Kate's Kitchen ....

I love to cook!I also love to save money. These recipes are of items I buy at the store, so I am excited to see if this saves money and if my family will eat them. I am weird about what Logan is allowed to eat so this will be great since I know what is in these three recipes.  I have attached all the links to these recipes so you can see step by step pictures . These are not my recipes just so you know. I do get so inspired by blogs like these.

My recipe goal this week include...

Cresent Rolls

Make-Ahead Butterhorns

(makes 32 rolls)

• 2 Tablespoons dry yeast, heaping
• 1/3 cup warm water (110-115 degrees)
• 9 cups flour, divided (you can use any mixture of white or whole-wheat flour you’d like)
• 2 cups warm milk (110-115 degrees)
• 1 cup butter, melted
• 1 cup sugar (we substituted sucanat)
• 6 eggs
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 3-4 Tablespoons butter, melted

In a large mixing bowl, dissolve yeast in water. Add 4 cups flour, milk, butter, sugar, eggs and salt. Beat 2 minutes or until smooth.

Add enough remaining flour to form a soft dough. Turn onto floured board and knead lightly. (Or, knead in mixer until sides of bowl are clean, then knead two more minutes.)

Place in a greased bowl, turning dough once to grease top. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled (1-3 hours).

Punch dough down and divide into four equal parts. Roll each part into a 12-inch circle and brush with melted butter.

Cut each circle into 8 pie-shaped wedges.

Roll up each wedge for wide edge to tip of dough and pinch to seal. Place rolls, top down, on baking sheets and freeze. When frozen, place in freezer bags and keep frozen until needed.

To bake: Take out as many frozen rolls as you’ll need and place them on a greased baking sheet. Thaw for five hours or until doubled in size. Bake at 375 degrees until lightly browned (about 8-10 minutes). Brush with melted butter as soon as they come out of the oven. Remove and serve immediately or cool on wire racks.

Homemade Goldfish Crackers

Yield: About 100 1 1/4 inch goldfish

6 ounces (1 1/2 cups coarsely grated) sharp cheddar, orange if you can find one you like
4 tablespoons (2 ounces or 57 grams) butter
1/2 cup (2 1/2 ounces or 62 grams) whole wheat flour
1/4 cup (1 1/8 ounces or 31 grams) all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon onion powder
1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon table salt

Preheat oven to 350°F. Combine all ingredients in a food processor, running the machine until the dough forms a ball, about two minutes.

If the dough feels warm or worrisome-ly soft, wrap it in waxed paper or plastic wrap and chill it in the fridge for 30 to 45 minutes. This also makes it easier to transfer shapes once they are rolled out.

On a lightly floured surface, using a lightly floured rolling pin, roll the dough out 1/8-inch thick. Form shapes with a cookie cutter, dipping it in flour from time to time to ensure a clean cut. Gently transfer crackers to an ungreased (though mine were parchment-lined, because they are in despicable shape) cookie sheet with a 1/2 inch between them. Bake the crackers on the middle rack for 12 to 15 minutes, or until they are barely browned at the edges. Remove from the oven and set the cookie sheet on a rack to cool.

Homemade Pop Tarts

Homemade Pop Tarts
Adapted from King Arthur Flour

Pastry
2 cups (8 1/2 ounces) all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks or 8 ounces) unsalted butter, cut into pats
1 large egg
2 tablespoons (1 ounce) milk

1 additional large egg (to brush on pastry)

Cinnamon Filling (enough for 9 tarts)
1/2 cup (3 3/4 ounces) brown sugar
1 to 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon, to taste
4 teaspoons all-purpose flour
1 large egg, to brush on pastry before filling

Jam Filling
3/4 cup (8 ounces) jam
1 tablespoon cornstarch mixed with 1 tablespoon cold water

A room fit for a boy...

 For a couple months now I have wanted to change Logan's room to a toddler room but I just did not want to invest a lot of money in it since I know in a couple years he might want a themed room. Researching some cute rooms online I fell in love with Pottery Barn. I loved the plaids and the rich colors and the simple themes through out the room. My goal these last couple months was to redo logans nursery and make him a room that I loved.


I was never a fan of Logan's nursery, but here is the room before the change.

My sweet mother in law did help me and make a curtain,bed skirt and bed spread that I love and will use for next baby. However, I could not find a picture. You get the idea. The room is small.

After Logan turned one I started redoing his room. Looking through Pottery Barn's website I loved the idea of trees on the wall. I went to this link for the tree idea.

