Breakfast with visiting friends and family on a Saturday morning is a perfect time to make this dish. Think french toast, cinnamon roll casserole:

In a small bowl mix 1 cup packed brown sugar, 1 cube of butter and 2 Tablespoons of Karo’s light corn syrup. Spread on the bottom of a 9×13 baking dish and set aside.

In a medium bowl mix the following:

6 eggs (yes, that’s six eggs!)

1 Cup half/half

1 teaspoon vanilla

In a large bowl (sorry to have you dirty all these bowls!) put 1 loaf of cubed raisin cinnamon bread. Pour egg mixture in and mix. Add to baking dish and bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes or until egg mixture is cooked. Let cool 10 minutes before serving.

Kudos to Cranium for coming up with this awesome idea…which we totally stole from their ad in Parenting Magazine ;o)

It’s Mix & Match Snack Time

What to do: Toss a variety of snack time ingredients onto a Piggy Platter and let the kids make their own creations. For instance, use rice cakes, peanut/almond butter and raisins and let the kiddos make their own silly faces. Or swap out the rice cakes for celery for good ol’ fashioned “ants on a log.”

What can your kids create?  Let us know below:

As the season’s begin to get more and more chilly, and the squash nears the end of its season, we often turn to pasta-bake for dinner. It’s as simple as cooking your favorite non-spaghetti pasta, tossing a few ingredients together and baking.

It’s a one-dish wonder and you may even be lucky enough for leftovers for lunch!

If you have some ingredients laying around (such as a butternut squash), you can simply search for a pasta bake recipe on the web containing that ingredient. You don’t have to follow it to a “t” but it’ll at least give you some inspiration.

Here’s an example of a “bake” we did recently (though there’s a tasty recipe here too):

• 3-4 links of chicken sausage, cooked and sliced
• Half bag of rotellini pasta, cooked
• Half a butternut squash, baked with butter and brown sugar (1 hour, 350 degrees, cubed)
• 1/2 of apple, cubed
• 3/4 cup of fresh parmesan cheese
• 3/4 jar of Alfredo sauce
• 1 teaspon of cinnamon
• A dash of salt and pepper

Simply bake the butternut squash while you get the rest of the ingredients prepared.  Then toss it all together in a baking dish.  Bake for about 20 minutes at 350 degrees or until the cheese melts.

Enjoy!

Faster than instant oatmeal. More powerful than a bowl of cereal. Able to make small children smile with a single spoonful…it’s Super Yogurt! This and a glass of milk is literally all our boys need until lunch. It’s full of protein and good fat to give them tons of fuel to start their day.

Here’s how you make it. In everyone’s bowl, drop in some:

Nancy’s Whole Milk Plain Yogurt (Or some other equivalent that’s not full of junk. Forgo that runny low-fat, high-fructose junk. Get the fattiest, thickest, plainest you can find. It’s delicious and chock full of goodness. Also the “good” fat content will give you more energy that lasts longer.)

Fresh/Frozen Berries (Our boys *love* the frozen blueberries from Costco. They are amazing!)

Granola (We recommend simple, basic, organic granola like this one from Cascadian Farm. No foof, no frills, no junk.)

Top it off with streaks of golden honey (Interesting note: we recently read that local honey helps abate pollen/grass allergies. Using local flowers and thus local pollen, acts like a serum. And you’re supporting a local company!)

Enjoy!

This entry isn’t so much about a “Mealtime Matter” but a PRE-Mealtime Matter. In other words, growing your own meal!

We’ve wanted to plant a garden for a long time, but in our 50′ x 100′ lot, there’s not a lot of room. Then friends told us about Square Foot Gardening and showed us the results. Absolutely amazing and totally manageable for any “smarty parent.” It only took us about two hours to build, fill and plant this garden. And The Boys had a blast!

While none of us busy parents want to add another exhausting shopping excursion to our plate, we’ve found that buying at our neighborhood Farmer’s Market is a really fun excursion with our young boys.  And with all of the food recalls lately, we feel it’s hugely important to shop locally.  You’ll be eating healthier food, supporting a local farmer and saving the planet!  (Less fuel for shipping :o)

The Local Harvest web site is an amazing resource for finding a local Farmer’s Market or Community Food Resource. Simply type in your Zip code and get a variety of local resources.

Yes, you’ll be spending a few pennies more per apple than going to a huge chain, but the benefits are just too huge to pass up.  And the flavors will amaze you and you’ll just feel great about your purchases.

The peach trees are billowing juicy goodness here in the Pacific Northwest (and across the U.S. we’re told ;o). We’ve been test-driving some cobbler recipes to find you and your young ones something simple. And this one from Cooks.com is about as easy as it gets. (You can even substitute the flour and baking soda with some biscuit mix for a fluffier, easier treat!)

QUICK AND EASY PEACH COBBLER
1 c. flour
1 c. sugar
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 stick butter
3/4 to 1 c. milk
1 lg. can sliced peaches
1 tsp. cinnamon (optional)
3 tbsp. sugar (optional)
Melt butter in a 2 quart casserole dish in 375 degrees oven while combining flour, sugar, and baking powder. Add milk to the dry ingredients and stir until blended. Pour the batter into the melted butter; dribble peach juice into the mixture and let the kids dump in the pile of peaches. Have the kids sprinkle top with cinnamon and sugar. Bake 30 to 40 minutes at 375 degrees.

While I usually enjoy making something cool and refreshing for the kids during summer, or cook on the BBQ, time just wouldn’t allow for it last night. And I forgot how easy it took to make this meal. (It litterally took 10 minutes!) It’s filling and pretty darn healthy too.
Here’s what you need:

1. Frozen Chicken Breast Stir Fry (Just the pre-cooked chicken and sauce. Costco and Trader Joes both have great options here.)
2. Frozen Broccoli (We prefer organic :o)
3. Frozen Microwave Brown Rice (Again, Trader Joes has a great box of three Brown Rice “bags”)

First, begin frying up the Chicken in a splash of oil or veggie oil. (This will cook for 8-10 minutes total. Toss it occasionally.)

Next, toss the Broccoli in a glass dish with some water. (1/2 cup water to each cup of broccoli). Cover and zap in the microwave for 3 minutes.

Get the kids milk ready.

Once the Broccoli’s done, toss the bag of Brown Rice in the microwave. Zap for 3 minutes.

Give the chicken a stir/toss and get the table set.

Toss your desired amount of the sauce in w/ the Chicken. (Ours came with a mandarin sauce. Very tasty.) Drain and toss in the Broccoli. Stir it all up.

Dish it all up and you’re ready to go! Enjoy!

1 cup flour
2 tsp cream of tartar
1 Tbsp cooking oil
½ cup table salt
1 cup water
1 pkg unsweetened Kool-Aid

Mix dry ingredients. Add oil & water. Cook over medium heat until mixtureforms a ball. Pour onto waxed paper and knead. Store in airtight container.

NOTE: If a child eats this, it is NON-TOXIC. Easy, it lasts a long time, and the kids love it! It smells nicer than the store-bought stuff too!

Thanks to Aunt Renee, Redding, CA

2c. salted peanuts
2c. pretzel sticks broken into pieces
2c. Rice Krispies
2c. Captain Crunch cereal
1pkg. white bark - melted

Melt bark in double boiler - don’t let any water get into bark. Add other ingredients, mix well. Drop by spoonful on to waxed paper.

Thanks to Auntie Myrt from Spokane, WA