Ovaltine Malted Fudge Pops

I recently won I Heart Naptime's Ovaltine Giveaway.  Very exciting!  I received my prize pack this week.

The giveaway included three containers of Ovaltine, a glass straw dispenser, a $25 Visa gift card, and a recipe book. 

Yesterday I tried a new recipe from the included book.  I  had all the ingredients so I didn't need to go to the grocery store.  My daughter was so excited when she heard I was making Malted Fudge Pops! 

I was anxious to get the pops in the freezer for a fun dessert after dinner.

They turned out great and my daughter really enjoyed her dessert!

The recipe can be found in the Ovaltine Recipe Booklet or at a number of sites online.  I found a recipe identical to the one I used here.

Thanks to I Heart Naptime for the great giveaway!

 



Summertime Waffles

If your kids are like mine they love waffles, pancakes, pretty much any breakfast food! One of my friends had this great idea to make waffles look like watermelons for summertime. So I took her idea and went with it. INSTANT FAVORITE! They loved the waffles and ate them all. I also made them with whole wheat flour and sweet potatoes I love a little extra nutrition in each bit.

My whole wheat sweet potato waffles recipe is found HERE. Best recipe ever. You also need mini chocolate chips.

So here is how you make them into watermelon waffles.

Make your batter according to the directions and separate the batter into two bowls (with a little more in one of the bowls). Then you add the food coloring to each bowl. One bowl with red food coloring and the other with green. I put the red in the bowl with more batter.

Next you make a circle using the green batter with a hole in the middle. Then pour the red batter in the hole and sprinkle with mini chocolate chips. Cook like you normally would.

When you are done you have a watermelon waffle that the kids will love.

Fun Find Friday - Dora the Explorer Cupcakes

If you have children and allow them to watch television I'm sure you've seen Nickelodeon's commercial with a woman and children making Dora cupcakes.  Each time my daughter sees the commercial she begs me to let her make Dora cupcakes.  The project looked fairly easy and kid friendly in the commercial so I finally agreed to add the ingredients to my shopping list.

Nickelodeon's Dora Cupcakes - picture and instructions found at Nick Jr

Earlier this week my nephew came over for a sleep over.  My daughter anxiously waited all day for him to arrive because I told her she could make the Dora cupcakes with him.

The Nickelodeon website has full instructions and nutritional information for the cupcakes.  Go here for the printable version.

My daughter and nephew were very excited to get started on our project!

We baked the cupcakes and let them cool for awhile.  We started the decorating process by making Dora's hair. I used the printable template under wax paper on a cookie sheet.

We used melted chocolate chips instead of chocolate melting wafers to make the hair.  I chose not to outline the hair with the darker chocolate simply because my "helpers" wanted to move on to the next step.

I refrigerated the pan of Dora's hair while we frosted the cupcakes.  My daughter and nephew did a great job frosting...

...until my daughter decided she was the official taste tester!

I didn't take pictures of us completing the next few steps.  I had two messy kids and honestly was just trying to get this little project wrapped up.  My daughter and nephew didn't seem to mind that our cupcakes turned out looking slightly different than the beautiful ones they saw in the commercial.

This was a fun project and would have been great paired up with a Dora Summertime Coloring Page or Pinwheel Paper Craft!

 

Country Chic Cottage

Have you seen The Beach Bash going on at Country Chic Cottage yet? If you haven't please go and see all the great beach related posts from now through July 20th.

OH YEAH and it just so happens that my post for the Bash is today! YAY!

I will do a tutorial on this next week but please go check it out now.

I'm Bored Jar

Summertime is finally here! It is all exciting and grand at first but now that school has been out for about 2 weeks the summer moto has become, "I'm BORED!" for many kids. Which means trouble for mom. As a teacher I love summer break but as a mom I know it is hard to keep the house clean, the dishes done, and the children entertained all summer long. That is where the idea of the "I'm Bored" Jar was born. This is a special jar that mom's can use to keep their little ones busy. The best part about the "I'm Bored" jar is that it is totally random and never what you expect.

Here's how it works... when a child says, "I'm Bored", all they need to do is go to the jar and pick a stick. Then they have to do whatever the stick says. But the pure delight is that it is not always something the child might want to do, and it is not always something mom might want to do. BUT YOU HAVE TO DO WHATEVER THE STICK SAYS! It is a bonding time for mom's and kids to do activities together as well. I think it is fun to have a surprise, you never know what you might get.

Now my kids are too young for this but I can see it coming in handy in the future. So I made an example based on a 6+year old. Here is a list of the activities I included in my jar.

Clean your room

Read a book or your scriptures

Practice your flashcards

Clean the bathroom

Organize the food storage

Organize your closet

Weed for 30 minutes

Take the dog for a walk

Write in your journal

Unload the dishwasher

Go to a movie

Make homemade play dough

Make some cookies

Vacuum the house

Dust the house

Play a board game

Make a card for Grandma or Grandpa

Have a picnic

Make some finger puppets and have a puppet show

Go to the pool or the beach

Make a giant sand castle

Go get ice cream at the ice cream shop

Do a puzzle

Go on an adventure to some place new

All you need for this little project is:
-a jar (I got mine from the dollar store)
-some flat wood sticks or tongue sticks (Hobby Lobby)
-scrapbook paper
-mod podge
-embellishments

Cover one side of your sticks with the scrapbook paper. Then print out a list of activities, some that the kids will like some that the moms will like. Glue 1 activity to each stick. (I used mod podge for both sides). Put your sticks in the jar, embellish the jar, and enjoy endless "I'm Bored" activities. Even my little 3 year old had fun helping me decorate and put the jar together. I did put 2 blank sticks in as a free stick, where the child could choose the activity of their choice. You will never have to be bored again.
I am linking up HERE

Wow Summer Treat

Here is a yummy summer treat that is both healthy and fun. Smoothie pops. My kids love them and they love to make them. It is basically just a smoothie recipe that I make all the time (my kids LOVE smoothies) that I put into dixie cups and stuck a Popsicle stick in the center. Then I put them in the freezer for about an hour. Once they are done freezing I rip off the dixie cup and the kids enjoy a creamy frozen treat.

Here is the smoothie recipe. It is not exact but you will get the main idea.

-frozen fruit. I like frozen strawberries, or the mixes you get from Costco
-juice. I like to use V8 fusions because it has both fruit and veggies in it
-fat free 1/2 and 1/2
-yogart. I use either vanilla or flavored to give it a little sweetness.
-1 scoop of vanilla protein powder.

Put the frozen fruit in the bottom of the blender. Add the yogart and protein powder. Pour in juice until it covers about half the fruit. Pour in 1/2 and 1/2 to cover the fruit. Mix it all up.

You can eat it just like this or make it into pops. I figure it is pretty healthy with no added sugars and servings of fruit, vegetables, dairy, and some protein. A complete meal in a fun treat.