Eat: Turkey Calzones

It's almost been a week since Thanksgiving and let me guess, you are ready for the last leftover meal before throwing it all out? If so, let me suggest you try a turkey calzone.

Ingredients:
4 slices of provolone cheese
1-2 cups of pulled turkey
1-2 cups of stuffing
1/2 cup of cranberry sauce
1/2 jar of pesto
1 (10 oz) roll of refrigerated pizza dough

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Unroll the pizza dough and spread it out into a 15 by 9-inch rectangle. Cut in half, horizontally and vertically, which will leave you with 4 equal-shaped rectangles.

2. Cover each rectangle with pesto. Top each with a slice of cheese.

3. Mix together turkey, stuffing and cranberry sauce. This part is really up to you, as to the amounts of each. For example, if you don't like fruity flavors for a main dish, go slim on the cranberry sauce or cut it out altogether.

4. Spoon the mixture onto the center of each dough rectangle.

5. Fold each rectangle in half, covering the mixture in the middle. Seal using your fingers or a fork.

6. Place them on a sprayed cooking pan and bake for 20 minutes.

I got my inspiration for this recipe from here and here.

Play and Grow: Matchbox Advent Calendar

Thanksgiving has came and went, and you know what that means...Christmastime is here!


Now I know some people are a little "bah humbug" when it comes to getting ready for Christmas early, but I love it. I love Christmas songs; I love wrapping paper; I love Christmas cookies; I love Christmas trees. But most importantly, I love the reason for Christmas: Jesus, God's son, coming down to earth for ME! (and you too!)


So I needed a good way to get in the Christmas spirit but not lose sight of who Christmas is about. My solution was this advent calendar. I actually stumbled across this idea last year. I saw something like it, and I thought, "Hey, I can make that!" Last year, I had a one-month old, so I kinda had my hands full to take on this project, but this year, I got it done. And it was really easy and cheap.

With just some store-bought match boxes (I believe I got 30 for less than 2 bucks) and some pretty Christmas paper, this calendar can come together in no time. And if you're kids are older, they can help decorate the boxes.


Advent Calendar


Materials:
Empty matchboxes
Scrapbook paper (or wrapping paper)
Glue
Markers


Using a scrap piece of paper, wrap the paper around one of the match boxes, creasing at each of the seams. Cut out the shape of the matchbox. This will be your guide for cutting out the sleeves on the scrapbook paper. Cut out 25 sleeves and fold according to your scrap paper guide.

Decorate each sleeve with the numbers 1-25 with the markers in whatever way you want.

Use glue to attach the scrapbook paper to the matchbox outer sleeve.

Arrange matchboxes on a decorated piece of cardboard or canvas. Make sure that each box has enough room to open before gluing down. Attach decorated matchboxes with glue. Hang, fill, and enjoy!




Now when you make an advent calendar, you have to fill it with something. You can do anything that you please, but I want to make sure that my son knows the story of how Jesus was born. So for each day, I am placing a verse selection from the Christmas story to read to him each day, plus, he will get a little piece of candy just for fun. 

Filling the matchboxes

For an older child (probably 6+ but really just based on your child's ability to draw), you can read them the verse(s) and have them draw the scene. By the end of the 25 days, the child will have a completely illustrated version of the Christmas story.


Since I don't have any children of an age that can do the drawings himself, I asked my niece (she's almost 7) to step in. Here are her drawings of  day 1 (the angel appearing to Mary) and day 10 (shepherds watching their sheep at night).

Day 10

Day 1

If you want to try this with a little younger of a child, you as the parent can draw the picture, and the child can then describe what they see. Either way, it will be a great visual of the Christmas story. If you want to access the file in which I have broken up the Christmas story into 25 installments (with picture prompts), you can see it here.


Whether you make this simple or elaborate, I hope you have fun counting down to Christmas!

Grow: Review of Little People Nativity

On Fridays, we will be sharing some kind of activity or reflection that either aids us in helping our kids in their spiritual formation OR ourselves. Being a parent is hard work, and it can be hard to find creative ways to connect with God throughout the day when we're spending our free time thinking about how to nurture the littler ones in our lives. 

photo taken from counselormom.com

Even while our refrigerators are still full with leftovers from Thanksgiving, the world around us is quickly moving on to the Christmas season. As we begin to think through how to best teach our young children about the specialness of Christmas and what it really is celebrating, one of the tools we will be using this year is the Little People Nativity set.

