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Homemade Play Dough is one of my favorite party favors to hand out. It’s easy and inexpensive to make and it smells SO much better than what you buy in the store. I like to include a note that says “Play dough, Do not eat!” because it smells like something you should eat. You can also include the recipe so they can make more at home.

 

You Will Need:

1 cup Flour

1/2 cup Salt

1 or 2 packages unsweetened Kool-Aid powder in any flavor you’d like

3 Tablespoons Oil (vegetable, baby oil, whatever you have!)

1 cup Water

 

Directions:

1. Place your dry ingredients in a large bowl

 

 

2. Heat water and oil to a rolling boil and pour over your dry ingredients. Mix as well as you can with a spatula, then let sit until cool enough to knead with your hands.

 

 

3. Sprinkle a little flour on your working surface and knead dough with your hands until well combined.

 

 

Ready for playing or packing up for favors! That was easy, why not make some in every color?! This Play Dough lasts for up to a month in a well sealed container.

 

 

*If your play dough still feels sticky, add flour a little at a time until your dough is no longer sticky!

As I’m sure you can tell I LOVE making sweet treats for a party……. or for breakfast. But making “real” food is important too! I’ve decided to start adding some of my favorite recipes for how to feed a crowd at a party. I come from a large family (I’m #4 out of 7) and have grown up making big batches of everything while learning what works for a crowd and what doesn’t.

I thought we’d start off with a recipe somewhere in-between sweet treats and “real” food, banana muffins!

These would be great for a brunch or a sleepover party!

 

 

I had a lot of very ripe bananas that needed to be dealt with today. I tripled this recipe and came out with 48 regular sized muffins. Usually I would bake them in my mini muffin tin and end up with twice as many, but I did not need nearly 100 muffins this morning!

 

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 very ripe bananas {mashed}

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar {packed}

1 egg {lightly beaten}

1/3 cup butter {melted and cooled slightly}

1 Tablespoon vanilla

1 -2 teaspoons cinnamon

 

Directions:

Heat oven to 350F and put liners in muffin tins.

In a large bowl mash bananas, add sugars, egg, vanilla and melted butter.

In another bowl mix your dry ingredients.

Slowly mix dry ingredients into your wet ingredients. Do not over mix.

Fill muffin tins about 3/4 full.

Bake 18-20 minutes {15 minutes if using a mini muffin tin}

Muffins are done when a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

 

YUM!

 

In my house we call these “Hulk Smoothies” and have them year-round. With St. Patrick’s Day coming up you could always say a little Leprechaun shared his special recipe

 

Our basic recipe is here:

2 cubed mangoes (or about 2 cups frozen mango)

1 large banana (or two small)

1 apple (chopped)

2-4 cups fresh baby spinach (don’t use the frozen brick stuff!) You won’t taste the spinach I promise!

2 cups orange juice, cranberry juice or grape juice. Orange produces the most pleasing color (shown with orange juice above), but grape is the taste test winner in our house! Try to use 100% juice.

Blend items in your blender until smooth. If none of your fruit was frozen, add a handful or two of ice.

Some tried and true tips:

When fruit is getting ripe and you don’t think you’ll eat it, peel, chop and freeze it for smoothies! This goes for fresh baby spinach too. After it’s been washed and dried, place 2-4 cups in Ziploc freezer bags and freeze. When you are ready to make a smoothie just grab a bag and dump it in the blender with your other ingredients.

 It’s impossible to peel a frozen banana. You’ll only make this mistake once and I’ve already made it for you. Peel bananas before freezing.

Using frozen fruit instead of adding ice produces the best flavor.

Use whatever fruit you have on hand, experiment with flavors! Keep the bananas (for a creamy consistency) and amount of liquid, but everything else can be substituted!

Darker fruit (berries) will produce a smoothie that might not look too pretty, but it sure is tasty!

If you have a child that looks at you like you’re crazy for handing them something green (no matter what you call it) try putting it in a solid colored cup (that they can’t see through!) with a lid and a straw. If you can get them to taste it before they see it you’ll be fine!

Put leftover smoothie in popsicle molds and freeze for a frozen treat later!

Some things we like to substitute; pineapple (replace one cup or all of the mango), berries (replace one cup or all of the mango), baby kale (replace some or all of the spinach), papaya (replace one cup or all of the mango),

Some things we like to add;  soaked chia seeds (1-2 Tablespoons), flax seeds (1 Tablespoon), almonds (small handful), vanilla protein powder (1 scoop), greek yogurt (1/2 cup)

When we first started these smoothies years ago I didn’t tell the kids what was in it the first few times I made them. They loved them! Eventually I let them watch me make it and laughed at their little faces when they realized I had been secretly feeding them spinach! Now, they love to help me make them!

For the juice part we now use fresh juice from our juicer:

3 carrots (peeled)

3 pieces celery

1 inch ginger

2 oranges

1 lemon

Juice all items above and use that instead of store bought juice. So much healthier and tastes just as yummy! The kids love to help juice everything!

This is such a great way to get some veggies in your picky eaters! Out of my three boys it goes like this:

#1 – Loves fruit and veggies – Loves this smoothie

#2 – Loves fruit, not so much veggies, but he’s starting to come around – Loves this smoothie

#3 – Will go find a new family if you put fruit or veggies in front of him – Loves this smoothie

And they all love helping me make it now!

Do you have a favorite smoothie recipe? Share in the comments below!