Shrimp Alfredo

What You Need:
2 tablespoons butter/margarine
2 tablespoons minced garlic
3 cups heavy cream
3/4 cups of grated Parmesan cheese
Shrimp peeled & deveined
Pasta of your choice

What To Do:
Melt the butter in a large pan on medium high heat. Sweat (gently cook) the garlic for a minute. You want to smell garlic but you don't want it to turn brown, or burn. Stir in heavy cream and 1/4 cups of parmesan cheese. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat. Let simmer and stir frequently.

Meanwhile, cook pasta and drain.


Add shrimp and the remaining 1/2 cup of cheese to the sauce and stir. Let simmer until shrimp is fully cooked about 5 minutes.

Toss with pasta and serve.



VARIATIONS: Feel free to pre cook the shrimp and flavor with your favorite seasonings. In the picture, the shrimp was sauteed in a pan with butter, 1 tsp Sazon seasoning, 1 tsp rosemary, 1 tsp minced garlic and 1 tsp sugar.

Foil Wrapped Pineapple Chicken

This quick lunch or dinner is great for parties and bar-b-ques  or anything else where time is not on your side. Plus kids will love the individual pouches.  Easy to make fun for kids!

It's also another way to utilize the Hoisin sauce from the Chinese Chicken recipe.

What You Need:
Chicken Breast cut into chunks
Pineapple chunks
Minced garlic 1 tsp
Soy Sauce 2 tbsp
Hoisin Sauce 4 tbsp
Onion Powder
Ground Ginger
Black Pepper
Chives 1/2 tsp
Corn Starch 1 tsp
Honey
aluminum foil

What To Do: In a bowl mix Soy Sauce, Hoisin Sauce, minced garlic, cornstarch and chives. Sprinkle Onion powder, ginger, pepper, and a few squirts of honey into the mix. Mix well. Add chicken and pineapple chunks. Mix well and let marinate in the refrigerator at least 20 minutes -(the longer the better) Cut aluminum foil into squares so that when a pouch is formed it will sit in your palm.

Spoon chicken mixture into the center of the foil square and join the edges to make a pouch. Make sure to get some sauce in there, this will help keep chicken moist.

Place the pouches in a pan and cook for 40 mins in a 350 degree over.  Or Place them on a hot grill for 30 minutes.  Try not to over cook or the chicken will dry out.


Let cool and serve.

Plastic Spoon Puppets

This is a cheap and easy craft that you can do again & again  and can lead to hours of role playing fun!

What You Need: 
Plastic Spoons, Felt, Permanent Markers, Scissor, Glue, Pipe Cleaners

What To Do:
Draw faces on to the back side of the spoons with permanent markers. Carefully cut clothing, hair, hats, etc from felt. (Note: Fold clothing in half and use scissor to make a slit to slide spoon handle in) Glue hair on spoon. Wrap a pipe cleaner around the handle to make arms.

inspired by a post by Inspired Crafter

Fun with Pen & Paper

You don't need a lot of fancy toys to have big fun. Here are three activities for you and your little ones and all you need is a crayon and a sheet of paper (or more for more fun!) These are also great if you have to take your kids to work and they need something to do!


Copy Cat - Give each person a sheet of paper and a crayon. The first person draws a shape. Everyone else then has to copy that shape on their own sheet. The next person adds to the drawing, everyone then copies that on their sheet. Continue until everyone has had a turn or keep going until everyone decides that the picture is complete. Notice how similar yet different everyone's picture is.

There once was a Girl... - Again give each person a sheet of paper and access to crayons. Everyone then has to draw the following sentence: There once was a girl, who lived in a house, under a tree, next to a river.  (You can say the whole sentence at once or one piece at a time). Again compare and contrast how different their girls, houses, trees, and rivers are.  You can try these other sentences:
There once was a boy wearing a hat who lived on a farm with lots of animals.
There once was a frog, who lived on a rock next to a lake with lots of birds.
There once was a puppy who was digging a hole next to some flowers in the backyard.
Or Make up your own!

Three Piece Suit - Give each person a piece of paper and a crayon. Fold the paper into three sections. On your piece of paper draw a head and shoulders in the top section making sure the shoulder lines go just slightly over the fold. Decorate it how ever you'd like 2 eyes, 1 eye, 6 eyes! no mouth, curly hair whatever you'd like. It could be a potato head, a lions head anything goes! When you're done fold your paper so that the next section shows but not the head. Switch with another person. Now everyone draws the torso of whatever character they'd like: it doesn't  have to be the same one you drew before, again anything goes. No arms, six arms, fur, a dress, a bow-tie. Again draw all the way to the hips making sure the lines go just slightly over the fold. Fold the page again and switch: now everyone draws legs and feet being as creative as they want.  When everyone is done unfold the pages and see what kind of Creations you've come up with!