Children learn best through play. So we decided to use the nativity set to help explain, and then act out, the story of Jesus' birth. When reading a text, we felt like the kids didn't get a good grasp on what was actually happening, so this really has helped them to re-create the story again and again, making it their own.

When reading through the Christmas story, we would read a little, and then pause to use the characters to act out what we had just read. This allows for the children to ask questions and it helps us as parents to see which points they are grasping onto. Of course, depending on the child's age, it's not vital that they understand everything....but it is fun to see what sticks out to them, and talk about why that's important. 

I LOVE that the set is durable, friendly for little mouths that are teething, and musical (it plays "Away in a Manger"). And I loved the price- we got ours through Family Christian Stores for only $25. What I don't like about it is that it is missing the shepherds (who can tell the story without the shepherds?!). Those are sold separately. As it relates to telling the story, we just used Little People from Noah's Ark to sit in as shepherds since we had those around the house already.

Despite the lack of shepherds, we are SO glad we made this purchase. It's a fun way to share the Christmas story in an age-appropriate, hands-on way.

Happy Thanksgiving!

From everyone here at Play Eat Grow, we hope you have a blessed and happy Thanksgiving. The Lord has blessed us indeed, and we definitely need to be thankful. Now, go enjoy your turkey!

(oh, and psst, be on the lookout for a unique turkey leftover recipe coming your way)

Eat: Pumpkin Hummus Pie

If you saw the pumpkin hummus post, you will know that I talked about making a pumpkin hummus pie. Well, I  did it! 

Dairy-free and protein-packed!

Now, I haven't really tasted it yet, but just by looks, it looks just like a regular pumpkin pie. And my taste test before baking, it tastes like pumpkin pie, too! But the best thing about it is that it's dairy-free, which is great for me since my little boy seems to be allergic to dairy. So now I have a pie that he can enjoy without worry, and there's extra protein and fiber to boot! I'm excited. And I'm really excited to see if my younger brother will be able to tell the difference.


I made this pie very similar to the pumpkin hummus recipe I posted but I added more sugar and oil, add eggs as a binder, and left out the sesame seeds. It's really important that you process this really smooth so that it will mimic the texture of pumpkin pie as closely as possible.

Before and after baking

So pack some protein on that dessert table, and make some hummus pie!


Pumpkin Hummus Pie


1 cup dried chickpeas, cooked overnight in crockpot (about 2 cans)
1 1/2 cup pumpkin puree (about one can)
1/2 cup pumpkin water (or water if you used canned pumpkin)
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup oil
2 eggs
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground allspice
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground clove
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 pie crust (homemade or store-bought)


Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. 
Place all ingredients in food processor. Process until very smooth.
Line pie pan with pie crust. Fill pie crust with pie filling (I had a little leftover). 
Bake for about 50 minutes, covering with foil after about 20 minutes to prevent the crust from burning. The pie should only jiggle a little when you take it out.
Let cool and chill in fridge before serving.

Eat: Pumpkin Hummus and Baked Tortilla Chips

Every Wednesday we will share an Eat recipe that is healthy, tasty, and hopefully, a bit out of the ordinary. Some will be tried and true recipes; some will be inventions of our own mind. But either way, it will be fun! So come join the feast!


It's finally that time of year. Fall flavors are back (and rampant!) and I couldn't be happier. If you ask me, the quintessential fall flavor has got to be pumpkin. Pumpkin is one of my loves, so I'm excited to be celebrating this fruit (vegetable? why is it so hard to know sometimes?) with a recipe of my own.

I don't know about you, but I sometimes feel like the same things are brought to the Thanksgiving table every year. Now don't get me wrong, I love the classics, but I also like to jazz it up a bit every now and then, and this recipe is a great way to do it. This has all the flavor of the holidays but in a less than usual form. Hummus has definitely become the new fad appetizer, so why not have one fit for Thanksgiving?

