Author: admin

The Very Hungry Caterpillar Snack

Ingredients:

  • Green grapes
  • Strawberries
  • Orange
  • Mini chocolate chips
  • Black icing pen (optional)

Tools:

  • Plate for displaying the “caterpillar”.
  • Knife for cutting the fruit.  We love this kid-safe knife from Curious Chef.

Directions:

  1. Cut the grapes in half.
  2. Slice the strawberries into circles and the orange into slices.
  3. Arrange the grapes to form the body of the caterpillar and use the strawberry for the head of the caterpillar.  Put two mini chocolate chips on the strawberry for eyes.  Put the orange slice in the sky as the fun.
  4. Optional: Write “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” or the child’s name with the icing.

Zucchini Carrot Muffins

Ingredients: (makes 12 muffins)

  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2/3 cup vegetable oil
  • ½ cup applesauce
  • 2/3 cup sugar
  • ½ cup brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • ½ teaspoon baking soda
  • ½ teaspoon baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
  • 1½ cups shredded zucchini
  • ¾ cup shredded carrot 

Instructions:

  1. Preheat the oven to 375.
  2. In a mixing bowl, mix the oil with applesauce, sugars and vanilla.
  3. Combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.
  4. Combine the wet and dry ingredients, stirring until blended.
  5. Fold in the shredded zucchini and carrots.
  6. Put muffin liners in each muffin tin. Fill muffin cups about ¾  Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar or granulated sugar, if desired.  Bake 15-20 minutes.

Cider Donuts

Ingredients:

  • ½ cup all-purpose flour
  • 1/3 cup sugar
  • ½ teaspoon baking powder
  • ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1 pinch salt
  • 2 teaspoons applesauce
  • 2 tablespoons whole milk
  • 2 tablespoons apple cider
  • 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted
  • ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract 

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 350.
  2. Add the dry ingredients to a large bowl and whisk until well blended or sift together.
  3. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients starting with the milk and ending with the butter.
  4. Bake for 10-15 minutes depending on the size of the donut pans.
  5. Let cool and then brush with butter and sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar to taste.

Apple Pie

This recipe makes 1 small pie.

Ingredients:

  • 1 ¼ medium sized apple or 1 large apple
  • 2 heaping tablespoons brown sugar
  • 1 tablespoon butter
  • ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • pie dough (1 package of pie dough makes about 3 small pies)

Tools:

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 450.
  2. Prepare your pie dough. Wipe, quarter, core, peel and slice apples.
  3. Combine sugar and cinnamon. The amount of sugar used depends on how tart your apples are.
  4. Arrange apples in layers in pastry lined pie plate. Sprinkle each layer with sugar and cinnamon.  Dot top layer with small pieces of butter.  Cover with top crust.
  5. Place on lowest rack in oven. Bake for 10 minutes then reduce oventemperature to 350.  Bake for 30-35 minutes longer.

Sweet Potato Snickerdoodles

Ingredients:

  • 1½ cups all-purpose flour
  • ½ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • ½ cup brown sugar
  • ¾ cup mashed sweet potato (approximately 1 medium sweet potato)
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • ½ teaspoon baking soda
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 2 teaspoons cinnamon
  • Mixture for coating – ¼ cup sugar and 1 tablespoon cinnamon

Instructions:

  1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
  2. In a medium sized bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Stir in the mashed sweet potato and mix until smooth.
  3. Add in the cinnamon, salt, baking soda and vanilla.  Mix to combine.
  4. Add in the flour and mix until the dough just comes together.
  5. Combine the sugar and cinnamon for the coating in a small bowl.
  6. Scoop out evenly sized spoonfuls of the cookie dough (about the size of a golfball) and roll them in the cinnamon sugar mixture until completely coated.
  7. Place on the baking sheet and repeat with the remaining dough.
  8. Using the palm of your hand to lightly flatten the cookies.
  9. Bake cookies for 10-12 minutes, rotating the trash halfway through.
  10. Let cool slightly and serve.

