Jan 27, 2013

{Hearty Chicken Soup}

Justin woke this morning and said he felt like having chicken soup.  So, we made chicken soup. 

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Hearty Chicken Soup Recipe

To make the chicken soup broth:

1 cut up whole chicken
4-5 carrots, cut in half
4-5 celery stalks, cut in half
1 onion, cut in half
1/2 bag of frozen leeks from Trader Joes
Salt and Pepper to taste
Add water to cover.

In a large stock pot, add a cut up whole chicken.  (2 drumsticks, 2 thighs, 2 breasts, and 2 wings)  We used a free-range chicken that we got from Honored Prairie.  Add the veggies and covered with fresh, cold water.  Bring to a boil, and then simmer for about 1 1/2 hours.  Stir occasionally to make sure things do not burn.

Strain the broth into a large container.  Separate the chicken and shred.  Skim the fat from the broth as it rises to the top.  (This can be frozen and saved for a later date.)

To make the chicken soup:

2 tbsp olive oil
4 carrots, peeled and diced
4 celery stalks, diced – make sure you use the pretty ones that have the leaves, too…they taste yummy!
1/2 bag of frozen leeks from Trader Joes (use the other half of the bag you had left over from making the broth)
1 onion, diced
shredded chicken
all of the delicious broth you made
3/4 cup wild rice (or brown, or use a mixture of both)
salt and pepper to taste

In the stock pot, add 2 tbsp. of olive oil.  Add the onion and cook until translucent.  Add the carrots (diced), celery (diced), leeks, shredded chicken, 3/4 cup rice, and then the broth.  Add salt and pepper to taste.

Bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer for about 1 hour.  Stir occasionally to make sure things aren’t sticking to the bottom.

Enjoy!

Jan 26, 2013

{Superhero Birthday Party!}

My little superhero turned five!  We celebrated as a family on his day, and then invited three friends over for a (small) Superhero Birthday Party. Three very sweet and special five year olds came to celebrate my little man’s day!

We started with the superhero’s decorating their Superhero Gift Bags.  I had previously made their shields with their initials on a word document, then printed them out on a color printer, and glued them to white paper lunch bags.  Each child got a small box of crayons, which they used to decorate.  I forgot the stickers…

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Their gift bags were used to collect the goodies they found on the Superhero Scavenger Hunt!  My husband came up with pretty cute clues for the scavenger hunt.  At each stop they found sweet treats to fill their bags!

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I added Superhero Cupcake toppers and food labels from printables I found HERE.
Just do a Google search, and you will find lots of Superhero stuff out there!

Scavenger Hunt

Your mission, should you choose to accept it:
1. Find your Super Hero Uniform located in the Dining Room, put your uniform on and proceed to step 2.
2. Find the location of the first prize; it is located in the “dungeon”. Be careful, it can be very dark in this location.
3. Next, find your second prize where the boy wearing the blue cape sleeps. Remember to only take 1 prize each.
4. After that, go to the spot in the house where meals are made to collect your next prize you’ll be amazed.
5. Locate your next prize in the machines that keep your clothes clean.
6. Next, find your prize near a source of heat and light, careful, don’t get burned!
7. Find your next prize in the place where Mater and Lightening McQueen would go to dream!
8. After you have located Lightening and Maters’ bedroom, find your next prize where guests would go to rest.
9. You are almost there, just 2 steps left, go to a spot where toys sleep best!
10. What a great job you have done, you’ve found the prizes, go to the kitchen for cupcakes and surprises!

Their first stop was where they found their packages with their individual uniforms: A No-Sew Superhero Cape!  Each cape was made from polyester fleece (a 1/2 yard of fleece will make two capes).  For this party, I made four capes, 1 green, 1 blue, 1 red, and 1 yellow. 

 

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A No-Sew Superhero Cape!

1. First fold your half yard of fabric in half (length of fabric should be about 23 inches, and the width should be about 18 inches, depending on the size of the children (or adults).

Then cut using this pattern:

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Then cut felt pieces for the decoration you want for the back.  This is what I did…

2.  Trace a round plate on a piece of pre-cut felt.
3.  Cut four different colors of felt. 
4.  Cut out 4 lightning designs out of yellow felt.
5.  Cut out the letters.  I did not use a template for this, because I could not trace on black felt (did not have chalk).  You could easily use a stencil for this, or trace right from a computer screen (just lay the felt up to the screen and trace with chalk).
6.  Use fuse-able webbing on the back of each shape you want to attach to the cape.  Follow the instructions of whatever you brand you use.  For the brand I had, I just traced each shape and then laid the rough side down on the wrong side of the fabric felt and ironed it on.  I then just peeled the paper off the pieces, and layered them on the backs of the fleece capes and ironed.
7.  Once everything had fused sufficiently, I then added iron Velcro to the tabs.

No sew and pretty easy.  I made four capes in about 2 hours.

I wrapped them in packages made from paper grocery bags, and added their names to the front. 

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After the Superhero Scavenger Hunt, they then had Superhero Drinks, Superhero Snacks, made Superhero Pita Pizzas, and Superhero Cupcakes with Superhero Sundae Bar…

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And for the Superhero Pita Pizzas, I used this BASIC recipe:

1 Round Pita
1 tbsp. of spaghetti sauce (or pizza sauce, whatever you prefer)
Various toppings (we used shredded cheese and mini-pepperonis)

Once toppings are on the pizza, pop them on a cookie sheet and bake in the oven at 400 for about 10 minutes.

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…and they were Superhero Easy and Fun, because they could make their own!

For desert, we had cupcakes (which I store bought…I know slacker) and sundaes.  The ice cream was pre-dipped in small clear cups and then we had the toppings for them to make their own. 

Be Well!