Love Bugs

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I have been trying to think of different fun quick and easy crafts that I can do with my daughter after school.  She really loves doing out projects, but I have to admit I don't always have the time to spend doing them.  So I thought if I could do some quick and simple crafts then we are still doing our projects and I can still get dinner made and take care of the baby, who is going to be a year old in just a couple weeks how does time go by so fast?

Last week I actually had a few little crafts we did, but since it is close to Valentines Day I thought we would start with the Valentines Craft first.  Which were the cutest little Love Bugs.  My daughter has been playing with them every night.  These really are very simple and easy to make so if you have toddlers I am sure you can get them in on the fun here.

Supplies

Large Pom Poms
Extra Small Pom Poms
Pipe Cleaners
Foam Hearts
Google Eyes
Glue

Directions

Start by gluing a large pom pom to one of your foam hearts (the heart will be its feet).

  

Glue your googly eyes to the front (the front is the side with the two arches on the heart showing....aka the feet)

Cut your pipe cleaners so that they are small enough for anti, then glue the extra small pom poms to one end of the pipe cleaners.

Now glue your pipe cleaners to the large pom pom (the side without the small pom pom gets glued)

My Daughter with her Love Bugs in her favorite Outfit :)

Crescent Dinner Pockets

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I made these for dinner the other night and the whole family loved them.  I prepared the filling early in the day so that I did not have much to do when dinner time came around, I love recipies where I can get stuff ready ahead of time.

I also think this cresent dinner pocket recipe is a great one to play with.  I think in the future some of the things I plan to try with this idea is pizza filling, cheeseburger filling, and chili n cheese.  I think you could stick just about anything in the cresents and they would be yummy.

What are you going to fill your Crescent Pockets with?

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Ingredients

1 green pepper

1 yellow onion

1pd lean ground beef

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

2 packages crescent rolls

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees 

 Finley chop green pepper and onion.  

 Sauté green pepper and onion for 4 min then add ground beef and cook till beef is brown.  Drain excess fat.

 Separate crescent rolls and stretch to make a little larger.  Then put 1 spoon full of beef mixture in center of roll and add 1 tbs of cheddar cheese.

 Fold over the three sides of crescent rolls to form a pocket (you may need to pinch sides together to close pocket).

 Place pockets on cookie sheet and bake for 11 to 15 min.

Valentine Sun Catcher

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My daughter’s favorite things to do when crafting is cutting and gluing so this Valentine sun catcher is the perfect craft for that.   We split this up in to two days of crafting, since it does take a little time and my daughter does not like to sit for a long time.  The first day we cut everything out and the next day we did the gluing.  I have to say that I actually love how this craft turned out, I just think it is so pretty hanging in the window.  We may have to make these for every holiday because they are so cute.

What is your child’s favorite crafty thing to do?

Supplies

Colored Tissue Paper

White Tissue Paper

Red Construction Paper

Valentine Heart Pattern

Glue Stick

Ribbon

Scissors

Directions

 Start by cutting out your Valentine Heart pattern.  Then trace and cut the large heart out of the red construction paper. 

 Trace your small heart on the big heart. Now fold the large heart in half and cut out the smaller heart.  This will be the border for your Sun Catcher.

Now using your large heart pattern cut , trace and cut out the heart on white tissue paper.

 Cut out a lot of small pieces of colored tissue paper (use at least 2 colors). 

 Using a glue stick, gently apply glue to your small pieces of colored tissue paper and stick them to your white tissue paper heart (It is okay to have the pieces overlap some).

 Once your white tissue paper heart is covered, glue your red border heart on top.  If there are pieces sticking out the, just cut them off using your scissors.

Cut a piece of ribbon (the size depends on where you are hanging the sun catcher) and glue it to the back of your valentine sun catcher.

 Now just hang from a window and enjoy!

Chocolate Dipped Valentine Cookies

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 My daughter has been bugging me all weekend to make cookies so I finally decided that we should make some Valentines day cookies, it's not too early for Valentines day cookies is it?  Years ago I made these chocolate dipped valentine cookies for a bake sale and they were a huge hit so I thought we would do those.  And I have to say they were a hit in my house too, not that I was worried about that. I mean sugar cookies covered in chocolate, um can't get any better than that.


