We had a friend coming over recently, and she was so impressed by the fact that we had made cider for her.  She walked in the house and said it smelled “mulled.”  I asked what that was, and she told me she meant the way some people warm it with spices and everything.  So, I was all, “Yeah, that’s the kind we’re having.”  Seriously, I looked like a total Suzie Homemaker, and the whole process from start to finish took about ten minutes.

What You’ll Need to Make Homemade Mulled Apple Cider

• Apples – We used about a dozen (If you want to cheat and do really easy version, just use pre-made apple juice.  Your kid will totally not care.)
• Juicer
• Apple slicer or knife
• Cinnamon
• Nutmeg
• Cloves

I've looked into the difference between "apple juice" and "apple cider," and even though the juicer filters it to some degree, I'd say what comes out still qualifies as cider.

Wash your apples. If you happen to have a ladybug around, it makes this part more fun. ;-)

Slice your apples.

Run the apples through the juicer right into a sauce pan. Add about a teaspoon of cinnamon and 1/4 teaspoon each of ground nutmeg and ground cloves.

I didn’t get a picture of it, but the spices left kind of a scum on top after the apple cider was warmed, so I just skimmed it off.

It tastes delicious and totally made my house smell like the holidays!

Seriously, how did I not know about this!?

I’ve always heard of snickerdoodles, but I had NO IDEA how good they really are.  Now, my how family is aware, and we’ll likely be using this snickerdoodle recipe many, many times.  The cookies stayed soft for days, even when left out in the air.

Related Pages: 12 Christmas Sugar Cookie Recipes, Applesauce Recipes

Snickerdoodle Cookies Recipe:

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp cream of tartar (Yes, there is something other than home made play dough that uses cream of tartar!)
• 2 TBS sugar
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
  

  How to make snickerdoodles.

Beat the butter on med-high for about 30 seconds before adding half of the flour, the sugar, egg, vanilla, baking soda, and cream of tartar. Then add the rest of the flour and beat it all together.

In a smaller bowl, mix together the sugar and cinnamon.

Roll your dough into 1-inch balls and then roll them around in the sugar/cinnamon mixture.

Place the balls two inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake for about 11 minutes at 375 degrees (F). The edges will brown slightly.

Cool your snickerdoodles on a wire rack (or, you know, whatever).

This homemade smoothie recipe is healthy and totally kid-approved.

When it comes to getting kids to eat healthfully, it’s not always easy.  Dot and I got to experimenting a while back and ended up making some awesome soothies.  She likes them so much that we went through quite an experience one night when she kept asking for “foovies,” and we had no idea what she was saying.  Now the whole family calls them foovies, and we have them all the time.

Related Pages: Non-Alcoholic Drink Recipes for Kids,Watermelon Recipes

There are tons of ways to make smoothies, but we like our version, and it’s even pretty healthy:

• 3/4 cup yogurt (we like fruit or vanilla)
• 3/4 cup frozen berries or fruit
• 1/3 cup orange juice
• 1/2 banana

Everything in this yummy smoothie recipe is pretty healthy.

Blend the smoothie ingredients until...well...smooth.

I just recently tried freezing some of the smoothies in these popsicle molds I got from Tupperware, and they are a HUGE hit.

Smoothie popsicles are awesome!

Making no bake cookies with kids is fun.

Dot and I enjoy baking, but nothing gets requested as often as these yummy, yummy no-bake cookies.  Despite the fact that there’s a fair amount of sugar and butter, I try to tell myself that it’s offset by the oats and peanut butter, for a cookie that’s not entirely horrible for us.

To make no bake cookies, you will need:

2 cups sugar
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 pinch salt
1/2 cup peanut butter
3 cups minute oats

Ingredients for no bake cookie recipe

• Start by putting the milk, butter, sugar, and cocoa into a saucepan.
• Heat the mixture to boiling and let it boil for 1 1/2 minutes.
• Remove from heat.
• Stir in peanut butter, oats, and vanilla.  (I put the peanut butter in first so it can melt before I add the oats.)

Boiling the no bake cookie mixture for 1 1/2 minutes is supposed to be the key to getting these to turn out just right.

The mixture will be very hot, so I usually have Dot watch me as I scoop spoonfuls out onto wax paper.  She then “helps” by flattening them down with a spatula.

This recipe makes about 36 no bake cookies.

What I Learned the Hard Way: Every once in a while, I get a batch of these that won’t quite firm up.  I have yet to figure out why, exactly.  What I have learned, however, is that you can put them in the freezer to harden them up, and they’re still totally delicious.  (Seriously, even if they’re just piles of goo on the wax paper, they’re totally delicious.)

Homemade Play Dough

This play dough recipe has been one of our best craft projects yet.  Dot has been known to play with it for literally HOURS during the day.  The hardest part is convincing her not to mix all of the colors together, but we do what we can, right?  The recipe itself is pretty easy, although I had a bit of a scare, as I figured I didn’t have cream of tartar around the house.  It turns out my husband had purchased some for something he made back at Thanksgiving, so we were able to add it in.  Apparently, it gives the play dough better elasticity.  (By the way, don’t let the number of pictures in this post make you think this is a complicated project.  It was actually really, really easy.  I just took a lot of pictures.)

