Snacks for Things and helping them make the right choices

I have published my Thing’s menu lately, but I haven’t touched on what I do to make my life easier. Homeschooling pushed me to become more organized than usual because I need proper planning and organization to survive succeed. That is just the reality of how it is with me. I need the menu plans for dinner and lunch. I also need snack plans so that I can stay away from a lot of pre-packaged food. I do this trying to force the Things and myself to eat better. So today, I am sharing some things that I do and how my Thing’s snack drawer in the fridge looks. I am sure you momma’s have some great tips for me, please share at the bottom. I can use all the help I can get when it comes to healthy snacks and making the right snacks available to us.

A typical routine for me on Friday mornings is to go grocery shopping with the Things before school. We usually make it out before lunch and make it home at lunch time. I try to time it just right so that I can unload the groceries while they eat and when I am done, Thing 2 and Thing 3 go down for quiet time and nap and Thing 1 starts her school work. While that is happening, I am washing, slicing, baking and making snacks and sides for our menu.

When I buy fruit, before it gets put away, it gets washed with Environne. When I buy grapes, I pull every single grape off of the vine while I wash them.

Doing so allows the Things to grab a handful and go and I don’t have to worry about Thing 3 trying to eat a stem.

The strawberries are washed but not hulled. These are Thing 1′s favorite and usually the other two Things go for the grapes so I don’t bother.

After the fruit is washed, it is separated and placed in containers lined with paper towels (no lid) and placed in a special drawer with the Thing’s yogurt. Notice that all the yogurt is out of the box. I don’t put lids on the fruit and I take the yogurt out of the box and leave them on display so that they can see what is there. It allows the Things to have easy access without needing my help, helps me to see when we are running out and it saves me time when I am in a hurry, the grab and go method is our friend in this house.

Cheese is another big snack/side in our home. Thing 2 can go through a block in less than a week. I buy my cheese by the block because it is cheaper and I can get more out of it that way.

Before I put the cheese away I pre-slice it. This allows the Things easy access as well as a time saver for me when I am making lunches or snacks. Once it is sliced it goes in a sandwich bag and in the drawer with the rest of the cheeses. This is a snack that is not allowed in the Thing’s snack drawer because Thing 2 would eat a whole block by himself in one sitting if I didn’t watch him.

Cucumbers are also washed, sliced and placed in a container. I use these for salads, snacks, sandwiches and sides. Don’t laugh but there are 3 jugs of milk in the back ground of this picture. That is how much milk we go through in a week.

Apples and bananas are simply washed and placed in an easily accessible area for the Things. The Things do a drive by with the apples almost every day around 3:30.

Finally, a very quick, cheap, good snack that we all love is oyster crackers. We can polish off a freezer bag full in 2 days.

This batch has olive oil, 4 tbsp dry ranch seasoning, and dill.

My last tip for snacks is in the pantry.

On the occasion that I buy tortilla chips, veggie chips, pretzels, packs of raisins, yogurt covered raisins and so forth, they go in a plastic drink container at the bottom of the pantry. I keep all the other snacks in that container so that again, the Things have easy access and are not destroying my pantry while trying to find a snack.

This is my system and it works for us. It does take planning and time to prepare and get it ready, but in the end, well worth it. It also allows the Things to make choices and be self-sufficient during snack time. If you have some snack ideas or recipes, please share. You can do so by leaving a comment at the bottom!

Homeschooling: Little Passports in Australia

G’day, mate! We explored Australia this past month. There were so many interesting things to learn about when it came to Australia. We  have a cousin living in Australia and he allowed us to use some of his pictures for our study of Australia!

Here are some that he shared with us.

Red Kangaroos

He said they were using their tails to stand as they kick boxed each other.

I started to touch on the normal curriculum for Australia: boomerangs and kangaroos. However, there are so many different facts that I really wanted to focus on this time. With a little research, I found a free lap book study on Australia and customized it to what I wanted the Things to learn about. It turned out super cool!! Click here for the link that will take you to the lap book print outs. You may have to sign up (free) to gain access to the free print outs, but it’s worth the very few bothersome emails that I receive about curriculum at a discount.

This is the cover of the lap book. The “book” itself is a regular sized file folder.

As you open the book, this is the left side of the book.

We studied:

• Flag of Australia
• Where Australia is on a map
• What continent Australia was on (we hadn’t studied continents yet so I went ahead and introduced the 7 continents to her)
• A fact book about Koalas (habitat, appearance, diet, predators and other facts)

This is also of the left side of the book with the tabs lifted up. She did a lot of work on this!

This is a photo of the right side of the book.

We also studied:

• What time it is Australia versus Florida
• Common words in Australian. Ankle biter was her favorite phrase.
• Studied the difference between herbivores carnivores and did a little exercise where Thing 1 had to look up 4 different animals from her Australian Animals pack and figure out which they were.
• We also studied 7 different Australian animals

This is what the left side looks like with the tabs opened.

