Category Archives: recipes

orange-oatmeal-raisin muffins

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I think these are our very favourite muffins around here.  They’re moist and delicious, and this recipe has never failed me.

  • 1 c. Quick Oats
  • 1/2 cup orange juice (from the jug in your fridge – not fresh squeezed, although that might work too… I’m not sure)
  • 1/2 cup boiling water

Mix these 3 ingredients above in a small bowl, and let sit 15 minutes

  • 1/2  cup butter
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup white sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1 cup raisins
  • 1 cup all purpose flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp salt

In medium size bowl, cream butter and sugars.  Beat in eggs and vanilla.  (I do it all with a wooden spoon).  Add raisins and dump in oatmeal mixture.  Stir together.

Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt, and gently stir into the butter/sugar/oatmeal batter. (do not over stir).

Pour into muffin tin (I use paper liners, but I guess if you don’t you’d want to grease your muffin tin).

Bake 350 degrees for 20 minutes.  Oven temps may vary, but they’re done when you stick a knife in, and the knife comes out clean.

Enjoy!   (makes 12 muffins)

rainbow ice cubes

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rainbow water happy hooligans The other night, I thought it would be fun to prepare some rainbow ice cubes so my boys could have rainbow water to drink on St. Patrick’s day.rainbow water - coloured ice cubes

 I grabbed the Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, and Violet (otherwise known as purple) and I mixed up a batch of rainbow ice-cubes.colour a tray of ice cubes for rainbow water

Ok, so you may have noticed that ROYGBV = six letters and my ice-cube trays have 7 sections in each row.  I mixed some blue and purple gels together to make an extra colour that we’ll call Indigo, so I could fill the tray.

I popped the tray in the freezer, and fast-forward to today.  Happy St. Patrick’s Day!  March 17th is always extra special at our house because in addition to celebrating all things green and Irish, we’re also celebrating my hubby’s birthday! img_8405

We had an awesome day celebrating!  We headed out of town and to a near-by city for an afternoon of laser-bowling.  They turn out the lights, and you bowl with glow in the dark pins, disco balls, neon lights, music playing etc.  It was a first for us.  We’ve bowled before, but never in the dark, and we all bowl fairly horribly, which made it even more fun.  It was a great afternoon.   Then we went out for dinner, and came back home for cake.  In all honestly, I’d completely forgotten about the rainbow cubes, and I didn’t remember them until I went into the freezer to get out some ice cream to serve with the cake!

Woohoo!!  Isn’t it great how sometimes the simplest things make the biggest impressions?  Everyone thought this was the COOLEST water EVER.   Doesn’t it look awesome?  Whip some up!  Your kids will think you’re THE BEST!img_8409

My advice?  Don’t wait until next St. Patrick’s Day to try this.  Surprise your kiddo with a glass of rainbows on a dull or gloomy day “just because”.  It really doesn’t get much easier than this.  Go on!  Brighten their day!!img_8421

strawberry-applesauce

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Do your kiddos like applesauce?  Do you ever make your own?  I never even buy applesauce anymore, because we always have apples kicking around here, and it’s so quick and easy to make.  Not to mention, it’s so much tastier than anything you buy in a store.

Kinda like making banana bread when the bananas go black, this is one of those things I make as soon as our apples start to soften.

I had a bag of strawberries that I’d tossed in the freezer after picking them this summer.  I love to freeze a few bags after picking them fresh.  They’re great to add to sauces like this.   And the house smelled SO good when they were cooking!  Just like summertime!

I’ll give you the how-to in a minute, but first I wanted to share some pics.  Today I decided to hand out some dinner knives, and let the Hooligans cut up the apples.  I sliced the apples first, and had the kids cut the slices up into smaller pieces. To make sure this wasn’t too risky, I tested the sharpness of my knives.  We’d be safe as long as no-one started frantically “sawing” their fingers.  It was all good.  The children were very careful.  Just look at the concentration on this face!  The tongue says it all.

And look at the way this little one is holding the apple while she cuts.  She’s 2.5 years old.  

This two handed approach was very popular among all three children.

They did so well!  I was kind of proud of myself too.  We’ve never played with knives before.   ;)

Ok, here’s how you make it:

  • Peel and core several apples.  We used 4 small reds and a large green today. (entertain the troops by attempting to remove the peel in a single twirly strip).
  • Chop apples into pieces (approx. 2 inch cubes).
  • Put pieces in a pot (add frozen berries now if you have them) along with a tbsp or two of water, and simmer until soft and mushy.
  • Pour off most of the liquid, and with a potato masher, mash until smooth.
  • Add sugar to taste.

Mmmmm, mmmm!  Wasn’t that easy?  Snack-time!!

cinnamon-sugar french toast mittens

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french toast mittensIf you saw yesterday’s post, you’ll know that we got SNOW yesterday!!!  To celebrate that excitement, I made some cinnamon-sugar french toast mittens for lunch.It was really quite blizzard-like here.  It was very exciting, with little people running from window to window, hollering updates every few minutes.  To celebrate, we had a little mitten theme going on here.   Our mitten-match up was a great activity.  It was super-simple to prepare,  and all of the Hooligans (from 2 right up to 5) really loved it.   Check it out if you’re looking for something that’s fast and easy to whip up, and a great exercise in fine motor control for your little one.

For lunch, the Hooligans knew we were having French Toast, but what they didn’t know was that with all the snow coming down, and the mitten matching going on in the next room, I’d decided to jazz things up a bit.

I went through my Christmas cookie cutters and found a mitten cutter.  Perfect!

By gently stretching the bread, I was able to cut two mitts out of each slice of bread.  Don’t throw out the left overs and the crusts!  I added mine to a bag that I keep in the freezer.  I freeze all of my bread crusts, stale bread, buns, etc. and I use them for making poultry stuffing.  If you’re not big on that idea, at least tear your crusts up and let the kids toss them into the yard to feed the birds.  Why not put them to good use?

While I was cutting my mittens out, I had my George Foreman Griddle warming up.  I LOVE my griddle.  I am typically NOT a fan of “gadgets” that take up a lot of storage room, but I couldn’t live without this griddle.   It’s big enough to cook up LARGE batches of eggs, bacon, pancakes etc.all at once, it heats up quickly, and after 4 years, it is still competely non-stick, which is more than I can say for any of my teflon pans.  As for storing it, I keep it on top of my fridge.  french toast mittens

Ok, back to lunch.  Melt a generous gob of butter on your griddle, and while that’s melting and getting bubbly, dip your mitts in a mixture of egg and milk (I don’t know exact measurements here – I just guess when it comes to french toast).  Toss your mitts on to your griddle and flip them when the underside starts to get brown and crispy.  Let the other side do the same, and then move them to a plate, and sprinkle them with a mixture of sugar and cinnamon. 

A little syrup on the side for dipping and you’re good to go!