Sneaky Chef Muffins :)

So this one I'm extremely excited about! Not only did I get to sneak spinach and blueberries into a very tasty cupcake, I also made homemade frosting that contains less sugar and is packed with lots of protein and calcium. Super mom for the day, check. Thank you sneakychef.com. There are a lot of steps to this, but you can find them all on her website... which encouraged me to purchase her book, well worth it!
First off, you have to make your puree. Totally simple, and she suggests making a bunch in advance so its readily available. To get the recipe for the puree, go to sneakychef.com, then go to the free recipes tab and click all recipes. Find the make ahead recipe for purple puree.

Make sure to involve your little helper...
Next follow the recipe called "Quick Fix for Chocolate Cake Mix" which omits the oil for the puree and adds wheat germ.
If you feel like making your own frosting, here's the recipe
Makes about 3/4 cup
1 cup nonfat dry milk
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup boiling water
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Mix dry milk and powdered sugar in a bowl, then add the boiling water and vanilla extract. Mix very well. If needed, add a little more water, half a teaspoon at a time, until you reach the desired consistency.

In the end, the cupcake wasn't bad at all... My husband and I agreed that it wasn't as sweet as following the original recipe for the cake mix. If I did it again I'd probably use regular frosting, saving the frosting recipe shown above for regular cupcakes.... but Aubrey didn't seem to notice the difference.

Homemade Fingerpaint 2... with Yogurt

After the first version of homemade finger paint, I remembered a project that my sister did with her son a few months back... I also remembered that it's 10x easier than whisking flour and water for several minutes at a time, so I thought, lets see how this one compares.

Materials
Plain yogurt
Food Coloring
Formula Divider
It's really so simple, all you have to do it scoop yogurt into the different sections of the formula case...
...and put a few drops of food coloring in each...
and that's it! Aubrey loved painting with it, both in her paper and her arms :-/ Once she figured out the paint tasted good it turned in to a snack... Can't go wrong doubling an art project with her morning snack, right?!

Homemade Fingerpaint 1

I found this recipe for homemade finger paint and had to try it since finger painting is one of Aubrey's favorite things to do. It was actually more difficult than I thought it would be... not horribly difficult, but difficult enough when we're talking finger paint, something simple enough to just go and get in a store. Oh well, it was a new experience none the less, and Aubrey enjoyed herself!

Materials
1 cup of Flour
4 cups of Water
Food Coloring
Makes about 2 cups of paint
All you have to do is mix one cup of flour and one cup of water together in a pan until smooth and add the other 3 cups of water. Cook mixture over medium heat until it starts to bubble gently, and then allow it to cook for another minute or so. I think I didn't cook it too long, and it turned out thinner than I would've liked.
Once the mixture is fully cooked, put it in the fridge and let it cool for approximately two hours.
Separate the mixture into different cups or, as I have, in a old formula divider (my best trick) and drop food coloring in until it reaches the hue of your choice. Stir and then paint. Done.... Okay, I guess it's not that hard, just takes a while.

Handprint Owl

This project was funny because we had no idea what it was going to become when we started. We just started doing piece by piece until we got something. It was a joint effort, for sure, but I love the end result!

First we painted her hands and make two little hand prints.... this was her favorite part. Afterward she just kinda painting while I put it all together... good team work!
I just found a picture of an owl and tried to mock it. I did piece by piece and then threw it all together. I'll try to show you enough for you to be able to do the same.
It helped that I had some neat scrapbooking paper to chose from. I used the piece shown above as eyes for our little owl
Made little feathers by curling up the paper, to give the owl a little bit of "something" extra... again, just kept adding random stuff

Muffin Cookies

My precious daughter is in a stage where she only wants cookies. Who can blame her, really? I mean, I'm pretty sure my husband and I never left that stage! Problem is, well, how do I say this, she, ummm, gets backed up easily... and won't eat anything containing fiber, ever, because its not a cookie. So I take a deep breath and try to figure out a cookie substitute that could help with her, not-so-pretty issues. Bring in the muffin cookies... using Fiber One muffin mix.
Okay this recipe is almost easier than a cookie... but it looks yummy, tastes yummy, and does the trick (trust me, ask about the smell coming out of my daughters backside not 10 minutes after).

Ingredients
One package of muffin mix (the type is up to you, we used blueberry muffin Fiber One mix)
4 tbsp of milk
2 eggs
4 tbsp of butter -- softened
...yeah, that's it... really.
Mix all ingredients together in a bowl with the help of your tiny kitchen aide... Yes, I mean your toddler :)
Spoon dough onto sprayed cookie sheet and cook on 350 degrees for about 10-12 minutes, or until edges are golden brown.
and now, friends, enjoy! It really is that simple!

Animal Ark

Those of you who live in cold climates like me know you have to take advantage of any warm winter days whenever they decide to show up. This past weekend was one of those days. I knew it was going to be beautiful outside, and had heard that the Animal Ark, a non-profit animal sanctuary near Reno, NV, was open. This was a great opportunity to see all the animals in their winter coats since they are only open two weekends out of the entire winter. So we all hopped in the car and drove the almost hour long drive to the Ark... so worth it! Not everyone lives in climates such as mine, but everyone should brave the cold once in a while to allow your children experiences such as this one. Enjoy!

Aubrey got to get up close and personal with a very furry bobcat

It was very wet and muddy, but that made Aubrey enjoy it even more!
Aubrey and daddy looking for the white tiger...we found him!
Watching them talk about the one eyed falcon... okay, he actually has two eyes, but one doesn't work :)

For those of you who live driving distance to the Animal Ark, the next and final winter weekend opportunity is coming up in February. Aubrey and I might go again, so let us know if you want to come along!

Apple Painting,.. turned finger painting... turned face painting.

