Cooking with kids: Healthy fall recipes

I love the ministry of Hearts at Home. They tell me, as often as I need to hear it, that my job as a mom is important and valuable. They publish books, have conferences (check to see if one is near you because I know you want to hear Michelle Duggar, Dr. Juli Slattery, and The Fly Lady), and maintain a website. The founder, Jill Savage, has a new book coming out in February: No More Perfect Moms. I can't wait to read the book, because Jill never gives me a formula to be better, rather she points to Christ and reminds me of grace. I need that.

Today, is the Hearts at Home monthly blog hop. The topic is fall recipes (click here to see recipes from other bloggers).  I almost posted our scrumptious 100% whole wheat flour chocolate chip cookie recipe (don't get too excited about healthy cookies, because the amount of butter cancels any health benefits). But as mom, I really want to model healthy eating.  Probably, the cookie recipe would gather more comments. Most women collect dessert recipes-- maybe because desserts bring praises. Still, while they ooh and ahh at dessert recipes, they groan if I bring dessert, They are trying to be healthy and my cookies are just another temptation to break their diet.

To help you and your girls eat healthy, I decided to share with you a cookbook and two of its recipes that the girls and I love. The recipes are simple, easy, and healthy. There is nothing more effective than cooking healthy and eating healthy together.

The Cookbook: 
Williams-Sonoma: the kid's cookbook is a hardcover book that is spiral bound. It has beautiful images of EVERY recipe, a great intro to cooking section in the front, and the recipes are simple to follow (the language in the recipes is more detailed than the average cookbook).
Oodles of Noodles (vegetarian).  
My bug, the 8-year-old, is my child who loves to cook. She is also the picky eater of the family. She hates chicken (except in nugget form), pork, and most meats. She loves beans, peanut butter, eggs and carbs. And after discovering this recipe, tofu. Or maybe she just likes the opportunity to slurp noodles! This Asian-inspired soup is simple, fast, and light. Bug can make it herself. If it is the main course, we serve it with a hearty salad and cornbread muffins. The recipe is very forgiving. We add more noodle, more tofu, more chives. It is always good. Note that the recipe as written only serves two.

ingredients:
4 cups of veggie or chicken broth
2 ounces dried vermicelli (we sometime use rice threads instead which makes the soup gluten-free)
3/4 cup fresh or frozen peas
1/2 cup diced firm tofu
1 tbsp chopped fresh chives (green onions work too!)
1 tsp Asian sesame oil.

1. Pour the broth into the medium saucepan, cover, and set over high heat. Bring the broth to a boil. When it boils, reduce the heat to medium.
2. Remove the lid. Add the vermicelli and peas. Simmer, uncovered, stirring frequently with the wooden spoon to keep the pasta from sticking together, for 5 minutes. 
3. Add the tofu and continue to simmer until the noodles are al dente (tender but firm to the the bite) and the peas are tender, about 2 minutes longer. To test, using a slotted spoon, scoop out a few noodles and a few peas. Set them on the cutting board to cool for a few seconds. Taste them. If they are tender, they are done.
4. Using the pot holder, carefully remove the saucepan from the heat. Stir in the chives and sesame oil. Ladle into soup bowl and serve immediately. 
*Recipe from William Sonoma: the kids' cookbook

Baked Pork Chops with Apples
Picky Bug doesn't like pork and didn't even try this recipe. But everyone else loves it. Moist pork chops with baked apples is delicious.  This recipe is so easy and foolproof.  After making it with me once, Bird can easily just this recipe together and bake it.  It serves four.

ingredients
4 red-skinned apples
1 tablespoon sugar
pinch of ground cinnamon
4 boneless pork chops, each about 3/4 inch thick
salt and pepper
2 tablespoons butter, cut into small pieces

Baked Pork Chops and Apples just before baking. 

