Homeschooling Saturday Weeks Four and Five - Naan Bread

Welcome to Homeschooling Friday (well, looks like it's turned into Homeschooling Saturday), week weeks four and five! Homeschooling Saturday is a recap of our week in homeschooling, with any new or exciting crafts we've tried along the way.
So I think I am going to make Homeschooling Saturday a biweekly thing. I think I am going to share one craft or recipe we did those weeks instead of an overview of everything. It's just too hard to take pictures of everything! This week I will do a general recap of what we did, then start the new format next time.

Last week, we reviewed the letters A, B and C. We made them out of clay as reminders so we can look back on them.
We have been having lots of fun with sand lately, too:

The kids draw what they want in glue, then sprinkle with sand. I think it's a little like magic to them. Then mommy is left with the cleanup, which isn't so magical to me.

I like this project because not only does M love it, but it's something that can be touched as well as looked at later. The sand has a funky texture, which M likes to trace when the glue is dried. It really drives home the shape of the letter we are learning that week.
It requires only two things, plus whatever you're gluing the sand onto:

Well, those two things and a cleanup crew.
I taught M about mixing two colors to make a third:

This coming week I will add the third primary color, and gradually teach that those three colors can be used to make any color imaginable. She likes smooshing the water around on the wet paper.
Last year, my friend Amber taught us about Diwali. We celebrated for the first time a holiday I plan on celebrating the rest of my days. Amber has since moved off island, but we still celebrated with friends last week. I was thinking of her and was grateful that she had shown us such a rich and beautiful tradition.
In celebration of Diwali Magdalena and I made naan bread to bring to the party:

I love this bread. It is one of my favorite things to make. I would recommend trying it, and maybe consider making it a staple in your home! After all, it's only about 150 calories per piece and pretty low in fat. Magdalena loves these and cannot get enough, and she's one tough cookie when it comes to what goes in her gullet. Here's the recipe I use:

Ingredients
1 teaspoon active dry yeast
2 teaspoons sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for rolling
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
1/8 teaspoon baking powder
3 tablespoons fat free milk
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
Coarse sea salt for sprinkling

Directions * In a large glass, dissolve the dry yeast and 1 teaspoon sugar with 3/4 cup warm water (about 100 degrees F). Let it sit on your counter until it's frothy, about 10 minutes.
* Meanwhile, sift the flour, salt, remaining 1 teaspoon of sugar and baking powder into a large, deep bowl.
* Once the yeast is frothy, add the milk and the olive oil into the glass, and stir to combine. Pour the milk mixture into the dry ingredients and gently mix the ingredients together with a fork. When the dough is about to come together, use your hands to mix. It will feel like there isn't enough flour at first, but keep going until it transforms into a soft, slightly sticky and pliable dough. As soon as it comes together, stop kneading. Cover the dough with plastic wrap or a damp tea towel and let it sit in a warm, draft-free place for 2 to 4 hours.
* When you're ready to roll, separate the dough into 6 equal portions.

Shape the naan. Using a rolling pin, roll each piece out. It should be 8 to 9-inches long, 4-inches wide at its widest point and about 1/4-inch thick. Once you've formed the general shape, you can also pick it up by one end and wiggle it; the dough's own weight will stretch it out a little. Repeat this method with the rest of the dough.
* Warm a large cast-iron skillet over high heat until it's nearly smoking. Make sure you have a lid large enough to fit the skillet.
* Gently lay one of the naan in the skillet and set your timer for 1 minute. The dough should start to bubble.

* After about 1 minute, flip the naan. It should be blistered and somewhat blackened, don't worry - that's typical of traditional naan! Cover the skillet with the lid and cook 30 seconds to 1 minute more.
* Remove the naan from the skillet, and sprinkle with a little coarse sea salt. Place the naan in a tea towel-lined dish. Repeat with the rest of the naans and serve.

* Adapted from: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/aarti-sequeira/naan-indian-oven-baked-flat-bread-recipe/index.html

What did you and your homeschooler learn about this week?

