Cooking with Mama-Pizza Rolls

It's always a struggle to figure out what to do for dinner when daddy works. For those that don't know he is a Firefighter/Paramedic and works 24 hour shifts. So that leaves just K and I to cook for. I don't like making big meals since this is usually the time C is very clingy and fussy. So I am always on the look out for new simple dinner ideas. I have seen a TON of recipes on Pinterest using crescent rolls that I have been wanting to try. I LOVE crescent rolls and they are so east to cook. The other day I found a pizza crescent roll idea. K LOVES pizza, I LOVE crescent rolls. Win, win situation. We didn't copy it exactly, but adapted it to how we wanted to make them. I love having K help me in the kitchen. This recipe was so easy, she was able to make it almost completely by herself. With my supervision of course. Here is what we did.

Ingredients/Materials needed:

1 package of crescent rolls

1 bag of peperoni (optional)

1 cup of cheese of your choice (we used a mixed shredded cheese because we already had it at home)

1 cup marinara sauce

baking sheet

foil

*Preheat oven to temperature the crescent rolls pack calls for

*Line your baking sheet with foil. 

*Open pack of crescent rolls and unroll them on the backing sheet. Separate them into individual triangles.

*Spread marinara sauce onto each triangle.

   -side note: I often take left over sauce from a spaghetti, pasta, or homemade pizza meal and pour it into an ice cube tray. I then freeze them and put them in a freezer safe bag to store for later. I use them for times I need a small amount of sauce but don't want to open a whole jar. Examples-making a small serving of spaghetti for K only, making pizza with English muffins, and now this recipe!! Problem of wasting unused sauce solved!! If you are interested in more details on how I do this process, send me a comment or email and I will write up a post on it.

*Add peperoni and cheese to the triangles. Keep the pepperonis near the wide side so they don't fall out when you roll them up.

*Roll the crescent rolls like you would normally, according to the package. 

*Bake rolls according to package, or until they are thoroughly cooked and golden brown. Remove from oven and let them cool. Pour left over marinara into a bowl and serve!

These were sooooo soooo good. We ate them all and were wanting more haha! This will be going into our dinner rotation, even when Daddy is home.

A few things I learned along the way:

*Next time I will not add the marinara sauce. It just makes a big mess, and makes the rolls stick to the foil afterwards. I will just warm up a big bowl of marinara and use it for dipping.

*I will cut slices of cheese from a block next time. Only for the mere reason of convenience. Shredded cheese makes a mess and gets everywhere. It also makes the rolls stick a bit to the foil. The block cheese will allow you to easily choose the amount of cheese, a lot like we like it, or a small amount if you prefer.

You must try these if you are a pizza fan. You won't regret it!!

Sticker Board Scene

I love that sometimes all it takes is a $1 to entertain K. While grabbing a few things at Walmart the other day, I happen to "stumble" upon the $1 bin. It's usually a hit or miss for me, but this time there was so much stuff, I wanted it all. But we (I) held our composure and picked out a few things. K picked out a few sticker scenes that they had. This did not surprise me as this girl LOVES stickers. So add to it that it comes with a board with a meaningful spot to put the pictures, SOLD!!! We got a sea life, Jungle animals, and Arctic animals. She did her first one the other day while I was playing on the floor with C. I love that is was simple enough for her to bring in on the floor so she could still be next to us hanging out. She loved it and she can't wait to make her other two. I highly recommend grabbing a few of these to have on hand. They are a big help to use if you need to keep the kids busy while you start dinner, feed the baby, road trips, doc appts, even grocery shopping. Best thing is, they are $1, just what this mama likes to hear.

Tissue Paper Easter Egg

Yesterday K made an Easter Egg with tissue paper. Considering it's Easter in a few days, I figured we should do a craft or two. This was easy, simple, and fun, just my style!

Materials needed:

*Construction paper in any color you would like

*Assorted colors of tissue paper

*Glue

*Plastic Cup

*scissors

*Pencil

Trace the shape of an Easter egg onto the construction paper and have the child cut it out. Pour a small amount of glue into a plastic cup.

Next, lay out the tissue paper and have your child choose the colors they would like, and cut them into little squares. K chose to cut them out as she went along. You can have them cut all the squares out at once as well, whatever the child prefers. Again, I love child let activities and crafts, so I always take her lead. The only thing I will say is if you had a smaller child, I would probably have a pile of precut squares out for them. I would still have them practice cutting the squares, but I am pretty positive they will not have the patience to cut out as many squares needed for the egg.

Place one square around the end of a pencil. Dip the end into a cup of glue. Then press the pencil onto the egg and slide the tissue paper off. Repeat this until your child feels they are done decorating the egg.

In the pic above you can see a bunch of the tissue squares cut out. K asked me about 15 min into the craft, if I could cut out a bunch of squares for her because she was getting tired. No problem for me, it allowed me to participate a little bit with her. 

All finished!

Not only is this a fun craft, but you can use this to incorporate patterns and color recognition. You could draw sections and have them glue the tissue paper by color, per section. Or create AB, ABA, ABBA etc color patterns. I was very relaxed with K on this one. She is on Spring Break so we are giving her a little break from all the learning hoopla. K ended up giving this to Daddy as a Birthday present since his bday is the day before Easter. Daddy was very happy and loved it.

