"Keep it Simple, Sweetie" with Craft - Calming bottle

This is an awesome idea and my kids love them. They are calming bottles. When your child gets angry they shake their bottle as hard as they can, as angry as they feel. They then have to sit and watch the bottle calm down. They have to sit until the bottle is totally calm. My kids made their own bottles and added all sorts of plastic beads and colours. They took real ownership over them  and they really work to calm them down.

Ingredients:

A plastic bottle (see-through)

An assortment of plastic beads

Some glitter glue

Some glitter

Method:

Pour a little bit of water out of the bottle

 Add the glitter glue. We added a couple of colours because we only had little tubes.

 Add the glitter.

Add some plastic stars and beads, or an other plastic thing you like.

 Shake like a crazy person. As you can see I choose a very cute crazy person.

 Everything gets mixed up.

 Then it starts to settle, just like we feel when we are angry.

 And now the bottle is calm.

 Make sure the bottle is very tight so little hands can't open it. You can glue gun the top if you like but I actually thought this was a bit of a waste of time.
Have fun. xx

"Keep it Simple, Sweetie" with Cooking; Lunch box ideas - Cheesy bacon and zucchini muffins

Super yummy Cheesy bacon and zucchini muffins.

Ingredients

1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 bacon rashers, rindless and shortcut, finely chopped
1 zucchini, grated (about 300g)
2 cups of self-raising flour
1 small red onion, finely chopped
1/2 cup grated vintage cheddar
1 egg
1 cup of milk
2 tablespoons of grated vintage cheddar for topping

Method

Preheat oven to 180 degrees.
Cut up bacon.

 Cut up zucchini.

Add 1 teaspoon of oil to small saucepan and cook bacon.

 Cut up onion.

Squeeze excess liquid from the zucchini. Combine flour, onion, zucchini, cheese and half the bacon into a bowl.

 Stir and make a well in the centre.

Add egg, milk and remaining oil into a separate bowl and whisk it together.

Add egg mix to flour. Stir until just combined.

Divide mixture into muffin trays. (I used star muffin trays for this recipe. My kids get excited by different shapes, so I try to find interesting shaped muffin trays.) To spoon it in, I use a ice cream scoop. I find these really easy to use, you can get the same measurement every time and there is usually no mess.

Sprinkle the extra cheese and the remaining bacon on top. Bake for about  15 minutes or until golden brown.







Success. The kids actually loved these, especially because they were special stars. xx

"Keep it Simple, Sweetie", with Craft - How to make home-made noodle necklaces.

This is such fun and you can make them in any colour you like.

 Ingredients:

Dry Noodles (we used small Macaroni, but if the child is young, use the big ones so it is easier to thread.)

White vinegar (about a tablespoon per colour)

Food colouring (a few drops per colour)

Some snap lock bags.

We made 5 colours so I will work with these numbers from now on but you can make as many as you like and as many different colours as you like.

Method:

Add 1/4 cup of dry noodles into a snap-lock bag.

 Add a teaspoon of white vinegar. You need enough to coat the noodles without making them soggy. So add a bit more if you need it. (A teaspoon worked for us but a few of our noodles didn't take their colour as well as others, a bit more would have been better).

Close the bag and shake it and smoosh (techical team) it around to coat all the noodles.

Add a few drops of the food colouring you want.

Smoosh it around again to get them all coated in colour.

 Do this to all the bags.

 Open the bags so they can dry and leave them for a few hours. (We left ours overnight which worked well.)

Done. Colourful noodles.

Now get a string; you can use a needle or thread for this. We used a plastic string that you can buy from craft shops. You could also use a piece of wool. It's a good idea to put some glue on the ends so they don't fray will they are threading.

 And we are done. A gorgeous colourful necklace. Cheap and easy. xx

"Keep it Simple, Sweetie" with Cooking; Lunch box ideas - Hawaiian pizza twists.

I love this recipe. It's super easy and really yummy. I love that you don't have to rest the dough.

Ingredients

1/2  a 440g can of pineapple pieces, drained well.

11/2 cups self-raising flour

1 teaspoon dried italian herbs

50g butter, softened

1/2 cup milk

1 tablespoon tomato paste (no added salt)

70g sliced ham

1/2 cup mozzarella cheese

Method

Preheat oven to 180 degrees

Dry out pineapple on paper towel.

Sift flour into a large bowl.

Stir in dried herbs

Add butter and use fingertips to rub it in until the mix looks like coarse breadcrumbs.

 Add the milk. Using a butter knife, stir until mixture forms a dough.

Place out onto a lightly flours surface. Knead for about a minute.

Split the dough in half and roll out to a 15cm by 20cm rectangle. (As you can see I couldn't find my rolling pin. Where the hell is it????? So I am using a big drink bottle. This is what I am blaming on the lack of rectangular shape. Ignore this).

Leaving a 1cm border, spread tomato paste over the "rectangle".

 Add the ham. (I like to leave the ham whole but you can cut it up if you want).

Add the pineapple. (It looks in the picture as if I didn't use much. The more the better.)

 Add the cheese

 Roll the rest of the dough out to the same shape.

 Place it over the top.

Squash it down a bit.

Fold the sides together so there are no gap. No leaks.

 Cut the lengths along the dough. Keep them at least 2 cm wide.

 Pick up one end and twist one twist into each one.

 Place on a baking tray about 3cm apart.








Woo Hoo. Success. Yumbo.