Homeschooling Friday - Week Two

We had an awesome week! I love fall, I love October, and I love Halloween, (plus my birthday was Wednesday) so there was no way it wouldn't be an awesome week. I have decided that Halloween is going to be a major holiday in this house from now on. I am talking Christmas major. Mini Halloween stockings, advent calenders, exchanging gifts, cookies, crafts, the whole shebang. If Magdalena goes back to public school in the future, I may make her stay home the weekend before to make and bake with me and have a big party after school.
We spent the week on Halloween crafts, and learning about the letter B and the number one.
We made bird masks on Monday:

Butterflies on Tuesday:

On Wednesday, there was no way I was going to adhere to a strict diet on my birthday, so we spent the day baking cookies. Chocolate and vanilla Day of the Dead skull cookies, to be precise:

These, seriously, are a can't miss. The cookie above it the absolute best looking one we got, but keep in mind I had a five year old helper. But taste wise, they're amazing, no matter how they look! Recipe here: http://www.nantucketknitter.com/2013/10/day-of-the-dead-cookies.html! (I originally had the recipe in this post, but it deserves it's own post. Seriously.)
We also made these amazingly fun crafts this week:

It's Halloween, and it starts with B, perfect! (I didn't take any step by step pictures with Boo, might be a good thing as the post is long enough without them!) For Boo we followed part of this inchie idea: http://www.thatartistwoman.org/2011/10/halloween-inchies-part-1.html

We followed the ideas here for this one, roughly: http://www.thatartistwoman.org/2012/10/halloween-inchies-2012.html. I cut three inch squares for both projects, because I thought two inches would be too hard to work with, with a five and four year old. (Magdalena's friend Mr. T was here for one of the projects.)
We didn't have everything she used on hand, like bubble wrap and googly eyes, but we made do with what we had. They were such fun projects, I will be doing these for every holiday, and I think for gifts as well.
We painted all of the backgrounds of the little squares first, as well as collaged the center one, then let everything dry whilst we went and ran some errands.

I wouldn't use sand on them next time. It was cool because M loved watching the paint being sucked up by the sand, and it left a nifty effect. But it was way too hard to glue anything on afterwards. Although, I don't have any liquid white glue now, so we were working with glue sticks, and M dumped a ton of sand on them, so that may have had something to do with it.
Once everything was dried, we got to work on the details.

Our structured projects don't normally take so long, or require quite so much work; I think that was good for a change to have an all day project. Plus one that requires such attention to detail, for a five year old.

For the background, I cut a piece of poster board big enough to hold all the mini projects, with an inch or so border between each one and all around. Then, I let Magdalena go wild on it with water colors. I think after so many hours of such structure, it was good to let loose!

I think this one is getting its own frame! We are going to be working on a fall theme of this same project next week, then a Thanksgiving one as well! Seriously, fun, fun, fun. The website, that artist woman, has been a major source of inspiration since I came across it. I will be referring back to it through out the year. Go check it out, you won't be disappointed!

Linking up to:

Maya's Mexican Day of the Dead Cookies

We made these cookies this week, and I was going to put them into the post with Homeschooling Friday, but again, thought it was long enough without the recipe. This way, I can really go in depth with the pictures. :)

From chocolate holidays, by Alice Medrich.

The cookie above was the absolute best looking we got. This is what most of the batch looked like:

After those came out of the oven, I decided just to make them circular layered cookies. They still ended up looking like those above, because I had a five year old helper. But seriously tasty cookies! These instructions are for making the skulls, but you can just roll them circular then layer a chocolate and vanilla cookie, and bake according to these directions.

Vanilla dough:
* 2 C all-purpose flour
* 1/2 tsp baking powder
* 1/2 tsp salt
* 8 T (1 stick) butter, softened
* 1 C sugar
* 1 egg
* 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
To make vanilla dough, mix flour, baking powder, and salt together with whisk or fork. Set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, beat butter and sugar with electric mixer until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla. On low speed, add flour mixture until just incorporated. Form dough into a log about 2 inches in diameter. Set aside.