Magnetic Play

K decided she wanted to play with her magnet kits. Let me tell you, I was soooooo exited. I LOVE playing with magnets.  I have to admit, I bought the kit partly because I wanted to play with them. That and they were on clearance (SCORE!!!), and of course I knew K would love them and there are a ton of education value to magnets. Anyhow, I was so shocked when K didn't ask me to play with her. I asked her if she would like to create on her own and she said yes. I think I was more exited that she was so into playing with them by herself, that I wasn't bummed at all that I missed out on some magnet play. 

During her play time she explored areas such as patterns, imagination, color recognition, science, and shape recognitions.

Patterns- She used some of the magnets to create color patterns on her magnet board.

 -"Mom I made an A,B pattern look! Red, blue, red, blue"

Color Recognition- K identified all the colors of each magnet she played with.  She made sure I knew what colors she was working with.

   -" Look mom, I have a yellow magnet now"

Imagination- K had such great use of imagination by building a magnet person. How clever is her idea with the hair and face?

                                                 

Science Lesson- The kit came with a magnet book. It talks about all the different magnets and how they work. Today K explored and learned about magnetic poles. In the book we read how opposite poles attract each other, and same poles repel each other. K had a lot of fun with experimenting the polar ends of different magnets. Her favorite were the magnet wands and horseshoes since they repelled the strongest.

We ran out of time before we could finish an experiment with pipe cleaners. We will be getting back to that in a few days and I will post about that as well. Magnets are so much fun for the kids, and adults too of course. There are so many versatile ways to play and learn. If you don't have one already, I would recommend investing in a kit. 

Crawling Machine

And he is off...........

This little man figured out how to crawl forward overnight, literally. He had been crawling backwards for almost two weeks. I loved it, it was so funny to watch. We were at the In laws house Sunday talking about him going backwards etc. The next morning, K, C and I were are all sitting on the floor, K was eating some cereal. I guess he decided he wanted her cereal bad, because out of no where he started crawling forward to get to the bowl!!! I was screaming with excitement it was so funny. I was on the phone texting the hubby since he was at work. Thankfully I got a good video to send him as well. Here we are almost a week later and he is picking up speed by the minute. It's so fun to watch, he literally "rediscovers" his toys, and his surrounds all over again as he is able to explore them from a new perspective. Oh did I mention that he can now pull himself up on a lot of his toys, and is trying to figure out how to do it with our furniture. I swear this little man is not satisfied with his latest achievements, he has to keep on going on to bigger and better things!!! 

Have you ever seen a cuter little baby boy? I know I haven't!!!!

Flower Hand Bouquet

K is on Spring Break for the next TWO weeks. What the heck are these schools thinking?!! This means mommy will be busy planning crafts and activities to keep the busy Sugar Bear entertained. This girl is NON STOP!!!! Since Spring is here we decided to make flowers! They turned out cute and it was really simple.

Items needed:

7 pieces of construction paper (your choice of colors)

6 craft sticks

Green Paint

Tape

Green Easter Grass (optional)

First paint one side of each craft stick green. They will dry while you are doing the rest of the craft.

Next have your child (or parent if your child is younger) trace one hand on 6 different colors of construction paper and cut them out.

*Yes she switched clothes. She heard her friends outside and took a break to go play

Glue one hand to each craft stick.

Next take the last piece of construction paper and fold it to form a cone shape. Use tape to secure it in place. We tried glue, and it did not stick at all. I would have needed to hold it in place for a while and let it dry.

If you decided to use the Easter grass, have your child fill the paper cone with the grass, then place all the flower hands inside in any arrangement that he/she would like.

All finished! Here is what it looks like.

These are fun because they have multiple uses. Spring/Easter craft and decor of course. Or you could give them as presents to grandparents, family, or teachers. Give these instead of real flowers, they would love it. Hope you enjoy this craft as much as we did!

Shopping, Sales, Savings

This weekend Just Between Friends hosted their bi-annual sale in my area. I was so excited because I missed both sales last year. If you are not familiar with JBF, it's national consignment sale for kids/children's clothes,furniture, toys and more. It is very popular and you often have lines around the building of people waiting to get. Click here for more info and to find out if there is an event near you. I was suppose to go Friday, but between work, a school party for K, and my little brother's dance competition, it just didn't happen. Ryan worked Saturday, and you could forget about me taking both kids by myself. No thanks! So Sunday was the last day of the sale, and my last chance to go. I asked my mother in law if she wanted to go, so off we went. I figured there wouldn't be much left considering it was the last day. The benefit to waiting however, is everything was 50% off!! So if I did manage to find something, at least I would be getting a great deal. I had to sort through everything carefully, but I found great stuff, and got everything for an amazing price. Everything I chose was in excellent condition, clean, no stains, holes, fading etc. I am all about buying used. I love a good Saturday morning of yard sales. I have found some of my best deals buying used. However, I am very picky. If I am going to buy new, it needs to be in excellent condition. I purchased 16 items including brands like Gap, Gymboree, Carters, Old Navy, etc for $30!! I am sooo excited with the great stuff I found, and all the money I saved. Here is the loot! Lots of great things for the baby, and cute stuff for K.