Family Craft And Bake Stop
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Monday, January 3, 2011
Marshmallows...Marshmallows...
My children are OBSESSED with marshmallows! I searched the web to find simple, easy crafts using them. I put some out for the craft and "a little extra" for them to eat...
Marshmallow snowman
What You Need:
- Marshmallows
- Paper
What You Do:
- Give your children a piece of paper with a snowman outlined on it. Have them lick marshmallows and then press them onto the paper to make a snowman, the marshmallows actually stick very well
Contact Paper Snowman
What You Need:
- Contact Paper
- Cotton or marshmallows
- Pom-poms or chocolate chips
What You Do:
- Give your children contact paper cut out as a snowman. Let them put cotton and other pom-poms and anything else they want to in order to make a unique special snowman.
- Make a Marshmallow Star. Push six miniature marshmallows onto one toothpick, leaving one pointed end sticking out. Do the same for five others, so that there are six altogether. Push the pointed ends of these toothpicks into a large marshmallow to form a star.
- Make a batch of Apple Smiles. Spread peanut butter onto one side of an apple wedge. Using miniature marshmallows, position the “teeth” in place onto one of the apple wedges. Top with other apple wedge so that the peanut butter acts as a cement for the marshmallow dentures.
http://www.grouprecipes.com/11940/strawberry-marshmallow-creme-pizza.html
Ingredients
- I tube refrigerated sugar cookie dough (or your own favorite recipe)
- 8 ounce package cream cheese
- 7 ounce jar marshmallow crème
- 1 quart fresh strawberries, cleaned and sliced
- 1 can pineapple chunks, drained and patted dry
- 2 bananas, sliced (sprinkle with a little fruit Fresh to keep them from turning brown)
- Homemade glaze:
- 1 cup orange juice
- ¼ cup water
- ¼ cup fresh lemon juice
- ½ cup sugar
- 2 tablespoons flour
How to make it
- Slice the tube of cookies into ¼” slices and lay them, sides touching, on a round pizza pan, (you can use any shape pan, just make sure to cover the bottom with cookie dough slices).
- Pat the cookies together once they are all in the pan, pressing so that there are no open spaces in the bottom of the pan.
- Bake cookie crust just until it barely begins to brown on the edges, being sure not to over-bake it – just slightly under-baked is best and will make the pizza easier to cut.
- Cool baked cookie crust completely.
- Mix together softened cream cheese and marshmallow crème and spread over the cookie crust.
- Layer fruits over the top of cream cheese layer.
- Gently spread cooled glaze over the fruit layer.
- Cover with plastic wrap or foil and chill completely.
- Slice into wedges or squares to serve.
- To make the glaze, stir the sugar and flour together in a small saucepan.
- Whisk in orange juice, water and lemon juice.
- Bring glaze to a boil, stirring often with a wire whisk.
- Remove pan from heat and cool glaze completely before spreading over the fruit layer. This recipe usually will cover TWO pizzas.
- NOTE: You can use a 16 ounce package of pre-made strawberry pie glaze, if you need to conserve time. I do prefer the homemade glaze, but sometimes saving minutes is necessary!
Sunday, January 2, 2011
PAINT AND COLLAGE
Different ways to get creative with paint. Plus: Give your child a "theme" and watch their collage take off!
http://www.freekidcrafts.com/kid-painting-ideas2.html
Crayon resist painting- Use a white crayon to draw anything you want on a white piece of paper. Then paint over the crayon using thinned paint or watercolors. You can use different color crayons on different colors of paper to make a different effect.
Puffy Paint Picture - Mix equal parts of flour, salt, and water to make puffy paint, and then color it any color you want with food coloring. Fill squeeze bottles with the paint mixture and then use them to create designs on thin pieces of cardboard (like the backs of cereal boxes). Let the pictures dry completely. When they dry the paint will be puffed up and it will sparkle.
Straw Painting - Put a couple of drops of thinned paint onto paper and give child straw to blow different patterns
http://www.buzzle.com/articles/watercolor-art-projects-for-kids.html
Salted Watercolor Paintings: On an art paper sheet, draw the outline of the image that you want to paint. Paint in the areas that you would want the attention to be on. Ensure that you paint these areas in bright colors. Now sprinkle regular salt on this painted section and let it dry. The salt creates a beautiful pattern and gives the painting a speckled texture. Once the painting is dry, you can brush off the salt and paint the other areas carefully.
