My Education Junction

One of my New Year’s resolutions is to stop eating out. We spend a tremendous amount of money on fast food every week, and when I sat down to figure out exactly how much money was going to the golden arches, I was astounded. I think the biggest reason we turn to fast food is because of my failure to plan. The children participate in activites 3 nights a week, and when we get home the kids are ready to eat. I rarely have anything prepared or anything that could be prepared in a reasonable amount of time. So rather than cook, we get in the car and head on over to good ole Mickey D’s.

Aside from the financial consideration, I realize fast food is horribly unhealthy. For the last three weeks I have been doing my best to find quick and easy recipes and planning a weekly menu around them. The kids love this omelette recipe, so I have decided to share it with you.

2 eggs
2 tbs mayo
2 tbs sour cream

Feel free to top with veggies, cheeses, meat or even salsa.

 Directions:

Separate egg yolks from the egg whites. Beat the egg whites until they form peaks. Then place the egg whites in the refrigerator and allow them to chill for 3-5 minutes. Mix the egg yolks with mayo and sour cream and season to taste. Once the egg whites have been given enough time to chill, fold the yolk mixture into the egg whites. Once  both egg mixtures are combined place the mixture in a round casserole dish. Spread the mixture out evenly. I always spray my dish with Baker’s Magic. You might want to use Pam or brush the dish with olive oil. Microwave the omelette for 2 minutes on high and then remove from the microwave. Place your toppings in the center of the omelette and return the dish back to the microwave to cook for another minute. Before removing the omelette make sure it is thorougly cooked. Depending on the power setting of your micorwave, you may need to return it to cook for an additional minute. Once the omelette is cooked, fold it over and serve!  It can easily be cut into 2 servings.

This omelette has such a wonderful rich taste about it. It is also incredibly fluffy. I often make it using light mayo and sour cream. In doing so, I don’t notice any difference in the taste. Nick tells me it is the best omelette he has ever had.

Filed under: Rainy Day Recipes on February 5th, 2008 | No Comments »

Originally I planned to have all ten recipes within this post, but then I decided against. Instead I have created a PDF document containing the recipes. I think this foremat is easier to read and of course much easier to print out and refer to when you are making dough. The recipes in the PDF are:

Oatmeal Playdough

Peanut Butter Playdough

Scented Playdough

Puff Playdough

Sawdust Playdough

Coffee Playdough

Gingerbread Playdough

Standard (cooked) Playdough

Dryer Lint Playdough

Cloud Playdough

10 Recipes for Playdough PDF

Have fun!

Filed under: Rainy Day Recipes, Arts & Crafts on August 21st, 2007 | No Comments »

10 creative ways to teach your children how to recycle and give your plastic bottles a second run.

1. Make a Bird Feeder

2. Bowling Playset

3. Create a Portable Golf Set 

 4. Pop Bottle Planters 

5. Lacrosse Stick


Then keep the bottom of the bottle and use it as a paint cup…

6. Rocket Launcher 

7.  Baking Soda Boat 

8. Make a Volcano 

9. Distill Salt Water 

 
 10. Make a  Tornado in a Bottle

What do you do with your plastic bottles? Looking for more ideas? Check out The Kitchen Picasso.

***Update 7/21- Kris has offered up another awesome bottle craft. Check out the article she wrote at Family Fun! Thank you Kris

Filed under: Rainy Day Recipes, Science, Arts & Crafts on July 17th, 2007 | 6 Comments »

I wish I could take credit for this recipe, but I can’t. My mother gave it to me and she apparently got it out of a magazine. It won the Pillsbury bake-off several years ago and if you make them you’ll understand why. I could gorge myself on these until I become physically ill.

Ingredients

1 box Pillsbury Brownie Classics Traditional Fudge Brownie Mix (19-½ ounce box)

1/4 cup butter or margarine melted

4 oz. cream cheese softened

1 egg

1 cup powdered sugar

1 cup creamy peanut butter

1/2 can chocolate fudge ready-to-spread frosting

Preheat oven to 350°F. Beat brownie mix, melted butter, cream cheese and egg in a medium sized bowl for 50 strokes until mixture is well blended (dough will be sticky).

Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheets to make 24 cookies; smooth edge of each to form round cookie.

In a small bowl, mix powdered sugar and peanut butter with spoon until mixture forms a ball. With hands, roll rounded teaspoonfuls peanut butter mixture into 24 balls. Lightly press 1 ball into center of each ball of dough.

Bake at 350°F. for 10 to 14 minutes or until edges are set. Cool on cookie sheets at least 30 minutes.Remove from cookie sheets. Spread thin layer of frosting over peanut butter portion of each cooled cookie.

You might want to make a double batch because they go quickly…enjoy

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This post was sponsored by Mercer Realty Inc. Please feel free to visit Mercer if you are interested in Beaufort NC real estate.

Filed under: Rainy Day Recipes on July 5th, 2007 | No Comments »

Even if your not having a pirate birthday party, the Pirate Gazette is full of summertime pirate fun and recipes. What will you find in the Pirate Gazette?

• How to make a Message in a Bottle Birthday Invitation
• A fun Pirate Poem that is great for Pirate Party Invitations
• Recipe of Sand Buckets & Sea Slush
• How to play Jump the Shark and more!

The Pirate Gazette -Easy printable PDF

Don’t forget to visit my Pirate Page!

Filed under: Rainy Day Recipes, Summer Break, Pirate Pages on June 17th, 2007 | 2 Comments »

I can’t begin to tell you what you will find on Free Stuff for Kids, but I think it is fair to say nearly everything under the sun. Randa at Free Stuff 4 Kids has obviously been extremely busy compiling an extensive list of resources, and she covers nearly all subject matter when it comes to finding freebies for kids. There are links to educational games, programming software designed specifically for kids, printables, coloring pages, ebooks, audio books, puzzle pages and more.
Where can kids eat for free?

Looking for printable play money?

How about printables that will keep your children entertained on lengthy trips?

With Father’s Day approaching perhaps you are looking for a free printable card your child can color.

With so many freebies you may find yourself a bit overwhelmed. But one thing is certain, if you bookmark this site you’ll probably never have to search for a freebie again.

More Printables and Learning Links

Filed under: Rainy Day Recipes, Worksheet and Printable Sites on June 14th, 2007 | 1 Comment »

Nick loves being in the kitchen and recently I have been working on creating Squidoo pages, one of which is a pirate page. Nick keeps asking what can he do? So I decided we would make some fun things and video tape it. I am slowly working through my technology fears. That is one thing blogging has done for me. Often I have absolutely no idea what I am doing. In the past, that has been reason enough for me to give up. It’s taken me months not to be afraid of plugins- I know that sounds silly but it’s the God’s honest truth.

Our first video can be seen below. It’s called Kraken Salad. I had loaded it on YouTube but the resolution is pretty bad so I am going to try to put it on this page using Photobucket. With any luck it will work. Please don’t let the blue fingers turn you off- that is the first thing my Mom brought to my attention. We had made several other things before making the salad, and we had blue food coloring ALL over the place.

Hope you have fun watching our little show. We had fun making it:)
Oh by the way, don’t forget to visit my Pirate Page.

Previous Pirate: Post Ahoy, Me Hearties

Filed under: Rainy Day Recipes, Summer Break, Pirate Pages on June 12th, 2007 | No Comments »