Kids in the Kitchen

Hands down this is the best juicer. Kids will juice all day! No electricity necessary.

Three Wise Women

So true.

Baked Eggplant, Pasta and Franks

Yes it has hot dogs because that's the only thing I had in the fridge.  But this actually came out delicious.  I used what I had on hand and made up the recipe so I will ballpark the measurements. 

1/2 jar or 1 cup Spanish sofrito
1/2 box angel hair pasta
1/2 to 1 package hot dogs
3 Italian eggplants
4 cups vegetable or other broth
1 jar pasta sauce
3 cups grated cheddar and parmesan cheese mixed
1 fresh tomato sliced thin
1 mild green pepper (i.e. poblano or Spanics padron)

Preheat oven to 350.
Slice franks and saute in Spanish sofrito.  You can make your own (recipe here) or buy it premade at the grocery in the Spanish/Mexican food section. 


While franks are cooking, boil 1/2 box angel hair pasta in vegetable broth. 
Peel strips from the eggplant with potato peeler and slice about 1/4 inch thick.  
When pasta is cooked, drain and cut into 2 inch pieces. 

In a casserole dish, spread 3 to 4 tablespoons of the sofrito or jar pasta sauce on the bottom.  Layer eggplant on top of sauce.  Layer cut pasta on top of eggplant. Pour some of the pasta sauce to cover.    Layer cooked hot dogs. Add remaining jar pasta sauce to cover.  Sprinkle grated parmesan and cheddar cheese. Finally, place sliced fresh tomato and sliced green pepper across the top.

Bake 30 minutes.

Super Simple Chocolate Croissants

Super easy chocolate croissants using canned croissants and chocolate chips.  I use whole wheat croissants.  I bake these at night for a school morning breakfast.  You could also use other fillings such as cheese or fruit.
Separate each croissant and place a few chocolate chips in the center toward the wider end.   Roll up the croissant wide end toward narrow and place on a baking sheet point down.  Add a few chocolate chips on the top.

Bake according to directions on can.  

Delicious Salad

Hands down one of the best salads I have ever eaten-and I've eaten my share of salads. It doesn't look like much until you taste it.  It's the dressing that does it. At the Columbia Restaurant in Sarasota they make it fresh at the table. Order it with the half Cuban sandwich-delicious!

"1905" Salad Columbia Restaurant Recipe Salad Ingredients 1 head iceberg lettuce 2 ripe tomatoes, cut in eighths 1 cup Swiss cheese, cut in julienne strips 1 cup ham, cut in julienne strips (or turkey or shrimp) 1 cup green Spanish olives, pitted 2 teaspoons grated Romano cheese Salad Dressing Ingredients 1/8 cup white wine vinegar 1 cup extra-virgin Spanish olive oil 4 garlic cloves, minced 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce Salt and pepper to taste 1 teaspoon oregano 2 teaspoons lemon juice Preparation Toss together all salad ingredients in a bowl, except Romano Cheese. Mix garlic, oregano, and Worcestershire sauce in a bowl. Beat until smooth with a wire whisk. Add olive oil, gradually beating to form an emulsion. Stir in vinegar and lemon juice and season with salt and pepper. Add dressing to salad and toss well. Add Romano Cheese and toss one more time. Serves 4.

Organizing Kids Rooms

My kids tell me they don't know "how" to clean their rooms because they don't know where things go. Which is absurd since I have set up their rooms so that everything has a place and at their eye level.   I decided to go a step further and eliminate any excuses rather than continue with the ridiculous conversations that go something like this:
Me:  You know where it goes because you got it from there!  Kid:  I don't remember where I got it from! It's too hard! etc. etc.

First I changed my request (screaming) from "go clean-up/pick-up your room!" to "You're really good at organizing - go organize your room so you can play with your toys!"  and other phrases like this. 

Next, I took pictures of the contents of each container, bin,  drawer, etc. that holds toys and other items.  I resized each photo so they were all the same size, printed them out on paper, and cut each one out.  I used 3M photo laminating paper to make a label from each photo.

Finally, I taped the labels to each container. My daughter actually wanted to help make the labels and tape them on the containers when she saw what I was doing. Teach them young I say!

So, we'll see how it goes . . .

take photos and cut out 

Lego bin label

Play-doh  bin label

Bins with photo labels