Archive for June, 2008
Saturday Stirrings- Potato Salad
Jun
Time for another round of Saturday Stirrings. Woo Hoo!!
Since summer is here and it’s time for BBQ’s and picnics I’m sharing a recipe for potato salad this week. It’s one that my mom makes and it is so delicious. It isn’t like your regular mustard type of potato salad. And I am not exaggerating when I tell you I could eat the entire recipe by myself. It is that good.
Ranch Potato Salad
Ingredients:
2 pounds small red potatoes, cooked
1/2 cup sliced green onions
1 cup Hidden Valley Original Ranch Dressing (I’ve made it with other brands and it is not the same.)
Black pepper
8 slices bacon, crisp-cooked and crumbled
Directions:
Cut slightly cooled small red potatoes into 1 inch cubes. In large bowl combine potatoes, green onions and ranch dressing. Toss gently and dust with pepper. Garnish with bacon. Serve warm or at room temperature.
Just a few simple ingredients.
Yummy Potato Salad
Stop on over to It Coulda’ Been Worse to see some more yummy recipes.
Tags: Potato Salad
Cheeseburger Loaf
Jun
This is a yummy, easy and quick recipe.
Isn’t that great?
In a large saucepan, cook beef and onion over medium heat.
Add soup, garlic salt, salt and pepper; simmer, uncovered for 5-10 minutes.
Meanwhile, slice the top third off the bread. Hollow out bottom half of loaf, leaving a 3/4-in. shell (discard removed bread or save for another use). Spread butter on cut side of bread. Place loaf on an ungreased baking sheet and broil 4-in. from the heat until lightly browned.
Enjoy the yummyness.
Fun With Sidewalk Chalk
Jun
A very simple and fun activity to do with your toddler is using sidewalk chalk.
Hailey and I spent a very long time the other morning writing with sidewalk chalk. She directed me to write all of her favorite names. (Brooke, Dottie, Daddy, ‘Ga,’ ‘Pa’) We drew shapes and just spent time coloring. Hailey loved it!
We didn’t do it this time, but if you wet the chalk before you write with it the colors will be much more vibrant.
**One thing to keep in mind is that if the chalk breaks it can pose a choking hazard to toddlers who are still putting everything in their mouth. So, this activity needs to be very closely supervised.
Planting Activities
Jun
I used to spend time doing some gardening- planting flowers, pulling weeds, all of that good stuff. Having a toddler makes it a little more difficult to get that kind of stuff done. But rather than not doing it anymore I decided to involve Hailey in taking care of the plants.
We had a deck in our back yard that had to be taken down and new deck was built in a different place. So, where the old deck was we planted some grass. Hailey and I have been checking the progress of the grass and I talk to her about how the grass needs sun and water to grow.
She also helped me pull all of the weeds out of our flower beds in our back yard. She thought that was fabulous! Hailey has her own little gardening set that uses to dig in the dirt to pretend to plant. One of the tools is a watering can which she uses to help water the flowers.
When we are outside doing our gardening I talk to Hailey about how the flowers smell and feel. She does not have a lot of toys for outside, but rather spends most of the time exploring. Simple things like leaves and rocks can be turned into a learning experience for a toddler.
Give your toddler a bucket to use for collecting leaves and then talk about how they feel, look, smell, etc. Let your toddler tear and crumble the leaves. Collect rocks that are big enough to not pose a chocking hazard- meaning they can not fit through a toilet paper roll. Talk about how the rocks feel. Let your toddler take them in and out of containers. Put the collection of rocks into a container that can be closed (ex- old coffee container) and shake for a fun noise. You can also let your toddler wash the rocks. All of these things will provide a lot of entertainment and learning for your toddler.
Anything hands on in nautre is a great way to teach your toddler. And the more they participate in what they are doing the more they will learn and remember from the experience.
Tags: free toddler activity, planting with toddlers, toddler leaf activity, toddler rock activity