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Ingredients

1 ¼ cups granulated sugar	¾ tsp baking powder
1 stick butter flavor Crisco	½ tsp baking soda
2 eggs	½ tsp salt
¼ cup light corn syrup	Sugar sprinkles
1 tbs vanilla	Decorating gel
3 cups  all-purpose flour	Frosting
1 12oz bag white chocolate chips	¾ cup milk

  Red food color

Directions

 In a large bowl beat together sugar and shortening until well blended

 Add eggs, syrup, and vanilla.  Beat until well blended and fluffy

  In separate bowl combine 3 cups flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  Add gradually to wet mixture until well blended

 Refrigerate dough for at least 1 hour to overnight.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees

 Roll dough out on well-floured surface, cut shapes out and transfer to ungreased baking sheet.

 Bake for 5 to 9 min, until cookies just start to brown on bottoms.

Let cookies cool 

 Once cookies are cool, pour bag of white chocolate chips, milk, and 3 drops of red food color (you can add more until you have color you desire) in a small sauce pan.  Stirring continuously until chocolate is melted.

 Dip one cookie at a time into chocolate until half of the cookie is covered in chocolate. 

Lay cookies on aluminum foil or parchment paper till chocolate dries.

 

 Now you will have the problem of trying not to eat all these cookies at one time.  Enjoy!!

Butterfly Lollipop Valentines

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With Valentine’s Day just around the corner I decided that this year we were going to make our own for my daughter to pass out at school.  I think they are cuter and a whole lot cheaper so why not.  We have started making them early because we have to make 25 and well my daughter is 4 and sitting down to make 25 things at one time just won’t happen.  So instead of doing them all at once whenever she wants/needs something to do we can work on our lollipop Valentines.

Supplies

Lollipops

Butterfly wing pattern

Red construction paper

Pink construction paper

Googly eyes

Glue

Directions

Print out your butterfly wing pattern and then cut it out

 Trace the large wing onto red construction paper and cut out

 Trace the small wing onto pink construction paper and cut out

Write your to: and from: onto the pink wing

 Apply a generous amount of glue to the back of your pink wing

 Now lay your lollipop in the center of the red wing and lay the pink wing on top to secure the lollipop in place.

 Glue two googly eyes to your lollipop to make the face

Baked Chicken Nuggets

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 In the never ending battle to try and get my kids to eat healthier meals, I decided to make my own chicken nuggets for dinner.  And instead of frying them I decided to bake them to make them a little healthier and use whole wheat flour too.

When I told my daughter she was excited that we were having baked chicken nuggets for dinner.  However once I served them her excitement wavered slightly.  My chicken nuggets were not the same at others she has had.  She did however eat her nuggets, but she said it was chicken not chicken nuggets.

A few days after our delicious baked chicken nugget dinner we had McDonalds for lunch, and of course my daughter got there nuggets.  As she was eating her McDonalds nuggets she told me "See mom these are chicken nuggets!" to which I applied "Yes, but my chicken nuggets are better for you." So my daughter replied "No Mommy these are better!"  I gave up at this point and decided that even though mine were not as big a hit as I thought, she still ate them and they were healthier than those so we will be having them again.  I hope you have better luck with what your kids!

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Ingredients

4 Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast

½ cup Whole Wheat Flour

2 eggs

2/3 Cup Panko Breadcrumbs

1 Cup Bread Crumbs

1 tbs Italian Seasoning

2 tsp Garlic Powder

1 tsp Salt

Directions

Preheat Oven to 375

 Start by cutting your chicken into nugget size pieces. 

I a bowl mix breadcrumbs, panko breadcrumbs, Italian seasoning, garlic powder, and salt.  In separate bowls have eggs and flour (you should have 3 bowls)

 Roll your chicken pieces in the flour, then coat them in the egg, and then roll them in the breadcrumb mixture.

 Put nuggets on a lightly greased baking sheet and bake for 20 min.

 Serve with a side of your choice.