Chick Peas and Chocolate Chips?!

Who'da thunk it? Chick peas and chocolate chips, yummy together?

This is one of our favorite cookie recipes! We whipped up a batch before lunch today.
These are so easy and fast to make & better for kiddos than your traditional chocolate chip cookies. Best part, they ARE yummy!

The idea is originally from  Jessica Seinfeld's book, "Deceptively Delicious", with a few modifications we make.


Prep: 20 minutes, Total: 31-33 minutes, Makes 2 dozen cookies

Nonstick cooking spray
1 cup firmly packed light or dark brown sugar brown sugar
¾ cup trans fat free soft tub margarine spread
2 large egg whites
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 (15 oz) can chickpeas, drained and rinsed (aka garbanzo beans)
(We grind them up...because my toddler eats around them otherwise)2 cups (12 ounces) semi-sweet chocolate chips
(we use only 1 cup)¾ cup chopped walnuts
(optional, we don't use)¾ cup raisins
(optional, we don't use)
2 cups all purpose flour
(we use wheat flour)½ cup old fashioned oats
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 t salt

Preheat oven to 350. Coat a baking sheet with cooking spray.

In a large mixing bowl or the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the sugar and margarine with a wooden spoon or on medium speed until smooth. Beat in the egg whites and vanilla, then the chickpeas and chocolate chips. Add the flour, oats, baking soda and salt, and mix on low speed until a thick dough forms.

Drop the dough by the tablespoonful (we use larger melon ball scoop) onto the baking sheet, spacing the cookies about 2 inches apart. (dont' forget to taste test the dough!) Press gently with a fork to flatten (we sometimes remember to do this). Bake until the cookies are golden brown and just set, 11 to 13 minutes; do not over bake. Transfer to a rack to cool. Enjoy!!! :)

Egg Carton Flowers, Super Easy!

We love crafts & my girl especially loves to make gifts for loved ones. We did these recently for my Mother and Mother-in-Law for Mother's Day. Super easy!

Using an egg carton (yay, recycle!), paint and pipe cleaner.

We painted the bottoms completely (let them dry) and then painted the inside.

Once dry, we cut them apart and poked holes in the bottom of each one -  using pipe cleaner as stems. Doesn't get any easier than this!

Gotta love the Target dollar aisle (buckets, note pads, pens)!

$5 Mother's Day gift and a fun craft to share.

Happy Mother's Day! :)

 

Fun Tape!

Yesterday I REALLY wanted to sew something in our craft room  ( you can see our shared craft room via the link...it stopped looking that neat after the photos were taken)!  I had to think of something to keep my lil' 3 year old busy so I could steal 30 minutes to sew a special blanket.

I also needed a 'clean' project since there would be little time for hose-off before we needed to jet. That meant no play dough, no paint, glitter or glue (glitter + glue *shudder*).

How 'bout some harmless tape then!?

    I just LOVE this tape set from Discount School Supply!    

If you haven't checked out their site yet- make sure you do! They have the guaranteed lowest price on lots of art supplies. If you find it cheaper elsewhere, just call them and they'll match.
















Since we aren't quite able to use our scissors yet, I cut the tape and placed them on the edge of her workspace for easy grabbing. I also found some flower stickers and put them out as well.

This kept her busy (and quiet) for 30 minutes!

Good for making shapes, different abstract patterns and for decorating packages and cards.
We may decide to use some of this tape with our Mother's Day projects too!

Fall Garland

Here's an easy fall garland project we did the other day.
We went on a leaf hunt around the yard & spread them out on the counter.

To preserve them, I ironed them between two pieces of wax paper.

Carefully peel the paper to remove the leaves.

Here they are, all pressed and waxed.

Next, grabbed some ribbon and used glue to attach the leaves face down.

Hang and enjoy. If stored carefully, they will last for years!

Extreme Home Makeover- Dollhouse Edition

My lil' girl will be turning 3 soon. I can hardly believe it. At this stage, she's loving to play with dollhouses. My kinda girl!

I found this lil' treasure on Craigslist for $30. What a FIND!
It was FULL of furniture too (more than shown in the picture)!

All it needed (okay, didn't really 'need', but I couldn't help myself) was a makeover. One that wouldn't cost much if anything at all. So, using mostly supplies already on hand...I got to work. Total project cost, including the dollhouse: $62.

