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Posts Tagged ‘Beans’

DIY “Sound” Box – D & E Plus Tips!

08 Jan

The Sound Box journey continues in our home.

Getting a picture that you can fit to the box works well. We filled our “E” box with sand.

Our “D” box has a picture of “Daddy” on it. We filled this one with rice. I also GLUED the box shut with a strong glue (I used a wood glue actually but that’s not necessary, just what I had within reach.). This worked really well. We were able to minimize the tape. I still protected the box from our one year old gnawing on it with a layer of clear packing tape.

I was drawing each letter onto the box. This approach was fun and added character but I succumbed to neat sticker letters on this one. I purchased these letters at a local arts & crafts store.

I can hardly believe how much fun we’re having with these sound boxes. I love collecting them, akin to our Discovery Bottles, they keep life interesting with the boys.  Nice to be able to open a cabinet and grab a few.

Visit this post for more detail on our very simple approach. This post is pretty good too.

Thanks for visiting. Have a wonderful Sunday!
Marnie

 
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Posted in Activities, Early Literacy, Education, Homeschool, Infant, Preschool, Toddler

 

Sight and Sound Discovery Bottles

08 Dec

Many months ago we were visiting the Children’s Museum here in Seattle. As we explored the “birth-3 year old” designated area that includes all sorts of amazing puzzles, climbing stairs and slides, mirrors and water play activities, we discovered these wonderful “sight and sound bottles”. I had been making our own “discovery bottles” for a few months at that point but these bottles launched my inspiration. My obsession was the “tube”. We use recycled bottles. Honestly, I searched for the tubes online but failed to find exactly what I was looking for that didn’t already include the contents in the tubes and that weren’t more money than I wanted to spend. So, we’re sticking with our recycled bottles.

These bottles are great because you can make a bunch from stuff throughout your house, store them away and keep life interesting by pulling out a few every now and then. Also, they give a great sight and sound sensory experience. Beyond that experience, however, there are science lessons on separation, gravity, density, sinking and floating, etc.

Here is a list of the bottles we’ve prepared over the last six months or so. I have two very active, curious boys who are always screwing and unscrewing things, which is great but not for this every day sight and sound exercise. So, mainly for my sanity, I tape down the caps of the bottles. If my boys really want to screw off the caps, we switch activities to one that allows them to explore this developmental desire, setting our sight and sound discovery bottles aside.

Great materials include:

  • pom poms
  • buttons
  • beads
  • gems
  • glitter
  • shampoo
  • oil
  • corn kernals
  • salt
  • beans
  • rice (colorful rice is GREAT!)
  • sand
  • the list goes on…open your cabinets and go crazy!

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Pom Poms & Beads – I originally just had beads in the bottle. I added pom poms to mitigate the sound. It didn’t really work but the colorful pom poms are a lot of fun for our baby.

Colorful wires and pipe cleaners – This bottle is a little random. The bottle I used is one we use for batter to make fun pancakes. It is not see through so that adds to the sensory experience. As you can see there is a small opening (for the batter to come out) on the cap. My toddler uses this hole to thread colorful wires (we had some wire lying around from an art box I purchased a long time ag0) and pipe cleaners into the bottle. Great for fine motor skill development. The bottle makes a cool sound when shaken too.

Corn Kernels, Gems & Jewels - Pretty straightforward. I added “gems” that I purchased from a pet store and “jewels” I purchased from Amazon. You can pick up minerals and great rocks at pet stores to include in sensory bottles and tubs.  Great sound and sight discovery.

Shampoo, Magnetic Marbles & Mini Dinosaurs – Yes, kind of random but these cute little dinosaurs were irresistibly colorful so I had to include them. So, this bottle is shampoo which makes for a great, slowed down sight sensory discovery. You can introduce science terms about density, etc to explain the “liquid”. We have a magnetic wand that when placed against the bottle attracts the marbles. Lots of fun.  I bought all these materials at Amazon. The shampoo we already owned (phew!).

