While we're celebrating space travel this week, here are a few snack ideas to go along with the theme

Edible Rockets -  Help your children create these tasty snacks from healthy foods like bananas, apples, and carrots.  I'm sure your family can come up with some yummy embellishments to make them extra cute, and even more of a taste treat. 

Oreo Rocket Ship - This space rocket snack won't be as healthy, but it will certainly provide lots of messy, sweet fun.

Rocket Cake - This is a creative rocket-shaped cake.  Though I like the design, the recipe calls for ingredients not commonly found in my pantry.  I'm sure you could substitute your favorite cake recipe as long as it is one that will hold up to a bit of trimming without crumbling away on you.  A nice, dense cake would probably work best.

Space Cake - Another, simpler space-themed cake

And finally, the simplest idea of all:

Rocket-shaped Snack  (I think we can all manage this one without any difficulty!)

I hope these recipes give you some ideas for adding some kitchen creativity to your studies this week.  Just use them as starting points and let your imagination soar!   Try simply setting out a variety of fruits, vegetables, and other snack foods and asking your children to make their own "space snack".  I'll bet they come up with all sorts of creative goodies!  I saw star fruit at the grocery store this week.  That would be an excellent item for this. 

Blessings,

Catherine 

Catherine Love lives in the heart of Texas with her husband Carl, and their 3 daughters, Sarah, Hannah, and Cana.  They enjoy cooking, gardening, and learning new things as they seek to live a lifestyle of learning together as a family.  You can read Catherine's Kitchen Adventures and more on her blog- Seeds of Love.

Here's a recipe for some high flying biscuits to go along with our Amelia Earhart theme this week. 

Mile-High Biscuits

This year I plan to return to some healthy habits that have fallen by the wayside over the past months.  At one time, our family’s diet consisted mostly of healthy, whole foods; but a hectic schedule and a change in my husband’s employment situation made it all too easy to opt for quick, but not so healthy foods when meal time came around.  When you are already at a restaurant, it is difficult to make yourself go home and cook; though after a few months of “café food”, now even the children are ready for a change!   

My goal for the first few months of 2010 is to get back to a workable routine in the kitchen and a wholesome diet.  This will require some planning and preparing on my part as the habit needs to be formed once again.  I am working on a new Kitchen Journal to help me keep on track, because if I don’t have it written down, it’s just not going to happen- I know that from experience!  I plan to use pages from this month’s issue of Molly’s Money Saving Digest  and several from The 2009 Schoolhouse Planner (love this resource!) in my new journal.  I’ll not bore you with the details of my binder, as mine probably wouldn’t work for you anyway.  Some things just have to be personalized for each individual. 

Once I have a basic plan in place, then the real fun begins … choosing new recipes to try and tweak to suit our tastes!  Those are known around here as my Kitchen Adventures (experiment doesn’t sound very appetizing somehow).   I will post our favorites on my blog, sparing you from the not so tasty ones. 

As one guideline for my “new start”, I’ll be referring to this list of 10 Real Food Resolutions for 2010 (all except item #8, that one just won’t work for us… it may be very healthy, but we’ll skip it just the same).  I enjoy the Nourished Kitchen  site and find it has good information on healthy eating, as well as delicious sounding recipes.   Another of my favorite “foodie sites” is 101 Cookbooks … lots of tasty things to try there!  I have all the ingredients for the Hummus en Fuego on my countertop right now, and plan to taste test it this evening.  If it is as good as it sounds, I’ll post my version soon (I’ll have to tweak it a bit due to the “en fuego” aspect for the children’s sake.). 

If it is time for you to make a new beginning in the kitchen, I suggest you involve the whole family as much as possible.  Let everyone pick something new to try, a skill to learn, etc.  A kitchen garden (even a few pots of greens on the windowsill) is an excellent way to introduce some whole foods into the diet.  I have found that my children will eat things that they have grown, picked, and prepared much more readily than something that I make for them.  Let them be the gardener and the chef when possible!   

Do you have plans or ideas for a fresh start in the kitchen this year?  Please share any tips, recipes, etc. with us.  Learning together is part of the fun! 