1. Preheat the oven to 375 F. Have ready the 8-inch square baking dish.
2. Set 1 apple on the cutting board and cut it in half length-wise with a sharp knife. Cut each half in half again to make quarters. Place each quarter on its side and cut away the core. Cut each quarter lengthwise into 1/2-inch think slices. Repeat with the other apples. Pile the slices into the baking dish.
3. Sprinkle the sugar and cinnamon evenly over the apples.
4. Generously sprinkle both sides of the pork chops with salt and pepper. Tuck the chops into the pile of apples, rearranging the slices around them. Scatter the butter pieces over the tops of the pork chops and apple slices. Cover the baking dish with aluminum foil.
5. Bake for 40 minutes. Ask an adult to help you remove the foil from the baking dish. Be careful: The steam is very hot! Continue to cook until the pork chops are lightly browned and the apples are tender, about 20 minutes longer. Using oven mitts, remove the baking dish from the oven.
6. To serve, use the table fork to transfer each chop to a serving plate. Scoop up the apple slices and the juices with the serving spoon and place them around the chop. 
*Recipe from William Sonoma: the kids' cookbook

I forgot to snap the after picture of the pork chops; you'll just have to make it! What do you cook with your kids? What are your favorite healthy recipes

Easy cupcakes to impress kids without spending much time in the kitchen

Today's post is all about giving you star mom power, without sacrificing much time. I'll give you two cupcake ideas, that will impress kids, cost little money or time. In fact, your 8-year-old, if she knows how to bake from a box, can do these herself. 

Do you ever promise to do something for your kids and then wish you hadn't? I like to be creative, but not in a time-consuming repeat-over-40 times way. Last spring I promised to make Bird soccer cupcakes to take to school (yes, at her school you can still bring homemade baked goods). I did it, even made enough for the soccer team, but it took over 6 hours. While the end results were awesome, I didn't want to sacrifice that much time on consumable food again. 

Bug's birthday followed a month later. She wanted cupcakes with equal wow-power. I couldn't give up so much time again. We found two cupcake designs, with high wow-factors that took very little decorating time. Even better, Bug and Bird were able to decorate several themselves without sacrificing quality. Since school is in full swing in every city (well, not Chicago...). And birthday girls and sports teams LOVE wow-factor cupcakes. And moms LOVE to serve them but don't have the time, let me share. 

For both cupcakes, I used Betty Crocker, butter recipe yellow. Because, well, they are cupcakes, and need to taste good and butter makes all baked goods better. For added wow-factor, find cute cupcake wrappers, my girls were excited about shiny foil. (I didn't show them the more expensive and fancier wrappers in Wilton sections at Michaels.)

Adorable monkey cupcake. Super cute. I found this image on Clyde's Cupcakes (the original site had a few other cute pictures if you want a monkey-themed party) and just imitated it. I made a nice chocolate butter cream frosting, used squeezable gel tubes for the eyes and mouth. The nose is a vanilla wafer and the ears mini vanilla wafers (I found snack size ones at Kroeger). Simple. Bake cupcakes. Decorating took enough for a class took less than 15-minutes working with my Bug. 

Fish Cupcakes. This year was Bug's turn to have a friend party for her birthday. She wanted to go swimming. Easy (I didn't even need to clean the house). But she wanted fish cupcakes. Hmm. Thank goodness for the Internet. The design I found was from Family Fun magazine. 

It was spring so pastel M&Ms were easy to find. I wanted pastel because matching the color of the frosting to the M&M would be easier. The mouth is an M&M cut in half (yes we bought the pastel and the regular M&Ms). The tail is a gum drop fruit slice, easy to find in a generic brand at most gas stations and drug stores. I bet you can't guess which fish I did and which ones my daughter did? 

Happy decorating. 

Activity: A photo shoot with your pets

For two weeks I've been covering creativity and your kids. Now I get to share some of the projects we've tackled around here. I told the girls that one day this summer we would have a photo shoot with their pets, complete with props.  The day finally came.

I photograph things for the memories. Photography is not my hobby. So our standards are not high. Perhaps that made letting the girls use the camera and edit the pictures easier? We giggled our way through posing the beloved guinea pigs with different hats and props (the pigs were very cooperative). 

