Cooking with Tots: Pizza

I teach high school Family and Consumer Sciences classes also known as "Home Ec." I teach several cooking classes. 90% of my students do not know how to boil water. That is not a joke. I wish it was.

There is no way my kids will follow that trend. We have been "cooking" together on a daily basis. They are only two years old but are capable of a lot in the kitchen. They are at the age where they are interested in what you are doing.

I would say most people who can't cook only "can't"  because of a fear of cooking and/or a lack of exposure to simple cooking.

I am going to start sharing some of the things I do with my 2 year old twins because they are easy, simple, and fun for them!

A lot of the things we have been doing over summer break are purchased as a hand on activity for them to do!

Having the twins make a pizza has to be the easy thing in the world. Don't go getting yourself all impressed. I purchased per-made crush, sauce, and cheese.

So it does not take a rocket scientist to figure out how to make a pizza.

When cooking with tots (and high school students) it does take some simple planning... like... I put the cheese and sauce in a bowl before letting them get started. (I do the same for the high school students.) Don't just give them the jar or bag of cheese and think they can handle it.

So anyways... they made pizza! The best part was tonight at dinner they told daddy what they made for lunch and they could even tell him how they made it!

Bathtub Remodel Done!

I posted the before pictures last night and it is done now. The ultimate reason we chose bath fitters was for there turnaround time. 1 day in house can't believe that. We didn't want to go longer with little kids! The second reason we chose them was because if they found any unknown problems they would fix them with out added cost. The third reason the warranty, it is lifetime.

Here are a few before:




 



Every time the installer went out to the car I was snapping pictures.


Getting set up

Walls down... hey look what we found blue title! Hello 1970's! 

Gross!

                                           And replacing the plumbing.

New dry wall 

  Done.

Shrimp Scampi with Bacon!

We have a new favorite around here! When menu planning last week Mike said he would like me to make some shrimp scampi. I haven't made it in a long time so I was excited to put it back in our menu mix. Nothing gets more boring the eating the same thing all the time week after week.

I expect P and N to eat what we eat... but sometimes the menu planning includes making something separate for them because they just aren't going to eat what we do. I try to encourage eating what we do and most nights I just make sure there is at least something they will eat. And by they I mean Noah, because Presley will basically eat anything we give her. One example of this would be when we grill steaks. We give each a couple of small pieces to try. Presley will eat them and Noah will not. They will eat all the sides but not the meat. So those nights I plan to make chicken nuggets or fish sticks for them as their meat and they have the same sides as us.

I wasn't so sure how shrimp scampi would go over. I know a lot of kids LOVE noodles but Noah can be hit or miss with them.

So when I made shrimp scampi last week and BOTH my 2 year olds loved it I was excited to add a new dinner to the menu rotation!

Shrimp Scampi with Bacon Recipe 

Ingredients

1. Shrimp (I buy a 1lb bag of medium frozen shrimp. I buy will shell on and peel myself before cooking since it is $3 a bag cheaper.)  

2. Garlic glove (2)

3. Scallions

4. Little bit of chopped red onion 

5. 1 Cup white wine

6. Lemon Juice (3 tablespoons)

7. Butter (I eyeball but probably about 3 tablespoons) 

8. Noddles (I use Angel Hair) 

9. Optional: Bacon I use two pieces. 

Directions: 1st boil your noodles. Chop your garlic, scallions, onion. Cut bacon with kitchen scissors into small pieces. I put my bacon in the skillet first and let it start to cook. I then add my chopped garlic, scallions, onions, then the butter and then the wine and lemon juice. I let the bacon get nice and cooked and then add the shrimp which cooks very fast. Then add noodles to skillet to get the noodles nice and covered with the sauce. 

Super yummy, super easy, and the kids love it! Score! 

Bathtub Remodel!

Oh my gosh I am so excited. Our bathtub is getting replaced tomorrow. This was rescheduled from two weeks ago and everyday since then I have been thinking I can't wait for this to be redone. The seal on the tub started to crack and then rust... and boy did it happen fast! In just the last couple of months the amount of rust has tripled! Cleaning didn't real help. On top of the rust the tub has a mildew problem. Since we moved into this house I have been cleaning this tub like crazy because I cannot stand the sight of mildew.

So for the last two weeks I haven't cleaned the tub at all. This is crazy to me. But I said I am not going to stress about it we are getting a new one!

 The new tub is going to be one piece so there will be no seal and it has a lifetime guaranty against mildew and mold! So this very exciting to me!

I had to comprise the design I really wanted since...we don't plan to be in this house forever so we don't need to spend a lot of money making it custom. So the design is kind of plain Jane. But this will help with the resale and we will still get to enjoy it before we sell.

So here are the BEFORE pictures. Looking at them makes me think OMG, I can't believe my tub looked like that... GROSS! Mind you I haven't cleaned it in two weeks and there is a bath on the bottom of the tub that hinds the rust... so it didn't always look this bad to me.

BUT ah I am just excited to have it redone! I hope it doesn't let me down!

Right after Bath.

 Funny just last week our towel rack broke, the block was ceramic and I guess in cracked, it just fell on the floor and broke. So we got new towel racks too.

 Mildew, yuck.

Mildew ewh 

                                               Oh my look at all the rust! YUCK!

Bye, bye, gross tub! 

 We are getting a new curved shower rod too! See the rust!

 And a new shower head. I hate this one, I had one I loved... but Mike switched it to this to hose of babies during bath!