Blessings,

Catherine

Catherine Love lives in the heart of Texas with her husband Carl, and their 3 daughters, Sarah, Hannah, and Cana.  They enjoy cooking, gardening, and learning new things as they seek to live a lifestyle of learning together as a family.  You can read Catherine's Kitchen Adventures and more on her blog- Seeds of Love.

If you can stand yet another Christmas cookie recipe, here's a very simple, yet tasty one:

Sugar-N-Spice Cookies

 1/2 cup melted butter

1 cup cane juice crystals (or other sugar of your choice)

1 tsp vanilla

1 egg

1 cup organic unbleached flour (plain unbleached flour is fine, too)

1/2 tsp. ground cloves

1/4 tsp. ground allspice

1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon

dash nutmeg

Mix butter and sugar together.  Stir in vanilla and egg until smooth.  Mix flour and spices together and then stir into butter mixture until well blended.  Drop by teaspoonfuls onto greased baking sheet.  Bake at 350 for 12 minutes or until edges just begin to brown and tops start to crinkle and collapse.  Cool on pan 30 seconds, then move to wire rack to cool.  Enjoy! 

May I encourage you to spend some time this week asking Jesus what He would like for His birthday?  The answer may surprise you! 

Perhaps your family could join ours in baking a batch of these cookies to share with those less fortunate than us who could use a bit of Christmas cheer this season.  Be sure to tell them the reason for the gift ... It's Jesus' Birthday!

Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:

For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:

Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.

Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?

When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee?

Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?

And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.   Matthew 25:34-40

I pray your family has a blessed Christmas. 

Catherine

Catherine Love lives in the heart of Texas with her husband Carl, and their 3 daughters, Sarah, Hannah, and Cana.  They enjoy cooking, gardening, and learning new things as they seek to live a lifestyle of learning together as a family.  You can read Catherine's Kitchen Adventures and more on her blog- Seeds of Love.

I found a very interesting website when researching this week's topic:

Cooking with the Bible

When you go to a recipe at this site, such as Elizabeth's Carob Cake, you will find the recipe, a photo, and also tabs that will take you to a Bible Reference page and the History page for that particular food.  

The site also has a  meals section  with links to recipes for each dish. 

I plan to spend more time at this site in the coming days, and perhaps take a look at the cookbook if I can find it at a local library. 

Another book that I find helpful in planning Biblical celebrations is Celebrating Biblical Feasts In Your Home or Church by Martha Zimmerman. 

I hope these sources help you to add some tasty foods in with your Biblical studies.

Blessings,

Catherine

 Catherine Love lives in the heart of Texas with her husband Carl, and their 3 daughters, Sarah, Hannah, and Cana.  They enjoy cooking, gardening, and learning new things as they seek to live a lifestyle of learning together as a family.  You can read Catherine's Kitchen Adventures and more on her blog- Seeds of Love.

When planning meals and menus for the holidays, my best advice is strive for simplicity.  Plan menus that are simple to prepare and don't require a bunch of ingredients that you do not regularly keep stocked in the pantry.  As much as I enjoy trying new recipes and Kitchen Adventures, I avoid those with long lists of exotic ingredients because I know the cost of buying all those little extras will add up quickly, and chances are, I'll never use some of them again.  Simple food prepared with love will be a blessing.  The most elaborate of dishes, if it stresses you to the max to create, isn't worth the trouble.  And, if your crowd is like mine, the familiar foods are usually the best received. 

One family tradition that my sister-in-law and I started a few years ago, and one that we plan to continue is a soup & sandwich buffet on Christmas Eve.  We ask everyone who wants to bring food to make either a soup, a plate of sandwiches, or a simple dessert like cookies or candy.  We serve coffee, tea, and spiced apple cider to drink.  Everything gets set out buffet style, with the soups kept warm by crock pots, and people can serve themselves as they wish.  Coffee mugs make great easy to carry soup "bowls" for this type of gathering.   We have had a large crowd in a very small space, and this worked out very well, as everyone isn't sitting down to eat at one time. 