Pumpkin Hummus

I actually got the inspiration for this recipe from my local farmers market. They have a stand there called Fresh A Peel Hummus, which sells gourmet hummus. One of their flavors was pumpkin dessert, and I just had to sample it. It tasted like pumpkin pie. The man selling it said that the chickpea does not discriminate. I loved that, and I wanted to try making my own version. I made mine a little less sweet than the one I test tasted since I love the mix of sweet and savory, but I would love to see if this recipe sweetened up a little more would make a great dairy-free and protein packed pumpkin pie. In fact, I will try it. I'm on pie duty for Thanksgiving, and my younger brother always begs for me to make a pumpkin pie whenever I visit. Literally the first words out of his mouth to me whenever I visit is "pumpkin pie." Ridiculous. So this year, he's getting a hummus pie. Take that little brother. But in all honesty, I bet he won't even notice. I'll report back and let you know. (Look for a post later for the pie recipe!)

If you haven’t made hummus before, you’ve got to try it. All you need as far as equipment is a food processor. So easy. You literally fill the food processor, turn it on, and then dip and eat. In this recipe, I have used dried chickpeas that I cook overnight in my crockpot, but you could easily substitute two cans of chickpeas. And I also use some homemade pumpkin puree (and use the reserved juice) but this could be easily subbed for canned pumpkin and extra water.

I have served these with baked tortilla chips that are a hit every time I make them. I made them for the first time simply because we were out of chips but had things to dip chips in, and so, a recipe was born. In this version, I am sprinkling the tortillas with salt and ground cinnamon, but for more savory applications, I like a mix of salt, pepper, and paprika. But you can have fun with these, customizing them with your own mix of spices and cutting them into whatever shapes your heart desires.

Dipped and ready to eat!

And in case you needed proof that these are a crowd-pleaser, please observe:

He tries it; He likes it!

But that’s enough explaining, here are the recipes:


Pumpkin Hummus
adapted from here

1 cup dried chickpeas, cooked overnight in a crockpot (or 2 cans of chickpeas)
3 tsp sesame seeds
1 ½ cups pumpkin (approximately 1 can)
½ cup pumpkin juice (or water if using canned pumpkin)
3 tbsp brown sugar
¼ tsp ground clove
¼ tsp ground nutmeg
½ tsp ground allspice
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp salt
½ cup olive oil
Juice of one lemon

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Spread sesame seeds out on a baking sheet and toast until nutty smelling and light brown, approximately 3 minutes.
Place all of the ingredients in a food processor and process until smooth.
Serve with Baked Tortilla Chips (recipe below).

Ingredients; Toasted sesame seeds
Before processing; After processing (Hummus made!)

Baked Tortilla Chips

1 package of tortillas
Oil for drizzling
Salt to taste
Ground Cinnamon to taste

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Cut the tortillas with a pizza cutter or knife into wedges. Spread the cut pieces on a baking sheet. Drizzle with oil and dust with salt and cinnamon to taste.
Bake for approximately 7 minutes, until lightly brown and crispy.

Ready to cut; Tortilla wedges
Before baking; After baking

Play: Leaf Placemats

Welcome to Play Eat Grow! We're so glad that you stopped by. For the next few weeks we'll be tinkering around with the space, so be sure to check back often.


Every Monday we will be sharing a Play activity that is fun, easy, and inexpensive. Sometimes we’ll make them up, other times we’ll try out an idea we find somewhere else. While we have children that are between the ages of 1 and 4, we will be featuring activities for a variety of ages, sometimes even for us moms!

Our first Play activity comes right in time for Thanksgiving. In preparation for my family’s big Thanksgiving dinner, we made leaf placemats for each guest. Not only will they serve as a table decoration, but it is something our guests can bring home as a token of our Thanksgiving celebration.

We spent about 30 minutes searching for a variety of bright leaves. We picked up way more than we thought we could use because we wanted the option of a lot of different color, size, and type combinations. We also included some brown ones that were large and intact to complement the orange, red and yellow that we were finding everywhere.

Next, we came back inside and spread our leaves around the table. The kids had a great time arranging the leaves on laminating sheets, and then sending them through the laminating machine. 

When using a machine, we found that it’s important to take off any thick stems before sending the sheets through. If you don’t have a laminating machine, no problem. You can easily press the leaves between two sheets of contact paper to achieve a similar effect.
Here’s the finished product!

The only thing I would have done differently if I had had more time is press the leaves for a few days in order to get them a little softer and flatter. Other than that, they turned out great and the kids are excited to be sharing them in a few days!