Category: Top 5 Friday

Tasty Tuesday: Pot Pie Recipe (Dairy Free & Soy Free)

Brittney Leave a comment
This delicious low calorie, budges friendly pot pie is an adaption from one of my mom’s classic recipes.  It’s loaded with vegetables, has a flaky crust and is easy to make.  This is another one of my go to meals when I’ve neglected to plan dinner because I nearly always have the ingredients for it and  I can throw it together in a few minutes.   
Servings: 6

Ingredients:

Filling:

  • 2-3 cubes chicken bullion
  • 1 chicken breast shredded
  • 16 oz bag frozen mixed vegetables (peas, corn, carrots, beans)
  • 1 tablespoon corn starch
  • 1 cup water

Crust:

  • 2 cups flour
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup oil
  • 1/2 cup rice or coconut milk

Instructions: 

  1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
  2. Add chicken to a small sauce pan, cover with water and bring to a boil.  Once water is boiling turn down the heat and simmer the chicken until cooked, about 10 minutes.
  3. Once chicken is thoroughly cooked and no pink spots remain, remove from the water and shred using two forks. 
  4. While chicken is cooking thaw vegetables. Adding them to a microwave safe dish, cover them with 1 cup water and microwave on high for 5 minutes or add them to a sauce pan cover them with water and bring the water to a boil.
  5. Once vegetables are warmed combine chicken, vegetables, water, and bullion in the sauce pan and bring to a boil.
  6. Mix corn starch with 1 tablespoon cold water and slowly mix it into the boiling filling mixture. 
  7. Once filling is boiling remove from heat and add to a 9 x 9 or 9 x 13 glass baking dish.
  8. To make the crust mix flour, salt, oil and milk together until a thick pasty dough forms.  
  9. Using a piece of parchment paper and a floured rolling pin roll the dough to be a little bit bigger then  your baking dish.
  10. Pick up the parchment paper with the dough on top of it and flip it over the baking dish with the filling so the dough is over the filling and the parchment paper is on top. 
  11. Carefully peel off the parchment paper and press the dough into the corners and against the sides of the baking dish.
  12. Bake at 425 for 25-30 minutes or until the crust is golden brown.

Top 5 Five Best Foods to Hide Zucchini

Brittney 1 Comment

Growing up my parents loved their garden.  They honestly made spread sheets about where they were going to plant everything including scaled graphs to make sure they weren’t planting the beets too close to the tomatoes, and that pumpkins would have plenty of room to spread out.   It was serious business.

However the very first year they started planting their garden, before all this scheduling and graph business, they made the mistake of planting 6 zucchini plans. 6!  If you’ve never planted zucchini before let me tell you, these crops can produce!  We had mountains of it, and as a ten year old you can only get excited about zucchini for so long…  which led my mother to get rather creative with it. Turns out she’s not the only one. Check out these great recipes and my Top 5 Best Foods to Hide Zucchini. 

1. Zucchini Bread

This stuff is delicious.  The zucchini keeps the bread nice and moist but you don’t really taste it, instead you taste all the other good stuff you’re using for the bread.  The texture is heavy and thick making it a hearty, dessert like, bread and the bottom line is, it’s delicious.  So good that it’s hard to leave alone, and even as a kid, knowing I never wanted to see another zucchini in my life I couldn’t stay away when my mom pulled out a piping hot loaf of zucchini bread. 

If you’re interested in making some of your own check out this recipe from Six Sisters Stuff: http://www.sixsistersstuff.com/2012/10/classic-zucchini-bread.html

2. Zucchini Quinoa Burgers

Okay, I actually haven’t tried this one yet, but I love quinoa and this sounds both interesting and delicious, especially for my veggie loving and vegan friends.  

3. Zucchini Pizza Casserole

Who doesn’t like pizza?  I’m pretty sure both my husband and son could eat it daily, or at least multiple times a week.  What if you could take the deliciousness of pizza and step up the nutritional content?  Sounds like a win in my book, and this recipe is even “contest winning” …  I’m not exactly sure what that means, but it sounds good.