Related Pages: Coloring Pages for Kids, Peanut Butter and Jelly Recipes, Circus Crafts

Homemade Play Dough Ingredients

• 1 cup flour
• 1 cup (warm) water
• 1/4 cup salt
• 2 teaspoons cream of tartar
• 1 teaspoon vegetable oil
• food coloring

Homemade play dough ingredients

Measure dry play dough ingredients into a saucepan

Play dough ingredients start out a little soupy

As you cook over medium heat, the play dough firms up, it only takes a few minutes

When the play dough is firm, take it out of the pan and knead it.  It’s probably not too hot, but check it just in case to make sure you or your kids don’t get burned.

Coloring your homemade play dough

I then cut the dough into six roughly equal pieces, one of each color (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple)

Five drops of food coloring per play dough ball

I placed each ball into a plastic bag and then kneaded it to get the color to spread evenly.  To get the colors, try this.

• Red = 5 drops of red
• Orange = 3 drops of yellow, two drops of red
• Yellow = 5 drops of yellow
• Green = 5 drops of green (or three drops of yellow and two drops of blue)
• Blue = 5 drops of blue
• Purple = 3 drops of blue, two drops of red

You can also make your play dough smell good by adding things like peppermint extract, cinnamon, vanilla extract, etc.  I added banana extract to the yellow, but apparently I needed more, as we couldn’t smell it when all was said and done.

Make scented play dough

A play dough rainbow!

Keep your play dough in an airtight container, and it will last quite a while.  We’ve had ours for about two weeks, and it’s still in pretty good condition!

What I Learned the Hard Way: Mixing the color into the play dough is harder than it looks.  The majority of the time we spent making the dough revolved around mixing in the color.  You can make all of your dough a single color by adding the food coloring to the mixture before you heat it, but I wanted to have lots of colors and think it was worth the extra work.

Related Pages: Healthy Pasta Recipe for Kids, Applesauce Recipes, more Summer Watermelon Recipes

Chips and Watermelon Salsa

Watermelon Salsa Ingredients

This is a mild and sweet salsa with a really fresh taste. I used onion and garlic powder to add flavor that wasn’t too overpowering for the kids. If I were to make it for adults, I would substitute fresh minced onion and garlic instead. If you have really juicy tomatoes, this salsa can get pretty watery because of the watermelon. So you may want to strain it just a bit when it’s completed. Putting watermelon in the recipe is a great ‘selling point’ – my youngest very picky eater was so curious that even she was willing to try it (to my absolute amazement!).

6-7 Medium tomatoes, diced (Preferably fresh from the garden!)

1/2 Banana pepper, finely diced (about 1 tbsp)

1 cup Watermelon, diced (Don’t squish it! Keep it a little chunky.)

1 Lime

1/2 tsp Onion salt

1/4 tsp Cumin

1 tsp Onion powder

1 tbsp Garlic powder

Dash of chili powder

1 tsp Paprika

1 tsp Oregano

1 tsp Red wine vinegar

Chopped parsley or cilantro to taste

Combine tomatoes, banana pepper, and watermelon in a medium mixing bowl. Microwave your lime – whole – for 30 seconds. This releases the juices amazingly well. Squeeze the lime juice into the bowl and try to get as much pulp into the mix as you can. I cut the pulp off with a knife. Add the parsley or cilantro and mix well with a spoon.

Sprinkle the rest of the dry seasoning ingredients and vinegar on top and again mix well. There’s no need to puree or mush the ingredients together – the watery tomatoes and watermelon take care of themselves. Like I said earlier, you may even need to strain it a bit.

While you can serve this immediately, it tastes even better if it can sit overnight in your fridge!

Check out all of our easy and kid-friendly recipes while you are here!

So with the price of orange extract being so insanely high for such a tiny bottle, I decided to hunt some down at my local dollar store – and I scored! But then I used it all up, and found that they don’t sell it year-round. They only have it for November and December. So instead of going back to buying it at $4+ a bottle, I decided to make my own.

I found a few recipes online that seemed quite easy, but warned that they weren’t as strong as what you can buy in the store. So I used more orange peel (duh), and viola – orange extract that was just as strong as what I could get at my supermarket.

Orange Extract Ingredients

Vodka – approximately 1 1/2 cups

2 oranges

Plus you will need a glass bottle (preferably with a pourer), I got mine as part of a vinegar and oil set at my local dollar store.

This recipe is for a 15 ounce (or so) bottle.

How to Make Orange Extract

Peel two whole oranges with the channel knife part of a citrus zesting tool:

Place the orange peels into your bottle. Pour vodka over the top of them until they are fully covered, with about a half an inch more liquid on top. My photo shows the peels just barely covered – that’s because I’ve been using it a lot lately! If you use a smaller bottle, try to keep proportions the same.

The vodka flavor goes away the longer you let the orange peels steep. Let sit in a cool dry place for at least a week, but the flavor vastly improves if you can wait one month.