To edit the photos,  the girls had fun using one of our favorite, free web sites(you don't even have to register) called PicMonkey. It is a super intuitive photo editing site. On my blog, I use it to resize images, to add "Pruning Princesses" in the corners, and to make simple edits. The girls like the more exotic special effects like the frames, the text, the odd color variations like Polaroid.  We didn't use the the slimming effect or the airbrushing or the makeup, but the girls love taking photos of people they know and adding their own makeup. 

I highly recommend letting your kids try a pet photo shoot. It was super fun, ate up a whole afternoon and gave me a way to let my girls know that I think their favorite rodents are special too. (Note: We have a charming parrot too, but he won't less us dress him up!) The girls are still trying to decide if they want to make a collage poster or a photo book out of their images. 

Drumroll...Guinea Pig photo shoot staring Astro and Nibbles and my girls.

Hot rocks

Last weeks the Girls Club girls and I tackled another craft I found on Pinterest (original pin came from the blog Artful Parent). Turns out I am just not knowledgeable about simple crafts for kids. Because I find a really cool one and think it is awesome and one of a kind and then people say, "I did that as a kid" or I google the craft and find 15 blogs about the same craft project.

Time to join the masses and share a craft I had never heard of. Maybe you haven't either and it is so easy. We called it Hot Rocksbut it is more commonly called melted crayon rocks. You need rocks, peeled crayons, foil, cookie sheets, an oven, and hot pads. (Such a cheap supply list!)

First, find rocks you would like to paint. I went hunting for rocks in the dry creek bed at a nearby park. I didn't find many rocks that were big enough to paint, but I found lots of concrete chunks. These worked well, but they aren't as naturally pretty as a God-made rock.

Next, wash the rocks. The girls liked this part because they also got each other wet in the process.

Line a baking sheet with foil and turn your oven to 350. Put the rocks on the foil and stick in the oven until rocks are hot or as long as you need them in there. Without any dirt on the rocks, there is no smell.

While the rocks "baked" I had the girls peel wrappers off crayons. Then on the deck outside I set out aluminum foil work centers for the girls. If you do this craft inside, consider using a towel under the foil to protect your tabletop from the hot rocks.

The girls gathered up the crayons of their choice. And picked a work station. I gave my warnings about how hot the rocks would be and how the crayon wax HAD to stay on the foil.

My biggest mistake was not having the girls plan a few designs for the rocks. (Really, I should have done a few samples myself ahead of time) Without design think-time some of the girls couldn't think of a design and just melted colors and then felt jealous of the one girl who did make designs.

I delivered the first round of rocks to each girl using hot pads. The girls simply pressed the crayon against the rock and it instantly melted. It is almost like painting. In spite of the quick melt, I was surprised at how much control the little artists had over where the wax went.

I loved this craft. It was entertaining and different. Next time, I will make sure I have more than 2 rocks per girl. I think their creative ideas were just hatching after the second rock. They (We)  finally knew how this new medium worked and were ready to try more specific designs.

What craft have you tackled lately? Any Pinterest inspired projects?
Particpating today in a link up with studio jru and other creative souls.

Glitter Grapes

Driving down the road to the soccer party my heart sank, the dessert my daughter and I had prepared wasn't in the car.

"Can anyone see the grapes?"

Gasp. I knew where they were. 

Hubby screeched to a halt and the bowl of glitter grapes careened down the front windshield and all over the road. The kids at the party only got to munch on 20 grapes that miraculously resisted gravity.  The serving bowl was metal and unbroken. The amazing thing? An almost empty bowl of grapes at a soccer team party on a table full of desserts earned me 2 wide-eyed exclamations of their awesomeness. 

I found Glitter Grapes on Pinterest but have since seen the recipe all over the Internet. They are sometimes called Sour Patch Grapes or Leprechaun Candy.  For my directions I combined the best tips from all the recipes I found (yippee for you!). Doesn't the idea of glittering grapes and little girls just go together? A healthy(ish) princess party snack? These crowd pleasers are especially fabulous if you serve them very cold, even frozen, on a hot day. 

