Mad Scientist Recipes

My middle son has a start of the school year birthday, so this year, we didn't get to have a party. So instead, we did a half-birthday party for him. With the help of his teacher, we had it on science fair day at school, for the last two hours, since our theme was 'Mad Scientists'.

The kids had a ball. We ran out of time before we ran out of things to do.

So I thought I'd share some of our fun here for you guys:


Super Bubble Juice
Dawn Ultra or Joy Ultra 1 Part
Water 15 Parts
(Distilled Water Works Best)
Glycerine or White Karo Syrup .25 Parts

Click on the second bibble link below to get directions for making a super bubble blowing cone to use with the solution.


Super Bubble Ooze
-this is like the stuff you buy in a tube at the store.

1. In a small bowl pour 3 T glue gel and 1 drop food coloring, mix well.
2. Add 3 T liquid starch and mix well.
3. Let sit for 5 minutes. Remove from dish and knead well.
4. When it is firm, roll into a ball and bounce it or take off a piece, put it on the end of a straw and blow it up like a balloon.

Crystal Paint
1. In a small dish, mix up ? C warm water and 3 t. salt. Keep stirred very well thoughout play.
2. Use a paintbrush to paint a picture on black paper.
3. Watch for crystals as the paint dries, you can use a hair drier to speed up the process

Magic Colors
-make sure you use water soluable markers for this one.

1. Cut along the sealed edges of the coffee filter. Open up the filter so it is a single layer.

2. With the black marker, draw a line across the bottom of the filter on one side, about 1 inch up from the bottom. Do the same with your colored marker on the other half.
3. Put some water in the cup-enough to cover the bottom. Curl the paper circle so it fits inside the cup. Make sure the bottom of the circle is in the water.

4. Watch as the water flows up the paper. When it touches the black line, you'll start to see some different colors.

5. Leave the paper in the water until the colors go all the way to the top edge. How many colors can you see?


Outrageous Ooze
-this was the biggest hit of the day!

1. Put the cornstarch into the bowl. Add a drop or two of food coloring. (Use whatever colors you like.) Add water slowly, mixing the cornstarch and water with your fingers until all the powder is wet.
2. Keep adding water until the Ooze feels like a liquid when you're mixing it slowly. Then try tapping on the surface with your finger or a spoon. When Ooze is just right, it won't splash--it will feel solid. If you Ooze is too powdery, add a little more water. If it's too wet, add more cornstarch.
3. Pick up a handful and squeeze it. Stop squeezing and it will drip through your fingers.
-->Rest your fingers on the surface of the Ooze. Let them sink down to the bottom of the bowl. Then try to pull them out fast. What happens?
--> Take a blob and roll it between your hands to make a ball. Then stop rolling. The Ooze will trickle away between your fingers.



References:
Bubble solutions
Bubble solutions 2
Science for kids
Exploratorium
Kid concoctions

Little League: Marshmallow Banana Bake

I don’t know about you, but we tend to have banana problems around here. We like the bananas rather green and as they tend toward ripe, they are less and less likely to get eaten. So we have a banana pile up. Over the years, I’ve come up with a few things to do to use them up. Here’s one that the kids love to eat and can help out making as well:



Marshmallow Banana Bake
3-4 bananas
Baking chips (chocolate, cinnamon, peanut butter, whatever you like)
Marshmallows

Spray a round pie plate or other baking dish with non-stick spray. Slice the bananas lengthwise and lay them in the dish. Sprinkle the chips over the fruit, about 1/2C of chips, more if you like. Lay marshmallows over the top of everything. Spray marshmallows with nonstick spray.

Bake 350F about 10-15 minutes, until the marshmallows are brown and puffy.

Dinner in 20: Strawberry Spinach Salad

I always find it hard to get my act together to get dinner made when my husband is out of town. The other night while he was gone I asked my oldest son what he'd like for dinner, hoping to find some inspiration to get the job done. My 14 year old said he wanted dinner salad, yeah, really, he did. So I suggested that he make dinner for all of us.

This is what he made (with a little direction from me, but not too much)





Strawberry Spinach Dinner Salad

10 ounces spinach leaves
4 cups strawberries, sliced
8 oz diced ham
8 oz cubed mild white cheese (we use queso fresco, but monterrey jack, provelone or mozzerella, feta or even blue cheese would work too)
1/2 C toasted almonds (or other nuts)
Dressing:
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon paprika
2 tablespoons sesame seeds

Mix us the dressing. Tear the spinach leaves into bite sized pieces. Slice the berries. Toss everything with the dressing and serve with some nice bread.


The kids love this stuff and it is easy for them to make. My eldest was pretty proud of himself for making dinner that didn't come out of a box.

Drum Roll Please!

Finally, here’s another set of Freeze-n-Serve recipes!

