The Mediocre Mom's Guide to Greatness

Saturday April 16th, 2010

Today’s Activity:

Make some trail mix.

Note:

You can really use anything for trail mix.  Gold fish, peanuts, m&ms, any type of nut, raisins, craisins…I went to a church activity this week where we learned about the benefits of eating raw fruits and vegetables.  The woman teaching us about this healthy way of life made this super yummy trail mix that can come mostly from your food storage.  I don’t have a great food storage so my ingredients came from the store but here is the recipe if you want to try this one.  Special thanks to Deb Mackintosh for sharing her yummy recipes!

2c Dehydrated Banana Chips

1c pecans

1 1/2 c yogurt covered raisins

1 1/2 freeze dried blue berries

Deb is in the process of getting a website going so in the future look for  www.chcherryhillscertandpreperation.com for some more great recipe ideas.

Evaluate:

The kids really liked this yummy and healthy treat.  Max didn’t love the blueberries (CRAZY kid!) but the blueberries were about all Elese would eat so it worked out perfectly.  As for my I loved all of it and I keep telling myself it’s ok to keep eating it because it is good for me.

Tags: food storage, trail Mix
Posted in Cooking, Quick Activities | No Comments »

Friday April 9th, 2010

Today’s Activity:

Surprise your little ones with a freshly baked after school snack.

Note:

If you don’t have time to bake something extravagant then just pick up some pre-made cookie dough from the store.

Evaluate:

Max was thrilled to see that he was going to get warm cookies and milk for after school nap and Elese loved waking up to her nap with the smell of freshly baked cookies in the air.  As for me, I loved that I didn’t waste the time making them from scratch because last time I did that they didn’t turn out.

Tags: after school snack, baking, cookies
Posted in Cooking, Quick Activities | No Comments »

Tuesday February 16th, 2010

Monthly Goal:

Today I said yes when my kids asked for treats.  They ate WAY too many sweets but you should have seen the look of surprise on their faces every time I said yes.

Don’t forget to leave a comment about something good you did today so you can be entered in our drawing for a $25 GC.  Go here to learn more about our giveaway.

Today’s Activity:

Today is Mardi Gras.  Do a little research and have your own little Mardi Gras at home.

Note:

Don’t forget to play some Jazz music in the background!

Evaluate:

I went a little overboard and decided to make some homemade king cake.  It didn’t turn as pretty as the real thing but I think it tasted better.  The kids enjoyed having an extra treat before bed and learning a little bit about Mardi Gras.

Tags: baking, Mardi Gras
Posted in Average Length Activities, Cooking, Holiday | 1 Comment »

Friday February 12th, 2010

Monthly Goal:

Today I let Elese take her time as we walked home from dropping off Max for school.  I enjoyed watching her collect sticks and sing a little song she made up, “Magic, magic come alive and count to number five.  One, two, three, four, five!”

Don’t forget to leave a comment about something good you did today so you can be entered in our drawing for a $25 GC.  Go here to learn more about our giveaway.

Today’s activity:

It’s baking day!

Note:

If you would like you could bake something Valentiny and leave some on a neighbors door step as a special Valentine surprise.

Evaluate:

We were having a cookie exchange for a church activity so we decided to bake my favorite cookies, Rolo cookies.  We’ve made them here before.  Here’s the link with details.  My kids love them and they can help unwrap the rolos without getting in the way of the actual baking.

Recognition!

Joylyn took her kids to the adventure club at their mall.  I’ve never heard of that but it sounds like fun!

Come on ladies!  You all deserve some recognition.  What did you do today?

Tags: baking, Giveaway, valentines
Posted in Average Length Activities, Cooking, Giveaway | 1 Comment »

Friday January 8th, 2010

Today’s Activity:

It’s baking day.

Note:

Here’s the recipe I’m using.  I’m going to be making these. You have to scroll all the way down to get to the recipe. I may even borrow the perfect brownie pan that my mom got for Christmas from her Brother-in-law.  Max LOVES that infomercial!

Evaluate:

This was not my best baking ever but at least I had fun with the kids.  They turned out pretty good but not really as good as I had expected which works out great for the diet.    The main thing I didn’t like is that the actual brownie was very cakey which my husband loves but not me.  Plus I messed a few things up in the recipe so if you are choosing to do this recipe read it before you start actually cooking.  For instance I used cocoa instead of melted bakers chocolate.  After adding the cocoa I read that if you choose to use cocoa then it should not be added at the same time you would add the bakers chocolate.  I’m not sure if this REALLY effected the end result but it did make me wish I had read through the recipe first.

Tags: baking, brownies, BYU mint Brownies, indoor, mint
Posted in Average Length Activities, Cooking | No Comments »

Friday November 20th, 2009

Today’s Activity:

Bake something yummy.

Note:

It you don’t want to eat it all then pack some up to share with your family on Thanksgiving.

