Rainbow noodles

I am always interested in trying out new meals for the kids. With two toddlers and two teens it isn’t always easy to find something everyone will enjoy. The little ones eat just about anything, which is a blessing in its own, but the older two are rather picky when it comes to what goes in their tummies. For the most part the older ones don’t eat any veggies at all. Actually, the oldest only eats broccoli and the second oldest, well let’s just say he would rather drink a gallon of spoiled milk, upside down in the rain than have any sort of fruit or veggie cross his path.

Lately my favorite companion in the kitchen has been food coloring. A drop in the mashed potatoes or in the pancake mix can do wonders on whether or not I can get all four kids to eat.  The little ones don’t get bored and it makes dinner time exciting for everyone.

A few weeks ago I was scouring Pinterest and came across something so simple I couldn’t even fathom how I didn’t think of it first.

Rainbow noodles.

Not like spinach and tomato juice dyed noodles, literally rainbow noodles.

And it is so simple! All you have to do is add a few drops of food coloring to the water before it starts boiling. For a large pot I did 10 drops of blue in one pot and 10 drops of red in a separate pot. I would have had two more pots going as well but my mom was occupying them with her homemade mozzarella at the time.

 

 

While the noodles were boiling I tossed some frozen chicken tenders, lightly salted, into a 375 degree oven for about 30 minutes. They cooked up nice and golden making a great contrast against the colorful noodles. For the little ones and the adults I also added green peas, then everything was topped with my Mom’s mozzarella.

Piggy Noses

Looking for a last minute party favor for you Barn Yard themed party?

Perhaps just a fun rainy day activity to do with the little ones?

I don’t remember where I came across these for the first time but fell in love with them from the start.

Best of all you can make these little suckers with stuff that you have around the house. All you need is:

·         Empty toilet paper or paper towel rolls
·         Craft knife or scissors
·         2 inch pink circles
·         Strips of pink paper about 1.5 inches by 6 inches
·         Rubber bands
·         Ruler
·         Glue stick
·         Elastic tie or string

Cut mini tubes out of the toilet paper tubes by measuring down about 1.5 inches. I used a rubber band to mark off the distance and cut them using the craft knife.

Add a little glue to the rim of one end of a tube and center the 2 inch circle. Let these dry for a few seconds. I prefer to use a quick dry glue because my toddlers get very antsy when they know there are piggy noses in the making.

Cut little about 20 little snips evenly spaced around the edge of the pink circle making sure they touch the tube on the inside. Run a little bit of glue around right at the bottom of the tube and fold up the little tabs that you just made around the pink circle, pinching them down tightly to make sure they adhere well to the glue.

Attach your rubber bands around the freshly glued part and let dry. I use this time to draw the nostrils on the front of the pink circle. I like to use different colors so each kid knows which piggy nose is there’s.

Remove the rubber bands. Take the strips of paper and evenly cover the backside with a thin layer of glue. Starting at the bottom of the piggy nose (if you’ve already drawn your nostrils on you will be able to tell the bottom by which way the nostrils are facing otherwise it doesn’t really matter where you start) adhere the pink stripe to the nose making sure you line up the edge of the strip with the top of the tube. You will be covering the tabs that you glue down in the step before. Replace the rubber bands and let dry.

After the glue is completely dry poke two holes at the sides of the nose to attach your elastic. Make sure you measure around your future piggy’s head first because nothing is worse than an overly tight piggy nose.  Tie the elastic tightly to the nose in a loop, attach to your piggy, and sit back and enjoy your hard work in action.

You don’t have to constrict yourself to just piggy noses. These make all sorts of great noses just by using different colors. Try leaving the tubes longer to create zebra and horse noses. Draw on different shapes to create kitty, lion, and bunny noses. You can even add whiskers if you’re feeling really crafty.

Enjoy and don’t forget to KEEP LIFE SWEET!

-Chelsea

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