Tuna & Spinach Salad Made with Love
A few days ago Karlie was in charge of making the family meal. She made a super delicious meal. For my meal she put together a Tuna, Spinach & Tomato Salad. When I sat down for dinner this beauty greeted me.
I love how she displayed the tomatoes around the edges of the salad and the 1 spinach leaf on the top of the tuna fish salad mix she put together on her own. It was amazing! Thankful for a thoughtful and sweet kid who made a delicious and healthy meal.
She made tuna fish sandwiches for the rest of the family, which based on their reactions turned out really tasty as well. Thanks Karlie for a great meal! Love you kiddos!
Recipes: Octopus Spaghetti
One of the Octopus Spaghetti pieces
Our family enjoys having fun in the kitchen. We have done this recipe a few times especially when the kids are a little younger. It was one of those days when we had spaghetti on the menu, but instead I decided to alter it to make it more fun for the kids. The normal spaghetti and meatballs for dinner turned into Octopus Spaghetti which included hotdogs instead of meatballs.
It really is easy. While the noodles were still hard I stuck them through pieces of hotdogs. The hotdogs cooked while the spaghetti noodles were boiling. I added a little bit of spaghetti sauce, a side dish or two (garlic bread and / or a fresh salad are good ones) and dinner is ready. The kids love it and enjoy helping with this recipe too.
Octopus Spaghetti Recipe:
- 1 package Hotdogs
- 40 Spaghetti Noodles
- 1 jar Spaghetti Marina Sauce (store bought or homemade)
Place a pot of water on the stove and begin heating it up until boiling. While you are waiting for your water to boil cut each of the 10 hotdogs into 4 equal pieces. Put 4 dry spaghetti noodles through each piece of hotdog (this allows you to have 4 octopus arms on each side of the hotdog, therefore giving you 8 octopus arms total). It may take a couple extra spaghetti noodles because you may break a couple when poking them through the hotdogs. Once the water is boiling place the hotdogs and noodles into your pot and boil until noodles are thoroughly cooked.
While the hotdogs and noodles are cooking place your spaghetti sauce into a smaller sauce pan and heat until it is hot. Place the hotdogs and noodles on your plate first and put the spaghetti sauce on top.
Our kids think the hotdogs and noodles tastes good even without the spaghetti sauce. You can do it either way. It is a fun meal, especially for the kids.
A pile of Octopus Spaghetti on that plate.
Spaghetti marina sauce added on top of the Octopus Spaghetti
Kids in the Kitchen: Cupcake Pops on a Stick
Blue Raspberry Cupcake Pop anyone?
The kids were baking up a storm in the kitchen the other day. They put together these delicious blue raspberry cupcake pops. Thankfully for kids who enjoy spending time in the kitchen cooking. Now if I could get them to spend more time cleaning up their cooking messes. They do clean up some, it’s just not always a thorough, but they are getting better!
Some of the delicious cupcake pops they made!
The sprinkles had a blue raspberry flavor which made these extra tasty!
Kids in the Kitchen: Mini Doughnuts
Mini Doughnuts!
The kids love spending time in the kitchen. They have put together some great treats. Thankful for kids who love to cook. They used the doughnut recipe on the mini doughnut container. The doughnuts were good, but they were a little heavier than what we were used to so we will probably look for a different recipe to try out. They did these all by themselves. The kids decorated them beautifully.
Kids in the Kitchen: Winter Rice Krispy Treats
The girls made these super cute rice krispie treats. They made and decorated these special treats to share with friends. Thankful for kids who love to spend time in the kitchen. It is great seeing their creative juices flowing!
My Little Chef: Christmas Sugar Cookies
A plate full of yummy egg and dairy free sugar cookies to enjoy!
I love having my kids home for the Christmas Break! It is always nice having extra time with them to have fun, relax, and do creative activities together. Brina wanted to make Dairy and Egg Free Christmas Sugar Cookies so she make a batch, rolled out the dough, cut out the shapes, cooked, frosted, and sprinkled the sugar cookies. The only thing I helped her do was get the hot pan out of the oven, but otherwise she did it on her own. So excited to see her start doing more in the kitchen! Yes, the cookies were delicious too!
Earlier that day Brina asked me to braid her hair! She wanted to wear it that way all day so she can have a crinkly hair style! Plus, it is probably a good hair style to wear when cooking in the kitchen.
Frosting the sugar cookies!
She made one giant cookie with the last bit of cookie dough and put the phrase “I Love You” on it!
Decorating the cookies!
Pausing for a split second to look up for a picture!
