Friday Family Fun Night- Shapes and Colors

Happy Friday everyone! I am so sorry that I made you wait an entire week for Friday Family Fun night. I decided that it makes more sense to post each Friday's activities a week later so that the "Friday" post, actually gets posted on Friday.

So, LAST Friday, we created our evening around Shapes and Colors. My preschooler has been working on all the various shapes and colors in school. Honestly, she has had them down for a while, but it is fun to reinforce what she is working on at school in a fun way at home. So this dinner is probably the most colorful meal I have ever placed in front of my family. But first, our activities. 

I am sure you all have wonderful books to read about shapes and colors to your children. We read a few of our favorites. "Mouse Paint" by Ellen Walsh and "Pete the Cat" by Eric Litwin. I prepared for our art time by cutting out shapes of different sizes and colors out of construction paper. I decided we would make a snowy scene mural together. That in mind I cut many sizes of circles in white, triangles in orange and green, black rectangles, red octagons etc. Then we got out the large roll of painters paper that we love so much, glue, scissors, crayons and water color paints and went crazy creating our family snowman style. Or as we named it "SnowBerts!"

YES! I did the art project with my kids! It is FAMILY fun night! I really enjoy spending time being creative with my children. Plus, I got to really take advantage of the teaching opportunity as we took all the shapes I had cut out and turned them into a picture. 

And now, our beautiful dinner! 

Pan Baked Chicken with Fresh Strawberry-Mango Salsa, Sweet Potato Flowers, Pineapple and Banana Circles, Broccoli, and Blueberries. So many colors, and so delicious!

"Strawberry-Mango Salsa"

2 cups Fresh Strawberries Chopped

1/3 of a Fresh Mango Chopped 

1 Jalapeno chopped very fine (seeds removed)

Fresh Cilantro finely snipped 

Juice from 1/2 of a Lime

Prepare ingredients as listed above. Stir together. Yes, it is that easy! And this was incredibly tasty served on top of our cooked boneless skinless chicken breasts. 

"Sweet Potato Flowers"

Thinly slice sweet potatoes into rings that look like chips and place in a bowl. Toss with1-2 teaspoons of olive oil and sprinkle with a touch of cinnamon. Spread chips in a single layer on cookie sheets and place in the oven at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes on each side. Remove when Sweet Potatoes are soft. While cooling, cut chips with a small cookie cutter to make fun shapes. Simple and tasty.

Now the really fun part is presentation. The picture below is of the exact same food presented without the rainbow effect. It is still pretty... but didn't excite my children as much as the rainbow presentation in the picture above.  

Ultimately the point is to have fun while eating foods that strengthen the body! Enjoy this meal as a family! 

                                                   Have a WONDERFUL weekend!! 

Taco Stuffed Mushroom Caps

Happy Tuesday!

Yesterday I was feeling like getting creative in the kitchen. So, I made up a new recipe that seriously scores 5 stars at our house! Taco Stuffed Mushroom Caps.

"Taco Stuffed Mushroom Caps"

1 Pound Ground Sirloin
15-20 fresh mushrooms, washed and stems removed
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 1/2 tsp chili powder

1 Handful of Black Olives (Sorry, this is not a precise, count every olive type of recipe!) 

2 Tbsp Guacamole 

fresh cilantro
Fresh salsa

So, first you are going to brown 1 pound of fresh ground sirloin. Season the sirloin with cumin, cayenne pepper, chili powder, and an onion if you must. My measurements above for the spices are to our taste, but taco meat can be more mild or have more kick depending on your tastes so experiment with what you like.

COOK ONCE EAT TWICE TIP- It does NOT take an entire pound of taco meat to stuff mushroom caps! So after I browned and seasoned the meat I put half of it in a container in my refrigerator to reappear in a new form today at lunch!

Next, I mixed the remaining half of the taco meat with about 2 tablespoons of guacamole* and a handful of chopped black olives. Once mixed together, spoon mixture into mushroom caps. Place mushroom caps in a glass baking dish and bake at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes. Remove from oven, sprinkle with your favorite organic salsa and some fresh cilantro. I ate these up as lunch yesterday, and then my husband gobbled up the rest of them when he got home from work. They were very good! These would also make a fun dish to serve at a party!

