ZKidsMusic

2009-04-22T17:08:00.000-07:00

Kid Friendly Meal!

Tuna Sailboat and a Goldfish Cracker fruit Salad

Another Meal Planning Idea

2008-09-20T20:44:00.000-07:00

Another idea for making meal planning easier that I've done is made a list of quick and easy breakfasts, lunches and dinners. Sometimes it's 5:00 and I'm racking my brain, trying to come up with something to make. Now I can go to my list for some quick and easy ideas that I might not otherwise be thinking of. For example, on my dinner list are the following, as well as many others:

Tomato soup & grilled cheese
Breakfast for dinner
BLTs
Easy chicken parmesan (breaded chicken patty, topped w/ prepared spaghetti sauce and
shredded mozzarella cheese)
Tuna melt
Egg in a hole (Butter both sides of a piece of bread. Use a small cup to make a hole in the center of the bread. Let your child eat his/her "hole" - quite possibly my kids' favorite part! Put the bread in a hot frying pan. Crack an egg into the hole. Pierce the yoke. Flip. Done! Mine like it served with ketchup, even though they'd never otherwise eat ketchup on eggs!)

Having this list helps me to easily come up with something quick to make that I might have otherwise forgotten about. Happy dinners to all!

Meal Planning Ideas

2008-09-20T20:34:00.001-07:00

Need help with planning meals for your family? I do! Sometimes I plan out a whole week's menu ahead of time, and other weeks I find myself "winging it" all week long! One of my friends came to the rescue when she invited me to participate in a meal planning group. There are seven of us in the group. She sends out a schedule so we each know which week we are to plan. Each girl is assigned a week. You plan for your week and e-mail it to the group during the week prior to give everyone time to grocery shop. So each week, I have my week's worth of meals planned out for me by these other ladies in the group. I only have to plan one week out of seven! Of course, I don't often follow it exactly. Some recipes don't interest me or maybe we'll have other plans for some night during the week, but it's there if I want to use the menu. You can easily do the same thing, and your group can be as large or small as you want it to be.

Here's another great option. Check out the Month of Meals on the Family Fun website! http://familyfun.go.com/recipes/meal-planner/index.html A whole month of meals, pleasing to the kids and adults alike. How convenient!

Family Fun magazine

2008-09-20T20:26:00.000-07:00

Have you ever checked out Family Fun magazine? If not, it's worth a look. Has very cute seasonal crafts. This month you'll find out how to make tie-dye pumpkin t-shirts (very cute!), bat mini-pumpkins, and this creepy-looking "brain" out of a watermelon, among other great ideas. Check out the website at http://www.familyfun.go.com

Prescott FallFest

2008-09-20T20:19:00.001-07:00

The craft show in Prescott, AZ over Labor Day weekend went very well. The weather was beautiful - perfect, really. Thank you to all who came and purchased CDs. Thank you to those who e-mailed us to tell us how much your kids and grandkids love their CDs! Knowing how happy the children are makes our day.
That last craft show went so well that we are going back to Prescott for the FallFest in the Park on Oct. 11 & 12. What a great time of year to head up to the mountains and feel true fall weather! Now that Youngs Farm is no longer in operation (heart-breaking to us, as well as to so many other Arizonans!), just travel a little farther and enjoy the beauty and charm of Prescott in the fall. We look forward to seeing you then!

Come see us at the Prescott Craft Show Today through Labor Day!

2008-08-30T15:22:00.000-07:00

If you live in Arizona, head to the Faire on the Square in Prescott. Escape the heat if you live in the Valley (or anywhere else but the mountains!) - the weather is beautiful! A little breeze, a little cloud cover, and temps 15-20 degrees cooler than in Phoenix! We'll be here Saturday & Sunday 9-5 and Monday (Labor Day) 9-3. Come see us near the corner of Gurley St. and Cortez!

Mmm...Chocolate Chip Muffins that are Good for You

2008-08-13T10:50:00.000-07:00

Another fabulous recipe from the Deceptively Delicious cookbook that I loved is for Chocolate Chip Cupcakes. They have 1 cup canned pumpkin (don't even have to puree - just open the can!) and 1/2 c. yellow squash puree. It calls for 2 1/4 c. all purpose flour, so I used approx. 1 1/2 c. whole wheat flour, and only 3/4 c. all-purpose flour. Skipped the frosting and called them chocolate chip muffins, rather than cupcakes. Huge hit with my kids, their friends, and their friends' mommies!

