I Spy: A Mac and Cheese Adventure

I am so tickled with myself.  This may be one of the cleverest things I have ever done with Mac and Cheese.  So, Chew and Chew Dad has been out of town a lot these past couple of weeks with work.  We seem to have this tradition that when Dad is gone, we have Mac and Cheese.  Mac and Cheese is the all time favorite of the Chew and Chew kids, but I have questioned the nutritional value.  So this time around I decided to sneak in some mixed veggies.  I knew I would be met with anger, so I found a way to make it exciting and this is what I came up with...

I SPY: A MACARONI AND CHEESE ADVENTURE!

We love the "I Spy" books at our house, so I knew that this would especially appeal to my kids.

When the kids came to the dinner table (read counter), This is what was waiting for them.  A bowl of mac 'n cheese with a game card and pencil per child.

 Secretly, before I filled the bowls of mac 'n cheese, I taped a piece of gum to the bottom of each bowl.  This is the "Bar of Silver" on the game card.

mmmm... just look at those gorgeous mixed vegetables.  Our mac 'n cheese had carrots, peas, green beans, and corn.

I had looked up "treasures" on the Internet and copied pictures of jewels that closely matched their vegetable counterpart.  When the kids found and ate the jewel/ vegetable, they could cross it off their list.

 This is Sweetheart holding up a Peridot (aka. pea) that she found in her mac 'n cheese.  Notice the big grin!

Okay, and the best part was, they could NOT figure out where the "Bar of Silver" was!  I have never seen T-Man shovel mac 'n cheese into his mouth so fast.  He was determined to be the first to find all of the items.  It wasn't until he finished the whole bowl until he thought to look underneath.  And when the other two found out there was gum, then everyone kicked it into hyper-eating drive to get to the gum.  Gum is a hot commodity at our house!  It gave me a big laugh.  It was quite an adventure.

To make your own: I Spy: A Macaroni and Cheese Adventure:

Prepare your favorite brand of macaroni and cheese according to package directions.

Prepare a cup of mixed vegetables also according to package directions and mix together with the macaroni and cheese.  To use my game card below, your mixed vegetables should include peas, green beans, corn, and carrots.  I also used one stick of gum taped to the bottom of each bowl.

Click on my game card below to enlarge the image.  Next, right click on the image and select "Copy", then open Microsoft Word, or another any program of your choice.  Right-click on the blank document and select "Paste".  This should give you a printable game card.  You can also just right-click on my image and save it, then print it in whatever program works for you.  You will need one game card per person.



George's Marvelous Medicine

We just finished reading George's Marvelous Medicine last week and the kids LOVED it. So we decided to make some marvelous medicine of our own.

In the book, George throws everything he can possibly think of into a large stew pot to make some special "medicine" for his grandma. We decided to shop the produce aisle at our local grocery store. We each chose one ingredient to put into the medicine.
Sweetheart chose a peach.
T-Man chose a kiwi.
Buddy chose a pluit.
and I chose a Mango for Charli.

Before we started, I had each kid draw a picture of what they hoped their marvelous medicine would do. Sweetheart's medicine made her hair grow very long and T-Man's medicine turned everyone's head into a piece of candy.

Next, we made an Orange Julius base, then each kid peeled and chopped their item and threw it into the blender with the Orange Julius.

ORANGE JULIUS

1 Can frozen orange juice concentrate

1 cup milk

1 cup water

1/2 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla

12-20 ice cubes

Blend all ingredients in the bleder including ice cubes, keep adding ice cubes until the orange julius is at the desired thickness. You can add fruits to make a fruit smoothie.

So far the "medicine hasn't made her hair grow extra long, but she did run to the mirror to check just in case. The medicine was delicious!

Amelia Bedelia's Baby Food

In case you can't tell how small these cute little hamburgers are, I have placed them on a small saucer. They were a huge hit!

We just finished reading Amelia Bedelia by Peggy Parish. In the book, Amelia is asked to feed the baby some baby food. Amelia doesn't know what baby food is, so she makes the baby miniature hamburgers and baby potatoes. We thought we would give it a try.

First, the kids cut some baby sized buns out of a regular piece of bread. We used a small round cookie cutter and cut four circles per piece of bread (enough for two mini hamburgers). We also put a small piece of cheese on each bun and one small pickle.

Next, using a pound of thawed ground beef, we pattied up 15 small hamburgers the size of a half dollar and then grilled them for 5-6 minutes on each side.

We happened to have very small potatoes from our garden, since the growing season was so short this year. We scrubbed them, and tossed them with 1/2 cube of melted butter and some garlic powder and parmesan cheese and then baked at 425 degrees for 30 minutes.

And then we broke corn on the cob into small baby sized portions (1/3 of the cob). And we enjoyed our meal. I should have made us all wear a bib and use baby spoons, but the actual baby goes through those too fast for there to be enough clean ones for everyone!

Stone Soup

This is a great recipe for the fall when your garden vegetables are ready to harvest. Adding a stone to our soup truly gives it a magical quality that makes even the three-year old eat it!

The first thing you will need for this recipe is a good, smooth, round stone, that is big enough no one could possibly accidentally swallow it.

Next, I read my kids the stone soup story. If you don't have the book, you can find many different versions online.

After the reading, we gather vegetables from our garden to put into soup along with the stone.

Onions, carrots, potatoes, peas, green beans, zucchini, corn, beans, any vegetables will do!


You will also need some minute rice, chicken broth, and italian dressing mix.

Then put the stone in the pot and let the magic begin.

STONE SOUP

1 Large Smooth Stone (big enough that it cannot be swallowed) scrubbed clean

1/2 lb. boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1/2 inch cubes

1 tsp. oil

1 can chicken broth

2 cups water

2 cups assorted cut-up vegetables (such as carrots, celery, broccoli, corn, beans, mushrooms, peppers, peas, potatoes, zucchini, etc.)

1 envelope Italian salad dressing & recipe mix

1 cup MINUTE white rice, uncooked

1. Heat oil in large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add chicken; cook and stir until browned.

2. In large stew pot place the large stone, then add broth, water, vegetables, chicken, and salad dressing mix. Bring to boil. Reduce heat to low, cover. Simmer 5-10 minutes until vegetables are tender.

3. Stir in rice and cover. Remove from heat. Let stand for 5 minutes.

Makes 6 Servings