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Back in the early days of our marriage, pre-children, my husband was in the military and we were living in Texas for a short time. We didn't have a lot of money, but we enjoyed staying home and playing games together. Sometimes we would sit on the floor and play a game or two. I would make a big pan of nachos! This was pre-microwave days. I would spread tortilla chips on a sheet pan and sprinkle grated cheese over them and put them in the oven to melt the cheese. We would eat those nachos right off of the pan and play Aggravation. Now that we are empty nesters and nearly 40 years married, I am treasuring those memories and reliving a few of them! Now, instead of nachos, I have been enjoying some full fledged meals roasted on a sheet pan. We don't usually get down on the floor to eat them, but gathering around the table is just about as good!
Today, for Fun Friday, I thought I would share my experience with jumping on the roasted sheet pan meal bandwagon! I love the idea for just the two of us, but it would work great for a family of 4 or for a pair of couples. You will probably need more than one sheet pan if there are more of you than that!
Shrimp Boil on a Sheet Pan
I read about a version of a sheet pan meal that mimics a Shrimp Boil. Say shrimp and I am on board! I used parchment to line my sheet pan. Then I put on corn on the cob chunks, potatoes, acorn squash chunks, shrimp and smoked sausage! I drizzled olive oil over them and put on salt, pepper, garlic, dried cilantro and whatever else strikes your fancy. I cut the potatoes and squash fairly thinly so that everything would get finished quickly. It turned out to be delicious!
Sausage and Squash Bake
I had an acorn squash that I baked just cut in half, sprinkled with butter, cinnamon and brown sugar. On the same pan, I put sliced potato and sliced Polska Kielbasa. Then, we scooped some of the soft baked squash into our bowls and topped it with the sausage and potatoes. It was very hearty and tasted like Fall!
Gathering around a pan of food, laughing and talking and spending time together is a lot of fun. If you are like me, you will be able to look back on those moments years from now. It kind of reminds me of theFondue Party idea. Another great perk is that there are a lot fewer dirty dishes! Have you jumped on the sheet pan meal band wagon? What have some of your favorite combinations been? Let me know in the comments!
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This post contains affiliate links. I will be compensated for purchases made through those links at no additional cost to you. Thank you for your support! I've mentioned before that I haven't really ever been totally into Halloween in years past, but this year, for some reason, I am getting into it a little more. It is weird, because I don't have any kids home anymore to dress up, but, Maddy and I have been thinking that at our Church's Trunk or Treat party this year, it might be fun to set up a table outside of our car's trunk and have spooky treats to hand out. I think that making the kids happy with something extra is what has me excited. Today we practiced setting up our idea of what we might like to do, along with the labels that I made. These labels would work well for any Halloween event that you might be hosting, so I thought I would share them with you today for Fun Friday! It isn't too early to start planning for the Halloween party you might be hosting. Some people make Halloween night a block party where neighbors get together with fire pits in the front yard and hand out their treats from tables in the front yard. These free printables will work in any situation to add just a little more fun to the event. Here are some of the ways we used the labels:
Printing the labels is easy. Just print it on 8.5 x 11 inch paper or card stock. Do not click fit to page, or unclick it if necessary. Be sure you set the paper to print landscape and then print! If you think of other ideas for treats to fit these labels, please share them and help to get everyone's imaginations flowing! We used containers we had around the house, including mason jars and other candy dishes. The spider bowl and the colored jar came from Dollar Tree, where there are a myriad of choices for inexpensive treat holders! We used jute and burlap, (also from Dollar Tree), to tie everything together and to give an old, conjurers feel to the display. Some black roses and a giant spider help with the nuance. When we set up the real table we will have spooky lights as well, because of course, this won't be on our kitchen table, but out in a dark, spooky parking lot instead! Whelp! Now we have to keep from eating all of this candy until Halloween! Wish us luck!
Have a great weekend!
This Post Contains Affiliate Links. I will be compensated for purchases made through those links at no additional cost to you. All views expressed are my own. Thank you for your support.
First, a story about me! I used to be a substitute teacher. I have even written a post about what a great job it is for a mother, which you can read here. Quite often I did long term positions, when a teacher had to be away for an extended period. Those times were usually in the primary grades,k-3. While I was teaching these young children, I learned a few tricks and techniques, one of which I am going to share with you today. It has to do with coloring! But before I share my trick, let's find out why kids should color.
I have heard some people wonder why coloring is something that children need to do in school. Can it really be considered educational, or is it just fun? I am here to tell you that coloring for children is a very important step in their education and development and you should start your children coloring as soon as they can hold a crayon. (Just monitor them and keep them away from walls!) Here are some of the reasons why coloring is important:
Color with your children! The Trick I used to Help Kids Focus.
When I was teaching, I used this simple trick that would help children to settle down and color. It also helped me to keep control of a class of many children who may have wanted to play around rather than sit and color their work.