Salt & Kidney Beans – Seriously? Does it get any easier than this bottle? Sand is another great option but salt is ready and available. We happen to have kidney beans but add lots of colorful beans…

Water beads – We had left over water beads (check out the link to this post for the gorgeous bead exercise. Add a light table and you’re golden!) from an amazing sensory tub. So I created a bottle.  Colorful and the texture makes for interesting movement. No overt sound, a little “glub” “glub” but that gave us something to talk about…plus we used a bottle with different bumps and curve, which made the experience even better. Tough to see the beautiful color of the beads in this photo. So, trust me on that one.

Glitter, Water & Oil – This one is your snow globe.  Add water and oil, then some colorful, wonderful glitter and voila!

Bouncy Eye Balls – This one we did for Halloween.  Check out the post. We used a big lemonade bottle to get the great effect of the sound and feeling of bouncy balls.

Quiet Bottles – We also have a number of “quiet bottles” that are quite colorful.  We’ve add feathers and pom poms to these bottles.

Travel Bottles – I use smaller bottles and preferably no liquid to make simple on the go portable travel sight and sound discovery bottles.

Thanks for visiting!

Marnie

 

I linked this post up to:

Montessori Monday

 
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Posted in Activities, Education, Fine Motor Skills, Infant, Montessori, Science, Sensory, Toddler

 

Want a way to get your child more iron? Try this Tyler Florence stew!

04 Nov
As I watch my 16 month old finish up the last morsels of Tyler Florence’s Hunter’s Minestrone, I long for another batch. My husband made this stew a week and a half ago for us adults but he had an idea…”let’s give some to the little guy.” Why had that not occurred to me? It is the perfect food for him at this point. A stew is thicker than a soup so not too much liquid to go array and this stew is loaded with protein, iron, fiber and many other necessary nutrients good for all our bodies. With my difficulties in getting our son to eat meat and pasta (go figure), I thought this suggestion was brilliant, especially when it worked. Our little man gobbled (no seasonal pun intended) it up.

The stew is perfect fall flavors made with wonderful herbs and spices, a bit of pasta, pork and cannelloni beans.

Here is a link to the recipe but I also pasted it below. Beyond the stew simply being delicious as presented here, there are ways to up the ante of the health component.

Here are three ways I suggest you make this recipe even better for you:

  1. Use ground pork or turkey instead of sausage
  2. Use whole wheat rigatoni
  3. Use homemade chicken stock

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Source: FoodNetwork.com

Hunter’s Minestrone

Recipe courtesy Tyler Florence

  • Prep Time: 15 min
  • Cook Time: 40 min
  • Level: Easy
  • Serves: 6 servings

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Ingredients

  • 2 quarts chicken stock
  • 1 head garlic, halved
  • 1/2 pound small rigatoni
  • Extra-virgin olive oil
  • 8 fresh sage leaves
  • 1 sprig fresh rosemary
  • 1 sprig fresh thyme
  • 3/4 pound loose sweet Italian pork sausage
  • 2 medium carrots, roughly chopped
  • 2 celery ribs, roughly chopped
  • 1 onion, roughly chopped
  • 1 (28-ounce) can crushed plum tomatoes
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 2 (28-ounce) cans cannelloni beans, drained and rinsed
  • 1/2 bunch fresh parsley leaves, finely minced
  • Coarsely ground black pepper
  • 12 slices baguette
  • 1 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano

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Directions

  • Combine the stock and halved garlic head in a big saucepan and simmer for about 15 minutes to give the stock a nice, garlicky taste; strain out the garlic. Keep warm.
  • Bring a pot of salted water to boil for the rigatoni.
  • Pour 1/4 cup olive oil in a large saucepan. Add the sage, rosemary and thyme and warm the oil over medium heat to infuse it with the flavor of the herbs, 3 to 4 minutes. Add the sausage and cook, breaking up the sausage with the side of a big spoon until well browned. Chop the carrots, celery, and onion in a food processor. Add to the saucepan and cook for 3 to 4 minutes, until the vegetables are softened but not browned.
  • To the pan with the sausage stir in the crushed tomatoes, bay leaf, cannelloni beans, and chicken stock. Bring to a simmer and cook for 15 minutes stirring occasionally.
  • Cook the rigatoni in the boiling water for 6 minutes; it should be slightly underdone. Drain and stir into the simmering soup. Add the parsley, and salt and coarsely ground black pepper, to taste. Discard the bay leaf and herb sprigs.
  • To serve, preheat the broiler. Put the baguette slices in a single layer on a baking sheet. Sprinkle with the Parmigiano and broil until the cheese is bubbly and golden brown, about 3 minutes. Ladle the soup into bowls and float a couple of the baguette slices on top.
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Enjoy!
Marnie
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Posted in 12 months +, Dinner, Family Meals, Lunch, Meat, Recipes, Toddler