We did one last exercise is this lesson. I wanted the Things to learn about the Great Barrier Reef. After all, Sam and Sofia sent us a picture of it!

We saved this project for Australia Day which was January 26th. The Things had so much fun with this.

We used a shoe box, shells from our last beach trip, fish the Things cut out and colored with crayons, and a reef that they cut out. The Things painted the box using blue finger paint. That was all that I had on hand and it turned out fine. We found this cool craft at this website. They had a lot of great ideas if you are looking for further reinforcement when studying about Australia.

Here is a beautiful video of the Great Barrier Reef, check it out! The Things loved this!

I didn’t make anything to eat from Australia. I am still hoping we can find an Outback close by. After all, it is for educational purposes.Who am I kidding, I just want to go to Outback and this is a good excuse! See you next month when we talk about Mexico!

Today is the last day to receive 10% off of a new subscription. You can look at the link at the top for the code! Next stop with Sam and Sofia is Mexico! We can not wait to get cooking literally for this lesson!

Disclosure: All opinions are based on my own experience. This post does contain Affiliate links.

Menu Plan Monday

Good morning! I hope you are rested and ready to go this week!

1) Layered Salad and fruit salad

2) Slow cooker roast with potatoes and salad. I didn’t get around to making this last week. We ate this last night. I added chopped onion, celery, carrots, potatoes and 1 clove of garlic. Instead of plain water I used 1 quart of beef broth and did not add the packet of Italian seasoning. It turned out good.

The only ingredients you need to make a killer roast (in your slow cooker) plus a cup of water. Mix your packets in a bowl. Pour on roast. 1 cup of water poured over the roast turn to low and let it go for 8 hours.

 

3) Homemade chicken pot pie and salad. Same with this. I had extra leftovers last week so this meal rolled into this menu plan.

4) Swedish meatballs and garlic mashed potatoes (Ikea)

5) Slow cooker fried chicken, cabbage, corn and biscuits

6) Slow cooker chicken and rice, fruit salad

7) BBQ sandwiches with veggie chips

Later this week I will be blogging about the Things snacks. Here is the list of snacks for this week.

Snacks to make for the Things:

Apples

Strawberries

Grapes

Banana

Rice Krispy treats

Muffins

Granola

Fruit Salad

Oyster Crackers

Wordless Wednesday

A very cute moment I almost didn’t get captured. The 3 Things hanging on the fencing waiting for their turn on a ride.

5 Cheese Tortellini

Made sauce with heavy cream and Fiesta blend cheese. I used Kale, diced tomatoes, onion & seasonings in this batch.

This recipe is on our rotation. We love this! What I love about this recipe is that you can add or take away and make a different version of it each time.

Galit gave me this recipe years ago and we have claimed it and made it ours.

What you need:
1 bag of cheddar cheese
1/2- 3/4 cup mozzarella
OR
1 bag Fiesta blend instead of Cheddar and Mozzarella

1 quart of half and half
OR
1 pint of heavy cream as well. (I use what we have on hand at the time)

1/2 bag spinach
OR
1/2 bag Kale

1 head of broccoli
OR
1 can diced tomatoes drained

1/2 medium onion chopped finely
a few shakes of Emeril’s Essence
a few shakes of Italian seasoining
1 tbsp minced garlic
pepper
1 bag of fresh refrigerated 3 cheese Tortellini

Let’s get cooking:

Saute your vegetables and garlic in olive oil and add your seasoning.

Make your tortellini according to package directions.

In a saucepan over medium heat combine half and half (or heavy cream) with cheese. Stir until cheese has melted and is well blended with the cream.

In a large bowl combine tortellini, vegetables and pour your cheese on top. Serve & enjoy!

Made sauce with half & half, Mozzarella, and Cheddar. This batch has broccoli, spinach, onion & seasonings.

Menu Plan Monday

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

1) Pizza and sliced veggies with ranch

2) 5 cheese tortellini (recipe will be posted this week)

3) Chicken Pot pie

4) Roast over mashed potatoes

(The only ingredients you need to make a killer roast (in your slow cooker) plus a cup of water. Mix your packets in a bowl. Pour on roast. 1 cup of water poured over the roast turn to low and let it go for 8 hours.)

5) Ham, potato salad and roasted broccoli

6) Layered salad with roasted veggies

7) Ham and potato soup

The Things Lunch Menu

1) Broccoli and cheese pasta, granola and strawberries

2) Toasted peanut butter and banana bagel, 2 slices of cheese, yogurt

3) Cream cheese bagel, apples, veggie chips and strawberries

4) Strawberry smoothie, peanut butter and jelly, baked apple slices with cinnamon sprinkled on top (slice apples, sprinkle with cinnamon, bake at 275 for 1 hour and flip. Bake for 1 hour.)