Most of the time, the children would be sitting at tables or in groups of desks together. If they had a coloring project that they were supposed to be working on, I would tell them that I was going to be coloring with them. I was looking for the group that was coloring the most quietly and getting their work done. Then, I chose one group and joined them for a little while. After a couple of minutes, I would move to another group. The children loved to have me sit and color with them. They would all get so quiet. I would go to a group and politely ask if I could borrow a certain color of crayon to color my picture with. Then I would talk to them in whispers about the things we were coloring as we did the work. They would watch me color and compliment my work. I would tell them little tricks for staying in the lines and model how the work was to be done. After a couple of minutes, with the rest of the class anxiously waiting for their turn, I would move on to another group. At times I would go back to a group where I had already been if they were doing particularly well. This technique worked like a charm to get even those who disliked coloring to stay on task. If someone got silly or loud, the rest of their group would remind them that they wanted a turn to color with me. I usually didn't have to say anything except give compliments on how well they were all doing.
This trick can work even if you have only one child. Having a parent, (or grandparent), color with them will encourage children to stay on task longer and this in turn helps them learn to focus on what they are doing. Also, coloring together can be a great way to bond with your child. Find out what their favorite color is! Ask them why they chose that particular picture to color. My 21 month old granddaughter will color with me twice as long than she will on her own. And, she already knows all of her colors! Currently, her favorite color is blue. She likes to reach over and color on my page, too, but I don't mind! Ha ha.
Now a story about my mom!
When I was young, I remember my mom coloring in our coloring books. She used to like to take the pages that had a little scribble on them and "fix" them so that they looked beautiful. She later told me and my siblings that coloring was a way that she relieved stress when she was feeling particularly worried over something.
Well, it turns out that my mother knew a thing or two about relieving stress. Coloring for adults is a therapeutic way to relieve stress and to help them focus on the task at hand rather than worry about things out of their control. Many behavioral health units have coloring pages for their patients to help them relax and de-stress. This is also why adult coloring books have become so popular today. Coloring in a picture may not replace a therapist, but it really can calm some frazzled nerves!
Finally, coloring together gets your faces away from electronic devices and allows everyone to spend some time together creating something beautiful without even being an artist! And, coloring supplies are inexpensive and plentiful! Here are some of the supplies that I found at Dollar Tree today!
I like coloring books because they keep all of the art work contained in a book, rather than having pages scattered everywhere! But, if you would like, you can find coloring pages to print off with your printer and the cost will only be your ink! There are some Nay Sayers out there who don't approve of coloring books, but I have read their arguments. I don't believe that they have addressed all of the reasons given that encourage coloring as educational, beneficial and worth staying within the lines!
The final reason to color together with your kids is that coloring pictures of your favorite characters or beautiful designs can be fun and stress free! So, for Fun Friday, take some time with your kids and do some coloring! It will be rewarding for all!
If you want more than my word for it, here are some other sources that encourage coloring that you may want to check out!
Journal Art Therapy Journal of the American Art Therapy Association The OT Toolbox https://www.theottoolbox.com/benefits-of-coloring-with-crayons-fine-motor-visual-perception/ https://www.childrenscenterforgrowth.com/2014/11/02/the-benefits-of-coloring/ https://www.beaumont.org/health-wellness/blogs/health-benefits-of-coloring-for-adults If your kids are really young and you worry about your walls, here are some really good alternatives!
This post contains affiliate links. I will be compensated for purchases made through those links at no additional cost to you. All views expressed are my own. Thank you for your support! My DIL, Jessica, made these Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies at her house the other day and my son was so happy with them that he told her that she should give me the recipe for the blog! They are the perfect cookie to bake with little kids because they only take 3 ingredients and those little hands can get involved without too much mess! Not only that, they have the Fall vibe that we are looking for this time of year and they taste great! So, my granddaughter and I got busy and made some for ourselves. Here is the recipe, but if you scroll down, there is a printable recipe below! 3 Ingredient Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies 1 Spice Cake Mix 1-15 oz. can Pumpkin 1 cup chocolate chips (Jessica and I prefer mini chips) Just mix the ingredients together and scoop them out with a cookie scoop. My first batch looked like this: They tasted good, but gooey. I decided on the next pan I would try pushing them down with a fork dipped in sugar, like you do for peanut butter cookies. , When you scoop them out, put them on parchment paper and bake them in a 350 degree oven for 10 minutes. If you leave them as round lumps, bake them longer, as mentioned above. For Friday Fun Day, I thought I would design a printable recipe for these easy Fall cookies. That way you can... A. Give them as gifts and then let the person you give them to in on the "secret" and simple recipe. Or, B. Just give them the ingredients and the recipe so that they can have some fun with their own kids themselves. Or C. Just print the cute recipe for yourself and put it in your own collection, like the Bloggelicious Cookbook Organizer that we sell in our Etsy shop. Actually, you can do all 3 things because there are 3 recipe cards on this PDF! By the way, have you noticed the adorable truck carrying pumpkins cookie jar? How about the beautiful black buffalo plaid tablecloth? Both available at Walmart for the Fall! I love them! You may have to go into the store to find the one in these photos, but here is the closest one I could find online. It is the perfect place to hold Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies! Order your copies of these perfect for Fall books by clicking the pictures below today!
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Creators of Hot Cocoa Bombs! (copyrighted)
Author
Helen Reynolds: Mother of six children , grandmother to eleven! I love to cook, craft and create things and I especially love doing that with my family, So, when my lawyer daughter, Lindsey, my artist daughter, Madalynn, and I came up with the idea of Hot Cocoa Bombs, this blog was born. Then, one more daughter, with her technical and science skills, plus creativity has joined in to round us out! Read more about us here! Archives
June 2024
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