15 Minute Shrimp Scampi

Fifteen Minutes and 8 simple ingredients and have a delicious dinner!

What You Need:
Shrimp (peeled and deveined)
Chopped Broccoli
Instant Rice
2 Tbsp chopped garlic
Tbsp parsley
5 Tbsp butter
1/2 cup of Stock (seafood, chicken, or vegetable)
oil

What To Do:
Saute shrimp in oil in a large skillet until pink. Remove shrimp from pan, reduce heat and add the garlic to pan.           While garlic is sauteing, cook instant rice according to directions.  Add stock to pan and allow to reduce by almost half. Melt the butter into the sauce and replace shrimp into pan. Rinse broccoli and add to pan while still damp. Sprinkle parsley and stir well.  Cover and heat through.

Serve over rice.

Variations: Use 1/4 cup white wine and 1/4 stock for a more "grown up" taste. Or toss with Angel hair pasta instead of rice.

Stuffed Peppers

A yummy dish that uses few ingredients and doesn't take too much time to create. And who doesn't love a dish where you can eat the bowl too!

What You Need:
Green Peppers
ground meat
white rice
mozzarella cheese
spaghetti sauce
garlic, thyme, basil, rosemary


What To Do: Cut tops off peppers and remove all seeds. Arrange peppers in a baking dish. and set aside. Cook white rice according to directions. In a bowl sprinkle ground meat with a tsp. each of garlic, thyme, basil, & rosemary and mix well. In a skillet cook meat through until brown. Once cooked put on paper towel to drain. Combine meat and rice in a large sauce pan and mix well add spaghetti sauce a little at a time until consistency meets your taste.  Fill peppers with the meat/rice filling and top with cheese.  Place in oven and bake until cheese melts.

Father's Day Pillow Craft

Make Dad this simple throw pillow. It's a great way to say Happy Father's Day and perfect for little hands to make.

What You Need:

two pieces of felt , Scissors, Fabric Glue, Cotton stuffing and any other ornaments and decorations you'd like - fabric glue, felt letters & Shapes, buttons etc.

What To Do:

Take a piece of felt and let your kids decorate it by drawing with fabric paints, attaching felt letters and personalizing for dad. Craft stores sell pre-cut felt letters and shapes, so you don't have to try and cut out a set of golf clubs to stick on your pillow.

Then using fabric glue, close up three sides of the pillow by gluing the edges of the front felt to the back piece. Once dry stuff with the cotton and seal the last edge closing the pillow.

For very small kids, you can dip their hands in fabric paint and press onto the felt to make a handprint pillow keepsake.

Another fathers day idea is the Change Dish that was posted for Mother's Day!

Chunky Chinese Chicken

This is a recipe that my Dad has been making for years and years. I loved it as a kid and now my kid loves it! It's really easy and only needs a few ingredients.

What You Need:

4 Chicken breast or boneless thighs- cut into large chunks

eggs - beaten

flour

Hoisin sauce

three tsp (or packets) of soy sauce

powdered sugar

oil

What To Do:

Bread the chicken by dipping in the egg and then dredging in the flour. In a large saute pan heat the oil and then cook the chicken until golden brown and cooked through. Remove chicken from pan and let drain. when the oil has cooled a bit you want to discard it and wipe the pan quickly with a paper towel. Over a low heat, add the soy sauce to the pan. Then add one heaping tablespoon of Hoisin Sauce and stir. Once combined, add a tablespoon of powdered sugar and mix well. Add the chicken back into the pan and stir until well coated. It won't look like enough sauce but keep mixing.

Serve with white rice and vegetables - broccoli, carrots or snow-pea pods work best.

Note: Hoisin sauce can be found near the Soy Sauce in most Supermarkets. And you can easily adjust the amount of each ingredient to suit your families taste!

Stuffed Bread

I learned this recipe a few summers ago from my friend Dorothy. It's is so easy but seems so complicated. Its a one dish dinner with endless variations!

What You Need: cooked Chicken strips (they sell precooked strips or you can grill a chicken breast and slice it), your favorite shredded cheeses, chopped broccoli and carrots, a tube of crescent rolls or croissants

What to Do: Preheat oven to 350. Roll out the crescent roll dough on to a cookie sheet and press the dough to get rid of the perforations. In a bowl mix the chicken, cheese, broccoli and carrots. Place the mixture on top of the dough and then pull the ends of the dough to meet. press firmly so that it will bake closed.

Bake until the dough is golden brown.

Slice and serve.

Variations: You can stuff your bread with whatever you'd like, the trick is to make sure the meat is cooked before placing it in the dough. Try:

-spaghetti sauce, mozzarella cheese and meatballs.

-strips of steak, mushrooms and onions.

-shrimp and squash seasoned with sage.

This is also a great way to convert leftovers into a new dish. Use leftover roast chicken instead of grilled chicken breast, or chop up leftover meatloaf and mix with softened potatoes and onions and gravy.