5) Mini bagel pizzas

6) Peanut butter and honey sandwich, granola, banana, yogurt

7) Bagel with cream cheese and jam, carrots and celery slices with peanut butter

Chubby Hubby Bars

I almost didn’t make these bars this week. Why, you ask. Well, I’ll tell you why. It called for a bag of Reese’s mini peanut butter cups and caramel. I tried so  very hard to stay out of them. I was doing really well until the man opened the bag of Reese’s for an impromptu date by our fire pit. He used them to make S’mores. After the bag was opened, all will power was lost and it was on like donkey kong. The minis are evil because you eat twice as many all the while justifying it because they are small.

The bars are rich. There is a perfect balance of salt and sweet in these which makes them hard to walk away from. They should be named Chubby Mummy Bars because I think I ate more than him. The recipe makes a big batch. I gave half of our pan to the man to take to work because I knew if they remained here they would find themselves in my belly. Try these if you dare, but don’t blame me if you can’t stop eating them.

Without further adieu, here is the recipe.

Recipe by Shelly at Cookies & Cups

To get to the recipe you can click on the link above or click on the picture below.

Source: cookiesandcups.com via Carin on Pinterest

Homemade flour tortillas

Ever find yourself really wanting fajitas and you are out of tortillas? That was me today. That’s actually me, a lot of the time. Usually it’s as simple as grabbing everyone and running to the store for tortillas, but it was raining. So what does a mamma do when it’s raining, it’s 4:00pm and the Things are plundering your pantry like pirates looking for doubloons? I grabbed my phone and looked up tortilla recipes. I was excited to see this recipe called for staples that I had in my pantry. Four ingredients? Yep. That’s it. For the Texas people, these won’t compare to yours, your grandmas, HEB or Papasitos. Oh how I wish I could get some good Texas tortillas. For now, this is my make do. For everyone else, these are better than the store bought. Prep time- maybe 5 minutes. Cook time- 15 minutes for all of them. This should be your last step before dinner because you want to serve these warm. After cooking each tortilla, I placed them in a tortilla keeper with a towel wrapped around them. They were nice and warm 30 minutes later when the man came home to eat.

Easy Homemade Flour Tortillas
Recipe Courtesy of Sirena on Cooks.com

4 Ingreditens:

3 cups of flour

1 tsp. salt

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 cup warm water

Mix all ingredients together in a bowl to form a dough. Pinch 1-2″ pieces off at a time and roll them flat with a rolling pin. If you have a tortilla press, use that.

Place a frying pan over medium high heat. Lay your flattened dough on the hot pan and and cook until you see the dough start to brown. It will look like this:

Flip it and cook the other side.

We filled our tortillas with seasoned chicken, peppers, avocado and cheese.

We also had a jar of last summer’s salsa and tortilla chips.

Muy Beano! These are seriously quick and easy to make. On a difficulty scale I would give these a 1 (10 being the most difficult).

You haven’t had cabbage like this!

I love Pinterest. I do. I find my to do, to make, to sew list growing every time I log in. I came across this baking sheet of yumminess on a friend’s Instagram. I love cabbage. The man and the 3 Things do not. I know from experience with them that if it’s roasted they will all usually eat it. I went for it. To get the recipe, click on the picture or click here.

Source: kalynskitchen.com via Mandy on Pinterest

It was seriously good! When I made mine I didn’t add any lemon. Instead I drizzled olive oil on the cabbage, and sprinkled it with minced garlic and Emeril’s Essence. Glory, glory. It was good. So good. Thing 3 was the only one at the table who would have none of it. You.Must.Try.This! When you do, let me know what you think.

Menu Plan Monday

1) Homemade vegetable soup with salad

2) Chili with oyster crackers and salad

3) Slow Cooker chicken and dumplings

4) Falafel, humus with pita chips and salad

5) Chicken tortilla soup and salad

6) Pioneer Woman Cinnamon Buns

7) Pork chops, roasted cabbage, mac and cheese with fruit salad

The Things Lunch Menu:

1) Turkey and swiss pin wheels, pretzels, cucumber, oyster crackers

2) Peanut butter and marshmallow sandwich, apple and pear slices, fig newtons, yogurt

3) Peanut butter and honey sandwich, crackers with sliced cheese, cucumber and carrot stars

4) Turkey and swiss sandwich, fruit salad, 1 oatmeal muffin, pretzels

5) Peanut butter and jelly, apple and pear slices, yogurt, chex mix

6) Tortilla chips and cheese, fruit salad (bag of frozen blue berries, 1 can of pineapple, 1 can of mandarin oranges, apples if you have them on hand. My Things went through 1 bag of apples in 4 days so I am out again.)

7) Bagel with cream cheese, cucumber and carrots (made into a snowman face)

I whipped up two muffin pans of these oatmeal muffins for breakfast this week. These have been Thing tested and approved.  Click here for the recipe. I made a batch with banana & chocolate chips for this week and the kids have requested that I make strawberry and bananas for next week. Make them when you have time and freeze them in freezer bags so you have them on hand for morning breakfast.