Chocolate Body Scrub

I needed a quick and easy handmade gift that O would enjoy helping me make, so I was very happy to find the recipe for Chocolate Body Scrub at Sweet Tidings via The Crafty Crow. 

To make Chocolate Body Scrub, you need cocoa powder, brown sugar, olive oil, and vanilla extract.




We had to make a lot of this stuff, so we made a double batch each time. 

Mix together:   2 cups of brown sugar, 6 tablespoons of cocoa powder, 2 tablespoons of vanilla extract, and 4 tablespoons of olive oil. 

O LOVED mixing these ingredients together.  She is very proud of her role of "taste tester," and she assured me that the chocolate body scrub does NOT taste good!




O was thrilled when I told her that we'd made a jar of Chocolate Body Scrub for us, too!  She can't wait to use it!



The jars came from IKEA...I really love these little jars (and I love IKEA, too!).

Homemade Playdough

O and I have had fun making chocolate and sugar cookie playdough this week.  We love making playdough...it's almost as much fun as playing with it!

O loves to mix everything with her hands.  She leaned down to get a good whiff of the cocoa and breathed in a little too much cocoa dust!  This playdough smells divine!




Here is the chocolate playdough recipe.  (I was going to include it in this post, but that seems silly since I'm in a hurry :)

The day after making chocolate playdough, we made sugar cookie playdough.  The recipe is similar, but we left out the cocoa and added vanilla flavoring and white glitter.  We also cooked this playdough on the stove instead of pouring boiling water into the mixture.  Here is the basic playdough recipe. 

O really enjoyed pouring and mixing in the glitter!

Pumpkin Delight

I hope everyone has had a wonderful Thanksgiving!  We had a great Thanksgiving Day, and we have another big feast tomorrow. 

O and I made Pumpkin Delight for both.  It is so easy to make and yummy (although not very healthy!).




Here's what you need:

1 can of pumpkin
1 can of sweetened condensed milk
1 box of vanillla pudding
1 container of Cool Whip
1 box of Vanilla Wafers

Mix the pumpkin, condensed milk, vanilla pudding, and half of the Cool Whip together.  Layer the Vanilla Wafers on the bottom of a square pan, pour the mixture on top,  and spread the other half of the Cool Whip on top of the mixture.  Spread another layer of Vanilla Wafers on top.  Chill and serve!




Thanks, Auntie EB, for sharing this easy and delicious recipe!!!

Pumpkin Pie Milkshake

After trying a pumpkin pie milkshake while on O's field trip, I knew we'd have to try to make them at home!  They are easy and delicious to make.  You need canned pumpkin, vanilla ice cream, pumpkin pie spice, heavy cream, and milk. 


We used my mom's bullet blender to make the milkshakes.  I put in about 3 or 4 scoops of ice cream, 1/4 cup of milk, 1/4 tsp of pumpkin pie spice, and 2 heaping tablespoons of canned pumpkin and blended it until it was smooth.   We topped the milkshakes with fresh whipped cream (we briefly blended heavy cream in the blender).



The milkshakes were delicious, and the girls LOVED them!!! Pumpkin pie milkshakes are a new fall tradition at our house!

The Easiest Crockpot Lasagna EVER!

O and I recently made the easiest and yummiest crockpot lasagna ever!  I love to cook with my crockpot, but I do not like recipes that require any preparation...I like to just throw everything in the crockpot, turn it on, and forget about it for a few hours. 

To make crockpot lasagna (veggie lasagna since we don't eat red meat), we used a jar of spaghetti sauce, uncooked whole grain lasagna noodles, cottage cheese, parmesan cheese, garlic powder (fresh would be even better), dried oregano, fresh basil, frozen and chopped spinach, and frozen and sliced carrots.

We spread a layer of spaghetti sauce on the bottom of the crockpot.  O covered the spaghetti sauce with uncooked noodles.   Which we then covered with more sauce, cheese, and frozen spinach. 



The next layer was noodles, sauce, cheese, frozen carrots, and a little more spinach.




Then more noodles, sauce, fresh basil, and cheese.



After we finished our layers, we topped it with more sauce, cottage cheese, fresh basil, and parmesan cheese.  I cooked it on high for about an hour and on low for about 3 hours.  Fun, easy, fast, and delicious!