 

Breakfast Quesadillas for Breakfast, Lunch or Dinner!

20 Jul

As my kiddo graduates from purees to “real people” food I find myself struggling a bit. Feeding my little guy these days is much harder than the puree days when I could be creative and make sure I include the nutrients my little guy needs in his diet.

One “transition from purees” meal that has work really well for us and is easy for the kiddo to eat as a finger food is the “breakfast” quesadilla. For dinner one evening I decided a cheese quesadilla would be a good option for my little man. As I began to make the dinner, the guilt set in. Cheese and a tortilla didn’t actually scream super healthy.  So I decided to sneak in a few extra goodies – egg, black beans and corn – to boost the nutrition!  You could easily add other ingredients. It all depends on your kiddo. I wanted to add tomatoes but my little guy is a “texture eater” and can’t quick deal with the skin on the tomato. I wasn’t in the mood to skin a tomato so we skipped it. As easy way to add other ingredients is via a salsa. The best part about this meal for my one year old is that it is easily a delicious meal for us adults too.

Servings: 3-4 (one quarter per meal on average)

Time Required: 15 minutes

Gear:

  • Small bowl to beat egg
  • Whisk
  • Sautee pan
  • Microwave, oven or some means to warming the tortilla
  • Spatula
  • Small cutting knife

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Food:

  • 1 Egg
  • Splash of whole milk
  • Black pepper
  • 1 Tortilla (Wheat would be great if you have it on hand. In this case, I used white, which obviously works well but less nutritious.)
  • A handful of shredded mixed cheese (I used a Mexican blend)
  • A handful of black beans (I used canned black beans but using organic dried beans are a great option if you have the time and resources)
  • A handful of corn (I roasted my corn kernels but this step in not necessary. I just love the sweetness of roasted sweet corn and it is easy to roast the kernels. Yum. If you are going to roast the corn, give yourself an extra 30 minutes to do so. I roast a bunch of kernels and then store them in the fridge for later use. I recommend that approach.)

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Method:

  1. In your bowl, whisk together the egg and milk, add black pepper
  2. Scramble in sautee pan over over medium heat, use butter if you want to but in this case I did not do so
  3. Warm your pan for the tortilla, spread cheese over the tortilla and allow cheese to melt
  4. Spread the scrambled egg over the tortilla
  5. Add black beans and corn to the tortilla.  I warmed the black beans in a pan first.  As for the corn, there are a variety of approaches you can take – you can either add straight from the can, add from the can but warm the corn first on your stove top, use a corn cob, or roast in the over. If roasting in the oven, preheat over to 400 degrees, cover a baking sheet with foil, spread kernels over the baking sheet and cook for 20-30 minutes, or until the kernels are brown. Everyone’s oven is different it seems so keep a watch on those kernels!
  6. Fold over tortilla and press your spatula down on the tortilla to secure it
  7. Cut into quarters, then bite sized pieces for the little one. Be sure to let the quesadilla cool a bit.
  8. Save any remaining tortilla in the fridge for a future meal

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*Goodness Factor: Protein, Iron, Riboflavin, Vitamin A, Calcium, Vitamin D, Vitamin B12, Phospohorus, Selenium, Dietary Fiber, Vitamin B6, Thiamin, Magnesium, Maganese

Happy Eating!
Marnie

* Check out this site for information on vitamins and minerals.

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Posted in 12 months +, 9-12 Months, Dinner, Finger Food, Lunch, Recipes, Vegetarian

 
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