Here's the BEFORE & AFTER of the dollhouse.

The cherry furniture was lovely,but I spray painted it all. Yep.
I covered the walls with craft paper (using spray adhesive).

Basically, I used everything I already had on hand - EXCEPT I did splurge on a new kitchen  $20, a cute little washing machine for $6 and some craft stickers $6. I just had to do it.
This dollhouse is for me too, you know.

 We love owls. This is the little girls room. I used craft paper for the walls, leftover fabric and some craft stickers. The bed and dresser were originally that cherry wood- but nothing a can of spray paint couldn't jazz up!

The living room. 

Craft paper walls, little craft silhouette stickers (I do not scrap book by the way).

Painted couch with zebra felt (used fabric glue to adhere). Painted chair with leftover fabric.

 I printed the chandelier image from the Internet, cut it out and glued it to the wall.

Spray painted fireplace. Fabric scrap rug. Craft paper walls.

The kitchen.

I used an old picture frame mat for the window (magazine cut out for the scene), painted table and chairs and craft paper for walls and floor. Printed out and glued 'Eat Together'  picture to the wall.

The laundry room (I wish I had for real).

Craft paper walls, parts of the old kitchen furniture painted and printed out laundry stickers for pictures. I just had to buy that lil' washing machine for $6. We are calling it our washing AND drying machine.

The bathroom.

Painted furniture, craft paper walls and a printed out picture- glued above the tub.

Bedroom.

Spray painted bed and cabinet. Cardboard headboard with leftover fabric.

Leftover fabric for artwork. Craft paper walls.

Best part is watching my girl play with it.

There's nothing in here that I'm worried about getting broken or messed up (remember, we only paid $30 for it). If she wants to put the stove in the bathroom- sounds like an adventure to me! Sure, I spent some time on it- but it was fun for me to do. Plus, if things get messed up too badly, I'll always have these pictures to remember how things were!

Case in point. It was bath night for EVERYONE this night (including pets).  

Proud of her for conserving water!

Fall Inside!

Ah, Fall is here. This is my most favoritest, bestest time of year. The trees are beginning to change into jewel colors of yellow, red, burnt orange...time for nature walks and collecting.

Bring some Fall inside!

Today, we patrolled our backyard and snipped a basket full of fall foliage from trees and bushes. I simply added water to a vase and plopped them in. Now we have a little bit of Fall inside to enjoy.

A great book to read to your kiddo...Why Do Leaves Change Color? A fun and beautifully illustrated book (with some detailed scientific info too).  

Also, a quick and easy project we did with friends this morning ...laminated place mats using Fall leaves. You could also use contact paper if you don't have a laminator.

Since this is my favorite time of year, there will certainly be a few more Fall inspired posts to come.

I hope everyone is enjoying this Season!

Buried in Berries...Jamberry!

Jamberry, by Bruce Degen

has been a favorite book of ours for a while.

If you haven't read it to your kiddo yet, make sure you do!

Here's a fun  and very simple activity we did to go with this board book.  

 We used strawberries, blueberries, blackberries and raspberries.

Last of the fresh berries for the season. A farewell bash.

Rinsed 'em.

Sorted 'em.

Next, we read the book and used our berries as interactive parts to the story.

One berry, two berry, pick me a blueberry.

She picked a blueberry and fed it to the bear.

                                               Three berry, four berry,hayberry

 Strawberry!

It was hard not to sample the berries as we read along. 

Blackberries!

Trainberry, trackberry, clickety-clackberry!

I'm okay with getting a lil' berry stain on our book.

It's ours and we'll remember how the stain got there. :)

Next, raspberries!

Buried in berries!

She enjoyed all the berries 'as is' in natural form as we read...EXCEPT for the raspberry, too sour for her liking (same here...*pucker face*).

Next, we conducted a taste test with different dips.

Cream cheese, vanilla yogurt, honey and chocolate whipped cream.

Turns out that ALL the berries were best in chocolate whipped cream.

There's a resource book called  'Story Stretchers' that we like very much. While I didn't get this activity from that book, it is a great resource for adding relevant activities to your favorite books/stories.  They have a version for infants, toddlers, pre-k and up.