Betty

3 Max Lucado Children’s Books Giveaway

February 20, 2013 by Betty

I have a fun giveaway for you today. One winner will have an opportunity to win these three great classic must-have children’s books from the Max Lucado collection. They are brand new, hardcover and never been opened.

I have linked these books to amazon.com for those who wish to read reviews or purchase them: You Are Special, You Are Mine, Hermie a Common Caterpiller. Please keep in mind that these three giveaway books might be a different edition or have different cover pictures from the current Amazon.com listings.

One winner will receive these three books. To win, simply fill in the rafflecopter below for your chance to win.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Filed Under: Giveaways

Make Your Own Resurrection Eggs

February 16, 2013 by Betty

What better way to retell and bring to life the Easter story than to incorporate these easy-to-use Resurrection Eggs. In the past, we’d read the Easter story with our kids from the Bible as well as from story books. Then we’d use our homemade Resurrection Eggs to reinforce [Read more…]

Filed Under: Easter Tagged With: Easter, Easter eggs, eggs, resurrection story

Woven Heart Basket Craft for Kids

February 7, 2013 by Betty

In gearing up for Valentine, I made this little woven hearts baskets with the kids. This craft is pretty cute and it can be used as a Valentine’s treat baskets. The heart shaped basket is very easy to make and inexpensive.

Materials:

Construction papers

Scissors

Glue/tape/stapler

Instructions:

Cut construction papers in half the long way (the hot dog way).

Fold the paper in half, the short way (hamburger way) and make cuts on the open end edge. For young children, I only made one cut. See first picture below. The max number of cuts I made was 4 cuts.

Round the corners on the folded side. (This will give you the heart shape. You can also trim it at the end)

Now do the same with a different colored construction paper. The two colored construction papers for the same basket would need to have the same number of cut strips.

Simply weave the strips together using the “under and over” method, weaving the bottom first, then join the tops together. Refer to second picture below.

After the weaving is done, you can glue/tape or staple your basket together and lastly, add a handle.

For very young children, just make one cut on the paper.

This picture shows the bottom of the basket already woven.

Enjoy!

Filed Under: Crafts, Indoors Activities, Valentine's Day Tagged With: construction paper craft, heart craft, Valentine's Day craft

A Healthy Snack with Honey and Almond Butter

February 6, 2013 by Betty

After coming home from Sunday School one Sunday, my kids told us that John the Baptist ate grasshoppers dipped in raw honey. I then asked them if they would try it if I served up some grasshoppers. I got three different responses. Mei Mei said, “For real?” Buddy answered, “I would try it.” And Chico, being the wisest, shook his head and said no. It was interesting that all three of them had a different answer.

I thought I’ll just stick with something that everyone would enjoy. So in honor of John the Baptist, I offered my kiddos toasted multigrain English muffins smeared with almond butter and raw honey for breakfast. It was so good that they asked for seconds!

How sweet are your words to my taste,
sweeter than honey to my mouth!

Psalm 119:103 (NIV)

On a side note, did you know that honey is double the sweetness of sugar? And nutrition wise, honey’s also superior to sugar. We hope you’ll enjoy this healthy little treat!

Note: My raw honey was solid even though I stored it in the cupboard: I warmed it up in a small pot using the lowest heat setting. You can also microwave it for a few seconds.

What are some healthy honey snack ideas do you have? Please share with us in the comments.

Filed Under: Healthy Snacks Tagged With: English muffins, honey, John the Baptist, raw honey

Chinese Pork and Chive Dumpling Recipe

January 30, 2013 by Betty

I love Chinese dumplings. In fact, one of the things that I look forward to whenever I visit San Francisco is devouring some of the yummiest Chinese dumplings. To help us celebrate Chinese New Year, I decided to give it a shot at making my own dumplings. This is called jiaozi in Chinese. This is a real easy recipe and the clan rolled up their sleeves and got involved. They even turned some into playdough, but that’s another story.

We made two batches: one with unbleached white flour and the other with half whole wheat and half white. My kids loved both. For the mixed flour batch, see notes below. Here’s what we did for the white flour ones:

Ingredients: (for the filling)

1/2 pound ground pork
1 cup of chopped Chinese chives (also known as garlic chives or Chinese leeks)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoon rice wine
A few dashes of white pepper powder
5 drops of sesame oil

For the skin:

2 cups unbleached white flour
1/2 cups water

Instructions:

Mix the flour with water and knead it for about 20-25 minutes or until the dough gets soft. Separate the dough into two equal portions and roll them into cylinders (about 1 inch in diameter). Cover them with wet towel and set aside.

Prepare the chives by chopping off the root (white part) of the chives. Use only the green part. Chop chives into small sections. Mix the chives with ground pork and add all the seasonings. Chill in fridge for 30 minutes or more.

To prepare the skin, cut the dough into 1/8 to 1/4 in. length. (closer to 1/8 if you prefer thinner skin)On a floured surface, using a rolling pin, flatten the dough until it becomes a round skin about 3 inch in diameter.

Put about 1 Tbsp of filling into the center of the skin and seal it up tightly with your fingers. Seal skin with water if needed.

Heat up a pot of water on high until it boils. Drop the dumplings into the boiling water and bring water back to a boil.

Cover the pot and turn heat to medium for about 5 minutes.

When dumplings are done, scoop them out on a serving plate. Serve hot with Homemade Ponzo Sauce or Orange-Ginger Dipping Sauce or your favorite vinegar-based dipping sauce.

Enjoy!

Notes: For one cup of white and one cup of whole wheat flour, I used 1/2 cup water plus 2 Tbsp more. The rest of the instructions are the same as above. Dumplings could be made ahead for freezing. I freezed a batch on my cookie sheet then stored in ziplock bags once they are frozen. Cooking time is slightly longer for frozen ones.