Check out a recipe on Taste of Home: http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/zucchini-pizza-casserole#ixzz3CqNp8VxA

4. Zucchini Nut Bread Cookie Sandwiches

I’d say this is pretty close cousin to the zucchini bread, but a cookie might be easier for little hands to handle or to pack in a school lunch.  Plus these cookies look pretty fancy being all double sided with cream cheese frosting.  Yum.  
See Martha Stewart rocking these cookies and get the recipe: http://www.marthastewart.com/349243/zucchini-nut-bread-cookie-sandwiches

5. Chocolate Zucchini Cupcakes

If you’re really looking to hide all traces of zucchini this might be the best way to go.  The dark color of the cupcakes make the green of the zucchini harder to spot and they are sooo good!  Again they moist and chewy, but so soft and chocolaty.  Is your mouth watering yet?  I love chocolate, and just about anything can be blended with chocolate and still be delicious, zucchini is no exception.  

Check out Your Cup of Cake’s recipe and try them yourself: http://www.yourcupofcake.com/2013/08/chocolate-zucchini-cupcakes.html

What are your favorite ways to use an over abundance of zucchini? 

Top 5 Unique Wooden Toys that I am Dying to Add to My Collection

Brittney Leave a comment

I love wooden toys.  I love how they don’t fade or break, how they have a little bit of substance when you hold them in your hand and how they last forever!  By forever, I’m talking generations.

My grandma had a freestanding wooden elephant puzzle in her house.  It was white and I think it had four or so pieces.  My cousins and I adored it. It was always out in the house, and as I grew up the silly elephant stuck around.  I think my grandma ended up having to repainting it (possibly a number of times) because the white started to look a bit dingy with so many little hands carrying it around, but it never broke and it never grew old.  Twenty years later my grandma still has that puzzle!

With those thoughts in mind, and my general preference for solid wood, over its more disposable plastic counterparts, I bring you my list of Top 5 Unique Wooden Toys that I am Dying to Add to My Collection!

**This post contains Amazon links which support Top 5 Friday when you purchase through them, yet don’t cost you anything extra. See Disclosure Policy for more information. 

1. Animal Upon Animal

So this is both a toy and a game (are those separate things? Maybe?) This game comes with 29 carved and painted wooden animals that are built to be stacked on top of each other.  The game is suggested for children 4 and up and I suspect that this is one that would be interesting for the whole family as you try to build a tower out of uniquely shaped animals.  Sounds like a good way to work on hand eye coordination and the pieces look like fun to play with even the game doesn’t appeal to you or your child. 

2. Marble Runaround Marble and Blocks Building Set 

Okay, so the Marble Run isn’t exactly a new idea, but how great is that this toy is both a marble run and a set of building blocks?  I take it to mean that I could get this for my toddler and let him enjoy just the block, and when he grows up and is less likely to try to eat the marbles I can show him how to add those to the set and BAM!  It’s a brand new and still a totally awesome toy.  Also I looked at a handful of the plastic and wooden marble run toys on amazon, they can be expensive!  Like $100+, yikes!  This particular one is made of wood, looks awesome and right now it’s listed for only $35.

3. Begin Again A-Z Puzzles

These puzzles are beautiful.  Not only that but the patterns on them are so unique, the painting is colorful and they’ve made them even better learning tools by having lettered pieces. The puzzle comes with a wooden box, but can also be built free standing (yes, I am totally reminiscing about my grandma’s elephant puzzle).  One side of the puzzle has capital letters the other side has lowercase letters so your child has a chance to learn both, and the puzzle can be built face up, face down or standing on it’s side. The puzzles come in varying degrees of difficulty, the butterfly is suggested for 5+, the dinosaur for 3+.  These also have a great animal puzzle that seems similar to the Animal Upon Animal game and an Alphabites Puzzle, that is shaped like a bunch of food – when all the food shaped pieces are removed from the box, the box is shaped like a serving tray, complete with plate and napkin.  I’m tell you, these are worth checking out!

4. Connectagons

These are flat pieces with little cut out edges that can be merged together to create tall intricate looking towers. They come in all sorts of shapes; butterflies, sea critters, happy faces etc.  The look like another great way to work on fine motor skills and it seems like a tower made out of these might be a little more stable than a tower made from blocks.  Also (judging from the pictures) these little creations end up looking like a fun bit of 3D art work.  If you’ve got a little builder and your looking for something new to challenge them take a peek at these.

