy, lots of snuggles, books and unfortunately too much Thomas and Yo Gabba Gabba :S

We are taking a break from our alphabet work this week to do Valentine's Day stuff. We decorated a foam letter box earlier this week with stickers and glitter glue. It was $5 at Target and P loves it although I have had to put it up because the door on the mail box was causing tantrums!

We made these this morning for P's Mimi and our friend/his babysitter. They're super easy and use up things around the house. The body is made of a toilet paper roll, we used paper from my scrapbook stash and we already had the pipe cleaners. Easy peasy. Well, P had fun dumping the foam hearts and pipe cleaners all over the living room and I had fun making the 'love bugs' LOL he did help me glue a couple of the hearts on...  We delivered them this morning and they loved them!

 

Hopefully P will be doing better next week so we can get back into things!

Foodie Friday!

We've had some fun with cooking the last couple days.

I bought a whole cored pineapple at the store this week because we were going to be making pizza tonight. I try not to be wasteful and had no idea what to use half a pineapple for but we were able to come up with a super yummy use for it; sweet and sour pork! And it tasted just like what I get at our favorite Chinese restaurant. The recipe I used is easy peasy, we had everything else needed in the pantry. AND Parker actually ate it!

Sweet and Sour Pork 

1 1/2 pounds boneless pork loin, sliced 1/2-inch thick
1 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/4 of a fresh pineapple and cut it on a plate to catch the juice
3/4 cup water
1/4 cup vinegar
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons water
1/2 cup thinly sliced onion
1 green pepper, cut in thin strips
2 cups hot cooked rice

Preparation:

• Cut pork into strips and saute in hot oil over medium heat until lightly browned. Drain.

• Cut pineapple into chunks on a plate so you can save the juice.

• Combine pineapple juice, 3/4 cup water, vinegar, soy sauce, brown sugar, and salt; pour over pork in   skillet. Cover and simmer 1 hour, or until meat is tender.  Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until mixture is thickened and bubbly. You can add a little cornstarch if necessary, I didn't though.

• Add pineapple chunks, onion and green pepper. Cover and simmer for 10 minutes or until vegetables are tender. Serve over rice. Serves 4 to 6. 

 

And for dinner tonight we had 100% homemade pizza and it was delicious! We used a dough recipe I found on a forum I belong to and it was pretty good. I had planned on using one from my Good Eats book but it needed to rise for 18-24 hours in the fridge. Oops!

Pizza Dough Recipe

1 cup white whole wheat flour and extra for kneeding

1 sachet fast rising yeast (15ml) or 3/4 T

1/2 cup boiling water

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp sugar

Mix the cup of flour with the yeast, sugar and salt. Boil the kettle and pour the boiling water into the flour mix. Stir until it is cool enough to mix and kneed with your hands. Knead until a soft elastic dough (should take you about 5-10 minutes. Leave to rise for about half an hour or so. The original recipe says the dough is enough to make a 12 inch crust. I made two batches for the three of us.

Build your pizza and then bake for 10-15 min at 355F or until the crust looks well done. I think we will cook ours a wee bit longer next time.

P's daddy worked in a pizza store years ago...

P helped me create a super yummy Hawaiian pizza for us to share (though I think he ate more than I did!). He learned how to 'sprinkle' (aka dump) the ham and cheese on. And even learned to say Sprinkle! Daddy had one with mushrooms, Hormel pepperoni (uncured and nitrate free), green bell pepper, onion and cheese. 

I did a bit of sewing for my Hyena Cart store after P went to bed and I think I am going to go make some chocolate chip cookies now...

Ahhh Life

It has gotten away on us again! I have been busy with Mr. grumpybecauseI'mgettingthelastofm molars and we haven't gotten much Tot School done in the past few days but we have learned a lot! Mostly though I have just been trying not to go crazy!

What we've been up to
* P has 4 floating hippos in his bath toy collection. 3 of them have rings. Poor Yellow Hippo's ring is nowhere to be found. It's OK though! All of them, including the incomplete Hippo afford us a good learning opportunity; I muddle them up and then ask if they match and P will say noooo and correct them and THEN tell me they match. We just did this tonight in the bath, he's so cute. He also (almost) counted to three tonight! He counted to two and then expected me to pour the water so didn't reach 3 but I know we will next time!
* P has started telling ME to stop it. Rascal.
* We had Gymboree on Tuesday. This week we were mail carriers and got to deliver letters and packages and pull the mail truck. Parker LOVED this week's theme. I am going to have to make him a mailbox out of one of the 100 cereal boxes I have stashed away
* We got a potty today because he is becoming more interested in where the poop goes when we change his diaper (he helps me flush it). So I got him a Baby Bjorn potty today and let him check it out. I showed him how he could sit and read a book and he liked that. But now he is asking for his potty just so he can read a book. Silly boy, you can read without a potty involved. It's not like I can say no though is it?!?
* Lots of spinning! When he lets me brush his teeth he gets to spin around in a circle but then it's time to brush again. This unfortunately isn't working so well anymore so now I am brushing his wooden airplane's teeth as well as his own and I have managed to actually get the toothbrush IN his mouth two nights in a row!
* I search for Parker every morning when he wakes up. Well, not really but almost! He requests a minimum of 3 stuffed animals for nap and bedtime and they are always ones I can't find so I have to search for them all over the house (and car) until we finally have the right combination and he can go to sleep. He also has become a wee bit afraid of the dark. Some nights he asks for his night light and others he is OK and doesn't need it. I kind of need it though because after the sixth time of being woken up in the middle of the night I can't see so well. Come on molars!
* Considering breaking out the toddler bed but I fear I will never sleep again.
* Lots of books (especially the 'bruck book', we read the darn Truck Book at least 3 times a day, it bores me but he loves it, what can you do?), lots of blocks and cars and trains and planes. And general boy stuff!

We did finish up our work with 'C' - P really seemed to enjoy when we looked through magazines for pictures of B things so we did the same with C yesterday and we now have a bunch of cars in his scrapbook. Of course.

That's about it. I think we'll get started with D tomorrow! Dragons!