Try this: Make muffins in mini-muffin tins. Now you don't have the issue of your kids eating the muffin tops and leaving the rest. They think mini-muffins are really fun - and they like that they get more than one! If you're working on portion control, eating 2-3 mini muffins can be more fun for you, too - and you'll consume less calories than when eating a whole muffin.

Beets in Your Pancakes, Anyone?

2008-08-13T10:24:00.000-07:00

French toast with pumpkin, pancakes with beets and macaroni & cheese with white beans and cauliflower...sound yummy? Surprisingly, they are great! And what kid wouldn't think pink pancakes are fun? These are a few examples of recipes from Jessica Seinfield's Deceptively Delicious cookbook. The concept is to hide pureed veggies in food to boost the nutritional content and get more veggies into your kids (and your hubby and/or yourself!).

My mother-in-law gave me this cookbook for Christmas along with a starter set of frozen purees that she made for me. What a great gift! Because the purees were already made for me, I started trying some of the recipes right away. Nearly every recipe we've tried has been a HUGE hit with our whole family, kids and adults alike. Every few months I spend approx. one hour on a couple evenings making/bagging more purees to stock my freezer. Whenever I want to try a recipe, the purees are ready for me. Here's a tip: Freeze purees in snack-size baggies in the amount you'll need for the recipes (mostly 1/4 c., but I also fill some baggies with 1/2 c. portions, since some recipes call for 1/2 cups). Label the baggies with a marker, for example 1/4 c. cauliflower. Lay them flat in your freezer. Having them flat makes them much easier to store and they thaw quickly in a bowl of hot tap water.

Our favorite recipe - Chocolate cupcakes with avocado and cauliflower. There is an entire cup of avocado in the cupcake batter, which makes the cupcakes rich, moist and delicious! Made these for my son's birthday. They were the best cupcakes I've ever had, hands down! Oh, and one more tip: In most recipes for cookies, cupcakes, muffins, etc., when it calls for all-purpose flour, I always substitute at least half of it with whole-wheat flour (sometimes up to 2/3). In this recipe, since it was the first time I made them, I tried half. They turned out so well, next time I'll try more whole-wheat, less all-purpose. How awesome that when eating a birthday cupcake, my kids were eating avocado, cauliflower, and whole grains!

Free Rice

2008-07-16T20:11:00.000-07:00

Have you checked out FreeRice.com? No, you will not get free rice by visiting this site - it's even better! You answer vocabulary questions, choosing the meaning of words. It's multiple choice, so even if vocabularly isn't a strength for you, you're bound to get some right! For every meaning you guess correctly, 20 grains of rice are donated through the UN World Food Program to help end world hunger. So simple and addicting! In just a few minutes of me guessing meanings, 800 grains of rice were donated! On the site today, it stated that 83,260,380 grains of rice were donated yesterday; over 39 billion to date! How awesome is that? If you have elementary, jr. high, or high school children, introduce them to it - what a great way for them to improve their vocabulary, have fun doing it, and feel good about helping eliminate world hunger, all at the same time!

Welcome to the Z Kids Music blog!

2008-07-16T13:57:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the Z Kids Music blog! I am thrilled that you decided to join us on this amazing adventure! First, I’ll share with you a little about our company, Z Kids Music. Have you listened to a sample song yet? If so, you completely understand why we absolutely LOVE this product! If you haven’t, I suggest you do! In our house, we started with VeggieTales vol. 1 (the one with the yellow background). The look on our daughter’s face when she realized the VeggieTales were singing her name was absolutely priceless! She loved it! That was at age one. She still loves it today, at age four, and her little brother does, too. This disc is a staple in our car. They sing along, laugh, and do all the moves to the songs, such as “If You’re Happy and You Know It” - the best they can when strapped in their car seats! This is the CD that I always turn to when I see they’re about to doze off just minutes from home. Perks them up so we can make it home for real naps in bed, rather than the 5 minute snooze in the car that makes them grouchy for the rest of the day. This is my afternoon-saving CD!
We love these CDs, and I’m confident you and your children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, and friends will love them, as well! Remember, when you order three or more CDs, you receive $5 off each one!
What else will you find on this blog, you ask? As a parent of young children, I’ll be sharing tips and tricks for parenting. I’ll share with you my favorite healthy kids cookbooks, recipes, activities, websites, insights, and anything else I think you might find useful and relevant. Please check back often and add your tips and feedback, as well. Let’s have fun raising kids together!