Rain Cloud in a Jar

Materials:

  • Clear glasses
  • Food coloring
  • Shaving cream
  • Small bowl or container for holding 1-2 ounces
  • Water
  • Eye dropper or pipette

Instructions:

  1. Start by filling the small containers with water. The less water you use (so the more concentrated the food coloring), the faster your “rain” will drop. But on the other hand, the more water you use, the more rain you’ll be able to make.
  2. Add different colors of food coloring to each of the small containers. My containers held about 1 ounce of water and I added about 10 drops of food coloring.
  3. Fill a clear glass with water about 2/3 full.
  4. Top it with a generous amount of shaving cream.
  5. Use the eye dropper (or measuring spoon) to drop the different colors of water onto the shaving cream cloud. The closer you squirt to the edges, the faster it will go through the shaving cream and come down as rain.

Note:  You can tell your kids that the water is like the air, and the shaving cream is like the clouds. And as the clouds get saturated with water, they produce rain.

Egg Carton Flowers

Materials:

Instructions:

  1. Cut out four containers from the egg carton
  2. Squirt some acrylic paint onto a paper plate and have the kids paint their flowers.
  3. After the paint has dried attach the stem of the flower by hot gluing it to the back.
  4. Glue a pom pom to the center of the painted egg carton.

 

Churro Donuts

Ingredients:

For the muffin:

  • 1 cup flour
  • 1/3 cup sugar
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1/8 cup applesauce
  • 2/3 cup milk
  • 3 tablespoons butter, melted
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the topping:

  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons butter, melted

Tools:

  • Large mixing bowl for dry ingredients
  • Small mixing bowl for wet ingredients
  • Small mixing bowl for topping
  • Donut tins or muffin tins
  • Spatula for mixing
  • Spoon for filling donut tins

Instructions:

  1. Preheat the oven to 350.  Butter the donut tins.  These can also be made into muffins if you prefer.
  2. Measure the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and cinnamon into a large mixing bowl and stir it all together.
  3. Mix the applesauce, milk, melted butter and vanilla extract.  Pour it over the flour mixture and stir until all the flour disappears.
  4. Spoon the batter into the donut tins, filling each about two-thirds full.
  5. Bake for about 15 minutes.  Cool slightly.
  6. Mix together the sugar, cinnamon and melted butter for the topping.  Dip the donuts in the mixture or use a knife to spread the mixture over each donut.

 

Elephant Toothpaste

Materials:

  • 16 ounce plastic water bottle
  • 1/2 cup hydrogen peroxide (3%)
  • 1 tablespoon dish soap
  • 1 tablespoon dry active yeast
  • 3 tablespoons warm water
  • Pan (for catching overflow)
  • Small bowl (for mixing yeast and water)
  • Spoon
  • Funnel (to help add the yeast and water mixture to the water bottle)
  • Food coloring (optional)

Instructions:

  1. Pour 1/2 cup of hydrogen peroxide into a plastic bottle.
  2. On the table, put a pan.  Inside the pan put the plastic bottle.
  3. In a small bowl, mix the yeast with warm water.  Set aside for about 5 minutes to allow the yeast mixture to become frothy.
  4. While you are waiting for the yeast to become frothy, add dish soap to the bottle and food coloring (optional).
  5. Pour the yeast solution into the plastic bottle and water the “elephant toothpaste” erupt from the bottle.

Bird Feeder

This is a great activity for kids to practice their fine motor skills.  It is also fun for the kids to watch the birds come visit their bird feeder throughout the day.

Materials:

Instructions:

  1. Thread cheerios onto pipe cleaners.  We used two different pipe cleaners but you can use as many as you would like.
  2. Once you have as many Cheerios as you would like on the pipe cleaners, twist them into the shape you would like.  The kids had fun making different shapes such as circles, hearts, squares and triangles.  Link the pipe cleaners together if you would like and twist the ends to secure them closed.
  3. Tie some yarn to the top of the pipe cleaner so it can be hung from a branch outside.