*Guacamole is made from avocados, tomato, onion, cilantro, salt and garlic. It is easy to make. I will post my recipe another time. (If you rather buy guacamole, that is fine. Always watch your ingredients to be sure that everything is fresh and meets your own diet standards. If it has ingredients you can't pronounce or don't recognize, it probably isn't good for you! 

Cook Once, Eat Twice! Sweet Potato Pancakes

My amazing mother has always been trying to get me to plan ahead when it comes to our weekly menu. She says I should cook once and eat twice, and by doing so save a whole bunch of prep time in the kitchen. So this week, I am going to explore this idea, starting with this morning's breakfast! I had some left over Whipped Sweet Potatoes that we served as a side the other night. I have been itching for a new breakfast option so I decided to get creative this morning. If you missed the post about with the recipe for Whipped Sweet Potatoes here it is:  

"Whipped Sweet Potatoes"

3 Large Sweet Potatoes (Peeled and cubed)
1/4 Cup Coconut Cream
1 Tbsp Ghee
1 Tbsp Cinnamon
1/2 Tbsp Nutmeg
1 tsp Vanilla
2 Tbsp Pure Organic Honey
Salt to taste

Place peeled and cubed sweet potatoes in a large pot and bring to boil. Cook covered until potatoes are fork tender, about 20 minutes. Drain water. Mix remaining ingredients together with the sweet potatoes and mash until they reach desired consistency. 

This morning all I had to do was grab the container of left over potatoes and stir in one beaten egg. From there I heated a pan on medium heat and melted about a tablespoon of Ghee (purified butter). Then I scooped pancake sized scoops of the mixture into the pan. Cook on first side until pancake browns around the edges and center starts to look more solid. Flip and cook on the other side. Meanwhile, I sliced a few strawberries to serve with my pancakes. Total this breakfast took me about 15 minutes and I REALLY enjoyed it!

"Sweet Potato Pancakes"

2 Cups Left over "Whipped Sweet Potatoes" 
1 Egg, beaten
1-2 Tablespoon(s) Ghee

Serve with fresh fruit and a sprinkle of coconut flakes! Mom was totally right on this one. Making a little extra whipped sweet potatoes with dinner required no extra effort and then  made breakfast this morning extremely simple. I hope you enjoy it! 

Are you sure there is nothing to eat?

So it has been one of those weeks where the budget is tight and I have been trying to use every last scrap of food I can find to avoid going to the store before pay day, plus is has been really cold out so I haven't wanted to leave the house! Please tell me I am not the only person who does this? Anyhow, we had a few somewhat creative meals this week as a result.

Tonight, I literally took the remaining contents of my refrigerator and said, "What can I do with this?" Often, this approach results in some form of soup or stew, which is the magic way of using that one remaining zucchini or half a green pepper. I love making soup! Today however, I wasn't in the mood for my traditional veggie soup and I was missing some of my favorite ingredients. So, I got creative and worked with what I had which was:

1 Parsnip
1/2 bag of Baby Carrots
2 cloves of Garlic
2 Zucchini
5 Strips of Bacon

Huh. Doesn't look like dinner does it? Enter my awesome pantry! From my pantry I added:

2 Cans of Diced Tomatoes
1 Can of full fat Coconut Milk
1 Can Chicken Broth (I used only 1 Cup)
1 Tsp of Salt
1 Tsp Dried Basil

In a soup pot, add sliced parsnip, zucchini, carrots, cans of tomatoes (do not drain, add the juice as well), 2 cloves minced garlic, salt, basil and 1 cup of chicken broth. Bring pot to boil and allow veggies to get soft. At the same time cook bacon, cool and crumble. When veggies are tender, put mixture in a food processor and whirl. Put mixture back into the soup pot on simmer and add 1 can of full fat coconut milk to mixture. Stir in bacon bits or sprinkle on top. This ended up tasting like a creamy tomato and basil soup... but with many other awesome vegetables AND BACON, hiding within it. I was especially excited because my oldest daughter LOVED this soup and she swears that she HATES zucchini. The vegetable ninja strikes again!

In other news, we had a snow day this week. It was a perfect snow day. Lots of packing snow, perfect for building snow men and forts, but warm enough outside that we could enjoy playing.

 






Happy Friday Family Fun Day! Tonight our theme is shapes and colors! Will post details on Monday. Have a wonderful weekend!