This one is a little different; we are going to focus on a very specific cut of meat, chicken drumsticks.

These little guys are handy little critters. Kids love them. The can be eaten hot or cold. And even better, they are really easy to take along to eat on the run.

I find that we often have to eat on the run these days. But I really really hate picking up a burger on the way. Having something stashed in the freezer that you can nuke on the way out the door is great. They will also store in the fridge for a few days, so you can keep them there and eat them cold on the run when you know that is going to be ‘that’ kind of a week!

So, with no further ado, on to the recipes!

Start with 5 lbs of chicken legs. Preheat the oven to 350F. Set out several large cookies sheets, preferably with a lip to catch any juices that run off.

Lime-Garlic Chicken
Mix the juice of one lime with 1 clove (1t)crushed garlic. Pour over chicken legs and let set while you set up the rest of the chicken. When you are done with the other ones, remove these from the marinade and place on baking sheet.

Soy Garlic Chicken
Mix 1/4C soy sauce, 1/3 C mayo, 4t vinegar (whatever you have on hand, just not balsamic) and 1 t crushed garlic. . Pour over chicken legs and let set while you set up the rest of the chicken. When you are done with the other ones, remove these from the marinade and place on baking sheet.

Spicy Honey Chicken
Mix 1/4C Orange Juice, 2T honey, 1-2t crushed garlic or 1/4t garlic powder, 1/8t red pepper(or to personal taste) . Pour over chicken legs and let set while you set up the rest of the chicken. When you are done with the other ones, remove these from the marinade and place on baking sheet.

Taco Chicken Legs
Open two packages of taco seasoning mix. Roll the drumstick in the seasoning and place on baking sheet.

Parmesan Drumsticks
Mix 1 C parmesan cheese with 1 T Italian seasonings. Brush drumstick with mayo and coat with the cheese. Place on baking sheet.

Place baking sheets in oven for 30 minutes. Check for doneness at this time. Add extra time as needed, but only until just cooked through.

Cook and toss into ziplock bags to store as needed.

You can also just use some of the other chicken recipes I’ve posted on chicken legs in the same way.

Enjoy!

Snack Attack: Peanut butter Honey dip

Here’s a quick and easy snack you can let your kiddos make:

Peanut Butter Honey Dip

Take a large blob of peanut butter (1/4 C or so). Add a big squirt of honey (2-3T) and a small handful of rolled oats (for crunch) and/or chocolate chips and/or raisins. Mix it all together. Add more honey if you like a looser texture.

Use as a dip for crackers, graham crackers, apples, carrots, celery stalks ect. Or use as a spread for sandwiches.

Watch out though, this stuff is good enough to eat with a spoon and pretty addicitive!

What's in your pantry?

Recently I just had to clean out my pantry. Things were falling on me. That's a sure sign that it's time to get to work!

I'm blessed that the builders of this house put it a really big pantry, more like a small closet really. I love it.

But then again, I always keep my pantry stocked. Growing up my family spent three years in New Jersey and they were all bad winter years. I remember blizzards and getting snowed it and the panic at the stores when bad weather was predicted. The remainder of my life has been spent in the gulf coast when hurricanes are a threat a large part of the year. So I just hate the thought of getting caught with the pantry empty. My sister is the opposite, she can't take the clutter, so she keeps her pantry pretty bare.

She does have a lot less issue in keeping her pantry clean and organized, I envy that. But last fall when we were dealing the Katrina and Rita and there were unprecedented runs on the grocery store, she was there fighting the crowds while I stayed home and watch the stories about the grocery stores on TV.

Be that as it may, the pantry got cleaned out this week.

I like to get every possible useful inch of storage space out of my pantry, so I've added a few touches that really help. I have wire baskets that hang under the shelves so I can put short cans on the shelf and something else above it. I have wire shelves to add extra shelving for boxes ect. I have wicker baskets to put bagged items like pasta and chips in so that they don't fall on me. On the floor I have some stacking baskets for canned goods and I've mounted some small wall baskets on the little bit of wall space to squeeze out some extra space.





The wicker baskets came from the craft store, 75% off clearance bin. Some of them are actually pretty and it looks a little like I was trying to decorate in there, but really, they were all bought because they were cheap and the right size and shape.

Oh,and there are labels on everything too. Why? Not because I'm completely compulsive, really. But the kids used to get off putting groceries away with the excuse "I don't know where it goes". Well, now that it is all labeled, they know exactly where it all goes and they now have the job of putting away the groceries!

New Content Navigation links!

I just put in some new content navigation links that will take you directly to particular recipes of interest. I think I have all of them working now. Hope they are helpful and not just the product of a manic need to organize on my part!

