Come Play With Us

MTM-Spur of the Moment

I was supposed to make tacos or burritos or enchiladas tonight per my pre-planned menu.  But when I went to make one of those things tonight I realized we had no tortillas.  Whoopsie!

So as I was putting my improvised cheese toast and green beans on a plate and it looked seriously unappetizing to me, I thought Muffin Tin! 

When the girls saw me digging out the muffin tins they got all excited and were running around shouting "Muffin tin!  Muffin tin!"

Since I didn't have a theme and was just throwing this together I thought I better pull out a few picks to make it seem a little more fun.

1. Cheese toast snowflake

2.  Green Beans

3.  Pears with an umbrella pick

4.  Unsalted peanuts

5.  Cream cheese/Ham rolls

6.  Rice Krispie Bar

There was really no rhyme or reason to anything I put in there, except to use up a few leftovers.

Big Sis was prepared for a rainshower and started off with her rice krispie treat.

Classic dirty look from Little Dude.

That's better!

Don't forget to check out Muffin Tin Mom!

Easy Everything Muffins

I made up a new recipe.  I just realized within the 6 months or so how easy it is to bake from scratch.  I used to always just use baking mixes and premixed cookie dough.  And muffins are especially easy. 

I had some bananas in the freezer I needed to use up.  Then after I had them thawed out, I realized I had no eggs.  And since I am too lazy to run to the store two blocks away for eggs was feeling creative, I decided to give it a whirl with what I had on hand.

Easy Everything Muffins

4 overripe bananas, mashed

1/2 cup buttercup squash puree

1 1/3 cup sugar

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/3 cup flour

1/4 cup each, chocolate chips, butterscotch chips and coconut flakes

Mix together the banana, squash puree, and sugar.  Add oil and mix in.  Add baking soda and pumpkin pie spice until combined.  Add flour and mix just to combine.  Fold in baking chips and coconut.  Scoop into mini muffin pan, and bake at 350 for 12-15 minutes. Makes 24 mini muffins.

Now you could probably use any variety squash (except spaghetti squash) or pumpkin puree.  Buttercup is just what I had in the fridge.  You would also adjust the baking time if you were going to make full size muffins. 

The other thing I liked about these were that the girls were helping me and I didn't have to feel guilty about letting them sample the batter, since it didn't have any raw eggs in it!

Everybody liked these.  I think they taste a little like a 7-layer bar. 

 

Cooking With My Girlies

I try to always let the girls help me in the kitchen whenever they are interested in helping.  Which is most of the time. 

I have noticed I get a lot more buy in on eating or trying new things if they have helped prepare the meal.  They love tasting and exploring as we are preparing different foods. 

I personally love cooking and really like trying new recipes, and I am hoping to pass this on to my kids as they grow up. I have a lot of memories of helping my Mom in the kitchen as a kid, and I enjoy cooking with her still.

We were making corn dog muffins.  The girls mixed up the muffin batter, cut the hot dogs and placed them in the muffin tins. 

We also made a salad, I did all the cutting that required a sharp knife, but the girls tore the lettuce and put everything else in the salad. 

We had a nice little dinner together.  The girls were really interested to see what happened between us putting the muffins into the oven and taking them out. 

There is this great blog Dash and Bella that inspires me every time I read it.  Phyllis Grant makes the most amazing meals with her two kids, ages 4 and 8. She really did inspire me to invite my kids into the kitchen, instead of shooing them out while I am trying to rush through getting dinner to the table.

Most of the time cooking with the girls results in a lot bigger messes to clean up, a lot more time involved in preparing a meal, and dinner on the table later that I like.  But what I DO like is the look of pride on those little girls' faces as they see the food they helped prepare on the plate in front of them. 

 

MTM-Snack

Saturday was my birthday--34!  I had a nice day with my hubby and my girls.  We went out to eat for lunch and then went to the movie rental store to pick out a few movies. 

Since we had a family movie night, we did another Snack MTM while we watched Sleeping Beauty.

Top Row:  Halloween Pretzels and Apple Slices

Middle Row:  Apple Straws and Craisins

Bottom Row:  M&M's, and String Cheese Bites

The pretzels were immediately rejected by big sis because "Halloween is over, Mama".  They devoured the M&M's after the pretzel smackdown. 

We have been debating on whether to go back to using Netflix for disc delivery.  It is actually cheaper than using the movie store, but the girls LOVE going to the movie store and picking out movies, and the fact that we have a deadline for watching them actually makes us watch the movies.  Our record for keeping a movie from Netflix was 4 months...yikes. BUT the last two times we rented movies in the store, the discs were terribly scratched and nearly unwatchable.

Inside my head right now I am telling myself Move along, Tom. (remember MTV's The Tom Green Show?)

I am going to link up with Muffin Tin Mom.  I am late to the party as usual but better late than never.

 

 

Trick or Treat

Halloween was fun! 

