Trash to Toys: 10 Recycled Educational Toys

Thanks to today's contributor, Kiddie Academy (www.KiddieAcademy.com) for the following ideas for creating recycled educational toys.

Want to feed your child’s imagination, while helping the environment? 

Earth Day is a yearly reminder to consider our role in protecting the environment. Parents can make a positive impact by creating fun, educational toys from everyday items that may initially seem like trash, but can be repurposed into teaching tools.

Computer Keyboard: 
An outdated keyboard is a perfect teaching toy, as it includes the entire alphabet to assist in early literacy exercises. Challenge your child to sing the ABC song while locating each letter on the keyboard.

Shoebox to Mailbox: 
Children love getting mail. Reinforce both reading and writing skills by creating a family mailbox from an old shoebox. Encourage your child to write notes to family members, and leave notes for them as well.

Water Bottle Instrument: 
Fill a clean, dry plastic water or soda bottle with rice, bells, beans or coins and shake them to hear a variety of new sounds. Glue the top on to secure the contents.

Junk Mail: 
Instead of immediately sending your unwanted mail to the landfill, allow your child to play with the envelopes and letters. She can pretend to be a postal carrier while getting additional exposure to printed words.

Magazines: 
Glossy photos in magazines are perfect for creating collage art that provides fine motor skill practice with scissors and glue.

TV Remote: 
Children love pushing buttons. An unused television remote control can be used for number and math play. Simply remove the batteries and ask him to find the numbers as you call them out.

Clothing: 
Dramatic play is an essential teaching tool that allows children to explore social roles, practice problem solving and language skills. Add no longer needed pieces of your own wardrobe to the toy chest to encourage your child’s imagination. She can literally “try on” a different role by wearing your skirt, hat or shoes.

Linens:
Your child can use a worn out sheet or towel as a cape, picnic blanket or as the roof to a play fort.

Toilet Paper Tube: 
Empty TP tubes are a favorite art tool in classrooms. Save a box of them, and give them to your child along with a few craft supplies to see what he can create. Binoculars, stamps and creatures are popular choices.

Boxes: 
While it’s tempting to immediately recycle a box, your child can have hours of fun using an empty box for creative play. What seems like trash to you could become a school bus, secret hideout or magic castle.

For more eco-friendly education tips, parents can visit Kiddie Academy's Family Essentials blog: http://www.kafamilyessentials.com.

5 Things to Do with Your Strawberries Before You Throw Them Out {Recipes}

Food Fridays:

Are you one of those people that starts off every grocery trip with putting a pint of strawberries in your basket then only to find you throwing them out (AGAIN) because you never ate them before they went bad?

Yes, me too. Our family LOVES strawberries and in the spring time I love to buy them. But unfortunately sometimes good ideas don't always get executed and I can tell you from personal experience brown strawberries don't make them taste sweeter. :) However, I really hate throwing those strawberries away because no one took the time to cut them up and enjoy them. At least with bananas when they get old you can throw those babies in the freezer and whip up banana bread, banana shakes and anything else banana you want.

So it got me thinking - why can't you do the same thing for strawberries? Why can't you just have a few recipes that you know you can use those strawberries before you send them to the bottom of your trash can?

Dang Good Strawberry Cake 
This cake doesn't just take lots of strawberries, but everything else you have in your refrigerator. I can't believe how easy it was and it was THAT good. I made this for my Mother-in-Law for her birthday cake last year, but I'm pretty sure we didn't send it home with her. We kept it and ate every bite.

Here's also a couple I found on Pinterest as well!

Canned Strawberries

No Cook Strawberry Freezer Jam

Strawberry Salsa with Cinnamon Chips

Hippie Juice

Hope you find some great alternative ways to enjoy those strawberries! 

Get Your Sweet Tea Fix with with Half the Calories!

Try-it Tuesdays:

I received samples of Pure Via Stevia for the purposes of this review. However, all the comments here are my own. 

My family are proud southerners. We fall to our knees at the south of Paula Deen's name, we LOVE some fried chicken and we relish in every gulp of sweet tea. I mean it IS the official drink of the south. 

Unfortunately, to make the perfect sweet tea, it takes a "wee bit of sugar" (imagine the sound of high-pitched exaggeration in my voice) to make it just right. And while I do appreciate staying to tradition, a little less sugar - especially in my children's diet - wouldn't hurt us at all. (Hey, even Paula has made some changes in her recipes, right?) 

So when a lovely box of Pure Via Stevia landed at my door, I'll be honest, I wanted to put it in the pantry to rot with all the other "sweeteners" that were moments of good intentions that never really made the cut - simply because they didn't taste good. But since it was being launched exclusively in Dallas, I thought hey, can't hurt to give it a three-second try.  Especially since Pure Via Stevia actually has half the calories AND also offers it in raw turbinado sugar (that's what they put in mojitos, people), so maybe you wouldn't know the difference. 

Maybe it was possible this stuff could be really good. 

So I called in my biggest judge, my son. My four-year old has sniffed me out for every healthy move I've tried to make. When I made winter squash and blended into his mac and cheese, I thought I was a genius. Unfortunately he wouldn't touch it - or any other mac and cheese - for three weeks. And any switch out for lowfat versions of his full-fat food items have been a total disaster, so I was ready to see his twinge, groan and ask what mama had done to his sweet tea. 