Recipes: Homemade Chicken Flavored Dog Biscuits
Homemade Dog Biscuits
The dog at our house is super spoiled, even though she doesn’t realize it. And at times she probably doesn’t deserve to be spoiled, like when she shreds our Wall Street Journal. Guess she is no different than humans, we are spoiled and blessed with so much yet we tend to act out. Overall she’s a wonderful dog, well behaved, and is super great with the kids even if she does get herself into trouble at times.
There is a certain child in our family that especially has a soft spot for animals. She has been BEGGING me to make dog biscuit treats with her for our black, furry, four-legged, mischievous family member! Our family had a roasted chicken a few days ago so I decided it was time to experiment with Homemade Dog Biscuits. The biscuits turned out really well and Skipper, our black lab, now has a giant baggie of homemade dog biscuits. She seems to think they are AMAZING, but she is not a picky eater. The girls love giving her the homemade treats too so everyone’s happy (or at least should be).
Homemade Chicken Flavored Dog Biscuits:
- 1 cup Hot Water
- 2 tablespoons Milk
- 2 Chicken Bouillon Cubes
- 3/4 cup Vegetable or Canola Oil
- 2 Eggs
- 1 cup of diced Chicken pieces (we used the heart, liver, gizzard, and pieces of chicken)
- 5 cups Flour
Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Grease a cookie sheet and set aside. Stir all ingredients together to make a thick dough. Knead the dough on a floured surface for 3 minutes. Roll the dough out to 1/4 inch thickness. Use cookie cutters to cut out the shapes (we used a dog bone and bear). Place the cookies on the baking sheet and cook for 35 minutes, turn off oven and leave in the oven for additional 20 minutes. The edges should be slightly brown. Remove from oven and cool. Store in a Ziplock bag or air tight container in the fridge.
Tray full of Homemade Chicken Flavored Dog Biscuits!
The puppy in our family is very happy to get her special homemade treats.
My Little Chef: Homemade Apple Crisp
Brina’s Homemade Apple Crisp was delicious!
Brina wanted to make homemade apple crisp for the family. She loves to cook and spend time with us in the kitchen. Thankful for her willingness to learn how to cook. She is becoming a great chef!
Mixing up the crisp, the spoon wasn’t working well so she used her fingers.
Freshly cubed apples sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar.
Homemade Apple Crisp ready to go into the oven.
Freshly baked apple crisp!
My Little Chef: Making Blue Raspberry Cookies
Mixing up the cookie dough!
When I am in the kitchen and Brina is around she is always willing to pitch in and help. She is becoming more efficient cook as she gets older. Recently, she decided to whip up some blue raspberry sugar cookies as a “Welcome Home” goodie for Jake who was arriving home that day from a work trip.
When he is away on a work trip we always try to make or pick up something special for him to have when he comes home. It is important to us to make sure he knows how excited we are to have him back home again. It is always so much better when the whole family is home together!
I am so thankful for kids that enjoy helping out in the kitchen. The girls have fun helping out in the kitchen and learning some great lessons along the way too. Grateful for my girls!
A batch of blue raspberry cookies ready to go into the oven!
Cookie rolled is blue sprinkles!
She made the perfect cookies!
Ready to eat and delicious! Thanks B!
School Projects: The Eye Ball Donut Creation & Writing Assignment
A tray of “The Eye Ball” Donuts ready to take to school
The girls recently had a writing assignment that they had to do for school. Brina came up with The Eye Ball Donut creation. For extra credit they could make their creations and share them with their classmates and teachers at school. We came up with a cookie creation using all the ingredients she mentioned in her writing assignment and they turned out fairly well. Instead of using cookies for Brina’s we used a powdered doughnut or in this case a munchkin for Dunkin Donuts. The donuts were a perfect treat to share with her classmates instead of cupcakes on Halloween. Karlie also did a cookie creation and writing assignment called Inside Your Feet.
The Eye Ball was super easy to put together and a big hit with Brina’s classmates.
Her tray of eye balls ready to be wrapped and delivered to school.
The Eye Balls did exactly what we wanted them to do – overnight the blue frosting that we used to attach the pupil part of the eye spread a little giving The Eye Balls blue colored eyes!
The Eye Ball Items:
- White Powdered Donuts (Dunkin Donut sells white powdered munchkins which are perfect for this treat, but you can make homemade if you want)
- Blue Frosting (we used the blue writing frosting but you could use brown or green, etc…)
- Edible Eyes (you can pick these up at Hobby Lobby, Walmart, etc…)
- Red Sprinkles
Once you have your white powdered donuts add a small drop of blue frosting and attached the pupil of your eye to your eye ball. Dip the bottom of the donut into red sprinkles and place on a tray. Let set overnight so the blue frosting will spread a little bit giving you a blue eye color.
The donuts turned out well and were a big hit with Brina’s class. It was a lot of fun putting these together with her and they were super simple. These would be an easy Fall or Halloween treat to do for a party or for fun.