Letter Collage
http://www.freekidcrafts.com/kid-painting-ideas2.html
Crayon resist painting- Use a white crayon to draw anything you want on a white piece of paper. Then paint over the crayon using thinned paint or watercolors. You can use different color crayons on different colors of paper to make a different effect.
Puffy Paint Picture - Mix equal parts of flour, salt, and water to make puffy paint, and then color it any color you want with food coloring. Fill squeeze bottles with the paint mixture and then use them to create designs on thin pieces of cardboard (like the backs of cereal boxes). Let the pictures dry completely. When they dry the paint will be puffed up and it will sparkle.
Straw Painting - Put a couple of drops of thinned paint onto paper and give child straw to blow different patterns
http://www.buzzle.com/articles/watercolor-art-projects-for-kids.html
Salted Watercolor Paintings: On an art paper sheet, draw the outline of the image that you want to paint. Paint in the areas that you would want the attention to be on. Ensure that you paint these areas in bright colors. Now sprinkle regular salt on this painted section and let it dry. The salt creates a beautiful pattern and gives the painting a speckled texture. Once the painting is dry, you can brush off the salt and paint the other areas carefully.
Letter CollageThere are many ways to do this craft, depending on what skills your child is focusing on. One fun activity is to simply find collage items that start with a particular letter. You can use spare photos, old magazines, newspapers, online images and clipart that show things that start with that letter. Or you can use physical objects whose names begin with that letter. For example, if the letter collage was about the letter "B", you might have pictures of boys, basketballs, boxes, berries, things that are the color blue or brown... as well as some actual buttons and some dried beans.
Still another idea is to draw a large letter on a piece of construction paper and have your child "glue inside the lines". You can also cut out construction paper in letter shapes or to buy large pre-cut letter shapes like the one's shown, available from discountschoolsupply.com
My Favorite Things: This one works best if children can cut or tear their own pictures, but they could be simply given some piles with precut items from magazines, etc. Then they glue pictures of things they like to tag board or construction paper. At circle time they can talk about their creation.
Color themed collages- collect images or objects which are all the same color.
school theme, "winter break" theme, snow theme and animals are also fun to do...
Color themed collages- collect images or objects which are all the same color.
school theme, "winter break" theme, snow theme and animals are also fun to do...
Saturday, January 1, 2011
CASSEROLE RECIPES
Creamy Spinach Casserole Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 cans (10-3/4 ounces each) reduced-fat reduced-sodium condensed cream of chicken soup, undiluted
- 1 package (8 ounces) reduced-fat cream cheese, cubed
- 1/2 cup fat-free milk
- 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
- 4 cups herb seasoned stuffing cubes
- 2 packages (10 ounces each) frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
Directions
- In a large bowl, beat the soup, cream cheese, milk and
- Parmesan cheese until blended. Stir in stuffing cubes and spinach.
- Spoon into a 2-qt. baking dish coated with cooking spray. Bake, uncovered, at 350° for 35-40 minutes or until heated through. Yield: 10 servings.
Ingredients
- 1 pound boneless skinless chicken thighs, cut into 1-inch pieces
- 1/2 cup each chopped onion, green pepper and sweet red pepper
- 1 teaspoon each dried basil, oregano and parsley flakes
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
- 1 tablespoon canola oil
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 1-1/2 cups uncooked penne pasta
- 1 can (14-1/2 ounces) Hunt’s® Original Diced Tomatoes, undrained
- 3 tablespoons tomato paste
- 3/4 cup chicken broth
- 2 cups (8 ounces) shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese
- 1/2 cup grated Romano cheese
Directions
- In a large saucepan, saute the chicken, onion, peppers and seasonings in oil until chicken is no longer pink. Add garlic; cook 1 minute longer.
- Cook pasta according to package directions. Meanwhile, process tomatoes and tomato paste in a blender; add to chicken mixture. Stir in broth. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 10-15 minutes or until slightly thickened.
- Drain pasta; toss with chicken mixture. Spoon half of the mixture into a greased 2-qt. baking dish. Sprinkle with half of the cheeses. Repeat layers.
- Cover and bake at 350° for 30 minutes. Uncover; bake 15-20 minutes longer or until heated through. Yield: 4 servings.
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