5. 1-2-3 Grow With Me Wooden Walker/Ride-on Toy/Trolley

This looks amazing! For $125 you can have a baby push toy, a ride on toy with a wagon and a shopping cart!  There are so many ways to use this!  It’s made of wood so I feel more confident about it’s durability and how nice would it be not to have purchase a bunch of big, space taking, toys that your child is going to out grown and then be faced with the option to getting rid of them or storing them for future use.  At least with this one you can play with it for year, and when it comes time to think about storage you’ve only got one, semi compact toy to store.  We live in a tiny apartment and I am dazzled by the looks of this one. 

Have you tried any of these toys?  If so what was your experience?  Do you have any wooden toys your can’t recommend enough?  Let me know in the comments!

*This list of Top 5 list is based purely on personal opinion, it has not been verified or backed up by marketing research or consumer interest.  

Top 5 Summer Activities To Do One More Time

Brittney Leave a comment

I hate to say it, but it seems like summer is wrapping up its stay. Living on a college campus I see hints of it all around. Graduated students who extend their stays through the summer have moved out, the family dorm is filling up with new faces, undergraduates are popping back up on campus, and the brand new college students are being lead on campus tours with their eager and proud parents trailing after them. It’s exciting to feel everything picking up again but sad to see the end of the season approaching.

My husband scoffed when I mentioned it felt like fall while we were playing with our son on the playground last week. Then the wind blew. The fallen leaves that rattled against the fence were hard to ignore… add that to the cooler weather we’ve been having (in the 60-75) and yeah, it’s safe to say we need to hurry and get in the rest of our summer actives.

 With that said here are my Top 5 Summer Activities To Do One More Time!

  1. Beach Day (or lake, pool, water park, splash pad)

    Enjoy one more day at your favorite water spot.  For us this probably the Boston Common Frog Pond, the ocean in Massachusetts is a little bit too chilly for our little guy, but he loves the fountain water. He will happily splash for an hour in the knee deep water and he never, ever wants to go home.  I know he’s going to miss it like crazy once the cold sets in. So spend one more day splashing in the pond, floating in the pool, or laying out in the sun.

  2. Go Apple Picking

    This is one of my favorite end of summer beginning of fall actives.  Go to a farm (you might have to check online to see if there are any near your) and enjoy a few hours harvesting your own food.  It’s great to see so much greenery, and you can often have your choice of what your harvesting (depending on the time of year and what is in season) plus coming home with food fresh from the vine is divine!    

  3. Dinner in the canyons w/ s’mores

    This one reminds me of growing up.  We lived in Utah and my dad loved loved loved the canyons, which was great because there were tons of them close by.  We would gather the family and go up to a picnic spot and have tin foil dinners or hot dogs over an open fire, followed by gooey s’mores. Then we talked and play a bunch of silly word games for my mom, she loved 20 questions, and memorization games such as “I’m going camping and I’m bringing… a tent”, then the next person would repeat what the first person had said and add onto it, “I’m going camping and I’m bringing a tent, and a sleeping bag” etc.  We always groaned when she wanted to play, but it was memorable and silly. 

  4. Star Gazing

    I love sitting outside on warm summer nights and looking up a the stars.  There is something so calm and peaceful about it.  Grab a blanket and your sweetie or the kids, or both, throw down a blanket and enjoy the magic of the milky way.  If you want to make it extra interesting you can rent a star book from the library and point out the constellations and tell the stories that go with them.

  5. Drive In / Movies on the Lawn

    This goes along with Star Gazing, or at least along with awesome summer nights.  Go hang out with some friends in the back of a pickup at the drive in, or grab some lawn chairs and head to the park.  Enjoy watching a flick in the open air. 

What activities do you want to do one more time before the cold starts rolling in?  Let me know in the comments!