Here is the tree...

The other idea I got from Pottery Barn was to use bold colors in the furniture. We are using my baby dresser in Logan's room and I took a risk but painted it red. The same red left over from one wall in our master bed room.

I spray painted the handles a color that we have used on a couple mirrors in our house.

The next couple pictures are the finished room with the price break down. I was trilled that we spent very little for a very similar look that would have cost a lot more.

Lamp: Found at Goodwill for $3

Blue container: Free from Target with coupon

Dresser: My old dresser that we painted from paint we had

Teal Lantern: Free from Pier One with coupon

Silver Lantern: Found at Lowes on clearance for $1.20

Black Latern: Found at Hobby Lobby and was $6.00 ( I bought it for outside first then put it in here)

 Wood Curtain Rod: Free from Freecycle.org that a lady passed down to me which we painted with  paint we had

Curtain: From Marshalls for $6

Train/car rug- Was Nathan's growing up

Train hanging on dresser- Dollar Tree painted grey from paint we had  $1

"L" and dots were from his nursery already

TOTAL: $17.20

Used the laterns to store items that I really do not want Logan just to have out. The silver one has crayons in it. The black one has markers and the teal one has colored pencils. I have had all these stored else where and got them after school started a couple years ago. Pottery Barn used laterns for toys and marbles which was really cute!!!

                             Bunk Bed: $160 from a place going out of business near our house!

                                     

                             Nautica bed spread: Bed Bath and Beyond and was $70 with 30% off

                                             * I did look at Home Goods, TJ Max and Marshalls and they have items like this for a lot less. I really wanted certain colors,so I did spend a little bit more on this than I wanted. However, it is a great brand and will last!

                                        Star Light: IKEA for $4.99 

                                        Tree paint was old from our hall bathroom.

                                        Blue bed spread: Had this from a couple years ago

                                              * Wanting to get another Nautica one for top but the solid color will work. We are trading my parents for smaller top matress. We had both matresses from before ( trundle bed).

                                                       TOTAL: $234

 I love how organized every room Pottery Barn showcases. I know kids do not really live in those rooms but I wanted something like that.

                         Book shelf: walmart for $12.98

                              * Was going to price match with target ad for $13.00 , but did not have to.

                        Colored bins- Dollar tree for $1 each.  $5 total

                         Blue tub basket- Was a gift from my baby shower

                          Train on wall-  Found at Dollar Tree for $1 and was used for his first bday

                                                         TOTAL: $19.98

                           

Grand Total : $271. 18

Pottery barn has great sales when you have lots of time to redo a room. Here is there sale website: Sale

Some other websites that I was watching was here and here.

Some tips:

Make sure you sign up for each stores email to get coupon codes or maybe even free shipping on your first order.

If you order online check at this website for coupon codes for maybe a discount or free shipping.

Hope this inspires you to be creative and be patient for deals to come.

Saving money on a bday....

*

Man we have been "bizzy" as you can tell,since I have not posted for a while. I wanted to post some tips that I learned from having Logan's first birthday. I can not believe he is ONE! The year has been wonderful and am enjoying seeing the little boy my baby has turned into.

I learned a lot this bday and figured I did not spend, but $40 on all the decoration/favors for Logan's bday. The biggest tip I have is to shop sales. I went to Party city right after graduation and shopped and shopped. I used a 15% coupon and ended up getting items for less than $1. The biggest steal was the "1" ballons for $0.50. They are the big ones that schools use for graduation. I went to the Dollar Tree for more ballons. Each kid went home with a train whistle which I bought on amazon.

Here are some pictures...

Logan and his cake

Here is Logan's cake and smash cake. I googled train cakes and got this idea. I really liked how it turned out. I think this saved about $30 since I made it myself.

Loved the buttercream icing from Wilton. Here is the link to that recipe.

The instructions for the train in fondant was found here.

This was lunch. I had a friend come and help and let me borrow some of her baskets to make it look nice.

More food to share..

 Here we are with our little boy. He loved the cake! He was not totally happy about icing in the eyes. We had such a fun time with him!

 

This was a game that I made from boxes that I had. I had bean bags for the kids to throw into each "car". The older kids had fun.

We had a great day overall.

Happy 1st Birthday Logan!

Out of the box...

What a cute picture to introduce another idea for hands on learning. I would love to claim this, but I can not take the credit.