Ingredients
Seedless Grapes 
1 or 2 packages of Jell-O Mix, unmade

Directions
1. Remove the grapes from their stem. 
2. Wash the grapes thoroughly. You want the grapes to be wet. 
3. Pour the Jell-O into a shallow bowl and spoon the mix over the grapes. 
4. Chill covered grapes for an least an hour. 
5. Eat. Smile. Wonder if Sour Patch Grapes might not be a better name for these. 

You can use any flavor combination you want but some that you will love: our fav--green grapes with Melon Fusion Jell-O (pictured above and inspired by suggested by Puresugar), red grapes with  cherry.  Or for try unusual color combinations like green grapes with blue Jell-O. 

Participating in the Heart at Home Blog Hop today where bloggers share favorite summer recipes. Check it out here. 

Sidewalk Paint Fun

I joined the Pinterest Bandwagon a few months ago. Because decorating and organizing my house is stressful and since I don't like cooking, it isn't addicting to me. I find it to be a great organizing tool. I used to clip magazine articles about crafts to do with the kids or recipes I wanted to make. They cluttered my piles until the mess frustrated me enough to throw them away, undone.  But with Pinterest? I can pin pictures, find the original idea and not add to my already teetering piles of so-called organization. 


Since I joined, I have been pinning activities to do with the girls during the summer, especially the Girls Club. 


This summer  Girls Club girls and I are going through Nancy Rue's The Buddy Book. We are learning about how God created us to be in relationships of many kinds, how God is the ultimate counsellor, and that relationships can be tough. The book has fun quizzes. Today we covered relationships in general but each week we will cover a different chapter/relationship: parents, siblings, friends, boys, God, ourselves. Each week I feel tired and a bit lethargic about Girls Club but each week, when it is over I am energized and thrilled like God has filled my cup with blessings in allowing me to know these sweet girls and to influence their faith. 


But we can't just do study time together. Fun is mandatory. So this week we made sidewalk paint. The recipe, found on Pinterest and originally from the blog Hammer and Thread, was super simple.

I purchased 8 disposable mini containers from the dollar store (in packages of four) so we would have paint containers with lids. The girls loved being color scientists.  When the paint initially goes on the sidewalk it can be a bit dull, but when it is dry, the colors are bright and much prettier than chalk. And when we started to sweat, we painted the neighbor's garage (with permission) because it fences in our backyard is ugly and peeling, and my neighbor knows he should paint it but never does so we decided to make it look nicer. That's when the girls decided splatter painting might be fun because the paint is really runny and was difficult to paint with on a vertical surface. Craziness followed. 

We will do this activity again. It was fun, cheap and easy. What more could you ask for?


Posting with others who practice creativity at Studio JRU. Check out their projects here. 

andon 7/28/12 I shared this post here:

DIY flower headband

Welcome to Pruning Princesses' first ever mother/daughter craft post. It's an easy, inexpensive project your upper elementary girls can do herself (if you've taught her to use a glue gun) but together is always better.

My camera never works well inside that school. Bird
selling her headbands at the 4th grade mall. 

Bird's fourth grade class just finished a cool unit on economics. Each kid had to design a product to sell to the school. They had to create a business plan, develop a budget, buy insurance, pick a selling price, vie for the best "storefront", decide whether or not to advertise, etc.  On the day of the 4th grade mall other classes came and spent their money (real money converted into 4th grade currency). It was a fun project. Bird sold flower headbands. We used both the hard headbands and the soft elastic ones. My creative friend Laura from Everafter Blueprint helped Bird design a flower headband that would be sturdy, because well, the idea I had tended to fall apart. So glad I have friends with different skills.  


And now my dear Bird will explain the steps. 

Hi blog readers. Bird here. To make flower headbands we went to the dollar store and bought headbands and plastic flowers. So four hard headbands or 6 soft ones were $1. And usually there were six flowers were stem. That's at least four headbands for $2. But we also used some headbands from our house that we already had. The final supplies were a hot glue gun and two circles of felt about one inch around. It can't be too big or too small-- I learned that the hard way.   