So I whipped up a pitcher of sweet tea and let him have it. 

Waiting...

Waiting...

"It's good mama," he said. "Can I have some more?" 

As far as I'm concerned, it doesn't get any better than that. You heard it from the mouth of babes! 

If you need the perfect recipe for sweet tea, then here's Paula's recipe. Just use the Pure Via Stevia instead of sugar! 

More About Pure Via Stevia
With only five calories per serving, Pure Via® Turbinado Raw Cane Sugar and Stevia Blend offers a lower calorie alternative for those with a sweet tooth to make foods and beverages taste naturally delicious. The blend is made from the pure sweet extract of the stevia plant and turbinado raw cane sugar, which comes from the first press of raw cane sugar.  

Pure Via® is an all-natural, zero-calorie sweetener this is made from Rebaudioside A (Reb A), the sweetest, best-tasting part of the stevia leaf. Reb A is generally recognized as safe (GRAS) according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Handcrafted for coffee and tea, Pure Via® is available in 40- and 80ct. boxes and a 4-oz. jar for a suggested retail price of $2.49, $4.29 and $4.99 Pure Via® Turbinado Raw Cane Sugar and Stevia Blend is availableexclusively in Dallas, Texas, in 100-ct boxes for a suggested retail price of $2.98. Retail prices may vary. Each packet (100 per box) sweetens like one teaspoon of sugar. 

Discover more at www.purevia.com or facebook.com/PureViaUS

Chef Jackson's Microwave Easter Day Bark {Recipe}

Food Fridays: 

I have high aspirations of making holidays memorable for my children cooking and decorating, but my best-laid plans sometimes fall short with all the other things that get in the way. But this Easter I wasn't going to let mom's crazy schedule get in the way of some family fun - even if it was a "minimized" version.

Using my new skills as the Microwave Mama, the boy and I decided to cook up what he called "Easter Day Bark." Needing only three ingredients and some microwave action, I was going to put together a video to show how easy it was to create this tasty and cute Easter treat. However, my son asked if he could do a video, too so I let him go.

Of course, in just one take, my own little TV star created a video that Bobby Flay could be proud of. While not the most innovative recipe ever, he tells you exactly how to do it in no time at all (although his focus is certainly on the M&Ms.)

So I can honestly this recipe is so easy your 4-year-old can make it.

Without further ado, here's Chef Jackson!

Jackson's Microwave Easter Day Bark 

Recipe Adapted from ServedUpwithLove

Package of White Almond Bark
Package of Easter M&Ms
Sprinkles
Easter Egg Malted Eggs

Place the almond bark in a microwave safe dish and microwave for 90 seconds to melt (adding more every 10 seconds until it's melted.) 

Line a baking sheet with wax paper and spread the almond bark. Drop the M&Ms and other candy over the melted bark. Allow to cool by placing in the freezer. When it solidifies, break into pieces. Makes for a cheap, easy and cute gift to friends, neighbors and teachers!

Food Fridays: Wiener Power at Hoffman Hots {Review}

Food Fridays:

First of all, I'm not a wiener-kind of girl...

WAIT - Let me rephrase - I don't really like hot dogs. I'll score one at a Rangers game about once a year and then I'm good until next season. However, when I asked my son lately where he'd like to eat BESIDES Chick-Fil-A, he responded with "hot dogs." Since he loves going over "The Big D Bridge" (Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge) and I couldn't bare the thought of hitting up the Sonic, we made the best of both worlds work and hit up Hoffman Hots.

I'll tell you I wasn't quite sure what to expect since I had done no research except what Google had done to get me there, we parked in the dirt parking lot of the up-and-coming (still very much coming) Trinity Groves and made our way in.

Wow - it was crowded and only on a Tuesday at this kitchy,  little diner spot. But we bellied up to the line and made our way through to make our first order for a Oreo Milk Shake (we decided if we were going to enjoy this experience, it was going to include the whole enchilada.) We then checked out the creatively concise menu and chose to get a little of it all:

• Asian dog
• Sweet and smokey dog
• good 'ole plain
• mac n cheese
• tator tots
• asian slaw 
• Triple XXX rootbeers
• Totalling around $40 (these better be good dogs!)

Seating did not come easy and thankfully, I had only the four-year old who could sit on the stool booths along the wall we'd claimed (babies in carried or boosters, this might not be the place for you). It didn't take too long and we had our food. Let the fun begin. 

All in all, it was good. My son was excited to eat the mac, which tasted like a run-of-the-mill Velveta kind of stuff, classic tator tots and an ok Asian slaw. The dogs were the standouts in the lineup and they should be - with the Sweet and Smokey claiming the prize for the reason I'll go back to this place #1. Made with a kielbasa, their proprietary bun like you've never had, a sweet glaze and a gouda-pimento cheese with bacon, it was really good stuff. Like the kind of stuff you drive to when you want to be really bad and eat a good hot dog. 

When we return I can't wait to try out the outdoor benches and perhaps a real beer and maybe just the big kids next time. It's fun and worth the drive to see and taste where Dallas is going in the future!

Hoffman Hots

340 Singleton

Dallas, Texas 75212

(214) 760-9977
http://www.hofmannhotdogs.com