If you are planning to give gifts of food this year, again strive for simplicity.  Make foods that are easy to create, and don't worry about the latest "thing" in the magazines.  Get the children involved and make simple, fun treats like pretzel rods dipped in melted chocolate or almond bark and rolled in nuts or sprinkles.  For great gift giving ideas, the book Homespun Gifts from the Heart by Karen Ehman, Kelly Hovermale, & Trish Smith, is an excellent resource (check your local library for a copy). 

Finally, if you haven't already done so, be sure to download The Old Schoolhouse Digital Holiday Supplement.  This great holiday freebie from TOS is filled with wonderful ideas and planning helps.

I hope your family has a simply blessed holiday season!

Catherine

Catherine Love lives in the heart of Texas with her husband Carl, and their 3 daughters, Sarah, Hannah, and Cana.  They enjoy cooking, gardening, and learning new things as they seek to live a lifestyle of learning together as a family.  You can read Catherine's Kitchen Adventures and more on her blog- Seeds of Love.

I've been sharing my family's favorite Thanksgiving recipes on the HomesteadBlogger Front Porch .  Stop by to see how our Texas family celebrates Thanksgiving.  I've invited the other bloggers to share their family favorites as well, so you are certain to find many delicious recipes posted throughout the community. 

Here's a link to a great sounding Mandarin & Cranberry Relish at Nourished Kitchen, a blog I visit often for healthy, delicious recipes. 

I pray your family has a wonderful Thanksgiving.  We truly have much to be thankful for.  And now, I must get back to my own Thanksgiving preparations ... some last minute shopping,  a little baking, a bit of  holiday decorating, and lots of family fun!

Blessings,

Catherine

Catherine Love lives in the heart of Texas with her husband Carl, and their 3 daughters, Sarah, Hannah, and Cana.  They enjoy cooking, gardening, and learning new things as they pursue a lifestyle of learning together as a family.  You can read Catherine's Kitchen Adventures and more on her blog- Seeds of Love.

It is time to get your kitchen (and yourself) prepped for Thanksgiving, if you haven’t already done so.  Make those lists (menus, shopping, cleaning, etc.) and check them twice.  Better yet, dictate the lists to the children and let them check them for you … an easy way to sneak in a little learning, and make your job a bit simpler. 

Now is the time to locate those family favorite recipes.  It’s no fun digging through the recipe pile on Thanksgiving morning searching for the recipe for that special dish; trust me, I’ve done that more than I care to admit.  If you don’t already have a holiday planner or recipe binder, perhaps that could be another project for your family to work on this week.  Get out the cardstock, paper, recipe cards, stickers, stamps and so forth; and create a Family Holiday Favorites binder, or one for each of you.  It will create memories for your family, and help out when it’s time to plan the holiday menus. 

If you are looking for new menu ideas for this Thanksgiving, I suggest you drop by the HomesteadBlogger community.  There are several bloggers there who post all kinds of delicious sounding recipes.  Grandma Rosie’s Texas Home is a treasure trove of recipes, as is THECFARM.  If you are interested in herbs, here’s a link to my blog post on Sage, as well as a how-to for my version of cornbread dressing.  Go to this post for my family’s favorite roll recipe, a holiday staple at our house; and since they can be on the table in an hour, they are great anytime you want fresh, hot dinner rolls.  Another place for finding many Thanksgiving ideas is Audrey’s Thanksgiving Page at teacherhelp.org.  There you will discover not only recipes, place cards, place mats and so forth, but links to lots of learning activities, games, puzzles, worksheets, etc. 

Now that you’re prepped with the holiday plans for the kitchen and homeschool, please don’t neglect to take a few moments to prepare your heart and mind, as well.  We have so very much to be thankful for; giving thanks to God should be our main focus during the Thanksgiving holiday. 

 O give thanks unto the LORD; call upon his name: make known his deeds among the people.  Psalm 105:1

Blessings,

Catherine

Catherine Love lives in the heart of Texas with her husband Carl, and their 3 daughters, Sarah, Hannah, and Cana.  They enjoy cooking, gardening, and learning new things as they pursue a lifestyle of learning together as a family.  You can read Catherine's Kitchen Adventures and more on her blog- Seeds of Love.