Chocolate dough:
* 1 C all-purpose flour
* 1/2 C unsweetened cocoa powder
* 1/2 tsp baking soda
* 1/2 tsp baking powder
* 1/8 tsp salt
* 8 T (1 stick) butter, softened
* 1/2 C packed brown sugar
* 1/2 C granulated sugar
* 1 egg
* 1 tsp vanilla extract

To make chocolate dough:
Mix flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt with a whisk or fork. Set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, beat butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar with an electric mixer until smooth and creamy but not fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla. On low speed, add flour mixture and mix until just incorporated. Form dough into a log the same size and length as vanilla log. If the doughs are soft and sticky, put in freezer to harden up.

To shape skulls:
Reshape each log so they're skull shaped, with a thinner and for the chin and jaw and wider end for the cranium. Wrap and refrigerate the chocolate dough.
Form features in the vanilla dough, using the handle of a wooden spoon to poke holes for the eyes the entire length of the log. Form nose with a skewer, poking two holes for nostrils. Form mouth with narrow table or butter knife, inserting it and wiggling back and forth. Don't try for perfection! It's the irregularities that make is spooky!

Chill both doughs at least two hours, preferably overnight.

Preheat over to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Cut chocolate dough into 1/8 inch slices and place them at least 1 1/2 inches apart on a baking sheet covered with parchment. Cut the vanilla dough into 1/8 inch slices and place one slice on top of each chocolate slice. Bake until pale golden at the edges, around 12 minutes. Rotate the baking sheet halfway through baking, top and bottom and front to back.
Slide parchment paper onto cooling racks, or transfer with metal spatula directly to cooling racks, waiting 1 to 2 minutes for cookies to cool and harden before moving them.

Cool completely before stacking or storing. Cookies keep about one week in an airtight container, if they stay around that long.
ENJOY!

When I see this face, who cares if I didn't get perfection?!

PS - if the Day of the Dead skulls don't work out, you can always just roll and cut the cookies (or give the dough to the kids and let them go wild):

Baked Apples, Apples, and More Apples

A is for apple! We have been going apple crazy here! We've been learning about the letter A this week, plus what with it being fall and all, we've been baking apples! I decided on a separate post for this, because my last one got so long, and it doesn't really fit into Make Something Monday.

That is a plate filled with happiness. We have, of course, Mini Apple Pies. I have to say something here - these are really the perfect sweet treat, matched only by the other two sweet treats I am about to show you. They have about 350 calories total. When you take into account that A, 100 of that is the apple (plus when I calculated the calories, I put it as one whole large apple, and I don't think you even use half) B, they're a whole apple pie, for cryin' out loud! And C, they're super filling. I've had one as my only meal until 5pm ish, and I was pretty full.
I love to make baked apples too. Seriously, very low calorie, and I think they're zero to one point plus in Weight Watchers, depending on how much brown sugar you use. You don't have to use any at all, but I like the syrup it forms and how it caramelizes. Just as tasty without sugar, I promise you!

Sorry for the not too excellent picture. They don't last around this house too long, so it's hard to get a photo.
I take a large apple and core it, then cut it in half.
Then I like to take a sheet of aluminum foil and spray it with cooking spray. Then sprinkle a little brown sugar on the foil, and nestle the apple half in the brown sugar. Sprinkle a little more brown sugar on (seriously just a little, here's a picture to show you how little I use):

Then I liberally sprinkle on cinnamon, and a little nutmeg, ginger and cloves. I use more cloves than more people like, as I like mine spicy!

Then I wrap and cinch the foil around the apples, which makes for easy clean up.

All bundled up and ready to go into the oven.
Then I pop them into a 425ish degree Fahrenheit oven. (I use the toaster oven to prevent having to heat a large oven to such a high temp.) I start checking them after 20 or 25 minutes, and it will vary wildly how long it takes them to be done, depending on the size of the apples and your particular oven.

