Month: October 2017

Bacon-Asparagus Hash

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My son loves asparagus – so much so that I don’t tell him I’m making it ahead of time, or he’ll throw a tantrum while it cooks #veganproblems. I delighted him the other day with not one but two of his favorite foods, adding vegan bacon slices into this easy side dish. My favorite brand for little kids is Lightlife, which has a mild flavor. For a smokier, more intense bacon dish, try this with Tofurky’s maple bacon tempeh.

Ingredients:

  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 1 pound asparagus, trimmed and chopped
  • 2 Lightlife bacon slices, finely chopped
  1. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the asparagus and cook for 10 minutes.
  2. Halfway through cooking, add the bacon, stirring frequently until the asparagus is tender and the bacon is crisp.

Fancy Toast

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Fancy Toast 2

Just the name of this quick snack makes it sound exotic and exciting – enough so to get a picky preschooler to try out food combinations he or she might not otherwise attempt. You can serve any of the following combinations on toasted baguette slices, but we like to use crispbread crackers from Ryvita. Double up portions and you’ll move any of these combos from a snack to a meal.

Tomato and Cheddar Fancy Toast

  • 2 crispbread crackers or baguette slices
  • 1 tablespoon vegan mayonnaise
  • Dash of salt
  • Dash of black pepper
  • 2 ounces sliced Daiya cheddar
  • 1 tomato
  1. Spread the mayonnaise evenly over the cracker slices, and sprinkle with a pinch of salt and black pepper.
  2. Thinly slice the cheddar, and arrange the slices on the crispbread. Thinly slice the tomato and divide the slices evenly over the cheddar.

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Pumpkin Butter Fancy Toast

  • 2 crispbread crackers or baguette slices
  • 1 and 1/2 tablespoons pumpkin butter
  • 6 thin apple slices
  • Dash of cinnamon
  1. Spread the pumpkin butter in a thin layer over the crackers.
  2. Top evenly with the apple slices, and sprinkle evenly with a dash of cinnamon.

Banana-Nut Fancy Toast

  • 2 crispbread crackers or rye bread slices
  • 1 tablespoon almond butter (or other nut butter)
  • 1/4 cup banana slices
  • 1/4 teaspoon sesame seeds
  1. Spread the nut butter evenly over the cracker slices.
  2. Top evenly with the banana slices and sprinkle with the sesame seeds.

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Duck, Duck, Goose Dress-Up

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Duck Duck Goose (13)

There’s no time like October to embrace the glee of dress-up. Whether you’re planning out your actual Halloween costumes or just having fun around the house, kids seem to just morph when they are in costume, If you want, save this one (an adorable suggestion from Highlights High Five) for Halloween; it would be perfect for a parents and a child or for a group of siblings. Or just get silly like we did during a morning of play and use for creative costume play!

Travis thought the project was a delight from start to finish, intrigued right away by all the materials as we gathered them.

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First up was making our hats – two yellow ducks for mom and dad, and a white goose for Travis. Buy solid color hats from a craft store, then trace the visors of the hats on orange felt, leaving an outer edge about 1/4-inch longer than the brim for the “beak.”

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I cut them out, trimming slightly to make sure they fit the brim, and then glued on. You can have your child help you with regular glue, or use hot glue for slightly better adherence.

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To make the eyes, draw black dots with marker on styrofoam balls. Travis had fun drawing one very wobbly eye, but then asked me to fill in the circles on the others.

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Use Velcro dots to add the eyes to each hat. Neat, they stick!

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To make our shirts, we made long lines of glue on the sleeves of plain t-shirts from the craft store – two yellow, one white – and stuck on feathers in the corresponding colors.

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Travis thought this part was endlessly fun, so we covered the bellies of the shirts as well.

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Let your costumes dry completely. While we waited, Travis gathered leftover feathers and pretended it was the duck’s nest! Leftover Styrofoam became the “eggs.”

 

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The next day, it was time to play! I thought Travis might find the feathery shirt uncomfortable, but he was so excited to be a goose, instantly honking up a storm.

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And insisting that Mommy Duck quack, of course, so here I am:

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Even Daddy Duck got in on the action. We played many rounds of Duck, Duck, Goose of course, and Travis wanted to wear his shirt the rest of the morning. If you do opt for these costumes on Halloween, wear white or yellow rain boots to complete the look.

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Pumpkin Leapfrog

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Wondering what to do with all those pumpkins from the pumpkin patch? Get in a little exercise before you carve them!

Pumpkin patches are such a fantastic outing this time of year; ideally head to one where your child can truly see where pumpkins come from (attached to the vne), instead of a big lot where pumpkins have been placed in a row.

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Travis was so proud picking out our pumpkins, especially since he could lift them all by himself. At home, I asked if he wanted to play pumpkin leapfrog, which earned an eager and curious “Yes!”

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Set your pumpkins up in a line (use as many as you’d like – we had 4, but you could go up to 8 or even higher, if you want to make the course harder), and cut a line of string to mark the start and finish of your course.

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Take turns leaping over the pumpkins, and see how long it takes! You can make this competitive for older kids by using a timer, or just be silly with it for younger ones.

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Next we ran a slalom “S” course around the pumpkins, great for practicing fancy footwork.

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From there, go on and make up your own silly versions. Travis loved straddling each pumpkin, running circles around them, and more.

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The perfect activity to tide us over until its time to carve, and yet another fantastic suggestion from our Barefoot Books Kids Garden set.

 

Craft Stick School Bus

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Bus Frame (10)

Ok, Travis might not actually take a bus to his nursery school, but kids understand quickly the link between school buses and school. That makes this craft an adorable one to hold the Picture Day photos for kids of any age!

To start, paint 5 regular craft sticks and 3 jumbo craft sticks with yellow paint. I love watching Travis’s dexterity with painting projects increase; he now knows to hold the craft stick with the tip of a finger, in order to paint it as much as possible without getting his fingers yellow!

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We set the craft sticks aside to dry while he was – appropriately! – at school on Picture Day.

To complete the craft, glue one regular-sized stick horizontally across the tops of the other 4 regular-sized sticks; these will be the window frames of the bus. Glue the 3 jumbo sticks horizontally at the bottom, to be the body of the bus.

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Cut two circles from black craft foam for the wheels. We glued on buttons as the center of the wheels.

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From here, embellish your bus any way you’d like! A few sequins served as the headlight and pretty adornment, and a T sticker for his initial was the final touch.

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As has often been the case lately, Travis used the craft materials to play with in his own way once we were finished. He glued together additional craft sticks and sprinkled them with more sequin pieces, and was very proud of his creations.

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When Picture Day photos are ready, simply tape behind the windows of the bus!

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