The kitchen is obviously a great place to teach Home Ec.  My teaching style for all subjects is very relaxed and this one is no exception, as a matter of fact, I seldom think about teaching Home Ec.  My girls help out in the kitchen and the home with whatever is needed.  They learn basic cooking, cleaning, menu planning, shopping, etc. by participating in the daily routines of the household.  As of yet, there has been no "Home Ec. curriculum", and though it might not be a bad idea for some families, I doubt it will be the way we go.  I do have plans for all of the girls (Mom included) to create a Home Journal which will contain recipes for cooking as well as cleaning (love those natural cleaning products), and whatever other "home keeping" things that we decide to put into them.  I certainly wish that I had started out with one of those when I first attempted to create a home years ago.  It would have saved lots of time and tears, not to mention money!

My 11 year old daughter probably has more cooking and homekeeping skill than many young ladies twice her age.  She, like her Mom, enjoys cooking and can frequently be found perusing a cookbook for a new treat for snack time or dessert.  I believe that is because she has someone at home with her to first of all model this, cooking is fun in our house.  And since a maid has yet to appear in our home to clean up our frequent messes (though no one would complain if she popped in this morning), someone (and that means everyone) must learn to do the house keeping.  And finally, she has  time to practice and develop these skills during the course of her homeschool day.  

We had a conversation over the weekend with the mother of 2 young men who were in my husband's youth group a few years ago.  She said both of her boys are still unmarried and living at home.  They have no desire to get married and move away from Mom because none of the girls they know can cook!  She told us that one young lady blew up their microwave attempting to make a grilled cheese sandwich!  An extreme example, of course, but so many young people today simply do not have the basic skills for running a household.  I understand this dilemma, because though I could cook, I was sorely lacking in the other areas of home keeping when I moved away from home and started a household of my own.  It took some real effort on my part to learn exactly what all went into running a household, especially when that household included children. 

I find it interesting that Titus chapter 2 equates the aged women teaching the younger women to be keepers at home (sounds like home ec. to me) with sound doctrine. 

But speak thou the things which become sound doctrine:

That the aged men be sober, grave, temperate, sound in faith, in charity, in patience.

The aged women likewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things;

That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children,

To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed.  Titus 2:1-5

My best advice for teaching Home Ec. is to simply include your children in the day to day tasks of the home.  Let them help with the grocery lists, menu plans, cooking, cleaning and so forth.  Give them lots of opportunities to practice and develop these skills as they grow.  Living and learning together is a blessing, and the skills they learn  will bless their future families as well. 

Catherine Love lives in the heart of Texas with her husband Carl, and their 3 daughters, Sarah, Hannah, and Cana.  They enjoy cooking, gardening, and learning new things as they live a lifestyle of learning together.  You can read Catherine's Kitchen Adventures and more on her blog- Seeds of Love.

Veterans Day is an opportunity to create some red, white, and blue treats with your family. 

A Flag Cake or one of the ideas from my 4th of July Fun post are all tasty possibilities.   

For a bit of history, try this War Cake recipe created during wartime when many food items were rationed.

Perhaps your family would like to bless the veterans in your community  with some home-baked goodies.  How about a plate of star-shaped sugar cookies topped with red, white, and blue decorations?   If all that rolling and cutting is a bit much for your group, make something simpler like a batch of  drop cookies, and let the children decorate white paper bags to put the cookies in with markers and patriotic stickers.  You can be sure that your thoughtfulness and generosity will be appreciated no matter how fancy the cookies. 

As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.  ~John Fitzgerald Kennedy

Blessings,

Catherine

Catherine Love lives in the heart of Texas with her husband Carl, and their 3 daughters, Sarah, Hannah, and Cana.  They enjoy cooking, gardening, and learning new things as they pursue a lifestyle of learning together as a family.  You can read Catherine's Kitchen Adventures and more on her blog- Seeds of Love.

First of all, you’ll need some drinks.  Plain water is good, of course; but at times you need something more, that’s when sports drinks are in order.  Yes, you can buy them, but making your own can be less expensive and better for the taste buds as well as the body. 

Sports Drink

Want something even simpler?

Fill a drink bottle with half juice and half water. Add a pinch of sea salt, shake, and go!