Evaluate:

So I have TONS of evaporated milk so today I searched online for a yummy recipe that uses evaporated milk and this is what I found.  Let me tell you, they are YUMMY!  Max enjoyed helping me make graham cracker crumbs with the help of hid Batman actionfigure while Elese simply enjoyed eating the leftover graham crackers.  This was a fun recipe to make with kids but the best part was eating them.

Tags: bake, indoor
Posted in Cooking | No Comments »

Saturday November 14th, 2009

Today’s Activity:

Are you like me and get sick and tired of cooking by the time Saturday comes around?  Well I say delegate!  Set a budget for your kids and put them in charge of dinner.  You can either supervise or ask your husband to.

FREE:

If you’re grocery money has already been spent for the pay period then let them shop in the cupboards.

Note:

Be patient and when they serve you Peanut Butter and pickle sandwiches eat them with a smile on your face.  You don’t want to make them feel the way they make you feel when they don’t like what you cooked.  Besides, once they are in bed you could always have a pizza delivered.

Evaluate:

When I told Max he and his sister got to be in charge of dinner he immediately suggested rice & beans “because that will be easy!”  Well when he says rice & beans he is referring to the “rice and beans place” aka Cancun Cafe, his favorite restaurant.  He wasn’t terbbly upset when I told him he had to cook it.  So we attempted to make our own rice and beans.  I googled a recipe for Mexican rice because honestly, I’ve only made Spanish rice.  The problem is that it called for an onion and I didn’t have one (grocery day is tomorrow, well today now) and I really didn’t want to go the the store just to go again tomorrow, so we found some OLD onion powder in my moms cupboard and used that.  It was date night so Steven and I actually went to the rice and beans place to enjoy the real thing while we left the kids and their sitter home with our attempt at rice and canned beans (really, you think I was going to try to make homemade re-fried beans with a 5 & 2 year old?).

Tags: budget, Cooking
Posted in Average Length Activities, Cooking | No Comments »

Friday November 6th, 2009

Vote: To vote for our costume contest click here.

Today’s Activity:

Have you been craving your favorite cookies?  Well today I give you my permission to cheat on your diet so do it!  Just because we all want to be a size 0 doesn’t mean we should deprive our kidos from yummy treats.  Cram everyone into the kitchen and start baking.

Note:

Don’t have a favorite kind of cookies (yeah right!)?  Well then try my new favs.  Rollo cookies!  They are the very best when eaten right out of the oven so break out the stretch pants and treadmill and start eating.

Evaluate:

I should have thought this through a little more…do we really need more sweets in our house less than a week after Halloween?  So I halved the recipe.  I thought about bagging it all together but once we got going I realized how badly I needed some time with my kids.  Things have been a little stressful around here and once I took a moment to just bake with my kids I felt much better.  It’s funny how just watching a child be happy about the simplest things (like dumping flour into a bowl) can make you feel better.  If you don’t want to add another treat to your house at least do something.  Let your children brighten your day a little.

Tags: baking, cookies, indoor
Posted in Cooking | No Comments »

Tuesday October 27, 2009

Today’s Activity:

My friend Jana tells a story about how when she was in high school she mentioned that she was going to have breakfast for dinner and she was very excited about it.  While telling her friends all about it a passer by said, “Well at my house we have breakfast for breakfast!”  Well tonight, at our homes we are going to have breakfast for dinner!  You can do this one all on your own or let your kids help you plan and cook.  Either way they’ll love having bacon and eggs for dinner, or maybe even chocolate chip pancakes.

Note:

I’m lucky to have a husband that enjoys cooking breakfast and he does it nearly every morning (we have cereal when he doesn’t).  Every so often I come across a breakfast meal (usually on the food network) that I really want to try and make.  Take this opportunity to make something you’ve been dying to try but haven’t wanted to deal with early in the morning while pushing the kids out the door to school.

Evaluate:

My favorite breakfast place closed several years ago so I like to make my own version of my favorite thing on the menu.  It’s hash browns with sauted green peppers, onions and bacon in them topped with cheese and scrambled eggs.  As you can tell by the picture I forgot that the green peppers, onions and bacon go in the hash browns and I put them in the eggs…it was still yummy but not the same as my favorite breakfast place.  Max kept saying, “Time for Breakfast!” and thought it was great to be eating bacon at dinner time.  Oh, and I don’t recomend buying the cheap bacon…that’s what I did and it was horrible!  So I went and bought the brand that I prefer and it turned out that it was on an unposted sale and was only .50 more than the cheap kind I bought.

Tags: breakfast, Cooking, dinner, indoor
Posted in Average Length Activities, Cooking | No Comments »

Friday October 23, 2009

Today’s Activity:

Have the kids help you bake something yummy today that has pumpkin in it.

Note:

Pumpkin is always better with chocolate chips.

Evaluation:

We had a fun time baking pumpkin chocolate chip bread today.  My children love helping measure ingredients.  Also, the bread is YUMMY!  I hope you had a great time in the kitchen with your kids today.

Tags: bake, pumpkin treat
Posted in Cooking | No Comments »