Kaju Burfi Attempted

O and I had fun making Kaju Burfi a few weeks ago.  I found the recipe on National Geographic Kids.  This recipe was simple, fun, and the end result was delicious. 

To make Kaju Burfi, you need 3 cups of ground cashews, 1/2 cup of water, and 2 cups of sugar.

O spooned the cashews in to the grinder.




Then she ground them  with a little help from me.





While O worked on grinding the cashews, I heated the sugar and water over medium-high heat.  O grew tired of grinding, so I finished grinding the cashews while stirring the sugar water.  Meanwhile, E was tired and wanted me to hold her.  As soon as the sugar/water mixture looked ready, I threw the cashews in and mixed them.  I poured the mixture into a glass pan and spread them out.  Our cashews were not ground into powder (as the directions described), and the sugar/water mixture wasn't quite ready, but our Kaju Burfi was delicious!

A Fun Party Activity and Snack

My mom and I helped a friend plan activities and snacks for her little girl's birthday party a couple of months ago, and one of the fun activities that we did was make a dirt and worms snack.

To make the snack, I put 5 or 6 oreo cookies in a ziploc bag and gave a bag to each child. I told the kids to smash the cookies any way that they could. They started off by smashing them in their hands and hitting the bags. They quickly realized that it was easier and more fun to stomp and jump on the bags. O and the birthday girl put their bags under a twister game mat and danced on them.

Once the cookies were crushed I put a handful of gummy worms in each bag and gave each child a spoon. They loved eating the tasty dirt and worms!

Making Mini Pizzas

O, E, and I made mini pizzas last week using whole wheat sandwich thins, spaghetti sauce, and veggies.

To make the pizzas, we spread the one piece of the sandwich thin with olive oil and broiled it for a couple of minutes. Then O spread the spaghetti sauce on her pizza and added her veggies, Italian seasoning, garlic powder, and cheese. We baked them at 350 until they were done (I didn't time it), and we all really enjoyed our yummy lunch.

E was so excited that I let her eat pizza, too. We used the leftover spaghetti sauce to make chicken parmesan...yum!

Guhguh's Famous Carrot Cake

My mom (with help from O) made a delicious carrot cake for E's 1st birthday party. After my mom decorated it with white icing, I put pictures from the different phases of E's first year around the edge of the cake with a #1 candle in the middle. O decorated the cake with blue icing and candy. We were pleased with the end result, and next year we'll let E help us decorate her cake.



Since my mom is locally famous for this delicious carrot cake, I thought I would share the recipe.


3 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups Canola oil
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup plain flour
3 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
6 tsp cinnamon
6 eggs
5 cups shredded carrots

Preheat oven to 350. Add sugar and canola oil together in a large mixing bowl. Add dry ingredients one at a time. Mix well by hand. Beat eggs with a whisk in a separate bowl adn add them to the mixture. Gently mix in the carrots. Divide the mixture into 3 9 inch layer pans, which have been sparayed heavily with BAker's Joy nonstick spray. Put in the oven and bake for 35 to 40 minutes. Let the layers cool on cooling racks for 10 minutes. Gently remove from pans. Let layers cool a little more before icing.

Icing

1 large package low fat cream cheese (8 ounces)
1 stick of butter
1 box confectioner's sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp vanilla
1 cup chopped nuts

Enjoy!

Kids in the Kitchen...Apples and Onions

O, E, and I are reading Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder, and we are really enjoying it! (I enjoy reading the Little House on the Prairie books just as much if not more than O) Almanzo's favorite dish is Apples and Onions. Since O and I had never heard of such a combination, we decided to give it a try!

First, O peeled the onion. I chopped the onion and sauteed it in butter until it was translucent.

O washed the apples with Veggie Wash.

Then we cut the apples together.

I sauteed the apples and onions until the apples were soft and added salt to taste. I was surprised by how good this was! O was pretending to be Eliza Jane (Almanzo's oldest sister) and declared that apples and onions were Eliza Jane's favorite dish, too!


And here's a look at O's supper tray...apples and onions, sweet potato chunks, avocado, salmon, and rotisserie chicken. I love serving O's meals in trays like this one.