So, as you all probably know, anything goes with toddlers... what was meant to be us painting with apples quickly turned into something different, as happens so frequently with little ones. No matter, we went along with it and had a great time anyway!

So... if you're planning on doing apple paintings, you'll need...
paint
paper
apple (cut horizontally to see the stars)
Dip the apple into paint and than use it like a stamp.... simple as that right?
Well, Aubrey quickly lost interest in the apple stamps, and could care less about the cute little stars they left. Instead, she loved getting her fingers thick into the paint, so, I let her! She enjoyed herself, but a girl of excess, ALWAYS wanted MORE paint!
Eventually, she was all done, but not without messes. She had a good time cleaning up and seeing her painted face in the mirror!

Cake Balls

So Aubey and I got very brave, though were unaware of this at the start of this project, and ventured into the world of cake balls. Our day was split up with various other happenings so it make this activity turn into a two day activity, spread out amongst both days. It was easy, but time consuming to say the least. I swore I would never make these again, but am already thinking up different concoctions of cake and frosting... we'll see I guess. In the mean time, enjoy.

Ingredients
Cake mix (along with ingredients to make cake)
Candy Melts
Frosting
...and if you want to make cake pops you'll need lollipop sticks and a piece of foam to stick the pops in to dry.
First you make the cake. You can make a homemade cake if you want to, but it is a time consuming process, so I took the easy route. This was a perfect time for Aubrey to help me. She got to put in the ingredients and stir. She loved it, but kept trying to sneak in bites!
After the cake is complete, allow it to cool for at least 30 minutes. Once cool, crumble cake in a large bowl, again, Aubrey helps by eating :) Then, stir in an ENTIRE tub of frosting with the crumbled cake.
This will make a sticky mess, but allow this "dough" to harden in the
refrigerator, or freezer if limited on time and then stir into balls, and cool them again to harden even more.
Once the balls are hardened enough, dip the balls into the candy coating and decorate to your liking. If you choose to make cake pops, put a lollipop stick into the bottom of the ball and then dip. Tap off any excess coating and then put in foam to allow to cool. Takes a while, but in the end you're left with some super rich, super sweet, tasty treats.

Cleaning with toddlers

I'm not counting this as an activity, so no worries. But I did want to post the info. just in case people needed ideas....
Aubrey can't stand it when I have to clean the house, but those of you with toddlers know that, unfortunately, with toddlers comes a giant mess, and messes don't clean themselves. I read about this online and thought I'd give it a try. Toddlers love helping Mama... with anything, even cleaning! That said, I made a little bucket of "cleaning supplies" just her size. Turns out, I should have been doing it all along :Get a little bucket and put in random cleaning supplies (not used). I put in a feather duster, a plastic hand broom and dustpan, a scrubbing brush, washcloth, and a little spray bottle with water in it.

After that I gave it Aubrey and told her it was time to clean. She was all for it! She was still cleaning, even after I was needing a break!

Dining Out with Toddlers... OUR toddler!

Last night we went out to dinner with friends, the first time in a long while! Usually we only take Aubrey into a restaurant when surrounded by family who can all take turns trying to keep her busy... and often times even that's not enough. Anyone with a toddler like mine knows that eating out is nearly impossible... we've tried it so many times and finally decided it just wasn't worth it. But, sometimes its just nice to go and hang out, so I spent the entire day reading up on it, preparing myself. I read lots of good tips on how to keep my little Tasmanian devil occupied and content throughout the whole meal and guess what, it TOTALLY worked! Below you'll find all of our tricks.

First I prepared a special dining out bag, full of goodies that are only to be used while out at a restaurant. In it I included plastic ware, snacks, a new toy, a few little old toys, black paper, a paintbrush, and a little dish to hold a tiny bit of water (I'll tell you why in a minute)
I started out with her snack and the plastic ware. She really enjoyed cutting up her food. This kept her busy and held off the hunger while we were waiting for our order.
Next I got out the black paper, the small dish, and the paint brush. Aubrey loves painting and could do it for big chunks of time. However, bringing painting supplies to a restaurant just isn't realistic. Instead, I put a little bit of water in the plastic dish and showed her how to "paint" the black paper. The wet brush darkened the paper just like paint would. It worked like a charm! Not only did she love it, but the only mess involved was a little bit of water... perfect!
Once she was over that I brought out the big guns.... a brand new toy. This toy was extra special for dining out because it is a cooking toy by Melissa and Doug. It was perfect because it totally pertained to her environment (a restaurant) and it was all wood (thanks Melissa and Doug) so no obnoxious music (I'm deaf to it now, but other customers might find those toys annoying!), and it still had all the fun.
In the end, it all worked out beautifully. She did so good, and even though there were a few "here it comes" moments, I just kept pulling out different tricks. It takes some planning ahead, and its still not the same as dining out without a toddler, but I'd rather be busy with a happy girl than with a crazy, frustrated one!
After dinner I remembered to work on the difference between loud and quiet. Obviously she won't learn it right away, but loved yelling the word "LOUD!!!" and whispering the word "quiet" I plan to continue working with her on these different levels of noise, and keep our dining-out bag hidden and ready for our next big adventure out!

Work Day = Simple Treats....

I had to work today and then dinner was a little bit late... running short on time we decided to go for an easy activity and went for the classic Rice Krispy Treat. Not exactly a new idea, but new for Aubrey, so it counts :) They turned out Yummy, but you have to watch those little hands closely since we're playing with hot stuff!

Ingredients
5 cups rice krispies
1 jar of Marshmell0 Cream
3 tbsp of butter
one mini kitchen assistant
First we melt and stir the butter... once its all melted add the entire jar of marshmallow cream and stir until melted. Add 5 cups of rice krispies and stir until blended well... pour into a cake pan, smooth out... simple as that :)