Now to start out, take the flower and cut off the plastic back as you can see in the picture. Cut off the plastic stub as much as possible to make it very small. Be sure to do this over a trash can because you will get stubs everywhere. That was a mistake I made- I had to make like 40 and I didn't use a garbage can. I had "fun" afterwards cleaning up the mess.    

Now the flower will be taken apart and glued back together onto one of the felt circles with a glue gun. I burned myself a lot so be careful. Flower picking tip-- don't pick one that looks difficult to put back together because you will probably end up with a flowery mess!    

Be sure the felt on the back looks something like the picture below. 

Put a dab of glue on your headband and put the flower(with the felt) over the dab of glue. You will likely burn yourself just like I did like 100 times!   

Now put a layer of glue on one side of the other felt circle and attach it to the headband and flower to make it secure. Check it over to make sure there are no extra spots you need to glue. 

Now check the flower and add glue in between layers as shown above. 

A complete, beautiful headband that is fun and cute. I sure had fun but after about 30 I was tired of it. 

Well. See you soon! Hope I get to write again


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Soccer cupcakes and turning ten

You know those friends on Facebook who post pictures of amazing birthday cakes/cupcakes they made for their toddler's birthday? I admire them but never knew why they wanted to do such a thing. The little one will not actually remember the cake and it takes so much time. I've never made a cake even worthy of a picture. Of course, I am not a skilled artist and I don't enjoy baking. That might explain my cynicism.

Bird turned ten yesterday. Double digits. It's a big deal. Emotionally, nine was tougher for me. Nine is the half way point to legal adulthood. Hopefully the halfway point of Bird's life at home with her parents. Nine might be the reason I started this blog. Nine caused a renewed effort to parent intentionally while I still have great influence. And then I wanted to share.

I digress, Bird turned ten yesterday. And everyone says, "OOHH. Double digits." And Bird isn't having a friend party. And there isn't any extended family to celebrate with. And I felt a little sad not making a bigger deal about ten. This birthday is the first one where I've watched her carefully and wondered how she got so mature. She spent Friday evening and Saturday morning rushing to finish homework the long list of chores quickly so she could fully enjoy her  celebration day on Sunday. She did her extra chores (a result of not being kind to her sister) without reminder and without complaining. All this amazing growth and memory reflection, it clouded my mind and I agreed to make soccer cupcakes for my soccer crazy girl. Enough for her whole class and soccer team. That's 48 cupcakes.

There was no budget to purchase soccer cupcakes. And Bird thinks the plastic rings stores put in cupcakes are lame. So what's a mom, who's never made a fancy cupcake to do? Call friends. Thanks to my talented friends Stephanie and Amanda, I made 48 picture-worthy soccer cupcakes. Just don't look too closely, they are far from perfect. I'll spare you the details of all the trials and errors. Here's how it ended up working.

I used boxed cupcake mix and baked 24 cupcakes because I can't bake from scratch and decorate cupcakes too.  The top layer of frosting was simply green frosting. The soccer team got fancy textured grass using a special tip. But I'd never used a piping bag before and my wrist hurt (can hear my whiny voice?). The school class of 30 got flat grass! One thing I learned is that gel food coloring base produces a brighter green the normal liquid drop food coloring I buy at the grocery store. You can buy these craft stores or bakeries.

The soccer ball was the tricky part. I used an Oreo cookie (well the generic version) so I didn't have to make pretty circles. I probably could have used double-stuff Oreos and removed the top cookie layer and only drawn the hexagons and lines, but I didn't think of that in time. So I spread white frosting over the cookies and then painted the hexagons and lines with black food coloring. The girls taste-tested and the food coloring did not affect flavor. To draw the lines and hexagons, I tried creating a template out of cardboard. Since the goal was just to get the cookie to look like a soccer ball, I discovered that perfect hexagons were not critical. In the end I am not sure the template helped much. My freehand paintings sometimes worked better than the template cookies.

My neighbor had a cool cupcake carrier so the cupcakes could be transported safely. And now my decade-old daughter thinks I rock because when her friends asked where she bought such awesome cupcakes, she said, "My mom made them!" Happy Birthday Bird!