We asked the girls' cousin Addie and Aunt Katie to come trick or treating with us.  And this worked out great for me because Andy had to take a nap and couldn't go with. It was awesome to have another adult with :)

My little kitty cat and Dorothy.  I just love how little dude is like Whaaaat are we doing, Mom??

It didn't take her long to realize that people give you CANDY when you are dressed up all cute on Halloween....

We went trick or treating at the businesses downtown for a little bit, and the went out to Nana and Boppa's to see all the cousins in costume.

We headed back to town to meet up with K&A headed out.  The girls were troopers, we must have gone about 15 blocks, and braved some pretty spooky houses. 
It was really special for the girls to all get to do this together.  They had so much fun and as soon as we got in the door dumped all the candy on the floor so Mommy could inspect it all and look for syringes and poison and sneak a few Mommy faves.

 

 

MTM-Snack

We had a pumpkin carving party at Andy's parents with the girls cousins, and had a later dinner over there.  So I just planned a snack for the girls and we watched a little Halloween Shrecktacular.  I love Sunday nights because we usually just watch movies and hang out.

Here are a couple pics from the pumpkin party...

Elin, Addie, Loretta, Cora

We came home and chilled out on the couch with our snack.

Top Row:  Red Pepper slices and string cheese bits

Middle Row:  Pecans and Apple Straws

Bottom Row:  Celery sticks and Peanut butter for dipping

They both tried everything, and everything except for a few pieces of pepper was gone...gotta love a clean plate!

I am linking up with Muffin Tin Mom.  Click over to her site for some great inspiration!

Pumpkin Carving

The girls and I had a little pumpkin carving party.  We put the movie Corpse Bride on, and pulled up Pinterest on the computer to look for carving inspiration.  Once we had our ideas set, it was time to start getting the pumpkin "guts" out.

Last year, Big Sis was really squeamish about touching the inside of the pumpkin, but this year she dug right in, and Little Dude followed her lead.

Big Sis decided that she wanted her pumpkin to be "spooky" and Little Dude said she wanted a "pooky pumkin". 

I was pretty happy with the way they turned out, and the girls loved them!

MTM-Leftovers

We had a bunch of stuff in the fridge to use up, Muffin Tin Meals are a great way to make leftovers a bit more appetizing to the girls. 

1.  Buttered Noodles-always a favorite

2.  Grapes-another favorite

3.  More Noodles

4.  Chicken Drummie

5.  BBQ Little Smokie

6.  Peanut Butter Pumpkin

Big Sis came home from Preschool last week and informed me that "I like peanut butter now, Mama", so I tested it out with ants on a log, and both girls ate all the PB out!  I was pretty excited.   I have always been envious of parents who can feed their kids PB&J and not have it rejected with a
"Dis have peanut butter in it??"

The girls ate some of everything.  They are not big fans of barbeque sauce, I should have just scraped the bbq off and served with ketchup.  Hindsight is 20-20 I guess. 

Don't forget to head over to Muffin Tin Mom and see all the other muffin tin meals over there.

Beauty

I heard a quote on the radio today by some celeb mom that says she doesn't get caught up in what she looks like or wears, because the things that define her are much bigger than that.  That statement hit home with me.  Although I didn't realize it until I heard it. 

I think a lot about how am I going to instill certain values in my children and what an awesome and sometimes overwhelming part of parenting that can be. 

When I heard that quote today, I thought about at the prospect of teaching and modeling TRUE beauty to my girls. 

I personally have struggled with the concept of beauty, and have only had a few time periods in life where I felt really pleased with my general appearance.  So, how do I teach my children to not dislike the way that they look and to feel beautiful?  And more importantly how do I show them to recognize that true beauty lies not in how you look, but in so many other attributes:

-Spirit

-Kindness

-Poise

-Fairness, Caring and Integrity

-Confidence

-Goodness and truth

-Wisdom

-Positivity

-Grace

 -Intelligence

 

MTM-Spooky

The favorite word at our house lately is "SPOOOOky".  The girls are in the Halloween spirit, and we did a little decorating around the house with spiderwebs, skeletons, and spiders.  We topped the whole thing off with a bloody handprint gel cling on the window. 

So I made a nice and spooky MTM tonight for them. 

1.  Spooky Cookies (Chocolate chip cookies with "candy corn M&M's)<--  These are a mighty tasty add in on the cookies. 

2&5.  Jack O Lantern quesadilla

3.  Grapes with a Grapey spider on top

4.  Spooky trees (ok I just felt we needed something green in there)

6.  Banana Ghost with chocolate chip eyes

I persist in making the girls quesadillas, even though every time I make them, they peel them apart and pick pick out the melted cheese.

So the good news is Little Dude decided that she is done with diapers...we are using pullups at night but she is doing great--no accidents at all in the last two days!  We even kept her in her training pants at naptime today and she woke up dry.  I am so proud of her, and happy to pass off the last of the diapers we had stockpiled!! 

Don't forget to check out Muffin Tin Mom for some fun and spooky MTM's this week!