It's Fall! Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal

Hello! Who wants dessert for breakfast? I thought so! This was a delicious treat and still mostly healthy :) Mr. T approves! What better way to begin a brisk fall morning than with a steaming bowl of hearty organic oatmeal that tastes like pumpkin pie?

Adding the pumpkin into the soaked oats.

"Top Chef has nothing on me! "

 Yummy!

That's good stuff!

Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal

3 cups of milk
2 3/4 cups organic rolled oats
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1/4 to 1/2 cup pure maple syrup (depending on the size of your sweet tooth!)
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp cloves
1/4 tsp nutmeg

cinnamon and maple syrup for drizzle and dusting if desired

The night before you want to make this, put the oats and milk in a pot and leave them to soak in the refrigerator.

Give the pot a good stir and put over medium/high heat. After the oats warm up, add in the pumpkin and mix well. Then add the maple syrup and spices. Continue cooking until the oat meal is thick and hot, about 8 minutes total. Serve it hot with a drizzle of syrup and a sprinkle of cinnamon on top and enjoy!

Blueberries for Sal - Berry Picking and Baking

We are reading Blueberries for Sal, and Mr. T seems to be enjoying it, in short doses :) He has the patience of his mother so we take it a few pages at a time. This activity is the first of several we are going to be doing to go along with this sweet book.

Mr. T likes the noises mommy makes when we read about picking the berries. I got him his own little pail (at the dollar bin) last year so he could help me pick berries from our garden this summer, and I pulled it out so he could pick some berries inside.

He really enjoyed throwing the berries into the pail to get the right noise. And he was taking his job very seriously. After we got all the berries "picked", it was time to wash them so we could use them for baking.

Mr. T loves it when he gets to play in the water out of the tub. We don't do as much water play in the winter, since I find it easier to clean up a dish tub full of water on the deck than from the kitchen. But this time, Mr. T did not dump out the entire tub of water! Progress! Yay!

After they were washed, I let Mr. T take the colander out of the water and let it drain. We took a lunch break and it was time for Mr. T's nap. While he slept, I set us up for an afternoon of baking blueberry chocolate chip muffins. Yummy!

Mr. T still has to have a little help keeping his sifter over the bowl while he's sifting, but he is getting so much better with it! (It is a wonderful little sifter from Small Hands)

It takes Mr. T a few minutes, but he eventually gets his liquid ingredients all whisked together. It is so sweet watching him concentrate so hard on whisking. He really does a wonderful job all by himself. (Sniff, sometimes the independence fostered by Montessori methods is a little difficult on mommy, but I wouldn't have it any other way!)

Folding in blueberries with his piggy spatula. It matches the piggy timer I still insist no kitchen should be without ;)

Not thrilled about having to wait an entire 25 minutes.

And our super yummy muffins! So far, we are really enjoying Blueberries for Sal. If you haven't read it yet, I recommend it for ages toddler through adult. It is a wonderful book!

We are linked up here:

  

When life gives you (Meyer) lemons . . . Yum!

So they had Meyer lemons at the grocery store. Those delightful little combinations of  lemon and orange that I just adore! And they are the perfect size for small hands to work with. So I set up our table with a bowl of cut lemons (Mr. T is not quite ready for a sharp knife yet, though he is doing beautifully with his table knife), a citrus press, a bowl for the lemon juice, a bowl of honey water (we don't use refined sugar), a long wooden spoon and a pitcher to mix it all up in.

First things first, the citrus press had to be explored and then explained, but it only took one demonstration for Mr. T to get the hang of it. And then out came the tongue from the side of the mouth (a very serious marker of concentration!) and we were off!

I did have to help hold the press while Mr. T took out the used lemon and put it in the trash bowl and then put in the new lemon, but those things are a little heavy to use one handed for a little one.

We poured all the juice and honey water into the big pitcher and Mr. T began to stir. I didn't even have to tell him to, he saw the spoon and went to work.

I then put the finished lemonade into a smaller pitcher for Mr. T to pour his own glass. He loves being able to do that for himself. And he also really loved the lemonade. A lot! He was very unhappy that I saved a glass worth for Daddy to have.

I really enjoy being in the kitchen with my little guy. These sweet moments of discovery are so very much a part of why I love being a mommy. If you don't do kitchen activities with your little ones, I highly recommend giving it a try. Even thought it can sometimes be messy, and you definitely end up with extra dirty dishes when you are doing an activity geared toward little ones, you will find very few other activities that bring you both such a sense of accomplishment and closeness.

What are your favorite things to cook with your little ones?

Cutting bananas and (not) crying over spilt milk

We love our Banana Slicer from Small Hands. You can get one here: http://www.forsmallhands.com/banana-slicer

Mr. T lining up the banana. He was very determined to do this all by himself.

Eating his freshly sliced banana. He enjoyed it so much, he ended up slicing and eating a second banana!  Definitely an independence loving toddler :)

And here we have our pouring activity. Mr. T was not exercising his patience. He got in a hurry and over poured his milk. But there were no tears shed ;)

And he enjoyed drinking the milk, anyway. But still, he's got pretty good aim and (usually) patience for a 23 month old!

Cooking with Mr. T : Mini Frittatas

Warning: This is a picture heavy post! The little gem pictured above was a find at Target's (infamous) dollar bin. It has some great recipes and Mr. T loves it!

This is our set up. I get Mr. T's activity table, our messy activity table cloth, and all our supplies for this delightful recipe. We had our muffin tin and oven mitts ready to go. Mr. T's adorable oven mitts came from Montessori Services Small Hands, which we LOVE!!! Our eggs, whisk, cream, salt, cheese, and salsa were in small containers easy for Mr. T to hold and to pour from. And our piggy timer. Every kitchen needs a Piggy Timer. Seriously. 

Mr. T always gets so excited when we cook. He considers it a great treat, but has some difficulty waiting on things to bake or set or what have you. But he's 23 months old so we'll excuse him for that :)

This boy LOVES to pour and he's really good at it, too!

Oven mitts at the ready. I helped him get the pan into the oven, but he is so excited to help with that part now that he has his own oven mitts!

The Piggy Timer in action!

Lunch!

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