I am finding at the 11 month old stage that my 'bizzybabybee' loves to take things out of a box or bucket and then put it back in. He will do this over and over again. I was reading in a magazine today of an idea that I want to try regarding this idea. You could do it many ways, but the idea was getting a shoe box with a lid and cutting a little hole in the top so the 'bizzybabybee' can put his/her hand through enough to feel,touch and pull objects that you place in the box out. Fill the box with items that you can talk about like shapes, fruit, kitchen spoons, socks,balls,small book,shoe, rocks and other items that would be fun to feel  and  pull out to see what it is. You could even do items that they could taste like a ripe piece of fruit or crackers.

Sounds fun to me!! I love 'out of the box' ideas that will get Logan's attention and fun for his momma.

Rolling into Tuesday...

Well, I am finally getting a second to write my idea for creative learning for Tuesday. It is 12:01 am on the dot and this starts my free time. Yes, I need sleep, but I am eager to get this blog started!


I am thinking of having a cute simple easy craft that will be fun for you to make to help teach your child something new and make it adaptable for all stages. I recently went to a couple yard sales this past weekend and came across some soft blocks or as I would call them 'dice.' I love anything that has bright colors and is cheap. These four blocks were four different colors and have pictures of things that I could easily sit down and talk with Logan about on a 10 month old level. Plus to add to the great find they are Baby Einstein brand, so it was a must. Today, we rolled them around and talked about the colors and then tried to find other objects in the house that matched the color die that were we learning about.

Here is a fun easy pattern to make your own. If you are not a sewer then go ahead and follow the patterns and just use craft glue for your seams instead of stitching. It would work. Be creative and post the pictures or ideas of what you are going to make on your die. What are you going to teach your baby this week?

*****pattern for blocks  or use this one pattern #2

For older kids try this:

I have a game that I bought like this but you could make one in no time and it would be so easy!! Make the dice and use different colors. Then on colored paper (the same colors on your die) list, print or draw actions that your child can do. It can be anything from 'hug your mom', 'find a shoe', 'find something that starts with the letter A', or even as simple as 'jump.' I would make 5 action (or more) cards for each color. Then have your child roll the dice and whatever color is on top he/she would choose a card of that same color then do the action on it. It is a fun easy learning game to change the week up.

Post what your ideas to share with us! Ready...set....roll...

"Children are made readers on the laps of their parents. "   

     ^{- Emilie Buchwald}

And so it begins, the list that I have wanted to create for sometime. I take Logan to the library every Thursday and I just look and look at the books and have no idea which ones we will like reading, but I just grap them just so I have a couple new ones to read for that night. I have come across some books that were good, some okay, some sad, some funny and some that were captive for even my 10 month old. Those are the ones that I want to make the charts for other mommies to go seek, find and read. There is a ongoing list on the bottom of this blog and I plan to update it one day a week with books that you recommend.

I have three that I have to share with you!

1. A Bear and His Boy    by:Sean Bryan
2. Stay Awake Sally    by:Mitra Modarressi
3. The Adventures of Old Bo Bear    by:Alice Schertle

What are some of your favorite child's books? What should make the book club list this week?

My BizzyBabyBee...

The other day I took my dog, Gracie, to the vet. I left my little one at home with his daddy so I could make sure that Gracie was not even more stressed about going to the vet than she was. While we were waiting to be called back to the room I noticed that there was an over population of bees flying all over the garden area near the waiting room window. I watched in amazement of how fast they would land on a flower and then ZOOM off to look for another flower. They were sure 'BIZZY.'

I could not help but relate that story to my little one. He is so 'bizzy' and moves so fast from one toy to another. He learns my touching, smelling and tasting everything he comes in contact with even if it is for just 2 seconds. It sure makes it hard for his momma to find things rather it is through books, toys or other objects to help keep his interest in learning. I never want him to become bored of learning since this is a time in his life where he loves to learn and to be totally honest- needs to keep learning so he can pollinate others around him when the time comes.

My 'bizzy' baby bee is my life. I love watching him learn through new life experiences that are old and even maybe boring to me. I thought this blog would be neat to start to help all of you mommas and Dada's to be creative in helping your child learn in different ways that maybe you had no idea you could implement.

I plan on starting a list of books for infants that are fun,short and creatively written to help our little 'bizzybabybees' stay focused and learn the importance of reading and the joy a book can bring.

I plan on starting a list of creative learning games that you can make for your baby to have fun and learn colors, shapes, numbers and even maybe a new language.

I have a lot of plans and ideas for this page. Please join in the fun and lets teach our 'bees' how to spread their wings.