Monthly Archives: July 2013

Jul28

Kids in the Kitchen, Egg Bread (French Toast)

Posted on July 28, 2013 by thestick81

Here is another super simple meal idea that the kids can cook themselves. Most people would consider it a breakfast dish, but we have had it as dinner on busy nights or when we don’t feel like a huge meal.

All you need is fresh bread, lots of eggs (roughly 2 per person) dash of milk, butter or oil for the fry pan and what ever your desired sauce might be. BBQ, tomato, maple syrup and bacon!

Flat bowl, fry pan, eggs, oil or butter, eggs and some milk/

Crack a few eggs into a bowl and whisk with a dash of milk.

Kids love whisking!

Place one piece of bread at a time in the bowl, turning so you cover both sides

Place in a hot fry pan (med=high) until slightly brown, then flip.

Ready to eat.

Eggy Bread

French toast

In a flat bottom bowl, whisk the eggs with a dash of milk, soak the bread for a few seconds each side, then place into a hot oiled pan. Flip once the underside has started to brown and repeat. Easy as that!

* You don’t actually need to use milk, but I find it helps the egg soak into the bread quicker.

Jul27

Autumn Theme Mobile, Using Oven Bake Clay

Posted on July 27, 2013 by thestick81

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Autumn Theme Mobile, Using Oven Bake Clay

I have had this idea in my head for a while, but wasn’t sure what medium to use. This product is really fun and easy to work with, however, it sets more like a hard rubber than a ceramic clay, so it did not achieve the wind chime noise I had in mind. Oh well, its still pretty!

Nature theme mobile / sun catcher.

Sculpey Oven Bake Clay. It is quite firm out of the packet, but softens up quickly with some kneading.

Ms 4 Rolling out the clay.

Cut just like a cookie or play dough

Reshape to make leaf like

Press in between the backs of 2 leaves

Leaf print

Ready for the oven, bake at 130c for approximately 15 minutes

After baking

Ms4 threading the fishing line and adding some beads.

Some things we collected on our bush walk

Drilling some extra holes in the piece of bark.

Autumn mobile,

Nature theme mobile / sun catcher.

Autumn and bush influenced mobile.

Jul27

Kids in the Kitchen, Home Made Fish and Chips.

Posted on July 27, 2013 by thestick81

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Kids in the Kitchen, Home Made Fish and Chips.

My kids love fish and chips. But gone are the days you could feed the family from the local fish and chip shop for under $20. So we always make our own now. I am sure its not just me, but I hate crumbing things, fingers getting all caked up with goo. So, outsourcing it is! Even my 4 year old can do the whole process herself. So while it may not be the healthiest meal (we deep fry the fish) it could certainly be a lot worse, and their sense of achievement and the skill building is totally worth the mess!

Mr9 is cooking some pinking fillets here. He just cut them into small even sized pieces, so they should all take roughly the same time to cook through. Flour each piece so it is dry, then dip in an egg/milk mixture before rolling in the crumbs. You could also get the kids to make bread crumbs if you have a food processor. We don’t, so we are just using store crumbs.

Mr9 is actually mature and coordinated enough to use the deep fry, but I am particularly paranoid about hot oil, so I took over that part of the process.

Pink ling fillets cut to size.

Drying in plain flour,

Dipping in milk and egg mixture

Coating with breadcrumbs

Ready to cook

Keep them separate so they don’t stick together while cooking

Frying

Drain on paper towel.

Home made fish and chips.

And yes, we used frozen chips, shhh, don’t tell anyone.

Jul27

Upcycled CDs. Sun Catcher.

Posted on July 27, 2013 by thestick81

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We were having a clean out of old computer stuff and were about to throw away a pile of old discs, but I decided those shinny little things must be good for something else? So after a bit of thinking, I came up with yet another sun catcher idea. Anyone would think I like sparkly things? It took me ages to work out what to cover, a sphere didn’t seem practical as the CD pieces are flat obviously, so after some uhmming and arrring, I decided wooden cubes were the best solution. The lovely man at the local hardware was kind enough to give me some 3″ x 3″ off cuts for free. The rest of the instructions are on the pictures. I just used clear drying craft glue to attach the CD chips to the wood and the grout is standard bathroom tile grout mixed according to instructions, available from any hardware (we had some left over from the laundry renovation).

Recycled DVD / CD Sun catcher

Gather your old CDs, DVDs the more different colours the better.

Cut ’em up! Tin snips, side cutters, or seceteurs as I have.

Munched up CDs!

Drill hooks into each corner of the wood, placing a fishing swivel between, so they can spin freely in the wind.

Some white paint to enhance the colour of the glass tiles

Stick on the pieces covering as much area as you can.

Make some grout, following instructions on pack.

Dollop on the grout

Smooth over with a spatula (instructions for tiles suggest a squeegee)

Remove as much excess as you can, then allow to set for an hour or more (weather conditions will vary this time)

Use a dry or every so slightly damp sponge, remove more of the excess once it has set to a powdery consistency.

Let set over night. Then wash off any excess dust.

Finished product.

Sun Catcher. CD / DVD

Recycled DVD / CD Sun catcher

Upcycled CDs.

Sun catcher / Disco Cube!

Hang on display

Sun Catcher. CD / DVD

Jul18

What exactly is going on here?

Posted on July 18, 2013 by thestick81

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I often buy a pack of lollies for the kids to have 2 each night as a treat after eating all their dinner. I bought a multi pack with mixed items from Aldi recently. Mr2 handed me one of these to help him open, I couldn’t help but notice the very odd images on the packets! What is that lime doing to that lemon? It certainly doesn’t look G rated! The raspberry is not much better!

Jul17

Teaching Kids To Sew – Make a Hair Scrunchie!

Posted on July 17, 2013 by thestick81

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Teaching Kids To Sew – Make a Hair Scrunchie!

I was just saying to my other half, I find it odd how many people think the ability to use a sewing machine is something rare or difficult. He agreed that it is very simple, no harder than driving a car. 2 minutes later as I was taking up Miss 4s curtains, I managed to catch the middle of the curtain in the seam, creating a huge unpicking job, and of course my quick-un-pick has grown legs and run off, so I had to do it the hard way. Murphy and his law are cruel, and now I see why many people choose not to sew!

That aside, I still think we should all learn the basics of sewing, even if the days of making your own clothes to save money are long gone (fabric is SO expensive!). So when my boys showed interest in sewing after my last little project, I jumped at the opportunity to teach them some basics on the machine. The easiest thing to sew has to be a scrunchie!

The process is very straight forward, so I am sure I don’t need to go into much more detail than what is in the caption on the pictures. Apart from a pretty wonky seam by Mr9 (which you can’t notice once finished), they were a success and Ms4 was happy to model their efforts to the world. We used fabric with lines on it as I figured that would be easier to follow for beginners, but you can use just about anything, make them any size and thickness.