Now that you have the drinks covered, you’ll want a few snacks. Fruits and vegetables such as watermelon, honeydew, cantaloupe, and cucumbers are good sources of water, sugar, and electrolytes.

If you’d like to make some healthy snack bars, check out this delicious sounding recipe for Multigrain Energy Bars at the Whole Grain Gourmet (lots of good recipes here) site.  These energy bars are packed full of dried fruit, nuts, and whole grains and are certain to taste better and be healthier for your family than those packaged bars.

OK, now you’ve got the healthy drinks and snacks covered, go have some fun playing your favorite sport with your family!

Blessings,

Catherine

The kitchen is a wonderful place to teach hands-on, real-life Math concepts.  One tasty benefit of practicing math in the kitchen is that you get to enjoy the fruit of your labor!  Measuring flour, butter, sugar, chocolate chips, etc. into a bowl, mixing, baking, and then . . . eating delicious chocolate chip cookies is a lot more fun than completing yet another worksheet, don’t you think?  Worksheets have their place, of course; but I like to do as many hands-on Math activities as possible.  The children will usually jump at the chance to “help” you in kitchen much more often than they will be eager to sit down and work yet another page of Math problems. 

For young children, a plastic dishpan containing some water or rice and a set of measuring cups and spoons will provide hours of entertainment and learning.  Kitchen scales are fun for this age, too. 

Fractions are easily grasped when a pie or pizza needs to be divided into equal slices! 

Following a recipe written in metric measurements is a good way to get some hands-on practice with the Metric system.  There are online conversion calculators that can be used to convert a favorite family recipe to metric measurements if you’d like to do that. 

For the older students, the grocery budget, menu plan, and shopping list can be excellent teaching tools.  Let your children help you with the menu plan and shopping while sticking to the grocery budget, and they will gain some excellent life-skills training; and they just might begin to understand why you don’t allow them to buy all of the “extras” they ask for at the grocery store!  Allowing them to take lead with the shopping list, calculator, and handling the money when you do the shopping can be a good learning experience.    

I hope some of these ideas inspire you to cook up a little Kitchen Math with your family this week!  There are countless ways to apply Math concepts in the kitchen, just use your imagination and I know you will discover lots of tasty math just waiting to happen.

Blessings,

Catherine

Catherine Love lives in the heart of Texas with her husband Carl, and their 3 daughters, Sarah, Hannah, and Cana.  They enjoy cooking, gardening, and learning new things together as they pursue a lifestyle of learning.  You can read Catherine's Kitchen Adventures and more on her blog- Seeds of Love.

Writing, in the kitchen?  

Why not! 

Does one of your children need a little help with the mechanics of writing- penmanship, grammar, or spelling perhaps?  Try incorporating some kitchen copywork.   Have them copy recipes onto recipe cards or into their very own recipe book.  Doesn’t that sound like much more fun than another workbook page?  I think so, and my daughters do, too.  There are some lovely scrapbook pages geared towards recipes that could make kitchen writing all the more enjoyable.   When completed, the recipe scrapbook will be a great keepsake or gift. 

Creating shopping lists, inventory lists for the pantry, menu plans, recipe cards, place cards, etc. are all good ways to get in some writing practice.

Here’s a link to lots of free printable recipe cards.  For even more inspiration, check out the printable recipe cards, shopping lists, and the recipe card creator at countryclipart.com

Encourage young writers to create their own stories or little books about their favorite foods, a favorite holiday and its special dishes, etc. 

If the children are a bit older and could use something different to encourage their writing, how about letting them create a tutorial on cooking their favorite food?  If they enjoy cooking and blogging, this can be a great way to log in some writing practice.  I find it highly entertaining, and fellow foodie bloggers are always happy to snag a new recipe!

Hope these ideas inspire you to incorporate a little writing into your family’s kitchen adventures!

Blessings,

Catherine

Catherine Love lives in the heart of Texas with her husband Carl, and their 3 daughters, Sarah, Hannah, and Cana.  They enjoy cooking, gardening, and learning new things together as they pursue a lifestyle of learning.  You can read Catherine's Kitchen Adventures and more on her blog- Seeds of Love.