Open the bundles, and viola! Easy peasy, fat free, 60 or so calories dessert. Eat with some vanilla yogurt and chopped nuts, yum!
If there happen to be any leftovers (there won't be - I always bake a few extra to use) you can make these:

I took reduced fat crescent roll dough and put a dab of smooshed up baked apple in the center, rolled them up and then rolled them in a brown sugar, cinnamon, clove, ginger, and nutmeg mixture. Then popped them in the oven and cooked according to the package directions.

These have less calories than the pies (although I haven't counted the calories) as they have no butter and a little less sugar, and the crescents have less calories themselves.
You could always just eat the smooshed apples as apple sauce:

ENJOY! :)

Easy Ginger Fried Rice

Another vegetarian recipe for you. :) Super quick, super easy, and WOW, super yum!

Ingredients:
* 1 tablespoon olive oil
* 3/4 cup all natural egg substitute
* 4 scallions, cut into 1" pieces
* 16 ounce bag frozen mixed vegetables
* 4 cups cold cooked brown rice
* 1/2 cup vegetable broth
* 3 tablespoons soy sauce
* 1/4 teaspoon black pepper

To Make:
* Heat nonstick wok or deep large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add 2 teaspoons of oil and coat pan. Add egg substitute and cook, stirring gently, until set, about one minute. Transfer to small bowl.
* Add remaining one teaspoon oil to wok. Add scallions and ginger; stir-fry until scallions are softened, about two minutes. Add mixed vegetables and stir-fry until crisp-tender, about one minute.

* Add rice to wok and stir-fry until heated through, about three minutes. Add broth and soy sauce; stir-fry until liquid is absorbed, about one minute longer. Return egg substitute to wok and sprinkle with pepper; stir-fry until mixed.

* Enjoy! 360 calories, 6g fat, 9g fiber, 15g protein.
Adapted from Weight Watchers New Complete Cookbook

Spicy Fish Tacos with Pineapple Slaw

(Adapted from Runner's World Magazine)
Yesterday afternoon's lunch! The very first recipe I will be posting since officially becoming a vegetarian. The coolness of the sour cream works well with the heat of the peppers, and the pineapple adds a nice suprising sweet pop.
Super yummy, and very quick and easy, if you do a little prep and get canned, pre-chopped pineapple and peppers. You can make the sour cream sauce and start marinating the fish in the morning then just throw them on the grill when you get home!

Ingredients
* Small can of chopped green peppers
* 1/2 cup sour cream
* 3/4 cup chopped cilantro (I actually just used dried, but lots of it.)
* 1 tablespoon olive oil, plus more for grilling.
* 1 pound tilapia
* 4 cups finely chopped cabbage
* small red onion, thinly chopped
* 1 small jalapeno, seeded and minced and divided in half
* 1 small can pineapple chunks, drained
* Juice of one lime
* 1/2 tsp ground cumin
* 1/2 tsp dried oregano
* 1 avocado, pitted and sliced
* 8 tacos, flour or corn, toasted.

To Make
* In a bowl, combing the green pepper and half of the jalapeno with the sour cream, 1/2 cup cilantro, and olive oil. Stir to combing. Add salt if desired, to taste. Reserve 1/2 cup of the mixture.
* In a dish, spread the remaining mixture over both sides of the fish. Let sit for at least 30 minutes.

* In a bowl, combine cabbage, onion, remaining jalapeno half, pineapple, lime juice, remaining cilantro, cumin, and oregano. Toss to combine.

* Heat a grill over medium heat. Brush it with oil. Place fish on the grill and cook until nicely charred, turning once, 6 to 8 minutes total.
* Remove to a cutting board and coarsely chop.

Lay out the tortillas and divide fish amongst them. Top with slaw and avocado. Spoon reserved sour cream mixture on top. Serves 4.
Enjoy!