Cooking Quest: Miniature Meatloaf

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This is another modified recipe from Freezer Pleasers that I made last year prior to my daughter's arrival to have ready for an easy meal. Because I knew it was a success with almost everyone, I made it for dinner last week.

Typical of any toddler, my son enjoyed it the very first time and the next couple of times he wanted no parts of the meatloaf.  But the other night he surprised me by eating all of his miniature meatloaf and even trying his mashed potatoes (which he doesn't like at all). I can't wait to see if he likes them as much when I defrost the ones in the freezer. My daughter also enjoyed her portion of the nights meal using her hands to eat everything, including the mashed potatoes.

 in the pans (the recipe makes about 18 miniature meatloaf)

Our son enjoying his plate!

  

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Crafts: Mother's Day Wreath

For Mother's Day, my son and I made wreaths for my son's grandmothers and his Godmother.  I originally got the idea from spring wreaths made of egg carton flowers.  Since I knew how great cardboard egg cartons are for crafts, I had been saving our old ones for quite a while.  I used a total of three and cut them into separate sections.

Materials 

• Cardboard egg cartons
• Scissors
• Paper plates
• Paint and supplies
• Fasteners (or other attaching supplies)

                               

Steps 

My son painted the flowers in two sessions.  The first time he had to be encouraged to paint the inside of the flower and during our second painting session he was really interested in painting the plates.

 

After they dried, I attached the flowers to the paper plates using fasteners because it was a material I had at hand.  One could use glue or pipe cleaners and buttons to make the wreaths even fancier or if your crafty kid is older than mine (almost 3).

 

All told the project would take maybe two hours painting with 10 minutes prep time and 20 minutes to attach them to plates.

I wasn't concerned that they look too perfect because they are supposed to be from a toddler - not his mom.


Inspiration
Creative Egg Carton Crafts

I linked up with the following blog(s):

Other Mother's Day Posts on A Mom's Quest to Teach 

Cooking Quest – Belated Mother's Day Beef Stuffed Peppers

This post contains affiliate links. For more information please see my Terms of Use and Disclosure Policy page. Thank you.

Before my daughter was born I pre-made a variety of freezer meals from Taste of Home Freezer Pleasers Cookbook so we would have easy meals during her early days with us. A hit with my family was the Beef Stuffed Peppers which I have modified even more to fit the needs of our family.  I made these last night as a belated Mother's Day dinner to share with my mom.

Beef Starter Recipe - modified (original from Freezer Pleasers Cookbook)

Ingredients include:

• 3 lbs ground beef (or thereabouts) 
• seasonings 
• 12 oz bottle of chili sauce
• 1 envelope of brown gravy mix
• 1 envelope of onion soup mix 

1. Cook beef with seasonings till no longer pink; drain (please make sure your food is thoroughly cooked)
2. Add chili sauce and 2 envelopes of mixes 
3. Cook for approximately 10 minutes 
4. Cool and keep about 3 cups for peppers and freeze the rest for up to 3 months 

Stuffed Peppers Recipe - modified (original from Freezer Pleasers Cookbook)

Ingredients include:

• Beef Starter Mix (see above) 
• 1 1/2 cup cooked rice (I use instant rice) 
• 8 oz tomato sauce
• dash of pepper 
• green peppers 
• shredded cheddar cheese 

1. Combine beef, rice, tomato sauce and pepper in a bowl.

1. Clean peppers (remove top & seeds). 
2. Spoon beef mixture in each pepper.
3. Place in microwave safe dish and cover loosely. 
4. Cook on high 7 to 9 minutes (rotating peppers about half way) or until peppers are tender. 
5. Let stand for 3 minutes.
6. Sprinkle with cheese.

The left over beef starter with rice can be served plain without the pepper for those who don't like peppers – like myself and my toddler.

We saved some white rice to serve plain to my toddler and one year old.  I also cooked carrots and corn as vegetables on the side.  My little gal amazed me with eating all of her corn but barely touching her rice.

I have used a variety of recipes from Taste of Home Freezer Pleasers Cookbook for both before and after my daughter was born.

Please make sure your food is completely cooked and at the proper temperature before enjoying it. Please make note of any food allergies in your family.

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Busy/Quiet Boxes - Felt Ribbon and Snake

In order to promote my toddler's imagination and quiet activities, after discovering the idea of busy or quiet boxes online, I scoured Pinterest for ideas that I could put into action.

If you are unfamiliar with busy or quiet boxes, they are quiet, simple and can be implemented in a number of ways. A box can be created for each day of the week (or just the weekdays), bags can be created for each separate activity so you can pick and choose when to share certain activities, or bags can be created that can be taken out to restaurants and shopping trips.

Ribbon Serpents

To assist our toddlers in developing their fine motor skills, I found several different activities that incorporated the idea of weaving and buttoning.  I choose two (button snake and chain) after reviewing several blogs that presented different ideas for using felt, buttons, and chains (Felt Button Chain Quiet Activity; Car Ride Activities (Felt Chain); and Button Snake).

For now, as children build their fine motor skills, they might only move the felt along the ribbon and not actually thread it. Or a child may be able to unbutton the separate pieces but not put them back together but children will quickly progress as they build the appropriate skills.

       

Crafts: Snowman Names

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On New Year's Day, as a family we created our names as snowmen.  I saw the project shared on Facebook and thought it was perfect to create some winter adornments to leave up after the Christmas decorations are taken down.

We used bulletin board letters from the dollar store to trace our names and miscellaneous craft supplies to decorate the snowmen's faces and hats.

It was a very fun project and as my toddler walks by the closet, it has also turned into a learning opportunity as we read the letters and names together.

Materials 

• white construction paper 
• ribbons
• buttons
• googly eyes
• crayons 
• markers 
• glue
• scissors 
• brown, green, and black construction paper 

Looking for more Holiday and Winter Posts? 

Resources 

Fun-A-Day's blog has some other examples (Snowmen Name Craft)

Other winter-themed crafts on my Pinterest (Winter Crafts)