Top Five Favorite Board Books to Read Aloud With My Toddler

Brittney Leave a comment
There are so many children’s books on the market and I’ve got a nice sized bookcase at home dedicated to my toddlers board books. However, not all board books are created equally. When it’s time for bed I cue my boy to relax by giving him his “goodnight milk” and reading a few books in the rocking chair together. Sometimes I cheer inwardly at his selections for the night and often I cringe at the thought of having to power through a boring board book one more time.

This post is dedicated to the books I love to read him.  The ones that have character and wit, who’s wording slides smoothly off my tongue and that I can get excited to read time after time.

**This post contains Amazon links which support Sly Spoon when you purchase through them, yet don’t cost you anything extra. See Disclosure Policy for more information. 

5. The Mixed up Chameleon – Eric Carle

This is a good introduction to colors, and not only does it have Eric Carle’s vivid and playful illustrations it’s also got a silly story with a nice message about being comfortable being you (a message that I have no doubt is lost on my little guy, but it’s still nice).  It’s fun to read this one while trying to get my boy to point to different things in our room that are each of the color’s of the chameleon.  I’ve only met marginal success with this game, but I’m hopeful that he’ll catch on.  This and pretty much any of Eric Carle’s books are a welcome addition to our home.

*If you’re buying this one online make sure your getting the board book version because it also comes in paperback.




4. Eyes, Nose, Fingers and Toes: A First Book All About You – By Judy Hindley and Brita Granstorm

As you might expect this books leads you through your eyes, nose, finger and toes and many of the body parts in between.  It has cute little snippets asking you to do differently things as it goes through the body, like counting your fingers, and wiggling your toes, so you get a chance to connect the word with the body parts.  The story, rhythm and pacing are all good, but my main reason for including it on this list is how nice of a guide it is for learning where and what your body does.  

3. Little Blue Truck – By Alice Schertle and Jill McElmurry

We actually got this book as part of a book exchange and it took me a read or two to realize how much I liked it.  The book is written in rhyme and I feel like it should be read with a little bit of a southern drawl.

“Horn went ‘beep’ engine purred.
Friendliest sounds you ever heard.

Little Blue Truck came down the road.
‘Beep,’ said Blue to a big green toad.”

It’s a good one to practice your animal sounds, and the story is about helping others and being a good friend (though I think my little guy is too young to understand all that).  He’s just happy to copy the sounds I’m making for both the trucks and animals.  I’ve probably read this one over a hundred times now and I can still read it with out cringing inside, so I’d say it’s worth checking out.  There is also a series based off the book, “Little Blue Truck Leads the Way” where the truck goes to the city, and “Little Blue Truck’s Christmas”.

2. Dr. Seuss

Okay, I know for this one I just have an author, but I realized that I couldn’t pick one single book to put up here because I love so many of his.  We read “There’s a Wocket in My Pocket!” for it’s sheer ridiculousness, “Dr. Seusses ABC’s” for an into to the alphabet, “The foot book” for opposites and I’ve already got a whole book shelf of paper backs ready for when my little boy is able to handle those nicely. Pretty much any Dr. Seuss book you pick up is going to be a winner so I’m including them all.

1. Happy Hippo, Angry Duck – By Sandra Boynton

This is my favorite board book of all time. Honestly I love all of her books.  The are perfect for little hands, the rhythms and silliness is just plain fun.  My boy loves them and after a year of reading them to him I can still enjoy them.

My current favorite is “Happy Hippo, Angry Duck”. It’s ten pages about moods, “Are you happy as a hippo? Or angry as a duck? Or maybe sad as a chicken. (Can you sadly say ‘cluck, cluck’?)”

We love reading this one and voicing each of the emotions as we read it.  We say “Happy as a hippo” as happily as we can with big similes.  We say “Angry as a duck” with a low voice and a scowl.  It makes the book a blast to read and it’s fun to see my little guy mimicking my face as I read. Hopefully when the terrible two come into play we’ll and at least able to name the crazy toddler emotions he’s feeling, and wait for him to again be “happy as a hippo”.  

Do you agree with this list?  Or do you have any you think should be added to it?  Then leave a comment, I’d love to hear about them!

*This list of Top 5 list is based purely on personal opinion, it has not been verified or backed up by marketing research or consumer interest.