Little League: Odds and Ends

I just cleaned out my pantry. Not my favorite job in the world, no surprise huh? Well, when I took everything out, I found a bunch of odds and ends. You know, bags with 3 pretzels or 5 croutons, boxes with half a dozen chips or a can with a handful of nuts. Stuff you didn’t throw away but it’s not enough to o anything with. Here’s something to do with it. Better yet, let the kids do it.

Get a big bowl and put a colander or strainer inside it. Have the kids dump the odds and ends into the strainer. Give it a shake to get rid of the crumbs and dust that accumulate in the bottom of those bags. Then put the mix into something to keep it handy for snaking.

You can use cereal, dried fruit, cookie crumbles and odd bite sized candy to make a sweet mix for desserts too.

Snack Attack!

Quick, easy and relatively healthy snacks are as good as gold. So here’s one that we used for our Super Bowl festivities.

Hummus
Basics: 1 can chick peas (garbanzos), olive oil
Seasonings: sesame oil, garlic, cumin, parsley, salt, pepper, hot pepper

Depending on how ‘loose’ you like your dip to be, drain the chick peas, I usually leave about half the liquid. Pour everything into a food processor or blender. Add a tablespoon or so of olive oil. Vegetable oil will work in a pinch.

Season this according to taste. All of this is optional, but I usually use: 1-2 teaspoons sesame oil, a bunch of chopped garlic, 1 teaspoon onion powder, 1 tablespoon parsley, 1/4-1/2 teaspoon cumin, salt and pepper. I’m not into hot stuff but you can add it i.f you like.

Whiz it around in the food processor or blender until it is the consistency you like. Store any leftovers in the fridge. It’ll keep a while, in the unlikely event it doesn’t get eaten at first sitting

Superbowl!

We have a little family thing for the superbowl each year. Part of the tradition is that the kids help get the food ready. This year the boys helped me make peanutbutter and jelly cookies, hummus dip, pigs in blankets and refried beans and cheese.

I use nonfat refried beans and only add a little olive oil to the hummus, so that helps with the calories. We also eat tostito baked chips which are really good and have no fat. We we've got complete protiens and low fat. The cookies and pigs in blankets blow it all, but you can't have everything.

This year I actually got into a picture...I actually exist!

Valentine's Dinner in 1 hour

I had a request for a simple valentine’s dinner idea, so here’s an easy one.

Appetizer: Melon with procuitto ham
Main Course: Herbed Chicken Breast, baked potato, broccoli with carrots with garlic Dessert: Chocolate covered Strawberries

You will need:
12 Strawberries
1 C each broccoli, carrots
1/2 cantalope
2 baking potatoes. Fist size
4 slices procuitto ham (at deli)
2chicken breasts
Creamy herbed cheese spread
Garlic, olive oil
Chocolate chips
Your favorite bubbly stuff to drink

1 hour game plan:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Wash and dry 12 strawberries, set aside. Wash 2 potatoes no bigger than a woman’s fist.

Place Potatoes on a small tray-and in the oven. Set timer to 30 minutes

Now for the chicken: Take 2 chicken breasts, preferably without bones and with skin. Loosen the skin and spread a coupled of table Spoons herbed creamy cheese spread undo the skin. If you use skinless breasts spread on top of breasts. Place in shallow pan, sprayed with nonstick spray. When timer goes off place in oven. Reset timer for 30 minutes.

On to the veggies: Chop broccoli and carrots(or use whole baby carrots). Toss with it olive oil and minced garlic to taste. Place in small casserole. Put in oven with all the rest.

Now on to dessert: Put 1/3 C of chocolate chips in a microwave safe dish. Nuke for 30 seconds, Stir. Nuke for another 30 seconds and Stir again, it should be smooth r ready to so. If not heat, for another 30 seconds. Make sure the berries-re dry. Dip them and set on waxed paper to setup.

Finally: cut 4 slices of cantaloupe, removing the rind. Wrap each melon slice with a slice of proccuitto ham. Arrange on 2 small plates.

About Now the timer should be going off. Pull everything out of the oven. While it cools. Set out the berries on a pretty plate. Pour your bubbly stuff and dinner is ready to serve.

Kitty litter cake

This is one of those things that you think about, but never quite work up the guts to actually do. It really looks like the real thing, but it totally edible, cake, pudding and tootsie rolls with a little food coloring. Here's a recipe link for it if you dare....

My best friend...

My best friend, her husband and son came over for dinner last weekend.

After dinner she peeked in my freezer and looked crestfallen afterwards.

"You're freezer's full! You won't be need to cook for a while!" She said. "Don't cook anymore and call me when you're freezer's empty!"

Actually I need to cycle the stock in the freezer, so I'll be doning just that.

Cooking a freezer full of food is much more fun with a friend!

Now I've got to clean the pantry....