WFMW - Great idea resources

This is the "Mum, I'm Bored" edition of WFMW. Thankfully, I haven't heard those words much yet (Naomi is still stuck in an "I want..." phase, which is driving me crazy).

Anyway, when I need to divert attention from crankiness, boredom, or simply pinching her baby brother's cheeks too hard (yep - he doesn't have *naturally* rosy cheeks, poor kid), I have a stock standard list of places to get easy ideas that can be done quickly.

Some great websites that I highly recommend:

http://www.huggies.com - yes, good old Huggies. I don't buy their product, and don't ever intend to. But their website is chock full of great activities, games and ideas for keeping young children entertained. Lots of templates to download and print off and simple hands-on activities that we can do with things we have in our craft box. You just have to sign up online (for free) and receive their junk emails (which I have directed straight into my spam).

http://www.starfall.com - this is a great site for very young children to learn their letters. Naomi (age 2) adores it - it is interactive, colourful and I like to think it is educational. I was put onto this site by Kara at Eskimo Kisses & Air Hugs.

http://www.handsonhomeschooling.com - This one isn't fee, but Terri has written curricula folders for children ages 2 to 5. I bought the one for 2 year olds. It is about 3 inches thick, and is chock full of wonderful fun ideas for activities that are also educational. It also includes devotionals and simple activities to teach little ones some Bible stories. I highly recommend it as money well spent, that will last for years.

For more ideas to keep children entertained, head over to We Are That Family.

Tuesday Tips for Mum - Playdough recipe

Which child (or adult, for that matter), doesn't love the squishy feel of playdough between their fingers ... or toes? Of course, we all know it is a great activity for development of fine motor skills, creativity, colour / shape recognition etc etc etc. And it keeps sweet darlings entertained for hours!

My favourite playdough recipe is simple, and uses only ingredients that you will have in the pantry, so you can whip it up at a moment's notice.

Ingredients:
4 cups flour
1 cup salt
1/2 cup water (approx)
1 tbsp oil (approx)
Food colouring of your choice

Method:
Mix flour and salt together. Mix food colouring into the water and stir well. Divide the water into several cups and mix up a few different colours, if you want.

Add the oil to the flour and mix. Divide flour mix into several bowls if you are making different colours. Then add water to flour mix, stirring well. Add more water, or flour, to make a good squishy (but reasonably dry) dough.

Play!

Keeps well in the fridge in an air-tight container, for about a week.

To make playdough a bit more educational, and add another dimension, have a look at this website: Sparklebox . They are playdough mats that you download, print off and cover with plastic. Then you can play the various games, which are mostly focussed on basic counting skills. Of course, you could make your own, with addition, subtraction etc for older children.

This is a Tuesday Tips for Mum post. For more great idea, check out Raising Olives.


http://www.sparklebox.co.uk/md/counting/mats.html

Chicken, corn & tarragon pie

I am not much on buying magazines - I can usually think of better ways to spend the money (like feeding my fabric addiction). But the cover of the Notebook: magazine does grab my attention, whenever I see it on a shelf. They look more like real women than those on the cover of any regular glossy. And there are usually some very pretty flowers, or vintage type furniture or something. So this month, I went ahead and bought it.


What does this have to do with the title of this post? Well, there were some totally scrumptious sounding recipes - including this one for chicken, corn and tarragon pie. Naomi and I baked it on Monday night - it was received with the great accolade of "mmm... alicious" from Naomi, and a totally scraped clean plate from Brad. It is going in the family favourites recipe book.

Apologies for the dodgy photo - for some reason, I can cook food but photographing it nicely is beyond me!

• Ingredients:
• 1 tbsp olive oil,
• 4 chicken thigh fillets, cut into small pieces
• 1 brown onion, finely chopped
• 1 carrot, chopped
• 1 celery stick, chopped
• 2 tbsps plain flour
• 1 cup chicken stock
• 1 large (420g) can sweet corn, drained
• 1/4 cup cream
• 1 tbsp Dijon mustard
• 1 tbsp chopped tarragon (I used dried tarragon)
• 1 sheet frozen puff pastry
• 1 egg, lightly whisked

Preheat oven to 220 deg C (hot oven). Heat oil in a pan and brown the chicken. Remove from pan. Brown onion, carrot and celery in the pan, for 5 minutes. Add flour to vegetable mix and stir for 1 minute or unti well combined. Add chicken and stock and stir until mixture starts to bubble and thicken. Add corn, cream and mustard and stir. Remove from heat, then add tarragon and salt/pepper to season.

Spoon into a pie dish (or 4 individual dishes). Cover dish with pastry sheet and brush pastry with lightly beaten egg mix. Bake for 15 minutes, or until pastry is golden and puffed.

Yummmm.... and just as good for lunch the next day!

This post is part of Thursday's Ultimate Recipe at www.lifeasmom.com . Head on over there to read more yummy things to do with food.

Delicious apple cake

I recently saw this recipe on KimC's blog, Life in a Shoe. It sounded delicious, and also had few steps, making it perfect for a cooking project to do with a 2 year old.

I am pleased to report that the results were just as good as it sounded, and it was indeed a good kids project - plenty of measuring, tipping and stirring, and then just straight into the oven.

So the recipe is:

German apple cake

2 eggs

1 cup oil

2 cups sugar (I used brown sugar)

1 tsp vanilla

2 cups flour

2 tsps cinnamon

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

4 cups of peeled, sliced apples (I used 1 large can of pie apples instead)

Beat the eggs and oil together in a large bowl, until well mixed. Add all other dry ingredients, except the apples. Mix together well - the mixture will be very thick at this stage. Stir in the apples - mixture will soften up nicely now. Pour into a 9 x 13 cake pan, and bake for 45 - 50 mins at 170 deg C (350 Fahrenheit). This does make a large size cake - halve the ingredients for a regular round or square cake.

Serve warm with cream or icecream. Or cold, straight from the fridge (as I am eating it at this very moment!)